Mercenaries nerf

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nils
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Mercenaries nerf

Post by nils » 29 Apr 2022 17:40

Any particular reasoning behind the out of the blue nerf to mercenaries? I've always been of the understanding that the point of the mercenaries were exactly their ability to specialize, and had the somewhat weaker special attack as a direct consequence of their versatility?

There's a lot to be said for mercenaries, but "Too good - need nerf" isn't it.
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Riva
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Re: Mercenaries nerf

Post by Riva » 29 Apr 2022 18:03

From what Cherek has said about it on discord the main reason they dislike Mercenaries being able to specialize is because they don't leave and join "real" guilds with focused skills and rp. So by nerfing them I guess the hope is to push people out so it won't be the most populated guild anymore.

Chanele
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Re: Mercenaries nerf

Post by Chanele » 29 Apr 2022 19:45

Hmm..
I do not follow the logic here.

You are either a specialist or versatile, is this not an example where you can have both sides of the coin?

Anyway, in my oppinion this is a good move. Becoming a Mercenary is simple, leaving them comes with no cost....a good start up or transiction guild. It should not be top notch.

With the introduction of white hits the so called "weak" special has less impact than before and truth to be told this nerf is minor.

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nils
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Re: Mercenaries nerf

Post by nils » 29 Apr 2022 20:36

Yes, I can get behind the reasoning of making mercenaries worse to force players into other, more unique/factional, guilds. But if that's the case, why not be up front about it instead?

And if that really is the reasoning, why not make it count?

Slash the special attack in half, cap main skill at sup master and other skills at conf veteran, then introduce penalty for leaving while giving amnesty for existing members?
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Zhar
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Re: Mercenaries nerf

Post by Zhar » 03 May 2022 01:24

nils wrote:
29 Apr 2022 17:40
Any particular reasoning behind the out of the blue nerf to mercenaries? I've always been of the understanding that the point of the mercenaries were exactly their ability to specialize, and had the somewhat weaker special attack as a direct consequence of their versatility?

There's a lot to be said for mercenaries, but "Too good - need nerf" isn't it.
Even in your opening post you have made contradictory statements about the Mercenaries: "ability to specialize", "versatility". Specialized things are not versatile and vice versa. I assume the idea here was to promote the "versatility" part, by not letting Mercenaries have multiple skills at superior guru and thus having everyone just maxing combat skills and be the same but instead having them spread their adaptability across a wider range of skills.

Another reason might be the change to normal hits, which resulted in skills like defence and parry having increased value and Mercenaries having easy access to both at superior guru suddenly made them much better than anticipated (and made Gladiators even more obsolete). Now when it comes to combat skills they're on par with other occupational melee guilds, which doesn't make them weak by any means.

At least that's how I see it in the light of recent changes to the core mechanics.

Edit: I think I also forgot to mention imbuements. While everyone has to hunt for the imbuements they want for Mercenaries the core combat imbues (defence, parry, weapon of choice) are basically "any skill imbue" as it lets them shift their adaptability. The same with +skill weapons/armors. I think some people might find it a bit too good or unfair towards others.
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Cherek
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Re: Mercenaries nerf

Post by Cherek » 08 May 2022 13:46

Riva wrote:
29 Apr 2022 18:03
From what Cherek has said about it on discord the main reason they dislike Mercenaries being able to specialize is because they don't leave and join "real" guilds with focused skills and rp. So by nerfing them I guess the hope is to push people out so it won't be the most populated guild anymore.
It's true that I personally feel that it could be a good idea to make neutral free to join and leave guilds slightly worse than other guilds. Partly because I think it might be a good idea to try to encourage more people to join "faction" guilds, but also because I feel that the complete freedom and lack of penalty for leaving should also come at a price. However, that wasn't really the reason for this nerf. Ever since we introduced the new white hits system, we have felt that mercs became a little bit too good, and it's something we have wanted to address since then. So, while it may seem "out of the blue", it's actually somehing we've wanted to do for quite some time. It's just that nobody has volunteered to do it, until Ckrik took on the project a few weeks ago. So, the reason for this nerf is purely a balance reason.

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