I feel the earth Moo under my feet

[Crystalion]

The other trick is to sneak a ride into Act 2 and pick up an Act 2 merc: I hired a Prayer one at level 6 long before killing Blood Raven. Gave him an ethereal superior bardiche. I worry about whether I'll lose him now that Kashya wants to talk to me.

No, the freebie gift mercs don't "overwrite" your current merc, even if your current merc is dead. In other words, once you've hired a merc (from any act) you can no longer get the freebies. Humorously I got a free Iron Wolf gifted to me on v1.10 Ladder the other day because my character did the Gidbinn quest without ever having a merc in act 1 or 2.

Act 3 Lightning mercs rock for clvls 1..5. I then switched to an act 2 merc and was surprised at how studly he was for his level (the rare trident helped, I'm sure B) ).

It seems I'm not the only one finding act 3 cold mercs to be quite helpful again (as they were pre-LoD)--at least until you can hire a nm act 2 merc.