Mercenaries as the new vampire and why they are bad for AvA.

Imperator_Clydus

Greetings and salutations members of the Elder Scrolls Online community,

For anyone that is an avid AvA player, you should know very well by now the experience that is merc spamming, bombing, or any other synonym you'd like to use to describe this cheap and buggy tactic.

Defenders, whether outnumbered or not, will use these mercs in every scenario at any objective just to farm AP. I have personally experienced this many times already on Bloodthorn, where a full group will constantly spawn mercs leading to an hour and a half of nonstop, buggy, PvE action. Amazing AP gains for the defenders, but poor for those attacking since they aren't killing any players, resulting in very little AP gains.

I didn't come to Cyrodiil to PvE. Certainly, I'm under the impression many of you also didn't come to Cyrodiil to PvE. I enjoy objectives and with the release of patch 1.2, I believe the static guards are more than sufficient to defend against at least unorganized groups.

These mercs are unnecessary, and are really breaking the spirit of AvA. Regardless of how many walls we would break down and breaching both postern walls, the defenders always seemed to be able to spawn mercs, even when we didn't kill mercs. I don't know if this means they can despawn them or move them, as you can tell, I don't use mercs very often.

I truly believe ZOS intended mercs to be a temporary replacement for players if no one was defending a particular objective or they had to move somewhere else. The problem is, people are using these mercs as infinite NPC armies to wall themselves from any competition and to farm a lot of AP in the process.

There are a couple of solutions ZOS could implement to alleviate this issue. They could outright remove mercenaries from AvA. This wouldn't be a bad idea since guards were buffed and more NPCs only detract from the PvP. They could limit how many one individual spawns, preventing one player from just merc bombing anyone.

ZOS could even hard cap the mercenaries at 20, so when they are spawned no more can be spawned throughout the duration of the battle. Even if a few were bugged, the defenders wouldn't have an infinite amount NPCs that they could use to kill PvP.

Update 1.2 made defending keeps a lot easier. Mercenaries only make the experience frustrating as well as killing the PvP experience in Cyrodiil. When I intend to siege an enemy keep that is being defended, I don't expect to sit there for hours killing hundreds of mercs. I expect to actually experience PvP and kill actual players. Lets set things right and put AvA back on the right path.

Regards,

Imperator Clydus

frwinters_ESO

Man really? These mercs have been in game since day one just no one used them cause the mobs were not hard to kill. Now that they are tougher people are using them. I think they are completely viable. If i want to hire mercs to fight for me then so be it. Keeps were being switched hands way to quickly before. the devs even said this when they boosted the NPC's, added archers, re-positioned guard, and gave them, more abilities.

I say keep them. They add a sense of difficulty to the game that you need to overcome.

Zintair

Why not kill the people dropping them instead of fighting the NPCs?

You probably also try to burn the oil pot instead of CC'ing the person using it don't you...

Imperator_Clydus

Zintair wrote: »

Why not kill the people dropping them instead of fighting the NPCs?

You probably also try to burn the oil pot instead of CC'ing the person using it don't you...

Perhaps it's because any large group premade with half a brain will have everyone in the group dropping them? Against an idiot, sure they can be countered. Idiots aren't the ones who are efficiently spamming these mercs, not to mention they bug half the time and you can't kill them.

Who needs oil pots when everybody in AvA is currently exploiting caltrops? People will use whatever exploit and cheap tactic they can think of to give themselves an upper hand.

Imperator_Clydus

frwinters_ESO wrote: »

Man really? These mercs have been in game since day one just no one used them cause the mobs were not hard to kill. Now that they are tougher people are using them. I think they are completely viable. If i want to hire mercs to fight for me then so be it. Keeps were being switched hands way to quickly before. the devs even said this when they boosted the NPC's, added archers, re-positioned guard, and gave them, more abilities.

I say keep them. They add a sense of difficulty to the game that you need to overcome.

Not entirely true. Players have been using these mercs for a long time, it just wasn't nearly as widespread. Now with the boost in level, everybody is spamming these mercs turning PvP into PvMerc.

I'm not sure if you realized, but NPCs received a major boost to VR5 with Update 1.2, switching keeps isn't nearly as easy as it was before. I'm perfectly fine with the static NPCs in keeps already. The mercs are just buggy and people exploit them for their own advantage and to grind AP.

There is no sense of difficulty. The cost of acquiring them is too low and players spawn them infinitely to counter all groups and farm AP. This isn't difficult in the slightest. It's obnoxious and takes away from what actually matters, taking objectives by PvPing.

