hirelings

hey i read arreat summit and it never said anything on giving your mercs life leech, just not mana leech and it said to give them highest defense armor and highest damage weapon, but is life leech worth it too? because i want to get a good tank merc for my sorc and im not sure what should i give them, would more leech be better than higher damage for it to survive? and when i put him on a 5% life leech armor and then switched to like the set curiass, he survived better in the set armor without the leech
so give your opinions