D2R 2.5 Merc Gear Build Guide - Best Runewords, Armor, Weapons & Equipment for ACT 1/2/3/5 Mercenary in Diablo 2 Resurrected

D2R 2.5 Merc Gear Build Guide - Best Runewords, Armor, Weapons & Equipment for ACT 1/2/3/5 Mercenary in Diablo 2 Resurrected

10/28/2022 6:04:03 PM

Here we break down how to build up a powerful and survivable mercenary in Diablo 2 Resurrected 2.5 Ladder Season 2, so we will talk about the best runewords, armors, helms, and other equipment to use on the ACT 1/2/3/5 mercenary.

D2R 2.5 Merc Gear Build Guide

D2R 2.5 Mercenary Equipment Build Guide

As you know, there are four types of mercenaries in Diablo 2 Resurrected: Rogue Archer (ACT 1), Desert Warrior (ACT 2), Iron Wolf (ACT 3), and Barbarian (ACT 5). Generally, only the Desert Warrior in ACT 2 and the Barbarian in ACT 5 are the most used. While A5 merc is tankier than A2 merc unless, of course, you choose Holy Freeze/Defiance for A2. They have more health, better FHR, and just are so fast they don't plod around taking hits for free.

Main Attributes To Consider For Mercenary Gear in Diablo 2 Resurrected 2.5

The following are the main factors and item attributes to be considered for the Mercenary equipment:

1. Elemental Resistance

In Nightmare difficulty, if the player equips the Desert Mercenary with a strong enough weapon, he can survive for quite a while, but in Hell Difficulty, due to the forced resistance penalty by the system, the mercenary very easy to dies in Hell difficulty due to the low resistance. Moreover, it costs players money and time to revive after dying, so improving the resistance and survivability of Desert Warrior is the first thing players should pay attention to.

2. Physical resistance and DR immunity

Physical resistance includes physical immunity and the defense value of Desert Merc, and it will also increase the survival time of Desert Merc in disguise.

3. Increase Attack Speed

This is the most important attribute of choosing a desert merc's equipment. The Desert Warrior can greatly increase the damage in terms of attack damage, and can quickly restore blood to restore life. It would be better if the attributes of CB and OW were added.

4. Life Leech

This attribute is the best, because when increasing the attack speed of the desert merc, if LL is added, the blood return of the desert mercenary will be faster, and it is not easy to die, so this attribute needs to be considered in the equipment.

5. Scathing Blow and Open Wound

These characteristics are among the most sought-after by players in Hell mode, it is also the case with mercenaries. This will deal immense damage to bosses and elites, even in Hell Mode.

6. Defense & Slow

Mercenaries have fairly good base resistances, although this is still a useful stat, focusing on defense and physical damage reduction instead. Items that slow down enemies are a good choice for mercenaries, as this will greatly improve their survivability.

7. Ethereal Items

Items equipped by mercenaries do not lose durability, so this makes them a fantastic way to use these powerful but otherwise fleeting items.

8 . All-Skill Bonus

This has changed over the original game patches, but currently, only the Universal All-Skill Bonus will improve the techniques used by your mercenary. Try to stack as many as possible to make them more effective.

9. Aura

A few very high-level unique items and runes provide aura, which is really good to take.

D2R 2.5 Best Merc Gear

According to the above important attributes, we have summarized the following equipment that is almost universal for mercenaries in every ACT:

Best Mercenary Weapons & Runewords in Diablo 2 Resurrected 2.5

How to choose the mercenary equipment is determined by your class’s build. For example, cold sorc generally chooses Doomsday or Death Knell, fire sorceress chooses to obey, lighting sorc chooses Infinite, and the builds lacking mana generally choose Insight, etc. Here is some popular mercenary gear:

Ice Runeword on an Arrow (Act 1 Mercenary)
Faith Runeword on a Longbow (Act 1 Mercenary)
Faith Runeword on a Fork / Spear (Act 2 Mercenaries)
Doom Runeword with Holy Frost Aura (Act 2+5 Mercenaries)
Hand of Justice Runeword with Holy Fire Aura (Act 2+5 Mercenaries)
Bramble Runeword with Thorn Aura (Act 2+5 Mercenaries)
Lawbringer Runeword on a Crystal Sword (Act 3 Mercenaries)
Lawbringer Runeword on a Legend Sword (Act 5 Mercenary)
Insight Runeword on a giant thresher

Best Mercenary Helms in Diablo 2 Resurrected 2.5

(1) Andariel's Visage: mainly because it adds 30 points of strength, 10% LL and 20% increase IAS, these are all good attributes, the others are enough to hit a bead with fire resistance and other attributes used.
(2) Guillaume's Face: commonly known as CB head, it is specially used for super 6 bosses, and it is needed for the pursuit of high damage.
(3) Crown of Ages: It is useful whether it is 1 hole or 2 holes, preferably two holes, you can insert more runes or beads.
(4) Vampire Gaze: There are 8LL, as well as material immunity and legal immunity.
(5) Others can be considered Crown of Thieves, Giant Skull, Kira's Guardian, The Face of Horror, etc.
(6) If none of these are available, consider a couple of gold helmets, preferably with CB, OW or IAS, LL, and RES attributes.

