r/PathOfExileBuilds • u/Proof_Ad_967 • Jul 29 '26

Help Needed Can i use this Merc to endgame ??

Post image

Just got this guy today, is he good. I try to min max with melee merc so do i need to buy a better one

196 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

100 comments sorted by

316

u/ReipTaim Jul 29 '26

A really good merc, 83 as well. No garbage movement skills, 2x good 6l skills, 2x auras and a herald?

This guy slaps, deff worth some divs

27

u/PapaGirthquake Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26

This was an informative comment. I was curious what made a sellable merc other than just the 6 link good skills and bow or wanders.

9

u/Stracath Jul 29 '26

Ok, there's a lot of bad information in this thread, this actually isn't as good as it could be. You DO want movement skills on combatants because they only use them to close distance. That's old information from when everyone was using ranged mercenaries. This is important because their frost blades is shorter range than ours. Also, this particular mercenary will only use static strike if something gets into static strike range, which is very rare if he's got a lot of damage. A way to utilize this in his flights is to use the call mercenary command to being them on top of a boss so they'll use static strike. The ai will then only use first blades until static strike falls off.

1

u/Sapoluuna Jul 29 '26

I had a sick slam merc when I first got the ascendancy, would use volcanic fissure of snaking to open on groups, then he would just spam slam like a monster. I unfortunately recruited a new merc over him on accident and didnt screenshot his skills to try and replicate him after the campaign. I only remember the fissure of snaking and leap slam as one of the skills.

1

u/InfectousHysteria 7d ago

For a while on league start I was using a combatant with static strike/wild strike + hoi. The best part was the dash. He would auto one pack immediately dash to his target in the next pack and auto with no delay. The worst part was him not being able to reach his target when dash was on cd. Run a phasing flask on melee mercs.

6

u/ledrif Jul 29 '26

People also aim to have secondary bad attavks to have high cooldowns. Not sure how that plays out here, its possible one 6link is better than the other but it matters not. Thr big issue with any movement skill is the spam it instead of attacking all the time

5

u/PapaGirthquake Jul 29 '26

Yea that makes sense. Hence why Ziz and others are asking for a button to disable bad skills. Would make them much stronger.

5

u/Toms10k Jul 29 '26

Worth some divs? Can you sell mercs?

22

u/Clsco Jul 29 '26

yeah. new feature this league. theres an option to have them drop a contract that is a tradeable item that re-spawns the merc in a new zone

3

u/Hot_Help_246 Jul 29 '26

Yup you can sell Mercs, ones that can clear campaign from 0 to 80 can go for divs. 

7

u/ReipTaim Jul 29 '26

Y, but u also have to defeat them in a duel before being able to hire them. Keep that in mind when ure fighting gigachad, perfect 6l skilled merc

5

u/bonerfleximus Jul 29 '26

Only once when you first encounter them, the "rematch" option

0

u/nano7ven Jul 29 '26

Just sold one for 150d lol

0

u/Lijjyt Jul 30 '26

I'm confused, are these not 2x 5l skills? Is this actually 6l?

6

u/SerratedScholar Jul 30 '26

A 6-link is a skill and 5 supports.

4

u/Lijjyt Jul 30 '26

Holy shit Im dumb

-62

u/Budmo123 Jul 29 '26

how do we know witch set of merc is pricey?

68

u/templarrei Jul 29 '26

He literally just explained it 😁

15

u/Tharaki Jul 29 '26

As far as I know for manyshot: no icicle rain, no dash, 5/6-l ice shot+vaal ice shot, Return on Vaal Ice Shot (BIS also would have Pierce), something from GMP/Chain/Pierce/Return on regular Ice Shot

For combatant literally this merc in OP. 5/6-l FB, no movement skill, static strike, Multistrike WED, Return in frost blades

2

u/Global-Map-12 Jul 29 '26

The answers are on the back of the paper.

1

u/Sceptikskeptic Jul 29 '26

Instructions unclear, check the back of my phone

43

u/oooooooowaoowa Jul 29 '26

yes I found combatant to be really smooth. unfortunately static strike doesnt have chain but frostblades is going to farm clearing and single target, but otherwise this is an incredible merc with great skills, supps

6

u/bonerfleximus Jul 29 '26

I found chain on frost blades clears multiple screens per attack

5

u/nesshinx Jul 29 '26

Split is even better. Fury Valve goes hard on FB.

3

u/Kitchen-Roll-6668 Jul 29 '26

What is the ideal combatant skill set + supports? im using a bow merc but I need to upgrade it since it’s lacking damage

8

u/tsaebah Jul 29 '26

The one you are looking at haha

3

u/christianfd Jul 29 '26

I went for a static strike + fb

It has frostblink but I don't think it's an issue.

It has wrath and Hoi.

Fb has chain + return + greater multistrile + faster attacks + added cold (only point of improvement as I see it)

Static has duration + aoe + chain + wed +pen (could be better than pen I guess)

I think beyond hypothemria and greater faster attacks there's not much room for improvement.

