Mercs make me want to scream

Wow. How completely disheartening. No wonder so many folks have stopped playing. Mention that you're a frustrated live player who can't get groups because mercs are more convenient and people whom you've never even talked to assume, imply or flat state that it's your fault, you suck as a player, you're trying to hold groups hostage, etc.

I started this entire conversation because a lot of people don't seem to even bother seeing if another player can do the job properly since it's easier just to pop a merc. I wanted to see how many people, if any, felt the same way I do. I guess I got my answer. Have fun disparaging people you've never even tried to group with. I hope you find all the pleasure and happiness you deserve.

Don't get disheartened @Shadva, there are just some people who keep pushing certain opinions relentlessly. Many think like you do about how Eq almost lost what once was most important by now:
the social aspect. And there are many who will always help/take real players.

This discussion will never end. Maybe as a reminder:

Chosing a certain class to receive more often invitations into groups, doesnt really work. If you are a nice person, good skilled player and highly motivated you could chose "a giant rat" as toon, you will receive invites pretty soon. On the flipside you could be the only cleric on all servers and it wouldnt bring you a group invite if you arent nice, or if you are bad skilled or if you are the classic AFK-player.

The lfg tool is pretty terrible. Not so much because of the tool, although it could use some work probably, but because people don't use it. Without critical mass, it's just not gonna function. Similarly shouting in general is a pretty inefficient way to get a group.

I've always had the best success in going to the zone I want to hunt in, walking up to a group that I want to join, and asking them directly. More often than not this is quickly followed by a group invite. Or I put together a group of the people yelling in general chat. That's going to have more diverse level ranges, but as long as I am killing something I'm usually having a good time.

I'll suggest that mercs mean that socializing, expanding your circle of possible group-mates, and networking are more important now than ever before for clerics in EQ. It used to be I'd have 3 group invites within 30 seconds of logging in. That was great for me, but bad for the game because that meant 15 people were just waiting around for a cleric to log in. Nowdays I don't have a problem finding groups because I'm constantly motivated to keep meeting new friends. It isn't a 1 day success program, you'll need to keep doing this for a while. But you'll get back to the point where as soon as people see you are on they invite you to a group. It just takes work.

It is hard to find a group this way when you want to camp an aug. Even if you want to do a mission, tanks always want it (an aug) first. As a cleric i don't even consider augs without AC, as necro or mage, i don't have any problems with getting what i want.

That is the truth. With that said, once you have a strong social network finding people to help you get those augs is a lot easier. I have a full set of tank augs for when I was swarming; not much use anymore but getting people help me camp them (and not take them) was a bear.

Edit: I'd always rather give a tank an aug they need than take an aug I want. They'll get me on the flip side.

Mercs serve a purpose but man do I prefer having a live player over them. Many many missions and fights are nigh impossible with mercs because of their poor/shallow decision tree.

Hero missions (such as an End to Fear) etc are just about impossible using mercs. It seems to me that the main problem is just communication. A way for people to get matched up. The LFG tool is exactly great for that but as Piestro stated, no one uses it

Continual calls for a no-boxing server are doomed to failure because it's an impossible task in todays world. Plus, it would actually create a new game of "boxing on the no-boxing server, nyah, nyah, nyah".

IP tests I could foil in 5 minutes with proxies...or if proxies are somehow defeated by simply buying another IP address from my ISP, getting a second ISP, using a phone connection, piggybacking on the neighbor, or various other methods.

Instance limits could likely be foiled in software, but since I already have 3 EQ-capable computers, I wouldn't bother trying. Just use multiple computers.

In practice, unless you send proctors to everyones home, you CANNOT actually enforce a no-boxing rule. And that's not going to happen.

The biggest issue with mercs is how vastly different their relative effectiveness is. The merc wizard is almost as good as a real player, the merc cleric is much worse than a real cleric, but still tolerable, and the merc tank is just .

Because the merc tank is so bad, and group tanks are ridiculously difficult to gear up due to the aug farming requirements, everyone just uses a pet to tank, which makes a lot of classes worthless.

The fact is, Merc tank + PC rogue/zerker/monk is far, far worse in pretty much all cases than pet tank + wizard merc. Even if the rogue/zerker/monk is raid geared, it's still better to use a merc/pet group and not have to deal with the awful, awful merc tank.

