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).
in 'normal' lod, there is a conviction cap of -150%
I'm tempted to think that is the case here as well.
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
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...
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.
Quote from: Olfmo on November 15, 2005, 03:56:04 PM
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...
Quote from: Olfmo on November 15, 2005, 03:56:04 PM
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?
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?
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).
so those barabrians are kind of useless now since there is a runeword wit lvl 12 conv...+
â,¬: thanks at testers :)
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.
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)
Quote from: Olfmo on November 18, 2005, 07:49:00 PM
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.
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^^)
Quote from: Olfmo on November 18, 2005, 09:06:38 PM
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...
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?
well it's not easy to explain
if he is in fact a barbarian or not doesn't really matter as you said he can wear barb only items but +barb skills or stuff with barb only as you asked don't work on him
only + all skills works for him and +x to a special skill IF there isn't a barb only or any other char only restriction :)
Hellas!
although a merc isn't a char +x to a skill (char only) should work on him, like +bash(babarian only) because iss a "native" skill for him.
Even +Convinction(pally only) should work on him with full values. For Chars it is the same i think. A amazon which get Zeal as a native skill schould also gain a bonus from + Zeal(pally only).
The Character restriction there is just for information or something like that.