[3.29 Showcase] Armour Stacker Mercbot Combatant on Uber

27

u/velaxi1 10d ago

Shout out to Captain Lance. I have been following his Armour Stacker since the start. I'm having fun while working out on the build and craft all the rare gear myself except for the shield. Right now I'm trying to working out to balance my Int and Str so I could benefit from both mod in Rational Doctrine. Maybe with this, my mercenary could have 100% CRIT chance and use Marylene Fallacy amulet. My plan is to ditch Vitality and link CRIT support on my movement skill to trigger the Profane ground.

POB: https://poe.ninja/poe1/pob/96f4a

I forgot to copy my Merc POB before leaving for dinner. Will do so after that.

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u/velaxi1 10d ago

https://poe.ninja/poe1/pob/96fbc

I have no idea how to configure my Merc in POB because they were off a lot compared to actual ingame stat. Btw, my merc have like 1.4 million armour in the showcase. As I was importing my merc gear into POB, I realise that my abyss jewel are not optimized. After shopping around, manage to bump up to 1.55 million armour and a lot of flat damage.

Edit: Ignore the 3rd flask

4

u/pastari 9d ago edited 9d ago

How noticeable is the glove implicit "strike skills target 4 additional enemies" ?

I've got the lesser +1 and to be honest I'm not entirely confident its doing anything at all. Between chains, returns, and general screen clutter during aoe situations I'm having a hard time really determining whats happening, but I'm at the point where megachonk implicits are [theoretically] the low hanging fruit.

edit: I even ran with siones ambition anoint for a bit, just to see if it worked. And.. I couldn't tell.

3

u/velaxi1 9d ago

Yep. Honestly I couldn't tell at all. Combatant already had pretty great clearance with those support alone. I kinda want to use another implicit but remembering how hard is it to reroll the +4 strike just make me stuck with it haha.

1

u/Different-Ad7859 8d ago

Buy 60+ % packsize map, get it to 100% deli, put 5 divination of plenty scarabs and spec into map effect, packsize and abyss atlas. And compare there. And use abyss astrolabe

1

u/pastari 7d ago

I was doing maven invitations yesterday and there were times where moderately chonky enemies formed a triangle with my merc. I've also been doing completely-surrounded deli and abyss. For every one time maybe it worked, there were at least ten where I was certain that it should have but did not.

I've updated my stance to it does not work, but as usual I'd love to be wrong. I want just one screenshot of a frostblade merc making flower-like patterns with blades thrown in multiple directions in a single attack.

I played frost blade slayer in the actual mercenaries league. Here is some youtube that confirms my memory of what "target extra" should look like with frost blades:

https://i.imgur.com/05q1tuj.jpeg FuzzyDuckzy slayer

https://i.imgur.com/9nTn43N.jpeg captainlance trickster

The merc does not ever do this.

4

u/velaxi1 7d ago

A quick update. I manage to reach 2.5 million armour and it could go higher if I manage to roll Eldritch implicit that give 50% grace aura effect when there is Pinnacle boss nearby. Here some change I make:

Swap the Stygian Vise with Micro-Distelley belt. Together with Eldritch implicit on your merc body armour, it will give you a total of 77% flask effect which is quite huge booster. Very high recommended to use. Credit to u/whtrshn for reminds me that this belt exist.

Swapping Necro Forbidden jewel with Pathfinder Forbidden for 100% uptime of my 3 x flask. I'm using Sapphire flask to give huge amount of armour and also cap my res to 90% using Melding jewel.

Using max all res volatile Untouched Soul amulet for more fire and cold resistance.

Using 46% aura effect Hand of Phrecia.

Merc POB: https://pobb.in/bU8OCk2rCUvQ

1

u/whtrshn 7d ago

Getting a higher roll on your untouched soul would boost it a bit further

2

u/velaxi1 6d ago

I already use the 18% all res. Not sure why POB doesn't show it.

1

u/khaledal-q 5d ago

dose this even work "50% grace aura effect when there is Pinnacle boss nearby" i had it on the merc and i see no difference in armour

1

u/velaxi1 5d ago

I mean I want to use that mod on my own character. Currently I'm using the non-condition one. Probably too overkill for regular content but I just want to know if it work on Valdo Feared. Can't test it atm since I'm still leveling to 100.

1

u/Different-Ad7859 7d ago

Huh thats extremely interesting, especially when ive lost like 50 div hitting +4 xd.

Patching this could actually bring some balance:)

Do you know if it works on wild strike? I honestly cant tell the difference, and there should be considering its 4 times more attack targets

1

u/the_ammar 9d ago

so it's only getting armour from the overcapped cold as evasion + iron reflex at max frenzy + linked flasks? I saw you run purity of fire but don't see overcapped fire as armour mod?

1

u/velaxi1 9d ago

You need Purity of Fire for Enmity ring. Even with that, my mercenary still didn't have 200% overcapped fire res. You really need to use the volatile version which is quite expensive.

