Having two mercs. would be nice!
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Reminds me of the D3 merc system, I like it 
Are you proposing an item that give the ability to hire multiple mercs at once?
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For single player, I think it’d be neat to be able to hire all mercs. There was a disproved rumor before D2R launched that it was in the files as un-hardcoded to to able to do this. For online bnet, it’d be too much unless when other players joined, it’d unsummon the extras like how D3 does for your merc.
However, with D3 getting a SSF mode, and people wanting SSF in D2R (I’d rather see other stuff first, especially a push for better multiplayer play), I could see this being a great way to do SSF mode, hiring all mercs with every merc beyond the first increasing the game difficulty by 1 player (ie 4 mercs would be players 4). That would be way more interesting then simply adding players x into the mode.
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Better give them full equip but only for solo play or offline.
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It wasn’t disproved, it was true. You could have multiple mercs in the Tech Alpha with softcoded mods then they removed that capability before launch. Same with making runewords in non-white items.
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This is interesting, I’m not sure how I feel about it. Be cool if it was a function of Standard of Heroes or something. You can hire an additional mercenary per SOH on hand, with a limit? But on the contrary, this is power creep like crazy, right?
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Interesting. I can’t remember who originally spoke about it in the pre-launch forums, but I remember the conversation around launch saying it didn’t pan out. Fuzzy on the details. I wonder why that was removed; would have provided an awesome mod for single player, unless they were afraid it could leak into Bnet. Has to be something that was tied to the removal of tcp/ip.
More than 1 merc at once would be a massive powercreep. Having the option to gear all of the mercs and switch from 1 to the other without losing the gear or having to unequip and reequip them would be nice. One of the things D3 got right.
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It could be interesting if by picking more than one merc also increases the game “player number” (like TanisGunthar said).
Some test required but something in the line:
- Base (player + 1 hireling) → players 1
- Base + 1 extra hireling ->players 3
- Base + 2 extra hireling → players 4/5
- Base + 3 extra hireling → players 5/6
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Consider implementing also the opposite: multiple players in the game = hirelings stay at town. Like in D3, to promote playing together.
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It could make for a fun single player experience… assembling a little party to lead, complete with full item load-outs for each one.
Except… with the current AI… I personally would not enjoy it 
It is currently painful enough trying to play a summoner Necro or Druid.
I hated that “feature”. You always had to have 2 different builds for solo and group.
I think having more than 1 merc at a time is a no-go. I’m sure no one would go for this as its not needed.
but if you’re suggesting that you could hire all mercs and chose between them and have their gear saved I’m totally on board with that.
it would accomplish 2 things
- you could have the gear sets for each ready and be able to keep them
- you could switch back and forth between them for desired area or mob.
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Being able to switch between merc types without losing gear would be a nice QoL without affecting game balance.
Mutiple active mercs kinda becomes wierd with the compounding effect of mutiple auras… Seems like it would be too messy for D2. Lots more work required for this one to make sure it isn’t game breaking, but the idea still sounds cool especially if it raises player count.
You got 4 different merc types, and the standard P1 right now allows for 1 merc. I think if you keep it to solo games only, you could see:
2 mercs - P3
3 mercs - P5
4 mercs - P7
Just select which one is your main merc for joining public/multiplyer and then no need to worry about merc spam.
Edit: just thought of something though: how do you tell the game which merc gets the potion when you press shift+potion? Gets split between all?
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the problem is that you probably only use mercs for aura spamming anyway and a5 and a2 merc can pretty much already solo the game with the right gear.
Imagine a combination of Conviction, Fana, Might, Blessed aim, cleansing, fire resist, ench, meditation, decrep, thorns, sanctuary just from the mercs.
And you want to play p8 solo anyway for max drops and xp.
TBH this is probably one of the cooler SOH use suggestions!
I agree w/ the power creep concerns though.
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I really like the multiple mercs for solo play idea. I think it was the obvious intention, but I think it should be stated specifically that there should only one of each type allowed: 1 Act1, 1 Act2, etc. This way you can’t just load up on 4 A2 Merc Auras.
Using SoH for additional “Merc slots” is really thematic and makes sense (“using the Standard to rally more heroes to the cause!”), but it seems like a pretty stiff, specific hill to climb for solo play. I’d prefer more of just a game progression limit like 1 in Norm, 2 in NM, 3 in Hell, and 4 after beating Hell. I also really like the /player count feature idea, that would be SO much more interesting than just a static /players command. Up to p5 with 4 Mercs would be fantastic.
This is all in the context of solo or SSF though. For MP, being able to have at least a couple Mercs could still be neat, but I think it should be capped at 2 max (maybe with a SoH?) to prevent merc overload. Again, no more than one of a given type.
EDIT: Also, for SSF, this would also provide a great use for some of the extra gear you’ll find that your char can’t use.
No reason to make the game easier. You could double up on your merc auras with 2 mercs. It would be insanely OP and unnecessary.
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are we sure it was removed? theyre capable of just removing a column from the file but the functionality still being there. wondering if anyone has ever tried adding the column back and seeing what happened
I like the idea of having multiple merc builds, but only 1 at a time. As others mentioned already, too much power creep to have more than one at a time, but having different an act 5 or act 2 merc with different gear ready to be swapped in town would be really nice to help you farm different areas. It just makes sense now with Terror Zones creating a whole lot of new farming areas.
1 Like