There is the consideration of Inner Sight which is a massive source of -defense that doesn’t compete with curses and the fact Frenzy A5 mercs have Taunt which constantly overwrites curses, though depending on the build those may or may not be factors. Tesladins wouldn’t really care for -defense nor curses but bowazons using Atmas might.
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Bowzons wouldn’t be using A5. They’d be using A2 HF with likely Reaper Toll to proc Decrepify for them given the piss-poor proc chance for Amplify Damage on Atma’s. That’d open up Amulet slot for Highlords/Cat’s Eye. That said your point on Inner Sight is valid but A1 isn’t generally used for that but for the Aura(Faith or Vigor via Harmony) or for Freezing Arrow damage(Ice yielding Holy Freeze).
I just can’t see myself using A1 any time soon and that’s something that should be addressed with A3.
I don’t play Summon Necro much, but I would imagine Act 1 Merc with faith bow would be fun. Basically just faith, vamp gaze, and shaftstop to maximize her damage reduction.
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If I was a Summoner then yeah I might consider it but I generally don’t play Necro, if at all. As I said, Faith is pretty much the only thing keeping A1 relevant right now and if we give A5 the ability to use Beast, A1 really drops off in terms of viability given I can use A5 to get the same effect while not having to worry about him getting smoked by the enemy as often like I would with A1. I would also argue that if I wanted to maximize Physical damage, A2 may be better suited with Might + Pride combination and self-wielding Beast for Fanaticism as a Necro Summoner. Furthermore, Act 3 might hold some value with Fire Iron Wolf yielding Enchant but that’s about it.
Kind of a shame that a Druid Spirit like Heart of Wolverine(or Spirit of Barbs) doesn’t apply Skill IAS. If it did… that would be rather interesting ngl. Yet this is a thread about Merc’s so I’ll stop it there XD
Basically Act 1 and Act 3 need items(most likely runewords in this case) that yield them auras specifically to make them more useful. Act 1 could easily use Conviction(given they deal Elemental Arrow Damage, just have to add Bow bases to Infinity or create a new Bow Runeword specifically for them and Frost/Fire Maidens) while Act 3 needs Prayer(for recovery), Conviction(Elemental Damage… duh… Self-Wielding would ultimately be the result sadly if we did this) and Resist Auras(Resist Cold/Lightning given Resist Fire exists via Flickering Flame). Might even include Salvation given nothing exists with that aura in mind and perhaps Defiance since Exile only rolls on Paladin Shields. Maybe extend this to Normal Shields, permit Act 3 to use Paladin Shields or create an entirely new runeword(perhaps one with 3 sockets as opposed to 4) that grants Defiance Aura plus Defensive perks.
Something along the lines of this…
Willfulness
Shield + Necro Shrunken Heads(when they get 3 sockets)
Mal + Sol + Um
Level 14 Defiance Aura When Equipped
150% Enhanced Defense
Damage Reduced by 10%
Increased Chance of Blocking +20%
+2 to All Skills
Magic Damage Reduced by 7(Mal)
Damage Reduced by 7(Sol)
All Resistance +22(Um)
Requirements -30%
Repairs 1 Durability Every 4 Seconds
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Only in Town? Would not mind if that would be in general like for chars?
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Does make sense and makes it consistent. 
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If I could have only one change, it would be for mercs to engage when combat is detected. Having them idle behind a corner just a few feet from attacking monsters is frustrating.
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Such an AI change should be applied to all minions, not only hirelings. And to monsters as well, so it’d not be a unilateral buff.
This would also reduce the summoners’ dependence on Teleport (Enigma) just to reposition the army.
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And they should attack the monsters with respetive immunities to your chars main dmg source…but hey, that´s will be a lot of work and thats why wo wont see that 
unfortunately…
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The current merc behavior reminds me some henchmen in Neverwinter Nights casting Negative Energy spells. On undead…
There are lots of improvements to make to the AIs. Among them are :
- Don’t target opponents immune to your attacks.
- When running away from melee, ranged mercenaries should target somewhere within a certain radius of the hero that doesn’t have close monsters. If no such position is available, continue attacking.
- AI should choose what skill to use based on level (reduce the proportion of use of non-skill attacks and weaker versions of the skills as they level up) and situation (favor aoe attacks when ennemies are grouped together, use static field when in range of champion/unique monsters that aren’t heavily damaged).
- Reevaluate orders regularly during movement (currently, it is not rare for a mercenary to initiate a movement to a distant position, then fail to react to nearby ennemies while going there.
Etc…
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Good suggestions. I do hope the devs consider a few more improvements to our companions.
What do you guys think about this?..
Mercenary Ring Slot
To keep change modest, the developers should add a single ring slot to mercenaries to add flexibility to their gear choices
Mercenary Gold Pickup
As a general improvement, mercenaries will now automatically pick up gold for the player when within range
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I’m not sure why you think it’s a good idea to allow for this kind of power creep. If anything, it would impact more the mercenaries that don’t need the extra buff.
I’d rather the mercenaries concentrate on fighting, and improve their AI. The player’s gold pickup range is already good enough for the effort to be minor. If you think there should be improvements on auto pickup, then I guess we can discuss it. I can typically imagine auto pickup trying to fill any quiver, book, key stack or ranged weapon stack with corresponding items within range (take the amount available needed within range, and leave on the ground any surplus). This would make scrolls less distracting and amazons would be less bothered with ammunition.
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I just wanted to discuss the idea. I do want to avoid power creep, but thought adding a single ring slot to mercs could offer some flexibility in their equipment. But, maybe this is a bad idea, hence the discussion. 
True. It would be a nice QoL, but less important than improving their AI.
As I understand your suggestion, it makes the mercenary more unreliable. If they start moving towards gold to get it, they risk moving somewhere you don’t expect them to go while you’re fighting mobs, just because they didn’t aggro the mobs.
Agreed, but that’s not what is proposed. If they get within range, they’ll pick up the gold. This change will not affect their behavior at all. I should probably clarify that.
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Better: prioritize non-immune enemies, but still attack immune ones if there are no others. It’s better for hireling to tank enemies, even immune, that to ignore them. And sometimes we still want to attack immunes (for example physical ones to proc Decrepify from The Reaper’s Toll).
And how to define which enemies are immune? Shall a physical immune enemy be considered immune to hireling’s attack, when he is equipped with a weapon socketed with a chipped gem, which adds one digit elemental damage?
It applies mostly to Iron Wolves and Summons. You could make it so that melee mercenaries and summons still go to melee with everyone, but prioritizes attacking opponents non-immune to their primary source of damage if they are in range.
Not sure as melee mercs are already pretty solid. I think them having a few detrimental behaviors is not entirely a bad thing.