New Year. New Mercs!

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by I_Love_My_Bandwidth, Jan 24, 2020.

  1. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer

    Darkpaw Games,

    First of all, this request is not for me. I am happy to box and pay for six accounts so I don't have to use mercs.

    It's time you deliver on your promise of raid-level mercs. It was planned at the outset, and then scrapped. I don't know why, and I don't care. Mercs today border on useless. Players are trying to find ways to cope with dwindling server populations.

    I propose:
    1. An entirely new merc quest line tied to group progression achievements, which rewards a new 'Master Mercenary'. This merc can ONLY be used in raids and uses more advanced scripting. Master Mercs would be at around 80% of player ability for that class.
    2. Revamp of the current mercs so all Journeyman Tier V mercs are on par with the Melee DPS merc equating to about 40% of player ability for that class.
    Access to the Master Merc quest would be locked behind a $20 option pack and would apply to the entire account, but the quest must be accomplished on a character in order to use Master Mercs on that character.

    I know...it's a big ask. But the game is ready for it. Are people going to 'raid up' to use this merc against group content? Sure. But they cannot use it on shared missions due to the mechanic in place that blocks raid invites while on group missions and vice versa.

    Darkpaw Games, help them. You're their only help.
  2. bortage spammin lifetaps

    I really like the idea of buffing merc AI and throughput and allowing them everywhere, but it may be worthwhile to implement a cap on how many mercs you can have in a group/raid if they do get buffed, maybe something like one meleeing merc (tank/rogue) and one castery merc (wizzy/cleric) so groups can fill whatever their group is lacking without it going too overboard

    Also raiders doing double the numbers of groupers assuming similar relative gear, adps and skill level (so tradeskill group vs tradeskill raid) doesn't sound accurate
  3. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer

    You don't think buffing raid mercs to double that of group mercs, which is still under group players ability is a good idea? How would raid mercs survive AEs?
  4. bortage spammin lifetaps

    Not exactly, I think buffing mercs so that raid mercs are the level suggested is the right thing to do, I just don't feel that group mercs should be quite that much weaker than their raid counterparts
  5. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    How are mercs going to cope with raid mechanics? Following emotes moving etc. Healing tanks in other groups, AE healing the raid, picking up adds when they spawn, etc, etc

    I don't think you have thought this through.
  6. Vumad Cape Wearer

    I have advocated strongly for an update to mercs and I am very against this. A few points which I have continued to make...

    Raids need an easy mode... Zone Wide AE buff that reduces damage taken by X% and increases PC damage by Y%. The penalty for easy mode is no TS raid item, half the raid currency, no raid spells and 1 instead of 2 weapons. This change would make raids much more accessible, with an appropriate loot penalty for balance.If this happens, you wouldn't need mercs to win.

    Now, since one could argue that raiding with mercs is a parallel solution to what I suggested above, If you win with mercs, then you shouldn't get the full loot amount anyway, so the above penalty still applies. The reason I advocate above is that the buff I suggested per event is a simple way to tune down the event. No complaining that mercs are getting hit by emotes or whatever other nonsense that could waste dev time.

    If by chance, you are talking about stronger mercs for group content, awarded by raid ACH, then no also. Tank mercs and wizard mercs need a massive overhaul, as I have been discussing in another thread, but they should be on par with casual players. Rogue mercs currently do a steady about 180k DPS. Casual PC rogues should meet or beat this, while being able to burn properly for more DPS and add utility to groups such as traps. Rogue mercs, for example, should not be able to do the 500k DPS with 2 million burn DPS that raid rogues can do.
  7. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer

    It really doesn't matter what is proposed, SOMEONE will be against it and believe they are correct.

    I want people to have access to options. Whether that comes in the form of upgraded group mercs, new raid mercs, new legendary mercs - whatever.

    I never advocated that mercs should be able to do 2M DPS. That was entirely your presumption.