As stated in the title, mercs are the new vampires, and ZOS would be foolish to not revamp how they work or take them out entirely. I seriously doubt ZOS intended mercs to be an infinite PvE barrier to actually PvP in Cyrodiil.

frwinters_ESO

Well with the exploit people figured out of course they will use it more often. the exploit though is they they stay invulnerable when the keep switches, but they can still take the keep. They need to fix the exploit and perhaps put a different cap on mercs per alliance team or count them as the full number of siege available for a defense.

Bitz_Maidenhell

hard capping them i think is the best idea, tbh i thought they were already capped, but i have only used a few of them since launch, so i don't really know.

People will always misuse something if it will help them win a battle. I like the idea of the merc's as they can assist people outnumbered by a larger offensive force. I think they have a place in AvA, ESO has really expanded on largescale pvp from games past, and i like that. So i say keep them and and cap them.

Imperator_Clydus

Bitz_Maidenhell wrote: »

hard capping them i think is the best idea, tbh i thought they were already capped, but i have only used a few of them since launch, so i don't really know.

People will always misuse something if it will help them win a battle. I like the idea of the merc's as they can assist people outnumbered by a larger offensive force. I think they have a place in AvA, ESO has really expanded on largescale pvp from games past, and i like that. So i say keep them and and cap them.

There is a limit where only 20 mercs can be used at a time. The problem though is that players will kill the mercs, lowering the limit, and the defenders will spawn more raising it back to the 20 merc limit. This leads to a situation where they have an infinite amount of mercs. Hard capping it would allow them to only spawn 20 and that would be it for the rest of the siege.

FENGRUSH

Imperator_Clydus wrote: »

Greetings and salutations members of the Elder Scrolls Online community,

For anyone that is an avid AvA player, you should know very well by now the experience that is merc spamming, bombing, or any other synonym you'd like to use to describe this cheap and buggy tactic.

Defenders, whether outnumbered or not, will use these mercs in every scenario at any objective just to farm AP. I have personally experienced this many times already on Bloodthorn, where a full group will constantly spawn mercs leading to an hour and a half of nonstop, buggy, PvE action. Amazing AP gains for the defenders, but poor for those attacking since they aren't killing any players, resulting in very little AP gains.

I didn't come to Cyrodiil to PvE. Certainly, I'm under the impression many of you also didn't come to Cyrodiil to PvE. I enjoy objectives and with the release of patch 1.2, I believe the static guards are more than sufficient to defend against at least unorganized groups.

These mercs are unnecessary, and are really breaking the spirit of AvA. Regardless of how many walls we would break down and breaching both postern walls, the defenders always seemed to be able to spawn mercs, even when we didn't kill mercs. I don't know if this means they can despawn them or move them, as you can tell, I don't use mercs very often.

I truly believe ZOS intended mercs to be a temporary replacement for players if no one was defending a particular objective or they had to move somewhere else. The problem is, people are using these mercs as infinite NPC armies to wall themselves from any competition and to farm a lot of AP in the process.

There are a couple of solutions ZOS could implement to alleviate this issue. They could outright remove mercenaries from AvA. This wouldn't be a bad idea since guards were buffed and more NPCs only detract from the PvP. They could limit how many one individual spawns, preventing one player from just merc bombing anyone.

ZOS could even hard cap the mercenaries at 20, so when they are spawned no more can be spawned throughout the duration of the battle. Even if a few were bugged, the defenders wouldn't have an infinite amount NPCs that they could use to kill PvP.

Update 1.2 made defending keeps a lot easier. Mercenaries only make the experience frustrating as well as killing the PvP experience in Cyrodiil. When I intend to siege an enemy keep that is being defended, I don't expect to sit there for hours killing hundreds of mercs. I expect to actually experience PvP and kill actual players. Lets set things right and put AvA back on the right path.

Regards,

Imperator Clydus

THE GREAT IMPERATOR CLYDUS HAS SPOKEN.

liquid_wolf

I use mercs.

I'm not going to talk to you about how to beat them. I'm not even going to mock you and what you appear to be doing wrong.

I'm going to teach you how to use mercs... and then you can see how enemy players handle them.

I spawn them amongst enemy siege equipment outside the castle and inside. I fill a hallway/doorway with them when attackers are about the break through. I set them up around a corner or up a staircase then lead enemies to the trap.

They are useful anywhere, and everywhere... you can throw caster mercs all over an entire wall, and set melee mercs near enemy healers and casters.

