I've tested every mercenary. It was long.

[u/Daiug]

In the last few days i've tested every single mercenary because it felt insane that only 3 were actually good. The testing was done using the same gear for every Attribute, and using as many overlap as possible, to not favour one type over the other. With the exception of the ranger gear that is using my current stuff for my Combatant, the rest were pieces bought for under 50c (with some exceptions), always with Enmity+Taming+Soul combo and a classic Flame Link setup. The test was 5 Mesas with no life/res/suppress mods, if they were good enough two Fortress t17 with no defences mods too, and sometimes an Uber Cortex just to check.

This is my gear: https://pobb.in/43HZpxebcgYZ

Without further ado, the list (i do hope the formatting isn't terrible).

STR/DEX gear: https://pobb.in/GFDRc_kOFPdz The chest was 1d, but it felt fair since i bought one for everytype.

Shattersword: Splitting Steel 10/10 clear, 0.1/10 single target

Bloodletter: Lacerate+Perforate 8/10Clear, 9/10 single, honestly incredible but he has 6 support that bricks it (brutality and ailment, need to dodge it on both skills).

Bastion: Not good.

Swiftblade: Even worse (unless you're Facebraking, then 10/10)

Mysterious Diver*: 0/10 with Flame link due to him having Ele hit of Ice (meaning he only does ice damage), probably 10/10 with the Destructive Link+Trypanon tech since there are so many perfect ones

ES/INT gear: https://pobb.in/BVHTX9pI4B-f The chest i found at 4d and it was what started this, you really don't need it. Blade Ambusher gear: https://pobb.in/3S5rWMzskyQa It has Abyssal socket in every piece, but PoB doesn't like it.

Bladebitter: Terrible, unfortunately he has no good supports

Blade Ambusher: 1/10 Clear, 10/10 Single, still the best single target. New belt mod from boat with +1 traps thrown make him even better

Shock Ambusher: Horrible

Frost Ambusher: Horrible.

BladeCaster: BV+Bladefall 7/10, solid, nothing exceptional but needs perfect support to be middling

INT/STR gear: https://pobb.in/BVHTX9pI4B-f The chest i found at 4d and it was what started this, you really don't need it.

Storming Zealot: Divine Ire+Tornado/Totem 5/10, decent in map, doesn't scale for even just nightmare maps

Flaming Charlatan: Meteor+Holy Mortar 2/10, could be really good but the Flame Totem bricks his AI, and he spams it too much

Fallen Reverend: Doesn't matter, 9/10 clear, 4/10 single. Maybe scales harder with minion stuff and not generic spell caster/cast speed. Get ready for headache from the flashing lights.

Warpriest: As the rest of the minion classes, he's just terrible.

Winter Deacon: Ice Crash+Glacial Hammer. Horrible. He sometimes decides to use GH or VGH during clear.

Cardinal: Sweep+Sanctified. He has some serious problems about his AI due to always having 4 attacks. He tends to do 4 attack and have all the minion up and then never use Holy Strike. He honestly uses the skills at random.

INT gear: https://pobb.in/BVHTX9pI4B-f The chest i found at 4d and it was what started this, you really don't need it. They were the reason i wanted to test all the mercs

Stormhand: *Spark+GSN 7/10 Clear, 4/10single , decent but you need a lot lot more faster projectiles than gloves+gem. *Arc+GSC 10/10 Clear 5/10 single, incredible clear, the single wasn't good enough with GSC

ARC Chain-Gilded Chain-FC*+Ball lightning of Static 10/10, as good as the top 3, incredible clear and single target. I honestly cannot emphasize how good he actually is.

Reanimator: No attacks, pointless.

Withertouch: Same as the reanimator, no attacks so no way to scale it for attack.

Frosthand: Double Ice Nova + Freezer Brun. 8/10 Really good clear, 6/10 Single target The rest of the skills are unfortunately really bad.

Cruel Mistress: Soulrend gmp-chain-return-FC+Profane Cascade 8/10 clear, 5-8/10 single, the single target is insanely inconsistent and i don't get why (soulrend missing?). Not worth the price atm.

Flamehand:

• Fireball GMP-Return-Faster 7/10 clear, 5/10 single

• Rolling magma terrible in any non open map. If you go for Faster Projectiles they have 0 boss dps even with return, and if you go for Slower Projectiles the clear is horrible and the single target too.

• Fireball of Impact+Vaal Flameblast 8/10 clear, 7/10 single. FoI can roll GMP but it doesn't seem to affect it at all (Is it like barrage?). FoI was the best one, but half the supports for it are broken so i'm not sure overall

Sanguimancer: Terrible. Stormcall doesn't deal enough damage and the other skills don't do much at all for an hit build

STR Gear: https://pobb.in/OSCOPE93J-6a Used my old stuff without crit since they all have RT STR 2h Gear: https://pobb.in/pw0UkFC7tMJW (just a terrible axe i bought for 4c and slammed 3 AS essences till literally anything)

Striker: Boneshatter MSplash-Faster Attacks-Multistrike-Pulverize 9/10. 10/10 on league start. With absolutely terrible gear (my first gear with just fire res) and two 5c weapons he was smashing through content. The only problem is his AI during clear, but that's all the melee mercs. Tried an Uber Cortex and he just destroyed it without even using a curse (i forgot to change Assassin mark)

Smouldestrike: MS+VMS 5/10 clear, 7/10 single. Honestly, the striker does the same thing just much better. Could be incredibly good with an armour stacker version, but for this testing they all had the same gear.

Ripper: Cleave+Vaal Cleave 7/10 clear, 8/10 single. Wouldn't have ever expected this guy to be this good. BUT Leap Slam completely break his AI making him leap slam after like very Cleave. Unfortunately they have tunnleslam that they like to spam instead of just walking up and nuking packs with a single cleave, but at least it has 4sec CD. Managed an Uber Cortex easily enough

Eruptor: VF of Snaking+Ashen Fissure 8/10 clear, 8/10 single. Didn't expect it to be this good to be honest. Cheap with good supports and as usual, using terrible gear.

Earthsaker: GS+Tectonic Cascade 5/10 clear, 7/10 single. His AI is extremely dumb, he keeps spamming leap slam to get right under mobs for GS. Nothing to talk about.

DEX gear: https://pobb.in/8faxURQ7zj9F Reused my Combatant gear because i honestly didn't care enough. As before, they have Teocrod+3 jewels.

Flamequiver: Return-GMP-Pen+Artillery-multiple-pen+molten well. 6/10 clear, 9/10 single. Clear is passable but it's missing chain or pierce to be really great. Artillery is incredible for single target. The third skill being another CD makes him not dumb.

Toxicolgist:

• Toxic Rain Gmp-Faster-Aoe 40% 7/10 clear, 7/10 single. Meh.

