Mercenaries

This page lists mercenary information in PD2. Changes from the vanilla game are shown in blue.

General

 * Mercenaries now have the same stats regardless of which difficulty they're hired from, and their scaling has been improved to be more consistent throughout the game.
 * Mercenaries will now always have their auras active and no longer waste attack ticks on trying to activate an aura.
 * Mercenaries have improved AI and will be better at staying within range of the player's character.
 * Desert Guards and Barbarian mercenaries now gain less damage per level.
 * Mercenaries can no longer proc summon skills. (this prevents crashes)
 * Mercenaries inherit the player's Magic and Gold Find when they kill enemies. (e.g. if the merc has 100% MF and the player has 200% MF, the merc's MF on a kill will be 300%)
 * There are now two versions of Act 5 mercenaries. (see differences below)

Equipment
All mercenaries can equip helms, chests, gloves, boots, & belts.

Act 1 mercenaries (Rogue Scouts) can equip bows (including Amazon bows), crossbows, & quivers. Rogue Scouts use the same animations for both bows and crossbows, making crossbows much stronger than they otherwise would be since crossbows normally have slower animations.

Act 2 mercenaries (Desert Guards) can equip polearms, spears, & javelins.

Act 3 mercenaries (Iron Wolves) can equip shields, Paladin shields, 1-handed swords, wands, scepters, tipped maces (not clubs/hammers), knives (daggers/throwing knives), & Sorceress orbs. Iron Wolves don't have a blocking animation, so can't block even while wearing a shield.

Act 5 mercenaries (Barbarians) can equip swords, axes, tipped maces/hammers (all maces except clubs), & Barbarian helms. Barbarian mercenaries don't have a hit recovery animation, so cannot be put into hit recovery or be knocked back.

Mercenaries can get set bonuses when equipping multiple set items.

Ethereal items do not lose durability when mercenaries use them.

When Desert Guards or Barbarian mercenaries use 1-handed weapons, their weapon damage is doubled.

Auras

 * Mercenaries from all acts now have auras, rather than just Act 2 mercenaries.
 * Desert Guards no longer have different auras when hired from different difficulties - these auras are no longer available from Act 2 mercenaries:
 * Prayer (was available from Normal/Hell)
 * Might (was available from Nightmare)
 * Holy Freeze (was available from Nightmare)
 * Mercenaries have "hard points" in their skills, so will gain effects from them that are limited to hard levels, such as Physical Damage Reduction for Defiance.

Act 1 Rogue Scout   

  

Act 2 Desert Guard   

 

  

Act 3 Iron Wolf   </li>

 </li>

 </li> </ul>

Act 5 Barbarian   </li>

 </li> </ul>

Skills

 * Act 3 mercenaries (Iron Wolves) now have their own elemental masteries and use the following skills:
 * Fire: Meteor instead of Inferno
 * Cold: Blizzard instead of Glacial Spike & Frozen Armor
 * Lightning: Static Field instead of Charged Bolt
 * Act 5 mercenaries (Barbarians) now use the following skills:
 * Concentrate: Concentrate instead of Stun
 * Whirlwind: Whirlwind, Battle Cry , & Battle Orders instead of Bash & Stun

Act 1 Rogue Scout   All: Strafe | </li>

 Fire: Merc Fire Arrow | </li>

 Cold: Merc Cold Arrow | </li> </ul>

Act 2 Desert Guard   Jab | </li> </ul>

Act 3 Iron Wolf   Fire: Merc Fire Mastery | </li>

 Fire: Merc Meteor | </li>

 Fire: Merc Fire Ball | </li>

 Cold: Merc Cold Mastery | </li>

<li> Cold: Merc Blizzard | </li>

<li> Cold: Merc Ice Blast | </li>

<li> Lightning: Merc Lightning Mastery | </li>

<li> Lightning: Merc Lightning | </li>

<li> Lightning: Merc Static Field | Duration: 13 seconds (does not scale with levels) </li> </ul>

Act 5 Barbarian <ul> <li> Concentrate: Concentrate | </li>

<li> Concentrate: Bash | </li>

<li> Whirlwind: Merc Whirlwind |

</li>

<li> Whirlwind: Battle Cry | </li>

</ul>

Stats
<li> Act 1 Rogue Scout |

</li>

<li> Act 2 Desert Guard |

</li>

<li> Act 3 Iron Wolf |

</li>

<li> Act 5 Barbarian |

</li>

Notes:
 * Attack Rating values do not take into account the extra AR given from dex
 * Attack Rating always shows up on the advanced character stats page as 0. This is likely just an issue with the advanced stats page (all other stats show up correctly)
 * Their stats may differ depending on their level and which difficulty they were hired in, but this is really only an issue for early game or in instances where a low level character is in a higher difficulty than expected (see below). Any merc that's level 80 or above will have the same stats regardless of what difficulty they were hired in.

There are various level "breakpoints" in the game files that affect how things are calculated. Normal has 3, NM has 2, Hell has 1 (Normal breakpoint #3 == NM breakpoint #2 == Hell breakpoint #1) We'll use an Act 1 Rogue as an example as to how you could get stats that differ from the above tables. In NM the Rogue's level breakpoints are 36 & 67, and in hell the breakpoint is 67. Let's hire a level 67 Rogue and look at some of their stats:
 * NM: HP: 900 Def: 744  Resist: 121
 * Hell: HP: 900 Def: 744  Resist: 121

You can see that all of the stats match, so in this case it does not matter which difficulty you hire your Rogue in. But what happens if we hire a level 66 Rogue?
 * NM: HP: 882 Def: 729  Resist: 118
 * Hell: HP: 870 Def: 722  Resist: 120

In this case sometimes the Hell Rogue ends up with slightly worse stats and sometimes slightly better. So what about a level 36 Rogue?
 * NM: HP: 342 Def: 279  Resist: 66
 * Hell: HP: 40 Def: 18  Resist: 80

This is a pretty drastic difference. However, as soon as the Rogue levels up to 67 then the stats will match again -- regardless of which difficulty they were hired in.

Other Info

 * Act 1 mercenaries (Rogue Scouts) now have a baseline 66% pierce chance
 * Mercenaries only have Strength and Dexterity, so items with Vitality or Energy will have no effect. They do have life (of course) but do not have mana - they ignore mana costs when using their skills.
 * Mercenaries will benefit from:
 * +X to All Skills
 * +X to Fire/Cold/Lightning Skills (when applicable)
 * +X to specific skills if they use the skill (e.g. a Barbarian helmet with +3 to Bash for act 5 mercenaries, even though it says Barbarian Only)
 * Note: Many mercenary skills are now separate versions that are distinct from player skills, so specific skill bonuses from items (such as +3 to Blizzard on Ormus' Robes) won't apply to them.


 * Mercenaries will not benefit from:
 * +X to Class Skills (not even Barbarian mercs with +X to Barbarian Skill Levels)
 * +X to Class Skill Tabs (e.g. +X to Offensive Auras or +X to Combat Skills)