What separates Merc AA from Leadership AA? Seems pretty similar, and you're phasing leadership out. In ~5 years, is the exp I'm putting towards mercs going to be auto-granted?
I must agree with this sentiment. There are too few non merc groups currently. Encouraging merc usage for the purpose of xping for the merc has the convers effect of discouraging regular grouping. Why don't you encourage grouping by providing a merc xp bonus for everyone in a group that ISN"T using a merc. Kind of like Vitality.
might have been answered before but i couldent see it , if im in a grp with 4 other people and 1 pops the healing merc , will he only get the merc xp or all in group for their mercs?
only person WHO actually pops the merc. Why should the others get xp for merc, when not having popped one ?
He (Elidroth) said earlier in this thread that you have to be using your merc to gain xp on it. So in the situation you mentioned, no, only the owner of the merc would gain merc xp.
cause grouping should be rewarded? hope this doesnt end up with people doing 3 man groups with 3 mercs in order to get em the aa xp
I like the concept/idea on the mercs however I have the same concern as many in the thread .... 'x' group was frequently happy to drop a merc. and add a player, will they still be? If you have a group of friends you always play with likely not a concern, if you are trying to get new groups going its going to be tougher I think - add player and let your merc fall behind ... unless the XP bonus or incentive for players to play with players vs mercs is changed a bit perhaps?
This is exactly what it will lead to. I was really hoping we could select a percent of our exp to channel into mercenary exp even when the merc wasnt in use for this very reason.
If the people you group with regularly/friends dump you because they want merc AA, they probably aren't worth grouping with in the first place. The majority of players will still take a PC over a merc even with merc AA because the PC will always be superior (assuming some competency at their class). Now, if you're talking random PU groups, those usually wound up with Mercs anyhow. The days of /lfg on being an effective experience route are dead. Perhaps having some people take the two weeks to max merc AA will then allow them to form less than ideal groups in regard to class composition, ultimately resulting in increased grouping of PCs. Pure speculation. Just like the rest of the prophecies of the end of the world due to merc AA. As a 3-boxer, this is awesome. I get to level my healer, tank, and caster dps whenever I want, and potentially all the time. This will probably unlock some of the #2 RoF missions, keeping boxers happy. Regardless, I'd always swap in a guildy or someone who needs help over getting merc AA. How long do you people really think it will take to max?
Believe me, it's not just EQ players. We had a saying back in the days of MMOG Air Warrior. "You could get 'em all laid - and they'd still ." -Ratty (some things never change)
Re: Merc Experience. Mercs ALREADY are getting XP. When you are grouped with a Merc, you get the same XP you would get if you were with a PC character. The Merc is ALSO getting the same XP a PC would get if they were in a 2 person group. (or a 3, 4, 5 or 6 person group depending on how many people are in your group). instead of the Merc's XP that t he Merc is getting evaporating into the ether, it will now automatically go towards Merc AA XP which you can spend as you get a point. The rate of the Merc AA's will be similar to the AA rate when Luclin first came out, so you won't be knocking them out fast. Also you won't see HUGE boosts with these AA's. The intent is to have a system that will leave them room to grow for 5-10-15 years to come, so unlike Luclin which gave big boosts to start, the system is starting off slow. Re: Epics I believe the intent is to make sure that you don't basically permanantly lose an equipment slot to the epics like the Necros have more or less. If you're using the epic from inventory (like Clerics), it's not as big a concern. It won't be capped off this expansion, but there ARE plans in the works to add a cap eventually. Assumably (and something that would have to be tested in beta when it does hit), post-cap spells and equipment/abilities will be greater or equivalent to Epic + preCap abilities.
Can you also clarify whether the merc aa's will be available on the progression servers as soon as we have mercs (in SoD), or will they be tied to Call of the Forsaken?
Not 13 years by the way -- it's 9 years. The necromancer 1.0 epic (the one they got in Kunark era 13 years ago) didn't have any kind of DoT crit focus on it. (DoT crits as a game mechanic didn't even exist at that time, and neither did spell-enhancing focus effects on items.) It's only the necromancer 1.5 and 2.0 (introduced with Omens of War) that have the DoT crit focus effect on them. That focus effect has never been duplicated on any other item since, and therein lies the problem. The only reasons the necromancer 1.5 and 2.0 have been best in slot for years are as follows: 1) The focus does not degrade with levels, and 2) Whichever dev does itemization (at any given time) has never implemented an alternative item for necros to equip that has a similar focus effect. If you want necros to stop feeling married to their epics, just implement one or more dropped pieces of necro-only equipment (or non-prestige augs) that have the same focus. Done. 100% solved. You don't even have to give the new item(s) focus degradation: trust me, necros WILL equip the one with better stats if they can get the same focus effect on something else. (And I can pretty much guarantee you that any necro around would love being able to experiment with other primary-slot pieces of equipment if they could do so without having to lose a substantial amount of killing power in the process, which they currently can't.)
Thanks for the reply. It is clear we don't agree about epics lasting forever but I appreciate your response. Understand if it has to be equipped is bad game design. But having an epic that is a fixed % for the class forever would make it possible...like the SK epic...being clickable from a bag. But if that isn't in the plans so be it...sounds like maybe class specific weapons could be a type of replacement for the epic concept. Not 'new epics' but a different way of giving each class a special item.
Sooo... is there at least a best guess as to when we (Necros) will get to see something Elidroth? This has been promised for a VERY long time.
