It is unclear why this restriction was imposed in the first place; it is understandable that since the original game’s developers did not implement mercs using different weapons due to sprite limitations, what about boots, belts, gloves, and rings? The Merc Equips mod is always the most downloaded/installed for every game version. D2R is already very different from the original D2, so why not add this feature? If developers had only looked into the creative ideas of the modding community for over 24 years, they would not have needed to invent the wheel.
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No need… They’re already powerful enough as it is… A3 mercs still need a bit of work though.
I’m guessing you never played classic Diablo 2? Mercs don’t carry between acts, and you can’t gear them either.
:o
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I did play classic Diablo, and Mercs were useless there since they couldn’t equip anything. There was little help from them in normal, but still, they died in no time. There is a semi-hidden quest reward from this time where you can get a free Merc in Act II after killing Radament, and in Act III, I believe when you find The Gidbinn dagger, if you did not hire them in the previous act and skipped the merc award quest. Still, the game is so well balanced that out of 4 available mercenaries, there was Act 2 merc in D2 and Act 2 merch + maybe in some setup Act 1 in D2R (since they added insight in the bow) with everything else being quite flat useless. Act 3 merks “needs work” is an understatement. It would not be difficult to add some quality-of-life features, like switchable auras so you don’t have to hire a different merc every time, the ability to leave the merc in town, and merk-specific gear.
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Totally pointless, would only further the divide between A2 mercs vs all the other mercs, would probably allow them to easily solo a game on their own, imagine dracs on one would be silly…huge cb, lifetap, ow, tank… A3 still needs an enormous buff to be viable while A1/A5 mercs need more damage and more item choices for more auras to be comparable to how strong cookie cutter a2 builds are…
3 Likes
I think it’s important that the mercenaries’ equipment remains lighter than the character. The focus of the game is on the character you are playing, and the mercenary is just supposed to be a minor ally to provide a little bit of support to the character, not the most important part of your build.
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this game could be developed towards so many different routes…
I would not consider this to my liking, at least more than other things that could improve or differentiate the game
but yeah, this could be a nice extension / patch / new feature
If I was a dev for D2R, I would do the following:
- Give A3 merc 1 ring slot and 1 amulet slot. Add masteries.
- Give A1 merc gloves slot.
- Give A5 merc belt and boots slot.
- Leave A2 as it is.
A2 is by far the strongest merc. He has the best auras and aura items available AND can do a lot of damage AND can be made tanky. That’s why 95% of players choose this one. Infinity+Holy Freeze is OP. Insight+Prayer+Cure is OP. Might+Pride or Reapers is OP. Doom+Defiance is OP. Nothing has to be changed here!
A3 is still utterly useless and can’t even wear useful aura items. To be fair, he can wear swords, but would you put a Last Wish on him? Even with a full Dragon/HoJ/Flickering he sucks. Don’t even bother trying dual Dream on him. Heck, this guy can’t even wear a spirit shield if not ethereal! Make him a powerful damage dealer/enchanter at least.
A1 is not bad. In fact, the rogue is pretty good. She can wear useful auras (Faith, Mist, Harmony, Insight, Ice) and stays out of trouble most of the time. Inner Sight can prove impactful on physical builds or summoners. With Mist+Delirium+Cold she becomes a crowd control wonder. In terms of auras and damage she still falls behind A2. That’s why gloves would come in handy. Imagine her wearing Draculs/Soul Drainer/LoH…
A5 is not bad either, he can wear Plague, Last Wish, Lawbringer, Hustle and is the fastest and tankiest merc of them all. But he needs some more damage and AR. He is a FIGHTER and can’t hit a stone. No wonder all these barbs are dying in the wilderness of Harrogath. As a special ability I would reduce his boss damage malus by 50%.
2 Likes
My merc has 3 pieces of gear and hasnt died since day 3…how much stronger do you need them???
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You can keep a naked merc alive, what kind of low bar is that? Has nothing to do with survivability and everything to do with damage and utility… A3 mercs add almost next to nothing.
No i disagree. I mean some of the pvp meta for hardcore pvp necros is dumping on someone and merc spearing them.
It might be fun but its not long overdue
mercenary act 2 is ultra broken in d2r
was broken in 1.14d and now kills diablo ultra faster than before
TLDR: More power creep.
The focus on D2r should remain on the main character itself. The limited amount of gear slots on Mercenaries was basically a compromise to make people use them in the Expansion because in Classic, they’re basically fodder for the enemy. Of the four Merc’s, A2 is the unquestioned leader because of what we use them for: Auras. Since A2 comes with a free one combined with the fact he’s the ONLY one that gets Conviction via Infinity, he, by default, is the most popular pick.
