Hell Baal conquered, but looking for faster kill methods

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Hey all,

Well, DaveOfTheDead, having made short work of the Ancients, made his way
down the Lord of Destruction. Lister managed to kill my merc a few times,
but otherwise the journey was unremarkable. It took about 2 or 3 minutes to
bring Baal down, but when he did, what did he drop as a reward for my bony
boy's long labors? Bladebone and Snakecord. Oh, the irony!!

Not a big deal since I managed to find Dark Adherent and Trang's Armor on
the way there. :-D

Now I'll be devoting DaveOfTheDead exclusively to Hell MF'ing (Pit, Meph,
Eldritch, Baal) but was wondering what I can do to decrease the time it
takes to bring Baal down. Right now my merc has Naj's circlet (for the fire
damage), Atma's Wail and a BoneHew. Haven't found anything better yet.
What should I look for for him to be a faster killer? I know there's
nothing I can do for myself (unless I find Leoric's and Skullder's!).

Now to work on growing my Trapassin!

Dave S.

 

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Hi,

"David Simmons" <xenobuzz@earthlink.net> wrote in
news:rEVxe.430$BK1.248@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net:

> Now I'll be devoting DaveOfTheDead exclusively to Hell MF'ing (Pit,
> Meph, Eldritch, Baal) but was wondering what I can do to decrease the
> time it takes to bring Baal down. Right now my merc has Naj's circlet
> (for the fire damage), Atma's Wail and a BoneHew. Haven't found
> anything better yet. What should I look for for him to be a faster
> killer? I know there's nothing I can do for myself (unless I find
> Leoric's and Skullder's!).

that's why your merc dies so often.. At least exchange Naj's circlet for
Tal-Rasha's Helmet - merc will love 10% life leech..

I guess he's a might guy, so he will be very happy with an Obedience
thresher. Might Merc with Obedience thresher, Tal's helmet and a Duress
armor is a real killer - enough life leech and 55% Crushing Blow.
I have a Duress in a nice ethereal armor giving 2028 defense..

Regards,

Oliver

 

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"David Simmons" <xenobuzz@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:rEVxe.430$BK1.248@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...
[SNIPPAGE!!!]
> What should I look for for him to be a faster killer? I know there's
> nothing I can do for myself (unless I find Leoric's and Skullder's!).
[snip]

How about working on a hammerdin? ;¬)

--
Trammel is a member of DWC (http://dwc.no-ip.org)
(Please reply to group only)

 

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> that's why your merc dies so often.. At least exchange Naj's circlet for
> Tal-Rasha's Helmet - merc will love 10% life leech..

When I find one, I'll do that! So far, I've only been teased with plain
green Masks.

> I guess he's a might guy, so he will be very happy with an Obedience
> thresher. Might Merc with Obedience thresher, Tal's helmet and a Duress
> armor is a real killer - enough life leech and 55% Crushing Blow.
> I have a Duress in a nice ethereal armor giving 2028 defense..

I just found Duriel's Shell for him, so his res's have been much improved.
Obedience and Duress are only available online, and I'm SP. Have you tried
the mod that allows all RuneWords in SP and did it work? If not, I've used
Honor before, would that be a decent alternative (I have the runes, just
waiting for the right polearm to drop)?

In that regard, what would you recommend in place of Duress?

Dave S.

> Regards,
>
> Oliver

 

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David Simmons wrote:

> Now I'll be devoting DaveOfTheDead exclusively to Hell MF'ing (Pit, Meph,
> Eldritch, Baal) but was wondering what I can do to decrease the time it
> takes to bring Baal down. Right now my merc has Naj's circlet (for the fire
> damage), Atma's Wail and a BoneHew. Haven't found anything better yet.
> What should I look for for him to be a faster killer? I know there's
> nothing I can do for myself (unless I find Leoric's and Skullder's!).

For SP, you could try something like Hone Sundan (Amn Amn Shael),
Rattlecage and Guillaume's Face. Your merc isn't usually in too much
danger so just giving him a bit of life leech is usually enough to keep
him healthy. And the fastest way to bring down bosses is Crushing Blow.
In Hell, getting something with Open Wounds is pretty good too although
you probably don't need it.

 

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In article <1120520707.414055.102770@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,
chaliban <chaliban@hotmail.com> wrote:
>David Simmons wrote:
>
>> Now I'll be devoting DaveOfTheDead exclusively to Hell MF'ing (Pit, Meph,
>> Eldritch, Baal) but was wondering what I can do to decrease the time it
>> takes to bring Baal down. Right now my merc has Naj's circlet (for the fire
>> damage), Atma's Wail and a BoneHew. Haven't found anything better yet.
>> What should I look for for him to be a faster killer? I know there's
>> nothing I can do for myself (unless I find Leoric's and Skullder's!).
>
>For SP, you could try something like Hone Sundan (Amn Amn Shael),
>Rattlecage and Guillaume's Face. Your merc isn't usually in too much
>danger so just giving him a bit of life leech is usually enough to keep
>him healthy. And the fastest way to bring down bosses is Crushing Blow.
>In Hell, getting something with Open Wounds is pretty good too although
>you probably don't need it.

If you want to bring down Hell Baal ASAP, using a Skelliemancer, the merc
needs all the Crushing Blow he can get, combined with high physical
damage. The Skelliemancer himself needs Teleport, as already described in
this thread.

A very 'safe' merc is one using: Hone Sundan (Amn Shael Shael),
Guillaume's Face and a Duress armor. Crushing Blow is maxed, and he deals
respectable damage. Of course an upgraded ethereal Hone Sundan is nice to
have in this way, so that you deal also a lot of raw physical damage.

If you're a lot richer, replace the Duress armor with a Fortitude armor;
you lose 15% Crushing Blow, but gain 300% ED, and some other goodies
provided by Fortitude.

As an experiment, I recently replaced the ethereal upgraded Hone Sundan
with an Insight Thresher. Damage and CB went down, but the limitless mana
supply really helps my Skelliemancer: I can spam Bone Spirits and CE all
day long without having to gulp down mana potions.

If it's raw physical damage you want, but want to keep the costs down,
consider something like an ethereal elite polearm with Obedience (40% CB
is still nice), a nice armor (Duriel's Shell is a cheap option), and a hat
with Life Leech (Tals's Mask is popular for this, but there are more
options..)

Hope this helps a bit.

Regards,

Patrick.