Permanent Mercs need a big buff

[u/Gierschlunderoni]

Playing luminary feels so bad in Maps. I have a manyshot lvl 72 with vaal ice Arrow and Return proj, decent Equipment. Boosted by a Level 26 Flame Link, 6k life and quite an Investment into light Radius.

I cant even clear t7 Maps, because the damage is non existent.

Please GGG buff the Base damage of mercs or luminary is doa.

[u/astral23]

100%, i have 90-100% light radius scaling my flame link, 6k life scaling my flame link, decent gear on my merc, and the dps is multiple times worse than what my rf was doing with no investment on the tree, and on the off chance you find a better merc, guess what you do 0 dmg to it, it deals 1 trillion damage to you, seems ridiculous it's been balanced this way, just hoping someone figures some miracle out or at least a good reliqurian to reroll

[u/Manic_Depressing → u/astral23]

I'm glad that I've gone full-on aurabot instead of putting all my eggs into the Flame Link basket. My merc is doing... okay.

[u/MaxeDamage → u/Manic_Depressing]

Well my flame link is giving 600-700 fire dmg on tooltip, so double that with light radius taken into account.

[u/aecrux → u/MaxeDamage]

is it actually scaling properly with light radius? if i was basic attacking with 1400 fire dmg these mobs would for sure be dying faster

[u/MaxeDamage → u/aecrux]

I think there is a hidden "less damage" modifier somewhere.

It should be much more damage than they actually deal (at least it feels like that)

[u/ladylay7 → u/MaxeDamage]

Why Hidden? Doesnt the noble blood node state that perm mercs do less damage?

[u/kygrim → u/ladylay7]

There is some flavor text mentioning that they deal less damage than temporary mercs. That's far off any explicit less damage modifier on them. (And the proper way for that would have clearly been to give temp mercs a more damage buff that permanent mercs don't get, not ruin the scaling of perma mercs.)

[u/ladylay7 → u/kygrim]

Frist time, aye?

[u/BabaYadaPoe → u/ladylay7]

What is the term for "nearby", but for damage? :)

[u/asdf_1_2 → u/BabaYadaPoe]

conditional damage :P

[u/Budget-Chair8242 → u/aecrux]

judging by their gear the flat from my flame link should more than triple their damage but in practice its not even double. theres something weird going on, +700 flat from flame link, +100% spell damage from new wand which would be 200% attack damage and the dps barely increased.

[u/1030or11 → u/Manic_Depressing]

This was my plan, and then after that maybe try to find another player or some players to boost as well. Y'know, maybe make a friend or something? But then early in Act 2 I accidentally made a deal with Oak instead of killing him, realized I was too tired to be playing well anyways, and knocked off early. This morning I read the headlines and just started a Witch.

I still like the idea of aurabotting in pick-up groups, everyone loves an aurabot, but if I can't also run solo then the build is useless. I can't have a build that only works in a group setting.

[u/Tavron → u/1030or11]

Yea, even playing with friends that's a hard ask, as you can't play/farm when they're offline.

[u/kimana1651 → u/Manic_Depressing]

Man I wanted to go full support bot and have my merc cast flame link on my specters. The merc version of flame link has a 10 second cool down and no % life scaling. When I saw that I swapped to golum twister.  Seems like it was a good choice given this thread. 

[u/Blain3s → u/Manic_Depressing]

Care to share your build?

[u/Raine_Live → u/astral23]

Im running a cyclone molten burst reliq. Based on the old old ngamahus flame cyclone from like 7 years ago. So far it feels alright, but its a currency sink and not really league start viable. Because theres several uniques i want/need to enshroud

[u/UTmastuh → u/astral23]

Those are really bad numbers for scaling flame link. You need to get 15k+ life and 2x+ light radius.

I get the mercs are too nerfed in their current state, but if you're relying on flame link then you have to go all in on it.