PoE 3.26 Mercenaries of Trarthus: Best-in-Slot Merc Gear

If you’ve been living under a rock or been too immersed in PoE 2, then you might have missed that the new challenge league for PoE 1 is finally out. Aptly named Mercenaries of Trarthus, we finally get mercenaries. 

Remember the good ol’ D2 days? Yes, those, build-defining mercenaries.

Now, while the mercenaries you can enlist come with some pretty neat gear of their own, the point is that you can give them your gear pieces to wear. This opens up so many possibilities, as you’re about to see. 

That’s why, in this guide, we’ll cover the best-in-slot items per item slot that you can use for your mercenaries so that we can create some crazy builds for this league.

Let’s dive in!

Can Mercenaries equip any gear?

Let’s go over this super quickly.

Mercs will be able to equip gear associated with their attribute. In the top right corner of their screen, you’ll see their associated attribute, which can be a single attribute or a hybrid. So, if you have a STR merc, they'll be able to equip any STR, STR + DEX, and STR + INT gear. 

Note: Mercenaries DON’T need to meet attribute requirements. Mercenaries MUST be within 70% of the level requirement of an item to be able to equip it.

With that out of the way, let’s continue — we’ll start with armour pieces and accessories!

Armour

Helmets

Options for Helmets

Crown of the Tyrant

This helmet offers several benefits that boost both you AND the mercenary. Very powerful! Firstly, all enemies near your merc will have all their resistances reduced by 10%. If that was it, it’d still be an amazing bonus. But it goes further than that. 

You (the ally) and the merc get added elemental damage based on the number of sockets. Obviously, you want 4 sockets of the color that corresponds to your main damage type.

A big downside of this helmet is that it’s rare, and it’s going to be very much sought after in this league, meaning it’s going to be expensive. So be sure to have plenty of orbs on hand!

Leer Cast

This helmet will neatly fit in most builds. An added 50% increased damage (additive, not multiplicative) is amazing. Not much else to say about this one.

Blood Price

This helmet will cause all nearby monsters to have 8% less life by forcing it to be reserved once they come in range.

Body Armour

Options for Body Armour

Doryani’s Prototype

This armour is likely going to be one of the best items that you can place on a mercenary, and this is solely because of the line “nearby enemies have lightning resistance equal to yours.” You can use modified rings or amulets that provide negative lightning resistance, reaching the -200% LR cap.

Now, obviously, this will mean two things. The player will be able to dish out some absurd lightning damage numbers, but the merc will also be extremely vulnerable to lightning damage. Even if you do get their armour numbers up, they’ll go down easily with lightning damage over time.

This could be countered by equipping the merc with Mahuxotl’s Machination, which grants Divine Flesh, since the Divine Flesh keystone causes 50% of all elemental damage to be taken as chaos damage. Cap the merc’s chaos resistance and you’re golden.

Expedition’s End

This armor is AMAZING if you’re going for a more defensive setup. Firstly, all nearby enemies are chilled, which is great on its own (10% action speed slow on enemies). Besides the chilling aura, the merc will also have a chance to freeze the enemies, regardless of the type of damage they deal. 

Note: The only caveat to that is that you’ll need at least some chance to freeze on your merc from another piece of gear.

Fenumus’ Shroud

Bladecaster mercs come with the Aspect of the Spider, which applies a debuff that applies slow and increases the damage the debuffed targets take (from all sources).

Now, if you pair this effect with this armor, you’ll bring this web effect to the next level as it’ll cause webbed enemies to deal 10% reduced damage, it’ll reduce all their resistances by 10%, and the aspect’s AoE will be increased significantly.

Extra note: You can pair this with Fenumus’ Spinnerets (check boots), which can cause the aspect to apply the web effect twice on the same enemy, plus it causes you to regain ES for each enemy hit that’s affected.

This setup makes for a VERY defensive and VERY offensive build. Not to be underestimated. Perhaps not the best combination, but surely a safe, top choice.

Saqawal’s Nest

If you get a merc that uses the Aspect of the Avian, this armor can double its effect (the minion's chance to deal double damage and the minion's movement speed). 

Further, while wearing this armor, the aspect will also grant those buffs to the player (nearby ally). Not a bad buff to have, especially if you’re looking for that extra mobility and burst damage potential.

