Mercenaries

[Myztyk]

Where is the ultimate, "knows all the answers", authoritative thread on mercenaries located? Is there a thread that explains each of the various types of mercenaries? That explains their locations, their advantages and benefits, and their drawbacks? Is there such a thread or am I just dreaming?

[Obi2Kenobi]

I'm sure there is. Maybe right here, now!

First off, merc experience. Mercenaries can only get 1/64 of the experience from their current level to the next (if level 2 is achieved at 100 exp, and level 3 is gotten at 164 experience, you would get (164-100)/64, aka a max of 1 experience point) per kill. If you/minions kill, they receive 1/3 of the experience they would normally have gotten. If party members do the killing, the merc leaves with nothing. I have no idea if/where experience shrines factor in, and I don't know if the 1/3 penalty is applied before or after the cap.

All mercenaries can use helms/armor, with a weapon determined by their type.

Mercenaries hired in Normal have the best stats. Nightmare is slightly lower, and Hell is slightly lower than that. The level you hire a mercenary at has no affect whatsoever on their stats. Mercenaries can't use skills if they are too low of a level (18 for a cold act 3 mercenary to get Glacial Spike, for instance), they must be leveled up first.

Prevent Monster Heal doesn't work on mercenaries. Does anyone know of any other stats that don't work with the portable little meatshields?

Act 1 (Rogues): They fire bows. Amazon only bows and crossbows do not work. They don't need arrows to fire. They get the skills Fire Arrow or Cold arrow, depending on their type. All can use Inner Sight. Their regeneration rate is "1" (don't ask me how much that is exactly, I'm only including this for comparison purposes). These girls are a good mix of elemental and physical damage. Many assassins seem to like these. They can be useful to stop regeneration if you equip them with a poison bow, to keep them poisoned at range.

Act 2 (Town Guards): These guys are most everyone's favorite, due to their extreme power. They can use Spears or Polearms, but can't use Amazon only spears. In normal and hell, Defensive get's the Defiance aura, Offensive gets Blessed Aim, and Combat gets Prayer. In Nightmare, Defensive is Holy Freeze, Offensive is Might, and Combat is thorns. They have a range of 3 no matter what weapon they are using. They use the attack jab. A normal prayer mercenary gets the highest level jab when maxed out (31, IIRC). No idea what their regen is. Most characters use these for the auras. If you aren't sure which mercenary to get, get one of these. Careful with holy freeze, though, as it can spark LEBs and wake up new monsters.

Act 3 (Iron Wolves): The can use Swords and shields. They rarely swing their swords, though. I remember seeing a list posted here about the relative frequencies of how often they swing, but I don't remember the numbers. Fire mercenaries use the skills Inferno and Fireball. Cold mercenaries use Ice Blast, Glacial Spike, and Freezing Armor. Lightning uses Lightning and Charged Bolt. These skills synergize each other. Regeneration rate of 1 (?). On the rare occasion they swing their swords, they have a range of 1. The damage listed in the screen is how much damage they do per swing, not per cast. This is for people in need of either pure elemental damage or someone who wants their enemies frozen (from cold mercenaries). I've taken these through hell nude without them dieing (in 1.09, haven't gotten through hell in 1.10 yet, my nude one is currently in act 2 of NM, still not dead).

Act 5 (Barbarians): They use swords. They can use one-handed or two-handed, but can't dual wield. They can use Barbarian only helms, and benefit from plus to skills on them (but can't use skills they couldn't normally use, like BO, but I'm not sure about passive skills). They have a range of 1. They have a regeneration rate of 10. These guys are raw tanks, as they gain plenty of life per level. They use the skills Bash and Stun.

[adeyke]

For regeneration, they get (max life) * (regeneration rate) / 4096 life per frame.

The regeneration rates for the mercs are 10 for barb mercs and 4 for the others. So barb mercs regenerate fully in about 16 seconds, while the other mercs regenerate fully in about 41 seconds.

Mercs benefit only from +all skills, +skills they already have and +fire skills (when applicable). So barbarian mercs, for example, benefit only from +all skills, +bash and +stun.

Refer to this for complete merc stats.

You didn't mention that act 2 mercs have different auras if hired in nightmare. So the differently-aura'd act 2 mercs are the only exception to the rule that mercs should always be hired in normal.

[Samka]

He did mention the different auras I believe.

What's the fastest way to level a normal merc though? Enchant it and let it do the killing?

[Chameleon]

Your merc choice should complement, some diffency in your particular build.

