In this Diablo 2 Resurrectecd guide, we will look at both the new and the old ways to equip the mercenaries of the different acts. To avoid repetitions, we will clarify the basic things first and also have a look at the few items that most mercs can use.

D2R 2.6 Merc Base Gear Setup

First of all, let's take a view of the common gear and runewords that can be used for all mercs:

Weapon Stats To Look For Mercenaries in Diablo 2 Resurrected

Stats for Act 1, 2, 5 (Physical)

- % Life Leech

- Damage

- Increased Attack Speed

Stats for Act 3 (Mage)

- Skill Level

- Cast Rate

Common Stats

- Resists & Reduced Damage

- Faster Hit Recovery

- All Items can be Ethereal, Durability won't be consumed

Apart from the Act 3 mercenary, they all do physical weapon damage for staying alive without needing potions, again and again, they need life leech that's percent lifestyle per hit, the damage should be as high as possible of course and attack speed can also be a factor. 

In addition, resistance and reduced damage will help, and hit recovery is also useful. There are many body armors that can be used on almost all mercenaries, some of them are also very cheap. Of course, all items for the mercenary can be serial, and the free sockets can be filled with resistance, attack speed, or more defense.

Best Body Armors (Runewords & Uniques) for All Merc

Depending on his needs, in the budget area, a few Runewords and uniques are very useful:

Duress - Duress has resistances hit recovery and extra damage

Treachery - Treachery has attack speed hit recovery and the Assassin skill fate that also gives resistance

Smoke - Smoke also has FHR and massive resistance

Hustle - The new runeword hustle only has 10% on all resistances but movement speed, attack speed, and hit recovery

Stone - The runeward stone shows off a high defense value much hit recovery and resistance

Duriel's Shell - Duriel's Shell is useful or Shaftstop because of the reduced damage 

Fortitude - Fortitude is very popular in the high-budget range

Chain of Honor - For some builds, CoH is also very beneficial

Best Helms (Runewords & Uniques) for All Merc

A few helmets that every mercenary can wear:

Bulwark - The new Rune world Bulwark is very good at hit recovery, life leech, and reducing damage

Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest - It brings massive life leech, life, and resistance

Vampire Gaze - It has life leech and reduced damage

Crown of Thieves  - It is also a great option for all mercs

Andariel's Visage - In the high-end, Andariel's Visage is of course a popular helmet with good attack speed, lifestole, and a decent strength bonus which some mercenary also might need sometimes, ideally an ethereal course, and with the 15 IAS 35 resistance Jewel.

D2R 2.6 New Mercenary Build

A new variant for all mercenaries is built with the helmet runeword Cure, we have the cleansing aura that will remove poison damage and curses quickly. For Life Leech, Chains of Honor comes into play here. in the budget area, there are also two possibilities: Skin of the Floyd One is an exceptional unique armor and Greyform is even a normal one, both have been upgraded to Elite here.

Now we go through all mercenaries act by act and look at what weapons we can use and what special solutions there are for the other slots.

D2R 2.6 Act 1 Huntress Builds (Best Runeword & Gear To Use)

• Insight (Bow and Crossbows) - This is popular because of the meditation aura that regenerates your Mana

• Harmony - It is a good option to give the Rogue some damage in the beginning

• Faith  - It is of course a strong but expensive option, the fanaticism Aura can sometimes help the player character crack an IAS breakpoint. Since patch 2.3, the huntress can also carry Amazon bows, so we can use the same gmbs as on a Boazon. 

• Mist - If you don't need attack speed but prefer a higher damage bonus it's better to give her a Mist bow, the damage bonus from fanaticism Aura is very strong for the one who has it but much weaker for the other party members, the concentration Aura, on the other hand, is equally strong for everyone.

• Hand of Justice - The great but expensive way to equip the Act 1 mercenary, Hand of Justice in a bow then take a Dragon armor and a Flickering Flame helmet. The best is to hire a fire Huntress in that case. 

