Hiring Mercs

[Esam]

Is it better to hire mercs at a lower level? I hired my nightmare act 2 merc at level 2 because I thought they ended up better. However, someone told me I was wrong and the only thing that determines how good they end up is the act you hire them in. Which is true? If so I'll just hire an act 2 nm merc when I'm 80 and no waste the time leveling him up.

Thanks

[Humphrey]

Hire one as soon as you can, because they really help, but you can hire another one at any time, and it won't be weaker for being hired at a higher level. If it starts to lag far behind you in levels just get a newer one nearer your level.
The person you spoke to was right, only the Act counts.

[RaoulDuke]

Mercenaries recruited in normal will come with the best base statistcs, regardless of what level you are. The base stats decline as the difficulty rises.

This only comes into play if you're looking for one of the act2 normal/hell mercenaries (prayer/blessed aim/defiance). The other ones (thorns/might/holy freeze) have to be recuited on nightmare.

[Myrakh-2]

This only comes into play if you're looking for one of the act2 normal/hell mercenaries (prayer/blessed aim/defiance). The other ones (thorns/might/holy freeze) have to be recuited on nightmare.

It also matters if you are using another type of merc --- *always* buy those in normal.

Pre-1.11 people could still bring the lame excuse of not wanting to level a merc from nothing, but that no longer applies... so there is no reason to ever buy a merc from a higher difficulty anymore. It's been left in the game as a newbie trap (so they end up with weaker mercs), nothing else.