So I've been brainstorming ideas to make hirelings more viable instead of just always using an act2 merc. Right now I'm working on the Barbs from Act5, but I just don't know enough about the class in general to know what's good. So, my questions:
Can you give a merc Whirlwind and will they use it?
Can you give a merc a shout, or will they just constantly spam it?
Also, what about giving an Act3 merc Frozen Orb? I've found that I can't use that ability on skeletal mages, but haven't tried on a merc yet.
Hireling questions
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endersblade
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Hireling questions
When the sword becomes a burden, let the warrior lay it aside, so that another with a truer heart may pick it up
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marhawkman
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Re: Hireling questions
Well, the skill thing is based on the AI in use. One of the Shadow AIs from the Assassin pets is unique in that it just uses whatever skills you give it, and doesn't care what they are. The others seem to look for specific skills.
Note: amazon archer AIs have a.... strange set of skills they are willing to look for, but it's not just... whatever.
Note: amazon archer AIs have a.... strange set of skills they are willing to look for, but it's not just... whatever.
Currently working on making an Andariel Player character.
Status of my Mod: Assimilated
Status of my Mod: Assimilated
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thereaverofdarkness
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Re: Hireling questions
I have been noticing that mercs with enchant will wait until they roll the skill and also have a valid target whose current enchant has a low enough remaining time; however with shiver armor, the merc does not check its existing timer and simply casts the spell every time it comes up. I'll need more testing to say for sure, but it appears that some skills have special AI cases for mercs. Most likely those are the ones that are in the vanilla game.
I have not yet given whirlwind to a merc but my guess is that they would operate the skill technically without problem, but they would just WW to the current target and then do it again, and again. It would probably be fairly ineffective without a player using teleport or other movement to reset the merc to a better position for skill activation. I took inferno off of the mercs for the same reason: they don't cast steady until the target dies, they just cast a short stream of fire, stop, and start again.
Since shout isn't in the vanilla mercs, they will probably just use the skill every time it comes up in the roll. Just set the chance low enough and it should be fine. Frozen orb should work fine as well, in fact area nuke spells like that are probably a great way of overcoming the AI stupidity. If a merc casts frozen orb at a smart choice of target or a stupid choice of target, it'll hit so many things that it won't matter. I've seen that giving rogues multishot works in much the same way. They don't know how to use the skill effectively, but when there are enough targets on screen, they don't need to.
I have not yet given whirlwind to a merc but my guess is that they would operate the skill technically without problem, but they would just WW to the current target and then do it again, and again. It would probably be fairly ineffective without a player using teleport or other movement to reset the merc to a better position for skill activation. I took inferno off of the mercs for the same reason: they don't cast steady until the target dies, they just cast a short stream of fire, stop, and start again.
Since shout isn't in the vanilla mercs, they will probably just use the skill every time it comes up in the roll. Just set the chance low enough and it should be fine. Frozen orb should work fine as well, in fact area nuke spells like that are probably a great way of overcoming the AI stupidity. If a merc casts frozen orb at a smart choice of target or a stupid choice of target, it'll hit so many things that it won't matter. I've seen that giving rogues multishot works in much the same way. They don't know how to use the skill effectively, but when there are enough targets on screen, they don't need to.