Fairly certain on live mercs do not use weaponry, and instead have min/max values based on level. According to a few posts on ZAM, proficiency determines how many NPCs a merc can take on at once before feeling 'overwhelmed', an overwhelmed merc will fight but with a debuff. Not sure where the debuff is from or if it's a spell or anything. Tier determines the quality (dps output) of the mercenary.
Also, from limited testing on live, mercs seem to follow NPC stat rules more than PC stat rules. With the exception of HP, their damage seems more like that of an equal level NPC. For example, a level 50 mercenary deals around 151 points of damage and quad-attacks. This is close to being on par with a Plane of Justice sentinel, but with extra quad attacks. As for HP their HP is more so that of a player. They do not follow AA rules as far as I can tell, however, they have considerably more AC than a player would at that level. They seemed easily damaged by spell casters, so I assume they have very little resists.
I think the best way to do it would be min/max anyways; weapons do not make sense as mercenaries on live do not store items.
That only covers tank mercs, caster mercs are another animal entirely but from my testing they follow PC spell rules in general but only basic functionality; ie, heals, hots, very minor buffs (no resist buffs. hp/ac only), and cures. I didn't play live when caster (ranged dps) mercs were implemented so I cannot comment on them.
Due to the 'era' of what PEQ is in, If they were added on PEQ they would severely imbalance gameplay unless tweaked. The level 68 mercenaries were doing 768 damage quad (!) and that's a bit absurd for PEQ's DPS output at the moment.
Perhaps PEQ can increase the quality of mercenaries per expansion. They should always match the quality of NPC that is in the next expansion, for general rule of thumb. This is why SOE does level cap increases with most expansions; so they can balance out mercenaries and do a gear reset.
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