Mercenary Build Help

[Saidinox]

Hey looking for a significant amount of help in my mercenary build, I am able to get through pretty much everything but I feel the talents in this game are very difficult to choose between and find what is optimal.
As far as I can tell the must take character talents are:
-Auto Attack MAX
-Physical conditioning (the OP regen one) MAX
-Ghastly Shape MAX (take it for the mobility, max it for the dmg)
-Chain Snare (at least 1 point for the utility)
-Touch of Death. MAX?
-Trap Boost? MAX?
? marks are things im unsure of. And then other than that I really don't know whats best, neither in terms of the peripheral boosts for the talents I have listed nor any other talents am I sure are even good or worth taking. So hard to decide, please help.

Then in terms of towers I have a build that works off as many synergies and combos as I could find, this I feel a little more sure of but still have no idea if I am correct from the perspective of professional number crunching.
Tower build as follows:
-Acid Geyser 3 STARS across the board, MAX dmg but reset time not as important
-Lava Grill 3 STARS across the board, MAX dmg but construction cost not as important
-Icicle field 3 STARS in first 2 categories skipping out on ice vulnerability (though not sure as it synergizes with ghastly shape) and MAX dmg and 1 point in the freeze just for there to be a chance
-Spear Trap 3 STARS across the board, MAX dmg but essence increase not as important
-Monster Cage 3 STARS across the board, MAX respawn time and 1 point in mutated creature just for the chance

The reason I build no towers is because I feel that ground traps are the mercenaries strength as you can tank on them. The wolves are basically there to tank for when you cannot be everywhere. And of course everything leans towards physical damage and vulnerability to stack with Touch of Death.
Other than that they build off strong combos and synergies:
-Acid geyser for physical vuln against your autos and followed up by spear trap
-Wolves tanking enemies on either spear or flame grill depending on tiles
-Icicle field to slow enemies for another trap when there is no summoning tile for wolves

Thats about it. Best I could come up with. Feel like it could be complete ♥♥♥♥ honestly and that my general competence is keeping me afloat but I could be doing much better.

Any assistance or advice is appreciated in advance.

[Min]

Skill building is something very personal and depends a lot on your playstyle. As a Mercenary player I always put more focus on skills to take on monsters head on first while focusing on towers only much later (Level 28+).


I had Furious Strike maxed as first skill, Rage building is vital from early to late game.

After hitting level 10 I ditched Ghastly Shape (uses way too much Rage for not-so-great damage) and maxed Chain Snare with Barbed Hooks maxed to keep enemies on me while dealing good damage. Physical Conditioning and Iron Skin were also maxed as fast as I could (Iron Skin is a Level 20 skill).

I also had Frost Ring with Glacial Tide to help with surviving Hordes and Bash to take on Giants and Armored enemies faster. Much later I got Paralyzing Assault and Fury as well.

Mark skills were the last things I leveled up, they do help and make a rather noticeable difference but only when you start hitting REALLY hard with Epic and Godlike equipment.


As for towers and traps, Mechanical and Summoning types are the Mercenary's focus. For Mechanical traps and towers he gets skills to decrease the cooldown and building/upgrading them. For Summoning he gets two very potent attack buffs, and one, which you need to be close to your summonings, also has health regeneration if you decide to level its passive.

In the Mechanical types. I always used Gun Sentry with slowdown in an area (also damage) to help controlling two spots, especially with Icicle Field (which I only use the Upgrade 1, to increase its slowing effect). Acid Geyser is my main choice for ground especially because it helps a lot dealing with Armored enemies.

Blast Furnace and Voltaron Coil are also pretty good crowd control traps for Horde enemies, especially if you pair them with an Icicle Field.

I focused a lot on the last set of skills for traps, Summoning specialization. Sigil of Inspiration with its both passives upgraded makes whatever summons you have nearly indestructible and things like Suicide Swarmers and Winter Queen hit really, REALLY freaking hard. Selective Monster Breeding and Intensive Monster Training further increases their strength and durability and on most levels they do wreck enemies pretty badly, especially if you tank and hold enemies for the Winter Queen.