Mercenaries

Mercenaries are NPCs players can hire to fight alongside them. While Mercenaries were largely a novelty in early versions of Diablo II, they are substantially upgraded in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, and can be quite effective when properly equipped and supported.

There are four types of mercenaries, Rogues (Act 1 archers), Town Guards (Act 2 spear carriers), Iron Wolves (Act 3 sorcerers), and Barbarians (Act 5 warriors). Players can only use one mercenary at a time, and hiring a new one permanently dismisses the current merc.

Mercenaries can be outfitted with weapons (of the appropriate type), body armor, and headgear, and they benefit from most of the same bonuses that your characters enjoy. Mercenaries have inherent stats and bonuses as well, and can survive without quality equipment, though the combat mercs are basically harmless without a good weapon.

In v1.10+, mercs are all available for hire at levels near those of your character. In earlier versions of the game, they were often much lower, and newly hired Mercs had to be leveled up extensively to make them useful and hardy enough to survive, especially when obtained on Hell difficulty.

Act I: Rogue Scouts

Rogue mercenaries are obtained from Kashya in the Rogue Encampment. (She gives one as a reward for completing the Blood Raven quest, and will hire them after that point, or to any character over level 8.) Rogue mercs are ranged attackers who use bows to attack from a distance. They are fairly fragile and must be kept from harm, but can dispense solid artillery support from behind the front lines. Their AI largely keeps them from harm, but they can be come confused as to how far they should stand from the action, and will sometimes wander back and forth uselessly.

These rogues may add fire or cold damage to their arrows; this option is only visible in the hiring window, and makes little difference to their overall damage, though the cold can add a useful chilling effect, especially in the early going when new characters need all the help they can get.

All rogue mercs can cast the Amazon skill Inner Sight. This skill lowers the defense of all enemies by a set amount, and sticks a glowing white dot over their heads.

• Skills: Cold Arrow/Inner Sight or Fire Arrow/Inner Sight
• Allowed Equipment: Armor, Helms, Bows (no Crossbows or Amazon-only bows).

Act II: Desert Mercenaries

The Hirelings of Act II are available from Greiz in Lut Gholein. They are melee attackers and use spears/javelins or polearms to great effect. These mercs are the most popular hires in the game, since they come with various auras that can greatly benefit their employer.

Skills: Jab attack.
Auras: These mercs have a variety of auras. There are three types available on each difficulty level, though the auras found on Normal and Hell difficulty levels are the same.

• Combat (Normal): Prayer
• Combat (Nightmare): Thorns
• Combat (Hell): Prayer
• Defense (Normal): Defiance
• Defense (Nightmare): Holy Freeze
• Defense (Hell): Defiance
• Offense (Normal): Blessed Aim
• Offense (Nightmare): Might
• Offense (Hell): Blessed Aim

Allowed Equipment: Armor, Helms, Spears, Polearms, Javelins (Ued solely for melee weapons.) They can not equip Amazon-only javelins or spears.

Act III: Iron Wolves

The Hirelings of Act III are available from Asheara in the Kurast Docks. These are the only magical mercs, and each one specializes in Lightning, Cold, or Fire. Their AI is similar to that of the Rogue mercs and they tend to stay behind the lines and attack from a distance, even though they carry shields and can achieve fairly high defense and resistances.

• Skills: Charged Bolt/Lightning or Glacial Spike/Ice Blast/Frozen Armor or Inferno/ Fireball
• Allowed Equipment: Armor, Helms, Shields and Swords
• Notes: Iron Wolves very rarely hit anything with their weapon, so are best equipped with a sword that has spell-caster bonuses.

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 (co-webmasters Elly and Gaile both showed up as Act One rogue mercs). And Scorch was the author of the first monster specialty site, Darkness, which was hosted by Diabloii.net.

Jelani Barani Jabari Devak Raldin

Telash Ajheed Narphet Khaleel Phaet

Geshef Vanji Haphet Thadar Yatiraj

Rhadge Yashied Jarulf Flux Scorch

Act V: Barbarians

The Hirelings of Act V are available from Qual-Kehk in Harrogath once you have completed the Rescue the Barbarians quest. Unlike Kashya in Act One, he does not reward you with a free barbarian merc.

• Skills: Bash and Stun
• Allowed Equipment: Armor, Helms, Barbarian Class-specific Helms, One Sword (can't dual wield).

