The mercenaries are a hotly debated feature added in Diablo 4's Vessel of Hatred expansion. While an early bug meant that mercenary skill trees weren't appearing for some players, that's now been ironed out. With access to these trees, players have found plenty of reasons to bring along Diablo 4's new support characters.
To unlock mercenaries, players need to fight through the Vessel of Hatred campaign until they gain access to the mercenary den. Then, the player can hire a mercenary to set as a primary. That mercenary will follow and support the player with active skills, passives and perks while they're soloing.
Diablo 4: Best Classes And Builds For The Vessel Of Hatred Expansion
With the release of Vessel of Hatred, Diablo 4's classes have each gotten a rework, which has significantly shifted the meta of endgame builds.
Players can also hire a secondary mercenary, and these work a little differently. Players assign one of the mercenary's active skills to be triggered when certain conditions are met. For example, when the player triggers an active skill themselves. This happens both in solo and co-op play. There are four mercenaries in total, and each holds benefits for different play styles.
4 Aldkin
Mage Of Shadow And Flame
Perk
Blasphemous Fire: Aldkin sometimes transforms into a powerful demon form, but curses the player for the form's duration. Curses depend on Aldkin's skill tree, Curse of Darkness or Curse of Flames.
Shadow Skills
- Haunt: Shadow damage over time; Shadow Strike basic skill.
- Field of Languish: Reduce enemy damage and movement speed.
- Chain of Souls: Shadow damage over time and stun.
Shadow Passives
- Terrify/Exhaustion: Give Haunt vulnerable or daze effects.
- Paranoia/Condemened: Give Field of Languish daze or kill on low health effect.
- Amplified Suffering/Shared Pain: Give Chain of Souls extra damage or cooldown reduction.
Flame Skills
- Flame Surge: AoE fire damage; Fire Shot basic skill.
- Storm of Fire: High AoE fire damage and burning.
- Wave of Flames: High fire damage and knockback.
Flame Passives
- Covered in Ash/Raging Violence: Give Flame Surge extra damage or crit chance.
- Eradication/Ember's Gift: Give Storm of Fire extra damage or resource regeneration.
- Burning Chaos/Raging Havoc: Give Wave of Flames a cooldown reset or damage over time.
Diablo 4: Hardest Classes To Master, Ranked
These classes in Diablo 4 can be incredibly tough to master, even for experienced players.
Aldkin's Field of Languish can be used to good effect for survivability, but he's not as good at it as Raheir. Some players may prefer to use him as a secondary mercenary to avoid the curse mechanic. Wave of Flames can also help damage-over-time builds to squeeze out a little more damage for solo leveling.
3 Subo
The Drunken Rogue
Perk
Seeker: Subo highlights nearby enemies and resources. He also marks enemies, granting extra resource generation on hits.
Wire Tap Skills
- Wire Trap. Physical damage and stun; Heavy Shot basic skill.
- Cover Fire: Medium physical damage and slow.
- Trip Mines: High physical damage and knockdown.
Wire Tap Passives
- Piercing Arrows/Ready at Hand: Heavy Shot pierces or movement speed on elite damage.
- Pin Cushion/Opening Fire: Give Cover Fire immobilize or crit damage.
- Loaded Munitions/Mastermind: Give Subo's traps vulnerable damage or AoE size.
Molotov Skills
- Molotov: Physical damage, stun and burning; Salvo basic skill.
- Snipe: High physical damage and knockback.
- Explosive Charge: High physical damage on a delay.
Molotov Passives
- Scorched Earth/Share A Drink: Give Molotov extra damage over time or healing potion drops.
- Incendiary Bolt/Ambusher: Snipe casts Molotov on hit or Salvo gives lucky hit chance.
- Thrillseeker/Bargaining Chips: Explosive Charge gives cooldown reduction or overpower damage.
Subo's Wire Tap skill tree is a good choice for players who want some extra CC or to compliment their own. Players who want to add some extra damage over time might consider Subo over Aldkin as a primary mercenary, since his perk doesn't have a downside.
2 Varyana
Berserker Grandma
Perk
Massacre: The player and Varyana both stack "Massacre" on kills, granting bonus movement speed when stack thresholds are reached at 10, 25, 50 and 100 stacks.
Cleave Skills
- Cleave: Physical damage and bleeding damage over time; Double Strike basic skill.
- Bloodthirst: Attack speed and movement speed for Varyana; attack speed buff for the player.
- Whirlwind: Continuous physical and bleeding damage.
Cleave Passives
- Hysteria/Recklessness: Gives attack speed bonus or gives Cleave vulnerable effect.
- Intimidated/Bloodlust: Enemy damage reduction or Bloodthirst gives bonus attack speed.
- No Escape/Taste of Flesh: Whirlwind pulls in enemies or heals when hitting bleeding enemies.
Shockwave Skills
- Shockwave: Physical damage and knockdown, Heavy Strike basic skill.
- Earthbreaker: Medium physical damage and knockdown.
- Ancient Harpoons: Medium physical damage and stun.
Shockwave Passives
- Crushing Force/Reprisal: Gives knockdown chance or auto knockdown when CC'd.
- Rampage/Dismembering: Extra damage to CC'd enemies or Earthbreaker gets exposed effect.
- Annihilator/Iron Grip: Ancient Harpoons slow enemies or reduce enemy impairment resistance.
Best Necromancer Leveling Builds in Diablo 4: Season 6
Master the art of death with these three early-game leveling builds for the Necromancer class in Diablo 4.
Varyana is a strong choice for a primary mercenary for any melee-focused player. The extra attack speed plus her DPS alone make her an excellent choice for solo players, but is especially effective if melee DPS is the build focus.
1 Raheir
The Iron Shield
Perk
Valiance: When the player takes 15% max life in damage in one hit, Raheir cancels the damage and knocks down nearby enemies, and grants unstoppable, on a cooldown.
Shield Charge Skills
- Shield Charge: Physical damage and taunt; Shield Bash basic skill.
- Provoke: Taunt enemies and damage reduction for the player.
- Crater: Physical damage that pulls in enemies and stuns.
Shield Charge Passives:
- Raheir's Guard/Vanguard: Armor buff for the player or slow nearby enemies
- Mocking Lure/Iron Wolf's Ward: Increased damage to taunted enemies or Valiance gains knockback and taunt.
- Iron Wolf's Call/Sundering Shield: Valiance gives the player a damage buff, or Crater gains the vulnerable effect.
Ground Slam Skills
- Ground Slam: Physical damage and slow, Shield Strike basic skill.
- Bastion: High damage reduction and unstoppable effect on the player.
- Shield Throw: High physical damage to three enemies and taunt.
Ground Slam Passives
- Raheir's Aegis/Draw Fire: All resist buff for the player or Raheir taunts enemies when a healing potion is used.
- Inspiration/Iron Wolf's Virtue: Ground Slam and Bastion buff player damage or Valiance heals the player.
- Iron Wolf's Arrival/Consecrated Shield: Valiance casts Ground Slam and Shield Throw or Shield Throw consecrates enemies.
Raheir is probably the best all-round mercenary, and can compliment the survivability of any class or build. Going down his Shield Charge skill tree and taking the Bastion skill and Valiance buffs can be lifesavers in the endgame, and his taunt abilities might tempt some glass cannon ranged builds, too.
Diablo 4
- Released
- June 5, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Blizzard
- Publisher(s)
- Blizzard
- Franchise
- Diablo
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PC
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG, Hack and Slash