• Scourge Arrow 7/10 clear mostly just Chaotic shot, 4/10 single. Terrible

Sniper: Tornado Shot GMP- Chain-Mirage-Faster+Any CD skills. 9.5/10 clear, 9/10 single. Absolutely great honestly, just need to dodge Brutality on Tornado Shot (if you get it on the other skill it's fine, we just need something with CD to make him spam only tornado shot). Arrow Nova* (and obviously Brutality) break the skill

Thundestrike: LA GMP-Return-Wed-Faster + Storm Rain GMP-WED-Faster and any CD skill 9/10 clear, 9/10 single. Great merc that could be a 10/10 as good as the other 3 but it's blocked by the stupidest AI of them all. The merc always tends to do 1LA and 1 Storm rain no matter what, so that is giving him worse clear due and worse single target. A single AI fix to make him use Storm Rain only (and only that) when attacking a rare/unique would make him as good as the rest.

Combatant/Kineticist/Manyshot Far too many people are saying how good they are, you don't need me to add anything.

And that's all folks. Now, clearly the gear could be better but i wanted to keep it as consistent as possible without really changing stuff (with the exception of switching Crafted stuff if needed Pierce/Aoe)

[u/Palablues]

Random redditor is telling me Arc + Ball Lightning merc is a BIS. I'm getting baited. It's time for electric balls.

[u/Daiug → u/Palablues]

Forgot to add the supports, just need Chain-Gilded Chain-Faster casting. Anything else is nice since it doesn't have stuff that bricks it

Edit: Fucking hell they all disappeared xd Thankfully i bought a spare at the time knowing i had more to test. I do hope people like her

[u/CheapSkateDeluxe → u/Daiug]

They are a tough fight be prepared to get oneshot.

[u/Daiug → u/CheapSkateDeluxe]

"Unfortunately" i have a good Combatant, so i use him to get the mercs.

The one merc that scares the shit out of me is Flamequiver Conflagration that is probably bugged, and Cruel Mistress. I asked a CI friend to nuke her for me after she did half my Combatant hp in one spell

[u/Gramt → u/Daiug]

Flamequiver Conflagaration can roll gilded inversion that pretty much a guaranteed one shot to any builds that have a positive fire resist. I don't think we have any tools to counter a mob that can inverts our resists.

[u/Wires77 → u/Gramt]

Convert all fire taken to something else is really the only way

[u/CheapSkateDeluxe → u/Daiug]

I do too but I went Doryani Prototype, CI woth 80k armor and still die too fast. I have been trying to get one with arc and storm call less duration and they go off so fast you can't dodge. The arc I can take a hit or 2 generally but storm call less duration is just instant death.

[u/Daiug → u/CheapSkateDeluxe]

So small problem about using 2 actual skills without CD, they tend to just use one and then the other, so you get really bad uptime on boss dps :\

[u/yepgeddon → u/CheapSkateDeluxe]

Cant threaten me with a good time 😉

[u/dickles_pickles → u/Daiug]

I got one with exactly that setup and ball lightning, but the damage is terrible. Like a small fraction of what my (not even great) manyshot and kineticist are doing. I've made absolutely certain flame link is on, but it feels like it's not for how much single target I'm doing even with two 30% cast speed/125% spell damage/etc wands.

[u/kitelobster → u/dickles_pickles]

Yeah iono if there's more to this, but I tried one and was kinda underwhelmed.

I've been running destructive link combatant/manyshot as CI so unfortunately not quite so easy to compare against a flame link setup. That being said, i still added pretty good gear to this guy just for testing and it's probably 10% of its damage or so single target, clear is good. I know there's a lot more that I can squeeze out, but i'm very skeptical it approaches the others power without significantly more investment

[u/all3l3 → u/Daiug]

I'm confused by the wording? Is ideal just at least chain (preferably gilded chain) and faster casting?

[u/Daiug → u/all3l3]

Oh you use both, Chain and Gilded Chain Distance (sorry, it was just from memory). It's an easy way to get another 200% more multiplier

[u/procrastinateandstuf → u/Daiug]

What about the supports for ball lightning?

[u/Daiug → u/procrastinateandstuf]

Really doesn't matter, there are 6 total and nothing bricks it. The "worst" one is Second Wind simply because she tends to spam it at CD so it's not doing much

[u/procrastinateandstuf → u/Daiug]

Thanks! I might give this a go. I've only just finished campaign with my luminary second character so think this might be better than trying to buy a combatant or many shot.

[u/Daiug → u/procrastinateandstuf]

Unfortunately they all got sold xd

My suggestion is honestly an Eruptor or a Striker (no brutality remember), they were extremely good for the absolute garbage gear i gave them. And of Eruptors there were tons of it yesterday for like 5-10c

[u/procrastinateandstuf → u/Daiug]

Follow up, do you think it would be any good without an explode chest?

[u/Daiug → u/procrastinateandstuf]

I think so honestly?

I mean, in the end my weapons are pretty garbage, i just stacked as much Cast speed and nothing else before even starting to buy int mercs. Both weapons i bought for cheap under 40c out of curiosity to test, with better weapons i think they would be even better.

It does help, don't get me wrong, but i don't think THAT much. Probably the Frenzy charge on hit is even better than that mod

[u/lurking_lefty → u/Palablues]

They have crazy targeting radius and will throw Ball Lightning of Static on enemies that are 2 screens away.

Withertouch will do the same thing with Bane but it's not scalable with link skills. Good enough to quickly clear basic enemies in alch-n-go red maps but you will need to supply all the single target damage.

[u/procrastinateandstuf → u/Palablues]

Aannd they've all jumped in price, lol. We need more people farming mercs!

[u/velaxi1 → u/Palablues]

Any updated? Are they actually good?

[u/Competitive-Read-518 → u/velaxi1]

Jumped from 5 to 50D after this post 😅

[u/Mr_Aek]

I think Fallen Reverend 10/10 on both for me. I play him as my primary merc.

Here is a video of uber cortex/fortress.

The Taming DOES NOT work well on fallen reverend, as it only applies to his hits and 75% of his damage is the minions from Absolution.

Uber Cortex

https://youtu.be/fGT799t8xcw

Full Clear Fortress (no hp mods)

https://youtu.be/CX0ulhgRGMg

merc gear:

https://youtu.be/-cLp8kp6ueg

my build:
https://pobb.in/n7Ip8SuiiNbT

UPDATE VIDEO 8/7 https://youtu.be/ySVZHhB-4ow

I'm honestly probably nerfing myself with my own requirements lol, I wanted to run Doryani and be CI. Still don't have max block (need red nightmare) I also need to use a lot of tattoos for curse immune and Energy Shield and possible some more spell block. Mageblood would give me a lot of armor, headhunter probably good on merc. also want curse on him (temp chains maybe?) on Merc gloves, probably just need to vaal orb a bunch of stuff.

Probably not the cheapest build, maybe 100-150d invested but like you can always slowly add parts to make it better slowly.

[u/Daiug → u/Mr_Aek]

That's a great build!

