Fix Mercenary Tanks

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Xyphen, Jul 11, 2019.

  1. Xyphen Maximum Augur

    [IMG]

    I'm ridiculously fed up at this point with the absolute dumpster fire that is mercenaries. I don't care what half-baked excuses are used to justify why a mechanic that's been around for eleven years is still this awful.

    I'm in the unfortunate class of people stuck with a level of dependence on mercenaries because:
    a) I don't have the capacity to box 5 separate accounts
    b) DBG can't figure out how to fix account transfers
    c) I couldn't get old EQ friends to play again even if I paid for their accounts
    d) There aren't enough players to substitute for them anyway (which is why mercenaries exist to begin with)

    Because of that, I'm gated off from nearly 3/4 of any new content with encounters that require anything more than basic mechanics. So, putting on a Xanax on my desire to berate the ongoing development decisions to ignore longstanding bugs to churn the money mill with new expacs, I see no reason why the following mechanics aren't in place:
    • Spell blocking: this is obvious. If I can click the merc's buff off manually, I should be able to block it. I'm tired of it overshooting the mob 5 times because of Selo's.
    • "Pet" Summon: if it's unknowingly going to warp to the other side of the zone, I should be able to summon it back.
    • Proper attack on/off command: if the idiot is going to suicide itself on riposte mechanics, I should be able to turn its attack off without it turning his back to the mob
    • Positioning: if it's going to tank one mob with 4 others hitting behind it, I should be able to re-position it.
    • Fix the assist delay: why is there a 1-3 second delay tagging an incoming target after calling assist? Pets don't have this delay, neither should mercs.
    • Discipline/ability control: I can't tell you how many times this idiot popped Fortitude because it tripped over a rat.
    Regardless of what some may think, mercenaries were introduced into the game as a critical pillar to allow most remaining subscribers to play at all. Nearly every group you see these days has at least one in it, and they were literally marketed as "player-controlled NPCs" yet we have less control over them than pets (which don't take an entire group slot).

    With that said, I'm all ears to any suggestions others may have.
  2. Andarriel Everquest player since 2000



    WOW reminds me of mage pets back in the day.

    Andarriel
  3. Andarriel Everquest player since 2000

    Did someone evac and maybe merc got left behind?

    Andarriel
  4. Sancus Augur

    It's very likely that the owner of the mercenary is set to puller. Mercs will (or at least they're supposed to) warp to you if they're that far away otherwise.
  5. Kolani Augur

    What Sancus said. The owner is the puller, turn it off just for a second and they'll come running, or just pop to you.
  6. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer

    Mercs are crap. Always have been. Due to puritanical tendencies or lack of resources or both, the Dev team is unwilling or unable to make improvements on the scale that are needed.

    Find a group. That's the best I've got.
  7. AcemoneyFV Augur

    Usually if I set my merc to passive, he'll just warp right to me.
  8. Elyssanda Bardbrain

    My healer merc turned and walked away from me and a warrior friend as we were in Kor Sha doing his mercenary achieves yesterday. J5 merc, 1 last DB mob at the time. 110 Max level/AA warrior and bard duo.. Cleric was just there JIC.. but still for him to literally turn and walk off... I asked my friend hey did you see the merc just walk off, or was it a bug on my screen. He said Nope, he left us. Open map, merc is still walking away..
  9. Syylke_EMarr Augur


    Well you'd get bored too if someone brought you along "just in case" :p
    Ghubuk likes this.
  10. Tutankamen Augur

    wow what server do you play on? Switch to FV some of the guilds there are huge and you can usually get a group there. it's the highest pop server there is.
  11. Xyphen Maximum Augur

    Correct. The bard (puller) is the owner of the tank merc. What had happened is I pulled one of the sarnak beastlords, and after killing the sarnak, the merc warped to the middle of the zone. Leaving me with the dog + no tank to deal with.

    If the bard ever dies, that's a whole other disaster. But unfortunately auto assist doesn't work reliably to have another character control the tank.
  12. Tappin Augur

    Mercs are broken and have been for sometime. The reason they are broken has nothing to do with development time - they simply don’t want to.
    Xyphen likes this.
  13. Conq Augur

    Mercs are the Devil.
    Xyphen likes this.
  14. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer


    They were oversold from the word go. EQ was to receive three tiers of merc: Apprentice / Journeyman / Master. Each tier successively more powerful. I am not sure who convinced the team to remove Master Mercenaries, but they haven't made an appearance in EQ1.

    Description of the 'Siren Master' Priest Mercenary:
    [IMG]
  15. Azmadius Journeyman

    It's not like we are asking for much... I'd like to actually be able to use mine on stuff from 5 expansions ago without having to absolutely chain heal or wipe on a single mob and be unable to do any dps because you have to hawkeye its lifebar.
  16. Skewert Lorekeeper

    Are you boxing two + 2 mercs? If so, I'd abandon hope on using a tank merc as your main tank and roll an actual tank as one of your two boxed toons. Will probably be less frustration for you in the end.
  17. Azmadius Journeyman

    I only have 1 toon over 100. Most of my other guys are 70-80. I thought about it though. If i did it that way i could tank and have 2 healer mercs lol