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General

Mercenary Guide

Complete guide to mercenaries in Diablo 2: Resurrected. Covers all merc types, best auras, recommended gear for each act, and how to keep your merc alive.

Overview

Mercenaries (mercs) are hireable NPC followers that fight alongside you. A well-geared merc is essential for most builds — they provide auras, deal damage, and tank hits. The Act 2 mercenary is by far the most popular due to its powerful auras.

Act	Type	Weapon	Special Ability	Best For
Act 1	Rogue (Bow)	Bows	Fire Arrow / Cold Arrow	Niche use with Faith runeword (Fanaticism aura)
Act 2	Town Guard (Polearm)	Polearms / Spears	Auras (varies by type)	Best overall — most popular choice for nearly every build
Act 3	Iron Wolf (Sword + Shield)	Swords	Elemental spells	Rarely used — low damage, fragile
Act 5	Barbarian (Sword)	Swords (1H or 2H)	Bash / Stun	Tank option, can dual-wield. Niche use with Lawbringer (Sanctuary aura)

The Act 2 merc's aura depends on the type you hire. Prior to patch 2.4, certain auras were locked to specific difficulties, but now all six auras are available at all difficulties:

Type	Normal	Nightmare	Hell
Combat	Prayer	Thorns	Prayer
Defensive	Defiance	Holy Freeze	Defiance
Offensive	Blessed Aim	Might	Blessed Aim

The most popular choices are:

Nightmare Offensive (Might): Best for physical damage builds — the Might aura boosts your damage too.
Nightmare Defensive (Holy Freeze): Slows all nearby enemies. Great for safety and crowd control. Popular with casters.
Nightmare Combat (Thorns): Rarely used since Thorns damage is low at high levels.

Weapon (Polearm)

Item	Notes
Infinity (Ber Mal Ber Ist)	Best-in-slot for most caster builds. Conviction aura breaks immunities and boosts elemental damage.
Insight (Ral Tir Tal Sol)	Meditation aura gives massive mana regeneration. Best budget option and essential for mana-hungry builds.
Obedience (Hel Ko Thul Eth Fal)	Huge damage, 40% Crushing Blow. Great budget merc damage weapon.
Reaper's Toll	Unique Thresher. Casts Decrepify on hit — amazing for physical builds as it removes physical immunity and slows enemies.
The Rift (Hel Ko Lem Gul)	Niche — gives Frozen Orb proc for crowd control.

Armor

Item	Notes
Fortitude (El Sol Dol Lo)	Best damage armor. 300% ED, life, resistances. Makes your merc hit like a truck.
Treachery (Shael Thul Lem)	Best budget armor. 45% IAS + Fade proc (60% res, 15% DR). Keeps your merc alive cheaply.
Chains of Honor (Dol Um Ber Ist)	+2 skills (boosts aura level), 65% all res, 8% DR. Balanced option.
Ethereal Gladiator's Bane	CBF, damage reduction, no durability loss when eth. Niche tank option.

Helmet

Item	Notes
Andariel's Visage	Best overall merc helm. 20% IAS, +2 skills, 8-10% life leech. Socket with Ral rune to offset the fire res penalty.
Guillaume's Face	35% Crushing Blow, 15% DS. Great for physical damage and Ubers.
Vampire Gaze	Dual leech, damage reduction. Solid survivability helm.
Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest	Dual leech, all res, life/mana. Good budget option.
Crown of Thieves	High life leech, fire res. Budget option.

Life leech is essential. Your merc needs at least 8-10% life leech to sustain. Andariel's Visage + weapon leech usually covers this.
Resistances matter. A merc with low res will die to elemental damage constantly. Treachery's Fade proc helps enormously.
Feed potions. Hold Shift and press a potion key (1-4) to give it to your merc. Keep them topped up in dangerous areas.
Ethereal gear is ideal. Mercs don't lose durability, so ethereal items give 50% more defense (armor) or damage (weapons) for free.
Don't neglect merc gear. A poorly geared merc dies constantly and costs gold to resurrect. A well-geared merc can solo-clear areas.

You can re-hire a merc of the same type at any time to reset their stats. Higher difficulty mercs have better base stats — any difficulty works for Act 2 since patch 2.4 — all auras are available everywhere.
Your merc's level matches yours, so they never fall behind in levels.
If your merc dies in a dangerous area, resurrect them somewhere safe so they don't immediately die again.
Ethereal bugged armor (armor that retains ethereal defense bonus through cube socketing) is the ideal merc armor base.

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