Conviction: limits?

[webwalker]

My questioning is because I can skill Conviciton, or use an item to generate Conviction and skill something else, say, Fanaticism.

Infinity polearms carry a level 12 Conviction (-75% resists), I understand that this goes up in level if the Merc has items that give +allskills, +pally skills, or +offensive aruas.

Without Ubers, a Paladin could expect to achieve a level 50 Conviction (-280% resists), whereas the merc could reasonably get level 28 conviction (-165% resists).

Questions:
Noting the display stops @-100%, what's the cap, if any, on the real effect of the resists?
Is the resists cap the same for players, mercs, and monsters?

(Theoretically, players can have resists@-400 or lower from being unprotected in Hell/ComeGetSome without Malah Quest rewards and under monster Conviction, not recommended in HC).

[waflob]

in  'normal' lod, there is a conviction cap of -150%
I'm tempted to think that is the case here as well.

[Olfmo]

first of all you are wrong when you assume that the conviction level from a "when equipped" item rises with +skills

the only way to improve your conv level with a merc is to use a barbarian from act5 because he gets use from +skills

also conviction was changed
now you get -150 resis at skilllevel 63 i think

-150 isn't the cap but as far as i know above 150 there isn't any use

[AoATheAvenger]

so is it more usefull to take a barbarian merc with conviction or a freezer for expample with infinity?
i mean for casters, what would you recommend?

because i am actually asking myelf the same question... taking infinity merc or conv baba...

[Samel 2.0]

Phoenix and Chicha tried to find out Merc's Conviction Skillevel via PvP experiments several weeks ago. Their Result was, that it should be Level 11 on a Level 97 Barb from Let's Rock Difficulty.

Imho only recommendable if being able to give him a LOT of +Skills on Equipment.

[webwalker]

first of all you are wrong when you assume that the conviction level from a "when equipped" item rises with +skills

the only way to improve your conv level with a merc is to use a barbarian from act5 because he gets use from +skills

Hmmm...  I'd need to run two chars on two PCs and hostile myself to verify, so I'll take your word...

also conviction was changed
now you get -150 resis at skilllevel 63 i think
-150 isn't the cap but as far as i know above 150 there isn't any use

Is this tabled out anywhere? Is the first level still -30%? Is the progression still linear?

[Samel 2.0]

I don't know tables... but one easy way for  testing (at least for assuming) linearity  might be creating a SP testchar... if it's linear till Level 30, then it should be linear till the cap. Most (all?) non-linear skills decrease rather early (like Fade, BoS, etc).

Or maybe someone with high-Level Conviction on his Char posts the developing of the skill up from Level 30?

[Phoenix]

The Level 97 Act5 Merc (from Nightmare difficulty) has only a Level 6 Conviction Aura!
(Firstly I thought the Aura starts with -20% and therefore I got Level 11 Aura as the result)
The progression is still linear but it is decreased to 2% per Level instead of 5% per Level in LoD.
As far as I know the aura is still capped at -150% what you reach with Level 61 (30% + 60 x 2% = 150%).
If you give your Act5 Merc the Ãœberbelt his skilllevel will only increase by 4-8 (+3 Conviction and + 1-5 Allskills).

[AoATheAvenger]

so those barabrians are kind of useless now since there is a runeword wit lvl 12 conv...+

â,¬: thanks at testers :)

[webwalker]

level 12 conviction in any merc is easy: Infinity -52% resistance in targets (assuming conviction level of a "when equipped" aura is NOT boosted by +skill equip on the same character).

At level 97 the a5 merc has native level 6 + Bartucs + Diva + "blood" belt + "blood" crafted flail +2 all = level 26.

This is more than double the 12 of Infinity, with 26 => -84% (which is not double the -%resists effect)

Since we aren't breaking immunities through Conviction/LowerResists, I'll favor an Infinity in an a2 or a3 merc to a +skill barb merc.

Note: a5 merc is *merc* not "barb merc" or "pally merc" so neither +barb nor +pally boosts the a5 merc Conviction aura.

[Olfmo]

webwalker is right, although the conv level on a a5 merc is not so high you can boost it over infinity level very easy

a merc skill only increases only with + all skills and e.g. +conviction (if it is not paladin only)

[webwalker]

a [barb] merc skill only increases only with + all skills and e.g. +conviction (if it is not paladin only)

Meaning it is not a pally skill, nor a barb skill, when a barb merc has Conviction.

[Olfmo]

exactly

and also a merc is no paladin or a barbarian :)

so if you have an item like uber belt with +x conv it works (although only with +3) but if it would read +x conv (only paladin) it would not work (even if it said only barbarian^^)

[doomcu]

exactly

and also a merc is no paladin or a barbarian :)

so if you have an item like uber belt with +x conv it works (although only with +3) but if it would read +x conv (only paladin) it would not work (even if it said only barbarian^^)

are you sure it isnt a barb? i thought it could be a barb since it can wear the barbarian only helms (even in normal LoD). Or maybe its just some feature and it doesnt count as a barb...

[webwalker]

Olfmo's stating that the Barb Merc *conviction* *skill* is neither a pally skill nor a barb skill, and won't get more effective with +pally skill nor +barb skill items.  It's a (classless?) skill that gets stronger only with +allskills items.  (if he's stating that the merc is not a barb ,then he's in error there, as you point out he can equip barb-only items).

Next question: does the barb merc bash/stun skill get stronger with +bash (barb only) +stun (barb only) +combat (barb only) or +barb items?

Has anybody fielded an Immortal King barb merc?