Diablo II/Mercenaries

A mercenary can be hired in each of the first three Acts.

Rogue

The Act I mercenary, the Rogue, can be hired from Kashya in the center of the Rogue Encampment. She uses bows (which don't need arrows) but cannot equip crossbows or Amazon bows.

However, Rogues can use the Amazon skills Inner Sight and either Fire Arrow or Cold Arrow. Cold Arrow is usually preferable as it can slow nearby monsters.

Rogues make very useful companions early on, but are not widely used later. Suggested equipment is a fast bow with high damage and life steal (cold damage is an added bonus). An ideal helm offers more life steal, damage reduction, and possibly increased attack speed. Since the Rogue has relatively low Strength and uses ranged attacks, it's probably better to use body armor that adds resistances rather than high defense.

Suggested High Level Gear

• Faith bow
• Vampire Gaze Grim Helm
• Fortitude body armor

Guard

The Act II mercenary, the palace guard, can be hired from Griez in the northern part of Lut Gholein. He can use a javelin, spear or polearm, and makes a decent melee fighter. He cannot equip Amazon javelins or Amazon spears.

Each guard can use the Amazon skill Jab and one of six Paladin auras, depending on which difficulty he's hired:

Difficulty	Normal	Nightmare	Hell
Combat	Prayer	Thorns	Prayer
Defensive	Defiance	Holy Freeze	Defiance
Offensive	Blessed Aim	Might	Blessed Aim

Guards are the most popular mercenaries as not only do they make powerful allies in combat, but they also provide a passive bonus to your character and party.

Suggested High Level Gear

• Insight or Infinity polearm
• Andariel's Visage Demonhead, socketed with a Ral Rune
• Fortitude body armor

Iron Wolf

The Act III mercenary, the Iron Wolf, can be hired from Asheara in the north-western corner of the Kurast Docks. The only weapon they can equip is a sword, but as spell casters they very rarely attack with them. They don't require mana to use their skills.

There are three different types of Iron Wolves, each specializing in a different element:

Cold	Lightning	Fire
Frozen Armor Ice Blast Glacial Spike	Charged Bolt Lightning	Inferno Fire Ball

Iron Wolves are the least-used mercenaries due to many monsters being immune to their damage in later difficulties, particularly Hell. Equipment should grant skill bonuses and Faster Cast Rate; Mana and Regenerate Mana bonuses are useless.

A Cold Iron Wolf is preferred to the others since he normally freezes monsters, and he uses Frozen Armor to increase defense.

Suggested High Level Gear

• The Atlantean Ancient Sword, Hexfire Shamshir (Fire)
• Harlequin Crest Shako, Nightwing's Veil Spired Helm (Cold), Griffon's Eye Diadem (Lightning)
• Chains Of Honor body armor
• Spirit shield