The United Mercenary Thread

[Maltatai]

A thread for advice about how to keep the mercenaries as alive as possible and the dangers (countless) and countermeasures (fewer...) involved in such a risky and ill-advised career.

Share your best strategies for dealing with various situations without losing your loyal lackey and your worst mistakes and how they should have been avoided.

Delve into the materialistic metaphysics of the best way of outfitting your private army of one in different parts of the misleadingly named realm of Sanctuary.

 

[Maltatai]

Tables of Progress
The furthest that different mercenaries have made it in one piece and under the careful or careless watch of different employers. A long term challenge for anyone to participate in at any time. Twink all you wish (it will gain you little...) and save and exit as much as you like if you prefer it. Use every underhanded trick available and summon your most protective self to keep your comrade safe.

Rogues

	Amazon	Assassin	Barbarian	Druid	Necromancer	Paladin	Sorceress
Fire Rogue	Hell Arreat Summit		Great Marsh		Normal Arreat Plateau	Kurast Bazaar	Lut Gholein
Ice Rogue	Canyon of the Magi	Nightmare Lost City	Nightmare Lut Gholein Sewers

Town Guards

	Amazon	Assassin	Barbarian	Druid	Necromancer	Paladin	Sorceress
Blessed Aim Town Guard		Nightmare Halls of the Dead			Normal Lost City
Prayer Town guard					Normal Frigid Highlands
Defiance Town Guard	Normal Chaos Sanctuary
Might Town Guard
Thorns Town Guard
Holy Freeze Town Guard

Iron Wolves

	Amazon	Assassin	Barbarian	Druid	Necromancer	Paladin	Sorceress
Fire Iron Wolf							Hell Arreat Plateau
Cold Iron Wolf	Normal Chaos Sanctuary	Nightmare Catacombs			Normal Kurast Bazaaar		Hell Frigid Highlands
Lightning Iron Wolf	Normal Chaos Sanctuary						Hell Frigid Highlands

Barbarians

	Amazon	Assassin	Barbarian	Druid	Necromancer	Paladin	Sorceress
Barbarian	Nightmare Crypt	Nightmare Arcane Sanctuary	Guardian				Hell Palace Cellar

 

[Maltatai]

Concerning Rogues

Spoiler

To be added

Concerning Town Guards

Spoiler

To be added

Concerning Iron Wolves

Spoiler

The weakest of the mercenaries in the eyes of most, the iron wolves offer quite the challenge for any employer wishing to use them as protection. In my opinion they do however possess three important qualities that a cunning player should be able to take advantage of.

First, the iron wolves retreat gradually like the rogues and don't rush into enemy mobs like a madman like the barbarians or wander aimlessly like a confused sheep in the manner of a town guard. This behavior can in fact turn out to work very well with an employer who is a ranged combatant and wishes to whittle down the foe with a fighting retreat.

Secondly, the iron wolves do not swing their swords. Why is this ludicrous habit an advantage? Since they never attack with the sword itself, they can dedicate the weapon slot to purely defensive purposes without ruining their attacking power as would be the case if they wielded the weapon. This effectively adds another armor slot.

Thirdly, they are the only mercenary with a shield. While they do not block (which would have been tremendously nice and balanced them with their colleagues), a shield can never the less be a formidable asset.

Concerning Hired Barbarians

Spoiler

They have the most aggressive behaviour of them all and will rush with determination into battle in mostly the right direction. This is good because it means focusing on the main threat and bad because he quickly exposes himself to danger. With a fast weapon a barbarian has a good chance of dominating any one-on-one fight so keeping him from getting swarmed will go a long way.

This is especially relevant if you have teleportation. If the barbarian is the one being stunned or smashed you can teleport him back a little and when he re-engages he has a new chance of getting the first hit in and lock out the opponent instead. Typically a sorceress tactic but useful for others as well.

Barbarians are healthy and ruddy beings with good resistances and regeneration, even if it won't match a prayer aura. And they need it.

 

[Maltatai]

Mercenaries and the Lord of Terror

Spoiler

Diablo is without doubt the most dangerous Act Boss and very likely the single most dangerous monster of them all for mercenaries. His spells can not be adequately blocked, resisted or avoided and the damage to mercenaries and other minions is massive. Nightmare and Hell Diablo are illogically easier to deal with for melee mercenaries since the red lightning breath starts further out from him in Nightmare and even further out in Hell, and also since more advanced defensive equipment is available in later difficulties.

Apart from vigorous teleporting in and out and around corners the surest - as far as I know the only sure - method of keeping your mercenary's life up is to distract the lord of terror by tanking him and keeping his attention fixed on yourself. Diablo's targeting priority appears to be affected by two factors - proximity and attack damage. If both master and minion are in melee range he tends to focus on the one with the higher damage per hit. It is therefore actually beneficial for survival to disarm a mercenary that otherwise hits harder than yourself, or at least switch the weapon to something lighter, such as a faster weapon with crushing blow or slowing.

Summoned minions seem to have a high priority, at least golems. I am unsure if a golem takes priority over a melee mercenary with higher attack damage than his master. It is possible that repeated minion summong to the opposite side of Diablo could be enough to keep his attention from the mercenary but it's something I haven't tested.

The red lightning breath deal a mix of lightning and physical damage and the diabolical firestorm deal a mix of physical and fire damage. Damage reduction is therefore a useful thing against both in addition to the elemental resistances but even with godly equipment mercenaries are in grave danger if he turns his attention to them.

Case Studies of Mercenary Survival

Spoiler

Amazon and Rogue

Spoiler

Floria Part I
Floria Part II
Floria Part III

Amazon and Barbarian

Spoiler

Ip the Adressed

Assassin and Rogue

Spoiler

Link - Meet the ANTS

Assassin and Town Guard

Spoiler

Link - Meet the ANTS

Assassin and Iron Wolf

Spoiler

Link - Meet the ANTS

Barbarian and Iron Wolf

Spoiler

Link - See Part I

Barbarian and Barbarian

Spoiler

Link - See Part II

Sorceress and Iron Wolf

Spoiler

Wicked Witches Part I
Wicked Witches Part II

 

[Maltatai]

The iron wolves now stand over Shenk's rotting corpse after having stayed out of harms way throughout a hellish trip and dutifully tanked droves of burning dead and vile archer arrows. Some observations:

• A resistant, gemmed blade and a resistant and damage reducing shield are going to beat any peculiar and expensive unique oddities.
• The blade should have a full six sockets and two good resistance jewels each for lightning and fire and one each for cold and poison, or anything comparable to that. Anything less is highly likely to prove detrimental sooner or later.
• Treachery, while looking cool, is a weak option as iron wolf armour. It should be stowed in the cube when not in use instead of being carried by a red-robed butler.
• Diablo can be successfully sniped and skirmished from a distance with enough teleporting but it has to be liberal teleporting. Load up on gold if you are not a sorceress.