Act II Hirelings: Desert Mercenaries
The Hirelings of Act II are available from Greiz in Lut Gholein. They specialize in Melee Attacks. If Hirelings have any special abilities, they will be listed in the recruitment window.



Skills:

Combat/Normal Difficulty: Jab/Prayer
Combat/Nightmare Difficulty: Jab/Thorns
Combat/Hell Difficulty: Jab/Prayer
Defense/Normal Difficulty: Jab/Defiance
Defense/Nightmare Difficulty: Jab/Holy Freeze
Defense/Hell Difficulty: Jab/Defiance
Offense/Normal Difficulty: Jab/Blessed Aim
Offense/Nightmare Difficulty: Jab/Might
Offense/Hell Difficulty: Jab/Blessed Aim

Allowed Equipment: Armor, Helms, Spears, Polearms, Javelins (but won't throw)
Notes: These guys are the most party friendly Hirelings because they share their Auras with all of the party, including Minions. The Aura the Hireling uses depends on the Difficulty level you were at and which type of Hireling you hired. You cannot control which of the available Auras the Hireling uses but normally they stick with one.

The Merc Aura Level goes up 1 every 3 levels. (Thanks Keitaro)

Also, +skill items also benefit merc auras (Correct me if I'm wrong)

For all of the information you could possibly need on mercs, go here:

http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=580

Can you edit in how the level of the merc auras is? I heard someone earlier sayd that merc get 1 level increase on their aura for each 3 levels. I dont know if that is a fact, but it would be nice if someone who knows this could tell about it.

thats a fact jack, i mean keitaro. a merc will have a lvl 33 aura if it could go to lvl 99

also. this is hearsay btw, but i think a merc at a very low lvl is like 8 is stronger then a hell merc if theyr the same type.




yes thats what i mean reaper.

Wow, good info. Thanks :-)

Ice you mean a normal merc vs hell merc both same lvl and same aura? Yeah it's in that guide somewhere. If you raise a merc from norm it'll be stronger than if you raise the merc in hell. Except I'm lazy and I'd just prefer to save some time and start in hell.

Ok everyone, here is the rest of the information on all of the mercs.

Act I Hirelings: Rogue Scouts
The Hirelings of Act I are available from Kashya in the Rogue Encampment. As Rogues, they specialize in the use of Bows and can be useful for ranged support. If the Rogue Hireling has any special abilities (Fire or Cold arrows), they will be listed in the recruitment window.
Skills: Cold Arrow/Inner Sight or Fire Arrow/Inner Sight
Allowed Equipment: Armor, Helms, Bows (no Crossbows)
Notes: Rogues aren't Amazons so they can't use Amazon Only Items.

Act II Hirelings: Desert Mercenaries
The Hirelings of Act II are available from Greiz in Lut Gholein. They specialize in Melee Attacks. If Hirelings have any special abilities, they will be listed in the recruitment window.


Skills:

Combat/Normal Difficulty: Jab/Prayer
Combat/Nightmare Difficulty: Jab/Thorns
Combat/Hell Difficulty: Jab/Prayer
Defense/Normal Difficulty: Jab/Defiance
Defense/Nightmare Difficulty: Jab/Holy Freeze
Defense/Hell Difficulty: Jab/Defiance
Offense/Normal Difficulty: Jab/Blessed Aim
Offense/Nightmare Difficulty: Jab/Might
Offense/Hell Difficulty: Jab/Blessed Aim

Allowed Equipment: Armor, Helms, Spears, Polearms, Javelins (but won't throw)
Notes: These guys are the most party friendly Hirelings because they share their Auras with all of the party, including Minions. The Aura the Hireling uses depends on the Difficulty level you were at and which type of Hireling you hired. You cannot control which of the available Auras the Hireling uses but normally they stick with one.

Act III Hirelings: Ironwolves
The Hirelings of Act III are available from Asheara in Kurast. They specialize in Lightning, Fire, and Cold spell attacks. The Hirelings special abilities will be listed in the recruitment window.
Skills: Charged Bolt/Lightning or Glacial Spike/Ice Blast/Frozen Armor or Inferno/ Fireball
Allowed Equipment: Armor, Helms, Shields and Swords
Notes: Ironwolves rarely swing their sword so find them a good "caster" sword.

Act V Hirelings: Barbarians
The Hirelings of Act V are available from Qual-Kehk in Harrogath once you have finished his quest.
Skills: Bash and Stun
Allowed Equipment: Armor, Helms, Barbarian Class-specific Helms, One Sword (can't dual wield)
Notes: Find the highest damage possible sword for your Barbarian Hireling.

And heres a little somethign extra for you


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.

I hope I helped you out.

I have tested it out. A merc from nightmare will have better stats and resist than one from hell, and a merc from normal will have better stats and resist than one from nightmare. If the aura level is affected, i dont know, but the stats and resist is a fact.

Do you mean to say that while in Normal your Merc has better resistances?-Because think this through... if your resistances drop when you go from Normal to Nightmare or Nightmare to Hell, but revert when you step back a difficulty, wouldn't this also prove true for mercenaries? (Or just be insanely cool and broken if it didn't? )

Basically what i mean to ask Keitaro, is, When you got your mercenaries at that difficulty setting... did you THEN go into Normal or Nightmare to check them all on a level playing field?

Thank you so much, I always have questions on merc

First of all, all mercenaries hired in normal difficulty *ARE* stronger than their nightmare or hell counterparts. This has been proven time and time again.

Second of all, the aura on an Act II mercenary *DOES* follow a specific pattern, but it's not as simple as you've described above. There are many charts and diagrams availible for this, try Google if you need one.

Its compared with normal/nightmare/hell merc at the same level in hell. Therefor, never buy a merc from hell unless you are truly lazy.

I am real lazy :-D all my mercs have the defience aura..... i shud spend a day and get a holy freeze :-D

Does this merc leveling thing still hold true? As of patch 1.11, blizzard made the mercenaries pre-level to 1-5 levels under your current level... (this means, if you're level 76 and you go to normal you can buy normalmerc at level 70-75)

Since you can get a normal mode mercenary at same level as a hell mode mercenary, why should hell mode mercs be worse?

actually u can get a merc 0-5 lvls under you that is u can buy a merc same lvl as you
also from testers that if u raise a merc from low lvl that the stats are better (ie str...etc) then if u buy a merc at lvl 80

so if i have an act 1 fire arrow rogue. as i continue through the game and reach hell difficulty and (say) lvl 80. The normal merc i have trained will be better than someone elses merc at the exact same lvl? cuz this would be really helpful if its as you say it is.

yes it will be better if u *train* it to what ever level... when you do that the stats and life of that merc will be higher than that of another merc... this is ST33V0's 1st law of MERCS...

seriously... it is... no one can steal my laws...

now for a definithion

ST33V0's 1st law of MERCS-any merc trained will be "stronger" than any merc bought at the same level of the trained merc.

all this info is copy-pasted from the arreat summit on battle.net, but i guess it was helpful to some people so thanks for the effort

People have told me that the Act2 Norm Merc can learn 2 different auras if you lvl it enough. so a defensive act2 merc can have dual defiance and holy freeze. is this true?

No. Probably how the person that told you did it was use a doom.

Save me the time for searching it on an arreat's, diabloii, or whatever

thanks