Hire A Mercenary with Forum Gold:

The Mercenary can wield items like a character can.
The Mercenary class determines the Items it can Use just like a Character.
... NOTE: You have to UNLOCK the Mercenary character class in sink with your character class, SO, you can NOT purchase a Warlock Mercenary if your character has NOT unlocked this class, thus, you will NOT hire a mercenary UNTIL you have unlocked this class.
The Mercenary purchased is Hard Set, you can not replace it with another class type even after Master Quest or a Reset. This is a ONE OFF DEAL.
The Mercenary levels up with the Character solo or Group based off of your characters Experience point gain, know matter the character Class.
The Mercenary Level does NOT influence the experienced gained by Your character or Class. This means, your Mercenary may get to a higher level than your character during your run: Example: You are a Warlock, your Mercenary is a Fighter class, the Mercenary level will increase at the rate of a fighter, whereas your Warlock class is hindered in experience to gain levels.
The Mercenary can only be allocated ONE ABILITY.
The Mercenary Ability can be preset to discharge to one of your character abilities ... or preset by the #(number) of monsters that spawn on screen (meaning that it may let loose at 5% charge or 200% charge randomly... but we know if in a run [solo/group], you set a monster spawn level based on the average)
The Mercenary dies, you have to pay the same amount of Forum Gold to resurrect it again and a +2% additional fee based on the level it died. If you do not pay the additional fee, you can only resurrect it at level 1.
The Mercenary Items are from YOUR item collection, this means you will have to obtain the items for the Mercenary to use, also you have to "Store" the Mercenary items as well, and yes, all the way to Master Quest. Now, following information about the Mercenary on each core: HC / SC.

HC Mercenary dies just like your character will, it can NOT respawn like SC, the items worn are deleted in the same way your character would die, so, you do NOT want your Mercenary to die either. However, in death, you can buy/purchase a new Mercenary.

If you read the above, you will notice that you can NOT hire a Mercenary that is higher than your character class... HOWEVER, if a Reset happens, your Mercenary will REMAIN that character class.

The Mercenary Stats ... This may need some discussion, however, I believe that they should start with the same stats as their Class depicts.

Not sure if people will read first before voting and maybe post first to get more information or give advice, but thanks to all readers.

EDIT: The Mercenary Level does NOT influence Master Quest level at all... if you are an alchemist @ level 85 to attempt MQ and your merc is level 55 (just because it died and you purchased it back at that level) doesn't matter, you can still do a master quest, and yes, you and mercenary will start back @ level 1.

This post was edited by izParagonzi on Aug 10 2024 01:01am

Yeah, this is most likely the fucking reason why Paul doesn't bother that much with updates for LS as often as he wants to. Posts like yours trashing others and not even referring to the content of the thread. Classic example of a waste of space and time being a user or player on JSP.

Hats off to you... hope you are proud of your wasted time and effort... I enjoy mine, just like the title of my thread which of course you could not read.

EDIT: the idea actually came from Annihilus (sp) ... a mod for D2LoD where your merc can wear rings, amulets, belt, boots and arrows (which you can find with magical + properties) and even some of the Mercs abilities were different, like a Rogue with Shotgun effect. So why not suggest something wierd for LS? Not really that stupid.

This post was edited by izParagonzi on Aug 10 2024 04:10am

When you sleep do you dream of me too?
Cuz you are obsessed

I don't think this is a good idea; It seems difficult to program for not really a lot of benefit.
Also, I can't in good conscience support this without knowing how mercenaries will work when you join a group/party and play with other people.

This is a sound reply.

One of the things I thought about was:

Solo... a merc means that the monster spawns would be the amount similar to 2 people group of 1-5 monster spawn. This would mean that 2 person group equates to either 3 or 4 person group and monster wave spawns is increased and so forth.

FULL group, now we know that the maximum monsters in a wave is 9, however a full group each with a merc (10 people group) INCREASES the %(percent) chance of a 9 monster wave with each step instead of 1-9, you encounter maximum number of monsters in the wave, thus increasing the difficulty of the game and using Abilities more frequently at lower % charge up.

Note: this could in effect change (reduce) monster abilities that remove character abilities, however, if they are not reduced, it just makes the game harder, this is a point that needs to be discussed.

As for how they work, they can attack based on settings, you get a 3x3 square and number them from 1-9 for the Mercs attack pattern, if no monster appears in the first square, it will attack the 2nd, and repeat to 9.

How they use there ability, let us say it is a Barb and uses Knockdown, again with settings, you select the Column they will use it by a number 1, 2 or 3 in your preferred order, maybe start with the back column as #1 (first) and you select the % charge for them to use... say 25 to 33% charge to use it.

As for healing, if you choose a Guardian Merc for example, I would think settings again, maybe % hitpoints to heal your character or the Merc... if the character reaches 50% hitpoints before the Merc, the Guardian heals the character and vice versa.

The above statements is just an idea. Needs more thoughts on the matter, but ty for pointing these things out a bit more.

Honestly I didn't read any of the post. The reason why is that it doesn't matter what players want to changed or added. It's Paul's game and he'll do what he wants to do. We've expressed feedback over the years and not many things have changed.

Would be cool to hire a merc that could heal.. like a guardian or something. Would make soloing a little easier.
Or a caster merc..

Even if there was a debuff I could see it being helpful.
For say sneaky shell as a solo player

Voted interesting. But needs more work

While I would love to see any game play changes… I don’t think this one is it for me. Keep thinking!

It would be an interesting change. Gave you a needs more work vote.
I as a mostly solo player would use this. Good or bad?