Wherever somewhere can setup a siege engine, you can bring in mercs. Try it out.

Then learn from your enemies.

TheGrandAlliance

Imperator; although I agree with your post on Emperor... Making mercs effective for once is vital to this game's PvP success.

WHY? Player populations. Servers/factions who are continously outmanned now have the abilty to defend their keeps using NPCs. Furthermore, the 1000K cost of one, is now justified due to their VR5 nature. BTW doing "Unlimited armies of them" isn't cheap: Someone has to pay the 1000K.

What is a solution to someone who is using lots of mercs? Don't attack. Problem solved. GO somewhere else... and their 20K worth of mercs will disappear without a trace.


Indeed the buffs to NPCs were exactly the changes I was looking forward to... and ZeniMax agreeed. Trying to defend the old system whereas a small VR10+ raid could /roflstop a map isn't worth the playerbase's time. Cyrodiil is NOT a pure PvP experience... nor was it intended, nor should it be so.

Imperator_Clydus

liquid_wolf wrote: »

I use mercs.

I'm not going to talk to you about how to beat them. I'm not even going to mock you and what you appear to be doing wrong.

I'm going to teach you how to use mercs... and then you can see how enemy players handle them.

I spawn them amongst enemy siege equipment outside the castle and inside. I fill a hallway/doorway with them when attackers are about the break through. I set them up around a corner or up a staircase then lead enemies to the trap.

They are useful anywhere, and everywhere... you can throw caster mercs all over an entire wall, and set melee mercs near enemy healers and casters.

Wherever somewhere can setup a siege engine, you can bring in mercs. Try it out.

Then learn from your enemies.

Thanks for telling the obvious? Your post did not add anything constructive in the slightest to the discussion. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where people are going to deploy them. That doesn't resolve the issue that they break easily and that people exploit them. A hard cap would fix most of the problems because players are just spamming infinite amounts. The majority of my time in Cyrodiil should not be killing broken mercenaries. It should be killing players.

ishilb14_ESO

Guys stop whining, Zenimax already said that they don't want players fighting other players, that's why they buffed guards and changed caltrops to block siege damage, and why mercenaries are so cheap lol, get with the program pvp is dumb and not allowed PvE all day, right @ZOS_CatK‌ ?

Imperator_Clydus

TheGrandAlliance wrote: »

Imperator; although I agree with your post on Emperor... Making mercs effective for once is vital to this game's PvP success.

WHY? Player populations. Servers/factions who are continously outmanned now have the abilty to defend their keeps using NPCs. Furthermore, the 1000K cost of one, is now justified due to their VR5 nature. BTW doing "Unlimited armies of them" isn't cheap: Someone has to pay the 1000K.

What is a solution to someone who is using lots of mercs? Don't attack. Problem solved. GO somewhere else... and their 20K worth of mercs will disappear without a trace.


Indeed the buffs to NPCs were exactly the changes I was looking forward to... and ZeniMax agreeed. Trying to defend the old system whereas a small VR10+ raid could /roflstop a map isn't worth the playerbase's time. Cyrodiil is NOT a pure PvP experience... nor was it intended, nor should it be so.

There are a couple of things wrong with this post.

Player population is our fault and ZOS' fault. There are too many campaigns, transferring is too cheap, and guesting is abused. Players don't like to lose, or they go to where the action is, so it leads to extremely lopsided and noncompetitive campaigns. Mercenaries are not the solution for this. ZOS fixing AvA is.

A thousand AP for a mercenary is cheap. Mercenaries are cheaper than most siege weapons, and currently as they stand, much more effective, especially with most players exploiting caltrops. You also seem to disregard the fact that one player isn't just buying mercenaries. Entire large groups of premades buy them in bulk and spread the load.

I am perfectly fine with the buff to NPCs. I agreed it was needed as small groups shouldn't be able to take keeps. I also thought the pace of the map flipping was way too frequent. That being said, the current broken and infinite army mercenaries provide is taking away from the PvP experience. It's not just small groups who are outnumbered using these NPCs. It's large groups and anybody on defense, realizing it's almost a guaranteed victory and an easy way to farm AP.

The static NPCs are more than enough to slow down most PUG groups and zergs. I don't mind the mercs as long as they are placed in a more limited capacity. An infinite amount is just obnoxious and bad game design. Cyrodiil was not intended to be pure PvP. AvA, on the other hand (keeps, resources, elder scrolls, etc.), is a PvP experience.

