Play own characters as Mercenaries

Seconded what Neiloch said right above me. I used DF about 50 times back when it came out over 50% of those groups were either:

1: Not a full group.
2: Missing a healer.
3: Had 2+ duplicate classes (a group with 3 rangers is just funny)
4: Were missing a Tank when I was not on my Guardian.

Those were very glaring problems not counting the time I got Stonebrunt Quested geared toons for Zraxth's Unseen Arcanum, a zone you pretty much had to have T2+ Raid gear to attempt.

As to what Powermax said regarding mercenaries.

The point is to remove them from Current content and leave them for old content. I badly played human who half-knows their class will do almost as well as a Mercenary. I would rather see a bigger incentive to group up and take that risk of having 2 zerks, a fury, a wizard and 2 troubadors for a zone instead of just 3 players and 3 random dps-mercenaries. At least "back when" in EoF your mishmash group was all PLAYERS instead of AI-Bots programmed by SOE. Obano said it well in another post.

"The damage has been done"

That is the mentality I am hearing from you Powermax, you think that because they added Mercenaries it is a jolly good thing and they should remain as is when they could easily be pushing for other incentives to group.

Players stay on an MMO for social interaction, hell that is the reason I had to (quite embarrassingly) back out of my "I am Quitting" post which in hindsight I never should have posted. I realized that I like posting here on the forums, and speaking with my gulidmates even if I have to ignore half the people in another guild because they keep having ego-contests with Momentum (a guild from Oasis) in our server-channels.

All I really want is the ability to customize how they look. We can already change their names, so why not their gender, race, and shave/haircut stuff, too?

Actually a merc is meant to replace leveling with toons. Mercs were only introduced to most MMO's as an alternative while server populations were low. I have been on MMOs for just about 12 years, 6 on EQ2 (just never felt inclined to be on the forums lol). Anyway, I think the OP has a point, however, they could just make a more costly raid option for mercs. Nothing is free children

Do you know how to play your merc or your character?

Reading through all the posts I wonder how may take the time to think about how they are playing the merc. Personally I love the merc's, however you have to think about your strong points and theirs as well.

So, Say you have a wizard, not a strong class and one that you need to utilize strategy on. Grabbing a Merc Paladin in Qeynos helps counter your weaknesses while your abilities help augment his.

You have to think of it like a small group, think of how you properly play your character and chose the merc that best augments your abilities. It also helps you later on when you are in a group as you are used to using your abilities more than soloing.

Much like how I use an Inquisitor merc because as a Guardian (a lot of Damage Reductions) my weakness is in DoT's and CC remaining on me. He also helps up my dps passively allowing him to focus on healing while I focus on killing.

I think this is a great idea tbh. I don't mean to make massively OP mercs, but basically make a sorta "merc maker", where you take your character, use the class template already created for the NPC mercs and make your own Merc NPC. It would would look like you, get your stats based on your gear and you would select which class spells it casts. Then you can would be able to leave this NPC merc in the merc hall to be hired for a max of maybe 3 hours a day. It would be unique like the rare mercs, so only one person would able to hire you, ensuring that many different people's mercs would used.

The plat could be part split between you and between server, so it would act as a plat sink as well.

I think it would make for an absolutely awesome addition to the game.

What do you mean if I know how to play a mercenary? Your point is not valid since if you would spend some time to read my original post I'm talking about having better mercenaries for heroic HM zones. As far as playing my characters, I actually don't need a mercenary at all to do any of the solo questing and such, but then again I don't think we have the same play style. Unless you are soloing heroic zones with your Pally mercenary and your wizard (that would impress me a little) I don't think you really understand my needs.

When mercs were first introduced, I suggested they allow us to 'merc our own characters'.

My justification for this is, I'd rather have my own toon that I merc with, one that I can control their stats, itemization, aa specializations, upgrade their spells, etc, etc.

However, the way the Merc system is designed, the mercs aren't actually complete classes or characters, so what your asking for isn't remotely possible under the current system.

I agree it would have had much more potential for me as a player. I'd actually use a merc if I could do this, whereas I don't bother running one with what they delivered cause in my opinion they are worthless, take up space, suck xp, and eat loot.

Now if I could have my own dirge running under a merc AI, that would be something I would use and find pure awesome.

All I'm saying is that for some people it would be great. Others think it will destroy grouping, but then again most say DF doesn't work. All I want is a mercenary (if it's one of your own toons even better) that can follow, engage, and do some CA/Spells. But when you can box any class and auto attack for at least 50K compared to 13k to a dps mercenary then that's where they are very limited for heroic grouping.

Oh I agree, those mercs are limited for even soloing. I feel in nearly every circumstance a boxed toon with auto attack and occasional button presses out performs a merc.

In my opinion, there isn't a single point in playing this game that the cost of using a merc warrants its use.