Path of Exile
Best Mercenaries for the Luminary Class

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Last Update: 18 August, 2026 - Patch 3.29

In the Allflame League, the Mercenaries of Trarthus returned as a core game mechanic. For most players, they serve as a temporary boost randomly encountered on your Maps. However, the Luminary Ascendancy allows you to hire them permanently, making it a very complex and Build-enabling mechanic. There are two valid approaches: you can pick an offensive Combat Mercenary and be their Support with Auras and Links, or hire a Supportive Mercenary while you do all the work. The first approach is much more popular, since it is more Build-defining, and sacrificing your entire Ascendancy for a Supportive Mercenary requires specific and creative Setups to be worth it. It is possible, but harder to implement, which affects its popularity drastically. 

Combat Mercenaries

Just like regular Builds, there is no single best Mercenary for all aspects of the game; they each have their strengths and weaknesses. It also depends on the way you scale your Mercenary. There are 2 primary methods:

• Flame Link - scaled via Light Radius and your own maximum Life, you will grant your Mercenary a large amount of flat Fire Damage. Check out our Mercenary Luminary Build Guide to see more details for this method. 
• Destructive Link - this Link can be used to easily cap Critical Strike Chance of your Mercenary, but it doesn't scale with the Link effect further. You will have to use Auras and Unique Gear to scale the Damage instead. It is easier to get started than Flame Link, but ceiling potential is harder to achieve.  

There are 3 popular choices for your combat Mercenary: Manyshot, Combatant, and Kineticist. However, simply finding the correct Mercenary is not all: they also have to be equipped with the right Skills and supported by specific Support Gems. At first, suboptimal Mercenaries such as Thunderquiver with correct Skills can easily outperform Manyshot that lack proper Skill setup. Thankfully, you can buy Mercenary Warrants from other players, which guarantee a specific Mercenary to appear on your next Map. You still have to beat them in a fight to hire them, which can be quite hard if you do not put enough effort into your temporary Merc ally. Keep in mind the Infamous variants have a higher chance to get better Support Gems, but they are identical to their regular versions stat- and behaviour-wise. 

Best Skills for Mercenaries

You can find the best Skills and Support Gems for Manyshot, Kineticist, and Combatant in the table below. Each Mercenary can have only 6 Skills in their arsenal. Your Mercenary should have only the Skills from the list. Other abilities are usually much weaker, so having them on your Merc is a DPS loss. Each Skill has its own unique list of possible Support Gems. Most Supports have 3 tiers: Lesser, regular, and Greater. Most Supports are similar to the Gems available for Players, but there are plenty of exceptions, such as the lack of the downside on the Projectile-behaviour Gems like Chain or Return, or the much weaker upside on the Multistrike. You will always want to avoid Brutality Support as it disables Elemental Damage, but fortunately only a few Mercenaries can get it. 

Manyshot
Class: Dex	Weapon: Bows, Quivers	Tribe: Cyaxan
Main Skills:	Ice shot	Vaal Ice Shot
Mandatory Support Gems:	Multiple Projectiles	Return  Pierce (or +1 Pierce from Items)
Recommended Support Gems:	Elemental Damage with Attacks  Chain/Fork/Pierce  Hypothermia	Elemental Damage with Attacks  Hypothermia  Cooldown Recovery
Avoid:	-	-
Utility skills:	Grace  Hatred

Best Skills for Manyshot are Ice Shot for excellent map clear and Vaal Ice Shot against Bosses. Mixing in other Attack Skills results in lower total DPS, but if you can't avoid it, pick the Frigid Forkshot as it has the longest Cooldown. Supports that grant flat Damage, such as Added Cold Damage, are not exactly bad, but provide very little value. The Return is the strongest Support Gem available, as it allows for a second Hit with each Attack. To make it work, the Projectile has to bypass the enemy through Pierce or Fork. Chain requires a nearby Target to continue flight, so it is not effective against Bosses. You can also provide additional Pierce through Items, but it is often more efficient to opt for the Support Gem. 

Kineticist
Class: Str/Dex/Int	Weapon: Wands, Shields	Tribe: Bardiya
Main Skills:	Kinetic Blast of Clustering	Greater Kinetic Blast
Mandatory Support Gems:	Return  Fork/Pierce (or +1 Pierce from Items)	-
Recommended Support Gems:	Elemental Damage with Attacks  Sacred Wisps  Critical Chance  Critical Damage  Hypothermia   Faster Attacks	Elemental Damage with Attacks  Critical Chance  Critical Damage  Multiple Projectiles
Avoid:	-	Cooldown Recovery  Second Wind
Utility skills:	Elemental Weakness  Haste

The Kineticist with Kinetic Blast of Clustering excels at Map Clear. Other Wand Skills are rather bad, so you should aim for the Greater Kinetic Blast since it is limited by a lengthy cooldown. The best Support Gems for Kineticist are all about boosting their Damage, but Return is still the best here. Keep in mind activating the Hypothermia bonus might be harder here, since this Mercenary does not Chill Enemies by default. 

Combatant
Class: Str/Dex	Weapon: Claws, 1H Swords, 1H Axes		Tribe: Cyaxan
Main Skills:	Frost Blades	Wild Strike	Static Strike
Mandatory Support Gems:	Return	Elemental Weakness on Hit	Chain
Recommended Support Gems:	Elemental Damage with Attacks  Chain/Pierce  Hypothermia   Faster Attacks	Elemental Damage with Attacks  Hypothermia  Faster Attacks	Elemental Damage with Attacks  More Duration
Avoid:	Multistrike	Multistrike	-
Utility skills:	Wrath  Purity of Ice

The best Skills for the Combatant are Frost Blades and Wild Strike, but you never want both of them at once; choose only one. Pair it with Static Strike, since your Mercenary uses it only once in a while to reactivate the Buff. The Frost Blades have higher potential thanks to the Return, but it is not very reliable in open areas. The Wild Strike is more consistent and can automatically apply Elemental Weakness on Hit thanks to its special Gilded Support Gem. Avoid Multistrike, as it locks your Mercenary in place for longer, often causing them to miss their repeated attacks. 

Those are the best Mercenaries you can find in Wreaclast. The Mercenaries on this list work best with the Flame Link Setup, which is the dominant approach for this kind of Build. Of course, there are many other viable choices, such as focusing on Spell-casting Storming Zealot or chaotic Cruel Mistress, but they require very specific Setups to fully utilise their potential.

Support Mercenaries

The other, less popular but still powerful approach utilises the Supportive nature of Mercenaries. In such cases, you will nearly always want to pick the Loyal Bodyguard Notable for 20% Damage Reduction for yourself, and the Bestowed Knight Notable to increase the Effect of Merc's Auras by 50%, and make them Taunt Enemies on Hit, which is another 10% Damage Reduction for you.  This leaves you with just 2 Ascendancy Points, which you will usually spend on allowing your Mercenary to wear certain Unique Items, such as the Perquil's Toe Amulet that grants Lucky Damage for nearby Allies. The Mercenaries use level 27 Auras, which are especially powerful in the case of Auras that add flat Damage, such as Envy or Wrath. Below you can find a compiled list of useful Utility Mercenaries you can hire as a Luminary to create a truly unique Build of your own! 

If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.

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