Anyone else just kinda hate the whole mercenaries mechanic?

^There are some comparisons that you make to the D3 merc that are.....less than accurate or inadequately equal or comparable to PoE.

1) Emanate: these were REGULATED effects, and severely limited. Meanwhile, in PoE 1 these are virtually Unlimited, unregulated, and exceedingly powerful because they were never meant to be used in the way they are being used. We would need a total overhaul of unique items and specific mods in order for the two situations to be remotely comparable to each other in terms of power, utility, and ease.

2) Survivability: you said it yourself....a merc in D3 needed a specific unique item that stopped it from dying to survive in certain levels of content. Giving up a valuable item slot. Meanwhile, even with -200% lightning resistance and NO investment into any kind of defense our mercs here can survive all but the highest difficulty juiced t17s. Stats that, had merc stats been OUR stats, wouldn't even let us survive probably Act 4 of the game.

3) "So if we take away the unique item interaction benefits for mercenaries for most players, what will be left? A free aura and some more loot with a HP buff for the enemies? You don't even want those auras then? Who is going to run a mercenary then for no appreciable offensive or defensive benefit?"

I mean....more loot alone would make everyone use them lol. A free aura on top of that is ENORMOUS. I frankly don't think mercs should have access to ANY of the auras that we have, and they should have far less powerful, more niche and unique auras similar to aspects. Being able to curse enemies is another way for mercs to be constantly useful. Even if that were all they did. Utility in PoE is crazy effective, and can mean the difference between: 5-10 passive points or more, an entire triggered or untriggered skill setup and everything that comes with it such as mana costs, supports, etc, 50% of your entire mana pool, and more. NONE of that is the same in D3. It doesn't even exist, there basically is no synergizing in all of D3.


I'd also add that comparing the environment of D3 versus PoE, along with the mercs, is much more difficult than you tried to spell out. For one, D3 is like magnitudes easier. You don't NEED your merc to curse / ailment / aura. You are constantly raining in legendaries, sets, and valuable items. It's not the fact that mercs couldn't "emanate" that led to them not being used: it was that the game itself was so goddamn easy that people pretty much forgot they were even a thing.