→Act II: Desert Mercenaries
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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. | 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. | 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 | * '''Skills:''' Cold Arrow/Inner Sight or Fire Arrow/Inner Sight | ||
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* Wendy | * Wendy | ||
|} | |} | ||
==Act II: Desert Mercenaries== | ==Act II: Desert Mercenaries== | ||
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'''Allowed Equipment:''' Armor, Helms, Spears, Polearms, Javelins (Used solely for {{iw|melee melee}} weapons.) They can not equip [[Amazon]]-only javelins or spears. | '''Allowed Equipment:''' Armor, Helms, Spears, Polearms, Javelins (Used solely for {{iw|melee melee}} weapons.) They can not equip [[Amazon]]-only javelins or spears. | ||
===Aura Levels=== | |||
====Diablo II Classic==== | |||
{| | |||
! Mercenary Type !! Hlvl 9~30 !! Hlvl 31~54 !! Hlvl 55~98 | |||
|- | |||
| Combat (Normal) | |||
| rowspan="3" | 3 + [(hlvl - 9) × 10 / 32] | |||
| rowspan="3" | 10 + [(hlvl - 31) × 10 / 32] | |||
| rowspan="3" | 18 | |||
|- | |||
| Defense (Normal) | |||
|- | |||
| Offense (Normal) | |||
|- | |||
| Combat (Nightmare) || || 5 + [(hlvl - 31) × 10 / 32] || 13 | |||
|- | |||
| Defense (Nightmare) || || 6 + [(hlvl - 31) × 10 / 32] || 14 | |||
|- | |||
| Offense (Nightmare)* || | |||
| colspan="2" | 7 + [(hlvl - 31) × 8 / 32] | |||
|- | |||
| Combat (Hell) | |||
| colspan="2" rowspan="3" | | |||
| colspan="2" rowspan="3" | 16 | |||
|- | |||
| Defense (Hell) | |||
|- | |||
| Offense (Hell) | |||
|} | |||
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The aura level is uncapped; however, the hireling level cap of 98 enforces the maximum aura level at 23 (hlvl >= 95). | |||
====Diablo II Expansion==== | |||
{| | |||
! Mercenary Type !! Hlvl 9~42 !! Hlvl 43~74 !! Hlvl 75~98 | |||
|- | |||
| Combat (Normal) | |||
| rowspan="3" | 3 + [(hlvl - 9) × 7 / 32] | |||
| rowspan="3" | 11 + [(hlvl - 43) × 7 / 32] | |||
| rowspan="3" | 18 | |||
|- | |||
| Defense (Normal) | |||
|- | |||
| Offense (Normal) | |||
|- | |||
| Combat (Nightmare) || || 5 + [(hlvl - 43) × 10 / 32] || 15 | |||
|- | |||
| Defense (Nightmare) || || 6 + [(hlvl - 43) × 10 / 32] || 16 | |||
|- | |||
| Offense (Nightmare)* || | |||
| colspan="2" | 7 + [(hlvl - 43) × 8 / 32] | |||
|- | |||
| Combat (Hell) | |||
| colspan="2" rowspan="3" | | |||
| colspan="2" rowspan="3" | 16 | |||
|- | |||
| Defense (Hell) | |||
|- | |||
| Offense (Hell) | |||
|} | |||
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The aura level is uncapped; however, the hireling level cap of 98 enforces the maximum aura level at 20 (hlvl >= 95). | |||
===Desert | ===Desert Mercenary Names=== | ||
The names are randomly selected each time a list of mercs for hire is generated; the names do not have any connection to their other abilities or aura types. 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. Azrael was the webmaster of Diablo2.com, | The names are randomly selected each time a list of mercs for hire is generated; the names do not have any connection to their other abilities or aura types. 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. '''Azrael''' was the webmaster of Diablo2.com, a prominent fansite in the pre-Diablo 2 days. | ||
{| | {| | ||
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'''Notes:''' Iron Wolves very rarely hit anything with their weapon, so are best equipped with a sword that has spell-caster bonuses. | '''Notes:''' Iron Wolves very rarely hit anything with their weapon, so are best equipped with a sword that has spell-caster bonuses. | ||
==Iron Wolf Names== | ===Iron Wolf 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 [[Jarulf's Guide|Diablo guide]]. Flux was one of the webmasters of [http://www.Diabloii.net 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. | 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 [[Jarulf's Guide|Diablo guide]]. Flux was one of the webmasters of [http://www.Diabloii.net 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. | ||
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* Scorch | * Scorch | ||
|} | |} | ||
==Act IV== | ==Act IV== | ||
There are no Mercenaries available for hire in Act Four | There are no Mercenaries available for hire in Act Four, though [[Tyrael]] will resurrect fallen Mercenaries retained from other acts. | ||
==Act V: Barbarians== | ==Act V: Barbarians== | ||
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==Barbarian Merc Names== | ===Barbarian Merc Names=== | ||
The names are randomly assigned to each of the Barbarians when the hireling menu is generated. As with the other mercs, Blizzard North worked a lot of employee and friend names into the list of Barbarians, and honored a few fans as well. Varaya and Khan were two of the best known mod-makers from the days of ''Diablo'', famed for their well-made Lord of the Rings-themed mods. Lanth was another of the early staff members of Diabloii.net, but likely earned his merc name by being a regular in the Diabloii.net chat room, which was regularly frequented by Peter Hu (AKA Isolde, see the rogue merc names), the chief architect of the v1.10 patch, in which Lanth's name was added. | The names are randomly assigned to each of the Barbarians when the hireling menu is generated. As with the other mercs, Blizzard North worked a lot of employee and friend names into the list of Barbarians, and honored a few fans as well. Varaya and Khan were two of the best known mod-makers from the days of ''Diablo'', famed for their well-made Lord of the Rings-themed mods. Lanth was another of the early staff members of Diabloii.net, but likely earned his merc name by being a regular in the Diabloii.net chat room, which was regularly frequented by Peter Hu (AKA Isolde, see the rogue merc names), the chief architect of the v1.10 patch, in which Lanth's name was added. | ||
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* Lanth | * Lanth | ||
|} | |} | ||
====v1.13 Barbarian Merc Name Change==== | |||
The v1.13 Diablo 2 patch "updated" the names of two of the mercs. As players who dug into the game code informed us: | |||
::In 1.13, MercX136 is called 'Klar', in 1.12 it was 'Weohstan'. | |||
::In 1.13, MercX135 is called 'Tryneus', in 1.12 it was 'Erfor'. | |||
There's not yet any known reason for this change, though speculation is rife. The leading theory is that this is related to some plot/story elements of Diablo 3. We'll see Barbarian NPCs named Klar and Tryneus, or they'll be mentioned in dialogue or otherwise involved. Perhaps they've become leaders of some Barbarian city, in the 20 years between D2X and D3? | |||
The fact that there was a mention of the name update in the patch notes seems to hint that it's important, or at least worth noticing. If Blizzard didn't want players to know about the change, they could have not mentioned it, or simply deleted "Weohstan" and "Erfor" from the list of names if there was a problem with them. | |||
Other theories are less imaginative. Perhaps those are the nicknames of two of the Blizzard v1.13 patch programmers? Maybe the original names are dirty slang in some language? Maybe some Blizzard employee got bored after seeing the same NPC names for 7 years and wanted to make a change? | |||
==External Links== | |||
* [http://www.lurkerlounge.com/spirea/Hirelings/Stats.shtml Spirea's Hireling Stats Calculator] - If you need to know the stats of each level of the hireling. | |||
[[category:basics]] | [[category:basics]] | ||
[[category:NPCs]] | [[category:NPCs]] | ||