Ideas for Merc Mechanic Going Core

Let me preface this with, if it was just up to me, I would prefer Mercs to not be in the game at all.

However, I realize that the majority of the player base wants them, and GGG will probably keep them.

With that in mind, i'd like to be constructive and start putting out ways to make them a better companion in the future.

1. Scale their loot reward for interaction in maps with map juice.
Currently clicking on Mercs feels really bad/waste of time.

2. Remove the Doryani's interaction somehow
Probably a change to Doryani's itself, as we want Mercs to be able to continue providing meaningful support from their equipped item effects

3. Give Mercs an attitude/stance selection.
Example: Aggressive/Defensive/Greedy. This would have them prioritize doing DPS/staying alive/collecting gold. If the stances don't feel like powerful enough choices to matter, also consider having them provide a slight buff. Example: 20% increased Merc damage/20% increased Merc defenses/10% more gold collected by Merc (wouldn't affect gold you pick up, and this might be tricky to tune, as it heavily favors offscreen kill abilities for gold collection)

4. Give Mercs the ability to pickup gold!
Gold pickup is already automatic, but having this as a option as a merc stance would cause them to run to the edge of the screen, or possibly slightly out of it, for far away gold. This would be a great trade off, as it would cause the player to loose any buffs/auras the merc was providing.

5. Overall increase in the number of Mercs able to be recruited at once
A possible solution, leave the limit at 3 per character, but make 2 mercs slots account shared, and 1 merc slot character bound. That way you could store considerably more specialized Mercs across your various builds. This feels like it could be annoying to manage, juggling from character to character. Possibly make the entire merc roster manageable from an NPC interaction screen, similar to how we assign workers in Kingsmarch?

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I hope this thread picks up some interaction, please add your ideas. Mercs could be really cool, but right now, that's not how they feel

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Piousqd#0073 wrote:

2. Remove the Doryani's interaction somehow
Probably a change to doryani's itself, as we want mercs to be able to continue providing meaningful support from their equipped item effects

Given how much of an OP power creep it would be to have them in the core game, assuming they actually go core at all which I hope doesn't happen, I'd rather a complete rework of their equipment system to only accept merc exclusive gear. It would be similar to Heist, and GGG would have complete control over how strong it is.

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Piousqd#0073 wrote:

However, I realize that the majority of the player base wants them, and GGG will probably keep them.

Based on what, may I ask? The vast majority of "Make mercs core" threads I've seen are overwhelmingly in favor of NOT having them go core.

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Piousqd#0073 wrote:

1. Scale their loot reward for interaction in maps with map juice.
Currently clicking on Mercs feels really bad/waste of time.

I think they're fine as is in that regard, given the amount of power or utility they provide. A good Merc setup lets me push harder maps which directly translates into more rewards. Though I'd like to see D2's /players command - let me play maps with 6 player modifiers and benefits, if my build allows for it.

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Piousqd#0073 wrote:

2. Remove the Doryani's interaction somehow
Probably a change to doryani's itself, as we want mercs to be able to continue providing meaningful support from their equipped item effects

I wouldn't go as far as removing the interaction but introducing stat caps for Mercs would go a long way already. Let's say they can't go below -100% resistance, or apply a penalty towards equipped items (i.e equipped items and effects apply at 50 to 70% of their original value). They could even make it rng to give players more chase - bad mercs have a 50% penality, good mercs only 70% or something along those lines.

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Piousqd#0073 wrote:

3. Give Mercs an attitude/stance selection.
Example: Aggressive/Defensive/Greedy. This would have them prioritize doing DPS/staying alive/collecting gold

They're good at following and attacking enemies in sight already. I don't think giving them additional behaviours is necessary.

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Piousqd#0073 wrote:

4. Give Mercs the ability to pickup gold!
Gold pickup is already automatic, but having this as a option as a merc stance would cause them to run to the edge of the screen, or possibly slightly out of it, for far away gold. This would be a great trade off, as it would cause the player to loose any buffs/auras the merc was providing

Giving your Merc this stance would be a huge negative then, especially in Hardcore. I don't see that happening as it defeats the purpose. The trade-off is already there in giving monsters more life.

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Piousqd#0073 wrote:

5. Overall increase in the number of Mercs able to be recruited at once
A possible solution, leave the limit at 3 per character, but make 2 mercs slots account shared, and 1 merc slot character bound. That way you could store considerably more specialized mercs across your various builds. This feels like it could be annoying to manage, juggling from character to character. Possibly make the entire merc roster manageable from an NPC interaction screen, similar to how we assign workers in Kingsmarch?

Agreed. I wish for more slots because that is ultimately what made me stop playing new characters this league. My Mercs are all very well equipped, we're talking 40+ Divines each, and suited towards specific builds. One Merc I was able to overlap with another build but at the end of the day I stopped playing after my 4th character because realistically, as long as the league is there, playing without a well geared Merc (or a sub-optimal one) is disappointing or sometimes even detrimental.

Personally I'd love to see 5 slots + 1 flex slot per character. I'd even pay Gold for that.

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Pizzarugi#6258 wrote:

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Piousqd#0073 wrote:

2. Remove the Doryani's interaction somehow
Probably a change to doryani's itself, as we want mercs to be able to continue providing meaningful support from their equipped item effects

Given how much of an OP power creep it would be to have them in the core game, assuming they actually go core at all which I hope doesn't happen, I'd rather a complete rework of their equipment system to only accept merc exclusive gear. It would be similar to Heist, and GGG would have complete control over how strong it is.

