Query: mercenaries balanced?

[Brother Laz]

Which merc do you use, and are they

· underpowered, overpowered, or just right?
· a corpse, invincible, or just right?
· useless, using you as a sidekick, or just right?

[araknosdepal]

Laz,

Yes me again with

I'm just hitting the Highlands so still in Act 1 but I've got 3 characters right around level 13.

But I want to mention that the default Rogue hirelings are generally useful but sometimes useless depending on the situation. Right now I don't find it a big deal but maybe later.

1)Hirelings get stuck in crypts and go non-responsive. Can't open their inventories. They just stare at the wall. Has happened about 6 times.
2)Hireling uses Phalanx way too late. Like everything is dead already.
3)Hireling stands in wall of fire and keeps shooting arrows instead of getting out of the way. 3 deaths so far.
4)My Barbs hireling is now doing more max damage than my Barb at level 14. She is doing 40-93 after I just found this fancy bow for her. Barb is currently doing about 42-65 with maybe 123 max when buffed up. I figured that would probably even out at some point. So maybe that's overpowered but it feels ok to me. Or is the Barb just a weakling?

[Brother Laz]

1)Hirelings get stuck in crypts and go non-responsive. Can't open their inventories. They just stare at the wall. Has happened about 6 times.

Very odd. How do you get them to move again when this happens?

2)Hireling uses Phalanx way too late. Like everything is dead already.

Cannot be fixed; I had to set chance to use Phalanx fairly low, because player characters have a timer on it and it is fairly powerful. If the merc decides to use it on the last monster and it dies before the arrows even show up, blame Blizzard for not implementing a proper AI.

3)Hireling stands in wall of fire and keeps shooting arrows instead of getting out of the way. 3 deaths so far.

That AI again. How I wish monsters and mercs would be as smart as they were in Hellfire and actually stayed out of walls if they weren't resistant or immune to it.

4)My Barbs hireling is now doing more max damage than my Barb at level 14. She is doing 40-93 after I just found this fancy bow for her. Barb is currently doing about 42-65 with maybe 123 max when buffed up. I figured that would probably even out at some point. So maybe that's overpowered but it feels ok to me. Or is the Barb just a weakling?

Hirelings are supposed to do slightly less damage than characters. It isn't turning out like that apparently, between having a better bow than your weapon and the large damage bonuses on bow skills. Rogues do get hard to keep alive in later Acts though. I traded mine for an Act 2 Fighter Mage. [don't get an Act 2 Feral merc; their main appeal is Bloodlust, and you already have that]

[theonlymoose]

1)Hirelings get stuck in crypts and go non-responsive. Can't open their inventories. They just stare at the wall. Has happened about 6 times.

Very odd. How do you get them to move again when this happens?

Myself I've always used a TP or a WP to head into town. That's always solved the problem for me, in any mod or vanilla - so far anyways.

2)Hireling uses Phalanx way too late. Like everything is dead already.

Cannot be fixed; I had to set chance to use Phalanx fairly low, because player characters have a timer on it and it is fairly powerful. If the merc decides to use it on the last monster and it dies before the arrows even show up, blame Blizzard for not implementing a proper AI.

I blame everything on Blizzard, either that I blame Bill Gates - game, computer or in real life.