Merc Nurf?

Would the fantastic people in charge of 'balancing' the game please stop shrinking the player base in order to make your game more fun(SOE TM)?

As if call of the nerfs wasn't bad enough all year, you are now nerfing what little that expansion gave in terms of HAs and merc stats? Please replace whoever is giving the final sign off on these changes.

Apparently this change was on the list of Things To Forget While Making the Patch Notes.

My experience has been that since this change my RoF/CotF raid geared berserker tanks better than a tank merc. Previously a tank merc took far less DPS from mobs.

This is, without a doubt, the most idiotic series of responses I ever recall in 13 years of playing this game. To tell us "..we're moving forward by going backward, but we're not telling anyone about it.." and expect that we're just going to buy it?!? Just how stupid do you think the people who play this game are??

I won't be buying TBS until they reverse the exp nerf, so I really can't speak to the how this new change effects the game. I just want to say that the lack of communication here is breathtaking. This isn't a little change. You didn't let the people beta know about it so it hasn't been play tested. At this point it almost feels like we are being toyed with. How about a little honesty?

Edit - Btw, I am one of those who does think that merc tanks ARE overpowered and would have been a good subject for an open review and discussion. Just one wizard's opinion.

I guess i am lucky I have a 101 Enchanter, 101 Mage, 101 Druid, 100 shaman, 90 Beastlord, 84 Ranger and 84 Paladin on my accounts to buff my warrior merc so she can survive!

Pain in the butt will be having to port them all to where i am and doing all the buffs! ..on the plus side it will give me something to do while waiting for the lockout timer to expire.....

I've always found the tank mercs were terrible. Tanking light blues requires me to spam heal them. With the poor dps they have, it makes moloing with a druid very long and tedious.

The fact that druids can not slow mobs, nor haste the mercs, makes it even worse. However, even with shaman haste on the merc, and using a box shaman to slow mobs, my level 101 druid with merc still found moloing in Valley of Lunanyn (which is what? Three expansions old and 10 levels lower?) to be a case of spamming my merc tank and waiting forever for the mob to die.

The ability to heal, nuke, heal, which I would expect from a real tank in such much lower than my level content, is just not there. And two light blue mobs at once? A case of spamming heals and hoping tank doesn't die.

If I take a real tank, the mobs become a joke. Only with a merc tank does three expansion old content become difficult.

Contrast this with my taking my monk to the same spot with a cleric merc. The monk is able to easily tank two at a time with far more dps without a shaman box.

Putting aside the fact of whether the change is agreeable to players, you may want to take another look at how your stat change is working on Live. Players are reporting not only that merc stats (AC and mana) drop upon reaching level 101, but that those stats continue to go down as mercs level up further. Was that intended as well?

We use a tank merc and granted, I am a real healer, but while the tank merc did die twice last night (I was 101 the entire night so hadn't just ding'd it), it took on tier 1 named without issue and did tank 2-3 dark blues in Katta often. 3 caused me to spam a bit more but pet didn't die except when I turned away and hubby pulled instead of me (bad hubby!)

You already have TBS =)

Frantic Smith on 2014-10-30 in 146sec

[
Vuuil
--- DMG: 10665335 (89,3%) @ 73050 dps (72553 sdps)



Teukanne
--- DMG: 1094731 (9,17%) @ 18555 dps (7447 sdps)


Leighanna
--- DMG: 152319 (1,28%) @ 1570 dps (1036 sdps)


Healorez
--- DMG: 30797 (0,26%) @ 30797 dps (210 sdps)


Produced by GamParse v1.0.3
102 caster merc ( on burn... Teukanne). I knew they didn't do alot of damage... but really? that low?

I ahve a 101 group tier 1 sk mostly dropable and crafted non visable, 0ver 10k aa's doing the named in cotf were impossible molo, get flatened every time, so i thought work on buy expansion i could possibly upgrade to 105 better crafted gear ect maybe be able to tank a cotf named down in west tainted, but low and behold my merc now runs out of mana healing me, j5, and the only mobs i can molo in TdS are the con weak ones , trash mobs require visage and epic to stay alive, and xp is so bad killing trash, i got 1% for 25 mobs, worse yet dailys are now 2% for the 90 and alternate daily, many of us dont have raid gear and many more sk's and pallies are like me can barley get 9k ac buffed, this expansion compounded all those problem, we wont be buying expasion for wifes shaman, and I advised all access friends to postone or forget it.

Just FYI, the game folks aren't too fond of people moloing named in a current expansion. So the fact you couldn't do that really isn't a viable complaint. (Some SK's can, so I might check and see what they were doing that you might not have tried). Though how was your AC, mods, heroics, etc?

(I dislike the other changes, especially the healer mana ones you mentioned) but had to point out that one.

It seems to be the pattern lately to take something away so they can make us buy it back somehow....

Pet nerfs followed by an expansion with more pet aa to buy back some of what we lost anyone?

I am sure there will be more aa and/or gear coming at some point for mercs as well.

The changes are specifically done to "allow room for expansion" which means exactly that they took it away to give back to us later.

Bought TDS for my main; dinged 101, died twice to 2 blues in Shards Landing, healer merc with 100+ AAs&cotf merc gear being dumb.

Switched (not added) to boxes' 100 healer with about 4 AA's and no gear, fought 4 at a time for the rest of the night, no more deaths...