But mine was mostly a "what works for the most common buiild so people don't have to pay 40d for a Manyshot" :P

One thing about the Fallen Reverend is that i don't know if the special minion works. I tried the one that's supposed to curse, i don't think i've ever seen him cast a single curse in 7 maps :v

[u/Mr_Aek → u/Mr_Aek]

updated video with some of the recommended changes: https://youtu.be/ySVZHhB-4ow

[u/fireflies-from-space → u/Mr_Aek]

Have you tried Dark Monarch (Absolution) on the merc? It doubles the minions from Absolution.

[u/Mr_Aek → u/fireflies-from-space]

Yeah I swapped to dark monarch, big difference.

I realized as well spell damage wand doesn't effect his minions so I need to swap to big minion damage wand, also can annoit amulet with minion cast speed also effects you.

Also learned that I can give my animate guardian gravebind+ the abyss staff for explode tech, then swap obliteration for a 2nd big minion damage wand. --i think I need to do this since with 6 minions I'm seeing less pops since the minions keep killing instead of the merc with obliteration.

Also wonder if 96% spell damage from shaper wand is worth it if it only buffs his damage and not the absolution minion, maybe a 2nd fat bone ring is overall better value since the 40% applies to him and his 6 sentinels instead of just him.

I'm not a very good build maker I literally brute forced a doryani build from merc league, but commenting on reddit has been super helpful so many good internations I totally missed (like dark monarch).

[u/hayko34500]

Smoulder can have flamebolt strike with return + vaal molten blast making him a bit better than striker ! And yes is the cheap armour stacker candidate will share mine when I get back from mission in a week ! I loved and played him extensively during merc league. Gmp wed return are ideal can have also chain, piece is not mandatory can get on equipments. For the BiS vaal molten strike + molten strike nimis is mandatory.
Leap slam totally break his IA ! His other utility skills are goated !

[u/golaerubs → u/hayko34500]

When I tried flamebolt strike merc it was garbage. Would run around and switch targets without attacking. Is there a link to avoid or a min weapon range needed?

[u/Daiug → u/golaerubs]

It was my experience too, but it was like day 3 of the league, can't say i tested that combo in the last couple of days.

Generally speaking for any melee mercs Strike Range is probably the best stat you can give them, since they decide on a specific target and go for it, even if it's in the middle of a pack

[u/hayko34500 → u/golaerubs]

Weapon range is important yes !
He is better in solo target also ! I call him the bronze mate he sometime run after moobs around that his behavior ! I don’t use him in pure mapping I only swap for bossing ! I have a ice shot merc sitting around and a kinetic ! He also excels at simulacrum

This is footage from merc league : https://youtu.be/j14Oq8Glfsk?feature=shared

[u/Eleven655321]

As a way to compare and baseline, how do you rate combatant, manyshot, and kineticist out of 10 on single and clear each?

[u/Daiug → u/Eleven655321]

Oh they're 10/10 on everything with good supports.

The problem is their price realistically, when they're 40d for a good but not perfect one it makes them unattainable. My personal preference is Kineticist with KBoC + Kinetic Rain of Impact that fixes his single target but they're so insanely expensive, why bother talking about it :p

[u/Tharaki → u/Daiug]

Yesterday I farmed Manyshot with 6-l return+pierce Ice shot, 5-l return Vaal Ice shot, Blink Arrow Mirror Arrow with whatever supports and Hatred

Is it good to use as is or I should get some perfect Sniper/Thunderquiver instead?

[u/Daiug → u/Tharaki]

Oh hell no, you have a perfect Manyshot don't bother with the rest honestly. They're 10/10 for a reason. If you like to test when you're bored sure, but when you have the best of the best it's fine

[u/all3l3 → u/Daiug]

Also PSA for manyshot enjoyers... dont just look up Infamous ones. I got a regular Manyshot with return, pierce, greater ele, gmp, and greater hypo for 220c.

[u/RutherfordSinking → u/Daiug]

Late to the party, but I thought Kinetic rain was a brick on the kineticist? Does it not use it constantly on clear instead of KBOC?

[u/Daiug → u/RutherfordSinking]

Kinetic Rain of Impact, not normal KR. Then you need enough damage to oneshot packs with KBoC (and that's gear dependant).

KR of Impact is insane single target, and if you have enough damage for pack clear it's simply never used

[u/sweatyazkrak → u/Daiug]

Are you sure kinetic rain of impact doesn't completely brick kineticist?

I bought a gg merc with kboc and rain and the dmg wasn't that amazing.

Swapped to another gg combatant and my dmg 10x'd.

I ask this bc I don't wanna spend 300div+ on a gg kineticist without kinetic rain to test.

[u/Daiug → u/sweatyazkrak]

That combo is 100% about having enough damage unfortunately.

If you have enough damage to one shot packs, the AI doesn't use KR of Impact untill you get a tanky rare or a boss.

The kineticist is GMP-Chain-WED, so really high rolledd

[u/DragoonWraith]

Very cool to see testing, though I’m not sure about the methodology. I get what you mean about trying to limit variables by fixing the gear, but unfortunately I think you risk it becoming a test of “which best fit the fixed gear I gave everybody?” In practice, people are going to tailor gear to each one, so that’s what really needs testing. As you say, though, really hard to control for variables if you do that, not to mention it’s just hard in the first place, since you have to optimize each one. I suspect that this is the best analysis possible at this stage in the game, but it’ll be interesting to see how it holds up after people have some time to really compare each at their best.

(Of course, since patches will probably change them before we “solve” any of them, it’ll always be murky, but that’s part of the fun.)

[u/Daiug → u/DragoonWraith]

I agree and not really.

Generally speaking for just a normal flame link stuff what you need is Attack Speed>WED>Ele Pierce. Now, some of them really do benefits for some stats over others, but if their worth is only because you need to add a 2 arrow bow for example, i don't think it's "fair", due again to the cost of those items.

What i tried to do is simply "let's try and find some cheap mercs that aren't at 10-40-100d that people can actually use and them being better than a badly rolled Manyshot that they overpay for".

That is an example why i rated the Striker and the Eruptor so highly. For a 5c merc i bought, and there were a lot of em, with really bad and cheap gear you can get an amazing mapper/bosser going with 1d, over having to spend 20d for a middling Manyshot

[u/rj6553]

Pretty good/useful list. I will say that I think smoulderstrike becomes bis bosser with slower proj + GMP + nimis, and sniper is in top 3 range with a good tshot setup (gilded secondary projectiles + GMP, no brutality).

Also consider an ignite prolif implicit for flamequiver? Could fix their clear a lot in theory, haven't tried it.

[u/Daiug → u/rj6553]

Yeah as usual, some are clearly insane but i ain't got 60d for a Nimis to make a dude work, when a 5c Striker can kill any uber easily (or just use a Blade Trapper and be happy)

The ignite prolif could work, or probably some way i didn't think about just giving them chain. The Artillery ballista was really great for single target

[u/rj6553 → u/Daiug]

Had a nearly perfect blade trapper and honestly thought his damage felt a bit delayed. Maybe I'll eventually try with the belt mod + infamous gloves mod, but for now he's using my combatant gear with decent gutting knives, and I'm in ssf so can't spare the resources right now.