Mends_from_Shadows

They definitely need to lower the amount of Mercs someone can have on them. They also need to lower the cap of 20 siege npc down to 10 or something along those lines.

They should make them so they can't spawn outside of keeps or resources either.

Yorkie_gbr

If people think that Merc's are balanced as is have never gone into a keep where there is over 50 of them and only 10 players.

SwampRaider

I Use mercs for defending against a larger force.


BUT:

I spent over 2 hours inside a keep, fighting 20 invulnerable mercs while trying to take the damn keep against another 18 players with 30 of my guys.

It was hectic

ishilb14_ESO

SwampRaider wrote: »

I Use mercs for defending against a larger force.


BUT:

I spent over 2 hours inside a keep, fighting 20 invulnerable mercs while trying to take the damn keep against another 18 players with 30 of my guys.

It was hectic

And this is because player vs player is not how the Alliance War is supposed to be played, it's supposed to be PvE. The mercenaries become invulnerable when the game feels that pvp is becoming inevitable and it tries to compensate.

Pancake-Tragedy

The mercs glitching out and becoming invulnerable is a problem. In particular, the invincible (literally, they aren't able to be targeted or damaged) mage mercs that are able to run around and freely drop negate magic bubbles everywhere. It is a huge problem, and I don't understand how anyone can support the idea of allowing this exploit to continue.

Even though I hate the idea of PVE being in PVP, I could deal with it if the current problem with the mercs would be addressed.

TheGrandAlliance

Imperator_Clydus wrote: »

There are a couple of things wrong with this post.


A thousand AP for a mercenary is cheap. Mercenaries are cheaper than most siege weapons, and currently as they stand, much more effective, especially with most players exploiting caltrops. You also seem to disregard the fact that one player isn't just buying mercenaries. Entire large groups of premades buy them in bulk and spread the load.

I am perfectly fine with the buff to NPCs. I agreed it was needed as small groups shouldn't be able to take keeps. I also thought the pace of the map flipping was way too frequent. That being said, the current broken and infinite army mercenaries provide is taking away from the PvP experience. It's not just small groups who are outnumbered using these NPCs. It's large groups and anybody on defense, realizing it's almost a guaranteed victory and an easy way to farm AP.

The static NPCs are more than enough to slow down most PUG groups and zergs. I don't mind the mercs as long as they are placed in a more limited capacity. An infinite amount is just obnoxious and bad game design. Cyrodiil was not intended to be pure PvP. AvA, on the other hand (keeps, resources, elder scrolls, etc.), is a PvP experience.

1. Saying that because an exploit exists is a reason to complain about mercs is not a vaild arguement: The caltrops situation will be resolved eventualy.

2. Nothing is being taken away from any experience. Mercs are a part of that experience. They exist for a reason... there were underused at launch due to the overall nature of weakness of NPCS but now are effective.

3. Static NPCs don't stop VR10+s.

4. AvA is not an pure PvP experience. Else there would be 0 NPCS. FUrthermore players have to place them down anways so it is no different then "pets" of mage or hunter or otherwise.

5. Mercs are not as strong as you think. VR10+ can handle them fine. When more players level up people like you won't be complaining.

6. Lastely; If you dont like mercs... DONT ATTACK. Problem solved. AFter 10 minutes their NPCs will evaporate. Players don't have unlimited AP you know.


Anyone complaing about this issue still /epicfail understand of how video games work. There is nothing but good news with patch 1.1.2 and PvP: The balance of power in PvP has never been more fair. More needs to be done, but nerfing this because people whine about it, only leads to nerf wars of WoW and the like. DONT RUIN MY GAME NERFERS!

TheGrandAlliance

Pancake-Tragedy wrote: »

The mercs glitching out and becoming invulnerable is a problem. In particular, the invincible (literally, they aren't able to be targeted or damaged) mage mercs that are able to run around and freely drop negate magic bubbles everywhere. It is a huge problem, and I don't understand how anyone can support the idea of allowing this exploit to continue.

Even though I hate the idea of PVE being in PVP, I could deal with it if the current problem with the mercs would be addressed.

I have had this reported and this is a vaild concern that should be address indeed...

JosephChip

My. God.
I still have nightmares of unkillable 10k health, 1k dps mercs that spam negate magic and nuking spells all over the place. If you are lucky they don't bug out and become literally invulnerable. Some times they just lose aggro, instantly regain all their health, become invincible and run back. It is insane. This is not PvP. This is not even PvE. After tonight's session I am confortable I have seen the deepest recesses of hell itself.