Quick parse info comparison using old parse from pet change thread..

level 101 war merc cleric buffs and bard ac songs

/Tanking summary for: Sethilla --- Total damage: 4026518 --- Avg hit: 4493 --- Swings: 1344 --- Defended: 315 (23.4%) --- Hit: 896 (66.7%) --- Missed: 133 (9.9%) --- Accuracy: 87.1% --- Dodged: 82 (7.4%) --- Parried: 128 (9.5%) --- Blocked: 0 (0%) --- Riposted: 105 (8.6%) --- Absorbed: 0 (0%)
Sethilla - vs - A traitorous guard
Attempts 1344 100%
Missed 133 9.9%
Dodged 82 6.1%
Parried 128 9.52%
Blocked 0 0%
Riposted 105 7.81%
Absorbed 0 0%
1888 5 0.37%
1889 1 0.07%
1902 1 0.07%
2097 38 2.83%
2098 5 0.37%
2100 1 0.07%
2103 1 0.07%
2113 1 0.07%
2117 2 0.15%
2119 1 0.07%
2120 2 0.15%
2131 1 0.07%
2379 100 7.44%
2385 32 2.38%
2397 1 0.07%
2650 260 19.35%
2663 10 0.74%
2885 5 0.37%
2946 6 0.45%
3205 18 1.34%
3229 6 0.45%
3384 6 0.45%
3512 8 0.6%
3759 35 2.6%
3795 9 0.67%
3882 1 0.07%
4078 4 0.3%
4313 21 1.56%
4361 6 0.45%
4382 5 0.37%
4644 7 0.52%
4868 7 0.52%
4927 15 1.12%
5210 4 0.3%
5378 1 0.07%
5421 21 1.56%
5494 4 0.3%
5777 5 0.37%
5877 2 0.15%
5975 23 1.71%
6060 8 0.6%
6343 5 0.37%
6376 3 0.22%
6529 17 1.26%
6626 6 0.45%
6875 5 0.37%
6909 3 0.22%
7084 17 1.26%
7192 5 0.37%
7475 4 0.3%
7638 22 1.64%
7758 2 0.15%
8191 13 0.97%
8370 1 0.07%
8746 15 1.12%
8869 1 0.07%
9300 10 0.74%
9369 1 0.07%
9854 12 0.89%
9867 1 0.07%
10365 3 0.22%
10409 8 0.6%
10863 2 0.15%
10963 11 0.82%
11363 1 0.07%
11516 11 0.82%
11862 3 0.22%
12070 8 0.6%
12625 4 0.3%
13179 13 0.97%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From pet change thread on test level 100 war merc same cleric buffs and bard ac songs

Tanking summary for: Sethilla --- Total damage: 1209649 --- Avg hit: 4496 --- Swings: 341 --- Defended: 43 (12.6%) --- Hit: 269 (78.9%) --- Missed: 29 (8.5%) --- Accuracy: 90.3% --- Dodged: 14 (4.5%) --- Parried: 16 (4.7%) --- Blocked: 0 (0%) --- Riposted: 13 (4%) --- Absorbed: 0 (0%)
Sethilla - vs - A traitorous guard (war merc)
Attempts 170 100%
Missed 13 7.65%
Dodged 8 4.71%
Parried 3 1.76%
Blocked 0 0%
Riposted 8 4.71%
Absorbed 0 0%
2396 22 12.94%
2662 52 30.59%
2907 2 1.18%
3229 3 1.76%
3416 1 0.59%
3795 3 1.76%
3925 1 0.59%
4361 2 1.18%
4436 1 0.59%
4928 4 2.35%
4945 1 0.59%
5454 2 1.18%
5494 2 1.18%
5963 1 0.59%
6060 4 2.35%
6473 2 1.18%
6625 3 1.76%
6983 2 1.18%
7192 3 1.76%
7758 3 1.76%
8324 4 2.35%
8891 3 1.76%
9021 1 0.59%
9457 3 1.76%
9531 1 0.59%
10023 4 2.35%
10040 1 0.59%
10549 1 0.59%
10589 1 0.59%
11155 1 0.59%
11217 1 0.59%
11569 1 0.59%
11721 1 0.59%
12854 1 0.59%

Mercs should never equal a real players power, but there is a line where mercs have to be useful so you can do stuff but not over powered so you dont need real players.

I'm sorry but if your 101 and you died to 2 blues in shards landing, you either had the merc on passive, had set yourself to puller, or were doing something very wrong. If you are a mage, as your picture implies (you may not be) then you should have been able to keep your pet alive without any issues in shards landing at 101 without a healer.

I don't want to get into the middle of this dev vs player battle.. But this kind of responses is one of the things players are tired of and are complaining about lately.

At least the previous dev talked about stats and reluctantly talked a bit about numbers. Although so far none of the devs are owning up to the fact that changes to mercs were not covered in patch notes. And none so far are willing to go into details about the changes either.

Just saying, if there's any management looking at this thread, this is one of the things you guys need to fix and do better. Both 1) being transparent about changes, especially negative changes even if you think they are net positive changes that won't affect players much, because we know how things can go from a test environment to live.. And 2) the responses devs give to players no matter how much it's itching for you to say something smug or shall we say, creative. Rather than ask the player for details to help the player figure out what might have gone wrong, instead the *paying customer* sees a response such as the above.

I know you guys are overworked and severely under-manned, I get that it's not your fault EQ1 is under funded and resource starved. But players aren't the ones you want to take your frustrations out on.

Y'all are calling it a nerf, when it's already been explained that it's a change, not a nerf. More evasion, less AC.

How are you consistently misinterpreting this?

Ya look at parses people this is not a nerf. A nerf implies the merc got weaker they did not.