Hiring a Mercenary in Expansion mode will now always offer mercenaries that match your character's Level, instead of having a randomized Level difference from your character's Level.
Developer Comments: The Rogue Archer is getting new flavored ranged skills that will scale as she levels up. These new skills should improve her AoE (Area of Effect) damage effectiveness and thus make her a more effective ranged damage dealer.
Diablo 2 Resurrected “You have my bow” achievement: Hire a Rogue Scout.
Rogue Scouts are a type of Mercenary in Diablo 2. Rogue Scouts are ranged-attack Mercenaries that use Bows to attack Enemies from a distance. Followers can be hired from Kashya at the Rogue Encampment. Mercenaries are special NPCs who act as companions who team up with our hero to fight the forces of evil in Sanctuary.
Players can hire mercenaries after completing the Blood Raven Quest in Act I Normal. Kashya will automatically provide you with an Act I mercenary, a bow-wielding Rogue of the Sisterhood of the Sightless Eye.
Rogue mercenaries are obtained from Kashya in the Rogue Encampment. (She gives one as a reward for completing the Blood Raven quest, and will hire them after that point, or to any character over level 8.) Rogue mercs are ranged attackers who use bows to attack from a distance. They are fairly fragile and must be kept from harm, but can dispense solid artillery support from behind the front lines. Their AI largely keeps them from harm, but they can be come confused as to how far they should stand from the action, and will sometimes wander back and forth uselessly.
These rogues may add fire or cold damage to their arrows; this option is only visible in the hiring window, and makes little difference to their overall damage, though the cold can add a useful chilling effect, especially in the early going when new characters need all the help they can get.
All rogue mercs can cast the Amazon skill Inner Sight. This skill lowers the defense of all enemies by a set amount, and sticks a glowing white dot over their heads.
The names are randomly selected each time a list of mercs for hire is generated; the names do not have any connection to their other abilities or damage types. As is the case with lots of weapons in the game, and especially with the names of NPC mercs, the Blizzard North designers worked in the names of Blizzard employees, and notable members of the Diablo II fan community. This was taken to an extreme with the Rogue mercs, as seemingly every male Blizzard North employee worked in their girlfriend or wife, and every Blizzard North female employee threw in her name or alias. Fans were honored too, Elly and Gaile were webmasters of Diabloii.net, as was Flux (found in Act Three).
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Difficulty | Type/Ability/Aura | Level Range | Equippable Items |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | Cold: Cold Arrow/Inner Sight Fire: Fire Arrow/Inner Sight |
9-13 | Helms, Armor, Bows |
| Nightmare | Cold: Cold Arrow/Inner Sight Fire: Fire Arrow/Inner Sight |
44-47 | Helms, Armor, Bows |
| Hell | Cold: Cold Arrow/Inner Sight Fire: Fire Arrow/Inner Sight |
75-79 | Helms, Armor, Bows |
As the somewhat weak starting mercenaries in Act I, the Rogues (also called archers) have had a rough time establishing themselves as a viable mercenary option. However, several classes and builds can and should use Act I archers to maximize their potential.
Besides the ability to use either Cold or Fire Arrow as their main attack, all archers use the Amazon ability Inner Sight. This area-of-effect spell around the archer will illuminate monsters and significantly lower their defense for a period of time. That again makes those monsters more vulnerable to physical damage.