Hey All, I think that building in additional elements to the mercenary system would be good. These elements include: additional progression to boost merc power (balanced by pc class power), more merc archetypes, and an ability to have additional mercs for a single character. Balance wise I believe that a system facilitating more mercs per character could be done as a currency sink, where each extra merc costs progressively more platinum. Thus progression could be still possible for players via the grind, trade, or other currency generating approaches. The cost should be high enough to be inefficient for an afk grind. Additional archetypes is self explanatory, it would introduce a broader depth for strategizing encounters and building a solo character or smaller team around it. Regarding boxers, I have 3 boxed often, which tends to cause periodic burnout as it turns into a job. I think that promoting additional solo play, while still maintaining less power than a 6 person pc team is a good idea. Perhaps I'm the only one that hopes for any of the above, but I think more options for a preexisting system are an efficient use of resources. Thanks
Do you mean the ability to have more more mercs per character active at one time? Like I could run a healer and a tank and just one character? Cause we can buy more merc slots from marketplace now and those are account wide. And get more per character via quests and ach: Mercenary Recruitment give you hero's barracks and you can do it 4 times if you don't go craycray Achievement: Master of Alaris will give you another slot
So this isn't exactly shooting your idea down, but i'm slightly confused here. Increase merc power: we've got gear and AA to give to them Increase merc archetype: we only have 4 archetypes in game and mercs cover all 4 More mercs at a single time: this will never happen as it'll allow for automated game play which is a no no.
One merc is plenty good for any. Mercs are not supposed to be as good as players by a far. Mercs are just there to support you a tiny bit.
Just as not all classes can solo not all classes get the same value out of mercs and some can't do much with a single merc.
Then group, its a multiplayer game not a single player game. Or you can do easier content. Not all need to do the toughest stuff solo.
Sure this is a group game but as it stands some classes can solo or molo with a merc and others can't which seems to be the point of this thread. Just making the claim that one merc is plenty for anyone isn't true since some classes get no value from a merc as it doesn't change the fact that they can't solo or molo.
Purely as a cosmetic thing, I'd love to be able to pop the other toons on my account as mercs that didn't charge, but also wouldn't level beyond the actual toon level (if you a 120 healer, you need to level your alt healer to 120). Merc would act as per any other merc, but based off the archetype of the alt, and would match in appearance and gear (although only get benefit from the normal merc gear). Any takers?
More power? Merc gear Additional merc? so 2 mercs? Sure, this game is group heavy especially the past 10 years year after year. Does not look like they providing any paths. People enjoy telling people to consider boxing. Which is a strain on a wrist not gonna lie. QoL is not good either not gonna lie. Alt tab is the preferred method. Theres no boxing UI stickies. Know what other game was group heavy game? Guild Wars 1. What else? You can fill a group with mercs. Which game was more successful? GW1, they made it to #esports status from nothing. Moved onto GW2 successfully. GW2 solo style game, you don't really needs mercs. People play with people. So no mercs in GW2, mercs in GW1. Goes to show how one game takes into consideration QoL, the other game, EQ, not very AGILE, not paying attention to how people play the game vs what they think how people play it. Ironic how GW2 a solo style game, has it where more people playing with people, easily joining 50 people squads. Than EQ a group heavy game, where people solo boxing, soloing. Ironic. EQ group style game, 1 merc?
You are correct with 'a tiny bit' comment. Even the most ghetto under geared, under AA'd, unskilled cleric is better then a cleric merc. Someone claimed that dif. merc skins perform better then others. I would very much like to know which ones are the better ones because I tried a lot of them and have not seen a difference so far.
Merc aa? Its like putting a bow on a cow pie. Mercs are so woefully bad that an afk druid is almost better than a merc cleric.
I quite often play an AFK druid and I've yet to have anyone die on my watch (although I'm usually solo in PoK). I do believe that some classes get more out of mercs than others though. I'm looking at the pet classes who are already a group of 2.
I'd suggest that they allow you to boost your merc up a few levels on live servers. They already have all the code for mercs at every level. It should be a relatively simple enhancement compared to other merc changes. Allowing you to boost it up higher than your level would make it stronger and be a better partner. There'd have to be some downside--such as being more expensive, taking more exp, etc--but it would be worth it since it would make molo-ing more feasible. To avoid people molo-ing their way to the top with a super-merc, I'd suggest only being able to boost your merc's level if you are 10 levels below max. Once you get to the levels where there are players, it would be better to encourage people to play with others rather than a super-merc. I pretty much gave up adventuring when I got to the 90's. It was too much work trying to keep me and my merc alive. I don't like boxing. And pretty much every zone I was in was totally deserted. I suppose if I wanted to play "LFGquest" I could have found people to group with eventually, but I don't really like that mini-game all that much. Certainly EQ is a group game and it's designed that way, but when there's no one to group with, it would be nice if mercs could fill the gap until players could get to the levels with other players.
Not necessarily. A PC healer can go AFK, pass out, forget to heal or re-buff. A healer merc never sleeps, leaves the group or goes AFK for any reason. It's always available. (Don't have it on passive and have enough coin to pay the upkeep.) The healer merc is fine being in a state of the art super group or the most rag tag group of misfits that gets steamrolled in old content. It's true a PC healer when paying attention is much better, but a healer merc always pays attention.
People normally don't go AFK (unless it is emergency) or pass out . My groups are boring. I was pointing out that a badly geared player will very little skill will absolutely destroy a cleric merc when it comes to healing. Now if your cleric is stoned and unable to find his keyboard, well, in that case get a merc out. Mercs do not provide adequate healing. You would need like 3 healer mercs to replace a cleric. Like I said I would like to know what merc skins people use because those I've tried do not heal adequately. Which one do you use, Eaedyilye?
Forget all that (AFK, lazy, stoned, etc). Two words: lag spikes. Having a healer merc has saved me from group wipes numerous times. It's the primary reason I keep not pulling the trigger to ditch the merc and replace with a PC healer.
