was looking to gather some thoughts and feedback about mercs in d4. I don’t recall hearing anything about them yet and its something that has kind of bothered me in both d2 and d3.
in d2 you are pretty much locked in to buying an act 2 merc for the aura boost and the fact that most of the good merc weapons are polearms which only he can weild.
in d3 I find that all 3 options are pretty underwhelming but I do find it cool that you are able to choose different abilities for them as they level up.
so if they are going to have mercs at all in d4 which I imagine they will, I would like to see them being a little more effective and have some diversity. not really sure about the specifics but I have seen a lot of class ideas floating around and I think a couple that don’t get put in as player classes could be used for mercs.
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I hate mercenaries, i hope we don’t have them, specially in a open world (and with pvp) game
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that was my only concern, if it is open world I don’t think mercs would work but i’m not sure what they are planning hopefully it is something that gets mentioned in a quarterly update or something.
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I don’t see why mercs wouldn’t work in the open world. Hardly different from pets in an mmo.
But if it was a concern they could simply only spawn when you move into non-open areas. Which is where the main gameplay will happen anyway.
And don’t have them engage in pvp.
I hope mercs are relatively powerful like in D2. They can be a good boost for solo play to help reduce the gap between solo and groups.
And more customization options are always nice.
Also they are part of what makes a Diablo game different from other A-rpgs.
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Indeed having more customization options regarding their equipment (similar to Diablo 2 but more) as well as their abilities as they level (similar to Diablo 3 but more) would be awesome.
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I would also like to see the feature the same as d3 where the merc just disappears once you enter a party with other players, I think that is a really nice feature to have. full gear options would be great but that may make the merc too powerful so I hope they find a way to balance it while still allowing max amounts of customization.
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I don’t like mercs because is a forced choice, i prefer being able to choose to have it or not
That’ll depend on some factors such as how powerful the items are in Diablo 4, would mercenaries have their own skills and passive abilities that players can choose from, whether or not mercenaries can equip mythic tier items, etc.
But honestly, I don’t think it’ll be bad if mercenaries can become powerful, after all, if a person invests heavily into building their mercenary, then they should be rewarded with a powerful ally rather than a subpar assistant whose only purpose is to provide occasional buffs.
Regarding mercenaries and parties, I would much rather blizzard allow people to have their mercenaries with them; meaning that the only time that the mercenary would leave is either if the mercenary dies (meaning that players would need to revive them someway) or if the player dismisses them.
But if a mercenary number limit is to be imposed and assuming blizzard is dead set on having parties max out with 4 players; then they could handle it similar to monster hunter world, whereas solo players as well as 2 man parties can have their mercenaries with them (making the party effectively 4). They could even have 3 man parties allow only the mercenary of the party leader also.
Mercenaries (Diablo 2 version) definitely weren’t a forced choice and you could clear the entire game’s campaign without using one.
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You can “choose” to not use it today, but if you mean in terms of power I guess you could get a buff on your character if you didn’t use a merc, to truly make optional.
Are mercs a bad forced choice to have however?
It is also a forced choice to use a weapon or equip a pair of gloves. I am very much in favor of making choices balanced, so you really do have different choices and not just the illusion of choice.
But typically that is a choice between doing X or Y (like different mercs), not X vs. doing nothing.
Maybe a merc that never engaged in combat, but only stayed behind you and buffed you or similar?
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Agreed. I’d rather them not be an option at all. If they are in I’d rather they e more like a temp buff you can buy once a day. If they die they are done for.
Respectfully disagree. If players don’t want to use them, then they can just opt out of using them.
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Oh, but you guys keep telling me not doing something in the game that is optional that intentionally weakens your character is not a valid option.
If mercs make your character stronger then opting out is not a meaningful choice you have.
But I wonder why people don’t like mercs, and maybe some of the merc choices could support the play style those people want.
Which is completely true.
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Then mercs should not be in the game.
If you could still clear the game without them, then yes, not using them can be considered a valid option.
as long as it is set up like d3 where the merc goes away as soon as you party up I don’t see the problem. having a merc allows solo players to do more content that they may not be able to do on their own without a merc and will not effect group play at all so I don’t see the problem as long as it is balanced properly.
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I don’t like having someone that follow me, i prefer go alone or with my friends
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Which, if mercenaries were in the game, would be more than possible especially if you look at the previous Diablo games. Diablo 2, just let your mercenary get killed and never revive them; and Diablo 3, you can simply dismiss your follower.
They should have it so you get the message “The minions of hell grow stronger/weaker” whenever you use or dismiss them. This way playing solo without them or with them gives no advantage. Obviously their DPS/design needs to be scaled appropriately.
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