Mercenary AI Changes

Discussion in 'Test Server Forum' started by Denmum, Apr 25, 2023.

  1. Denmum Developer

    From the April 21 Test patch notes:

    MERCENARIES
    • Player Mercenaries have undergone a full AI revamp. Mercenaries will now base how quickly they can react to combat based off of the rarity of the mercenary, and the mercenaries level, and is some cases the mercenaries class. For example, a healer is going to be faster reacting to healing needs.
    • Mercenaries now display all of their abilities on the mercenary tab.
    • Mercenaries will now attempt to cancel abilities to cast certain high priority abilities, such as death prevents or resurrect spells. Mercenaries will only attempt to cancel an ability once every few seconds.
    • Mercenaries love their employer. Or at least want to continue getting paid by them, so will prioritize certain abilities onto the employer over others in the group, such as resurrect abilities.
    • Mercenaries with buffs, heals, and resurrect abilities should now more reliably use those heals while still actively engaging in mayhem.
    Testers, please make sure to get in any /bug reports and /feedback on issues that you find as soon as possible. Thanks for helping us test these long-awaited changes!
  2. Praetorian Well-Known Member


    I've sent this to feedback multiple times, but can Mercenaries please be more useful in OLD zones that could be trivial by todays standards but still difficult to complete for a solo player looking to experience old content? Some classes can solo this old content while others can not even with a Merc. Its not easy to ask random people to go into a zone that might be 3-4 years old just to help some player on a sentimental binge. Thanks!!
  3. Cusashorn Well-Known Member


    Mercenaries are intentionally overpowered at low levels. What zones are they getting destroyed in?
  4. Taled Well-Known Member

    3-4 years old is well above the low levels mercs used to be superheros in. That's PoP+; zones people would probably be running for either Celestial Doctrine or no trade shiny hunting.
  5. Cusashorn Well-Known Member

    Oh. I read "OLD" zones and assumed pre-100.
  6. Praetorian Well-Known Member

    Yes, if you take Mercs into Heroic Zones found in Library of Myrist (5 year old content at this point) and you are not a class that has healing abilities or super high dps, there are some encounters you just get wrecked on because Mercs die instantly because of scripts while other classes steamroll the content. There just needs to be a balance so players can still complete the scripts.
    Spookypatrol and Pixistik like this.
  7. Pixistik Don't like it? You're not alone!

    They are not the changes that have been the most requested, but it is an improvement over what we had.
    I have noticed no anomalies and the mercs seem to be performing about where I would consider reasonable.
    Spookypatrol and Denmum like this.
  8. Cusashorn Well-Known Member


    What changes are people asking for? I've certainly not seen anything expressed on the forums. Were you expecting a complete script recoding so they fully function as players or something? I admit I would love for healers to actually cure curses or tanks to hit bulwark though.
  9. Pixistik Don't like it? You're not alone!

    Appearance changes, some of the mercs are rather dismal appearance wise but perform well, while others look great but dont perform.
    I would love the same changes you would like to see as well. Fully functioning characters, no
    Spookypatrol likes this.
  10. Praetorian Well-Known Member

    The issue is in older zones the Mercs get blown away and killed nearly instantly. Even in content thats close to 5 years old. Some of these old zones for certain classes require the help of a merc to complete. Good luck completing the Vegarlson Heroic zones as a Chanter...when some classes can just complete them while half asleep. The zones just havent been adjusted or tuned to allow for Mercs to be successful in them.
    Spookypatrol and Pixistik like this.
  11. Pixistik Don't like it? You're not alone!

    Mercenary Ormelia Lirkanna (coercer) is constantly spamming "Transferring threat from xxxxx" xxxxx is a guard... seems to be stuck in a loop.
    After messing around a bit, it seems that the mercs I try that have hate transfer will spam the message if you hire it with a tank
    and

    If you dismiss a merc that is hired from the rouges gallery (one that you paid for) and it isnt on your Hire Anywhere list, you really dismiss them, they are no longer available to hire in the rouges gallery, the only way to get that merc back is to spend DB cash to unlock them.

    Would be nice to have access to ALL mercs on test to find bugs

    Edit: I found that if you hire another merc such as Stamper, then go back into the rouges gallery, the merc that was formally gone is there again
    Twyla likes this.
  12. Denmum Developer

    From a guildmate, the same transferring hate spam when using merc Blurt Grasplung onto an SK.
    Twyla likes this.
  13. FuRiouSOne Well-Known Member

    Will they actually dps too or is this only Healing revamp?
  14. Pixistik Don't like it? You're not alone!

    DPS is still in the toilet even when using a Fabled merc, it gets a little better once the merc gets up around level 9ish, but as far as them being able to take down even con trash mobs at level, they are still garbage and nothing more than a buffbot and not really worth the time of casting.
    Mentor down to level 100 and hit POM and its a little better, VoV is a no go, they will not do enough DPS to matter and will die before they can kill an overland mob, which takes I would guess about 5 minutes, overland trash in RoR they cant even hurt but wont last but about half as long.
    The checking was done with a 125 Conj with pet idle
    Twyla likes this.
  15. Kuulei Well-Known Member

    I am using Jollinor Firefall and they seem to be more interested in "Reducing my agro to <target>" spam or "Dumping agro on everything around me!"
    Also, while he does seem to cast heals, they are so small in comparison to stat-inflated hit points players have and definitely cannot remotely keep up with the encounter / zone and damage from the actual mob. Also I tested several fights and the largest heal for this particular merc is 'Solusek's Rose' with a median heal of 14,800,000 (casted 4 times) and the lesser heal from 'Soothing Fire' (casted 8 times) for a median heal of 9,300,000. Then it ran out of power and pretty much watched the fight after that.

    Okay above was me in harvest gear at 1.5 billion HP

    I put my regular gear on bring me to 2.1 bil HP and of course higher potency, etc. which seems to affect how my merc heals. This time it was a far shorter fight and I was healed one time for 751,000,000.
    Raeven and Twyla like this.
  16. Pixistik Don't like it? You're not alone!

    Firefall seems to be a Hybrid ranger/healer and not very good at either
    Breanna likes this.
  17. Taled Well-Known Member

    The stat sharing is going to make a huge difference in how much they heal for - The merc probably wasn't really beating Leech on the initial combat with low heals, honestly.

    Wizard/Druid, I believe.
  18. Whilhelmina Well-Known Member

    I nearly never use mercenaries, so I don't really know, but I struggled a bit with a named in Takish'iz (before understanding I had to keep my 2 chars apart) and called a healer (Captain Kalael Kel'Avar, yes, it's from several expansions ago, I never use mercs!).
    As I needed extra curing, I was really impressed as she cured my healer almost instantly (which allowed said healer to cure me and heal the merc). She prioritized the healer over her owner in that case, which was way better.
    I was quite happy with her mechanics and don't remember it being so nice.
    As I mostly only use mercs for extra-cures/rezz if I'm struggling with my mystic dual, my feeling of improvement might be relevant.
  19. Raeven Well-Known Member

    I haven't checked the ACT stats, but I have noticed that Dralira doesn't heal me for enough to even feel on my necro. If my stats are supposed to improve hers, well, I have good stats. I think she is up to level 18 or 19 and geared in 400-410 gear, and I do not have her fighting. If it were not for my necro self-heal I would be dead. The only thing she seems good for is cures.
    Whilhelmina likes this.