Last Updated on by Samuel Franklin
Choosing the best Diablo 2 mercenary (or merc) for your character and optimising their damage and utility is vital to harder difficulties. While I recommend the Act 2 Holy Freeze mercenary for the majority of players this guide details all mercenaries by Act, class specific suggestions and a merc equipment guide.
This comprehensive guide to Diablo 2 mercenaries applies to Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction (D2) and Diablo 2: Resurrected (D2R) as the core mechanics are unchanged between game versions. Noting D2R 2.4 patch (April 2022) added minor additional features and these variations are noted where relevant.
Table of Contents:
– Mercenary Overview
– Best Mercenary For Each Class
– Act 2 Mercenary Auras Overview
– Best Mercenary Gear
Diablo 2 Mercenaries Overview
Each Diablo 2 story act has different themed mercenaries (excluding Act 4) which can be hired as followers and given their own equipment to enhance their abilities:
| Merecenary Type (Act) | Weapon | Available Skills |
|---|---|---|
 Rogues (Act 1) |
Bows (& Amazon Bows in D2R) |
Inner Sight, Cold Arrow or Fire Arrow (Adds Freezing Arrow or Exploding Arrow in D2R) |
 Desert Warriors (Act 2) |
Two handed spears, javelins and polearms | Jab and one aura (Prayer, Thorns, Defiance, Holy Freeze, Blessed Aim or Might) |
 Iron Wolves (Act 3) |
Swords and shields |
|
 Barbarians (Act 5) |
Barbarian helms and swords |
|
Diablo 2 Best Mercenary For Each Class
Act 2 hireling auras are widely considered the Diablo 2 best merc option and enhanced through runewards like Infinity for the Conviction aura (to reduce enemy resistance) and the budget Insight for the Meditation aura (mana recovery). The best options for each class are:
| Character Class | Recommended Merc | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sorceress |
|
Equip either an Insight (budget) or Infinity (expensive) runeword. Infinity is particularly powerful on late game lightning sorceress builds for the ability to break the lightning immunity of monsters. |
| Paladin |
|
Insight is useful for both of these options due to the mana regeneration but when this is no longer needed you can focus on raw damage weapon options instead. |
| Necromancer |
|
Weapon options include Infinity for the defence reduction or the Pride runeword for the Concentration aura. |
| Amazon |
|
Depends on player preference and build for requirements for extra crowd control or physical damage boost. |
| Barbarian |
|
Blessed Aim while progression to maintain higher hit chance and then transistion to Might with a Repear’s Toll for Decrepify cast chance. |
| Druid |
|
Pick utility based on your build with The Reaper’s Toll Decrepify a strong weapon choice. Wind Druid builds can use Act 5 Barbarian with the Lawbringer runeword. |
| Assassin |
|
Equip an Infinity when playing a Trapsin. |
Act 2 Mercenary Auras Overview
The Act 2 merc auras available are below in approximate order of usefulness. In Diablo 2: Resurrected players can hover over the skill icons next to the mercenary level to determine what aura they have.
| Aura | Effect | Notes |
|---|---|---|
 Holy Freeze |
Perodifically slows nearby enemies and deals cold damage | With this popular aura choice you’ll be able to easily run past enemies and slow them from attacking that provides both utility and damage mitigation. |
 Might |
Increases physical damage dealt | Boost physical damage from yourself, summons or even the mercenary themselves which makes this ideal for summoner builds or melee fighters once they have the appropriate gear and are looking to push their damage further. |
 Prayer |
Increases passive healing | Prayer is a useful quality of life option to stay healthy with the effectiveness doubled when using the Insight runeword due to the way Prayer and Meditation auras interect. |
 Defiance |
Boosts defense | Provides a defensive bosot for you, your mercenary and any summoned minions that improves survivability. Unfortunately as defence only reduces the chance to be hit from physical attacks and dramatic dimishing effectivness when running defence is not a valued stat in Diablo 2. |
 Blessed Aim |
Increases Attack Rating (accuracy/chance to hit) | Blessed Aim is a useful mercenary as you progress through the game for the physical fighter, particularly if you opt to rush through Diablo 2 quests and do little levelling given levels play such an important role in hitting enemies. |
 Thorns |
Enemies take damage when dealing melee damage | While fun to experiment with on a summon Necromancer build as you watch demons hurt themselves on your skeletons and golem of choice this aura has the least uses of all the options. |
Players are limited to the following aura types based on the game difficulty that they hire their mercenary:
- Prayer – Combat (Normal or Hell)
- Thorns – Combat (Nightmare)
- Defiance – Defence (Normal or Hell)
- Holy Freeze – Defence (Nightmare)
- Blessed Aim – Offence (Normal and Hell)
- Might – Offence (Nightmare)
Best Mercenary Gear
The best merc gear adds significant utility, damage and survivability to your mercenary with weapon, helmet and armour slots available. The best mercenary armour and weapon prioritise a mixture of the following stats that players will want to balance based on what they have available for an Act 2 mercenary:
-
- Life Stolen Per Hit (Lifesteal): Boosts survivability of your mercenary and keeps them alive to ensure you always benefit from their aura.
