Mercenaries saved casual players.

I agree. Mercs are a welcome addition.

I’m new to the game, I tried Marc but on keyboard and mouse, left click on mouse doesn’t shoot and it doesn’t let me bind it? Why is that? Why do I have to use keyboard button to use the ammo that currently loaded?

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Wolfgangseed#5326 wrote:

I’m new to the game, I tried Marc but on keyboard and mouse, left click on mouse doesn’t shoot and it doesn’t let me bind it? Why is that? Why do I have to use keyboard button to use the ammo that currently loaded?

I keep left click for move-only, right click for main skill, side mouse button for another skill. Keyboard for everything else. PoE 1 and 2.

PS: I think that you are playing Mercenary in PoE 2, not using the Mercenaries that are in the current PoE 1 league ;)

Some easy Merc balance that would make them viable for core and standard:

1. They cost/use a map portal. This would limit parties to any combination of six members still. It would also limit individuals using a Merc to only three entries into a map.

2. Give Merc's a death limit and then they can't be resurrected. Any equipment on them drops as loot (so you don't lose your items you've equipped on them), but you have to hire a new Merc. Make the limit depend on their level and any passive tree mods (i.e. Merc-centric passive skills and masteries).

3. Reduce their stats/abilities/skills and require player chars to invest in tree node passives and masteries to boost and customize/specialize their Mercs (similar to necro and golem builds). Not to completely neuter them, of course, but they currently come out of the box way too OP.

4. Add Merc-specific affixes to gear (similar to minion/golem affixes) so boosting them outside of the tree comes at an expense to the player-char's abilities.

5. You have to continually give them gold to keep them around and boosted up (meaning skills, stats, power, etc.). The clock never stops running, even when you're logged out. If you run out of gold designated for them, your gear you've put on them gets dumped in a Merc-affinity stash tab and they disappear.



To whomever said Merc's can't be balanced... Yes, they easily can. This list took 5 minutes to pull out of thin air, and I'm sure GGG could easily come up with even better balance solutions.

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SkylerOG#3817 wrote:

Some easy Merc balance that would make them viable for core and standard:

1. They cost/use a map portal. This would limit parties to any combination of six members still. It would also limit individuals using a Merc to only three entries into a map.

2. Give Merc's a death limit and then they can't be resurrected. Any equipment on them drops as loot (so you don't lose your items you've equipped on them), but you have to hire a new Merc. Make the limit depend on their level and any passive tree mods (i.e. Merc-centric passive skills and masteries).

3. Reduce their stats/abilities/skills and require player chars to invest in tree node passives and masteries to boost and customize/specialize their Mercs (similar to necro and golem builds). Not to completely neuter them, of course, but they currently come out of the box way too OP.

4. Add Merc-specific affixes to gear (similar to minion/golem affixes) so boosting them outside of the tree comes at an expense to the player-char's abilities.

5. You have to continually give them gold to keep them around and boosted up (meaning skills, stats, power, etc.). The clock never stops running, even when you're logged out. If you run out of gold designated for them, your gear you've put on them gets dumped in a Merc-affinity stash tab and they disappear.



To whomever said Merc's can't be balanced... Yes, they easily can. This list took 5 minutes to pull out of thin air, and I'm sure GGG could easily come up with even better balance solutions.

Parts of that list sound miserable. Imagine spending forever finding the right merc (I spent all league and only found the one I wanted once...and never again) and then having it die a few times to the randomness of this game and then spending the rest of league searching for it in futility.

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SkylerOG#3817 wrote:

Some easy Merc balance that would make them viable for core and standard:

1. They cost/use a map portal. This would limit parties to any combination of six members still. It would also limit individuals using a Merc to only three entries into a map.

2. Give Merc's a death limit and then they can't be resurrected. Any equipment on them drops as loot (so you don't lose your items you've equipped on them), but you have to hire a new Merc. Make the limit depend on their level and any passive tree mods (i.e. Merc-centric passive skills and masteries).

3. Reduce their stats/abilities/skills and require player chars to invest in tree node passives and masteries to boost and customize/specialize their Mercs (similar to necro and golem builds). Not to completely neuter them, of course, but they currently come out of the box way too OP.

4. Add Merc-specific affixes to gear (similar to minion/golem affixes) so boosting them outside of the tree comes at an expense to the player-char's abilities.

5. You have to continually give them gold to keep them around and boosted up (meaning skills, stats, power, etc.). The clock never stops running, even when you're logged out. If you run out of gold designated for them, your gear you've put on them gets dumped in a Merc-affinity stash tab and they disappear.



To whomever said Merc's can't be balanced... Yes, they easily can. This list took 5 minutes to pull out of thin air, and I'm sure GGG could easily come up with even better balance solutions.

I'll address this post with the same condescension as that final paragraph because its funny and "easily can" be done.

1. This solves no issue...it just mildly reduces one of the least-pressing issues which is basically pointless. -1 points, not off to a good start here.

