Mercenaries need to go core!

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Celestriad#0304 wrote:

Title. I was one of those who were sceptical at first, especially after the initial trailer. After having played a fair amount however, I completely changed my mind - mercenaries are awesome and I wish for them to stay.

They're both amazing for solo and group play alike and vastly contributed to shaking up the meta. They are build enabling, gave birth to a new archetype (solo aurabot + mercenary is very viable!) and even give value to items that find no real use otherwise. There is something very satisfying about finding a high level merc that has great skills and supports, immediately thinking about gear choices or complementary builds. I don't really have anything negative to say about them either, other than wishing for a few more slots as just three of them feels very limiting at times.

Overall I'm very pleased with how the mechanic turned out and they'd be an very welcomed addition to the core game going forward - or something to expand / improve upon every major patch.


Just make it happen, GGG :)

Since your profile is set to private, there's no way for me to tell if you've completed 40 challenges prior Leagues, I don't even know if that's something that is visible on profiles, but I know this is my first ever League where I've completed 40. I've been playing since Heist League.

Why do I bring this up? Because its actually relevant. I consider myself an average player. I can follow builds, I can farm currency, albeit slowly, I can learn mechanics, however, prior to Mercenaries, I had only ever killed one Uber - Eater of Worlds, within 6 portals.

This League? I killed all of them. Why? Because of the most broken and unethical combo - Mercenaries and Doryani.

Do you honestly believe that Mercenaries shake up the meta? You do realize its pretty much Doryani Lightning builds or Doryani + Admiral, right? And energy shield, pretty much that. Not a single other archetype is competitive.

Why use penetration or curses or find ways to lower resists, when you can just slap Doryani on the Merc, buy 2x -100 Lightning Resistance Jewellery and faceroll?

Why learn mechanics, invest in a good all around character, or even just a zHP hundreds of millions of DPS 1 shotters, when you can just use Doryani? GGG themselves know this interaction is busted, which is why it was forbidden in the Gauntlet.

Look, you can have Mercenaries core, but Reflective Mist has to go and we all know that's not happening.

You can't have Mercenaries and simply make Doryani not equippable.
You can't have Mercenaries and simply make items equipped on the Mercenary only work for them.
You can't have Mercenaries and simply make items only apply half value to enemies/players.
You can't have Mercenaries and simply make unique items not usable by said Mercenaries.

Any way you look at it, Mercenaries going core would be the biggest, absolutely monumentally freaking terrible decision GGG ever makes, even worse than abandoning POE1 2 weeks in, even worse than trying to make 2 games, even worse than the godawful balance of Mercenaries, worse than the disconnects, worse than TFT, worse than price fixers, worse than anything else you can think of.

Don't get me wrong, I like having a Merc, but if the price we have to pay is Doryani Mercs, no thanks.

Mercenaries was an absolute banger of an idea, great vehicle for enabling some builds and introducing new gems, but like Crucible, it is certainly not coming back.

Just restrict Mercenaries from the use of Uniques. Problem solved. Just equip them with what you'll find in the game of rare quality.

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daaviid78#3483 wrote:

Just restrict Mercenaries from the use of Uniques. Problem solved. Just equip them with what you'll find in the game of rare quality.

Part of what I like about Mercs is that they provide me a use for some Uniques I would otherwise never use. Just because some Uniques are OP on Mercs is no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater. ='[.]'=

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Raycheetah#7060 wrote:

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daaviid78#3483 wrote:

Just restrict Mercenaries from the use of Uniques. Problem solved. Just equip them with what you'll find in the game of rare quality.

Part of what I like about Mercs is that they provide me a use for some Uniques I would otherwise never use. Just because some Uniques are OP on Mercs is no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater. ='[.]'=

That's not a good reason to keep them. If you don't use uniques, you pawn them off to Rog for dust, not make a merc broken OP.

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Pizzarugi#6258 wrote:

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Raycheetah#7060 wrote:

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daaviid78#3483 wrote:

Just restrict Mercenaries from the use of Uniques. Problem solved. Just equip them with what you'll find in the game of rare quality.

Part of what I like about Mercs is that they provide me a use for some Uniques I would otherwise never use. Just because some Uniques are OP on Mercs is no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater. ='[.]'=

That's not a good reason to keep them. If you don't use uniques, you pawn them off to Rog for dust, not make a merc broken OP.

None of the Uniques I gave my Merc are "broken OP, on Merc or off. =^[.]^=

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Pizzarugi#6258 wrote:

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Raycheetah#7060 wrote:

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daaviid78#3483 wrote:

Just restrict Mercenaries from the use of Uniques. Problem solved. Just equip them with what you'll find in the game of rare quality.

Part of what I like about Mercs is that they provide me a use for some Uniques I would otherwise never use. Just because some Uniques are OP on Mercs is no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater. ='[.]'=

That's not a good reason to keep them. If you don't use uniques, you pawn them off to Rog for dust, not make a merc broken OP.

That is one of the best reasons to keep them. They give uniques you would otherwise filter or dust value.

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Celestriad#0304 wrote:

That is one of the best reasons to keep them. They give uniques you would otherwise filter or dust value.

In practice, everyone's going Doryani's + Perquil's. They will be dripped up in meta gear and if GGG nerfs this combination, people will move over to the next best setup, kinda like what people do for builds every league.

Instead of GGG having to do a perpetual whack-a-mole for player and merc builds simultaneously, it would be easier to make it so mercs don't have access to any gear you can equip. Or, ideally, don't add mercs at all and just save the headache.

Definitely voting for keeping Mercenaries mechanics in the core.

Its the one of things which made me stay with game and to revert decision of deleting account.

Let the fun be allowed.

I think it would add bit of depth to the mechanic if they just give merc's their own itemization. If they are going to keep their current durability, then restrict them to 4 slots like heist companions. If they are going to normalize them with other minions, then perhaps more slots.

I'd think 1 aura max would still be very well worth people's time.

Bump for visibility. :)