- Resistance and Defence: Combined with lifesteal maximises survivability and builds on the all resistance that mercenaries gain passively each level.
- Damage: Not required if your mercenary is primarily utility focused but the additional damage improves life stolen per hit effectiveness and the best mercenary weapons allow them to kill demons by themselves. Ethereal weapons are particularly effective as they have enhanced stats but mercenaries do not consume durability when using weapons.
| Equipment | Slot | Key Stats |
|---|---|---|
| Tal Rasha’s Horadric Crest | Helmet |
|
| Crown of Thieves | Helmet |
|
| Vampire Gaze | Helmet |
|
| Andariel’s Visage | Helmet |
|
| Fortitude (Runeword) | Â Armour |
|
| Smoke (Runeword) | Â Armour |
|
| Duriel’s Shell | Â Armour |
|
| Treachery (Runeword) | Weapon |
|
| Bonehew (Weapon) | Weapon |
|
| Tomb Reaver (Weapon) | Weapon |
|
| The Reaper’s Toll (Weapon) | Weapon |
|
| Obedience (Runeword) | Weapon |
|
Joan T Kessler
Great guide! Thanks
Brahian
I try use cold mercenary on hell but not let me chose
Games Finder Admin
If you are looking for an Act 2 cold mercenary (with Holy Freeze) these are only available in Nightmare so you’ll have to go back there to hire one.
Joe
Interesting guide, but of limited use to starting players as none of the recommended gear and runes are available in normal mode.
Games Finder Admin
Hi Joe
For Normal follow the principles of gear recommendations as closely as possible (lifesteal, resistance and damage). For Normal this generally means you’ll be using a rare (yellow) polearm with lifesteal on it if you can find one and whatever is the best armour and helmet you pick up along the way. The min-max options here really only become required in Nightmare and Hell to ensure they survive long enough to be useful.
Regards
Games Finder Admin
S S
Any changes to recommendations for v 1.07 players?
Games Finder Admin
Hi SS,
I assume you’re talking about pre Lord of Destruction as that was the patch before the expansion release. In this case unfortunately mercenaries are simply not useful and there is little you can do to counter that as the ability to equip items is core to their strength.
Act 2 mercenaries would still be my recommendation (Prayer in Normal and Holy Freeze from Nightmare onwards) but they will likely die often and generally aren’t worth the trouble.
Regards
Games Finder Admin
Logan
Hi! I’m currently running through Hell difficulty and am having problems with my mercenary dying repeatedly in Act IV. He’s a level 80 Desert Holy Freeze Merc with an Insight, Griswold’s Heart (mainly for the massive defense buff) and a yellow helmet that gives 10% hit recovery with 70% boost to defense.
I’m struggling with him. Mind offering advice on how to gear him so he won’t die in two seconds in Act IV? Thanks!
Oh, I’m playing a Blessed Hammer Paladin – if you needed to know.
Thanks!!
Games Finder Admin
Hi Logan
The key thing you are missing is a source of lifesteal as this allows the mercenary to self sustain themselves. The helm is a good spot to get this and requires an item like Tal Rasha’s Horadric Crest, Crown of Thieves, Vampire Gaze and Andariel’s Visage. Ideally your Insight would also be made in a Hell Elite polearm for the large attack to make this lifesteal effective.
Trading for or hunting these helms is your best bet. For hunting Tal Rasha’s Horadric Crest is quite a common set item in the scheme of things with the best chances from Nightmare Diablo, Mephisto and Baal. While in Hell Diablo, Mephisto and Andariel also have decent drop chance.
You may also want to just check the resistances of your mercenary although at level 80 these are probably okay. Some of the helms (like Tal Rasha’s) also helps with resistances.
As a blessed hammer Paladin you could also likely push through the rest of the game without the mercenary and just drink lots of potions to replace the loss of Insight runeword if you wanted to.
Regards
Games Finder Admin