[Collector]

MERCENARIES.

If you've taken a peek at almost any grinding area, you've probably noticed a few, if not all of the players killing monsters there have a couple of extra friends. These friends, depending on their origin, are capable of offloading absolute assloads of damage onto targets and taking the same amount before dying. Lost one? No problem; he'll be right back in the next fight like nothing ever happened. Mercs have a minimal cost for arguably the most powerful PvE ability in the game. I've abused them, you've abused them, the new player who decided to read the talent abused them, but I think it's about time they're removed as 'content trivializers' and put into a more comfortable slot as helpful buddies for those early levels.

I don't need to explain action economy to anyone here; we all get that more moves used and absorbed is good. So why, after all this time, is PvE content trivialized by Grinder McGee and his Snakemen Three? I love the PvE aspects of this game, but having a single talent tree remove any difficulty or reason to party up doesn't ignite my will to have fun beating up monsters for a bit. It can be relaxing, as a lot of other players could attest to. 

Personally, I've seen grinder after grinder enter the Wastes on Korvara without a word to anyone, then watched as they ran over any danger out there because they happened to have a set of floating eyes. This doesn't sit well with me, especially considering the in-character circumstances; if asked, do you think EVERY character with mercenaries would have a reasonable explanation as to how they managed to tame three otherworldly eyes? 

How feex?

I know a lot of hardcore grinders wouldn't be pleased should their method of chain LE-ing be nerfed to nothing, but I'm keen on having mercs be those low-level helpers so you can get up to doing things yourself.

Scaling Mercenaries

Let mercs scale with you until they naturally become weaker.

Monster scaling is a little bit wacky, but we can use that to our advantage. Since a level 1 Spatial Corrupter, Snakeman Twinblade, or any other monster is pretty damn powerful before level bonuses, letting player mercs scale to half their level would make early levels a breeze before evening out as they reached higher content. A level thirty corrupter isn't going to do all that much against Swole Twinblades that are over level 60; especially since they'll have trouble hitting them.


Recruitment Changes

Half it, chief.

When a monster is changed from a prisoner to an active mercenary, reduce it to one third its original level. These new goons will still be stellar for getting out of those early skill issues, but won't invalidate everything beyond that. They'll still make effective meatshields, mind you.


FP-Based Goon Wrangling

It's like herding cats.

Give Mercs an inherent %FP cost to exist on-field, based on monster level. Letting players choose if they want a gang of level 70 snakes that cost exorbitant amounts of FP to manage or a couple of meatshields changes the game from strength to efficiency. Grinders would still be free to trivialize a fight, but it wouldn't be in a sustainable form anymore; running back to the inn after every fight because of your snakes doesn't seem all that useful for anything more than getting a quick level boost.



TL;DR: Mercs trivialize most PvE content. Dev please nerf.