This expansion and its difficulty is not fun anymore

Could get melathan fogbell or whatever its name is for a fairly cheap VoV era merc with very similar stats to the RoR celestial merc buff. Its a troub iirc, though.

What I believe is true (and I could be wrong) is that merc effectiveness is a function of the following, in order of importance:

1. Merc level (and therefore equipped gear, and their associated stats)
2. Merc season (Shattered Lands, Blood of Luclin, Reign of Shadows, Visions of Vetrovia) (the merc buff)
3. Rarity (Treasured, Legendary, Fabled, Celestial) (starting stats = 40%, 50%, 60%, 80% of user stats)
4. The battalion "contribution level" from 1-100 (right click your merc and select Contribution to see his/her impact)

That's based mainly on reading, but it does seem to be borne out in my limited experience - I used a level 6 Shattered Lands treasured inquisitor (Evania) for a long time and she seemed more effective than lower level but later season mercs.

Regarding the merc buff - I'm going to try and post a screenshot of the admittedly limited and incomplete data I've managed to collect for comparison:

Sigh. I know I've inserted screen clips on these forums before, but for some reason it's not letting me now.

I mean whos not always looking to get better that cares right? I would be interested in talking shop. I'm doing pretty well in the Xpack now that I am close to full strength. Lilim brings up nothing for me in discord. You can locate me @ Jrox#1948. Just shoot me a friends request and I will message you, comparing notes with another good player always works out well. Someone always knows something you didn't.

As for the OP. Yea total break down of the concept of progression and itemization this Xpack. And now the P2W stuff. Uhhggg. I think the sunsetting here for me has begun and I am trying not to let it happen because I invest a lot of time typically into my game.

Mercs are not really effective by themselves in my experience. The Battalion Buff is the biggest and most important aspect of using a merc, at least for me. They DO function better as you add gear to them do to increased potency/CB etc. But from the standpoint of making your character stats as good as possible, getting a VoV merc to 20 is the way to go. Particularly as a swash, get those stats high enough, and you won't care at all about the merc performance itself. It will just be a side bonus if you get the occasional cure or heal.

I suspect we are using mercs for different things.

As a casual player, recently returned to the game after about a decade, I don't have a stable of old level 20 mercs at my disposal, and I can say with confidence that there was NO CHANCE of beating several encounters in the ROR sig line without a healer merc of about level 5 or so. Until I got my healer to that level, I could not defeat a couple of the sig missions.

For me, at that level of my EQ2 career at least, I could care less about the buff, what I needed was a healer who could a) live, and b) keep me alive.

Absolutely understood. However, I thought you were looking for ways to make your character more viable beyond solos. If all you care about is being able to do solo zones, leveling any merc will work fine. If you are looking for viability beyond solos, you will want to consider the merc battalion buff. Sorry, I appear to have misunderstood your intent.

Edited to add the following: There is a Merc AI update coming in May according to the roadmap. There might be a new season of mercs either with the Game update in April, or the AI update in May. It might be worth it to hold off using a lot of leveling baubles until that occurs.

They aren't actually listening to anyone in the playerbase. They are doing their best to make the small amounts of content they can manage to publish take as long as possible to complete, while packing as many microtransactions as possible into it in order to stay afloat.

My experince the game is not friendly to casual players.
Casual players are less likely to do online research for best way to maximize gear/specks.
They also less into doing grinds to do content.
They also may play less time than more hard core players. (So time sinks tend to drive them away.)

That means things like.
Hitting a res, check wall when the gear from doing quest does not having the resolve you to need to do the solo required of a signature quest line.
Long grinds to get basic requirements.
drives casual/new players away.

Lets face it a Gear stat check does not make a dungeon hard, but it does make a grind to get the gear to do it.
Heck a long fight is a endurance check, but that does not make it hard. (long fights with no breaks can cause stress on the boady resulting in physical conditions.)
A hard fight would require you to stay alert stay on toes, and not miss key events.

Honestly the itemization of gear needs to be fixed.
If world zones require a debuff of 32 million to healing that is a clear sighn something is broken.
Fixing the gear itemization would could help with casual new players being able to story content, and make fights more intersting.

