Mercenaries need to go core!

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felix0808#2550 wrote:

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Celestriad#0304 wrote:

No one is asking for that. If you want to troll with such exaggerations kindly consider making your own thread

Why? Seems many people in this topic like power without efforts. I just want give them more fun :)

Good mercs don't come without efforts though. Ideally you find a very good one and then still have to gear them. Some of my mercs are upwards of 90 divines - every bit of power I get out of them is justified.

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Celestriad#0304 wrote:

Good mercs don't come without efforts though.

Some players also end up getting farmed by mercs 24/7, so yes it's a bit more than just "free" player power.

Fomo Mercs need to go core :)

Pls tell me how much time needed to find a merc that able to wear Doryani, Perquil toe, 500+ rarity gravebinder? Or lots of other less powerful, but still strong uniques.

I.e. for 1 min play you get a thing, that doubles amount of equippable items. Really "every bit of power I get out of them is justified." :D

"Justified?" I dun feel particularly motivated to "justify" anything I do in the game which the system allows me to do, and certainly not to forum gadflies eager for a sparring partner. If the Devs (in their infinite wisdom) deem it right and proper to make Mercs a core element of Path of Exile (as they did with Settlers), then I and some others will be grateful. If not, well, not much to be done about it, though it will take some getting used to after this league not to have the backup to which we've become accustomed. ='[.]'=

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felix0808#2550 wrote:

Pls tell me how much time needed to find a merc that able to wear Doryani, Perquil toe, 500+ rarity gravebinder? Or lots of other less powerful, but still strong uniques.

I.e. for 1 min play you get a thing, that doubles amount of equippable items. Really "every bit of power I get out of them is justified." :D

For starters none of my 3 mercs use Doryanis, nor do they use Perquil. Mine are high level (T17) with the correct skillset, aura and min-maxed supports. Getting them took a good few weeks of actively playing. So yes, every bit of power I get out of them is very well justified. However, I don't expect a new player like yourself to understand - all you see is Doryani and whatever else tickles your fomo brain.

Obviously, as stated and suggested numerous times, GGG would have to make adjustments. That doesn't change the fact that Mercs would be a very good and long overdue addition to the core game.

On that note, push for mercs to go core!

Way too OP and they would break the balance of the game in half, nobody wants to do the chore of getting the "right" gear for their merc and be forced to use one on every build. So this ain't going core, at most just all the uniques that were introduced in the league will be moved to the core drop pool.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

Way too OP and they would break the balance of the game in half, nobody wants to do the chore of getting the "right" gear for their merc and be forced to use one on every build. So this ain't going core, at most just all the uniques that were introduced in the league will be moved to the core drop pool.

Fomo much?

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

Way too OP and they would break the balance of the game in half, nobody wants to do the chore of getting the "right" gear for their merc and be forced to use one on every build.

Who is this 'nobody' you're referring to, and why assume your personal opinion represents the entire community? The topic itself speaks for itself, 'nobody' is a bit of a stretch, especially when there’s clear, strong interest from players wanting mercs to go core, even if they need balancing or reworking. It’s objectively wrong to speak on behalf of the whole community when the topic shows otherwise.

As Celestriad already mentioned, the power mercs provide is justified. You either equip them with some basic, low-cost gear and don’t expect great results, or you put in the effort to get the right merc and get the returns. If you put in the work to align a merc with your needs, rewarding that effort with a bit of power feels fair and solid. For those who can’t reach that point,whether it’s because they can’t afford suited merc gear or they’re getting farmed by pixel, dying constantly in the core game, well, that’s more of a skill issue.

As for the claim that mercs would 'break the balance of the game,' it’s important to note that mercs, on their own, aren’t the issue here. They wouldn’t break the balance, the problem lies deeper in how GGG approaches game balancing as a whole. Mercs are simply another layer that adds more customization and build variety. But for that to be meaningful, it requires thoughtful balancing, not just more player power stacked on top of the existing power with no counterbalancing.

The real issue comes when player power increases without the game adjusting accordingly, this is what throws things out of line and starts breaking the balance.
It’s not about the introduction of new mechanics or systems, but about failing to make the necessary adjustments where they’re most needed.
Balancing goes both ways: player power and core game difficulty need to be considered together to keep things in check.

At this point, if “balance” is a big concern, it’s really about identifying where the game has started to slip out of line and making the necessary adjustments, think Expedition league level nerfs, or honestly, even more than that to bring things back. The fact that GGG has never truly faced these core balance issues is the real reason the balance started to break, not because mercs exist, balance was already broken and beyond fine well before the league launched.
So, you really can’t break anything that’s already broken.

Personally, I think a nerf to the mercs' aura power and a revisit of their defensive stats could be a good step. Other than that, keeping everything as it is would be a fair way to reward those who truly engage with the league mechanic, while offering players the opportunity to reap the benefits of their investment.

As for the FOMO crowd who feel left behind, well, that’s the nature of the game.

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Pashid#4643 wrote:

Fomo much?

Very much so, the usual case

If mercs go core, they need to make mercs visible in profile so we can creep on peoples mercs and link their gear in forum.

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Piousqd#0073 wrote:

If mercs go core, they need to make mercs visible in profile so we can creep on peoples mercs and link their gear in forum.

While it might be fun to "creep" on people's mercs, I don’t think it would add much value to the game. If we start adding mercs and their gear to profiles, why stop there? Why not include heist members, or even the sanctum relics you've equipped as well? At that point, it just becomes extra visual clutter for something that doesn’t really contribute meaningfully to the experience. It's a waste of development time that could be better spent on features that actually enhance gameplay.

Furthermore, even without the ability to view someone’s mercs directly, it’s not difficult to infer their setup. A player with a suboptimal, poorly optimized, or "scuffed" character will almost certainly have mercs that reflect those same shortcomings. The gear they equip will likely be mismatched, and the mercs they hire will be equally unoptimized. Conversely, players with well-optimized characters are more likely to have mercs whose gear complements their own build and playstyle. These are obvious conclusions that don’t require merc profile inspections to understand.

In the end, adding this feature doesn’t really add anything of real value to the game. It just creates distractions and takes away focus from more important improvements, like using that time to balance mercs more effectively, or to address other gameplay aspects that need attention.