Best budget gear for a MF sorc A2 Merc?

I have started some MFing/gold collecting with my CL sorc in Hell (I typically try and run Pindle/Shenk/Eld/Countess/Pits).

My merc, however, is getting creamed and the resurrections are costing more than the profit it seems!

I use Full Tal's, and it seems that I can't get rid of his Insight weapon as my mana doesn't recover well enough without it.

This means I need to improve his helm and armour - any suggestions for a sorc on a budget? He currently uses a non-eth Skulder's and a random rare helm with nice bonuses.

I'd thought maybe Treachery for the armour, but suspect that he'd be dead before Fade kicks in most of the time, no idea about the helm. Ideally something with a high +str so that I can upgrade his weapon to Insight in a CV.|||Duriel's Shell and Vamp Gaze or Tal helm for the life leech.|||Tal hat or crown if thieves for life leech. Having a nice high def armour helps too. Eth bugging elite armoirS the way to go,

2 sox can use prudence or smoke

3 sox can use treachery or lionheart

4 sox gives stone or forti

U can get some sick def with these, which can keep him alive.

The hats are cheap options, things like Eth andys and coa are longer term options|||Quote:








Tal hat or crown if thieves for life leech. Having a nice high def armour helps too. Eth bugging elite armoirS the way to go,

2 sox can use prudence or smoke

3 sox can use treachery or lionheart

4 sox gives stone or forti

U can get some sick def with these, which can keep him alive.

The hats are cheap options, things like Eth andys and coa are longer term options




No point in coa on merc. Even a non eth andy's would win on merc. In some cases however I choose treachery for merc armor for its ias.|||I don't wanna be a smartass but your Insight is in an elite polearm right? You aren't really running targets where you expect a merc to die often..|||Quote:




I don't wanna be a smartass but your Insight is in an elite polearm right? You aren't really running targets where you expect a merc to die often..




No problem, but if you read my op I cover that

I think you'll find that mercs die just the thing with a non-eth Skulder's in Hell, pretty much anywhere...|||Treachery + Gface + reaper's toll

Duriel + tal mask + insight

Those work.|||It doesn't get any more budget and effective than:

Insight CV, ethereal is nice, but not required.

Tal's Mask

Griswold's Heart

I like stuffing the armor with Sol runes and maybe a resistance jewel or something in the hat. Or another Sol rune.

He becomes really strong against physical attacks, which is pretty nice for running the Countess and the Act 5 packs.

Because of the lack of elemental resists, he's not very good in CS or Baal runs.|||If you are gonna make an Insight into a Colossus Voulge, and decide to use Gris Armor because it is so cheap, you can also stuff it with Perfect Amethysts temporarily for the Str boost.

Then when your merc is a higher lvl and has enough natural str, you can use a Hel to knock out the Pgems and use Sols/res jools like MYK said.

p.s. Guface mentioned some runewords, but since you were looking for budget gear (as per title) I would consider making Duress long before I would consider Fort =p|||you do know that if your merc is in trouble, you can teleport and he ports with you. do that to get him out of a jam. Also if you press shift then hit a potion button it feeds the potion to the merc.

and get him some life leach...

and you don't need a CV for the polearm, any elite 4 soc polearm will work. CV isn't even that good, it just has high str req.