Inpulsa’s Broken Heart

This armor will cause all shocked enemies the merc kills to explode, causing 5% of the monster's life as lightning damage. The shock effect can come from the mercenary or the player; it doesn’t matter. This will serve as an amazing map-clearing effect, especially for speed farming.

But the downside is that it’s the mercenary who needs to secure the actual kill. However, you can go around this by equipping the mercenary with Gravebind; you’ll enable all kills (made by the player) to be attributed to the mercenary, effectively ensuring Inpulsa's effect triggers every time.

Note: If you want to take the map clearing effect to the next level, also equip Legacy of Fury (check the boots section) for the same on-kill AoE damage effect, except it’s fire damage. However, the provided scorched effect will reduce ALL elemental resistance, which benefits both items.

Extra note: Instead of Inpulsa's, you can also use Sporeguard, which is arguably a more powerful version of this same setup, because instead of lightning, it deals chaos damage. With that being said, in order to trigger the explosions with Sporeguard, the enemy needs to stand inside the fungal ground that surrounds the mercenary while stationary. And considering the merc AI is still unpredictable, it’s not exactly a reliable method to deal with the extra dmg.

Garb of the Ephemeral

This armor might as well be the very best defensive piece of gear that you can give to a merc, simply because of the line “Nearby enemies cannot deal Critical Hits.” This is absurdly powerful. How many characters were lost because of a well-placed crit? With this armor piece, those days are over.

The downside is that the mercenary needs to be close by, meaning you'll want a melee-based one that gets up close and personal with the action. That way, enemies that target you are also affected.

Another very powerful effect is that the player’s action speed cannot be modified below base value (chill, slow, etc.), which basically ensures mobility and cast/attack speed at all times.

As an additional bonus, the merc will gain the ability to achieve Divinity, which for the next 10 seconds grants additional elemental damage, reduces elemental damage taken, and makes the merc immune to curses, which is very nice.

Gloves

Options for Gloves

Algor Mortis

These gloves cause enemies in chilling areas to take extra lightning damage. Now, this obviously requires you or the mercenary to create chilling areas. If your build doesn’t have it, then it’s required to go for a merc archetype that does. For example, the Winter Deacon uses Frost Shield, Frost Blink, and Arctic Armour — all of which can create chilling areas to activate that effect.

Note: Both you AND your mercenary will benefit from the extra 25-35% damage effect. Plus, of course, the extra dmg is for lightning, so keep that in mind.

The Sap effect will also benefit both since it’ll cause enemies to deal less damage.

Asenath’s Gentle Touch

These gloves force all enemies near your curses to be blinded. Furthermore, all enemies that are killed near them will explode, resulting in dmg equaling 3% of the monster's total life.

Note: Unlike Inpulsa’s Broken Heart/Sporeguard setups, this one doesn’t require the mercenary to kill, meaning this is much more flexible as a clearing setup.

Apart from the clearing capabilities of this item, there’s also the defensive (or on some builds offensive) aspect in the form of Temporal Chains on hit. One of the best curses available.

A downside is that if your merc is already using a curse, you’ll need to provide it with an additional curse from one of its gear pieces (e.g., Windscream).

Boots

Options for Boots

Fenumus’ Spinnerets

If you go for the Bladecaster merc, they’re able to cast Aspect of the Spider, which is an amazing effect. It periodically applies webs to nearby enemies, which makes the enemies slower, plus it increases the damage they take from all sources (including from you).

The boots will allow you to apply the web effect twice on the same target, plus it’ll cause you to ‘heal’ your ES every time you hit a webbed enemy; twice the amount if the aspect has been applied twice.

Furthermore, the debuff duration will be massively increased, which practically ensures you can apply the debuff a second time (if the enemy’s still alive, anyway). 

Note: You can bring this debuff to the next level by also including the armor piece Fenumus’ Shroud (check the body armour section).

Legacy of Fury

These boots cause all enarby enemies to get Scorched (up to -X% to ALL elemental resistances based on FIRE damage dealt), plus it provides you with a 30-40% chance when you kill a scorched enemy to bear the surrounding enemies for 4 seconds (8% of the killed enemy’s life as fire dmg per second). This effect will be very nice for clearing mob packs.