Nah. Leave the gear slots as is but adjust their gold cost, rarity and skill combinations. Two aura mercs are strong but should be considerably rarer. I absolutely hated Heist gear and the moment they'd do something like that for Mercs I'd stop using them. Straight up.

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cowmoo275#3095 wrote:

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Piousqd#0073 wrote:

However, I realize that the majority of the player base wants them, and GGG will probably keep them.

Based on what, may I ask? The vast majority of "Make mercs core" threads I've seen are overwhelmingly in favor of NOT having them go core.

I was thinking of an interview with Devs where they talked about how players had been asking for them since the beginning and how they have always wanted to implement them, but just hadnt figured out how to do it

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Pizzarugi#6258 wrote:

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Piousqd#0073 wrote:

2. Remove the Doryani's interaction somehow
Probably a change to doryani's itself, as we want mercs to be able to continue providing meaningful support from their equipped item effects

Given how much of an OP power creep it would be to have them in the core game, assuming they actually go core at all which I hope doesn't happen, I'd rather a complete rework of their equipment system to only accept merc exclusive gear. It would be similar to Heist, and GGG would have complete control over how strong it is.

I get the desire to limit power creep, but farming merc specific gear sounds like cancer. There must be some in-between.

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Celestriad#0304 wrote:

Merc Loot: I think they're fine as is in that regard, given the amount of power or utility they provide. A good Merc setup lets me push harder maps which directly translates into more rewards. Though I'd like to see D2's /players command - let me play maps with 6 player modifiers and benefits, if my build allows for it.


Doryani's Removal: I wouldn't go as far as removing the interaction but introducing stat caps for Mercs would go a long way already. Let's say they can't go below -100% resistance, or apply a penalty towards equipped items (i.e equipped items and effects apply at 50 to 70% of their original value). They could even make it rng to give players more chase - bad mercs have a 50% penality, good mercs only 70% or something along those lines.

Merc Stance: They're good at following and attacking enemies in sight already. I don't think giving them additional behaviours is necessary.

Gold pickup: Giving your Merc this stance would be a huge negative then, especially in Hardcore. I don't see that happening as it defeats the purpose. The trade-off is already there in giving monsters more life.

-They are fine as far as map loot multiplier, but I'm talking about the Merc's that appear in map to interact with. In a core version, they would not be appearing in every map (just like all core mechanics), so it only makes sense that the loot available to steal off the occasional ones that do should have some type of buff, otherwise no one will ever bother clicking them once they have the merc they want recruited.

-Great suggestion to handle Doryanis. +1.

-Yea, they are great at following and attacking. Less great at not standing in ground effect degen's. I think it would be nice to be able to trade the attacking boost, for merc survivability

-Yes, it would be a huge negative for certain game modes. The stance's should feel like a meaningful player choice. The idea being, you use one mode for this, one mode for that, etc.

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Piousqd#0073 wrote:

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Pizzarugi#6258 wrote:

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Piousqd#0073 wrote:

2. Remove the Doryani's interaction somehow
Probably a change to doryani's itself, as we want mercs to be able to continue providing meaningful support from their equipped item effects

Given how much of an OP power creep it would be to have them in the core game, assuming they actually go core at all which I hope doesn't happen, I'd rather a complete rework of their equipment system to only accept merc exclusive gear. It would be similar to Heist, and GGG would have complete control over how strong it is.

I get the desire to limit power creep, but farming merc specific gear sounds like cancer. There must be some in-between.

I disagree. If you're already farming/buying normal gear for mercs, buying merc-exclusive gear is hardly any different. And it keeps GGG from dropping a nerf nuke on the entire game to account for how busted they are.

The other option is just prevent you from gearing them at all. If you want mercs with good gear, you need to find them out in the wild and recruit. Mercs with default equipment are hardly as strong as ones you properly upgrade.

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Piousqd#0073 wrote:

They are fine as far as map loot multiplier, but I'm talking about the Merc's that appear in map to interact with. In a core version, they would not be appearing in every map (just like all core mechanics), so it only makes sense that the loot available to steal off the occasional ones that do should have some type of buff, otherwise no one will ever bother clicking them once they have the merc they want recruited.

Oh, that's what you meant. In my opinion, assuming they go core, we should get Mercenary related Scarabs and Atlas points.

Scarabs could be anything from "Your maps contains a Mercenary of Trarthus" to "Mercenary encounters in your maps are accompanied by additional Mercenaries of their respected House" and so on.

For Atlas points it could be anything from "Mercenary encounters in your maps always carry a Trarthan gem", "Mercenary encounters in your maps are more likely to reward stacks of basic currency" or "Mercenary encounters in your maps have an additional infamous modifier". There's a lot of interesting and fun combinations GGG could come up with.

Also, one way or another, I'd like GGG to absolutely - at the bare minimum - include the Trarthan gems and infamous modifiers in the core game. Those can be very fun to play around with and even gave birth to new builds.

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Pizzarugi#6258 wrote:

I disagree. If you're already farming/buying normal gear for mercs, buying merc-exclusive gear is hardly any different. And it keeps GGG from dropping a nerf nuke on the entire game to account for how busted they are.

The other option is just prevent you from gearing them at all. If you want mercs with good gear, you need to find them out in the wild and recruit. Mercs with default equipment are hardly as strong as ones you properly upgrade.

I liked someone's suggestion about just putting caps on the merc's stats. Such as limiting resistance to -100, etc