Best Mercenary Armor in Diablo 2 Resurrected 2.5

Nightmare Difficulty: Mist, Prudence, Gloom, Stone, Treachery

Hell Difficulty: Fortitude, Duriel's Shell

(1) Fortitude - Fortitude is physical armor, mainly because of its +300% damage increase and +200% defense. In addition, +30 total resistance and increased health with level are also good attributes, so there should be no objection as the first choice for merc.
(2) Treachery - Treachery is easy to make, and it has excellent properties for Lancers. It is the armor second only to Fortitude, and the cost is very low. Among them, the IAS of 45, this is impossible to makeup, it is equivalent to hitting 3 beads, and the triggered level 15 energy dissipation is very powerful. When triggered, the Lancer has 60+ full resistance and 15% DR, and also reduces the duration of the curse. This will reduce the effect time of the poison, and the damage amplification will also be reduced a lot. If you want to kill 6 bosses with mercenaries, you should wear perfidy instead of fortitude.
(3) Stone - The good thing about these two sets of armor is that they have full resistance, but they are mandatory offensive armor with 33% OW and 15% CB, and can easily kill mobs and avoid monsters through high-strength cold damage, while stones are defensive armor. , find a high defense value of the substrate can easily make the defense of the stone 4000, the monster is difficult to get close.
(4) Smoke, Prudence, and Gloom - These three types of armor belong to the armor with increased resistance, which is more suitable for the merc of Nightmare difficulty, because the resistance of the merc in this difficulty is not enough, and must be compensated by the armor. It is not recommended to use stones on this difficulty, because adding them will not increase the resistance of the merc to 75.

Best Equipment & & Runewords for Each Act Merc in Diablo 2 Resurrected 2.5 Patch

Since each mercenary has different strengths and weaknesses, we also have a few suggestions for the individual mercenaries:

ACT 1 Merc Best Gear & Runewords

Area damage has increased for the Act 1 rogues. Now, Rogues with Cold Arrows can utilize the Freezing Arrow skill, while those with Fire Arrows can use Explosion Arrow. The new rundwords included in the 2.4 patch offer a number of fresh options to turn Rogues into the merc of preference. Here are the best gear and runewords for ACT 1 mercenary:

Insight Runeword - Act1 Rogues will now have access to this weapon due to the 2.4 update, which has a reputation for being the finest ladder starter mercenary weapon and frequently a strong end-game option as well.
Faith Runeword - It will unquestionably be the finest pick for its fanatical aura if adding attack speed increases your build's damage output the most. Reminder: Faith is a Ladder-only runeword that can only be obtained through nonladder trade!
Mist Runeword - When you want to do more physical damage, this ladder-only runeword bow is a perfect choice because it can only be used with crossbows and bows, and gives your ACT 1 mercenary a level 8–12 Concentration Aura that increases physical damage by almost 200% and greatly improves survivability.
Harmony Runeword - A thrilling option because it offers a level 10 Vigor Aura that boosts your walk/run speed by 36%. It can speed up both farming and mobility in general. Keep in mind that Harmony is a Ladder-only runeword that can only be obtained through nonladder trading!
More Tips: Act 1 with Insight early is good for mana, with Harmony later is good for farming Terror Zone pre-enigma on non sorc characters.

ACT 2 Merc Best Gear & & Runewords

In Diablo 2 Resurrected Season 2, Act 2 is still one of the most popular mercenaries because all six auras provided by desert mercenaries are now accessible on Nightmare and Hell difficulties. If you're looking for a mercenary that deals a lot of damage, you have a variety of weapon and equipment options at your disposal:

Ethereal Reaper’s Toll - The ladder-only item has a 33% chance to cast level 1 Decrepify on striking, 210–240% increased damage, a 33% deadly strike, and 11–15% life steal, making it the best Act 2 merc weapon. When battling bosses, your character can gain a lot by using Decrepify, which has a -50% effect on the target's speed, damage, and physical resistance.
Infinity (Ladder-Only) - A level 12 Conviction aura that has a 13.3 yard radius and lowers enemy resistances by 85% is provided by the runeword. It's a must for builds that do lightning damage because it can disable most monsters' lightning resilience and has a lightning resistance of -45% to -55%.
Insight (Ladder-Only) - The runeword grants a meditation aura of up to level 17, which fully solves any mana recovery problems that are common for many caster builds. It also has a high attack rating bonus and deals a lot of damage.
Doom - The runeword has a Level12 Holy Freeze Aura which slows down nearby enemies by 50%. With 45% IAS, up to 370% ED, 20% deadly strike, and a 25% chance to open wounds, the ultimate crowd control Merc weapon is also fantastic for attacking. It also inhibits monster healing, freezes targets for three seconds upon contact, and lowers enemy cold resistance by 40–60%.
Ethereal Bonehew / Obedience / Breath of the Dying - Great budget options for early game and mid-game
Ethereal Tomb Reaver - With +30-50% all resistances, 60% base attack speed, and 3 sockets, the ethereal Tomb Reaver is also a good choice for ACT 2 Merc.
Phoenix on Eth Thresher or Giant Thresher - Though it is don’t have Your mercenary will continuously heal himself with the weapon's Redemption aura, making him nearly immortal, if your build is capable of leaving a lot of corpses behind.