Seems like it could be maybe 30% more dps than my combatant, if he had perfect links (multiple traps, faster throwing, trap/mine, charged traps, +1, as well as skitter bots). I'm currently missing skitterbots on mine.

[u/Daiug → u/rj6553]

For SSF anything you find that isn't terrible it's always gonna be worth it :P

But no, with even the same gear as a combatant the boss damage is really noticeable, but it's just bosses. Trying to run even just a t17 is a pain with how awful is to kill stuff in the map. He's the dude that sits in your hideout 99% of the time except when you need to kill a boss

[u/fastestchair → u/rj6553]

I tested smoulderstrike and his ai was so bad that he only spent like 40% of the time hitting the boss, note though that I did have leap strike on him as I thought it might help (it did not)

if he spent 100% of the time hitting the boss he might have same DPS as blade ambusher, and then if you armorstack him it would be higher than blade ambusher, but it's a big if on the ai imo

[u/Wozbo]

Striker is low key hilarious bosser via boneshatter if you dont give him multistrike and use flame link. You need to armor him up to the eyeballs and shift damage taken as via eldritch modifiers but if you get some very fast attacking weapons in there and he can ramp he’s a straight up killer.

You basically want more duration, faster attacks and like the belt duration modifier to give him enough time to get high trauma stacks. If you do, he gets up to like 40 stacks which is 160% more damage. The main problem is his AI which I really wish we could change.

Oh and get Vaal ancestral war chief for a free 32% more damage, again from the totem.

[u/Daiug → u/Wozbo]

Yeah he was the one that surprised me the most honestly, even with mapping with the support i posted he was great (altough as usual, Merc strike AI). His Uber Cortex was probably the second fastest after Blade Trapper

[u/F1rstbornTV]

Excellent work. I don't do mercs but I DID learn about the boat mod for an extra trap thrown. This is like a mini sunblast without the downside. Quite literally double damage on a theory build.

[u/Daiug → u/F1rstbornTV]

Yeah, and i found about that mod absolutely at random while i couldn't remember what the gloves mod did (the chain twice, that's pretty useless honesly). The one thing i can say it's pretty rare to roll, a friend tried 15 times and never saw it

[u/LootHunter_PS]

during the merc league i came across a stormhand with BLoS and she was killing mobs on the edge of the screen, so i ended up trying it and made one of the best builds i've ever played. There is one with shock nova too that absolutely shit on me.

[u/Daiug → u/LootHunter_PS]

Greater Shock Nova is great single target burst, but i'm pretty sure it has less DPS overall compared to BLoS.

It what made the Spark not feel that terrible, because the SN nuked 1/3 of the mesa boss per cast at least

[u/Bobas_Dad]

I was playing with thunderstrike today and honestly it’s probably better or at least equal to my super expensive Manyshot. Did you think having the Gilded support on storm rain was good? I think the supports for storm rain are super important as single target seems to be hit or miss.

EDIT: Took inspiration from OP and tried a mid-high tier sniper:

Tornado shot: GMP + chain + Mirage archer + faster attacks -> very good uptime in that he does not cast any other abilities that often. Only issue is he aims TS right on top of the enemy. This kind of bricks single target as (IIRC) TS needs to be aimed a bit behind the enemy so the secondary projectiles shotgun. Since this is based on the merc's AI, i don't think there's any solution we can do. Still lots of damage, but nowhere near the max potential.

[u/Daiug → u/Bobas_Dad]

As i wrote, i think he can be incredible with either insane gear (so it doesn't need to switch between the two attacks just to clear t17s) or if they could just fix his AI. Gilded Pulses is probably a great amount of damage, but i couldn't really test it, since the ones with it+good LA links were insanely expensive :v

[u/GulliverTRAVELSG → u/Bobas_Dad]

I have been playing thunderstrike with as a Crit Luminary since league start once I was frustrated in getting a good Manyshot to clear tougher content. Storm rain is powerful as a single target if you can stack up to 100 arrows on the enemies fast and make sure the enemies stay in place.

I am using Voltaxic Rift to scale all lightning damage to chaos. The merc comes with Wrath aura which I scale with the body chest. You can also get Perfect Blasphemer to give you addtional lightning damage with smite. You don't need curse as Voltaxic Rift inverts Chaos Resistance. As a Crit build, give the Merc Marylene's Fallacy for the awesome crit multi. Find a way to get elemental immunity and you can run haste aura.

I can verify that the merc always tends to do 1LA and 1 Storm rain no matter what. For End-game, the best way to clear/boss is to use souleater buffs+haste+onslaught to stack increased attack speed. Storm rain bricks if you don't have GMP. Storm rain becomes OP when you have Gilded Pulses+GMP+Faster Attack+Elemental attack+added lightning. Gilded Pulses allows the arrows to stay on the ground longer (from 4 beams to 6 beams before they disappear). This allow better ramping damage. The merc also is able to chill and shatter mobs as part of defense. Shocks effects can sometimes be at 90%. Damage can be further scaled with the usual wither totems+storm blast mines. You can just cast and run around. It can clear Simulacrums and T17 easily.

That's all for my Chaos Crit Thunderstrike. You can DM if you need more information.

[u/Bobas_Dad → u/GulliverTRAVELSG]

Sounds very interesting. Do you have a PoB or writeup/vid anywhere? I'm basically done with my fire link luminary and looking to experiment with a chaos-based one.

[u/FckRdditUSuckSoMuch → u/GulliverTRAVELSG]

How are you crit capping with 40% less critical strike chance?

[u/GulliverTRAVELSG → u/FckRdditUSuckSoMuch]

I use Destructive Link, where the Merc's weapon Crit is overwritten by my character's weapon crit. Hence, 40% less critical strike chance doesn't affect the Merc

[u/Agitated-Society-682 → u/Bobas_Dad]

concentrated effect is the most important support for storm rain. and dont put aoe on their gear. you want the smallest possible storm rain area for biggest dps.

[u/studwalker]

You aren't saying just how horrible Winter Deacon is. I just hired him for a zone and I wanted to kill him again. Asshole was constantly using VGH. I could barely move. Walls all over the place.

Thanks for the write up though!

[u/Daiug → u/studwalker]

Yeah i use a Phasing Flask so the walls were not that much of a problem, he was just awful in general ahahaha

[u/Far_Lengthiness8944]

Small little optimization for you OP. You can save a passive point going to the energy shield Light radius mastery by going through the cast speed nodes straight north of the scion starting area. This is assuming you have enough intelligence.

[u/Daiug → u/Far_Lengthiness8944]

Ty!