The only thing adding Gloves, Belts, Boots and Jewelry would do would be to add ever more power-creep into the game by permitting Mercenaries to effectively solo things themselves. Drac Gloves for Life Leech + Lifetap is insanely OP. 20 IAS Gloves like Lava Gout for Enchant would be stupidly strong. Belts like String of Ears or Verdungo would give 10-15% DR and Boots would typically be Gores for more Deadly Strike/OW/CB. Jewelry would typically be +Skill items like BK or Absorb rings(Ravenfrost, Dwarf, Wisp) to give them elemental protection while the Amulet is either Maras for more +Skills or Highlords for IAS + Deadly Strike.
In other words, we’d gear them like our main character but not control them. How much fun is that?
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I would settle for Blizzard adding a basic skill that allowed you to direct your merc/minions ahead of you. Sometimes, I wish there was a way to steer them so you don’t put yourself in danger.
I agree, I had the same conclusion : a way to give very basic orders to your companions (summons and mercenaries) would be a great boon to the game.
The game Ultima 7:The Black Gate has some useful settings for NPC party members. You can set them to attack the closest, attack the weakest, attack the strongest, attack random target and defend the weakest party member. With these settings, the NPC would flee if their health went down to or below 20%, and they’d return to fighting if their health went back above 30%. In addition, there’s also a setting to flee for a moment every time the NPC is hit, and also a berserk setting, which was attack closest and prevented fleeing.
Something along the lines of this would make mercs more versatile.
1 Like
I would go even simpler.
Currently, minions determine a first action, then don’t determine the next action until they have either accomplished their first action or been blocked from accomplishing that action. This makes the minions very unresponsive to whatever happens on the field, sometimes taking 10 seconds to walk from point A to point B, therefore not reacting to the monsters killing the player.
My suggestion would be two simple orders that apply to all minions, overriding whatever current action they are doing :
- Move at cursor.
- Attack at cursor.
Ideally, a solution to select which minions the orders apply to would be even better.
In all cases, this allows the player to quickly respond when an issue arises.
Alternatively, current action to do could be reevaluated every half second after it has been determined so that minions don’t get stuck in an ultra long action, leaving the player wide open to the monsters’ attacks.
2 Likes
Personally I’d just allow act 3 merc to utilize sorceress orbs ( not staves only orbs).
an orb in sorc hand looks similarily to a sword, even melee attack with it is pretty similar to a sword swing.
in terms of file editing two changes are required in order to pull this off:
#1 in monstats.txt in alowed mainhand equipment add a colon and add orb code after the sword.
#2 in hirelings.txt in all lines of a3 merc that are marked as expansion go to last row where it says equivalent type and add type: sor .
mechanics need to be change in order for the equivalent class to benefit from class specific passives, as rn they don’t work even for the barb merc.
this sets the a3 merc as sorceress equivalent type, and enables orbs in mainhand slot. the both changs coupled enable a3 merc to equip orbs…
still nothing super major, but at least they’d become semi viable when given an orb with:
+3 to specialization tab +3 to specialization element mastery +3 specific skill from their list. the orb can be larzuked and accept 2x facets, + rest of the equipment would get him in decent spot i think.
the full merc equipment shenanigans i pulled off with trang’s set in other topic was ment as a stunt showoff You may try to replicate, not for actual battle net implementation…
The power creep is already real: Mosaic, Javazon, Novasorc, Act2 Merc, Infinity etc.
It’s about BALANCE and CHOICES. A game that offers 4 mercenaries of which one is the only suitable choice, two are rarely used, and one is entirely useless is worst game design! Same is for classes. Between a Mosaicsin and a summoner druid there is still a HUGE gap, and the druid got a massive buff with one of the latest patches. In the time a summoner kills 1 enemy in a P8 game, the sin kills 50. This is should be fixed. Or do you want to see the same 3 classes to be played over and over? What do we have 7 classes then? Makes absolutely no sense from a players’ perspective.
I’m playing ladder atm, and whenever I join a game, theres sorceresses, hammerdins and assassins everywhere. And behind them a few poor horking barbs who loot the remains. Not a single druid or bowazon. No melee heroes. Yeah, that is a fun game!
And keep in mind: You can have only 1 merc. There is no power creep when buffing the other 3 mercs. Either you stick to your Act 2 guy or you swap him to another merc, which is, ideally, comparable to in terms of usefulness, but has a different focus. This would be a GOOD game design in my opinion.
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I don’t know if DH explicitely responded to you (if so it doesn’t show for me). But if he responded to OP, then he’s right. OP wants full equiment for all mercs, including act2. That is definitey power creep. Examples and reasons can be found in this thread.
Your post from 7 days ago makes sense though.
2 Likes
My reply, as Orcinus pointed out. was to the OP. Yes, other facets of the game need to be tweaked but that’s not the topic of discussion here. As I noted above though, all Mercenaries have their uses but generally speaking we pick A2 for the Aura buffs it provides. Same deal with A1(Fanaticism via Faith, Concentration via Mist, Vigor via Harmony) and Act 5(Might via Last Wish and Lawbringer for Sanctuary/Decrepify primarily). It’s really only Act 3 that gets the short end of the stick for Auras aside from Fire variants with Flickering Flame giving it Resist Fire.
1 Like