ACT 3 Merc Best Gear & & Runewords

The ACT 3 mercenary has the highest resistances thanks to a 40% increase in baseline defense and a 20% increase in baseline and scaling resistance. Although a 25% increase in basic life has significantly increased its durability, it is still relatively simple to pass away.

Spirit - Spirit is cheap, makes the mercs cast faster and boosts all of their skills by +2. It’s a good option and fits all 3
Delirium Runeword - For the ACT 3 Mercenaries having issues farming cows with their merc dying, use Confuse. Confuse makes all the cows attack each other. You can literally send your merc in naked and he only dies like once every 8 runs. Even cooler, put a Delirium Runeword on your merc to cause constant reprocs of Confuse, or get a confuse charge ring. No need for lifeleech either. It also procs terror and mind blast quite a bit.
Lawbringer - While this option won’t be procing the decrepify aura it is often used for. It will provide a 13 to 16 level sanctuary aura. This will pulse damage and push back undead enemies. More importantly, it will completely remove all the physical resisances from that enemy type. This will let you hammer them effortlessly to death with physical damage. Likewise, the slain monsters' rest in peace ability only triggers if you kill them with the sword. So, this is a good way to get that aura if you still want corpses.
Azurewrath - You will likely need about 20 to 25 dex in the level 80 range to equip this. But it provides the sanctuary aura from Lawbringer and +1 to skills. Expensive but, it another worth option if you have it.
Ormus' Robes - Act 3 Merc with enchant Ormus' Robes, double spirit and the flickering flame is especially great on your Kicksin for extra fire damage and res while doing Ubers.
Ormus' Robes
Defense: 371-487 (varies)(Base Defense: 361-467)
Required Level: 75
Required Strength: 77
Durability: 20
+10-20 Defense (varies)
+20% Faster Cast Rate
+10-15% To Cold Skill Damage (varies)
+10-15% To Fire Skill Damage (varies)
+10-15% To Lightning Skill Damage (varies)
+3 bonus to a random Sorceress skill (Sorceress Only)*
Regenerate Mana 10-15% (varies)
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.10 or later)
Night Wings - This offers +2 to skills and added cold damage. However, it can also be a good choice for the other 2 mercs just from the high def and +2 skills.
Storm Shield: This offers a 35% physical damage reduction and good resistance with a healthy def stat and is a good filler if you want to keep them alive.

ACT 5 Best Merc Gear & Runewords

Of all the mercs, the Act 5 Barb Mercenary are great tank and has by far the best survival. Their unique ability to dual-wield weapons is highly useful in Hardcore because it allows them to wear two swords that provide auras to increase your character's damage or survivability. The new act 5 dual-wield frenzy mercenary is pretty useful for speed farming and clearing hell monsters, farm areas, however, the Taunt ability is a death wish for Ubers.

Last Wish/Plague - Put Last Wish specifically on the main hand, so if he hits him with that and gets the crushing blow which he always will that's going to take a huge chunk out of any boss's life no matter the difficulty any of that. Combined with a Plague runeword it’s the perfect combo for Hardcore. The only item in D2R that grants your character and the mercenary a Cleansing aura and shortens the duration of curse and poison damage by at least 75% is the plague.
Grief/Lawbringer - This is the best combo for the new Frenzy Barb. Grief on its own is straight-up godly but Lawbringer is a must for the Decrepify proc.
Plague/Lawbringer - Act 5 merc with Plague and Lawbringer is awesome for Chaos runs on Fohdin or really any character. You can run a version of this to also run Ubers with a sorc to help keep Mephisto minions off of you and provide a slow.
Guillaume's Face - Get Guillaume's Face, so we can't be Frozen, and then have Grief on offhand so we get a little bit of chance for crushing blow again.
Sanctuary Aura - It allows the Merc to roll Undead but that’s inconsequential to FoHdins (unless Holy Bolt follows Blessed Hammer’s trail in not affecting Magic Immunes).
Bramble - We could even get a better time by throwing Bramble on him, because whenever our summons and stuff are getting hit then the boss is going to get some of that damage back on him alright.