Best Merc for the Job

[bleak]

Which merc might be the best choice for my WW Barb???

Is there a merc that basically is better than them all, no matter what character you are, and should I level them myself, or wait till im pretty high up there and just buy a similarily leveled merc then?

Thanks!

[Humphrey]

Which merc might be the best choice for my WW Barb???

Is there a merc that basically is better than them all, no matter what character you are, and should I level them myself, or wait till im pretty high up there and just buy a similarily leveled merc then?

Which patch are you using? If it's 1.11 or 1.11b all mercs you hire will be close to your level so you can swap them about if you want to try a few different ones. Hire on now and it'll level with you, if for some reason it gets to be many levels behind you just hire another one closer too your level.

For a WW barb I'd suggest a 'Might' merc, that is an act 2 Nightmare Offensive merc. Might is a good choice for all characters that melee and for skellimancers and druid summoners. Until you get there an Act 2 Normal Definsive Merc (Defiance) might be a good choice. Remember to give your merc good equipment if you want him to be able to kill things.

http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=580 has lots of info about mercs, it's 1.10 but most of it is still relevant.

[Ladvarian]

Remember to give your merc good equipment if you want him to be able to kill things.
Just remeber to take off the equipment when you switch mercenaries or you will loose your equipment. ;p

Also if you are high enough level you might want to try the runewords that give aruras to mercenaries that they normally wouldn't have.
I.e. Holy Freeze from the runeword Doom. Just make sure about the type of weapons that mercenaries can equip before making the runewords.

http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/basics/hirelings.shtml
This is also a good place for info about mercenaires.

[Omikron8]

there is no better merc for a combat barb than might, act 2 nightmare offensive