Best Level to Hire Mercs: Lower Not Always Better?

[Zath]

Hello everyone, I have not touched D2 for over a year already but I have decided to return for a visit after hearing news of the v1.10 patch. As I was planning my characters and trying to pick a merc, I remembered the old adage that one should try to hire mercs early and level them up for best results. Indeed, many people have followed that advice in the past by getting free rides and assistance with quests so they could acquire their favorite mercs at level 1. Being too proud to beg for help yet a perfectionist nonetheless, I decided to look at merc stats in more detail so I could find myself an acceptable balance in between. To my surprise, if I combined the results of Spirea's hireling stat calculator and the Arreat Summit figures for stat gain per level, some mercs will perform better if you obtain them at higher levels or game difficulties. If we ignore rounding for now, the best conditions for hiring mercs, and their final stats are:

==============================
Act 1 Rogues
Hire At: Level 1, Hell
Final Stats: 816 Life, 165.5% Base Resistance
==============================
Act 2 Desert Warriors (Prayer/Defiance/Blessed Aim)
Hire At: Level 1, Hell
Final Stats: 1010 Life, 189.5% Base Resistance
==============================
Act 2 Desert Warriors (Thorns/Holy Freeze/Might)
Hire At: Level 55, Nightmare
Final Stats: 972 Life, 165.5% Base Resistance

Or if you prefer more life...

Hire At: Level 1, Nightmare
Final Stats: 1010 Life, 152.5% Base Resistance
==============================
Act 3 Iron Wolves
Hire At: Level 1, Hell
Final Stats: 622 Life, 185.5% Base Resistance

Or if you prefer more life...

Hire At: Level 61-97 (odd only), Normal
Final Stats: 658 Life, 161.5% Base Resistance
==============================
Act 5 Barbarians
Hire At: Level 1, Nightmare
Final Stats: 1204 Life, 182.5% Base Resistance
==============================

Of particular interest here is the ever popular A2 Holy Freeze merc who gets his best resistance when hired at L55, and the A5 Barbarians who obtain their highest possible life and resistance if you train them up from L1 in Nightmare. Of course, this is all moot if the data on Arreat Summit isn't compatible with Spirea's calculator, or either of them were erroneous to begin with. Someone slap me quick if that is the case instead.

Thanks!

[Ruvanal]

Slap, slap and slap!

The information on the leveling of the mercs that is posted at the Arreat Summit is inncorrect. Use the information that is listed from Spireas calculator instead.

I am currently aware of only 2 'bugs' with the data for Spireas calcualtor.

One is that the wrong rate of improvement for one of the stats was entered incorrectly, I for got which stat and which merc that it affected though.

The second that I am aware of is that the rate of improvement of hell diffuculty act 3 cold merc's Frozen Armor was transposed with the hell difficulty act 3 lightning merc's Lightning skill.

Other than these couple of data entry typos, the calcualtor uses the same basic method of calculating the mercs stats as the game uses. There are a couple of threads in the old archives where this was orginally disscussed.

[Zath]

Took me a little digging, but I think I've found two relevant threads in the archive.

Spirea and LiquidDamage discuss merc stats
http://www.lurkerlounge.com/cgi-bin/forum/...&forum=Workshop

Gnollguy says merc stats not dependent on level at which they're hired at
http://www.lurkerlounge.com/cgi-bin/forum/...orum=MaggotLair

Just to be clear, combining what you and Gnollguy have indicated, barring a few bugs, Spirea's calculator should be able to predict exact merc stats as long as you know under which difficulty they were originally hired at and their current level? So as long as I hire a merc from the lowest possible difficulty level, he will have the optimal stats no matter what level he starts out with?

Thanks!

[Ruvanal]

Just to be clear, combining what you and Gnollguy have indicated, barring a few bugs, Spirea's calculator should be able to predict exact merc stats as long as you know under which difficulty they were originally hired at and their current level? So as long as I hire a merc from the lowest possible difficulty level, he will have the optimal stats no matter what level he starts out with?

Correct, their stats will only depend on the difficulty that they were hired at and their current level. Even if you hire all types at level 1 the stats will by level 98 end up pretty much like what is listed in Spirea's calculator.

Oh and I was referring to another thread than the Gnollguy one. There had also been at least one other thread that had run at around the same time as the Spirea and LiquidDamage one (maybe a month or two earlier).

[Zath]

Thanks, Ruvanal! That's great news to hear. Now I can experiment with different mercs at higher levels and not worry about getting penalized for that.

[Obi2Kenobi]

True, but for act 2 mercs, they get different auras when they are hired in NM. (Might, Thorns, and Holy Freeze instead of Defiance, Blessed Aim, and Prayer)

[Occhidiangela]

You ever play this game? :)

Act 1 Rogues
Hire At: Level 1, Hell
Final Stats: 816 Life, 165.5% Base Resistance
==============================

Act 2 Desert Warriors (Prayer/Defiance/Blessed Aim)
Hire At: Level 1, Hell
Final Stats: 1010 Life, 189.5% Base Resistance

Act 3 Iron Wolves
Hire At: Level 1, Hell
Final Stats: 622 Life, 185.5% Base Resistance

Or if you prefer more life...

==============================

OK, you have to get rushed to a1 hell to do this. :P How about playing the game?

Act 2 Desert Warriors (Thorns/Holy Freeze/Might)
Hire At: Level 55, Nightmare
Final Stats: 972 Life, 165.5% Base Resistance

Or if you prefer more life...

Hire At: Level 1, Nightmare
Final Stats: 1010 Life, 152.5% Base Resistance
==============================

In NM, you won't find any mercs above about level 36 for hire. So, how are you going to hire one at 55? They typically show up at 32-36. See above comments about rush to level 1 A2 hell. :P

Hire At: Level 61-97 (odd only), Normal
Final Stats: 658 Life, 161.5% Base Resistance
==============================

Right, in normal diff, you can't hire a level 61 merc. :P Rogues max out at seven, IIRC, Iron WOlves at 20 or so.

Act 5 Barbarians
Hire At: Level 1, Nightmare
Final Stats: 1204 Life, 182.5% Base Resistance
==============================

Rush to A5 nm. :P Fine, if you are trying to work the system, I understand why folks do that. It's a min max thing. :)

Of particular interest here is the ever popular A2 Holy Freeze merc who gets his best resistance when hired at L55,

But who can't be found at that level in NM.

Someone slap me quick if that is the case instead.

Well, absent a few loopholes . . . thanks at least for your sincere efforts. :)

[kier]

Maybe so, but its fun having a merc all the way through the game. my ama (getting to lvl 99 :D ) has a merc she got at level 3 or 4, from the quest. Elly (mercs name) is now level 97, and if she uses a good bow and good equipment, her damage is pretty nice as well