how does crossbows help rogue merc?
rogues can’t strafe, theyd have to add animation data for it, which is unlikely.
them blocking doesnt really fix their core issue, which is how bad their ai is
their damage isnt the reason they suck either.
id rather give their ai the ability to teleport to safety, like the demon imps in act 5, though with their own casting animation using sorc’s teleport. youd have to make this pretty smart though.
blizzard is unlikely to allow them to equip axes. the current models can’t just switch over to showing axes, so theyd have axes but their model appears to wield swords.
there is a dual wielded axe barbarian model, but its a little roughish looking. it at least has a HT1 animation (iirc anyway), and double throw could use it. dunno if it has an SC (cast) animation. would look kinda weird tho, theyd be swinging their axes in place and much smaller versions come out of them. youd have to give them a1 merc AI. this doesn’t fix the above issue of showing swords with using axes, youd have to specifically hire a merc that wields axes to show axes as axes. so youd either have to dupe all barbarian merc types and have 1 that is sword only and the other that is axe only.
It’s the other way around. Crossbows are a completely untouched subclass of items, expanding their use to rogue mercs could add more value to these items. Maybe they could use the same animation as bows, not sure. Would probably require some tweaking.
it would have to use the same animation as bows. but crossbows arent bis for amazon, why would rogue change that? even in faster animation, the -60 crossbow still wouldn’t be bis for any builds. it can certainly be added, but its a nothing burger.
That’s ok crossbows wouldn’t be bis, but I still think they need SOME value. A nothing burger is still something, which is an improvement. When you find a crossbow, you can atleast give it to your rogue merc companion.
i’d rather them put their very minimal effort into substantial changes
a1 and a3 mercs suck cuz of their ai. they spend too much time fleeing. they need their ai tweaked to kite better. anything else is bandaid. im firmly of the believe that a3 mercs could one shot monsters and still be useless
I respectfully disagree. They made several improvements to mercenaries in Patch 2.4, and would support them making a few more changes to improve viability. This is especially true for Iron Wolves, which are still underperforming in higher difficulties.
you don’t want them to put changes into the game that actually impact the game? what…
i think you misunderstood what i said. im saying blizzard has put this game on the backburner already. they are going to give very, very few changes from here on out most likely. this is waht im refering to as “their mininal effort”.
All we can do is voice our requests to the developers to improve the game, and maybe they would consider it at a future date (e.g. just like the recent improvements to D3).
im fully aware… but thats besides the point. im just saying i would rather them make changes that have some impact in the game rather than a change that does nothing for nobody
Cmon, man. Many people in the community would be ecstatic if the Iron Wolves were improved to actually be viable in hell.
brother there is no way you’re saying this. wtf are you smoking? im literally in agreement with you, why are you saying im arguing with you?? your changes do not improve iron wolves. that is what im saying. i am suggesting changes that WOULD improve iron wolves. i also want iron wolf changes. do you understand now? your changes are the equivalent of giving barbarian 5 more hp at the start of the game. nothing burger. i do not want to waste blizzard’s time with stuff that doesnt help anything… give real buffs to iron wolves.
Sorry, I misunderstood you. How about you list the changes to Iron Wolves in bullet format and we can discuss and update the suggestions. That way we can garner more support for this effort as we want same thing.
i’ll say it again but with more formatting. act 1 and act 3 mercs suck for the following reason:
- their AI gets them killed very often and it renders them incapable of dealing damage because they are getting “stun locked” by permanently fleeing as they are not capable of kiting.
the way to fix act 1 and act 3 mercs would be:
- fix their ai so that they aren’t getting flee locked constantly. give them better kite potential.
- don’t auto path to 2 screens away just to run into another pack as soon as they get there.
- set a maximum kite distance, make them move to it at the speed a player would, and attempt to cast at least once before trying to flee again.
- even better, check flee conditions while fleeing. fleeing sucks because they wont do anything else until they’ve finished pathing to the lost lands of narnia. if their ai would check while they are fleeing to see if they should continue fleeing, they can choose to stop fleeing at their current location and start dishing out damage, prioritizing monsters near the merc or the player first. then if monsters get too close again, they start fleeing again, prioritizing areas closer to the player.
with these changes, they become substantially better and may even be viable. act 3 merc might be lacking dps in hell, and some damage buffs could end up helping him out in late game. act 1 merc might also be slightly lacking in the dps department as well.
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Would it be fair to summarize act 1 and act 3 mercs as follows:
- Mercenary has improved AI for better attack frequency and melee avoidance (e.g. kiting performance)
yes. unless you are spam teleporting, they will flee more often than they will use their abilities.
edit: apologies for my rather condescending tone. the frustrating “players” are out in full force today and im getting frustrated pretty easily. you’re usually pretty reasonable and respectful and have good thoughts so when you were misunderstanding what i was saying i was getting pretty frustrated lol
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No worries, my apologies as well. I always think the best solution is a culmination of ideas. Much appreciated and updated OP.
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agreed, i think they could likely do with numbers changes too, i dont think ai alone will be enough to make them competitive with a2/a5 mercs. but without ai changes i think any other changes will just fall flat.
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It would be cool if mercs could equip full gear.
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I would greatly enjoy that.
I think expanding merc equipment sounds like a fun idea, but needs to be done cautiously as to avoid power creep via testing in PTR.
To start, the developers could introduce a modest change by adding a single ring slot to give access to Ravenfrost (CBF), Dwarf Star (Fire Absorb), BK Wedding (LL) and/or an amulet slot so Act 3 merc could use 2/20 amulet to hit higher FCR breakpoints.