2. Lol @ this suggestion: couldn't have said it better than the post above this one. This is actually WORSE than anything we currently have. Another -1

3. None of this is any of the reasons for mercs being impossible to balance. Nor is it even true that they "come out of the box OP". It is certainly a nice suggestion for how they should function and be customizable, but NOT balance. The issues come from unique mechanics, which have zero connection to any stats. Because ultimately this is a good suggestion for customization, its only a -.5 points: given that your goal was to "balance" them...this fails in that regard.

4. The comparison to minion/golem is confusing because it doesn't match what you describe? ADDING merc-specific mods to gear fixes no issues, and likely introduces a host of others unless paired with REMOVING something. -1

5. Similar, yet WORSE than #2. More idle gameplay forced into the game, and one that requires you to pay attention to the game when you are not playing the game. I can't give this idea enough negative points.


So....maybe you needed to spend a bit longer than 5 minutes eh? Each point fails, and 2 & 5 are just easily the worst Mercenary suggestions ive read on these forums since these "let them go core" threads started. Oh and btw....finding all these negatives in your points took LESS than 5 minutes, which means if you had taken a bit of time digesting your own suggestions rather than being condescending...you probably could have seen much of what I said yourself.

The biggest problem of the game atm is build diversity.

All those retarded map mods that have to kill each and every class by 2-3 ways and you (obligatory have to) scale them with map effect (otherwise you get 60% less loot) led the playerbase to play only stackers.

There's a good bunch of those map mods that need to be removed in order to restore build diversity, perhaps with the crit reduction on maps/ monsters being the first.

Mercs did nothing than allowing for off meta classes to be playable.

I'm as casual a player as it gets. Merc league is the most fun I've had in this game in a long time. I'd love for it to go to core and standard. But I'm not delusional enough to not notice that they are OP AF and can't possibly go live without some changes.

Some builds are netting 3x or more DPS purely because of their Merc, which is insane.

Yeah, let's give everyone their own personal aura-bot and turn the meta into max block/ss/resist tanks that also have +1k flat fire or every mob at -200 lightning resist. Who doesn't like running around SOLO on invulnerable chars doing a billion DPS?

They effectively cost nothing right now while more than doubling numerous affinities of game mechanics. If we want them to remain in core, we don't get to have our cake and eat it too. They need multiple avenues of expenditure to remedy the problem while also trying to retain their style and purpose.

Party size would absolutely have to be addressed. Six chars + six mercs is an absurd notion. POE's balance and ceiling can't be tuned around that potential level of power. Nor can it be tuned around casual solo players on shoe-string budgets with little time investment knocking down uber content with ease.

Permanency and cost would certainly have to be part of the solution. They need to become an extension of your build and not just a complete enhancement bot/more multiplier.

I like easy-mode as much as anyone else, but let's be reasonable and not ruin the game.

Suggest some actual solutions if you don't like mine.

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SkylerOG#3817 wrote:

I'm as casual a player as it gets. Merc league is the most fun I've had in this game in a long time. I'd love for it to go to core and standard. But I'm not delusional enough to not notice that they are OP AF and can't possibly go live without some changes.

Some builds are netting 3x or more DPS purely because of their Merc, which is insane.

Yeah, let's give everyone their own personal aura-bot and turn the meta into max block/ss/resist tanks that also have +1k flat fire or every mob at -200 lightning resist. Who doesn't like running around SOLO on invulnerable chars doing a billion DPS?

They effectively cost nothing right now while more than doubling numerous affinities of game mechanics. If we want them to remain in core, we don't get to have our cake and eat it too. They need multiple avenues of expenditure to remedy the problem while also trying to retain their style and purpose.

Party size would absolutely have to be addressed. Six chars + six mercs is an absurd notion. POE's balance and ceiling can't be tuned around that potential level of power. Nor can it be tuned around casual solo players on shoe-string budgets with little time investment knocking down uber content with ease.

Permanency and cost would certainly have to be part of the solution. They need to become an extension of your build and not just a complete enhancement bot/more multiplier.

I like easy-mode as much as anyone else, but let's be reasonable and not ruin the game.

Suggest some actual solutions if you don't like mine.

I'm not sure you suggested any solutions though; or maybe I misread what you said. I see a vague framework around needing reworked around permanency and cost but nothing specific.

I think they can round off the edges by putting caps on DPS, capped upper/lower resistances, reward investment in defenses rather than just making them invincible by default, re-balance auras, etc.

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panikouk#7916 wrote:

The biggest problem of the game atm is build diversity.

All those retarded map mods that have to kill each and every class by 2-3 ways and you (obligatory have to) scale them with map effect (otherwise you get 60% less loot) led the playerbase to play only stackers.

There's a good bunch of those map mods that need to be removed in order to restore build diversity, perhaps with the crit reduction on maps/ monsters being the first.

Mercs did nothing than allowing for off meta classes to be playable.

Mercenaries saved so many builds in this league.