defense lowers the probability that your D2R character will be hit

Blessed Aim has the potential to become a useful mercenary for the melee fighter as the player advances through the game.

01:33 19 January 2023

Blessed Aim has the potential to become a useful mercenary for the melee fighter as the player advances through the game. This is especially true if the player chooses to rush through the quests in Diablo 2 and spends little time leveling up, as level plays such an important part in successfully hitting enemies. This is not a terrible choice when compared to the other mercenary options available in Act 2 with Normal difficulty, but beyond that, it is probably not the best option. The inventive Diablo 2 community has developed some one-of-a-kind mercenary builds that feature high crushing blow percentages and Blessed Aim to ensure that your D2R 2.4 Ladder Act 5 Merc Build consistently hits their target. These builds are available for those who would like to test them out, despite the fact that they are specialized off-meta choices that are used more for the sake of doing something different than for any other reason.

Gives you, your mercenary, and any summoned minions a significant boost to their defensive statistics, which improves your survivability and allows you to take more damage. Due to the way that defense and auras in general function in Diablo 2, this is one of the less desirable auras, despite the fact that the idea behind it might sound like it would be beneficial in practice.

In a nutshell, defense lowers the probability that your character will be hit by physical attacks, does not affect the amount of damage you take, becomes less effective over time, and suffers a significant penalty when the character is running. Characters with low defense, such as the Necromancer or Sorceress, gain little benefit from this combination of game mechanics because it is likely that they will rarely be hit by physical attacks. On the other hand, characters with high defense values, such as the Paladin, who fight in melee range already have a sufficient defense that there is not a significant change in the percentage chance to be hit. This is especially true when taking into account the loss of a better aura option.

Although it is entertaining to try out on a summon necromancer build as you watch demons inflict pain on your skeletons and golems of choice, this aura has the fewest uses of any of your available choices and should be avoided unless you are looking to experiment for the sake of fun or variety. It is also not recommended for use in this Diablo 2 mercenary guide.

If you want your Act 2 mercenary to survive for more than a few minutes, selecting the right mercenary and outfitting them with the appropriate gear should never be overlooked. In fact, it is required if you want your mercenary to survive for more than a few minutes. Although the following guide to your mercenary's equipment focuses solely on the Act 2 mercenary, some of the information contained within can be applied to other types of mercenaries that you may be experimenting with.

Your primary objective with regard to the limited equipment slots (weapon, helmet, and armor) that your mercenary can utilize is to accomplish the objectives listed below. When constructing your team of allies, the following information regarding the best mercenary armor, best mercenary weapon, and mercenary D2 runewords should be taken into consideration.

Lifesteal: 

If you want to keep your mercenary alive, you're going to need a dependable source of life steal, which enables them to heal themselves from the damage they've taken. Be aware that in order to maximize the life gained from attacks, you will need to equip them with a weapon of sufficient quality first. It is common practice to use the helm slot to acquire life steal, and popular choices for this role include Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest, Crown of Thieves, Vampire Gaze, and Andariel's Visage. These helms offer a variety of other advantageous statistics in addition to life steal and are frequently regarded as the best mercenary armor choices in D2. Undead Crown, Wormskull, Stealskull, The Reaper's Toll, and Bonehew are some alternatives to obtaining life stolen per hit that is less popular but still useful.

Resistance and Defense:

Just like the player, a lack of resistance can quickly take a mercenary from full health to zero, so you should always seek to have these at the maximum possible (75%) or close to it. However, this must be balanced alongside the other needs that a mercenary requires. You won't need to make a significant investment in this area at the higher character levels thanks to the fact that mercenaries gain some all resistance with each level they advance. Fortitude is frequently regarded as the most effective piece of mercenary armor in this regard because it grants you some resistance (+25) in addition to providing a significant boost to both damage and defense. In a similar vein, treachery can be a budget armor choice that, like Fade, provides a balance of damage boosting stats (attack speed and Venom) and defense boosting stats (through Fade). Other possible choices include Smoke and Duriel's Shell, both of which come with respectable defense stats and are also available. Shaftstop is yet another choice. Damage: Increasing the amount of damage your mercenary deals with is one of the most important steps you can take to ensure that you get the most out of the number of lives your mercenary steals per hit. Runewords of Insight and Infinity are two of the most popular choices for the best mercenary weapon. These runewords not only deal a lot of damage, but they also provide a lot of useful utility, which makes them ideal for use as mercenary runewords. Players can also use mercenary weapons such as Bonehew, Tomb Reaver, The Reaper's Toll, and Obedience to maximize the raw damage from the mercenary. Ethereal weapons are especially useful for this purpose because they have increased damage, and the durability of equipment is not taken into account when it is used by mercenaries.