Mercenary

BruiserHammerSword and ShieldASolid pick

The archetypal frontline Hunter — a durable melee bruiser built around sword-and-board and blunt weapons, trading sustained pressure for survivability.

Overview

Role: Bruiser
Weapons: Sword & Shield / Hammer
Weapon types: 2
Skills available: 13
Talent branches: 16
Weapons in catalog: 114

A class can equip any weapon of its types, and each weapon unlocks the skills tied to that type. How skills work →

Community read

ASolid pickCompetitive and commonly played — a clear role and no serious viability complaints in the current meta.

The unanimous beginner pick — high base survivability and forgiving sword-and-board play that makes mistakes cheap while you learn routes and extraction timing. Damage is solid rather than scary; single-target boss damage lags the dedicated DPS classes.

Solo: ASolid pick
Trio: ASolid pick
New players: SMeta-defining

A directional read of the current patch as of July 30, 2026, not final balance — refreshed as the meta settles. See the full tier list for per-context ratings.

Base attributes

The Mercenary's starting attribute block. Base stats are flat in this build — your level scaling comes from gear and talents, not the class itself. Every class starts with the same attack, defence, max health, so the class you pick changes what you can equip and cast — not your opening numbers.

Attack: 100
Defence: 50
Max Health: 618
Max Stamina: 100
Stamina Regen: 10
Critical Increase: 35%

Armor wear multiplier: ×1.5125 PvE · ×2.6125 PvP

Recommended affixes

The affixes the game itself suggests for a Mercenary build.

Unyielding Stoic Bulwark Tenacious Iron Helmet Valor Wrath Strife Smiting Focused

How the Mercenary compares

Tier list →

The two figures the game varies per class. Crit damage is the bonus damage a critical hit deals before any gear. Armor wear is the multiplier on how fast your armor loses durability when you take a hit — a lower number means gear lasts longer and costs less to keep running, so it is a repair-bill stat, not a damage-reduction one.

Class	Crit damage	Armor wear (PvE)	Armor wear (PvP)
Sorcerer	40%	×2.0625	×3.0525
Mercenary	35%	×1.5125	×2.6125
Shadowstrix	35%	×1.65	×3.0525
Seer	35%	×1.85625	×3.0525
Withered Knight	35%	×1.65	×3.0525
Blackarrow	25%	×2.0625	×3.0525

Mercenary tips from the game

All lore & tips →

The game reserves these tips for Mercenary players — the mechanics it expects you to know before you take the class into a raid.

Sword and Shield Technique

When using a Sword and Shield as Mercenary, hold Minor Action to block and reduce the damage of attacks. The amount of damage blocked is based on your Block Damage Reduction Rate. Attacks from monsters affected by Anger cannot be blocked.

Hammer Technique

When using a Hammer as Mercenary, hold Minor Action to charge up an attack. Upon successfully charging, release to perform a long-range rush attack and gain Super Armor while attacking.

Sword and Shield Technique

When a Mercenary equipped with a Sword and Shield hits enemies 5 times, they enter Blade Edge status, allowing them to unleash Impalement by holding the Light Strike button.

Top Mercenary builds

Best Mercenary builds →

The game ships 76 preset loadouts for the Mercenary. These are the best-geared example of each distinct build shape — open one in the planner to swap gear, spend talent points and share the result.

Charging Hammer

BalancedLegendary4 talents

Open in planner →

Charging Hammer

DPSLegendary4 talents

Open in planner →

Charging Hammer

PvELegendary4 talents

Open in planner →

Shield Build

BalancedLegendary4 talents

Open in planner →

Shield Build

PvELegendary4 talents

Open in planner →

Shield Build

SurvivabilityLegendary4 talents

Open in planner →

Stun Build

BalancedLegendary4 talents

Open in planner →

Stun Build

DPSLegendary4 talents

Open in planner →

Skills the Mercenary can slot

ImpalementSword and Shield

Power HammerHammer

Punishing HammerHammer

Shield DashSword and Shield

Shield SlamSword and Shield

SkullcrusherHammer

Stacked SlashSword and Shield

Stonebreaker SlashSword and Shield

Warhammer SlingHammer

Whirling CutSword and Shield

Mercenary talent trees

Full talent tree →

Mercenary unlocks 16 talent branches as you level, holding 49 talents in total — but you only earn 8 points across 12 levels, so you will pick a small fraction of them. The branches are summarised below; the Mercenary talent tree has each talent's effect, the level-by-level point budget, and the “choose one” splits.