All resis 75% max
defense 2400+
in hell still not work…
Health, rejuv, thawing, and antidote pots. And some life leech. (Edit: in case you or somebody else doesn’t know: shift + the belt slot sends the potion to your merc, or you can drag and drop the potion on the merc’s picture.)
Playing defensive, lots of leech and juvs
damage reduction (helps vs phys damage very common item to use is vampire gaze or shaftstop esp the latter if doing so wont drop his res too low)
lifesteal
lifetap (if melee and using dracl grasp or last wish runeword)
max res (which you did)
cannot be frozen (if he attacks slower he cannot lifesteal
good attack speed (so he can life leech to full)
high damage due to lifestealing more (etheral weapon alone is a huge boost about a 50% increase and he doesnt use durability
good armor rating
full rejuv pot
retreating when you see hes taking too much dps and know which enemies can kill him in max gear.
teleport can save his life, this greatly increases his survivabilty cause you can reposition him or allow him to retreat since he teles with you.
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Well… That’s why I like D3 Mercenary item more… Mercenary won’t die…
D3 mercenary is also basically useless though. While D2 mercenary can be just as strong as the player, basically
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Needs life leech! Talrasha helms are cheap and have 10%.
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With my merc
Insight CA / Treachery Trell armor and Tal’s Helm
he does… ok. Potion button 3&4 are his dedicated rejuv bars.
If he squares off against 2-4 mobs he will be ok anything more than that, he gets tossed around like a doll. (I really only rely on him for Cold immunes so its rare hes taking on more than a few things at a time, unless its the 2nd wave of baal adds, then hes getting absolutely hosed by all those frost skeles at the same time as I am panic pressing pots to keep him alive)
Life Leech! Throw pots at him!
Teleport him away.
From my Trapper, I mind blast things so they don’t attack him.
On my Necy I’ll use attract or terror to keep things off him if things get bad.
My Pally uses a Rouge, she stays back.
What items do you have on your Merc? Important is life leech with enough IAS so he constantly leeches.
Only act2 merc with defiance aura seems to be ok in hell.
You basically have to put the best gear on them, runeword armor/weapons
act1 merc is pretty decent since they are range, you put a good runeword bow on them and they can provide some pretty decent range support.
act3 merc cold merc just isn’t worth it, there is no way to buff it’s damage it seems.
act5 mercs are honestly terrible, I have never seen anyone use them, they are a melee unit without the aura buff of a act2 merc.
I wish blizz would actually tweak the mercs in this game, act3 and act 5 especially need work
Exactly, I am using act2 merc with defiance aura 
He is fine in hell act1 (fine) and act2 (overall) with all 75% resis and 2400+ defense
since act3 is not work…
Yeah.
My defiance merc at the moment:
Obedience eth Thresher
Duress Ornate plate
random high defense rare eth helmet I found
He has over 11000 defense and hits over 3k with enchant procs. He is incredibly tanky right up until something with elemental damage comes by. It seems like elemental damage just destroys mercs even with 75% all res.
He can stand in a pack of normal monsters all day, but throw a lightning enchant monster at him and he just falls over in a couple seconds.
I’ve only put items I’ve found on my merc and I’m not rich… he’s using
vamp gaze, shaft stop, and a unique thresher with LL, I believe… still dies fast sometimes with all that DR and 50%~ resistances.
10% IAS +5% life leech helm. two hand weapon (Insight) IAS seems can’t help…
If facing some ac3, act5 elite pack… almost died in seconds…
After killing the dead mages, drag the skelly to the bottom corner away from Baal’s Decrepify (this plus the slow made it a chore to try killing them next to Baal). Static and tele stomp once they get there.
Lister on last wave if he spawns cold immune (CM no longer break immunity so you can’t kill him through it anymore). If your Merc doesn’t have CBF (or running Reaper’s Toll to slow Lister’s attack), he can be stunlocked to dead. An option is to bait him out of the throne room then tele to Baal. Baal will trigger his laugh and go to his boss room, skipping Lister.
mine never dies with non eth reapers guardian angel and rock stopper i think the helm is
90 res >all
edit: TREACHERY is cheap and makes ur merc own and live with fade… filthy casuals
Keep in mind the mercenaries acts like an idiot, just keep them away from lot of mobs! 
But talking seriously… Use lot of pots, do runewords that give him defense and resists, get a good weapom that do life steal and pray!
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upgraded crown of thieves and upgraded duriel shell socket them with shaels youre welcome
also potions
- Life leech head: Tal mask, Vampire Gaze, Andariel Visage
- Decent armor with resists, Smoke runeword is extra cheap and gives a ton of resist to boot.
- High damge weapon.