Aww poor mercenary...

I found a 4 socket partizan, and I was excited to finally get a nice polearm I could put Insight on, so I did that and put it on my mercenary. Boom! His damage goes way up, as he was using a Grim Reaper before that, and there's that cool Meditation aura working. I go to test it "in the field" and see that it's just the Insight going, and the Defense aura is gone!
Well, not that big a deal, I reckon. For giggles, I put the Grim Reaper back on the Mercenary, so I can compare the changes.
Still no Defense aura.
Even after relogging, etc, it's like my Merc has no aura anymore if he's not using an aura-enhanced weapon. Is this normal? Honestly, I was assuming that both auras would be going. But there should be at least one going if we are out killing things, right?|||I don't play with the Desert Mercenaries anymore, but from my experience with them, they seem to activate their Auras whenever they feel like it. Sometimes they will activate it as soon as you enter a hostile area. Sometimes they won't activate it for several battles, usually a tougher battle or one with a lot of monsters.|||Usually, they'll have to be attacked or sometimes take some damage to activate the aura. There are also times with weapons that have auras that you'll have to remove the item and then re-equip it on the mercenary.|||

---

Q u o t e:
just curious. rougues? barb? can't be any of those excessive noise makers from act 3.
Keiyac

---

I've recently deleted my clvl 88 MA Bowazon and recreated her. I'm experimenting with building her into an MA Strafezon. For more information see:

http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25026396633&sid=3000

I use the Rogue hireling. If you'd like to see her in action:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Perusoe#p/u

|||For the OP:
1) When a merc has dual auras (like Defiance+Meditation), the animation will cycle between the graphics for each. You'll still get full benefit for both all the time, and you should see the Defiance boost to your own defense value whenever its active.
2) Mercs dont always have their native aura active. They start new games with their aura 'off', and likewise if they die and you rez them, their aura is 'off'. Theres a random chance they'll turn their aura 'on' when they attack, and after that it stays on until they die or leave the game.
If you have an Insight Defiance merc, he should not have a problem with using both auras|||

---

Q u o t e:
For the OP:
1) When a merc has dual auras (like Defiance+Meditation), the animation will cycle between the graphics for each. You'll still get full benefit for both all the time, and you should see the Defiance boost to your own defense value whenever its active.
2) Mercs dont always have their native aura active. They start new games with their aura 'off', and likewise if they die and you rez them, their aura is 'off'. Theres a random chance they'll turn their aura 'on' when they attack, and after that it stays on until they die or leave the game.
If you have an Insight Defiance merc, he should not have a problem with using both auras

---

Yeah with playing more I finally got to see him turn on Defiance. I was glad to finally see the cycling auras.
Thanks for the aura info you all!