Mercenary Quality Guide?

Discussion in 'Tips, Tricks, FAQs, and New Player Discussion' started by Alaraz, Nov 29, 2018.

  1. Dellmon Active Member

    Sigrdrifa wrote:
    No one has ever really sat down and recorded the basic stats on each merc. If I had that data, I could add it to the wiki. One of these eons when I am bored I probably will.

    That sounds like a lot of manual work which prone to clerical errors and stale data as things in game change or get patched.

    To answer the age old question of - - what is the best mercenary to use - - I wanted to be able to do a side by side numerical comparison because I felt most players based their responses on feel rather than real numbers. And to be honest I didn't trust their experiences because there was no clear baseline to compare one to another one to

    So I wrote a PowerShell script that queries Census and extracts all known Mercenaries and all the stats (of which there are a lot more than just what is shown in the game UI). The script then dumps out all of the values into a few common formats, Excel, HTML, CSV, etc for easy viewing and sorting by whatever the user wants.. It does this in real time and as it is drawn from Census it is always up-to-date based on last zone time.

    There are a few caveats to using it but once you understand the nuisances of how Census works and then couple that with the behaviors of Mercenaries - then it is very straightforward and easy to interpret the data.

    For example one thing I learned was - for all the Coercer mercenaries that I could find - they are all identical for every value, and every spell they had. The only difference was their race. So in terms of deciding which one to level, it was pretty easy - - - just pick the one I liked to look at.as there was none that were better than any others.

    I'd be happy to share the script with anyone who would like a copy of it.
    Saw-Lau, knightowl, Kaid and 3 others like this.
  2. doit Member

    "
    So I wrote a PowerShell script that queries Census and extracts all known Mercenaries and all the stats (of which there are a lot more than just what is shown in the game UI)."

    So mercs benefit from all stats even they dont show in the UI window?
    The cast bar under merc does not show all the spells the merc has..did your script query all spells actually cast by the merc?
  3. doit Member

    So from the merc crates yo can get monthly..
    you can sell for status..
    so 1 mil is common
    3 mill is uncommon
    and 6 million is rare

    how much is ultrarare?

    no point in keeping the common and uncommon so sold for status..kept the rares just in case someone actually proves they are better haha, otherwise will sell for status one day..
  4. Dellmon Active Member

    Doit asked
    So mercs benefit from all stats even they dont show in the UI window?
    Benefit? I really can't say definitively whether or not a mercenary does actually benefit from these values. What I can say is that, for example - - Fervor, Resolve, and SpellDoubleAttackChance (along with many others) - - all do exist in Census for mercenaries and do have values - - but are not visible in the Default UI window for mercenaries that I have seen.

    did your script query all spells actually cast by the merc?
    No, unfortunately "spellbook info" is not something in Census, at least not that I found. That I had to collect by hand. And of course, neither is any mercenary's AI script - - what they prioritize for casting order, or how often, or when they might cast any given spell. What Census provides is strictly their character stats...
    doit, Breanna and Dude like this.
  5. Evguenil62 Well-Known Member

    As far as I understand, the stats that Census provides for mercenaries are dependent on items that mercenaries have on them. They tied to the mercenary owner and they also depend on a current level of an owner. It is hard to compare mercenaries under such circumstances in my opinion.

    Still, some conclusions can be made. For instance, I have found that beloved inquisitor Zhugrus Blightstrike is only in the middle of a list of all possible inquisitor mercenaries. There's a plenty of better ones.
  6. Dellmon Active Member

    Evguenil62 said
    As far as I understand, the stats that Census provides for mercenaries are dependent on items that mercenaries have on them. They tied to the mercenary owner and they also depend on a current level of an owner. It is hard to compare mercenaries under such circumstances in my opinion.

    I absolutely agree that trying to do side-by-side Mercenary comparisons is a challenge given they way they function within the game and what is visible for them both in game and in Census.

    I found that using Census to be about the best method available as the data is available is how that Mercenary appears to the character that owns it - after al it l is part of every char_info (which can be viewed by anyone for any published toon). So any buffs / levels / applied is in reference to the player that owns / summons it at that time and can be consistent for comparing how that mercenary looks compared to others that player owns as well.

    Looking at what the script produced it was a comparison point for how the different mercenaries appeared to my character at a snapshot in time and after all that's all I was really looking for.
    Breanna, Dude and Rhodris like this.
  7. Bhayar Well-Known Member

    Thanks for that info, Sig, because I noticed the orange slots didn't seem to accommodate any orange runes I tried. I had the same question about why have orange adorn slots on accolades if they're not available to use. Don't know if this is an oversight on someone's part or they aren't available, bugged or what. But it certainly raises the question to devs: how about a little help here? If you put orange slots on merc accolades, and they clearly don't seem to be working on accolades, can you address this?
    Breanna likes this.
  8. Sigrdrifa EQ2 Wiki Author

    I don't think I've ever used Powershell, but I'd love to be able to take a look.
    Cyrrena likes this.
  9. Cordorb New Member

    for a quick test take your mercenary to visit

    Druzzil Ro imprisoned by The Tribunal

    none of mine lived when the quest sent me in there the first time -- even in passive mode.

