Treachery is frequently used as comparatively cheap Mercenary armor when you wish the Mercenary to become more offense-focused instead of defensive (whereby, Fortitude may be the usual recommendation). 25% opportunity to cast level 15 Venom on Striking will greatly boost the Mercenary's damage, adding 305-325 Poison harm to the Mercenary's weapons for 176 seconds (just lacking 3 minutes, and most enough time to restore the result). The Increased Attack Speed and Faster Hit Recovery will also be great.

It can also be used by players, mostly like a pre-buff armor that's removed before going into serious combat. See the section under Classes to determine how this is used by doing this.

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Treachery Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths of the Treachery Runeword:

Modest Rune costs; relatively simple to get in Nightmare/early Hell

Three-socket armor base items plentiful

Great offensive abilities

Great pre-buff before tough fights (see description below)

Weaknesses of the Treachery Runeword:

The pre-buff effect doesn't work on Mercenaries

The pre-buff trait of Treachery is discussed below under Best Classes and Specs. It doesn't fully trust Mercenaries, but they'll get hit anyway throughout their duties.

Treachery Recommendations

Runewords vary on the suitability for various classes and specs, in addition to the utility for that various Mercenaries. This next section will discuss what classes and specs could make the most out of Treachery, whether you should look at using Treachery together with your Mercenary follower, what base to consider, and where you can acquire Runes.

Best Classes and Specs for that Treachery Runeword

While it's worn as full-time armor by some classes, particularly for midgame leveling, it's usually used as temporary armor before a large fight, then turned off to the normal armor before going. If you stand it a fire, you're going to get hit by damage until Fade procs. Remove Treachery, put on your regular armor, and continue the fight. This gives a 60% potential to deal with Elemental damage along with a hidden 15% Physical resistance for 288 seconds (4.8 minutes!).

Treachery for Mercenaries

Treachery is a very common armor recommendation if you prefer a Mercenary that's focused on DPS than defense. This is a solid option for all Mercenaries except Act III, which cast spells instead of striking with weapons. Act II Mercenaries in many cases are used as tanks and benefit more from defensive armor for example Fortitude

Unfortunately, it's difficult to make a Mercenary stand it a fire to pre-buff with Fade, however, your Merc will often get hit enough that it's going to proc by itself. Given its long duration, the 5% proc rate isn't a problem.