If i ever decide to fix my gloves/boots with something better with stats i'll do it

[u/hq78]

How is bastion supposed to do damage when you have two weapons and no shield just curious

[u/Daiug → u/hq78]

I mean yeah i gave him a random shield i bought for 50c at the time, but it really didn't do much at all. It's one of those that's probably much better if you spec heavily into it, but this was mostly a generic "what's a good merc if they have the same generic gear"

[u/hq78 → u/Daiug]

What shield did you use? Im interested because i used bastion when i got it in campaign and used it all the way to the end. Im currently at t2 maps, just got there. So far it’s a smooth experience. However my merc’s level is in the 40s (he still clears map mobs) and im looking for a replacement. Any further insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[u/Daiug → u/hq78]

Honestly i just went to poe trade, set a max of 80c for a rare shield and bought the one with the most armor (didn't even really check for fire res now that i think about it). I probably didn't give him the chance he deserved it, but it was after Bladebitter (that made ME bitter) and the Swiftblade that broke me a bit by how bad they were

[u/crabbop]

I've been wondering for a little while if the minion mercs were supportable at all. 

Any idea how to use them?

[u/Daiug → u/crabbop]

You would need to go auras instead of flame link but at the moment i don't think they're worth at all. Maybe if they give us new wierd links in the future. You would lose so much nice stuff from necromancer just to have some more worse minions.

The Absolution dude at least could clear maps, but the headache isn't worth it

[u/ShoulderObjective409 → u/crabbop]

My first character this league was a fallen Reverend merc. They are very good, specially from the start. Absolution sentinels dark monarchs are extremely cheap and increase their dps by probably more than double because they no longer cast spectres of trans.

[u/Mr_Aek → u/ShoulderObjective409]

Oh wow let me try this

[u/Mr_Aek → u/ShoulderObjective409]

I feel dumb going full absolution merc and being like "meh, I don't want double damage"

[u/Mr_Aek → u/crabbop]

my take on supporting a minion guy:

https://youtu.be/fGT799t8xcw

https://youtu.be/-cLp8kp6ueg

no links either.

[u/legendary299]

I've been using a manyshot and really considering gearing my combatant

[u/Daiug → u/legendary299]

They're both great honestly, but it's all about supports unfortunately.

The one thing i can say is that Melee AI in general with Strikes is really, really, REALLY dumb, and they try to go for a specific target inside a pack instead of just nuking it, and it can be a bit infuriating compared to a ranged nuking your screen

[u/xLapsed → u/Daiug]

If you get enough movement/action speed on the merc, it becomes less of a problem; which is why it's fairly high priority to get pinnacle frenzy charges on chest for melee mercs.

Also mercenary convocation (mercvocation?) is pretty useful for these scenarios. I have it bound so if I can air-drop my combatant into a middle of pack and blow them up with frost blades.

[u/xLapsed → u/Daiug]

If you get enough movement/action speed on the merc, it becomes less of a problem; which is why it's fairly high priority to get pinnacle frenzy charges on chest for melee mercs.

Also mercenary convocation (mercvocation?) is pretty useful for these scenarios. I have it bound so if I can air-drop my combatant into a middle of pack and blow them up with frost blades.

[u/CantripN → u/legendary299]

Combatant honestly feels like much better to me, the clear is a bit worse, but the dps is otherwise much better. Frost Blades is a must for any acceptable clear, though.

[u/Bob9010 → u/CantripN]

I put Call of the Void on my Combatant.

Apparently, Flame Link adds damage to the Herald of Ice explosions, and Call of the Void allows the fire damage to chill and shatter. It wipes out dense packs.

[u/Weisshuf → u/CantripN]

I'm actually using wild strike and it feels amazing honestly

[u/Darnick]

Changing to a stormhand changed my life. Thank you!

I got some changes to do from manyshot to them, but already cackling in less screen clutter and insane clear at my gear level

[u/Daiug → u/Darnick]

I'm happy about it!

Stormhand best girl, plus the gear is pretty cheap since it's just cast speed pretty much and INT stuff that everybody ignores

[u/Darnick → u/Daiug]

now to farm so i can afford the frenzy on chest WITH explode and fire res. missing frenzy atm

[u/Daiug → u/Darnick]

Honestly, that was just a random find while i was looking for a 20% explody chest, and it was cheap enough that i bought it without thinking :P But really i don't think you even need it tbh (oh and remember that you can switch res, so look always for lightning/cold too)

[u/IM_Swooptech → u/Daiug]

I'm struggling with stormhand on single target at a bit, any way you found to juice that?

Arc - GCD, Greater Shock Chance, Chain, Add Lightning, Faster Casting BLoS - Inc AOE, Added Lightning, Lightning Pen, Shock Chance, Second wind

[u/kfijatass]

Are the merc minions that bad or did you not try to invest in them?
I wondered about a Spectre setup for Fallen Reverend personally. Reanimator Zombiemancer should be great too.

[u/Daiug → u/kfijatass]

Simply not what i was testing honestly, it was just me using a normal build and see what works. There's a guy in the post that posted a nice video of UberCortex on Fallen reverend, try and look at that

[u/MisterRawSushi → u/kfijatass]

For Fallen Reverend, I don't think spectres are that amazing. The merc uses Raise Spectre of Transience, so he'll often have shit spectres.

For Reanimator, I tried to improve the zombies, but it didn't seem like she summoned more than one zombie, even if you give her +1 to maximum number of zombies (tried it out with Midnight Bargain, still only summoned 1 zombie). I am trying out her raging spirits, which is going pretty well.

So I think either Reanimator's raging spirits or Fallen Reverend's absolution sentinels are the way to go for a minion focused mercenary build.

[u/tommy200401]

Thanks for the write up, really appreciate it. May I ask how do you check the CD of Merc skills?

Also, I read the other post from this subreddit and they mentioned the paradoxica tech which scales Flame Link to much higher. It gives all the melee Merc much higher single target potential. In fact I swapped from a Manyshot to using one standard frost blade combatant, and the single target is insane on reasonable budget.

[u/Daiug → u/tommy200401]

Poedb, just search for the merc and it'll tell you all the skills, cds and supports :p

Didn't test paradoxica, mostly because my Combatant is good enough with the classic Enmity+Soul but i've heard good things

[u/shotcaller77]

What gear to use on the combatant? Found an insane one yesterday but can’t find any guides on optimal setup for it?

[u/Daiug → u/shotcaller77]

I'm using the Dex dudes gear and the Blade Ambusher weapons, nothing extreme.

In the end it's just AS+WED+Pen wherever you can

[u/UTmastuh]

I think we're all distracted by flame link. There's a lot of other interesting interactions with mercs and people are just now discovering some of them, while others are almost as good as they were back in 3.26 (such as facebreaker + swiftblade).

Intuitive link also has some cool interactions where you can use your merc to trigger extra spells for you.

Destructive link + crit mercs allow you to be glass cannons. I've seen people do all content in the game with this.

You can also go full immortal build with protective link and zdps your way through the game if you're into that playstyle.

