Mercenaries

The varied and colorful heroes were one of my favorite parts of Guild Wars. Since they were classes I had played myself, I felt more confident setting up their spells, insteading of just keeping their abilities the default ones.
While I'm looking forward to mercenaries if they work similarly to the heroes of GW (where you could collect all, party with a limited number, and gear up each to your liking), I'd think anyone who doesn't want to enlist them can just pride themselves on their superior skills. I myself will take all the help me and my two-boxed mystic can get! Some people have odder hours or needs that keep them from joining more demanding guilds and groups, and it's super they can get a chance to experience more content via this new method.
Remember that appealing to a wider gamut of gaming desires means a healthier subscription base in the long run. More people, more potential friends, more facets for all to enjoy.

d1anaw wrote:

It's because people are afraid that there will be less group activity. More people will be doing zones by themselves with mercs, similar to the argument proposed against having more solo shard quests, etc. While I agree that it reduces availability of group members in the general population pool there are a couple of points to consider why this really doesn't matter. 1) The population is declining no matter what, SOE is actively funneling new players to the eq2x servers, many people are leaving for other games or because of the dropped DOV ball, and the way group zones work you rarely see any PUG x4's, maybe a bit more often but still not often PUG x2's, and for general grouping zones you really only see pools/ascent on a regular basis. 2) If people want to solo let them solo. I'm a diehard group kind of guy, I love MMO's for the group aspect and think there should be very very little which can be soloed, but I'm a dinosaur and in this brave new world people want to log on, do something meaningful, and log off real quick before the baby wakes up. I understand that this is the new reality and it's pretty obvious that SOE is catering a large part of their business on these types of players, it's here to stay and it ain't going anywhere so we might as well try to make the best of it.
That's why from a purely gameplayer POV I would not want mercs, but from a reality POV I can see that without mercs even the most group oriented of us will bore quickly of waiting for a group and from the incredible boredom of killing 10 rats or delivering a note across the zone. It's a tough question/decision with undertones of the games survival in this market of casual solo f2p gameplay and if SOE doesn't do it you can be sure the next MMO will.

My opinion is that once mercenaries debut, skilled players will not see a noticeable decrease in grouping opportunities.
I think that a skilled player who enjoys grouping will, by the time they're around level 30 or 40, have a guild and/or a robust friends list.
I can see how it might make it more difficult for a new & unskilled player to find groups. I'm the only one in my guild who still plays, but that's fine for me, based on my erratic playing schedule. Once mercs debut, I'd probably have to be in an incredibly charitable mood to join a PUG with strangers, rather than just solo with my mercenary.

EQ 1 mercenaries weren't just identical to player classes, in many ways they were better. A Tier 5 healer or tank could be hard to compete with. That's EQ 1 though. They are almost hostile towards casual players.

The problem will come when the mercenaries are able to get their own mercenaries. Then, what will we as a paying customer be able to do against a hoard of NPCs kill-stealing and hogging all the harvest nodes?

Zaldor wrote:

I always knew that SOE would somehow be responsible for Skynet. It's all starting to come together.

I think there should be like a 1% chance that as soon as you pay the merc, he tries to just kill you and run off with the money.

Rijacki wrote:

Ah, well I can definately see that happening! Mercs are not free .. they pillage and steal the best rum in the taverns!
Danger@Guk wrote:

#3 is important but especially #6. I already spend some time reporting offensive names on AB ... I'm not wanting to do so reporting offensive Merc names as well.

TheGreatCaruso wrote:

VerikDarkfaith wrote:

You'd sooner find a skyhook than convience anyone here (not already knowing) of that. Take it from me, I tried, and even had a Red-Name from EQ1 come in and say I was completely wrong. It is not even an issue that should even be attempted as it is just a futile as trying to lead a dead horse to water -- whats the use?
Ridolain@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Whats the sense in letting them in heroic dungeons but not raids? Are you trying to point fingers at a certain play style and say "here is your stick and crazy glue, now go umph off"? I would personally be FURIOUS if I "HAD" to raid with other players and groupers didn't.
Onorem wrote:

"I'll be back!"

Mercs in EQ1 are great, I'm still playing EQ1. The game is still challenging with mercs. However, EQ2 is really simple and little to no challenge outside of an instanced dungeon or raid. I leveled to 90 in EQ2 and grew bored of spending 2-4 hours a day building a group, I liked the instances, especially the ones near Paineel. Mercs will be great in EQ2 if they are strong enough to handle instances and are protected during dance type events
I'm curious how powerful mercs will be in EQ2. Outside of group content they will be complete overkill, the solo content is already super easy, even most of the bosses in open dungeons are soloable. If the mercs are not strong enough and designed to handle instanced group dungeons like the ones near Paineel they will be pretty useless and just do more harm than good.
I think they need to be programmed differently for where they are. You know what zones/instances are a challenge. When the Mercs zone into those places they need to be upgraded when they zone out they need to downgrade to something like a Necromancers pet, they will still be useful but they won't let you roll your head on the keyboard and win everytime.
I'm looking forward to them, I will try EQ2 again when they are patched in. I just hope they won't make the solo content to easy.

I'm going to start a Player-Mercenary Business. I'll group with you for 1 hour, for 1000 plat.

Timesquare wrote:

They are NOT getting loot, they will get a small portion of coin dropped as compensation for their services. Again, NOT LOOT only COIN.
They cannot be given weapons or gear, they can be dressed for their appearance only, nothing more. Just like a mannequin.
Gninja has clearly said these things so please stop speculating on things that are not part of the plan.

I'm sure mercs will be lots of fun. Why? Mercs=power. But with more power, your previous source of power in certain situations is no longer needed. The previous source?
You.

Crabbok@Unrest_old wrote:

I would rather have my money go to a player service then the market place any day.
(that is strickly an in game service for any of you perverts.)

Gninja wrote:

In addition to mercs, can we instead load up an alt and have it run by the merc AI?

Atan@Unrest wrote:

Like how it works in Guild Wars?

daalberith wrote:

Yeah, or something similar. That way I control the gear bonuses the merc has, etc.

Gear on mercs was listed (somewhere) as one thing they (SOE) want to keep control of. They do not want us gearing out a merc in raid gear to become our **** pocket "whatever".
It was a disappointing, but I suppose understandable answer.

Atan@Unrest wrote:

I dont think they would do this for alts on the same account, because that'd be allowing you to level up 2 toons on one account without SOE getting twice the subscription money.
I don't even know if they could code it such that your alt didn't get a portion of the exp, because don't the mercs also grow as you kill stuff?

Gninja wrote:

LOL If you have to say that, it probably means this feature doesn't have a lot of support from the player base. I am a little stunned that you basically just told the player base that you won't be listening to them so don't bother. 0_o
On topic. I agree that mercs should take gear but never something a player can use over a certain level (like not legendary+). Could you imagine a group making its way to a final mob to get screwed. Think of losing a T2 BP, that would suck!