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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.

  • See the Mercenary Guide for detailed strategy, skill, equipment, and much more information about Mercs.

Mercenaries Overview

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

Act 1 Rogue Hire

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).

Diablo 2 Resurrected Patch 2.4 Changes

Blizzard added Freezing arrow and Explosion Arrow to the Act 1 Merc arsenal.

Rogue Merc 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 damage 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. This was taken to an extreme with the Rogue mercs, as seemingly every male Blizzard North employee worked in their girlfriend or wife, and every Blizzard North female employee threw in her name or alias. Fans were honored too, Elly who founded PureDiabo, and Flux who used to work with Elly on her previous website.(found in Act Three).

  • Aliza
  • Amplisa
  • Annor
  • Abhaya
  • Elly
  • Paige
  • Basanti
  • Blaise
  • Kyoko
  • Klaudia
  • Kundri
  • Kyle
  • Visala
  • Elexa
  • Floria
  • Fiona
  • Gwinni
  • Gaile
  • Hannah
  • Heather
  • Iantha
  • Diane
  • Isolde
  • Divo
  • Ithera
  • Itonya
  • Liene
  • Maeko
  • Mahala
  • Liaza
  • Meghan
  • Olena
  • Oriana
  • Ryann
  • Rozene
  • Raissa
  • Sharyn
  • Shikha
  • Debi
  • Tylena
  • Wendy

Act II: Desert Mercenaries

Act 3 HireThe 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 (Used solely for melee weapons.) They can not equip Amazon-only javelins or spears.

Aura Levels

Diablo II Classic

Mercenary TypeHlvl 9~30Hlvl 31~54Hlvl 55~98
Combat (Normal)3 + [(hlvl – 9) × 10 / 32]10 + [(hlvl – 31) × 10 / 32]18
Defense (Normal)
Offense (Normal)
Combat (Nightmare)5 + [(hlvl – 31) × 10 / 32]13
Defense (Nightmare)6 + [(hlvl – 31) × 10 / 32]14
Offense (Nightmare)*7 + [(hlvl – 31) × 8 / 32]
Combat (Hell)16
Defense (Hell)
Offense (Hell)

* 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 TypeHlvl 9~42Hlvl 43~74Hlvl 75~98
Combat (Normal)3 + [(hlvl – 9) × 7 / 32]11 + [(hlvl – 43) × 7 / 32]18
Defense (Normal)
Offense (Normal)
Combat (Nightmare)5 + [(hlvl – 43) × 10 / 32]15
Defense (Nightmare)6 + [(hlvl – 43) × 10 / 32]16
Offense (Nightmare)*7 + [(hlvl – 43) × 8 / 32]
Combat (Hell)16
Defense (Hell)
Offense (Hell)

* The aura level is uncapped; however, the hireling level cap of 98 enforces the maximum aura level at 20 (hlvl >= 95).

Diablo 2 Resurrected Patch 2.4 Changes

  • Updated each stat/skill gains in each difficulty to match so that there is no disadvantage of leveling up a Hell difficulty mercenary versus a Normal difficulty mercenary.
  • Nightmare and Hell difficulty now have all 6 different aura types available from the Hire menu, instead of separating them out by 3 per difficulty. Normal is unchanged.
  • Thorns aura level scaling increased and will now continue scaling up beyond the highest-level threshold up to max level,

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, a prominent fansite in the pre-Diablo 2 days.

  • Hazade
  • Alhizeer
  • Azrael
  • Ahsab
  • Chalan
  • Vikhyat
  • Haseen
  • Razan
  • Emilio
  • Pratham
  • Fazel
  • Jemali
  • Kasim
  • Gulzar
  • Mizan
  • Leharas
  • Durga
  • Neeraj
  • Ilzan
  • Zanarhi
  • Waheed

Act III: Iron Wolves

Act 2 HireThe 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.

Spells

Each Iron Wolf is either fire, lightning, or cold based and although they can each use two or three spells, this only adds slightly to their variety.