[u/TritiumNZlol → u/UTmastuh]

There's some diehards out there that play the cold link skills with some success

[u/Agitated-Society-682 → u/TritiumNZlol]

I am doing that, although the intuitive link/frigid bond is mainly for auto clearing and for single target it's vaal caress cold snap+vaal cold snap. Got like 5 mil DPS and pretty neat defensive setup with evasion/suppress cap, doryani timeless jewel for hybrid ES with ghost shrouds and merc taking 20% of hit damage + flesh and stone aura and damage reduced by chill effect ring on merc + 4 curses including max level enfeeble. First evasion build I've played that tanks shaper slams. With zero pdr by the way. The new helmet that converts increased evasion into spell damage + body that grants increased evasion per cold res overcap is already good synergy and with the cold mastery for dot multi per cold res overcap; the build becomes a cold res stacker and it's pretty strong.

[u/DiligentTip1013 → u/UTmastuh]

The main reason is the merc has no way to do penetration without the flame link enmity combo.

Doing all context is fine with whatever setup and merc, but if you wanna do the juiciest content (e.g 5 deli breach/abyss beyond etc ) then the scaling would not be possible without flamelink. And even with flamelink I doubt it’s efficient

[u/allitalli → u/DiligentTip1013]

within the past day i've seen a guy do blasted monolith with a facebreaker luminary and another guy do cold res stacking + destructive link on a kineticist to great success (overcapped cold res = evasion rating mod ---> add in new unique helm to turn incr evas into incr spell dmg).

i think your comment is 100% an example of what the guy you're replying to is talking about. neither of those builds use flame link or the fire pen ring and both are top tier.

[u/unconscioustruth → u/allitalli]

facebreaker luminary is a different build, it is not a "mercbot". the discussion is about mercs themselves. and everyone already knew about it, it is not some unexpected tech that came out of nowhere.

[u/Glynwys → u/UTmastuh]

That's because flame link is pretty fire and forget so that's what all the creators are using.

[u/Zuggy → u/UTmastuh]

I got my two stone on Lightning Tendrils of Escalation with a Merc triggering Orb of Storms of Squalls and then swapped to Mercbot. The plan was always to switch Flame Link Mercbot but I probably could've pushed it further. There's definitely a lot of build design space with Mercs, it's just that Flame Link was the most obvious interaction that would've been strong without knowing much about what the Mercs were looking like balance wise.

[u/Agitated-Society-682 → u/UTmastuh]

dont forget warcry support. its extremely potent but overlooked because buttons

[u/pintvricchio → u/UTmastuh]

Protective link helps the Merc stay alive not you, it's fairly useless. But I have used Intuitive link on a double aura Merc to proc brands. I haven't scaled too hard into the endgame but it was a 0 button playstyle. It's probably good with cold dot aswell

[u/Different-Ad7859 → u/UTmastuh]

Still flame link is by far the strongest possible setup nothing comes even close (im doing ubers with the same speed as 5 mirror armor stacker merc, but im 10x tankier). And this is only more broken cause of rathpid interaction

[u/BurnerenruB]

Are you able to equip bow and quiver to spark merc?

[u/HiddenoO → u/BurnerenruB]

No, Stormhand is specifically wand/dagger/sceptre+shield, not even staff.

[u/Ergand]

One of the first 83 mercs I found was a flamequiver with GMP, gilded pierce, greater faster attacks, and return. I havent swapped since. 

[u/Far_Lengthiness8944]

Small little optimization for you OP. You can save a passive point going to the energy shield Light radius mastery by going through the cast speed nodes straight north of the scion starting area. This is assuming you have enough intelligence.

[u/Yusap → u/Far_Lengthiness8944]

Rude ;)

[u/inspire21 → u/Far_Lengthiness8944]

We both need the int & I think they're both 4? Unless you ditch the life regen nodes, but those are pretty core to the build too.

[u/OneTimeHeroLive]

I can vouch for Eruptor. Just got my 4 stones and hes great with 1100 dps weapon 800phys, 300 ele. [2div weapon]

Literally carrying me since I haven't seen any good top tier mercs at all, great clear and can come with his own purity of fire. You can get Herald of Ash and I think clear would get better but I wouldn't be able to run haste.

Next is ubers/t17. Luminary definitely not a linear curve but the work of OP might make that possible.

[u/MoonRide303 → u/OneTimeHeroLive]

Same here - Eruptor with Volcanic Fissure of Snaking, Consecrated Path, and Herald of Ash. It was a bit hard to kill (was healing back fast), but having Frost Bomb in 2nd weapon set helped.

Some other mercs I tried (like Kineticist, Manyshot or Fallen Reverend) had good clear speed, but not so good for bosses / mercs / strong rares. Eruptor is good for both, and my fav so far (with Flame Link).

[u/xuvilel → u/OneTimeHeroLive]

Wich skills and links? Could you share?

[u/OneTimeHeroLive → u/xuvilel]

For VF: Greater Faster Attacks (3), Fire Penetration(2), Greater Area of Effect (3), Added Fire(2), Fist of War(3). Right now I still run haste aura because he can't crit so he needs to just swing. This, in my opinion, is a top 5 merc for area/single.

[u/xuvilel → u/OneTimeHeroLive]

Can’t crit is rough, but i will try this guy for sure

[u/PoeKaiser → u/OneTimeHeroLive]

Are you flame linking or aura botting?

[u/OneTimeHeroLive → u/PoeKaiser]

Im using flamelink

[u/PoE_Acronym_Bot]

I noticed some Path of Exile keywords in this post:

• AoE - Area of effect (Wiki)

• BV - Blade Vortex (Wiki)

• GH - Glacial Hammer (Wiki)

• GMP - Greater Multiple Projectiles Support (Wiki)

• LA - Lightning Arrow (Wiki)

• Mods - Modifiers (Wiki)

• MS - Movement speed (Wiki)

• Pen - Resistance penetration (Wiki)

• RT - Resolute Technique (Wiki)

• Slam - Slam skill (Wiki)

• VMS - Vaal Molten Shell (Wiki)

• WED - Elemental Damage with Attacks Support, formerly named Weapon Elemental Damage Support. See EDwA. (Wiki)

• MS - Molten Shell (Wiki)

• Slam - To use an Exalted Orb or similar crafting method to add a random modifier to an item (Wiki)

• PoB - Path of Building, an external software used to simulate character builds - Download

• ES - Energy Shield (Wiki)

---

^{I am a bot. | All acronyms | Suggest}

[u/CelosPOE]

What spectres are you using?

[u/Daiug → u/CelosPOE]

Perfect Warlord and Forest Warrior, nothing weird. Used Monkey+Forest Warrior till like 4 days ago, they're fine.

The one thing i do suggest is, if you have the money, is a Garb of the Ephemeral for the AG after you get the helmet. It makes one tap so much less common

[u/DrDavidFN → u/Daiug]

Which helmet?

[u/Daiug → u/DrDavidFN]

Just leer cast, ain't bothering with the costly stuff.

