Diablo 4 Builds
Build Planner
Map
Diablo 2 Guides
Forums
Support PureDiablo
Vessel of Hatred

Question Does anyone anywhere manage to keep their mercenary alive?

M

Maltatai

Well-known member
Nov 2, 2010
1,377
688
113
Hi all,

I keep wondering if I am alone in this particulat interest. Does anyone know of, or have heard of, any player keeping their mercenary alive throughout the game, from recruitment and through all quests and up to guardianhood?

The shallow searches I can be bothered with turn up nothing except general guides and discussions mostly centred on cutting ressurection costs when repeatedly magic finding. Questing and total survival appears absent even as a topic to discuss.
 
They aren't built to survive early game or leveling...the gear they can put on has minimal survivability. The best thing I've come up with is to craft a Blood Helmet for the life steal, life, and deadly strike. Sometimes if I have an abundance of emeralds I will craft a Safety Armor for the damage reduction or find a 3os armor and stuff Rubies in them for +life, then just try to give them the highest damage weapon they can equip and keep an eye on them while fighting.

Depending on the character or playstyle you play, you may have to be the tank for them or constantly move around to keep them away from the damage. Lots a trips to town to heal...

Lastly, keep giving them potions, like small rejuvs to keep there life up. Its a pain.

Once you get to the end game with optimal or BIS gear, then they can handle quite of bit of damage and kill speed is better.

Last option...don't hire one til you have good gear they can equip at higher levels...like 65+ which would be around Hell or into like Hell Act 2 maybe...then there level is higher, which means stats are higher and life pool is higher...
 
IME you have to expect the merc to die several times while levelling and questing unless you've got best-of-the-best twinking gear. But every class does have some means of improving the merc's survivability.

As a Sorceress, you can keep the merc alive most easily even with cheap / self-found gear, because you can always teleport them out of harm's way. 'Insight' is cheap and once you've got that you can teleport endlessly without having to worry about mana. Just re-position whenever they get into trouble.

Summoner Necros and Druids also have the advantage of having numerous meat shields, which takes some of the heat off the merc, causing them to die less. Necro's curses, Barb's Howl, and Werebear's Shock Wave can also be used to keep the merc safer. Merc still dies though against the really nasty monsters.

Assassin's have Shadows and Mind Blast. Amazon's got Decoy and Valk and Freezing Arrow. Anything that can slow down or distract at least some of the monsters will help prevent the merc from getting trampled.

I've never managed to keep a merc alive throughout an entire playthrough. I think the fewest merc deaths I've had during a playthrough was when using an Act I Rogue merc. They do a better job of staying out of harm's way. And if you pick the Cold version then they can freeze things themselves.
 
I make almost zero effort to keep my merc alive and while I usually equip them with good gear the do tend to die. I find the Act 2 Mercs the worst. I usually do have decent luck with Rogues and Barb mercs and find that they need less tending than Desert Warriors. I think the best has been with my Frenzy barb merc that accompanies my Wolfbarb. Of course he also has over 5,000 life and high defense after BO and Shout get cast.
 
Back in the day, I frequently had to pick my merc up off the floor. Often left him there lol.
 
drmalawi said:
Sounds like a challenge :)
Click to expand...
It does. Especially untwinked.

Years ago, there was a contest who could get the most NPC barbs in one screenshot in the Bloody Foothills. Don't remember much, but I do remember one or more screenshots with a bloody army of barbs.

April fools for next year? Killing Thresh Socket with only NPC barbs give instant Tyraels or something?
 
I do not for a second doubt the sincerity or knowledge amassed by my fellow forumites but it is just...a frustratingly hard bite to swallow. How could nobody have attempted this? When lunatics play through the game naked and madmen engage in the most ludicrous of tournament restrictions...there ought to be some post somewhere or some cheesy youtuber capitalizing on the decades-worth of collective forum folklore.