(honestly the idea that heric mobs should be one or two shotted by average players seams to indicate a strong power creep.)

I am a casual player now at one time I was a raider in another game. Raiding was like a second job, burned out and stopped now I play less often and for shorter times. But starting to feel like buying expansions is a waste of money because of hitting a stat check wall or something in the signature quest and not finishing that.

The way I see it, doing the signature quest should provide the gear required to do the signature quest line.
Normal quest should provide the gear required to do solo.
Solo instances should provide the gear required to do standard dungeon.
Standard dungeon provides gear to do heroic.
Heroic provides gear to do epic
Epic provides gear to do raids.
Raids provide the gear to do heroic raids.
Heroic raids provide the gear to do epic raids.
-Farming token for a upgrade should be for when the RNG hate you, or equiping an alt.
Tolkeens could be used for things not normal, like say uprading the tear of a a merc.

That's a fair observation, I did come here asking the basic question, what do I need to do to progress. I'm just still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that there is no reasonable progression to be had.

I sort of expected something like, finish the sig line, then farm solos for ROR-coin to buy upgrades, and for chances at desirable merc/mount/familiar/spell time reducers, and for chances at overseer agents and missions. Eventually break into heroics, rinse/repeat. That fundamental design has been present in many old EQ2 expansions at least, it seemed to work fine and people seemed to like it.

Thanks again for your advice. I have already begun taking it - I have abandoned plans to level Zel'Kriaz the rest of the way to 20 (she is currently 10, hopefully that will be enough for now), and I acquired Elanil from a generous guild-mate and plan to begin levelling her soon. Your advice about saving the few pots I have left and seeing what happens in April/May is also sound. I may need to shift horses in midstream yet again.

AFAIK, SOLO overland mobs and solo instances do not have a resolve check at all. To see a mob's resolve, simply target them before pull and inspect the mobs buffs. If there is a resolve check (resolve mitigation), that is the number your resolve must exceed.
Scouts can also use the 'detect weakness' ability to see the mob's combat mitigation, which can be overcome with potency or debuffs. I dont know the exact formula offhand, perhaps someone else can post.

Dont forget the required "membership", gems/adorns which require that membership, trackers from old content. Just having the required resolve isnt enough for heroics and or raids. This resolve mechanic needs to be removed or reworked!

/raises hand as an example of the truth of that sentence

I'm not sure I disagree with requiring a sub for entrance into group content. There's no reason that a free to play person shouldn't be happy with doing the solo line. You get the entire story, all the lore, and a gigantic world to explore. If folks want to progress into the group/community aspect of the game, that should probably require some financial responsibility outside the base expansion.

Maybe not a popular opinion, but I believe in supporting the developers and company in the content that they produce. The world is beautiful and the fact you can see it for next to free is pretty amazing. Add in that folks realistically could farm for krono to fuel their sub, and it's next to a non factor for "most" people.

I agree with this. I've had a paid account since 2000. As a soloist, I could get by without it, but I find that there are enough perks to justify the cost. Besides, I don't have any problem with helping to support the continued existence of a game. I don't even care about the group and raid content. My gripe with RoR is the quality of the content, not the volume.

Worst ever XT. Rewards vs time is a joke.
No real upgrade this the xt, 1 pseudo epic spell, with time consuming dropping rate (it's so difficult to create real quest, like in the name everQUEST...), ascensions no one want...

Perhaps resolve check is the wrong word but, there is a real gear check requirement. That is why they have to put out a box of gear for the expansion. If your gear does not meet a certain check your damage to mobs becomes negligible. This applies to over land and solos. (perhaps from your post what it is is potency.)

After reading this entire thread, and many others like it, what incentive do I, as a fairly new and casual player, have to invest in this game or company?

If you enjoy playing the game, then you play it. If you don't enjoy the game, then you don't.

The story and lore are fantastic. I still love the artwork. And if you want to do end game content seriously, it is possible to catch up. It's just a pretty daunting list. If you stay focused, you can probably get there in 5-6 months. That seems like a lot, but if you're looking long term, its nbd.