Newbie Mercenary questions

[Blacktalon]

Hi, new to game and in act III. Can anything such as weapons, armor or potions be given to merc's. How can you tell what there stats are?

Thanks for any input. :unsure:

[adeyke]

That depends. If you're playing classic D2, you can't give them anything and you can't see their stats.

If you're playing the expansion, you can press O to view their stats and give them equipment that way. The equipment possible for mercs is this:
Act 1 mercs: bows (but not amazon bows), helm or circlet, body armour
Act 2 mercs: spears (including javelins, but not amazon spears) or polearm, helm or circlet, body armour
Act 3 mercs: one-hand sword, shield (but not class-specific), helm or circlet, body armour
Act 5 mercs: a single sword (either one-handed or two-handed), helm (including barbarian helm) or circlet, body armour

[Blacktalon]

Thanks for the quick and useful reply. That now leads to another question, do you need to finish all four acts before you get the expansion pack?

Thanks again :)

[LavCat]

Hi, new to game and in act III.  Can anything  such as weapons, armor or potions be given to merc's.  How can you tell what there stats are? 

Thanks for any input. :unsure:

Are you playing classic DII or Lord of Destruction (the expansion, which is commonly abbreviated LoD)? In classic, mercenaries cannot wear equipment. In LoD, press the "O" key (unless you have customized your keyboard layout) to view the hireling's equipment and stats.

The equipment merceneries use in LoD does not degrade over time, so you can give them ethereal items, which usually have better stats or lower requirements.

[Blacktalon]

I just recently purchased the "classic" Diablo II and was enjoying the play. Went and downloaded the upgrade 1.09 and while looking around saw unclear comments (at least to me) about upgrading your merc and seeing the stats. Thats where my question came from.

I appreciate the quick response, Thanks.

[Tal]

Nope. The expansion adds items, two new characters and a new Act to the end of the classic storyline. You can upgrade at any time. :)

[Blacktalon]

Thanks for everyones help. Will get the expansion shortly and continue on :)

[Occhidiangela]

Here's hoping you enjoy the game. Are you playing Single Player (SP) or on line in the Battle.net (Realms?).

[Blacktalon]

Just SP at this time. Other demands on my time make playing a catch as catch can. So far I have found the game very entertaining. Should have tried it earlier!

[wicked_tribe]

Hi, new to game and in act III.  Can anything  such as weapons, armor or potions be given to merc's.  How can you tell what there stats are? 

Thanks for any input. :unsure:

Hirelings info at The Arreat Summit

That link will take you to Blizzard's unofficial-official Diablo 2 Expansion site. If you're new to the game, you'd do well to read through their entire 'basics' section. Lots of little tidbits in there about the game in general.

Good luck!

WT :D

[Mad Man]

I was pretty reluctant to get into on-line playing at first. I had never played any on-line games prior to D2 and I has no idea what to expect, and besides I was having a blast playing solo. I worked my way up gradually, playing with my SP characters in Open Battlenet, and then finally deciding to take the plunge and play on closed bnet. Sadly, it has taken hold of me and I have been unable to shake it. Be warned!

[LavCat]

I have a mercenary question that's about as relevant to this thread as to any other:

When a mercenary from classic is converted to the expansion, are the final skills and stats any different than if the mercenary had been hired in LoD?


Edit: spelling.

[Ruvanal]

Their stats will be the same. Only a very few points of data are saved for the mercs (a flag for if the merc is alive, a couple of random seeds for things like their name, an index of the difficulty and an type of mercanary you have hired, experience points that the merc has). The mercs are 'recreated' on entering a game from the index and experience by looking up and calculating from a table what their stats are going to be. If that table is edited in between games then the mercs will use the new table to set their stats off of. Once the merc is in an LoD game it will also have a linked list for the items that it carries attached to it also.

[LavCat]

Thank you!