Merc Nurf?

Yeah tank mercs are terrible enough, them having bigger damage spikes is going to suck more.

Really more relevant ? If you nerf the base ac by 50% the gear available now is not going to make a difference just like it didn't when it was released because their base stats are all that really mattered

We can't give feedback on changes we don't know about. After being in beta, and fairly active on the beta forums, this is the first I have heard of this.

Searching for "merc" in the test and live patch notes only indicates that you can /tgb mercs.

Please place another set of patch notes in to indicate the exp nerf for pre-CotF, and this tweaking with the merc ac and avoidance, so that people know what is going on. An apology for not mentioning it sooner would be good too.

Tank mercs were already bad, and you spent time making them worse? Then they continue to get even worse as you level up?

How many more stealth nerfs are hidden in TDS? The amount of effort spent during TDS development to make the game less enjoyable is staggering.

Yes more relevant because AC on mercs do not follow the same rules that a PC does. They do not have a a soft cap and diminishing returns.

So letssay they took 10k incoming dps before because they got hit a lot, and they took mainly low end hits at 100. Now with less ac, and more avoidance, they still take average of 10k dps.

Now when you add the ac from the merc gear and buffs, cert etc, they may only take 9k inc dps because the gear actually made a difference in the DI range, where before their AC was so high (because of no soft cap) that the buffs and gear made no noticeable change.

I'm not posting to debate with you sojero. I am a raid tank I know all about the incoming dps.
I also know tank mercs were and have always been terrible .
Just because a developer posted about the changes doesn't mean he gave you any information about the changes 50% reduction to ac how much avoidance did they gain how much of a gain are people going to gain for each of the aa they already bought (broken and long aa to boot) and gear they have already purchased going to give them back power ?

We don't typically post about every change during the beta process, nor about differences in new functionality changes for higher level content that's introduced. This only effects 101 to 105 mercs, we didn't change anything <=100. The modifications were on beta for the better part of a month.

The way AC works for NPCs is not at all similar to how its used for player calculations, so comparing the AC of a player warrior to a tank merc isn't going to tell you anything in regard to how they mitigate damage. NPCs don't have the softcaps and a variety of other frankly bizarre calculations that modify the way the value is used for players.

Mercs still typically mitigate somewhat better than a group geared knight, its just not the ~50% min hit chance that it was before.

Well, Mak, we don't need to debate because reading your other posts, you obviously have something else wrong as well, and a beef with the dev. You posted it takes 3 clr mercs to = 1 now, and I don't see that in game, I did a TDS HA with just one healer merc and never died, never even came close. I also dont use tank mercs, so i cannot test before and after, but I dont mind the change, as I see it as beneficial. I also saw someone else post, before Rytan posted that the merc was doing 2 at a time in tempest, and I would say that's not bad for the merc, but that may have been a lvl 100 merc, so ill have to hold judgement.

My post was more directed to others that might not understand than a quip with you as I thought you had misread it. As no one knows the point of diminishing returns with mercs AC, they may have had 2k ac that didn't make a difference for them.

The changes weren't "weakened" because of the potential AC gains from gear, AAs, and spells. Those are pure gravy.

No one thought to mention this on the forums, or to post in the patch notes? This just keeps getting better and better. I just sit here in amazement and wonder how or why. Did someone declare war here and no one bothered to tell the players?

I double checked my calendar - it is not April 1. /sigh

I guess before we go running around crying the sky is falling, someone should run some parses on a level 100 tank merc vs. a 101 one on the same mobs and see just what the differences are.

but i agree about the beta thing, would have been nice if they had let the players know and test this there before it got tossed on live with a big "Suprise!"

This is.... Just Disgusting.....

After alll the crap we went thru, all the nerfs in the past year, and the nerfs we were told about up front, And NOW you tell us about the Merc Nerfs.

I gotta say. You got me. I did not see this coming. I just bought the expansion 3 hours ago and i get hit with this. I knew i should not have bought it.

Just Lovely. Had friends that were going to come back. I actually HAD to tell them not to because of bull like this.

Go play a warrior and kill every named in cotf with a bard and a mage box and when you get to tor and argin hiz at level 100 you will see what I am talking about.

I had to read this statement more than once to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating. This has got to be the single dumbest policy that a software development company (and EQ is software) can come up with. How would you like it if a company that produces some of your development tools made a change and then actively kept it from you?

The dev team needs to take a hard look at this policy and change it so it doesn't come back to bite you like it has in so many theads on this forum.

And the hits just keep on coming

You mean the merc gear that you can't get anymore because of the lockouts on the easy HA's?

You mean the merc AA's you can't get anymore because you nerfed exp gain and your mercs can't tank the new content unless you have all of this stuff?

Please do describe, as I don't play that group, have done all that, I completed every mission in CoTF before TDS was released, and still don't understand what you mean. I am also not an end game raider with end game gear.

what you are describing was before any of this came about. The only time I use more than one clr merc is when I'm feeling really lazy, otherwise its faster for 2 dps mercs and take stuff down faster.

btw my war is only 88, mage 96, and bard is 100. The group you are describing is amazing at doing many things, and don't really see any downfall with it.

I respectfully feel you should change that policy. Changing functionality shouldn't be left for people to possibly stumble upon, especially if you ACTUALLY want it to be tested.

Wow, a game of this age and player age demographic, a deliberate decision is made to make a new expansion LESS accessible to a wide range of play styles. Mercs, exp, lockouts. I would love to know the thought process and NO ONE at the table said, gee maybe we should do this a little more slowly and see the reaction.

As someone above said, all this time and effort to make things harder could have been used in SO many other ways.

tank mercs can tank TDS. in T1 they can handle two at a time. i know first hand. alot of people seem to have issues with tank mercs since they were introduced.

granted they are kindof dumb but they dont die as easily as people would make it seem like they do