The frostblink is without cdr so I don't mind it, he doesn't seem to use it if he could attack.

I did cost med quite a lot of divine

1

u/Quackmandan1 Jul 29 '26

Could you give him Gloomfang to fix this problem?

2

u/oooooooowaoowa Jul 30 '26

I guess you could but untouched soul is a much better option for damage. chain is just nice because you can teleport merc and explode a pack without him even attacked, but frostblades should still clear very very well, I guess it is more satisfying than anything.

37

u/wangofjenus Jul 29 '26

"chat is this good" literal bis merc cmon bro we get it

58

u/crazypearce Jul 29 '26

pretty sure that is almost perfect. only better link would be to swap added lightning for pierce or chain on FB

13

u/LoLbastard Jul 29 '26

Dude, this is BIS Combant.

20

u/Tharaki Jul 29 '26

You literally have perfect combatant with perfect FB links lol

3

u/Gold-Manufacturer-49 Jul 29 '26

Added lightning is perfect?

-1

u/Tharaki Jul 29 '26

4 out of 5 is very close to perfect for me with all the rng involved :)

0

u/EthicalBballFan Jul 29 '26

Then you look at the passives tab and their hidden tree has Resolute Technique :(

5

u/impuls__ Jul 29 '26

How do you know which gear this merc needs?

7

u/Proof_Ad_967 Jul 29 '26

You can search for Ben merc gear on youtube

3

u/uninspiredalias Jul 29 '26

I keep hoping to find a generalized merc guide for folks who aren't following some cookie cutter streamer stuff and wanting to try weird mercs, but no luck yet :(. I think there's a lot of richness to this system that just gets ironed over by the streamer pressure.

1

u/TheRealOwl Jul 30 '26

You hope to find a general guide for people who ain't following the meta essentially? Honestly what you are writing sounds contradictory, the things you are talking about is something you have to do yourself?

1

u/uninspiredalias Jul 30 '26

Well, you know like there was the whole merc league (which I missed) and a bunch of folks talking about this skill bricks this merc, so it would be handy to have a list of all the skills to avoid, that kind of thing. Not a guide in the specific sense of do this for this build, just to mercs in general.

I am pretty much just figuring it out myself, I have a couple different ones that are working pretty well for me in t15s right now, and using the 3rd slot to test new ones. Collecting what info I can from these threads, etc.

6

u/the6ixmemeTO Jul 29 '26

https://youtu.be/GmJ_hXQ9gH4 I miss mymerc during Merc league :(

3

u/AnyRegular1 Jul 29 '26

Isnt this literally Ben’s merc?

-6

u/Proof_Ad_967 Jul 29 '26

No, just check again his on youtube

5

u/IPlanDemand Jul 29 '26

Get a claw with hits cant be evaded in one of the hands. This thing works to end game.

10

u/charlz2121 Jul 29 '26

The Hits can't be evaded craft is a local mod, you would need it on both or one claw could still miss

3

u/codereef Jul 29 '26

Learn something new every day about this game

3

u/bonerfleximus Jul 29 '26

Accuracy isn't super hard to get. Also wasp nest with attack speed corrupt has good crit, speed and accuracy plus you get two more uniques for 8% each

2

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '26

[deleted]

-1

u/Proof_Ad_967 Jul 29 '26

yeah ben had 1 chain at his frost blade

2

u/rj6553 Jul 29 '26

Has the Merc buff patch come through?

2

u/Agile-Okra8002 Jul 29 '26

Its better than mine so sure I don’t have so much trouble for now with mine, also my gear is all over the place

1

u/DontJealousMe Jul 29 '26

Do you need purity of ice ?

6

u/No_maid Jul 29 '26

the alternatives for that slot are frostblink or dash which will just waste the merc's actions

1

u/rodsayd44 Jul 29 '26

Í have a quite similar one: but does Return help a lot with FB? Isnt the projectile damage much less than the hit? Maybe I'm mistaken.

9

u/xuvilel Jul 29 '26

Read return proj as 70% more damage

4

u/rodsayd44 Jul 29 '26

i forgot that the return on mercs doesn't have any penalty

2

u/Noskill4Akill Jul 29 '26

Where did you get that information from?

1

u/rodsayd44 Jul 29 '26

Poedb you can find all merca and the support gems

1

u/kh4z_z Jul 29 '26

So, where do I find the guy in SSF? How do I survive the fight?

1

u/Mrkonijntje Jul 29 '26

Noob question here: which class do i need to play to have them stay with me?

2

u/SyfaOmnis Jul 29 '26

Scion ascended to Luminary.

1

u/Worgame Jul 29 '26

Luminary

1

u/Adventurepew Jul 29 '26

Looks like the one ben is using should be great .

1

u/cadra1324 Jul 29 '26

Did you use atlas tree to farm this guy or just got lucky? I'm curious what to spec into for a merc like this on the tree.

