Do Wizard Mercs burn past yellow con 101 + yet?

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by IDotPeople, Jul 3, 2014.

  1. Fanra https://everquest.fanra.info

    Some of our feedback has nothing to do with merc power, it's about merc simply not working right.

    Do mercs have a contract, "Ok, here's the deal. Whenever they want me to burn, I'm just not going to strain myself here. When the mob is at 50%, I'll put down my smartphone and cast. But just don't pull mobs when I'm in the middle of my Farmville crop planting."
    Mary Poppins and Mykaylla like this.
  2. Mykaylla Augur

    Farmville is serious merc wizard business.
    Mary Poppins likes this.
  3. Mary Poppins Augur

    Tru dat. However, odd behavior like this can be considered to be part of the risk of using a merc over a real player.

    Not that I agree with or condone this stance, but using my psychic abilities I divine that there is a strong indefinatability that this would be the official response if the devs ever chose to give us one. Unfortunately my gift also tells me with 101% certainty that the devs will NOT comment on this issue at this time.

    I am so confident of the validity of both of my above predictions that I, Morituus, am willing to take the rarified step of giving them my golden seal of approval. Those of you unfamiliar with this, it means that I personally guarantee the accuracy of these predictions. I am so certain of this that I would be willing to wager my first born child if that were legal (which, unfortunately, it is not).
  4. Brosa Augur

    They need to just take the hp limit for mercs set to burn out and let them burn at any time. Code them to only attack mobs that the person set to assist has targeted. That will also alleviate other issues with mercs such as them just targeting the first mob they see when mobs are pulled. I've had this issue lately while farming frags in pillars for the tear. I pull multiple mobs and both mercs set to burn each pick a different mob and blast it before switching to the "assisted" mob. Then I have to switch between them all to get agro back and they also assist me nuking what Im trying to control lol. It can get dicey. Guess mercs were just meant to have the AI of a bad player aye?
  5. Koryu Professional Roadkill

    My point is that the merc should never have engaged the mob at all. The "camp" seems to be a set radius around either the person the merc is following (usually the Main Tank), or where the majority of the group is located. With the Puller flag set on the Monk, the merc should ignore any aggro on him and wait until anybody else in the group has engaged the mob, whether in "camp" or not. Also, it should not cast anything anyway, because I have not yet clicked the Call Assist button. And yet, off she goes ignoring her programming, blasting away, getting summoned, and summarily destroyed.
  6. Mythaniel Elder

    Most of the time I'm running Myth, my shaman bot for heals and 2 wiz mercs. On my pulls as a warrior, the mercs nuke stuff from pretty far out. It's really bad when pulling multiples when they don't assist. This happens more often than not and they get summoned and die in mere seconds. This with having the highest HP merc gear and being max merc AA which was a "highlighted" cool introduction to the game, but are so miniscule to even make a difference even in the slightest.

    Wizard mercs aren't the only thing messed up either. I've noticed cleric mercs sometimes just stop healing randomly and whenever there is any rezzing going on, they fully buff people up before they rez and/or take minutes to rez someone.

    Rogue mercs seem ok in the "working as intended" department, but just suck DPS wise in any case, even on burn.

    I am pretty fortunate, with my gear and my shamans gear, I can 2box pretty much anything without the mercs. It just takes forever lol. I run them because it's obviously faster. However, some people have to rely on mercs to get stuff done and when they are working properly (which is quite often on the wizard merc) it's not very productive for the player(s).
  7. Fanra https://everquest.fanra.info

    Considering your 'trademark' habit of sticking your crotch in people's faces, I tend to shy away from anything 'golden' coming from you :).
    Obiziana and Mary Poppins like this.
  8. Mary Poppins Augur

    That's your opinion and you're entitled to it.

    However, these FACTS remain unchanged:

    1. The devs are not going to comment on this issue at this time.
    2. Even if they did, the response would be no changes are planned at this time.
    3. I haven't stuck my crotch in anyone's face in, like, almost a week. Please stop judging me by things from the distant past.


    Also, in closing I would like to leave you with this happy thought:
    [IMG]
    Obiziana likes this.
  9. IDotPeople Augur

    I fully agree with the AI targeting being hilariously bad. A prime example of it being the first Chelsith mission, Unveiling the Mystery and the 4 portal tenders. I tried doing these with 3 wiz mercs on burn the first time or two. Not only did they not assist on the 1 snake I wanted them to most the time, they also decided to nuke all 4 snakes at random. They just rotated around, nuking whoever they pleased until eventually getting everyone in summon ping pong formation and dead. Well okay, I faded my real toons when I saw what was happening, but I knew what was coming, lol.

    I can live with the fact that going into burn makes them have poor targeting ability, in fact that has become part of the fun of living with 3 wiz mercs. Really gives me a chance to sharpen my SHD/CLR/ENC skills. But please, oh please, can you make the damn things nuke regardless of the mob's current health? This should never even have been an issue. Thank you.
  10. Mythaniel Elder

    Can a Dev reply on this noting if things are going to be looked at and/or fixed? Seems to be a pretty big issue for most...
  11. Tobynn Augur

    The haven't commented publicly on this issue for the past three years, despite the dozens of threads on the subject. Why start now?
  12. Elegist Elder

    We are looking at fixing the issue with caster DPS mercs not engaging mobs when in burn mode. I don't have an ETA on this yet, though.

    We're not always happy with how mercs behave, and hopefully we can at least address this issue. A little more info: We used to have an AI tool that we could use to alter merc behavior, but it no longer works with our current code base. We can still change the AI, but it involves more direct manipulation of the multiple interconnected tables in our DB. The AI also hooks into script calls compiled in C++, so sometimes updating behavior involves coordination between the Design and Code teams.

    That being said, we hope to make some aspects of mercs a little less dumb!
    Ratbo Peep, Eaiana, Leerah and 9 others like this.
  13. Denial_Sinfae Augur

    So great when you guys drop a line and let us know these kinds of things are being worked on.

    Thanks Elegist.
    Ratbo Peep and Leerah like this.
  14. Mary Poppins Augur

    Works every time...

    Thanks E!
  15. IDotPeople Augur

    Great to hear a Dev response on this issue. At the bare minimum would love to see caster mercs always nuke, regardless of HP count. But improved AI too? :eek: That would be shockingly wonderful!
  16. Elegist Elder

    Well, we'll start with working on fixing the no-nuke issue and see what other low-hanging fixes we can reach for. I'm not saying "here comes a merc AI revamp," because the scope of that is too big for our plate right now. But hopefully we can make a few quality of life improvements here and there as time permits.
  17. Mary Poppins Augur

    I'll gladly take whatever we can get for now...

    Then demand more at a later date.
    Obiziana likes this.
  18. IDotPeople Augur


    Totally understandable, be absolutely thrilled just to see them nuke in burn mode regardless the current HP. Everything else is icing on the cake. Very delicious icing, mind you, but the cake is the most important :)
  19. Zentara Augur

    Nuke always in burn mode, make sure they assist the group MA, and if they aren't in range to cast when the group is in combat, move to be in range.

    These are the 3 major issues with Wizard mercs right now--everything else is acceptable in a basic AI and can be worked around. Thanks so much for acknowledging ;)
    Mary Poppins likes this.
  20. Mythaniel Elder

    Awesome. Thank you for the reply Elegist. It's much appreciated. I completely understand that it's too much to look at everything wrong with them right now, but a little at a time is much better than nothing. Thanks again for the response!

    Weird, I hit reply on Elegist's post about Devs looking in to it, but it won't put in the "Elegist said" and quote his text. Any ideas? lol