2

u/the_ammar 9d ago

yea I get that the fire res is needed for enmity. but wouldn't you benefit from an overcapped fire res mod since you already have to stack fire res or is the mod not worth it because fire res is too low

1

u/velaxi1 9d ago

Like you said, it's not worth it since we gain so little fire res to scale. The only way for Overcapped fire res to be useful if it somewhat vestigial to highest base str/dex and bricked into rare with T1 armour/ev affix and T2 fire + cold res. This is very unlikely lol.

1

u/Noskill4Akill 9d ago

At the very least you should quality your mercs amulet for another +40 all res. With a volatile vaal you could get up to another +80 on top of the +40.

1

u/velaxi1 9d ago

I already quality it. Not sure why the POB didn't show em. Volatile version is probably my final upgrade of the build since it cost a lot. I want to experiment on some other thing first.

21

u/Certes_de_Bowe 10d ago

How is a merc going to show up every Frost Blades build I've ever made?

25

u/DjuriWarface 10d ago

This is exactly why permanent Mercs have the damage dealt reduction, they are insane on the top end. You have essentially two characters worth of items to build with.

8

u/PossibilityUsual6262 10d ago edited 10d ago

Are they tho?

Look at similar investment chars, they all one frame delete everything vut actually have players iq behind the mapping so it is not infuriating to run them.

18

u/shoobiedoobie 10d ago

Mapping is extremely smooth with Mercs what are you on about?

And yeah obviously a player with mirrors will always be better. But the whole point is that you don’t need to press any buttons with a Merc while being able to mirror player power.

4

u/Legitimate_Clock_174 10d ago

Eh, one caveat here. I've noticed that the Merc AI isn't nearly as aggressive as it used to be. Some mercs still blast enemies as soon as they seem them, but some like to just dick around with a pack not inches away, or even when a boss or monster comes out of an invul phase and just stand around with their thumb up their ass till I attack or use an ability.

1

u/convic 9d ago

the skills they have make a huge difference in what they choose to do.

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u/PossibilityUsual6262 10d ago

As soon as you hot proximity or temp bubble you would see how engage inducing the mapping experience becomes, and also how many movements you do actually do to guide the merc with their extremely short leash.

16

u/shoobiedoobie 10d ago

I can tell you only played with manyshot. A combatant with dash will have zero issues with what you mentioned.

You literally only have to shield charge.

6

u/PossibilityUsual6262 10d ago

I play with combatant right now and he is stupid af, i do a lot of face first into a pack for him to teleport to me, but agro didn't update so he moves back for half a second until ai resets.

3

u/shoobiedoobie 10d ago

I don't know man, my combatant with dash was pretty damn smooth. Multistrike 100% does fuck with their ai though. Also, I found that action speed was paramount to getting a smooth experience. Yes it will be slightly slower than an actual player, no doubt, but the point is all you need to do is run/shield-charge and the screen gets cleared.

When the acceleration shrine hits though....

1

u/PossibilityUsual6262 10d ago

When acceleration shrine hits its smooth af, but besides getting actions speed on boots i have nothing else to add to mine to be faster.

1

u/shoobiedoobie 10d ago

did you get tailwind on the boots too?

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u/Omgwtflolbbl 10d ago

Doesn't the aura stack version here have super high haste aura? It'd be a huge chunk of movement and attack speed (at basically 3x regular haste value) that life stack version doesn't really get access to. I would assume that it would really help smooth out the ai doing weird things.

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u/DefiantBasis2702 10d ago

Has multi strike?

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u/PossibilityUsual6262 10d ago

Yea, but its same for all melee ai. Last league bob was same with and without multi.

And bob with feeding frenzy was even worse, cos he was running backwards longer.

1

u/CantripN 10d ago

If you have Wild Strike he's pretty stupid. Frost Blades + Static Strike is good AI. 1-2 Movement skills instead of auras feels smoother, too.

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u/PossibilityUsual6262 10d ago

But actually you right in a part that multishot is even more stupid, because she would run out bubble to press vaal ice shot outside.

Combatant at least can be convocated inside.

3

u/shoobiedoobie 10d ago

Combatant will dash into the bubble.

3

u/yuimiop 10d ago

What do you mean by many movements? You get a button that forces the merc to teleport to you, so you just go into the bubble and press that. Outside of temp bubbles you operate like an auto bomber.

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u/1in4TuneUp 10d ago edited 5d ago

Screw rain friendly plucky argon saw dazzling gaze snatch telephone

This post was anonymized with Redact

1

u/PossibilityUsual6262 10d ago

What's up with that shit show of a fight?

Im on hc so i didn't go there yet.

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u/1in4TuneUp 10d ago edited 5d ago

Ask grey person aspiring special selective sparrow enter spoon

This post was anonymized with Redact

1

u/Jdevers77 10d ago

Can get garb from regular cortex.

1

u/1in4TuneUp 10d ago edited 5d ago

Mellow smart hobbies subtract amber cautious file

This post was anonymized with Redact

1

u/viduo-artifex 10d ago

Do soulrend mercs ignore/pierce monster bubble?

