Mercenary Heroes

Paying for the ability to obtain more heroes/mercenaries of a single profession is paying for an actual in-game advantage. things in the cash shop didn't give you an in-game advantage before. this seriously worries me about what the cash shop in gw2 will end up being like

I still after all these years havent figured out what the craze is about Gaile Gray......

i like it!!!

I imagine PvP chars won't be able to access Embark and that Mercs will be created in Embark.

grump.

This is definitely an in-game advantage in exchange for cash. And not a small one.

Chthon is not happy.

[edit: Potential way to minimize the damage is to give everyone the first two slots free with the update. That would bring most classes up to five heroes, which is probably enough for whatever gimmick build turns out to be dominant.]

Yeah that's what I thought as well. Or maybe the Merc guy will just say something like "you do not qualify for ...".

On a slightly related note:

I'm very impressed with the volume of work getting done under Stumme. Whether you liked/hated the Dervish update and what's comming, he's clearly a lot more in touch with player sentiment and has a much clearer focus on what he wants to do then I think Linsey ever had.

I would hope the GW2 team consults Mr. Stumme, because frankly I feel he's doing a fantastic job and the man has vision. He did extremely well in the interview (honestly I was surprised at this) and I hope to see more of his efforts this year.

I've always taken issue with the prices of the microtransactions in GW. I think my hope for $10 for 4 merc slots is simply me trying to correct the inflation that has caused a single costume to be $10. I'm no budget expert, but I think it would just about even out in the long run if they reduced cost, which would get more people to buy, rather then having only some people pay more.

Although, like costumes the merc hero slots are purely graphical. They should only be purchasable with actual money imo. My only disagreement is over cost.

EDIT: Just getting seven hero parties is a huge deal. And yet some people just can't be pleased.

Ah yes, that would make a lot of sense.

Enforce an artificial limit equal to the number of heroes for that profession.

where is here? i want another account of mules.
thx you

That works too, and probably better.

That would be a good idea. Like codex rules, but for mercenaries.

Trying to get another necro hero dialogue: "I don't want to be in your party" or "Your party has too many necromancers in it already... the zaishen order won't allow this."

@ FoxBat,
It's not in the store yet.

4 (extra) Necros for 7 necro heroes isn't too hard, you only need them to be level 20 according to Wartower's interview so you can just use Factions' ridiculously fast leveling to get there. It's dropping $30-40 on character slots that gets me though. (Unless you have 3 free slots for characters you won't use and 1 necro you do use.)

I really doubt they can go and implement a profession limit retroactively after people already bought mercs for exactly the profession purpose. Stumme said in the interview part of the point is you can have "any party composition" now, it is a selling point of the feature.

One thing that's not clear yet is that to really stack up on X primaries, you might need that many primarie characters on your account. If you can't retain merc copies of deleted characters, then you're possibly looking at buying new character slots as well, becoming a very expensive proposition. So one that fewer players will abuse, but on the other hand, makes those that will have an advantage for an outrageous price.

I'm not too happy, either. A lot of people are excited about it, and that's fine, I see their points, but I personally am not wild about this idea for a number of reasons.

1. There is a "play advantage for cash" aspect to it. It's definitely not purely cosmetic. This makes me worry that this is opening the door to more blatant advantages soon being sold in the GW store and in GW2 (as Eragon said).

2. Why couldn't they have just given us the ability to change our existing heroes' primaries, as we've been asking for all along? For free? Then, if we want to re-skin/re-armor/rename them (pure cosmetic), we could pay for that?

3. I respect all my characters too much to turn them into stupid AI drones. I yell at my dumb heroes enough -- I don't need to start harboring resentment towards my poor characters.

Rest of the proposed update looks good (minion control - whee!). Was a little bummed about hero slots 4-8 using the "all" flag, but that disappointment pales in comparison to the sour note of mercenaries. Ah well. At least it'll please a lot of others.

I do agree with you there. Love or hate a particular update, Stumme seems to be getting the job done, and is staying well connected with the players. I commend him for that. I'm totally on the Stumme Cheerleading Squad. (Mercs aside. )

I understand generating money when the rest of the team is working on GW2, but I am with you i don't like what i am seeing.

My first thought:
My monk is awesome. Soon he will come along with me instead of Dunkoro.
My warrior is awesome. Soon, she will replace Koss.
My ritualist is awesome. Take a hike, Xandra.
This is a freaking GREAT addition! Wooo!!

My second thought:
If you want to go get your "in game advantage" and make a 7-necro team, you'll need to go level FOUR necros to 20, and then buy the merc slots and plug them in. Honestly, if you think that's really worth it, knock yourself out, lol. (hint: it isn't)

Same as multiboxers. Whatever, if you feel it gives you some kinda edge, have fun with that.

bu*lshit. 2 people can already use 6 necros.

One person with an alternative account can already run 6 heroes team, without any updates or buying anything but a second account, which is quite cheap nowadays. Not to mention all the benefits of having a second account over just buying mercenary slots.

And the 2 players can be necros as well, so 8 necros parties already exists.

And I would say full-8-players/heroes with same professions do exists, if u want.

Exception made for the mesmers and sins(only 2 heroes for each of them can be used)

So I dont see any real advantage over other players in this new feature, like mentioned by someone.

So iirc this is just an aesthetic option? The idea popped into my head for some reason that the build of the char will be available on the hero version (ie. Hero Imbas with SY).

I'm pretty sure I'm just thinking things and this isn't actually going to happen (I hope).