D2R 2.6 Act 2 Guardian (Best Runeword & Gear To Use)

When choosing the aura, different options are useful depending on the build:

Might Mercenary Gear

Weapon: Pride

Might Mercenary increase the damage to expenses approach you can give him the runeword Pride, then he has to damage auras at once.

Prayer Mercenary Gear

Weapon: Insight

Prayer Mercenary is great when he uses Insight, Meditation is a Synergy to prayer, and you can use such a mercenary for strong Manner and life regeneration

Holy Freeze Mercenary Gear

Weapon: Kelpie Snare

Helm: Blackhorn's Face

Holy Frost mercenary slows down the monsters around him, if you want to go extreme you can give him an upgraded Kelpie Snare and Blackhorn's Face. If you play a necromancer who casts the creepy fire and adds the clay golem you can go to the limit.

Infinity - An absolute classic is the Infinity Merc, the conviction Aura pulls down the monster's fire lightning and cult resistances by 85%, in addition, their defense value also drops by 83% but we think in combination with the Thunder charm we will only get 20 effectiveness, so that's less than -20% in the end. 

Obedience - A cheap all-around weapon for the mercenary to inflict some damage is the runeworld Obedience, if you want to improve the attack rating of the group, you could also use a mercenary with Blast Aim. For more defense, take one with Defiance

Reaper Toll  - Reaper Toll is a great solution against physically immune monsters because it casts the creepy Phi on the hit. 

D2R 2.6 Act 3 Iron Wolves (Best Runeword & Gear To Use)

Now to the iron wolves from Act 3 which are unpopular as ever seriously, have you ever met someone with such a mercenary, you really have to feel sorry for ashara to take one of these wrecks. They are bad at supporting and staying alive is hard for them too. nevertheless who are socially inclined and absolutely would like to take care of an iron wolf will also get some tips. 

Weapon: Spirit Crystal Sword + Spirit Monarch

Helm: Harlequin Crest

Armor: Skin of the Vipermagi

The fire mercenary is useful if you play a Melee character or a ranged fighter with the weapon then you benefit from Enchant which gives you a small fire damage bonus and some attack rating.

The lightning mercenary cast static field and the cult mercenary is an option because you can freeze monsters with classical spike, in any case, the Merc needs plus kills and cast great just like a usual Caster. If you were annoyed about finding a Harlequin Crest at least the Iron Wolf can be happy about it. The same applies to a Skin of the Vipermagi. Further, you could simply give the mercenary double Spirit, or if he hasn't enough strength for the Monarch maybe a Lidless Wall. Of course, you could also give him one of the elemental helmets like Nightwings, Griffin, or Flickering Flame.

D2R 2.6 Act 5 Barbarian Warriors (Best Runeword & Gear To Use)

Here we have four setups for Act 5 mercs, covering the budget and endgame options:

Variant 1

Weapon: Hustle, Lawbringer

Helm: Arreat's Face

We recommend one who has a frenzy so he can carry two weapons, very useful budget weapons are Lawbringer because of the creepy fire on attack and Hustle because of fanaticism Aura. With these two weapons, the Barbarian already does respectable damage Serial mystical and cryptic swords are excellent bases.

Variant 2

Weapon: Crescent Moon, Plague

The more expensive setup for Act 5 Merc is Plague which has the cleansing Aura and casts lower resistance on hits, since Infinity doesn't help with the element poison, this is especially useful for a character like to play Amazon, lower resistances pull down the poison resistances as well.

Variant 3

Weapon: Grief, Lat Wish

Helm: Arreat's Face

In the higher range, Grief and Last Wish which are of course extremely strong, the mercenary even can kill Diablo Alone. By the way, the Merc can also carry a Barb helmet so you could give him an area of space.

Variant 4

Weapon: Dual Hand of Justice

Armor: Dragon

Helm: Flickering Flame

A very extreme variant is set up with two-time Hand of Justice, Dragon, and Flickering Flame. As a melee fighter, the Barbarian athlete profits from the additional Melee fire damage Theora gives him. If you play a paladin with convict Aura the damage is really bad, you could also use a Barb helmet for the base here of course, that leads us to the end of the guide.