Is the mercenary worth the +25% monster life penalty?

Is it worth to have the mercenary with you for that penalty? 25% more life for normal monsters,..., 50% more life for unique monsters?.

Or is it better just to keep mapping without a mercenary?

What's your opinion and experience?

depends what merc bcs some rly strong while most super weak

I'm sure it's great for the full parties and their loot multipliers.

i try to do uber atziri, i fail 4 times.
When i dismiss my merc done it easily.
i have a good merc (according to internet) its a kineticist with elemental weakness,flame dash,haste with custom gear
same thnink when i try t17 for the 6th slot
so in hard content i beleive tha is pure garbage

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Golden_Order#0868 wrote:

Is it worth to have the mercenary with you for that penalty? 25% more life for normal monsters,..., 50% more life for unique monsters?.

Or is it better just to keep mapping without a mercenary?

What's your opinion and experience?

Infamous mistress is horrible busted when you give her asenaths and deodres ring. She doubles curses, has envy and pulls them all together with voidsphere. But you need to play chaos or poison to benefit from her

Yes, mercs are worth it IF you pick a mercs that synergises well with your build and bother gearing the Merc reasonably well.

If you're still doing progression or are playing some garbage glasscannon build it might be better to skip mercs for now.

I guess it's different for each build, but I'd say if u give the merc culling strike and an extra curse for ur build it already makes up for the increase in life. The merc doesn't have to do anything than attack and survive. Combine it with additional 50% auras and other good support gear and the merc is well worth it imo.

Also not only do the monsters get more life, but u also get a loot multiplier for having the merc with u.

I really like the mercs and I hope they will be ported over to standard after the league. For the interactions while mapping... well not so much, but it's acceptable.

I guess so, most monsters are still one shots and they give a bit better loot and if you gear them you can get huge buffs for cheap.
(Mine gives me all my damage is lucky, inflicts exposure and flameability on hit and some other minor things)

ich run the archer girl with haste and grace:
imagine that girl with culling gloves, xophs amulet (as i do mostly firedmg)
chest with inc aura effects for grace/haste, 50% inc dmg from mask, belt for phys conv to fire etc bb.

All in all, the merc gives me about 30-40% flat more damage and powerful defense layers. Just build around your character and think about what you would need.

Yep, it is. There might be some cases one some builds where it is not, but I think in general, with semi-decent gear on a decent Merc, it is certainly worth it.