We've been documenting the assorted new mercs over on ZAM. Feel free to contribute! http://eq2.zam.com/wiki/Mercenaries_(EQ2)#Marketplace_Mercenaries
I bought a 7 pack of Archon mercenary crates for 4499 DB Cash (Station Cash) (with the 10% discount) that I had saved up from my 500/month for being Gold. I have 2 gold accounts and had over 6000 cash accumulated on my second one. The crates are tradable until you unpack them when they become no trade. You don't know what merc is in the crate till you unpack it. The mercs sell back to the vendor in the room for varying amounts of stats. 1mil, 3mil, 6mil and 10mil for Katastra. Out of the 7 pack I got: 4 1 mil mercs that I sold back for status. 1 3 mil merc Tyfon Tartaron of which I still have the token in my inventory. I will probably sell for status. 1 6 mil merc The Sublime Blade-Vicar of which I still have in my inventory and debating on selling for status or keeping since I have the AoM Collectors merc. 1 10 mil (The ultra rare one) Katastra Vilehex. HIRED. I really don't like the lottery system and only tried once or twice with other things they did like this. I only gave it a try because I had the free game cash on my second account that I really didn't have anything that I wanted to spend it on. I personally wouldn't buy game cash with real money for this purpose but make no judgement call on those who do. It's their money and if that's what they want to spend it on then more power to them. I got lucky in all reality with my 7 pack. I expected to get crap because that my normal luck. To clarify I misstated getting 2 rares in the original post. I got 4 common, 1 uncommon,1 rare and 1 ultra rare.
I don't have a ZAM account to give feedback but the following is a 6 mil status Inquisitor merc that I got yesterday. \aITEM 1301381292 -215800291 0 0 0:[Mercenary: The Sublime Blade-Vicar]\/a
Well I got this today. I unpacked my Archon Mercenary crate and got the Priestess Kodae Cer' Ule mercenary. When I hit the sign contract, I got the Archon Maia Othmir merc instead..........Now that's screwy. I tried to put in a petition and the server page was done and forget about the in game petition it wouldn't even load. After about an hour of trying to file a petition it finally worked and now I'm just waiting. Not holding my breath though!
i am sooo glad i came here to read this, i was on the station cash site, getting ready to drop a hefty sum for sc to get the merc crates, when i decided to come here and just check out what was being said. i even watched that video daybreak posted about the mercs and such, and the thing that caught me was when the one narrator guy said "in each bundle you get a rare merc" implying that each bundle you get you WILL get rare and a chance at a ultra rare...so with that, i thought id go ahead and try it out.....but i came here, read all your posts and yep, you ALL are right--im not wasting my real money and time for a "chance" which is usually 00000.000.0000.0001% to get a good merc, the same "chance" you have ingame now at getting any of the rare things, drops from zones, and so on............so no, not doing it...i already wasted what free station cash i had saved up from the monthly thing on two of the mercs, got crappy ones as usual....
@ Ndiar thanks for the clarify, now i understand better @ Poisonhawk : get the same problem : the priestess Kodae Cer'Ule in the description and Maia in the title, i should also make a petition ...
I was very disappointed I purchase a mercenary crate with 3 in it and got nothing good, one uncommon and two common.
It's not a money making scam (it is obviously a money making idea) and the idea didn't originate with Daybreak. They did the gingerbread men and gummies the same way with the grab bags. You know the odds are small so go into with your eyes wide open and don't spend money you can't afford. Like I said, I wouldn't spend RL cash to obtain them but there are some people who love to roll the dice or just have to have all the toys. If you can afford to do so no harm, no foul, you always have the choice to not participate. They are not game breaking mercs that people just have to have.
I've only used Stamper for an inquis merc before, so can't talk about any others that may drop. The Sublime Blade-Vicar seems (and I only have my own limited experience) very similar to Stamper except better DPS and survivability. In other words, the healing/curing seems about the same, but she seems to be able to take care of herself better. In the rat fight on the second floor of the new advanced solo zone, I used to have to do the "kill the crate and throw the barrel" before finishing the fight. Now the rat is dead before it can 'get the package' mostly due to the extra dps. I was also slow (not paying attention) on one fight and so had to go kill the crate but before I could grab the barrel she'd killed him. Not sure if the Merc's aren't affected by the reflect buff or what but she is just as excited about using verdict as Stamper. In comparison to Klurron (the CE merc from AoM if I'm spelling wrong), she heals more reliably but doesn't cure quite as fast. DPS/mitigation is similar but I haven't done enough comparisons to say she's better, just that she's at least as good. Best part is she keeps herself alive a lot better than Klurron. I don't know how she compares to Lorr'kejut or the Archon Construct since I haven't had one of those.
