80 rows Runewords are a way in Diablo II to use a combination of runes in an item to give it exceptional attributes, beyond what the runes themselves accomplish.There are 78 runewords in total. The following is a list of Weapon Rune Words in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Although several were available with the Lord of Destruction expansion pack, many others were added in future patches. Contents.Mercenaries There are four sorts of mercenaries, Rogues (Action 1 archers), City Officers (Action 2 spear carriers), Metal Wolves (Take. Hirelings in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction come with their own set of attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Health, Damage, Defense, and Experience. As Hirelings kill monsters, they gain experience points. When they gain enough experience points to reach a new level, their attributes automatically improve. I had collected some Runes for Runewords in the past, archiving them for SinglePlayer with The Hero Editor, a small utility that can save items found in Single Player Mode, by Exporting them to files on a local system/disk (as Diablo 2 Item.d2i files), which can then be Imported at a later time, into a future Character in Single Player Mode. The Runewizard lets you check easily what runewords you can make with the runes you have. Click on the runes to indicate which ones you have found. The available runewords will be highlighted automatically. The table can be sorted, try clicking on 'Type' to sort runewords by equipment type, you may find it useful!
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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.
- 2Act I: Rogue Scouts
- 3Act II: Desert Mercenaries
- 3.1Aura Levels
- 4Act III: Iron Wolves
- 6Act V: Barbarians
- 6.1Barbarian Merc Names
Mercenaries[edit]
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[edit]
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).
Rogue Merc Names[edit]
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 and Gaile were webmasters of Diabloii.net, as was Flux (found in Act Three).
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Act II: Desert Mercenaries[edit]
The 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.
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[edit]
Diablo II Classic[edit]
Mercenary Type | Hlvl 9~30 | Hlvl 31~54 | Hlvl 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[edit]
Mercenary Type | Hlvl 9~42 | Hlvl 43~74 | Hlvl 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).
Desert Mercenary Names[edit]
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.
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Act III: Iron Wolves[edit]
The 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[edit]
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. Download wifislax 4.12 iso.
- 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.
Windows 10 joystick mapping. 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.
Iron Wolf Names[edit]
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 Diabloii.net (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 Diabloii.net.
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Act IV[edit]
There are no Mercenaries available for hire in Act Four, though Tyrael will resurrect fallen Mercenaries retained from other acts.
Act V: Barbarians[edit]
The 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 Diablo](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2pYTeyzQ1ZE/hqdefault.jpg)
Barbarian Merc Names[edit]
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 likely earned his merc name by being a regular 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.
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v1.13 Barbarian Merc Name Change[edit]
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?
External Links[edit]
- Spirea's Hireling Stats Calculator - If you need to know the stats of each level of the hireling.
Retrieved from 'https://diablo2.diablowiki.net/index.php?title=Mercenaries&oldid=27272'
Mercenaries, Runewords and Auras
I thought that others might be interested in my analysis of the new runewords. In particular I'm looking to see how many useful auras can be put on my mercs.
Please feel free to add anything I've missed.
When I use the term 'stacking', I'm referring to using two pieces of gear which grant the same aura. The effective level of the two auras will be added together (hence stacked). Whereas if the two pieces of gear were on two different characters (ie merc has Bramble, you have Edge, both of which grant Thorns) only the highest one counts.
In 1.09 there was a similar term, alternatively called aura 'flashing', which no longer works under 1.10.
Now to see what we can put on our merc:
Analysis: The only aura which is useful for our party/other minions is Bramble, which grants a hefty Thorns aura. Holy Shock/Fire have a small damage area of effect, but that isn't particularly useful to the party. Combining Dragon + Hand of Justice to get a level 30 Holy Fire only adds 267 fire damage (and 45 splash). Dream by itself does 325 lightning damage (and 54 splash). Redemption from Phoenix gives your merc a significant (but irregular) life boost.
Here we have the option of doubling up the Thorns from Bramble (30 to 36 Thorns (1410% to 1650% damage returned)). With Ice we can turn our Rogue into a Holy Freeze merc, Faith adds a nice hefty Fanaticism, and Harmony adds Vigor.