The downside of this is that the mercenary needs to secure the kills to gain the benefit. However, suppose you equip the mercenary with Gravebind gauntlets. In that case, it gives the mercenary “Nearby enemies killed by anyone count as being killed by you instead,” which will cause Legacy of Fury to trigger with each kill.

Note: If you pair the boots and Gravebind with Inpulsa’s (check body armour section), you’ll add additional lightning damage when enemies are killed, boosting the clear effect heavily. Might be a bit overkill; it’s fun nonetheless. You could also do the same with Sporeguard instead, but the conditional requirement is too unpredictable.

Windscream

If you find a merc using a good Hex curse skill (any non-Mark curse) and turn it into a curse bot, these boots are a great option, especially when you consider that the curse AoE is increased by 50%.

You can further this by adding more items that grant additional curses (a lot of uniques do) and/or get an amulet with an additional curse implicit modifier.

Note: Of course, you can use Mark Curses, but these won’t have their AoE increased.

Shields

Options for Shields

Mutewind Pennant

If you enlist a mercenary who uses Warcry skills, you can make great use of this shield. This is because of two things. The Call to Arms keystone causes warcries not to grant buffs/charges to you (the merc in this case, but does to the player), plus it increases Warcry duration by 100%.

Furthermore, Mutewind increases the Warcry buff effect by 25% and grants onslaught, which isn’t a bad thing at all. 

Redblade Banner

Speaking of Warcries, Redblade increases Warcry recovery rate by 50%, plus it causes Warcries to have infinite power, which ensures the skills grant the maximum number in the available range. Meaning, for instance, if the given effect is 10-50% based on a condition, regardless, it’ll always grant the 50%. That’s pretty powerful.

Victario’s Charity (or Replica Victario’s Charity)

This shield will grant the player Frenzy Charges on hit and Power Charges on kill (however, it remains to be seen how reliable it is for mercs to secure kills, especially in the end-game (see Gravebind as a solution for that). 

Note: The Replica version of this shield will grant the player Endurance Charges on hit and Frenzy Charges on kill instead.

The increased aura effects will also be an interesting addition for some builds (Hint: Aurastacker).

Accessories

Belts

Options for Belts

Kaom’s Binding

For an interesting defensive setup, you can use this belt to force nearby enemies to convert a quarter of their physical damage to fire. We can already see this being an option for an Immortal build when you take advantage of a few of the game’s mechanics. 

If so, this one might skyrocket in value.

Belt of the Deceiver

Another great belt as it forces nearby enemies to be intimidated, forcing them to take 10% increased attack damage. Nothing too flashy, but it’s easily available. Fantastic for leveling.

Amulets

Options for Amulets

Shaper’s Seed

This amulet is a super leveling item as it helps you regenerate both mana and life. It isn’t super strong, but it makes a notable difference until you hit maps.

The Ignomon

Same as The Shaper’s Seed (check above), this amulet is amazing for leveling. The better choice depends on your merc choice and your playstyle. If you’re a glass cannon or are super squishy, this amulet might be a better choice (especially if you’re an evasion-based character). However, if you’re a bit more tanky/durable, The Shaper’s Seed will probably feel better.

Perquil’s Toe

This amulet provides lucky damage rolls for nearby allies, meaning all damage rolls are rolled twice and the more favorable outcome is then chosen.

You can take advantage of this if you’re a lightning damage build. This is because most lightning damage has a huge range (e.g., 1 to 80, 1-200, etc.).

But also, for example, if your player is a strength stacker using Replica Alberon’s Warpath, which provides you with 1 to 80 added chaos damage per 80 strength, you’ll benefit from the lucky roll due to the range.

Xoph’s Heart

The "Nearby enemies are covered in ash" effect this amulet provides means the enemies will move more slowly, and they’ll take 20% increased fire damage.

Rings

Options for Rings

Anathema

If you want a curse bot mercenary, then this is probably the BiS ring you can get. With this item, the maximum curse limit will be three. If you want to pump this number, you can either increase the number of maximum power charges on the mercenary.

Note: "You can apply an additional curse" won’t work with this ring.

Call of the Void

The last three lines on this ring make it so that all your merc’s damage can chill, and therefore enemies damaged can shatter, plus chilled enemies will deal less damage based on half of the chill effect.

