I wonder how 1.10 will effect mercs.

[TaiDaishar]

For my sorceress, I want a merc who is like a steel drum... you can bang on him all day and he won't get hurt.  I accomplish this with % physical damage reduce, and life leech to some extent.  I fear that they will up monster damage, speed, and hits, making it impossible for mercs.. but we'll see.
-MB

Merceneries are supposed to be as a slight boost to your survivability/killing speed, having to actually rely on a mercenery to tank/do damage/etc' is down right wrong.

Oh and the merc's AI is like einstein compared to the Valkyre's (or to a lesser extent, the golem's) AI.

Replace Lightning with Chain Lightning for the Bolty Merc? Please? Add Whirlwind for the barb merc? Please? A rogue that Strafes? Please? Bah. I could only wish.

I would wish that, except for WW on the barb merc, that thing is already an incredible tank and has stun/bash which can really help especially against bosses, no need for more.

And a little add on to that list: Desert mercs with Fend/Impale/Lightning strike, Rogues with immolation/Freeze arrow, barbs with very limited War Cries (very low levels), fire sorcs with enchant/meteor/firewall, cold sorcs with blizzard/FO, lightning sorcs with TS.

Of course all these above mentioned skills will only be available from a certein level/ difficulty mode.