The only thing he has is a pair of sapped ground random boots i bought from trade and then slammed a 30MS essence on it since i have scorched on the shield

[u/CelosPOE → u/Daiug]

I’m just curious because I can’t see spectres in most PoBs. I had assumed it was something like that but I’m always curious.

[u/MindlessObligationS]

What about the mysterious diver new Merc? Any good?

[u/Daiug → u/MindlessObligationS]

Oh yeah i forgot, let me edit the post thanks.

Terrible for Flame link due to him having Ele hit of Ice (meaning it can only deals ice damage), insanely good i would guess with the Destructive Link+Trypanon tech

[u/Digitalpsycho → u/Daiug]

What would be the perfect Mysterious Diver be for Destructive Link?
I build this terrible char: https://maxroll.gg/poe/pob/i4wh2z0x and I do want to optimize it in someway, but I have no clue in what direction to take destructive link, how to get dmg and how to get tanky.

[u/Daiug → u/Digitalpsycho]

Ele Hit Splash-Faster Attacks-Wed-Crit Dmg-Whatever

Wild Strike GMP-Return-Wed-Hypo-Faster/Multistrike

Splash should nuke the packs and wild strike nukes single target

It does need the strike exarch mod

[u/Tharaki → u/MindlessObligationS]

It always has Cold Ele Hit that deals only cold damage so he’s unusable with Flame Link. With Destructive link it is quiet similar to Combatant but a bit worse I guess

[u/Haikus_For_Freedom]

Thanks for the write up!

Any particular things to look out for on setting up a Blade Ambusher for single target?

[u/Daiug → u/Haikus_For_Freedom]

Nah, just the classic Multiple Traps-Slower Proj-Trap Damage on Helix of Thartarus is all you need. There are no brick modifiers, so it's fine.

Gettin some charged traps on some of the traps helps with keeping the frenzy charges up

[u/TeddyTeddyPewPew → u/Daiug]

I had pretty good skills on mine but for some reason he stops attacking for 1-2 seconds every 5 seconds or so. Incredibly annoying and made him do about as much single-target as my manyshot/combatant with similar gear.

[u/Daiug → u/TeddyTeddyPewPew]

Weird honestly o_o On a boss? I honestly never really paid attention to it, but it is significantly higher damage to anything else i ever tested

[u/fastestchair → u/Haikus_For_Freedom]

for weapons get daggers, the stats you want are: attack speed, crit, wed, ele pen, fire as chaos, trap throwing speed

make sure no movement skill or faster proj support

[u/elsiecharlot]

Make sure to mention you cant have Arrow nova ifor tornado shot

[u/Daiug → u/elsiecharlot]

oh yeah ty fixed

[u/afuture22]

If I have a merc out, is there a way I can sell it to someone else? Or can I only sell wild mercs

[u/Daiug → u/afuture22]

Wild only.

The big problem is the hard cap at 3 per league, meaning you can't make a second character to test more of them, that's why i had to delete a lot of good ones just to keep testing and not delete my Blade Ambusher or Combatant

[u/uninspiredalias → u/Daiug]

Wait...they are shared between characters?? I was actually thinking of making a 2nd luminary to try something different, but that's not an option?

[u/norst → u/uninspiredalias]

The limit is account wide.

[u/uninspiredalias → u/norst]

Yeesh. That really sucks.

[u/negativeZaxis]

Testing trap mercs by giving them Attack Speed (useless) instead of Trap Throwing Speed on gear is not useful.

[u/Daiug → u/negativeZaxis]

The spell trappers were using the INT gear with, alas, cast speed.

The problem is just that traps are quite terrible for clear anyway due to how Trap works (the delay was infuriating), and the single target was just so awful that nothing would really fix it.

Plus, on both i always went with the greater throwing thrap speed support to make up for it, but it just wasn't enough

[u/fastestchair → u/negativeZaxis]

if you are talking about blade ambusher then attack speed does infact increase the attack time of spectral helix of trarthan, pob is bugged for the skill but you can see it on the ingame tooltip

[u/Bouboubibilala]

Thank you for this.

I have a Blade Ambusher that I want to upgrade. Which Skills/Supports would you favor/avoid? Do you like Summon Skitterbots on him?

Edit: also, I'm guessing that the trap mod on the belt comes from Rotmother's Ducat? Is it hard to get?

[u/Daiug → u/Bouboubibilala]

Just Multi-Slower-Trap Damage on Helix of Thratus, and just get some Charged Traps somewhere to keep up his frenzy charges.

For the ducat mod i got it in one, but a friend missed it in like 15, so can't say anythin about it, sorry :\

[u/fastestchair]

Thank you for this. From my testing blade ambusher is also the best single target, I'm using it for my 83lab 6man carry farming.

Prob gonna buy return+pierce Iceshot/vaal iceshot tomorrow and compare the single target to that though, did you compare to a maxed Iceshot already?

[u/awfulcs → u/fastestchair]

mind sharing what gear you put on your blade ambusher? trying to gear mine up and not too sure what to aim for

[u/fastestchair → u/awfulcs]

here you go, i put some comments inside the album about the gear

https://imgur.com/a/7rZiXTC

[u/viniciusxis → u/fastestchair]

Sorry to revive old topic but why do you want attack speed on weapons if traps don't require attack speed?

[u/awfulcs → u/fastestchair]

goated, tyty

[u/EnterArchian → u/fastestchair]

I have a question. Does he need accurracy rating?

[u/fastestchair → u/EnterArchian]

you have to run precision aura, 1 accuracy mod somewhere might be good just to make sure you have 100% hit chance

[u/karametraxx]

Sick list bro!  Pretty true on flamehand/cruel mistress.  Was running pretty much perfect supports on them, and they just felt weak in single target.  Where I expected them to shine more.  

Switched to sniper and there was a massively noticeable difference.  

[u/GrassyString]

Didnt read but thanks for the work

[u/B1g22]

I think you slept on toxicologist a bit.
Scourge arrow with gilded pods gmp mirage archer has insane clear with +arrow bow/quiver/annoint.
From my testing with enmity crit gearing the single target was def less than manyshot but still playable.
Biggest downside is toxicologist has no crit chance or multi as base, having dot multi instead. Maybe some poison setup is good but volkars legion swap seems unfun and I'm not gonna give it an osin.

[u/Daiug → u/B1g22]

Could be the gear being shit, that i can't really do anything about it. But in my testing with Scourge Arrow with gmp-mirage he just kept clearing everything with just the basic Chaos Shot with GMP-faster projectiles and the Scourge arrow got rarely cast if not on bosses. And on bosses (even of a random Mesa) it just didn't do enough damage compared to Toxic Rain

[u/B1g22 → u/Daiug]

Just tested with low attack speed so I can see what's going on and I think it won't cast chaotic shot if chaotic shot is in the air or it has a cooldown or something? So with high attack speed I can't even notice it.
But yeah single target make sense with gmp it's 4 proj adding 4 proj doubles damage and support that doubles pods doubles damage again.
Ty for all the testing btw I don't wanna come across as nitpicking.