Diablo 2 4 Socket Weapon Runewords
The Rogue as a Holy Freeze merc is an interesting option, in many respects better than a vanilla Act 2 Holy Freeze merc. For one thing, she has less tendency to charge headlong into battle and die messily, leaving a huge gap in your defense. For another it can take the A2HF merc a long time to get up to or near the 15.3 yards radius. So the Rogue may provide an effective 'shortcut'.Note that the Fanaticsim granted by Faith is better than that granted by Beast, also that they cannot be stacked.
Analysis: The Act 2 Mercs already come with a 'built in' (if somewhat low power (until they attain high levels)) aura. In addition all of the polearm specific runewords which provide auras are of the party friendly variety.
This allows us to stack up to three party friendly auras on the one minion - quite a bargain.
One of them would have to be Thorns, the other would be the merc specific aura (depending on which difficulty hired in as usual), and then you have the choice of Concentration, Conviction, Holy Freeze and Meditation.
For style points you could combine Thorns + Holy Freeze on a Might merc, thereby collecting the 'full set' of Nightmare mercs, all rolled into one.
However the other options also look inviting, perhaps a lot more so. Conviction is helpful for breaking immunities, and massively increasing elemental damage (eg Dragon (Holy Fire) Body Armour, Dream (Holy Shock) Helm, and an Infinity (Conviction) Polearm on a Holy Freeze merc gives you a 'tri-elemental' damage merc - again, for style points you collect the whole set. Conviction also provides an absolutely enormous 'effective' increase to attack rating (588% cumulative (not additive) with your net AR). (Note: you have to give up the Thorns from Bramble, which may or may not be regarded as a big loss - many people feel that damage return is not effective in Hell)
Diablo 2 Runewords By Rank
Level 18 Concentration adds 315% ED, consider this on a Might merc for absolutely obscene amounts of physical damage.The Meditation from Insight will completely refill your mana orb in approximately 10-15 seconds. This is amazing for spellcasters or any heavy users of mana - and may reinvigorate some older builds, or even make possible entirely new builds, based on combining powerful, but expensive mana inefficient spells. It can also help if your main character is melee based, but does not have any mana leech gear (or in other words, it can liberate you from the requirement to get leech gear, greatly expanding your gear choices). But wait, there's more: on top of all that, if you put the Insight on a Prayer merc (Act 2 Normal Combat) his Prayer aura gets counted twice for healing, once for the aura, and once for the synergy to Meditation. At low levels this isn't much, and at high levels it isn't much, but it can help.
Diablo 2 Early Runewords
Analysis: The Iron Wolf has by far the largest number of combos and stacking opportunities. Unfortunately the only ones useful to the party are Might and Thorns. In addition the Iron Wolves attack by casting spells, never by doing melee attacks, so doubling up on Dream or Dragon to get a higher Holy aura is of no practical use.You can use Last Wish to turn your Act 3 merc into something like a vanilla Act 2 Might merc. I occassionally use a Cold Iron Wolf if I want to improve my defensive options, since his Glacial Spike (group freeze) is the best defensive skill offered by any of the mercs. Alternatively an Act 2 merc covered in 'chance to cast Frost Nova' gear also provides a strong defense at very low levels. Act 3 mercs seem to be the best mercs for going through Act 3 and 4, so if I'm anticipating trouble, or planning on upgrading my normal Act 1 or Act 2 merc anyway (eg in Nightmare), I will upgrade to the Act 3 merc.
Overall there are no runewords which make me want to throw away all my other mercs and start madly hiring Act 3 mercs.
Analysis: the Barbarian has the fewest options, but makes a much more sensible Might merc (with last Wish) than the Iron Wolf did. In fact, Last Wish is quite the awesome Barb merc weapon:
- Chance to cast Fade when struck
- Chance to cast Life Tap on striking
- Massive crushing blow (60-70%)
- Level 17 Might (+200% ED)
- Massive ED (approx 350%) (combined with Might: +550% ED)
- Ignore Target Defense
- Prevent Monster Heal
- and some Magic Find for good measure