Items, always try and get your merc an Etheral Items, as items do not loose durability while equiped on a merc.

Things to know about certain merc types.
A2 and A5 mercs are generally, overly agressive where monsters are concerned and charge into the middle of battle, head first; they fight hard and die fast. This often prompts me to choose an Normal A2 Defensive (Definance) or a Nightmare A2 Defensive (Holy Freeze). Defiance is will have very high Defense Rating, he doesn't get hit as often. Holy Freeze slows the monsters down enough that they can be killed before they make too many attacks.

There are situations of course where other choices are the right one:
Normal A2 Offensive (Blessed Aim) - Paired with Mace using char, since, maces require almost no DEX, these builds suffer from poor ToHit due low Attack Ratings.
Nightmare A2 Combat (Thorns) - Pair this boy with Skelemancer, enter a cow gain, and watch the "Lawnmower" in all its glory.

A1 and A3, spend a lot of time walking around looking for the right place to attack from and not enough actually attacking. They are also very very bad at retreating when you retreat.

A1 mercs used to be "bugged" and were awsome, +2 skills was the best IMO (The Lightning Hose of +3 just didn't shoot far enough to be worth it, although it was fun to watch). Now, A1 mercs are generally useless IMO.

A3; go lightning all the way, because of synergy between Lightning and Charged Bolt. Cold just doesn't do enough damage and Holy Freeze is better as it will slow Cold Immunes also. Fire just is waste, as neither fireball nor inferno are worth a tinkers darn without at least fire mastery or one synergy.

I like to call my merc, the "Walking Money Pit".

I am out of time now, so this will have to do.

[librarian]

Heiho,

because of the above mentioned exp caps the fastest way of levelling a normal hireling is to go to a map where your char can slaughter away easily and your hireling won't die.
So you can, depending on your main skills and your ability to protect your hireling, go to pretty high maps.
Last time I had to lift up an hireling from normal difficulty to hLvl80, I could do most of it in the whole of act4+5/NM. The char was an oldschool MS/FA Bowie build. This was in 1.09, but the idea should work as well in 1.10.

If your build doesn't use area skills like MS for slaughtering, the hireling will have to do more work, so the hLvl<->mLvl ratio should be more considered.
Same if you don't have the ability to protect the hireling with minions or something like FA, dead mercs don't get exp ;-)

Actually writing everything down about hirelings and bringing in some conceptional ideas will fill about 5-6pages plain txt.

[Meahdros]

My fanat zealot/holy freeze merc grinding machine just leveled up doing hell Pit runs, he just makes everything really slow and I make us really fast.

[adeyke]

A1 mercs used to be "bugged" and were awsome, +2 skills was the best IMO (The Lightning Hose of +3 just didn't shoot far enough to be worth it, although it was fun to watch). Now, A1 mercs are generally useless IMO.

There's no need for quotes are the word bugged. It was a bug in every sense of the word <_<. As for the +2 skills being the best, you could just use a sapphire in their bow (or any other source of cold damage) for about the same effect...

[Caaroid]

As for the +2 skills being the best, you could just use a sapphire in their bow (or any other source of cold damage) for about the same effect...

Nope. It's not as pretty.

At any rate, act1 mercenaries are rather useful for teleporting characters, especially if one equips them with knockback equipment.

[LavCat]

True, not as pretty, but Duress adds 37-133 cold damage.

I would make a plea for rogues, even if I do use act 2 mercs most often. They do not often die, and with the right gear can inflict slow-target, open wounds, crushing blow, amplify damage, and similar effects at range. An enchanted cold arrow rogue can deliver fire, cold, and physical damage. Plus, which was not mentioned, inner sight.

The rogue I am most recently working with uses Riphook with Duress and Stealskull. She slows monsters 30%, and knocks them back (Nef). With 63% chance of open wounds (to stop regeneration) and fair damage she can kill monsters by herself across a barrier. The annoying thing -- at least to my barbarian -- is that her gear gives her higher defense than Immortal King.

[Caaroid]

My sorcerers usually use rogue mercenaries (with the exception of my enchantress - yes, I know it hardly makes any sense using a cold mage with her, but I like it that way, ok?), and are rather satisfied with them. I think I mentioned it in the "how to kill cold immunes with orb sorc" thread that giving your merc a high damage bow does the trick. I don't know, however, howd a non-teleporting character fare with them since one has to take care of them since they are fragile.

[LavCat]

I prefer a barbarian mercenary for a teleporting (or dragon flying) character, but with close now to 14,000 defense and over 2000 life, I would not call a rogue exactly fragile.