Misc Comments

The following is from Blizzard's page. Upgrade and edit when time permits.

Incorporate info from the extensive Merc strategy guide.

Hirelings are Mercenaries that you can hire to fight by your side. Hirelings are very loyal and fight to the death. Hirelings are very useful. Every player should have one! The Hireling follows you and automatically attacks any monsters or hostile players nearby. You can also see them on your Automap as an aqua colored "X". You can only have one Hireling at a time. Each party member can have their own Hireling however bringing the total to 8 Mercenaries in a full game or party.

• Once you have hired a Hireling they appear near you with their icon in the upper left corner. At the top of the Hireling's Icon is their health bar. You can toggle their Icon on and off with the Z key.
• Hirelings improve in Attack Rating (because the hireable level is a factor), and they also fully heal when they level up.
• You cannot harm your Hirelings and they cannot harm you or your party members.
• NPCs in town will heal your Hireling. The Paladin Prayer Aura or Holy Bolt Skill will also heal your Hirelings. Party friendly skills and spells will also work on Hirelings. Wells will also heal Hirelings and other minions. You can use Potions to Heal your Hirelings as well.
• There are no Hirelings available in Act IV. There are none that would brave the horrors of Act IV for merely gold. You can take your existing Hirelings into Act IV however.
• Hirelings will die of Poison if you do not heal them.

Hireling Information

When you hire a Hireling you are charged a one time fee in Gold. The price of each Hireling is listed when you Hire them. The Hire menu also lists some additional information about the Hireling such as Level, Damage, special attacks, and Hit Points.

Attributes and Experience

Hirelings in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction come with their own set of attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Health, Damage, Defense, and Experience. As Hirelings kill monsters, they gain experience points. When they gain enough experience points to reach a new level, their attributes automatically improve. You can also improve their attributes by equipping them with better equipment (see below). Keep in mind that Hirelings aren't just paid mercenaries--they are co-adventurers. They fully share experience for their kills with you, and they receive a smaller share of experience for monsters that you kill.

Mercenaries do not get experience from party member kills, but they do from your summoned monsters/characters.

Hirelings will not gain experience once they have reached your level. They will begin to gain experience again once you level up.

Hirelings might not level up very well if they are in areas where monsters are much higher in level. You might have to try different areas to find good places to level up your Hirelings. Try to keep your Hirelings near your character level. Always quickly resurrect them so that they don't fall further behind.

Hireling Levels

Hirelings cannot level past your current Character Level. The only way you can get a Hireling that is a higher level than your character is by buying one at that higher level. Hirelings at a higher level will not level up or gain experience until you catch up to their level. Often they will not level up until you level up. Once you have leveled up, they will quickly do the same, often in a few hits.

Hirelings have a maximum level of 98.

Hireling Resistances

Hirelings gain Resistances when they level up. They also are affected by the Nightmare and Hell Difficulty resistance penalties.

Hireling Damage

hireling min = [(weapon min)*(str+100)/100]+base min hireling max = [(weapon max)*(str+100)/100]+base max

Bonuses such as Fire or Cold Damage are added to the overall damage after the formula, bonuses such as increased damage % are factored only on the weapon itself and not the Hirelings base damage and goes toward the weapon min and max stat. This won't affect how much the Hireling actually deals if they never use their weapon. The Rogue from act 1 should also be the same except substitute Dexterity for Strength in the formulae.

Hireling Continuity

Hirelings are now willing and able to accompany you to any of the various Acts of the game. In fact, you can actually finish the entire game through all three difficulty settings using only the first Hireling received in Act I. You may choose to employ a new Hireling at any time, but you may not take more than one Hireling into your service at a time. If you choose to replace your current Hireling with a fresh one, your old Hireling will retire and be unavailable for further service. Before you replace a Hireling, open the Hireling Inventory and remove any items you want to keep. Otherwise, you will lose that equipment.

Hireling Death

When your Hireling dies, you can return to the nearest mercenary captain and either pay to have your late comrade resurrected, or hire a new one. If you choose to resurrect your Hireling, he or she will return to your employ with all of the attributes, experience, and equipment he or she had at the time of death. If, however, you decide to employ a new Hireling, you give up the services of the recently departed and forfeit any equipment he or she was wearing. Note: if your character dies, your Hireling dies as well.

As the Hireling gets to higher levels it will cost more to revive them. It will never cost more than 50,000 Gold to revive your Hireling.