I really wish you all would stop encouraging gambling. It is a losers game as every intelligent person knows. I tried a couple of your gambling schemes and found them both stacked against the user. I didn't know whether to be surprised or not as this is really bad for increasing player loyalty. I would have thought you all would have more business sense. It did teach me to ignore your gambling schemes as they are stacked against the player. It isn't as if you all are paying, out of your own pockets, for the rewards. Just another bad business decision on the part of DBG. My faith in you all, to continue as a viable enterprise, drops weekly. Please hire someone who knows all the best business practices so DBG doesn't end up in the trash like so many gaming companies. You don't want to become a prime example of how to destroy a business in every Management 101 class.
What will be in My Merc Box ? NOTHING!! not wasting my SC on a very remote chance. I wouldnt have a problem spending the SC if it was a for sure deal that is something you would use and not take up inventory space.. as usual my 2cp's Dilligad - freeport
I purchased the 7 pack, thinking that they would be heirloom, like the individual crates are, rather than no trade once unpacked so that you could see what you had and then send the tokens to alts on the same account. Sadly, I'm finding myself stuck with all of the mercenaries all on one toon, and several of them are duplicates. Shouldn't these have been heirloom, up until the contracts are signed, so that you could divvy them out to alternate characters on the same account? Right now I'm so unhappy about it that I haven't hired even one of them and I'm wishing I hadn't spent the station cash at all.
They stated, albeit in the webcast, that once the crates are unpacked they are no-trade... the crates themselves are heirloom. Buyer beware I guess in this case, but more clearly identified restrictions might be necessary.
The mercenaries need to be made at least Heirloom if not account wide. Take my templar, I really want that paladin mercenary. However I have absolutely no intention on wasting money by blindly buying and using the tokens when I cant give the healer mercs to my other toons. And I also have no intention on trying to get the rare healer merc on my other toons when that means missing a chance to get the paladin on my main. So keep the mercs.
The mercs being heirloom would be nice, especially if there are duplicates in the 7 pack as Zukira stated. However the other mercs are one per character so maybe it's not possible to code them heirloom. I agree with Sgt Pmpkn that descriptions ont the crates could be better detailed. Gambling, well, when I purchase a raffle ticket for Youth Soccer or Wildlife Rescue I really don't consider censuring the organization for gambling practices. For that matter I really don't scream at the local churches about their raffles for youth ministry either. Or, if folks are into disapproval about gambling do not enter any contests period. That person is gambling that they could win, either by a story or a piece of art or, gasp, having their entry pulled out of a hat. And if that person won a contest would that automatically make that person an evil gambler? Very confusing.
We get 6K DBC/SC a year for free. Combine that with the double SC events that have happened in the past, there should be a fair amount of "free" cash hanging around out there. Thinking about this as a 'rip-off' seems a little much to me. As for the mercs themselves, we are essentially buying a cosmetic item. If someone does get a rare or "super-rare" then maybe it's also a little more practical. All of the information on the crates was pretty easily accessible and where there may have been some confusion (eg. tokens being no-trade), it was easy enough to ask ahead of time.
Your splendid white dappled steed and shiny white armour continues to stand out brightly in this desolate landscape. You're making the vast assumption here that everyone gets the all-access DC stipend to freely spend and are ignoring the concerns over the grab bag/random element that are perfectly valid. I wouldn't consider buying these grab bags and I have tens of thousands of SC salted away over my accounts but have nothing that I wish to spend them on. If DBG had been sensible and added these to the marketplace on a "you buy this merc for XXX" they might have got me to spend some of it willingly. The fact they've gone for a half-baked gambling style approach compounded with a non-heirloom result is willfully wrong-headed and out of step with what (most) to their customer base would have preferred. As such, I shall continue to not spend my DC until they either see sense and just sell the mercs or, if they persist in the grab bag mentality, they make the tokens rather than the crates either heirloom or tradeable. At the moment this sales proposition is useless to me, and I suspect many others.
Ikr? I'm not making a vast assumption. I've never done the F2P thing and have no empathy for those that do as they get what they need for absolutely no-cost to them. I've already said, earlier in the thread, that I'm not a fan of the grab-bag approach. I've played many other games that use this far more than EQ2 and they award pay2win items in those grab-bags. What we've got here pales in comparision. Just because you're not buying it or a couple dozen other people are not buying it does not make this idea non-sensical. It makes it unappealing to some people. If a company was only going to release products that appealed to everyone, they'd go broke pretty quickly.