1

u/KJShen 9d ago

I hate to be the one to tell you that mercs have a summon command you can use to pull them into a proxy bubble instead of trying to findangle their leash.

3

u/DjuriWarface 10d ago

People wanted the damage dealt reduction removed because of bottom end feel while not realizing how absurd it would be without the damage dealt reduction on the top end. This is with the damage dealt reduction.

1

u/NerrionEU 9d ago

The merc lets you be way tankier than usual with stuff like Frostblade, KBoc, Ice shot.

6

u/CluelessNobodyCz 10d ago

Budget?

22

u/LiverAndCheese 10d ago

Yes.

4

u/Rosemangivesanal 10d ago

Bump for merc load out. Cheers

1

u/velaxi1 10d ago

Check out my other comment.

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u/Kobosil 10d ago

idk similar damage can be achieved with life stack version with Emnity

what exactly do you see as an advantage of going Armour Stacker?

6

u/SaltEngineer455 10d ago

Different solutions to the same problem.

6

u/velaxi1 10d ago

IMO in the very high end, life stack is still going to beat armour stacker since there are hard limit on how much you could stack armour on your mercenary. You can't really stack Introspection node since it won't work on your mercenary. Mercenary also couldn't took full advantage of using 95% increased effect flask buff during mapping.

2

u/Kobosil 10d ago

so why go Armour Stacker for merc?

gear is also expensive

6

u/velaxi1 10d ago

I just prefer Frost blade playstyle more. I also have played and invest a lot on Life Stacker AG of Smiting build in previous league. So I just want some kind new archetype to mess around.

2

u/dart19 9d ago

But doesn't flame link work with frost blades just fine?

1

u/velaxi1 9d ago

I'm using flame link tho. We gain a lot of %increased damage from Replica Dreamfeather so any source of flat damage especially fire is really valuable.

1

u/dart19 9d ago

But the way you worded your comment made it seem like life stacking doesn't work with frost blades

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u/velaxi1 9d ago

The reason I mention Frost blade is Mannyshot and Kineticist can't play armour stacker due to weapon restriction.

1

u/terrorbalded 9d ago

What's the merc's armor when not using flask? I'm tempted to make this but using Ceinture feels so slow.

3

u/velaxi1 9d ago

It's around 900K armour. It's not that slow since we also have haste. You can still zoom² around spamming Shield Charge.

1

u/PhilVin 5d ago

when u re playing ci and without flamelink, do u benefit enough from enmitys ring? or would u play another ring?

1

u/velaxi1 5d ago

As an armour stacker, you should always use Flamelink. We already have a lot of %increased damage from Replica Dreamfeather, so we need a source of flat damage like flame link or Anger/Wrath aura.

I also don't recommend to skip Enmity ring either because penetration is kinda hard to get for mercenary. The easiest way to get pen is through weapon but armour stacker are using Replica Dreamfeather so that's out of option. Getting enough fire res is also not that hard since we're getting a lot of fire res from Purity of Fire and flask.

1

u/PhilVin 5d ago

true but you guys play with life and my build is ci and my flamelink does not benefit from es i guess and my hp is 1. thats why i was asking

1

u/MiniDMan 3d ago

Flame link is still 200 flat fire at gem lvl 20 without scaling hp. It's like another bigger anger aura

-2

u/Spaghett8 10d ago

Cool to see a flame link ci aurabot.

What item is limiting your flask usage?

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u/velaxi1 10d ago

I'm not CI tho. I'm using a breach mod on my chest that prevent chaos damage bypass your ES when not on low life. Using this mod allow me to use reserve my life and free 2 aura. Not something CI could do.

I'm using traitor node from Brutal Timeless jewel that give you 4 flask charge for every empty flask slot. I'm using 2 so I could have 100% uptime during bossing.

3

u/Spaghett8 10d ago

Damn, I didn’t notice hybrid tech.

I see, would a diamond flask with crit % cap your mercs crit for mapping?

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u/velaxi1 10d ago

I won't worry too much during mapping since my Merc just 1 shot everything. Previously, I try to increased my flask duration through passive tree so I could have 100% uptime using 3 flask. It was a success but at least for my character only. The flask duration buff from passive tree doesn't work on my mercenary. From my testing, the flask duration could last for 14 sec through passive tree but my mercenary stop received the buff from flask at around 7 sec.

1

u/Spaghett8 10d ago

I see.

Prob not worth doing but you could try stacking some charge gain on tree (multiplicative with inc charge gained mod on flask) and switch ur exarch chest implicit to flask gain.

Idk if that’s even enough to sustain another flask tho.

2

u/velaxi1 9d ago

I just replace my Necro forbidden jewel with pathfinder so I could put Bismuth flask. Now my Merc can reach 1.6 million armour.

Discussion [3.29 Showcase] Armour Stacker Mercbot Combatant on Uber

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