In Act IV, Tyrael will resurrect your Hireling but he will charge you. What does he do with that gold? Angels got to pay the bills too.

How can I keep my Hireling Alive?

Give your Hireling good equipment. Find items that raise their resistances to max. Give them high Defense Armor. Give them high damage weapons. Heal them during battle. Whenever their health starts to drop, give them a Health Potion. Health Potions heal over time for them just like they do for you so keep this in mind. Use Rejuvenation Potions in emergency situations when your Hireling is about to die. Use Full Rejuvenation Potions in extreme emergencies. When your Hireling is about to die, back away from battle and heal them. You can also use a Town Portal and visit the Town Healer, and quickly return to battle. Items of Life Regeneration can also help keep Hirelings in full health. Use Wells to heal your Hirelings as well. The combination of good equipment, careful healing, and backing away so your Hireling doesn't die will help reduce the number of times your Hireling dies and will save you the resurrection cost.

Hireling Spells

Hirelings can cast player spells. They have a unlimited supply of Mana so you do not have to be concerned about giving them Mana Potions or about giving Hirelings Items that add to Energy or Mana. You cannot control which spells Hirelings cast but certain Hirelings will only cast certain spells. Usually you have to buy a Hireling and see what spells they cast to know which version you have received.

Hirelings can use Healing Potions

You can use a Healing Potion from the Belt (either by hotkey or right-clicking) while holding down the shift key to give the Healing Potion to the player's Hireling.

You can also heal your Hireling directly, by left-clicking on a healing or Rejuvenation Potion in your backpack or belt and then dragging it over the Hireling's gold-bordered portrait located in the upper left of the game screen. When the portrait is highlighted, left-click again to release the potion onto the portrait. You can also heal your Hireling by visiting a healing Well. You must keep your mouse cursor over your Hireling for three seconds before the portrait highlights and the text "Drop potion on hireling portrait, right-click to open inventory" appears.

Hirelings have an unlimited supply of Mana or Energy so they do not need and cannot use Mana Potions.

Hireling Regeneration

Hirelings automatically regenerate Life over time.

Hirelings vs. Bosses

Hireling damage is 50% against Bosses in Normal, 35% in Nightmare, and 25% in Hell difficulties. Additionally, Hirelings takes 10 times more damage from End Act Bosses.

Player vs Player

The Player vs Player penalty for players or Hirelings attacking other players is 1/4.

The Player vs Player penalty is 1/2 for Hirelings attacking other Hirelings.

Giving Equipment to Hirelings

You can and should furnish your Hirelings with equipment such as armor, helms, and weapons. Your Hirelings must meet all Strength, Dexterity, and Level Requirements for the item, and any weapons must be compatible with the Hirelings' weapon type, as represented by what you see them carrying. (For instance, the Rogue Hirelings in Act I can be equipped with a War Bow, but not a Short Sword, whereas the Town Guard Hirelings in Act II can be equipped with a Voulge, but not a Crossbow.) To equip your Hireling, simply left-click on the appropriate button on your Mini-panel or press the O key to bring up the Hireling Inventory and Information screen. You must keep your mouse cursor over your hireling for three seconds before the portrait highlights and the text "Drop potion on hireling portrait, right-click to open inventory" appears. Then place items in the corresponding slots as you would in your own Inventory screen. Players can not give or take items from a hireling if they are not within range.

Find better and better equipment for your Hirelings. Find resistance equipment to give to them to keep them alive longer. Find high Defense Armor to protect them.

Hirelings start with basic equipment that is not shown on the Hireling Equipment page. You can replace the equipment with new equipment, but if you remove all of the equipment on the Hireling Equipment page, they will still have their basic equipment. You can't for example take away the Rogue's Bow. She will always have a basic bow.

You can try different things to discover what kinds of equipment a Hireling will accept. If they can't wear it, they will let you know. The appearance of a Hireling will remain unchanged when adding new weapons, armor and helms.

Hirelings can use almost all Magical Bonuses including + Skills Items.

Good Items

Replenish Life items can help keep your Hirelings healed. Hirelings can take advantage of Ethereal Items because their items do not lose Durability. Give your Hirelings Uniques, Rares or whatever else they can wear. Try to build up their resistances as well if possible.

Bad Items

Hirelings have no need for +Mana/Energy Items or Items that Steal % Mana. +Vitality Items also do not work.