  • Fire: Inferno or Fireball.
  • Cold: Glacial Spike, Ice Blast, and Frozen Armor.
  • Lightning: Charged Bolt and Lightning Bolt.

The cold are the most popular, since that element has the effect of chilling and slowing targets, but the damage dealt by the three types is equivalent.

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.

Diablo 2 Resurrected Patch 2.4 Changes

  • Updated each stat/skill gains in each difficulty to match so that there is no disadvantage of leveling up a Hell difficulty mercenary versus a Normal difficulty mercenary.
  • Life baseline and scaling increased by about 25% (Now has Life similar to the Rogue Archer)
  • Defense baseline and scaling increased by about 40% (Now has defense closer to the Rogue Archer)
  • Resistances baseline and scaling increased by about 20% (Now has the highest resistances baseline compared to other mercenaries)

Cold

  • Now casts Glacial Spike more often
  • Glacial Spike level scaling increased
  • Frozen Armor level scaling increased

Fire

  • Removed Inferno
  • Added Fire Bolt
  • Increased chance of the Iron Wolf casting Fire Ball
  • Added Enchant – Now the Iron Wolf will cast Enchant on himself, the player, and nearby allies

Lightning

  • Added Static Field
  • Charged Bolt level scaling increased
  • Increased chance of the Iron Wolf casting Lightning

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 Diablo guide. Flux was one of the webmasters of the old site before it became PureDiablo (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 the old site.

  • Jelani
  • Barani
  • Jabari
  • Devak
  • Raldin
  • Telash
  • Ajheed
  • Narphet
  • Khaleel
  • Phaet
  • Geshef
  • Vanji
  • Haphet
  • Thadar
  • Yatiraj
  • Rhadge
  • Yashied
  • Jarulf
  • Flux
  • Scorch

Act IV

There are no Mercenaries available for hire in Act Four, though Tyrael will resurrect fallen Mercenaries retained from other acts.

Act V: Barbarians

Act 5 Hire BarbarianThe 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).

Diablo 2 Resurrected Patch 2.4 Changes

  • Updated each stat/skill gains in each difficulty to match so that there is no disadvantage of leveling up a Hell difficulty mercenary versus a Normal difficulty mercenary.
  • Life baseline scaling increased (Now has the most life compared to other mercenaries)
  • Defense baseline and scaling increased and the scaling at higher levels was reduced (Now has the highest defense baseline compared to other mercenaries)
  • Bash level scaling increased and will no longer be capped at level 80
  • Stun level scaling increased and will no longer be capped at level 80
  • Added Battle Cry

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 earned his merc name by being a moderator 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. Lanth also contributed general gameplay feedback, quality of life improvements and other ideas to Peter, many of which made it into the v1.10 patch.

  • Varaya
  • Khan
  • Klisk
  • Bors
  • Brom
  • Wiglaf
  • Hrothgar
  • Scyld
  • Healfdane
  • Emund
  • Heorogar
  • Halgaunt
  • Hygelac
  • Egtheow
  • Bohdan
  • Wulfgar
  • Hild
  • Heatholaf
  • Bill
  • Theodoric
  • Weder
  • Vikhyat
  • Unferth
  • Sigemund
  • Heremod
  • Hengest
  • Folcwald
  • Frisian
  • Hnaef
  • Guthlaf
  • Oslaf
  • Yrmenlaf
  • Garmund
  • Freawaru
  • Eadgils
  • Onela
  • Damien
  • Erfor
  • Weohstan
  • Wulf
  • Bulwye
  • Lief
  • Magnus
  • Klatu
  • Drus
  • Hoku
  • Kord
  • Uther
  • Ip
  • Ulf
  • Tharr
  • Kaelim
  • Ulric
  • Alaric
  • Ethelred
  • Caden
  • Elgifu
  • Tostig
  • Alcuin
  • Sigurd
  • Gorm
  • Hollis
  • Ragnar
  • Torkel
  • Wulfstan
  • Alban
  • Barloc
  • 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?

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