The BEST Mercenary Runewords in D2R!

GraveUypo: fortitude is just my favorite armor runeword period. i freaking love it. it, along with the renewed bone break charm with 85% dmg i have on my avenger paladin makes my zeal do almost 4k damage with no aura boost and increases the physical part of my vengeance to be on par (or even stronger) than the elemental components individually - which massively improves my life and mana steal and makes me ... well. i haven't died since equipping it. and i used to die a LOT before. that is a result of the life steal and the fact that i now have 20k defense when chilling armor activates (with a defiance act 2 merc)
marregheriti: Man, this is the second video in a row that is A . Straight to the point, no yapping. Keep doing what you’re doing :)
tarcoles: Emilio is the Man
noelbautista2454: i love doom/coh/andy in my emilio
Just-a-Canuck: I’m team Waheed
neutrinofps: great video! i was so happy when the Devs added those new Helmet runewords, i use Cure on a lot of builds to get rid of Curses more quickly. i hate teleporting around while having Amp Damage curse, and Cure makes all curses go away after just a few seconds.
stillakilla7520: I fell in love with lionheart this season, The massive amount of stats and some nice res is great early on!!
Vggamegod: Cure is so great, I'll sacrifice even life steal for it. Especially on a prayer merc! All my casters have the insight / cure / Treachery setup. Its just too good. My melee chars have Obedience/ Reapers/ Tomb Reaver cure / Fortitude (or a leech armor like flayed skin). Have a barb with a barb merc running Last Wish Plague, with Andy's and Fortitude. Have 2 chars using act1 wifies with Faith and Mist bows, as well as Cure and treachery. I wish they made act3 mercs even a tiny bit usable but sadley not, otherwise id try to use even just 1 lol
shinuizabusa2180: Pimp my Emilio i love aurastacking on my Emilios, especially for summoners. Have a great weekend brother
theStonehouse: Dual Last Wish on Act V Merc is tight
chessophiler: Thanks for great info! I like "Thorns" or "Holy Freeze" for Act 2 merc. Prefer Act 5 Frenzy Barb with "crushing blow" armor/weapons. Subbed.
praisegod3267: Eth gladiators bane w/ eth andys w/ eth 3os tomb reaver or ebotdwp or eth reapers toll for windy druid setup

Infinity if casters.

Hardcore player disclaimer. prioritize merc survivability over fortitudes damage unless im playing necromancer, necro only char i use fort for.
Rune-cyber: should make one for act 5 mercs since they are good now
drdumpenstein4868: On my Azrael, for my fireball sorc, im using eth insight thresher, eth scarab husk fortitude, and eth stealskull with 47 MF. He is prayer aura because i dont like chugging potions.

The set up works well. I do have an eth duriels shell that is sitting in my stash and could make a cure, but then he has no life leach.
KubrickS163: please don't recommend Pride A2 merc for bowazon. He need contant pot to stay alive even with gg helm and armor. The 1.5k to 2k dmg is not worth while as you have to skip almost all T5 heralds and/or boss.

Instead use eth reapers toll, fort and good FHR helm. The decrep will almost double your dmg against monster, break most immune, and slow them too.
Breakfastatnoon: My poor act 1 merc, Cure, Treachery and Insight. don't tell her but she thinks they're the only items in the game.
AcidicThought: For an energy shield nova sorc, your listed favorite helm and weapon pair well with the Prayer A2 merc. It applies the Prayer synergy to both the Meditation from Insight and Cleansing on the helm for 60 regen. With lower health you likely have, the regen keeps you at full health basically all the time, but the lack of life leach makes Emilio a little fragile.
MysteryMastery69: A1 became much more useful when insight was given to bows. A3 is also pretty good with some setups, though theyre very expensive to set up
csabaalmasi5297: Last season my endgame nova setup was cure insight CoH while my PC self wielded infinity combined with a sunder. Melts everything
dragonkinss: I play hc so i use cure always since you get cursed in hell every 5 seconds,also in the later stages i go for fortitude obidience and later i go for infinity.
Bogisma: Fortitude > Bramble on summon necro. Faster first corpse for that CE
andreasfjellborg1810: Infinity eth giant tresher(or eth reaper's if i play melee character), Fortitude on eth laquered plate(only if you got the andy's) and Eth andy visage with a 15% ias/30% fire res jewel. He is clapping cheeks and taking names...
jemand8462: You forgot about prudence. I found an eth Armot with super high defense, rolled it and got 2 sockets. Because I was frustrated, I refused to throw it away and instead made prudence with it and what can I say, my cure merc is now at level 95 and an almost unkillable companion to my cold sorc. I think it’s the high magic damage reduced by 17 in combination with maxed out res.
And the funniest part is: you can even use it yourself in an eth armor.
Fenrir_Beernaert: I use Faith runeword on a bow for a act 1 mercenary cold arrow with andy's visage and a 15 IAS/ 15 all res jewel in it with foritude armor.

Stays out of the way, doesn't get killed often except with end bosses and ubers (and higher tier herald mobs when they are superfast), amps up my damage about 2K and shoots fast and powerful. Could also use a cham rune for cannot be frozen but I believe the extra increased attack speed and extra resists help her more.
nelsonlaert5254: As a f2p single player offline, at most part of the time, I like a lot de DEFIANCE hireling. I think that other are to much fragile, in hell. Even de HF aura doesn't make much length like in nightmare, so I prefer a big tank.

So fast I can, I equip him with: Insight Smoke Bulwark.

Solve the mana problems are very comfort, even to the cars that doest uses a lot of mana, or can auto refill with mana stolen. Smoke is a accessible all resists, and Bulwark's life stolen set me free of babysitting the merc all the time.

While I'm not a try harder, I prefer using better equips on my own main characters, instead my mercs.

Ps: Of course that I use others auras on A2 Merc, like Might to support the summoner's (Necro, druid, warlock bd). But in general, I really prefer the Defiance.
johnroberts8793: Mania is a decent budget option for your physical damage and summoner types. Just hold hands to stay in aura range
Dunkelelf3: my favorite setup is the classic fortitude sa, eth andy and a polearm depending on the needs so mostly pride, infinity or insight. with cure and insight on a nova sorc i think coh is best because it gives life leech which you should have on at least one piece. otherwise the merc needs too much babysitting. but with that you should use an eth ap mostly because with cure and insight you have little str and a sacred armor won't be equipable until very late if ever. i'm not totally sure. however other bases with a little lower str requirement will work earlier ofc like lacquered plate. the weight of the armor doesn't matter for a merc anyway.
alright i checked. the max str at 98 is 213 so with 5 str from insight the a2 merc can never equip the shadow plate or sa coh. that means lacquered plate is the highest defense coh option and can be used around level 90 if you go cure and insight on a prayer merc with a nova sorc.