Mercenaries of Trarthus League Mechanic Guide Notable Equipment
Introduction
With the ability to equip your Mercenaries with any item in PoE, you have a lot of options of how to build them. Not all these options are created equal, however - there are some incredibly powerful Uniques that will give you a huge boost if you give them to your Mercenary!
These can give you anything from massive damage boosts, defensive boosts, to all sorts of utility and support effects.
Some Uniques have the potential to completely transform how your Mercenary functions. These uniques can all be incredibly powerful on a Mercenary, when paired with the right build!
Powerful Static Effects
Some Uniques have incredibly powerful static effects that affect nearby allies and/or enemies. Normally these effects are balanced by the opportunity cost of having to give up an equipment slot to use them. But your Mercs are more than happy to wear them - giving you access to their effects at virtually no cost!
Kingmaker
Uses: Damage, Defenses, Support, Magic Find
Kingmaker has long been a staple of Animated Guardians. The offensive and defensive capabilities it grants to allies are unrivaled - Fortify is incredibly difficult to get on non-melee builds, and the crit multi and culling strike boost your damage. It even grants a bit of IIR!
…However, Kingmaker is a T0 Unique - the same rarity as Mageblood and Headhunter. In a league where everyone has access to a Mercenary, it’s likely that Kingmakers will be prohibitively expensive. If you can get one, though… it’s one of the best thing you can give a Merc.
Doryani's Prototype
Uses: Damage
No single item can supercharge damage the way a Doryani’s Prototype can. As long as your Merc can handle the downside of Doryani’s prototype without dying, it will MASSIVELY boost the lightning damage of any allies nearby.
As a result, Doryani’s Prototype is by far the most powerful item a lightning build can give to their Merc. Just make sure you also give them enough life, regen, and defensive abilities to survive!
Garb of the Ephemeral
Uses: Support, Defenses, Survivability
An incredibly powerful support item, this one is extra good on Mercs due to Mercs being able to cheese the incredibly high attribute requirements.
The immunity to slows and critical strikes are powerful defensive layers - allowing to ignore the dangerous abilities and map modifiers that often get characters killed!
As an added bonus for Mercs that deal Elemental damage, it significantly buffs their damage. Additionally, some of the synthesis implicits available offers extra defenses or utility to your Merc.
Crown of the Tyrant
Uses: Damage
This item simply has a massive damage boosting aura - adding flat damage of a chosen type for all allies and lowering enemy resistances.
Perquil's Toe
Uses: Damage, Support
The “Nearby allies’ damage with hits is lucky” effect passively boosts your damage - especially for lightning builds, who have the biggest damage ranges.
Explode Gear
Many builds make use of “explode” gear to enhance their clearpseed. These items usually cause enemies that are killed to deal damage to nearby enemies - often causing explosion chains. Mercs can make use of Explode gear to give you this effect without having to fit it into your build!
Gravebind
Uses: Clearspeed, Support, Magic Find
Gravebind has a rather unique effect: “Nearby enemies killed by anyone count as being killed by you instead”.
This effect on a Merc can allow for some interesting capabilities - for Mercs with on-kill explosion effects, this can massively boost your clearspeed by adding explosions to any build without investment!
Gravebind is not without its downsides, however. Its 4 meter radius isn’t very large, requiring you to have a Merc that will be close to enemies you’re killing. It also limits how much explosion effects can chain. Additionally, it completely turns off “on-kill” effects for your build - if that’s something you rely on, Gravebind simply won’t be an option for you.
Al Dhih
Uses: Clearspeed, Support
This weapon can grant explode capabilities to Mercs that use warcries - which is quite a few of them! What’s great about this weapon is that unlike most sources of explode, the Merc doesn’t actually need to get kill credit. As long as they’re affected by the warcry, they’ll explode when they die!
Asenath's Gentle Touch
Uses: Curses, Support, Clearspeed
These simple gloves will both Curse enemies for you, and help your clearspeed by causing explosions when those enemies are killed.
You may want to consider giving your Mercs +1 max curse to avoid interfering with other curses you may be using, though.
Legacy of Fury
Uses: Damage, Clearspeed
These boots will buff the damage of all elemental builds by inflicting Scorch on nearby enemies, as well as causing burn explosions when your Merc kills enemies.
Blight Uniques
All Blight uniques can be anointed - allowing you to further customize and boost your Merc’s capabilities! Consider using a Blight unique if you’re desperate for extra anoints.
And if you don’t care for the Unique’s affixes, you can always try using a Vaal orb to turn it into a Rare after anointing it!
Cowl of the Cryophile / 
Cowl of the Thermophile / 
Cowl of the Ceraunophile
Uses: Anoint
Breathstealer
Uses: Anoint
The Stampede / 
Replica Stampede
Uses: Anoint
Stranglegasp
Uses: Anoint
The coveted and pricey Stranglegasp can be used to give 3 anoints to your Merc in a single slot. Depending on how much you value anoints on your Merc, this may be a strong late-game option for min-maxing your Merc.
Unique Weapons
Dying Breath
Uses: Support, Curses
A great cheap support weapon, especially for Mercs with auras and/or curses.
The Dark Seer
Uses: Support, Defenses
A great source of both Malediction and Blind, or increased damage output and player survivability
Replica Innsbury Edge
Uses: Support
A great source of Wither for chaos builds.
Unique Body Armour
Expedition's End
Uses: Support, Defenses
The “Nearby Enemies are Chilled” modifier is a powerful defensive layer - slowing all nearby enemies and allowing you to kill enemies before they can even hit you.
Ambu's Charge
Uses: Support, Defenses
This allows your Merc to share their Endurance charges with you. As Endurance charges are an extremely powerful defensive layer, this is very strong on any Merc that can generate them.
Belly of the Beast
Uses: Survivability
Top-tier unique for ensuring your Merc simply never dies, by giving them huge amounts of life.
Bloodbond
Uses: Survivability
Another strong survivability option, especially for Mercs with minions, granting them and their minions extra life and life regeneration.
Note that the granted skill is NOT usable by the Merc.
Unique Gloves
Abhorrent Interrogation
Uses: Damage
Provided you don’t care about the damage your Merc is dealling, the Wither and increased elemental damage taken debuffs this causes your Merc to inflict will massively boost the damage of most builds.
Unique Boots
Windscream
Uses: Curses, Survivability
Useful as a way to give your Merc +1 Curse.
Unique Accessories
Kaom's Binding
Uses: Defenses
This belt provides a powerful defensive layer against physical damage by converting 25% of it to fire damage - allowing it to be reduced by your fire resistance.
Doedre's Damning
Uses: Curses
Useful as a way to give your Merc +1 Curse.
Xoph's Heart
Uses: Damage
Useful as a source of Covered in Ash.
Yoke of Suffering
Uses: Damage
For Mercs inflicting multiple different ailments, this acts as a massive damage multiplier - up to 90% increased damage taken if they can inflict all 9 elemental ailments.
Shaper's Seed
Uses: Survivability
A cheap and accessibility survivability option to keep your Merc alive early in progression.
Conclusion
Be sure to check out the other pages of this guide, covering even more topics related to Mercenaries of Trarthus! This guide will continue to be updated in the future - if you have any feedback, or find something cool you want to share, head on over to the PoE Vault Discord, and let me know!
Good luck, and have fun farming Mercenaries of Trarthus!
