Conduit From Lochtonial Caress Does Not Work On Mercenaries

As stated in the title conduit on lochtonial caress doesn't work on mercenaries. From what I could find in the wiki conduit should grant a charge to nearby allies whenever the character with conduit gains a charge or mercs can't gain charges which would be a little disapointing. I tested to see if it was just the gain charge on kill aspect not working by putting on an amulet on the merc anointed with inexorable(25% chance to gain an endurance charge when hit I'm assuming this had to have proc'ed at least once) and making it stand in a pack of mobs with me, it didn't work. I'll leave a youtube link showing this in a map.

I'm unsure if this bug only affects lochtonial/conduit or if it affects all keystones.

https://youtu.be/DlJ0v0Jeo3M

The keystone Conduit doesn't seem to be working either :


(click for full passive tree)

Is the wiki wrong ??

"

Mercenaries do count as allied party members and can be affected by effects such as Conduit and link skills.

(What is their source ?)

(I sure hope link skills at least do work, otherwise this whole character idea is a bust...)

I was just looking into this too. Depending on the wording when I searched it I got opposing AI generated answers. I Would love to know if the effects are occurring, but charge icons aren't showing up, or if its completely broken.

I will say I've been using Locktonial caress while slowly levelling and noticed my merc hasn't died or taken much damage despite being level 41 in like a level 65 zone.. so I would guess you can at least share charges TO them.. does it work the other way around I'm not sure.

Also would like to confirm Lochtonial caress generates charges based on all kills and doesn't specifically have to be "your" kills.

Thanks for doing such a great job posting this and articulating the issue. Big ups.

EDIT:
I was able to find information that clarified Mercenaries are considered "party members' for several things, but not for charge sharing. For Conduit it specifies party members (Merc's not included) but Mercs ARE still considered "allies".
Meaning: It would appear the only way to utilize charge sharing would be through a timeless jewel, elegant hurbis conquered by Victario, which converts a notable passive on the skill tree to "Supreme Grandstanding" which specifically states allies AND ENEMIES share charges with you. Now, this still doesn't guarantee the shared charges won't be converted to brutal charges by, lets say, Arn's Anguish but there's a good chance the shared endurance charges are not. I hope to find out soon and let you know.

I ended up using a replica victaro's charity to give me endurance and frenzy charges. I mainly just wanted a source of endurance charges from a merc so that's my work around.

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Afreyguy#3769 wrote:

[...]
I was able to find information that clarified Mercenaries are considered "party members' for several things, but not for charge sharing.
[...]

Where ?

(Also, still sounds like it's a bug.)

"

BlueTemplar85#0647 wrote:

"

Afreyguy#3769 wrote:

[...]
I was able to find information that clarified Mercenaries are considered "party members' for several things, but not for charge sharing.
[...]

Where ?

(Also, still sounds like it's a bug.)

I believe there was a video by ZiggyD did a video on it

https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExileBuilds/comments/1la88b0/ziggyd_path_of_exile_1_how_do_mercenaries_work/

comments clarify the "party member" for drops and rare mobs, but not for charges sharing.

"

kingkasma24#0992 wrote:

I ended up using a replica victaro's charity to give me endurance and frenzy charges. I mainly just wanted a source of endurance charges from a merc so that's my work around.

Does victario's charity work? I need me some endurance charge generation from an outside source, lol. Tryna run Arn's

"

Afreyguy#3769 wrote:

I believe there was a video by ZiggyD did a video on it

https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExileBuilds/comments/1la88b0/ziggyd_path_of_exile_1_how_do_mercenaries_work/

comments clarify the "party member" for drops and rare mobs, but not for charges sharing.

The issue is that we also have Link skills that have been confirmed by the SotA FAQ to work on mercenaries.

But looking more carefully at them, Link skills say "Targets an Allied Player" (other allies aren't normally valid targets), while Conduit says "Party Members".
You would think this is the same thing, but this is PoE1 I guess...
(But you can see how ThemJohns could have easily made this mistake.)

Note that just nearby on the tree you have a Link Mastery, with one of the choices the "reverse" « Linked targets share Endurance, Frenzy and Power Charges with you ».

So, what remains is to understand whether this was a deliberate balance choice.
(But why ? Wouldn't that Link Mastery have an even higher potential for abuse ??)

And I guess also to check every instance of "Allied Player" and "Party Member" to see whether indeed all of the first works on mercs, but all of the second does not...

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P.S.: Not really related —
(except maybe balance-wise : in a challenge league where everyone would be tempted to use it)
— but have you noticed the change to Guardian's Harmony of Purpose in 3.26 ?
(3.25 one was about Link skills.)