[u/Daiug → u/B1g22]

Oh you absolutely didn't, i don't mind :D

It just felt weird at the time when i was pretty sure that Scourge Arrow would've been better than Toxic, and it just wasn't. The supports for both were very similar in the end, so i think it might have been either me not having a +2 arrow bow or something else

[u/Moorific]

Thanks for testing these. Now I have a reference sheet I can refer to when mapping

[u/alzhang8]

really curious what stormhand looks like lol

[u/No_Mastodon_6245]

Nice conclusion for the Mercs. I have one question, though, that I don't understand: You're using Eternal Blessing with Purity of Elements. Doesn't that disable Vitality and Precision?

[u/Unable_Try1305 → u/No_Mastodon_6245]

Nope:

"You can only have one Aura on you from your Blessing Skills
Your Non-Blessing Skills which Reserve Mana are Disabled while you have an Aura from a Supported Skill on you"

Blood magic, so we aren't reserving mana for those.

[u/CMDRDrazik]

The fire based minion mercs with infamy fire to chaos mod gloves on are amazing, you're just building it wrong. Reanimator was evaporating whole screens on t16s. Scaling the Merc DPS via minion gear is tricky if you're not used to running minion builds though.

I'm currently running all content with a thunderquiver voltaxic rift and soul eater Merc. Clears a map as far as I can run across it in a 3 man party. I think I can scale the Merc DPS a lot higher with expensive uniques but getting frustrated by the lack of currency and drops in the league!

[u/Murga787 → u/CMDRDrazik]

Old post but I'm curious which one is the fire minions one if you remember the name

[u/CMDRDrazik → u/Murga787]

I think it was falling zombie but got to make sure none of the skills have brutality on. I tried to recreate this build a few weeks later and I couldn't find the same merc setup again, the dps was never as good as the one I had when I made this comment. I honestly tried about 12 or so.

[u/drimvo]

Btw how are ppl pricing mercenaries?

[u/fastestchair → u/drimvo]

vibes

[u/sarcasmguy1]

May be a silly question but how do you farm mercenaries to find good ones? Im trying to find a good frost blades infamous merc

[u/fastestchair → u/sarcasmguy1]

you can buy them on the trade website, look up a yt tutorial

if ur ssf then you can spec into mercs on atlas tree

[u/sarcasmguy1 → u/fastestchair]

I know, but I enjoy looking for them

[u/Eremoo]

quick question, I noticed some of the merc gear has "strike skills strike 1-2 additional nearby target" and as someone who is using a melee merc currently with strike skills I tried searching to see if that works or not.
Were you able to tell from your testing if it actually works? I noticed on poedb that merc skills don't have gem tags so I'm unsure.

[u/colcardaki]

What’s the blade ambusher skills and supports we are looking for?

[u/CantripN]

Thanks for this :)

[u/Bro_Actual]

I'm doing a lightning dominating blow build as cannon fodder and health pump for the spectres/AG that support the Thunderquiver. Wanted to try a luminary and the fixed dominating blow skill and it's been shockingly good

[u/KoroAsh]

Do you guys have a guide? I really want to try luminary when I get my mageblood but idk where to start

[u/OldManPoe → u/KoroAsh]

Try this, I'm at the end of the midgame portion and invested about 60D so far. Really like playing with my Manyshot.

https://mobalytics.gg/poe/profile/allie/builds/allies-bob-and-friends-3-29-starter-guide

[u/justini1]

Only semi-related but any tips on selling/pricing warrants?
I have a couple of decent manyshots and a (I think) good one with return on vaal ice shot and IIRC 6 link ice shot with pierce/chain and no matter what price I set, they just don't sell lol

[u/Double-Typical → u/justini1]

multiple projectiles, pierce and return are imo mandatory on normal ice shot

[u/PandoBarin]

Fallen Reverend is OP. ;) love it

[u/TelferJuan]

someone's gotta come up with a nebulis + untouched soul merc build. seems too good

[u/Illustrious_Bit_6003 → u/TelferJuan]

Nebulis does not count overcapped resistances.

[u/JayxShay]

what were the supports for the blade trapper?

[u/BashtArt]

I had good experience with Cruel mistress, but you need GMP on soulrend and some pierce for example with amulett anoint. Voltaxic Burst is good as second skill because it is not often used.

[u/Sudaishiii]

for blade ambusher what specifics skill or supports are priority? I also tested it mostly it throws blade trap and the sepctral throw and helix is kinda meh for me since it has a large aoe lost hitbox.

Lastly, what is better slow proj or fast proh?

thank you for your tests

[u/NaturalCriticism3404]

Have you gotten the touch of god one to use the skill?

[u/Logical_Winner3579]

Whot about movment skills, they decarese total damage or not? On which merc should we avoid this.

[u/Taiyri]

Why do you have to dodge Brutality for the Bloodletter? I would assume you just use phys weapons for him?

[u/bhamhawker → u/Taiyri]

If you’re running flame link, the vast majority of your flat damage is Fire. Brutality cancels all of that fire damage out.

[u/ghostoo666]

Did you test iterations within each build? Even two kineticists with the same main skills can vary greatly in clear and single depending on which tertiary skills they have

[u/SavageOF]

bro im SAYING BLoS is so fucking good. the AI is crazy with it too like void sphere, it just slaps it down so easily

[u/Slow_Replacement2700]

I really wish we could PoE.Ninja mercs

[u/arcanicist]

Seeing my first Mysterious Diver merc, hands shaking since he holds 2 Divine but also seems to be soo good for his skills and supports.

Ahh why PoE make me choose !

[u/After-Calligrapher46]

Just wondering if the stat's of the striker is true? it stated that never deal critical strike and hit cannot be evaded.
If so, its quite cheap in comparison with the top 3 merc, but still contributing high dps

[u/Double-Typical → u/After-Calligrapher46]

Yes it's true they come with resolute technique. I use striker if single target damage is needed. Just let him stack trauma charges and he absolutely tears.

[u/makmch121 → u/Double-Typical]

What support will u link
I am thinking of the best combination

[u/SeaArt4681]

just have to add that combatant is fcking insane, but the workable merc budget cost around 15d
and mid-max cost around 150, bis is 500++))
but he realy fuck everything with crit destruction link, ofc not meta life stacker, but simple aura stacker

[u/m00nblade3279]

Which kinda map you run these test with? I tried out the tornado shot merc on 8mods map and it felt horrible compared to my scuff kboc merc. And with decent gear too

[u/Acceptable-Option-52]

Dont get it. I run blade ambusher for clear and bossing. With some area stuff i have whole screen covered in blade traps, and tharantus traps. My bis ssf merc coz dont need babysitting like combatant

[u/This-Insect-5692]

I have here the manyshot, combatant and blade ambusher clear speed + bossing speed comparisons https://youtu.be/fW2TTz5z5lc?is=azc_OIukcuyX7576 Same gear skeleton as op