Would it be possible to allow mercs in 'raid' zones ? E.g. If a 115 wants to go beat up Anguish, let them take a merc. Just keep the block on mercs if a raid is formed. Could also have a block if a raid event is triggered by an NPC to suspend mercs.
As long as it is single group, I see nothing wrong with this. If the content is too much for a single group, they fail the event and the problem solves itself.
Uh, if a 115 can't solo Anguish then they need more than a merc. I solo'd it at 105 and I am sure many others did far below that. You just have to use alts, offline players, afk players and whatever it takes to make up the raid force needed. Most folks are more than happy to help and few raids require all 6 be in the zone.
Raid mercs were promised when they were first announced, and then retracted when the feature went live. Originally, there were supposed to be three merc skill levels and five tiers per level. Apprentice: I, II, III, IV, V Journeyman: I, II, III, IV, V Master: I, II, III, IV, V The decision was made to scrap the Master level because reasons. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Master mercs were scrapped because there was overwhelming player opposition to them at the time, almost entirely from the prominent guild leaders, who argued that such mercs would trivialize the content and undermine their guilds. The competitive element prevailed. Is that argument still valid today? I dunno. As already noted, there are plenty of ways to put together a faux group of six to unlock almost all old-world raid events without using mercs.
Anguis Anguish was just an example. How about new Plane of Fire, Great Divide or Eastern Wastes raid instances ? There are drops from the 'trash' in those zones but since they are tagged as 'raid' you need to take a full group in to kill just the trash mobs.
Did you even read the post ? This is nothing about moloing raids, I even said to specifically suspend mercs if a raid event is triggered. The idea was to allow groups to go get items that are specifically in 'raid' zones but NOT on raid mobs. E.g. the augs that drop from the trash in Plane of fire or the ores for the type 18 augs in GD/EW.
Sorry to ask, nothing against you, but who the heck needs a merc, healer, dps, tank, whatever, at 115 to wipe Anguish? And for more recent raids, there are solutions : form a group, or box. You can farm ToV raid trash with group geared characters (that's what I've done do get my ores for the type 18/19 augs, or the luck augs for my charm, Frozen Fate), and I'm far from exceptional, so if I can do it, imo, anybody else can do the same. Maybe use the mercs to get the minimum number of «players» to start the raid (6 for Anguish, 3 characters + 3 mercs), why not, but as soon as you enter the zone, in my humble opinion, mercs must be discarded and suspended automatically. (and I'm a pure grouper, I don't raid anymore, so I don't wear any raid gear)
He used it as an example of allowing mercs in a dz.. it was a bad example, because folks are not understanding the OP intent.
There is a reason those augs only drop in zones you need a raid force to enter. It's by design. It's worked that way for many years now. It is also wildly inaccurate to describe them as "trash" mobs; it takes co-ordinated effort to kill them, and their drops represent a consolation prize if the raid fails to take out the final target(s). You don't get to just waltz in with a small group and pick off what little you can. You still have plenty of things to target in the group content if you don't want to play in a guild and actually, you know, raid.
I can do this with 5 characters, 6th is buddy in gh just filling a spot.. a raid force is not a requirement to kill trash mobs in an expedition.
On that part, I don't know for all the raid instances as I haven't tried them all, but it's not always true. In ToV GD for instance, trash mobs are just ... trash mobs, that's all. Nothing special. The minos or wurms have a little bit more HP than in the group instance, they do hit a bit harder too, but nothing crazy, at least on a decently geared tank (max AA, but group gear only) and a correctly balanced group (SK/CLR/ENC/WIZ/MAG/BRD). Same in TBL, haven't tried all the raids, but in the PoFire raid, the trash mobs are just random guardians of fire.
The OP made it clear he was after augs, and the mobs which drop that stuff aren't random trivials. If some people want to get into those zones solo that badly, they can box six and see if it works. The devs aren't going to completely redo the entire game design because someone doesn't want to take that extra step and wants to do it with 3+3. Ain't gonna happen in current content. A lot of the "requests" that are popping up now in the Veteran's forum are getting more and more out of touch with reality.
[quote="Captain Video, post: 3979736, member: 427068" A lot of the "requests" that are popping up now in the Veteran's forum are getting more and more out of touch with reality.[/quote] I can't not read them and yet I know it's a waste of my time...then when I'm caught up, someone adds more. Please stop the madness
But that's the problem... you don't! Pretty much any group of 6 can go into these zones and kill the trash. Locking group gear inside a 'raid' instance is just a pita. Either let those augs drop in the regular zones or let us take groups (not raids) into the instances.
They aren't 'raid' instances, they're RAID instances, there's no approximation here. And by definition it's not group gear, otherwise it would already drop in group content. You think it should be considered group gear because the stats are close, BUT... the itemization distinction is a developer decision, one they make every expansion. If you think these augs should be dropped in group content due to their stats, that's a separate argument which you can make if you choose. Not allowing mercs into designated raid zones is an absolute. You have zero chance of changing that. And as noted in several posts above, you are free to assemble a group of six actual toons and go in, see what if anything you can farm (with lockout). There are quite a few things in EQ which are a PITA, get used to it.