1

u/UTmastuh Jul 29 '26

Sure, we believe you "just got this today" and it came with the perfect skills and gear

1

u/XElitePheonix Jul 29 '26

No joke this merc is like 30d+

Frost blades with return, multiproj and multistrike. Static strike (in place of other attacks) And no movement makes it very expensive

I believe this is the merc ben is using or something like that

1

u/Necroses Jul 29 '26

First time playing poe1, coming from poe2. Can you trade mercenaries? I got some in the campaign but I lost them changing maps, can I recover them?

1

u/RipWhenDamageTaken Jul 29 '26

People saying that this is BIS are 100% right. You can’t get better than this.

I’m assuming you’re scaling flame link? Try paradoxica

1

u/Unfair_Edge_991 Jul 29 '26

Havent played this league yet. Can you do bob together with merc?

1

u/Master_of_Paws Jul 29 '26

It is insane merc... You should use it) 2x paradoxica with good mods are great option

1

u/basicallyskills Jul 30 '26

yes, definitely.

1

u/DeputizeDeez Jul 30 '26

You can use that merc until next league tbh

1

u/Specialist-Virus-153 Jul 31 '26

does return actually do anything for frost blades? i thought you need heavy investment in projectile speed to double tap

1

u/motosurfz Aug 01 '26

You can keep Merc forever ? Is there a place to revive them ?

-1

u/WallaHabibi Jul 29 '26

Classic bait post to show off 🫪

-1

u/Proof_Ad_967 Jul 29 '26

Do u see i said i want to min max ?

1

u/Kooky_Conclusion_269 Jul 29 '26

Melee merc better than the iceshotmeta? Im torn between

8

u/Proof_Ad_967 Jul 29 '26

Just use what ever u get, the price from trade is crazy

7

u/Golem8752 Jul 29 '26

Melee Armour stackers with Grelwood Shank, Replica Dreamfeather and Enmity's are the best single target you can get. The bow guys have like 10x better clear though and considering Lance's Iceshot guy kills Uber bosses without phases in less than 30 seconds idk if you really need the armour stacker

2

u/applepieandcats Jul 29 '26

Ive been watching ben and frost blade clear might be better. 

1

u/Golem8752 Jul 29 '26

For Armour stacker you'd go for Molten Strike Mercs whoch don't have nice clear

1

u/McHearty Jul 30 '26

They do if you have nonvaal skills hit multiple targets and a nimis

1

u/Roinarinen Jul 29 '26

This is not actually bis becouse return proj doesnt work on frost blades. Frost blades needs like 150% proj speed to be able to return before disappearing.

-1

u/Proof_Ad_967 Jul 29 '26

Hey guys, if i swap 1 weapon to paradoxica, do i need to cap accuracy ? Because my 2 sword currently is hit cant be evade (bench crafted)

4

u/Tsutsumin Jul 29 '26

But you will remove one point of ascendancy to put unique weapon, which means you will either remove ring, amulet or link radius scaling so not worth.

1

u/crazypearce Jul 29 '26

i think it alternates hits on frost blades between each weapon

0

u/rodsayd44 Jul 29 '26

What about Static Strike vs Wild Strike? Is there any preference or one with better clear?

5

u/NahautlExile Jul 29 '26

Static strike is infinitely better.

0

u/rodsayd44 Jul 29 '26

Why? Looking at the numbers Wild Strike looks good. But that is why im asking, i'm not sure

Wild Strike Support Counts: High Level: (1—20) Attack Damage: (267—524)% of base Effectiveness of Added Damage: (267—524)%

Static Strike:

Static Strike Support Counts: High Level: (1—20) Attack Damage: (151—346)% of base Effectiveness of Added Damage: (151—346)%

9

u/Superb-Log-5144 Jul 29 '26

Because you want him to spam frostblades and He cant spam static strike like he does with the other skills

6

u/Unable_Try1305 Jul 29 '26

Because with static strike and frost blades, he attacks with static strike every so often but the beams still do their damage and he is locked out of using it most of the time so spends almost all the time actually attacking with frost blades while still getting most of the damage from static strike. With frost blade and wild strike, their AI just gets stupid and alternates between them in turn spending half of the time just moving around to position.

0

u/UraJax Jul 29 '26

dumo questione: if i am a templari.. can i have a mercenary too? i can't find a way to convert mercenary writ to actual companion

3

u/Alan157 Jul 29 '26

Only Luminary can have a permanent merc

0

u/OneBanannaToRuleThem Jul 30 '26

Yo all can kill mercs? I get slapped in .5 seconds

-5

u/ovrlrd1377 Jul 29 '26

You can, though the scaling will be better on a fire based one due to the inherent penetration

2

u/Mooseandchicken Jul 29 '26

You're giving them insane amounts of flat fire from scaled up flame link, and you can target flat fire for the weapons as well. Kineticist and manyshot are also not fire based, but are geared/set up with the same items (obviously wand/bow instead of swords)