So the enemies are slower, they can shatter, and they deal less damage. Extremely powerful for a defensive setup.

A downside of this ring is that all the damage the merc takes will chill them. You can go around this by placing the Winterweave ring in the other ring slot, which will reverse the chill effect on the merc (instead of the merc’s action speed being reduced, it’ll be increased; win-win).

Berek’s Respite

This ring will cause all shocked and ignited enemies the merc kills to inflict an equivalent alment on nearby enemies, which is nice for spreading.

Now, since mercs might not have strong kill potential, you can always utilize Gravebind to ensure all kills are attributed to the mercenary.

Weapons

Now, what about weapons? Well, your weapon choice will obviously be highly dependent on the type of mercenary you’re using. But as long as you’re aware of that, you can formulate your build around that.

Axes

Options for Axes.

Kingmaker

This axe is very juicy! It provides the player with a number of benefits. Firstly, there’s the increased item rarity, then you get culling strike, which is great not only for clearing, but for drops. But for the big guns, nearby allies get +50% to their critical strike multiplier. Massive! And the cherry on top is that nearby allies also get +10 fortification, which is amazing for defense.

There’s very little not to like about this axe. If you’re unsure which weapon to pick — go with this one. 

But be warned that it’s already skyrocketed in price!

Dreadarc

Yet another super obtainable weapon, which curses enemies with Flammability on hit. And that’s nice if you’re running a fire build, since the cured enemies’ fire resistance will be reduced, plus there’s a chance they ignite on hit while the curse is active.

Claws

Options for Claws.

Al Dhih

If you went with a merc that uses Warcries, you’re going to love this item. It makes it so that all enemies taunted by your Warcries explode on death, dealing 8% of their max life as chaos damage. The 25% increase buff effect is also very nice if you’re using a Warcry that the player wants up all the time.

Furthermore, this claw sets the Warcry cooldown to 4 seconds, which halves the time of most of its skills.

Note: If you pair this unique with Mutewind Pennant (check the Shield section), you’ll be a happy camper since both synergize quite well.

Sceptres

Options for Sceptres.

Singularity

Another cheap one that’s easy to obtain. Singularity causes nearby enemies to be hindered, reducing their movement speed by 25%. Solid as a defensive tool.

The last line won’t do too much since your merc likely won’t be dishing out THAT much damage, not with this unique, anyway.

The Dark Seer

This one takes Eclipse Solaris to the next level. There’s a 10% chance of blinding enemies on hit. Moreover, enemies blinded by you (the merc) have the Malediction debuff applied to them, which reduces the damage enemies do and increases damage enemies take by 10%.

If you’re unsure which version of the item to go for, choose the one that gives both ES and life for added survivability.

Staves

Options for Staves.

Dying Breath

Next, we’ve got a cheaper item, but so is the effect. Allies get 18% increased damage, but the main point of the items is that nearby enemies have 18% increased effect of curses on them. If you’re running a cursebot build, this item might prove effective.

Wands

Options for Wands.

Eclipse Solaris

This unique wand provides the merc with a blinding aura. A simple, but effective debuff that helps you stay a bit safer. The last line on the unique wand will affect only the merc, but it’s still nice to have.

Obliteration

This wand can be quite the powerhouse, but only if the mercenary manages to secure the kill, causing enemies to explode (20% chance), dealing 25% of their max life as chaos damage. This effect is great for clearing.

If you feel your merc simply isn’t dishing enough damage to trigger this effect, you can pair it with the unique gloves Gravebind so that all kills that the merc and the player make are attributed to the mercenary, practically ensuring the effect all the time.

While there are more weapons, especially non-uniques, to give to your mercenary, we’ve covered some of the most interesting ones. As more busted combinations emerge, we’ll be sure to update you ASAP so that you get to enjoy the carnage before it gets nerfed.

Conclusion

Obviously, it’s still very early, and these are only SOME of the many, many possibilities that are out there. Surely more will emerge as they’re tried and tested and discovered. 

Also, keep in mind that patch changes, as well as the nifty ban-hammer, will also intervene if a build goes off the rails.

As it currently stands, stay strong and stay creative, exiles, and show us how you use the mercenary to create new, godly builds.