@Kstil3227
PDR and slowing are well worth looking into too.
@little birdy
Rogues are certainly not the worst to guard. And they are kind of cute to keep around. I think I could have saved one of them had I not botched everything against the hell ancients and forgot to bring and use the teleport staff to bring her with me around the summit.
@LouB
Town guards are soooooo the worst!
@Gorny
Back in the day when iron maiden terrified visitors in hell and mercenaries could not equip items this would be a truly thankless errand. :p

@drmalawi
@Helvete
Sounds like a challenge :)
Click to expand...
It is.
It does. Especially untwinked.
Click to expand...
I concur.
 
  • Like
Reactions: little birdy
Your question rattled something in my head that seemed familiar, so I did some quick searching.

I thought I remembered a tournament where you acted as your mercenary's mercenary. I was right. In the tournament there was a +50 bonus for anyone who managed to make a "Guardian Merc." The bonus specifically called out Insane Wayne, so I figured he must have done this before.

I did a quick search of all of his guardian posts, and found one for Felix, where he mentions his cold rogue went through the whole game deathless. The tournament in which he participated with Felix was the Money-Hating Barbarians tourney.

The rogue's AI combined with BO & Howl seemed to do the trick for him.

Yes. Insane Wayne managed to get his guardian Bowbarian through the game with a deathless cold rogue.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LouB, Maltatai and drmalawi
Hi there, sorry for kind of stealing the topic, but I suppose it is fine in this case.

Other than survival of the mercenary alone, has anyone ever tested, which mercenary a what setup is actually by far the strongest? In kill speed and in LCS damage wise? Also what would be the best mercenary of mercenary? Barb has BO for survival sure, but cannot help the mercenary deal more damage that much. Paladin is cool with very high level auras and holy bolt healing. Then there is a necromancer though, that can use curses and skellies as meat shield. Etc.

I would be interested in reading about that if anyone ever toyed with the idea and wants to share the experience :)
 
Ergro said:
Hi there, sorry for kind of stealing the topic, but I suppose it is fine in this case.

Other than survival of the mercenary alone, has anyone ever tested, which mercenary a what setup is actually by far the strongest? In kill speed and in LCS damage wise? Also what would be the best mercenary of mercenary? Barb has BO for survival sure, but cannot help the mercenary deal more damage that much. Paladin is cool with very high level auras and holy bolt healing. Then there is a necromancer though, that can use curses and skellies as meat shield. Etc.

I would be interested in reading about that if anyone ever toyed with the idea and wants to share the experience :)
Click to expand...
My Zealot's Mercenary is something I am proud of!
I think he is the main character and my Paladin is his Mercenary. :ROFLMAO:

 
  • Wow
Reactions: Kstil3227
@Ergro
Barbarians are a step above all others as mercenaries of the mercenary, chiefly thanks to battle orders and general toughness that allows them to tank and distract where they are needed. As evident, when both known surviving mercenaries mentioned above have been escorted by one :)

Clerics (holy bolt paladins) can not compensate well for rapid bursts of damage even with godly holy bolting. The main issue is avoiding 1 or 2-hit kills rather than heal afterwards when there is none left to heal.

Amazons can work very well with a ranged hireling but it requires a controlled advance. If so, I think a ranged amazon, rogue and valkyrie is pretty much the best working team imaginable.

Theoretically, teleportation away from dangers can be the ultimate protection but no one has managed to keep a mercenary alive with a sorceress it seems. Yet...

Also theoretically, if you imprison the entire screen as a necromancer there won't be many attacks coming through. Still remains to be seen if anyone can manage it.
 
Excalibur said:
My Zealot's Mercenary is something I am proud of!
I think he is the main character and my Paladin is his Mercenary. :ROFLMAO:

Click to expand...

Let merc use Infinity instead and you use Spellsteel to cast decrep like a Paladin-caster. Or, throw lacerator to proc amp dmg...
 
Log in to Reply / Create Site Account or log in with BattleNet
 Discord
 Twitch
 GoogleGoogle
PurePremium
Remove ads & support the site - Get PurePremium
Top Bottom
Back
Estimated market value
Low
High