Doesn't matter what you give them, they will instantly die on hell.
My Act2 Prayer merc has Etherial Duriel shell and Cure runeword helmet, yet the moment he gets
up in a boss face.. dead. The moment he runs into a rare pack and gets cursed, dead.
And if you're going after what everyone says that you should give your merc, i would need 4 helmet slots and 3 chestslots
to be able to wear each item. And also do keep in mind, not everyone has stacks of endgame runes.
Doesn't matter what you give them, they will instantly die on hell.
My Act2 Prayer merc has Etherial Duriel shell and Cure runeword helmet, yet the moment he gets
up in a boss face.. dead. The moment he runs into a rare pack and gets cursed, dead.
And if you're going after what everyone says that you should give your merc, i would need 4 helmet slots and 3 chestslots
to be able to wear each item. And also do keep in mind, not everyone has stacks of endgame runes.
btw, I also have similar question,
that my merc constantly die when I face uber tristam. I only stack to 75-80 resist, does anyone recommend to add more elemental resist than physical resist?
Act2/Act 5 Merc with life steal, max resist and high damage generally have no much issue on surviving (unless you are doing Ubers, cannot clear Travincal fast or want to merc do all the killing while you rest ...)
In this case you need to have a build where you do most of the killing and Merc is there just for the auras (like my Pride Merc) ,and you need to kill things fast.
So if you want that kind of mercenary + build and he is dying frequently, you are not killing things fast enough (so, reduce players count or increase your kill speed ) or you are not "babysitting" him enough (an evasive Teleport once in a a while may be enough )
In addition to what was already said above, I can't stress enough how important it is for the merc's survivability to have Life Leech. Not just 5% given by some low-level armor. If you can reach 15% or more, it will greatly increase his chances to stand up a tough fight.
And consider slowness effect as well, which will make him get hit way less. Frozen Aura, The Reaper's Toll and Blackhorn's Face will make him both quite tanky and useful. Armor can be Treachery or Chains of Honor (more expensive, ofc).
Edit: It also depends on your hero's build. I have a Fist of Heaven's build that allows me to switch to specific elemental auras and increase the merc's maximum Lightning or Fire resistance, which helps him staying alive against The Council or bosses.
Also, remember this game is freaking hard on Hell. We often overlook how tough this game is especially when we watch videos of long-term players mowing down everyone with OP gear. That's not how the average player performs...
Act 5 Mercs rock! I just love watching the little Barb rushing in front of me playing whatever build and taking proper care of himself...
I really did like Act 1 as well but since someone pointed out they have atrocious pathfinding I put more attention into it and yes, she gets stuck very very often ooor (which is far worse) goes straight up in the center of mass of enemies and just dies. With her and with Act 2 one I personally highly recommend of doing a janky walk -- this means if you are expecting/predicting bigger/stronger enemy groups (especially champ ones) to be in front of you OR if see those kind of groups at the very edge of your screen coming towards you, you should run to meet them but after like a half a sec maybe you start running in the opposite direction just for a little bit and then stop and wait for them to come... This way your Merc will go in front as usual but will then quickly swing back behind you at approx. time you position yourself to meet enemies and since you are not moving Mercs won't move in most cases. It opens up a space for them to delay their attacking maneuver + it gives you a little bit of reaction time to focus on killing some of the weaker units thus thinning the herd before your Merc actually engages. Ofc this doesn't work with TPing but if you are not endlessly TPing you can still do that tactic if you really get used to it. I would say, for me, that proved to be the best/most effective thing you can do to protect them even before the battle starts!
As for Act 3 Merc, I kinda want to experiment more with him and use him way more often that I already am, because from what I have seen he definitely has the best pathfinding/positioning out of all of them but does lack usability/usefulness (and can't have Infinity ofc which renders some of the builds significantly weaker) but can also provide some nice bonuses like Enchant (not so much for dmg since it lacks synergies but for AR boost), Static for Bosses or Glacial Spike for safety (depending on build needs).
People usually go with Andis + Forti + Infinity combo as most of players use Act 2 Merc but I would say there are soooo many good options out there that you can just experiment yourself with. And yes, in most cases, for Act 2 and 5 you want to have at least 1 piece of gear that has Life leech since it's quite necessary for their survival (if you don't want to const. feed them with pots).
Ma neeeeeeema veeeeeeeze! xd
Someone much smarter than me already said once: "The real value of something doesn't reflect in a number of how much a seller can ask for it, but on how much a buyer is willing to pay."
btw, I also have similar question,
that my merc constantly die when I face uber tristam. I only stack to 75-80 resist, does anyone recommend to add more elemental resist than physical resist?
On Ubers they just die... It's what they do best. They are not meant to be "competitive" over there but I have seen some vids on YT where people were doing "Solo Mercs do Ubers" and that's the best advice I can give, to search for those kind of vids see if you can implement some of that knowledge and integrate gear with what you have or want to do.
Ma neeeeeeema veeeeeeeze! xd
Someone much smarter than me already said once: "The real value of something doesn't reflect in a number of how much a seller can ask for it, but on how much a buyer is willing to pay."
act 2 merc with Andariel's Visage +EthTomb Reaver with 3 Amn and literally anything else will never die outside of Ubers unless you're afk. Also Gface on a merc is a fast boss killer too.
act 5 with Grief + Last Wish and a Fortitude is tanky af as well, though a lot more expensive.
