A Paladin Idea for more diversity

[theBlind]

Well, the title says it all. What would you think if the paladin was allowed to keep a single merc from every act?
Of course, this is mostly theoretical thinking, I don´t know if the engine would even support it :-(

But anyway, I think it would be a nice change from the other classes.

[Bob]

I use a merc, it's a habit it got into when I had a PII 266 MMX /w 96Mb RAM & a 16Mb G.Card - my FPS would rarely go into double figures, and I'd get regular stops of 10 seconds or more. I needed a tank.
Over that time, my playing style got built around the use of a merc.

I'm shocked to see people taking on bosses without one still, even if they end up sacrifycing their life just to hold D. off me for 20 seconds.

Which is why I'd like to see mercenaries given a greater role - Blizz obviously put them in there for a reason, but got balance wrong to the extent that people can play without them. And in that I'd like to see them made more powerful. I can't remember where I read it but it went something like this:

"the mercenary is now like another adventurer"

Well, s/he's not.

They have an amazing tendancy to die, take different damage from stuff, er, enemies and they can't be armed properly.

So what I would like to see is the merc expanded to be as powerful as other players and necessary to win.
I don't know if 4 mercs is a particularly good idea, I thought more of 2, and they have to be different. Having multiple would also have to be earned. as would full arming.

Complete normal:
2 merc
Complete nightmare:
full arming
complete hell:
Bit o' inventory space (charms only possibly)

They could also be made more intelligent and have various AI's
attack, defend, stay back, heel, stay in town, no! don't charge headlong into that tri MSLeB with phys immune pack

or you could give them pots to drink as they need 'em

Obviously monsters would have to be made a bit tougher to compensate

As it stands, most players see mercs as an expensive hinderance who they can do without. This ought to change

MMMM, bowazon with cold mage, barb and a valkyrie

fana Pally with a barb and and might guardsman

bear / summon druid with a rogue and might guardsman

I can just picture the combinations now

Act 3 mercs, hell difficulty should have more auras again, Fanaticism, salvation and meditation, then an 8 player party would have to make the tough decision about which to go without.

8 players, 16 mercs, 15 Skel mages, 15 skells, 10 revives, 2 grizzly, heart of volverine, Oak sage, 10 ravens, 2 vines, valkyrie, shadow master.

hmmm, perhaps we should wait until it becomes compulsory to have multi-gigabyte quantities of RAM to play on Bnet :blink:

AND they give you someplace to put some of the cool gear. (battlebranch on a sorc anyone?)

ooh, my head, that was rambling and convoluted, it's late -_-

-Bob