This is a free guide. I've owned every item in Diablo 2 at least once and have duped, bought and sold items online so I've had a lot of opportunity to try out ideas just because I could. Cookie-cutter strategy is great for getting things done but I like to be unique and I hope you try these because they're fun and underrated. The world has enough act 2 mercs with botd, fort, and gazes already!

PvM Merc #1 - The Smiter's Friend

The idea behind this merc is to have lifetap going off often and he works great with melee bulds like the Smiter Pali, Frenzy Barbarians, and Wolf Druids. Not only will this merc support your ability but he also has the advantage of being able to solo things on his own.

Type: Act 5 Barbarian Merc

Gear:
Weapon: Lastwish Ethereal Colossus Blade
Helm: Ethereal Andarial's Visage or Ethereal Arreat's Face (Cham works great in either so he doesn't get frozen, also 40/15 jewels are a good choice too)
Armor: Ethereal Fortitude (because it nearly doubles his damage and adds life/resists too)

This guy now runs around lifetapping everything, dealing 6k+ damage per hit with high resists and life leach. He's got a free chance to cast lots of self-buffs like frozen armor and fade too so he lives well even in 8 player games.  He's a friendly addition to any group that relies heavily on melee damage since everyone gets buffed by lifetap.

PvM Merc #2 - The Aura Archer

The idea here is to have an act one bow merc hanging out in the background providing big hits and giving aura buffs to everyone in the group. The act one merc is great because their AI keeps them behind you so they stay alive longer and don't die to curses like melee mercs do. Did I mention you get level 15 might aura from Lastwish too? They're fun to use with almost any build too.

Type: Act 1 Bow Merc

Gear:
Weapon: Faith Bow (Shadow bows are my preference because of the high base IAS and the spread of min-max damage)
Helm: Dream or Andarial's Visage (Dream is nice because of the extra direct lightening damage and the little "pulse" damage, otherwise use whatever you want)
Armor: Fortitude or Dragon (Again, the extra damage of Fortitude makes her bow damage great considering you already get Fanaticism  from Faith)

This merc will stand in the background giving everyone in the group Fanaticism, hit for about 5-8k, and hardly ever dies. You can have her hit bosses like Meph from across the moat and go afk while she does some killing if you stand at the right spot. For chaos runs she's the preferred build since she doesn't die to curses. Pick the cold arrow version because she will slow enemies she hits too.

PvM Merc #3 - The Dreamer

This merc has the most utility out of any merc. Get an act 2 nightmare defensive merc and give him some godly rune words are you can go AFK and come back to a screen full of dead monsters. This guy works great with most builds and is especially fun with a dream paladin(you can find builds online if you've never made one).

Type: Act 2 Holyfreeze Merc

Gear:
Weapon: Ethreal Infinity or Ethereal Cryptic Axe Hand of Justice
Helm: Dream Bone Visage
Armor: Dragon Archon Plate

With this build you get level 20+ holy freeze from the merc, level 15 conviction because of your weapon, level 15 lightening aura from your helm and level 14 holy fire from your armor. Any enemy near this guy loses big resists and is taking 3 type of elemental damage without you pressing any buttons. His dream helm also has a high chance to curse the enemies with confuse which makes them kill themselves while his auras hit them every 2 seconds. It's kind of funny going to get a soda and coming back to a screen of bodies and a floor full of loot. Pair this guy with a character using dreams and it gets even better.

PvM Merc #4 - The Dream Mage

This is kind of a twist on the last two builds combine the benefits of being ranged with the pulse damage of good runewords. He works great with amazons and other builds find him useful too.

Type: Act 3 Cold Mage

Weapon: Hand of Justice Sword
Helm: Dream
Armor: Dragon Archon Plate
Shield: Dream or Dragon (I prefer dream but both are great)

So, you want a mage freezing your enemies while dealing level 30 lightening aura and level 30 holy fire every 2 seconds do you? The act 3 merc has a few advantages over the act 2. First, he can use a shield thus adding more elemental damage per hit. Second, his freeze stops enemies in their tracks preventing them from fighting or casting curses and spells. His cold stops lost souls for example giving you time to take them out. Zon's work great with him running around behind slowing everything and weakening everyone while you hit them with multishot or lightening fury. Nuff said.

PvM merc #5 - The Boss Killer

This merc is a personal favorite of mine. He can live through ubers about 50% of the time and makes taking down powerful monsters a breeze. The goal is to get him incredible crushing blow percentage and lots of survivability. His gear seams even more unique than most but he's worth trying before you write him off.

Type: Act 2 Holyfreeze Merc

Weapon: Ethereal Up'd 3socket Hone Sudan Yari(2x Ber and 1x 40%enhanced damage / 15 IAS Jewel)
Helm: Ethereal Andarial's Visage with a 40%enhanced damage / 15 IAS Jewel
Armor: Ethereal Chains of Honor (for the damage reduction, life leach, and +65 resists)

So with this weapon you get 80% chance of crushing blow with fast attack speed and about 6k damage per hit from a merc! He get's 16% lifeleach, lots of resists, and some damage reduction too. Team him up with a smiter who's giving lifetap and a few auras and you're good to solo pretty much every boss in the game including the ubers. Use salvation to fight meph and sometimes he dies but I've seen him get the last hit more than once. Uber Diablo and Baal can't kill him.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this guide because all of these mercs are unique and fun to play with. It's some free advice and I've liked using all of these builds with many different classes in D2:Lod. Thanks for Looking!