This is a continuation of our previous article, which discussed the best mercenary builds available in Diablo 2: Resurrected. You can find more information about the earlier Acts (I and II) in Part 1 of this series, which is available online.
Please keep in mind that the artificial intelligence (AI) of mercenaries can be clunky at times; for example, they may aimlessly walk around while pursuing you by a pack of enraged Hell Bovines. If you have the ability to teleport or leap, you may find it easier to pull mercenaries out of tight spots or to use them against monsters if you do so.
You’ll also notice that most Mercenaries have the same set of skills available on all difficulties, which is a nice touch. I say most because Act II contains a nice variety of auras that can differ depending on which difficulty level you choose. For example:
Normal Act II Mercenary Skills: Prayer, Defiance, or Blessed Aim are the most common- Thorns, Holy Freeze, or Might are among the mercenary skills available in Nightmare Act II
- Hell Act II Mercenary Skills are the same as the normal skills
Might and Holy Freeze appear to be the best options for Act 2 Mercenaries at the moment, depending on whether you need more Damage for your hireling or if you need help kiting mobs with Holy Freeze to be effective.
Following this, we’ll proceed to the remaining Acts and see what Mercenaries are available for hire.
Mercenaries appear in Act 3 of Mercenaries.
The Iron Wolves of Kurast are elemental damage experts who can turn the tide for a variety of character builds if they are properly equipped. Despite the fact that they aren’t as popular as the Act 2 Mercenaries, they do have a place in some end-game builds that are in desperate need of that final piece of the puzzle to complete the picture.
They are born with the same set of abilities that they will use in every situation. It is possible to choose between three different builds: a Lightning Build (Charged Bolt, Lightning Skills), a Fire Build (Inferno, Fireball Skills), or a Cold Build (Ice Blast, Glacial Spike, and Frozen Armor). For the CC (Crowd Control) factor, it should come as no surprise that cold is the most popular choice for this mercenary.
You can, however, use your imagination to combine a Lightning or Fire Act 3 Mercenary if you happen to be a single focused elemental caster, such as a Blizzard Sorceress, with a Lightning or Fire Act 3 Mercenary.
The D2R runewords: Lawbringer has the potential to transform an Act 3 Mercenary into a powerful ally. Lawbringer also includes one of the most unique modifiers available, “Slain Monsters Rest In Peace,” which prevents killed monsters from being resurrected after they have been killed. first act adverbial adverbial adjectival adverbial adverbial adverbial adverbial adverbial adverbial adverbial adverbial adverbial adverbial adverbial adverbial adverbial adverbial adverbial adverbialShamans will quake in their boots as they realize they will be unable to bring back pesky monsters from the dead. It reduces the enemy’s Defense by half, assisting in the enhancement of physical damage characters in conjunction with Decrepify, which further reduces physical damage resistances. It might be useful for a Wind Druid who prefers to use the skills Hurricane and Tornado as their primary abilities. The Sanctuary Aura is one of the most important components of this weapon, as it assists with KNOCKBACK of undead enemies and can kite and distance your character from enemies in mobs.
As for the shield slot, I would strongly recommend the Rune Word: Sanctuary for this mercenary due to its high level of defenses and resistances. Despite the fact that this mercenary is a ranged caster, it can make him quite tanky. Stormshield would also be an excellent choice due to the massive defense boost it provides.
Mercenary is the fifth act of the play.
The Barbarians of Harrogath are the final, but certainly not the least, of our opponents. These hired helpers are equipped with Stun and Bash for any situation. When this mercenary is equipped with enough attack speed, both of his skills are excellent for Crowd Control on large groups of mobs. Bash also has knockback, which makes him useful for a variety of ranged characters, such as Bow Amazons (also known as Bowazons).
Breath of the Dying and Last Wish would be my top two choices for a Barbarian Mercenary build, respectively. The former, due to the fact that Zod is an underrated Rune and isn’t as expensive as it should be despite being one of the highest tier Diablo 2 Ladder Runes in the game, and it will pump out MASSIVE damage for your Barbarian while also providing a decent boost to survivability with 12 – 15% Life Steal, is the better choice. Last Wish is a very expensive Rune Word, but it comes with a slew of trigger skills, including Fade, Life Tap, and Charged Bolt, which are all very useful. It also comes with one of the most sought-after Auras, Might, which increases physical damage by a factor of two or three. Also included is a significant increase in Magic Find, which I’ll explain why this is important for mercenaries further down.
In addition, because they are true Barbarians, they have the ability to equip Barbarian-specific items such as Arreat’s Face Slayer Guard, which provides a +2 to Combat and +2 to Barbarian skills, boosting their Stun and Bash, greatly increasing their utility and damage output while also making them extremely tanky.
Blizzard went above and beyond in terms of buffing the mercenaries, giving players the opportunity to experiment with different build options. Increasing the variety of where a build can farm and grind by reducing enemy immunities, pumping out decent damage, and providing synergizing boosts can be extremely beneficial to a build.
In my previous post, I mentioned that Magic Find on Mercenaries was important because when your Mercenary makes a kill, both your character’s Magic Find and the Mercenary’s Magic Find are COMBOUNDED. In other words, if you have our Mercenary with a Last Wish at Level 90 (+45% Magic Find) and your character has 255% Magic Find, when your Mercenary kills a boss, the drops will be calculated using 300% Magic Find. Whenever possible, I try to leave just a sliver of health on bosses like Diablo, Mephisto, or Baal, and I make it a point to have my Mercenary kill the Countess and anything else it can get its hands on.
Have a good time with your Mercenary in Diablo 2: Resurrection!
Leave a comment below describing your current Mercenary of choice, as well as the equipment you’ve placed on him or her. Mercenaries have undoubtedly piqued our interest, leading us to seek out obscure Rune Words such as Treachery, which causes them to fade, and Insight, which allows us to gain an unlimited mana pool with Meditation.