MercsFollow

I would love to see in the future maybe more classes being made into mercs. Say a SK or Necro or Druid. A druid snare and dot the hell out of mobs plus a little back up healing. You know he can port around if needed, buffs too. Other classes would be sweet, I dont know if they have given any thought to it, maybe they have and found it to be extremly difficult to pull off. Dont get wrong i enjoy the mercs that are out there but maybe in the future they may be able to expand the classes to be a little more diverse. I would love to team up my SK with a druid merc.(as i have a druid and sk on the same acct and wish i had one on my other acct to 2 box )

I haven't experienced EQ2 so maybe that game proves me wrong but my guess would be that anything more complicated than "Tank", "Heal" or "Kill" invites too many AI problems and chances for the merc to do something stupid. DPS mercs really fill any DoT role anyway -- they all help make the mob dead faster via damage. A shaman merc might be interesting -- mainly a buff/debuff machine, casting slows & other debuffs on the mobs as well as some DoTs then buffing party members in the between times.

I think it's also a balance issue. I don't know about EQ2, but in EQ having more than very basic roles for the mercs could cause problems. Obviously crowd control is right out, but even being able to balance healing and dots/debuffs becomes problematic. How much of each is balanced? Let's face it, if I could get a merc that has sufficient healing to keep me and my party alive, any damage it can do is a huge bonus. The balance for a merc that heals you is that it doesn't do anything else. Having it do damage and/or debuff and/or snare? Probably too powerful. And if you gimped its healing to the point that it wouldn't be overpowered, people would complain that its healing was useless.

Probably better to keep the roles simple and make them very good at just that one thing.

Aside from buffs and rezzes?

The problem would be development of AI for the more "challenging" classes. Enchanters would be particularly difficult but same for druids and shamans because these 3 classes are so multi-talented.

I mean, just look at the behavior of MOBS from these classes. Shaman mobs will keep trying to ROOT my tank, like my tank is going to run away from them. LOL. Most enchanter mobs almost never charm, except for some high-level boss types. I play a druid and I'd have to say every druid mob I've fought is inferior in skill to a level 1 player druid. LOL. If you look closely at what merc clerics, warriors, wizards and rogues actually DO in combat, they only take advantage of a tiny subset of the spells and abilities of those classes. It's sufficient to make merc versions of these classes barely adequate (especially against the option of NOT having them at all) but would hardly work with more sophisticated classes.

The best is AI rules about mezzes and how mobs/pets won't go after mezzed targets. So you pull a mob, he mezzes you and then just wanders off because he lost his aggro.

There's a named bear in the "new" Valley of King Xorbb who charms. I know cuz sometimes when I kite masses of bears I pick him up "accidentally." Usually I can screen nameds out of a kite by snaring the ones I want and then fading to get rid of the named. But this bozo, named Frothtooth, CHARMS ("Empowered Rabies.") You're right, though, it's more of an annoyance than a threat. He charms me and I end up spending a few minutes following him around helplessly. I watch the charm icon count down, finger poised over my evac button, and, wouldn't you know it, the dumb bear RE-charms me! LOL. Eventually charm breaks, he's distracted by needing to take a you-know-what or something and doesn't recharm instantly and I'm able to get off an instant evac,

He's never killed me even once. Like I said, just an annoyance and waste of my kiting time!` ;)



Edited, Oct 25th 2013 10:28am by Sippin

Yeah. Aside from that, Smartypants.

The healer merc does a bunch of really nice defensive/buff stuff, but will not do anything offensive at all to an opponent. That's what I was getting at. The dps mercs do the exact opposite. They only do offensive stuff, but never do defensive stuff. The tank merc is the only really balanced one, both doing and taking damage (I suppose they all take damage, but this is the only merc that can be set to intentionally take it instead of you).

I can just see how giving mercs more utility effects (debuffs specifically) could be really hard to balance. Don't get me wrong, I'd *love* for them to offer those options. As a paladin, the choice for merc becomes problematic already. Having a choice of a merc that would debuff/dot/snare opponents would be amazingly useful compared to current choices. I just think that would be too useful and possibly too powerful for certain combinations.

be nice to have two mercs at once for sure.

Even better, THREE mercs. The holy trinity: cleric, warrior and mezzer (bard or enchanter.) Then you can summon your 3 mercs, and maybe also a pet if class-available and sit back and level without any effort. Only change the name of the game from EverQUEST to EverCAREBEAR. And change the animation for PCs to those stoner cartoon faces: with the goofy grins and the huge staring wide cross-eyes.





Edited, Oct 30th 2013 8:39am by Sippin

Every time either of my mages pop a merc out, I assume the merc and my pet are conspiring about how to best lose my dead weight and strike out on their own.

I wouldn't really argue with that comment!

The irony is that now that they've simplified and "care-beared" EQ to death, the only real challenge left is to learn and master all the tools available in the game. And this is inevitable in a game of such age and complexity, with so many "avenues" followed by the devs over the years, some of them leading to dead ends. Even entire lines of spells and AA's have been left abandoned leaving newer players wondering what their purpose was and if they're even worth obtaining anymore.

Sites like allakhazam provide considerable amounts of useful info but not all. Interestingly, even these days new sites pop up to provide players with specialized info. Proving the game still has a lot of life left in it because to my mind player-generated content is proof of that fact.

Frankly, I think the fact that there are still "mysteries" in EQ is part of the game's attraction. I don't ever want to "win" EQ like players "win" a first-person shooter game by completing all the levels in 48 hours of round-the-clock play. Not for moi.

Edited, Oct 30th 2013 12:00pm by Sippin

The real challenge is living on the moon, lunar mutant style!

Or pulling a Banner or Shisu (but that can be lonely).

I'm thinking they'll introduce secondary pet option (so a pet for a warrior, a pet-sidekick for a necro, etc.) through the marketplace before allowing a second merc. This way they can keep it in between the current weak pets (SK, chanter) and the strong (mage) for power. This would be a useful tool, tons would buy it, but not as giving in as allowing a single character to run 2 mercs.