Bug him. Lock him somewhere and make him teleport to you. Inner cloister is an easy and repeatable place to do so (go down the jail stairs and up again, race through the door and close it before your Merc goes through it and run on the other side. Then simply wait for him to appear next to you and voilà)

That way pretty much any monsters but a few archers and hydras will simply ignore him even though he's poking the shit out of them.

This is a great answer and one of the best ways to beat hell ancients also...

Here's a walkthrough in hardcore with a Barb and Pala, using only magic items and no socketing allowed. This might give you some ideas of early items you can buy/gamble/craft in the cube.

If they can do it that successfully with such bad items, anyone can fly through this game with typical gear and runewords.

Try and get an amp weapon, frost nova helm and armour for safety and a Prayer aura merc. If they start dropping hp, give them a potion with the shift + potion number hotkey.

Later in the game getting ~level 10 War Cry will help. Keep packs stunned by alternating between Frenzy and War Cry every few seconds.



This post was edited by piatek on May 10 2021 11:53am

I find yelling at them is somewhat effective if you have not tried that. Works sometimes