    ( my Char had no problem not using the web spell)

    After getting the quest merk items some lived or almost made it. ( not using ACT )
    Grimm likes this.
  10. Kaid Member

    Despite my earlier comments, this is too good to resist. Thank you for offering to share the work you did to automate the process of comparisons on one's own characters. It would be fun to run it and have a look at the ultra rare I have vs the 10 year anniversary SK, etc. just to see whatever there is to see.

    What if my ultra rare ain't so ultra after all? Think of the fun I could have ranting and raving about that! I could threaten a class action lawsuit, write lengthy diatribes about Daybreak being evil and all kinds of fun stuff. I get excited just thinking about it! No, wait! I am just fooling! Honest. I promise not to do any of that, even if my Ms. Ultra is lame. I will still love her anyway for her snarky attitude when killing stuff and looking good doing it.
    Geroblue and Breanna like this.
  11. doit Member

    So does anyone know why when you mouseover your damage combat arts and spells on your merc that it shows like 100 million potential damage, but when the merc actually casts it, it only does like 1 million?
    shouldn't be a resolve thing in solo zones since there is no resolve requirement? and even in heroics mercs have a 400% resolve buff in their spellbar
    anyone understand the mechanism of low dps ?
    I dont think its combat mitigation and thus lower effective potency because my merc has a higher potency than I do..
  12. Carynn Well-Known Member

    Is this still being worked on? I would love to see the results on the wikia merc page.
  13. Sigrdrifa EQ2 Wiki Author

    Yes. Research is being done. I'm hesitant to start building tables until I see the project as a whole so I can best judge how to structure the data.
    Saw-Lau, Breanna and Carynn like this.
  14. Sigrdrifa EQ2 Wiki Author

    Since I don't know how to use Powershell, could I possibly get you to dump the data to either Excel or CSV and then I can work to develop some type of presentation format?
    Breanna likes this.
  15. Grimm New Member

    Excellent merc test. Like can your computer run Crysis? Multiple runs to get a MTTD; Mean Time Till Death.

    But time consuming for one person. Running different gearless mercs of various levels. And staying at opposite ends of the corridor to negate player buffs.

    I don't know, maybe we can post results here to build a table?
  16. Dellmon Active Member

    If you PM me your character name, server, and an email address, I will dump out the results and send them to you.

    Keep in mind for a mercenary’s data to be up to date in Census you need to have zoned with them recently.
  17. Cyrrena Well-Known Member

    I have completed all the mercenaries that do not require a token for Qeynos and sent the information to Sigrdrifa. I will do the other good/neutrals today and send her those. Then I will use a betrayal token and do the evil/neutrals. Then I will start consuming the tokens I bought and get the mercs I can get to for those.
    Breanna and Sigrdrifa like this.
  18. Breanna Well-Known Member

    You guys rock! I know that has to be a lot of work :eek: Thank you for the effort you are putting in.
    Geroblue and Cyrrena like this.
  19. Feldon Well-Known Member

    copied this from another thread as I think this is a good place to talk about testing.
    Through Census I know that every Zhugrus Blightstrike used by a level 110 character seems to have these base stats:
    • agi base="341"
    • int base="328"
    • wis base="343
    • str base="353"
    • sta base="340"
    Every Stamper Jeralf used by a level 110 character seems to have these base stats:
    • agi base="351"
    • int base="333"
    • wis base="343"
    • str base="343"
    • sta base="335"
    But if we look at Stamper Jeralf on different level 110 characters, we get a variety of effective values:
    • agi base="351" effective="7623"
    • agi base="351" effective="9106"
    • agi base="351" effective="14234"
    • agi base="351" effective="14963"
    The question that comes to my mind is whether the growth in merc stats and spell values (sadly not available in Census) is mostly linear (merc equipment, accolades, player stats, player equipment, mounts, etc.) or is it affected by wildcards beyond the player's control? What impact do a player's race, class, deity, and other semi-permanent choices have on the merc's stats? If these are minimal, then perhaps there is enough separation between player and merc that apples-to-apples comparison is indeed possible.

    I would be curious to test all the mercs at level 110 on different characters of different classes with a set of universal gear such as Tishan's Lockbox gear.

    I appreciate the work you and your team have done on the Spreadsheet and Wiki article.
  20. Saw-Lau Member

    Yes, please!