Insight is bad if you expect your merc to do the killing.
this murders anything outside ubermephi on my smiter, or dies to uber andy if I don't bother curing her poison (usually I don't because the merc can aggro ubers and make it hard to separate them).
Edit: I don't think people experiment enough with mercs. Infinity and Insight are the go tos, but Obedience is also nuts as well. you can easily build a tanky af barb too with CTA
act 2 merc with Andariel's Visage +EthTomb Reaver with 3 Amn and literally anything else will never die outside of Ubers unless you're afk. Also Gface on a merc is a fast boss killer too.
act 5 with Grief + Last Wish and a Fortitude is tanky af as well, though a lot more expensive.
Insight is bad if you expect your merc to do the killing.
image.png this murders anything outside ubermephi on my smiter, or dies to uber andy if I don't bother curing her poison (usually I don't because the merc can aggro ubers and make it hard to separate them).
Edit: I don't think people experiment enough with mercs. Infinity and Insight are the go tos, but Obedience is also nuts as well. you can easily build a tanky af barb too with CTA
Or even something simple as Djinn Slayer socketed with 2x Amn and Frostwind (or even more budgety Headstriker), with Treachery (or even mega budget options something as simple as Skin of the Vipermagi or Rattlecage or Rockfleece) and whatever helmet (I can see CoA going hard for this combo) for Act 5 Merc. I had something very similar to this and he was very rarely in danger of dying for my best budget build (can't even remember which build it was but I want to say Cold Sorc probably or maybe it was my Cold Druid). Unbending Will is another very solid budget option for a Barb Merc for a weapon... Lawbringer as well, how could I forget that one... There really are options out there!
For the Act 2 Merc, even if he is using Insight, he could try and build it in a better (elite) base which would help a lot ofc if appropriate level and stats are met. Other weapons you might look into (that are very cheap or findable) would be what people already suggested but on top of that I would add also Bonehew (option to socket it with 2x Amn for example, another quite decent choice) or The Meat Scraper, or even something underrated as Pierre Tombale Couant (if you have other sources of LL), Blackleach Blade can be interesting choice, and at last resort something basic as Honor if you don't have or can't find anything else.
Some nice options for leveling up Act 2 or Act 5 Merc (even on early Hell) and are mega budget-like: Skin of the Flayed One and Shaftstop (someone mentioned already), Boneflesh, Twitchthroe (yes even this with good LL can often be enough), Leviathan can be even nice for Act 5 one, for runewords Duress goes pretty hard, Treachery is obviously very popular choice, but even something like a Lionheart if you need a STR boost (for Act 2 Merc for example so you can wear a better weapon) can do the trick + he gets res and a lil bit of Life and ED.
For helmets you have another very obvious and popular choice Crown of Thieves followed ofc by Vamp (Vampire Gaze), someone mentioned Blackhorn's Face, I would have to add something simple and more than budget like Stealskull or Rockstopper or something as effective as anything else mentioned in case of Tals helm (Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest), some other later options would be Giant Skull or Crown of Ages in case you don't have Andariel's Visage. Here, for runewords, if you are lucky to find cheap-ish on market (or via gw) or if you played Ladder then surely Bulwark is one of, if not actually, the best option out there but also if you have an Ist you might want to make one Delirium which can help a lot especially with crowd control.
Ma neeeeeeema veeeeeeeze! xd
Someone much smarter than me already said once: "The real value of something doesn't reflect in a number of how much a seller can ask for it, but on how much a buyer is willing to pay."
My char is a L87 FoH with dual Spirits and some other midtier equipment , sadly despite days of farming i've yet to have anything good drop.
I use the Act2 Merc for Prayer ,with Insight to give me constant mana .
I did have Tal Rashas Mask drop so i'll equip that one but i will be losing out on the cleanse which is an amazing aura to remove curses.
Life leech isn't mandatory.
If slow attack speed, like with Insight, you better have to make Merc tankier.
Smoke is excelent for early Hell. For a merc, especially act 2 merc, life leech IS mandatory, without it, hardly will survive. In Ladder, Bulwark is an excelent and cheap option for having life leech.
I am a simple guy. My Mercs are all from act 2 and all go with Andariel's Visage, Eth. Fortitude and Insight (Cold Sorc), Infinity (Zealer Pally and Mosaic Sin) or Reapers Toll (Summoner Druid). Except the Ubers and Travincal I have no survivability issues (If you engage Diablo Clone in a way that your Merc attacks him from the back even that is not an issue).
After a 20 year break from D2 I started playing D2R in 2024 with my sons (9 and 10 years old)
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Doesn't matter what you give them, they will instantly die on hell.
Try Act 5 merc with Sazabi's Grand Tribute. Lilith kills him and too many shooters, too. But most of the time he does pretty well. I have several different versions with Lawbringer, Grief, Kingslayer, Plague and Hustle. It depends what I need. I use him mostly for casters, which are a bit weak and need to keep some distance to the monsters.
Another option is an Act 1 merc. I use one of the girls for tankier builds, which fight themself in the first line. Here the rogue can shoot from behind.
Teleport really helps to keep the merc alive. If you do not have Teleport you have to run yourself away, before the merc dies. This is in particular necessary after the third Baal wave. Otherwise the merc waits in the middle of the hydras for his Death. A town portal helps here, too.
And of course you have to feed your merc with Shift + 1-4.
Mercs in D2 are Tamagotchies, which need some care. This is just another aspect of the game you have to master.
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