You also have to think that for tanks... to play a tank class you have not only High amount of Augment farming and gear finding that must be done, you also have to deal with AA's that bascially need to be maxed to tank content. So they are 3 fold reliant.... gear/aug/aa and then they must group. So because of this there are very few actuall new tank players.. or players starting as tanks because why would you. This new AA change will lesson at least 1 of the 3 major requirements giving players who want to play tanks a chance to at least attempt it.

You like me more than your merc, don't lie to me.

nope how do i do that..? dont think you have read my post properly but then again my french is hard to understand at time

If your really do not know.. Then what you do is as group leader you Right Click on players name and then go down to roles and then choose what their role will be. Only player character can have roles.. mercs can not.

Not entirely true, can mark mercs as tanks.

yes I forgot about that... hehehe

+ Level. The best gear requires max level. Level is a variable in many combat calculations.
+ Skill. Bad DPS slows experience. Bad tanks get the group killed.

Waitwhat ?
Are you freakin joking here or pulling someone's leg?
When have you EVER seen a cleric merc overwrite a mob's DS, plus heal the tank AND dps every time they hit the mob ?
When's the last time you watched a merc offroot an add ?
or ..
or..

Play with a cleric that knows her game.

And then watch none of it matter when the group pops a merc and continues to succeed after that player logs off.

I think there are few things to keep in mind...

1. Many people who play EQ have been through the really intensive, long hours, raid guilds, grouping for hours etc etc that was the old EQ circa 1999-20whatever. I think a lot of those people really don't want a lot of commitment at this point. I know for me, there are times when I just want to log on, take a trip down whatever memory lane, or go explore some place I haven't seen yet. Trying to involve someone else in that is difficult, especially if you are not able to be at the keyboard 24/7. These are the times that I box.

2. The player base is fairly small. On any given day, there just aren't that many people around. Back when there were 500k people playing EQ and there were thousands of people on each server, finding groups was obviously easier.

3. The classes that have been made into mercs: Some people really enjoy playing a cleric, I find it to be like watching paint dry, to each his own but.....I don't think I'm the only person who feels this way. I'm not sure what the breakdown has ever been for how many people play what class, but I'd bet good money there have always been a lot more people playing necros for instance than play clerics. This is one of the reasons mercs were introduced in the first place, so groups didn't have to sit around and wait for 1 class.

I do think there is a really easy solution to this though, appeal to peoples greed lol. Make the benefits for grouping stronger and the problem will fix itself. There are always going to be social misfits who don't want to group with people, but a lot of people can be swayed by meaningful benefits to grouping. Maybe it's time to revisit group bonuses and up the ante a little bit. Increase the drop odds of rare drops, increase the exp bonus for grouping. Those two things alone would motivate a lot of people if they were significant.

Heck, you could even apply an increased bonus for using a player instead of a class that can be a merc....so if you have a player cleric in your group, you receive X increased bonus over using a merc.

Tank mercs are horrable and I ratheir use a wiz merc as a tank then use a warrior merc... so I would choose even a badly geared tank over a merc tank any day... and as far as cleric mercs go.. I have NEVER had issue finding a group cause of them and I am NEW to this server/guild so I do not know a ton of people like I did back on my old server I still don't have issues as a cleric finding a group... Maby just work on your reputation.. maby its not your game play but how you go lfg.. I remember this Beastlord in my old guild who would spam guild chat for 5minutes saying LFG... get angry then log... AND IF they did get a group they would spend the whole time just complaining about never getting a group... No one wants to listen to that while playing eq... so maby look at yourself and see what else besides merc clerics could be the cause for your lack of groups?

OR be proactive and start your own groups.. do a /who all lfg... go into general and ask around for folks to join group etc... yeah the days of a cleric logging on and getting 25 group invites might be gone.. but that has more to do with class balance where folks can use a druid/shammy as a healer in groups instead of a cleric then with cleric mercs...

But anyways if a merc is taking your spot in a exp group your either your a horrable cleric OR there is something about you that puts folks off... like that Beastlord I mentioned earlier... I know a few folks I would never invite to my group just cause of how they act.. (nothing to do with their ability..)... just how crappy they make everyone else in the group feel...

-C