The Iron Wolves are the mercenaries of Act Three. They are mages, and their dress and equipment is reminiscent of what the Sorcerer wore in Diablo. Their spell casting animation is also similar, but sadly their results are not, and they are the least powerful of the four types of mercenaries available in Diablo II. This isn't entirely their fault, since their damage comes from their low level spells, rather than their weapons. A poor character might actually get more damage and effect from an Iron Wolf than one of the other types of mercs, since the others are only powerful when well equipped, while an Iron Wolf can do his thing with no equipment at all.

Iron Wolves are hired by Asheara, who is not just their employer, but the leader of their clan. She does not dress the part, preferring a leather bikini, but with leadership comes some perks.

Several of the Iron Wolves can be seen wandering around town, presumably providing security against the monsters of the jungle. In earlier versions of Diablo II the Iron Wolf always found near the Stash would occasionally wander across the bridge, and would engage in combat with any monsters near enough to the town gates to draw his eye. This bug seems to have been fixed since the v1.09 patch, though.

Spells

East Iron Wolf is either fire, lightning, and cold based. None of them ever mix their elements, and though they can each use two or three spells, this only adds slightly to their variety.

Fire: Inferno or Fireball.
Cold: Glacial Spike, Ice Blast, and Frozen Armor.
Lightning: Charged Bolt and Lightning Bolt.

The cold are the most popular, since that element has the effect of chilling and slowing targets, but the damage dealt by the three types is equivalent.

Names

There are quite a few tongue-twisting names available for Iron Wolves. One is randomly assigned to each of the Iron Wolves your character sees on the hireling menu. As is the case with lots of weapons in the game, and especially with the names of NPC mercs, the Blizzard North designers worked in the names of Blizzard employees, and notable members of the Diablo II fan community. The last 3 Iron Wolf names (they are listed in this order in the game database file, making it clear that the honored fans were added last) are all fans; Jarulf is the author of the famous Diablo guide. Flux was one of the webmasters of Diabloii.net. And Scorch was the author of the first monster specializing site, Darkness, hosted by Diabloii.net.

Jelani
Barani
Jabari
Devak
Raldin

Telash
Ajheed
Narphet
Khaleel
Phaet

Geshef
Vanji
Haphet
Thadar
Yatiraj

Rhadge
Yashied
Jarulf
Flux
Scorch