I am using might aura merc. I admit he has not good items. I dont need any damage from him right now, i am zealot paladin currently in act 1 hell, doing fine. But merc always go fighting and die. He dies almost always.
How to boost his survivability cheaply? I dont have any higher runes yet. I need him survive at least regular act 1 hell mobs. Thanks.
See if you can get your hands on an eth shaftstop, or an eth duriel’s shell. Get some life leech on him and a decent damage polearm. You can most cheaply do this with a tal rasha helm.
thanks, i have tal rasha helm but merc is lvl62 right now, helm needs 66 if i remember correctly,
Will look for that shaftstop, looks great.
EDIT: ok eth shaftstop are trading for Ist rune, i dont even have Lems, i can dream about Ist.
oh yeah that shaftstop is fantastic. If you get a Lem and Ko rune you can upgrade it and give it like 2000+ defense. The life leech is most important tho. Then attack speed. High damage, high attack speed and high LL and he’s a tank. The duriel shell is cool too cause it makes it so he won’t get frozen – meaning he won’t turn blue and slow down. That slow down really hurts him cause the source of his survivability is fast attacking and leaching life.
edit: Ist seems a bit high. People over pricing that for sure. It will trade for much less if you put an offer out there. Also, eth is a plus, not a necessity. Just use a regular one for now.
Ok so i will skip ethereal shaftstop part for now. So u have shaftstop? i have Fal runes highest.
I bet you could offer a Hel and someone would take it for a regular shaftstop. I don’t have any extra atm. Though I do have an upgraded eth duriel’s shell if you want to borrow it for a while until you can get something else.
ok thanks, will try that 
so helm i have that tal rasha, should be ok
what about weapons? I could in theory build Obedience runeword for him, problem is what base is cheap enough and good damage-wise.
I was running around with an eth Bec-De-Corbin Insight for hell and only recently upgraded it to an eth cryptic axe. Worked great.
i have 4os noneth grim scythe, so that could work with insight for him
10LL from Sigon 2set bonus may help
Armor: Treachery (Shael Thul Lem) in preferably an eth elite armor: gives 40 ias, cold res, venom proc, and most importantly the lvl 15 fade proc which is 15% DR and 60 all res.
Helm: if you are running Reaper’s Toll (which provides the life leech). Gface for the damage or Rockstopper for more defense. If you are running other weapons without leech then vamp gaze, crown of thieves, Andy’s, tal mask.
Weapon: Insight, Obedience, Reaper’s Toll (not listing Infinity since I doubt OP is rich enough for that).
Run Holy Freeze if you don’t need the Merc damage, it’s the best for defense since it affects even cold immune.
but might aura is great for me, zealot.
Overlooked that part. You can run might if you yourself are surviving fine. Now you need Reaper’s Toll even more (Decrepify breaks physical immunity and slow down mobs’ attacks). You can prob try to find a non eth one for like pgems.
Yeah i will aim for this, but level requirement is problem. Needs 75 and myself i am still 64. Will use probably insight in grim scythe until i get my merc to lvl 75.
one more thing. I already have Griswold Heart on my merc as armor. But nothing in sockets. Should i get that shaftstop or griswold heart will be good enough? What should i socket into it in that case?
Orts and Rals are good to get your Merc fire and light resist to cap (the two elementals that will kill your Merc ie. Hydras and Souls).
I wish there would be a function like passive, guarding and aggressive.
It is a pretty weird AI.
Sometimes merc is passive as hell and doesn‘t attack at all, suddenly he goes berserk and dies. Unpredictable af.
It would also be nice btw. If mercs aura wouldn‘t took ages to be activated 
I know those things were common in the old version, but improving it would grant a bit more control over certain situations.
coug hydras cough 
i just found ou that i cant use my 4os grim scythe because it requires 140 dexterity. My merc is just senteced to die.
Get an Act 2 Merc with Might, Holy Freeze, or Defiance.
Weapon:
Helm:
Armor:
Act 5 Mercenary you want to use the weapon runeword : Lawbringer
A Lem rune really isn’t hard to find and you just need a decent 3os base. Also, Insight is a good rune word that can be made with cheap runes too.
Think i currently have Bonehew (Shael Amn), Tal Rasha mask and a Wyrmhide Gloom Runeword on my merc. Does ok in Hell tbh…just need to be careful not to walk him solo into elitevpacks rocking Curse/Might
Make sure he is max res (any above max if so happen to be an option would be very nice), DR% is nice aswell (though not always necessary, high phys damage usually in melee range, so for example guardian angel is not a bad option (not best) if you can make use of the additional all res (socket angel/socket tal helm for example), also gives FHR.
Many armors can be fine basically, usually won’t die in melee for 1 or 2 hits and will leech very hard if damage and Leech is good, can sometimes do from magic before melee in range, but good all res will usually help there.
Cannot be frozen is very nice aswell as half APS is half leech.
Big need except all res, decent damage and LIFE LEECH.
Still keep an eye out, feed pots when in doubt and especially be carefull when only skellies around because he can’t remain alive by leeching then.
Vampire Gaze very usefull helm for leech and DR.