Samadhi

ishilpatelb14_ESO wrote: »

SwampRaider wrote: »

I Use mercs for defending against a larger force.


BUT:

I spent over 2 hours inside a keep, fighting 20 invulnerable mercs while trying to take the damn keep against another 18 players with 30 of my guys.

It was hectic

And this is because player vs player is not how the Alliance War is supposed to be played, it's supposed to be PvE. The mercenaries become invulnerable when the game feels that pvp is becoming inevitable and it tries to compensate.

I'm glad I prefer not to fight around keeps which means I don't get stuck dealing with the NPCs.

Even so, I'm disappointed that Cyrodiil is being reprogrammed as a PvE map.

I hope better managed PvP starts happening.

Teevesnacks

Yes let's stop small forces from defending a keep so larger groups can take them, we certainly don't want people taking stuff from our alliance dominated campaigns and have to fight for it back

Teevesnacks

Imperator_Clydus wrote: »

liquid_wolf wrote: »

I use mercs.

I'm not going to talk to you about how to beat them. I'm not even going to mock you and what you appear to be doing wrong.

I'm going to teach you how to use mercs... and then you can see how enemy players handle them.

I spawn them amongst enemy siege equipment outside the castle and inside. I fill a hallway/doorway with them when attackers are about the break through. I set them up around a corner or up a staircase then lead enemies to the trap.

They are useful anywhere, and everywhere... you can throw caster mercs all over an entire wall, and set melee mercs near enemy healers and casters.

Wherever somewhere can setup a siege engine, you can bring in mercs. Try it out.

Then learn from your enemies.

Thanks for telling the obvious? Your post did not add anything constructive in the slightest to the discussion. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where people are going to deploy them. That doesn't resolve the issue that they break easily and that people exploit them. A hard cap would fix most of the problems because players are just spamming infinite amounts. The majority of my time in Cyrodiil should not be killing broken mercenaries. It should be killing players.

Yes let's just focus on nerfing mercs ofc we don't want other alliances having a chance to hold keeps on a dc dominated campaign such as bloodthorn

ishilb14_ESO

You guys need to get with the program and stop complaining. ZOS already said that they don't want direct pvp in Cyrodiil. That's why they buffed caltrops to block siege damage, when you want to defend a keep, you're supposed to spawn mercenaries. When the game feels that direct pvp is going to happen, it makes the mercenaries invulnerable to compensate. Just ask any dev.

JosephChip

Teevesnacks wrote: »

Yes let's stop small forces from defending a keep so larger groups can take them, we certainly don't want people taking stuff from our alliance dominated campaigns and have to fight for it back

More like the other way around. Let's stop small groups of people from taking keeps. Now you need an entire zerg just to counter the merc spam. And when a small group is everything you have in the server, you are done. Nothing can be conquered.
Your second scenario is impossible. The underdog alliance can't take anything because of mercs now. This situation is just discourging underpoplated alliances and campaigns from fighting. AND IT IS NOT PVP!. Away with this disgraceful ***! PvP is for players, Cyrdoiil for humans!

Imperator_Clydus

TheGrandAlliance wrote: »

1. Saying that because an exploit exists is a reason to complain about mercs is not a vaild arguement: The caltrops situation will be resolved eventualy.

2. Nothing is being taken away from any experience. Mercs are a part of that experience. They exist for a reason... there were underused at launch due to the overall nature of weakness of NPCS but now are effective.

3. Static NPCs don't stop VR10+s.

4. AvA is not an pure PvP experience. Else there would be 0 NPCS. FUrthermore players have to place them down anways so it is no different then "pets" of mage or hunter or otherwise.

5. Mercs are not as strong as you think. VR10+ can handle them fine. When more players level up people like you won't be complaining.

6. Lastely; If you dont like mercs... DONT ATTACK. Problem solved. AFter 10 minutes their NPCs will evaporate. Players don't have unlimited AP you know.


Anyone complaing about this issue still /epicfail understand of how video games work. There is nothing but good news with patch 1.1.2 and PvP: The balance of power in PvP has never been more fair. More needs to be done, but nerfing this because people whine about it, only leads to nerf wars of WoW and the like. DONT RUIN MY GAME NERFERS!

1. Regardless of the fact they are broken, being able to spawn them infinitely is silly. Not only is it silly because AvA is supposed to be PvP-oriented, but they allow players to farm AP without actually doing anything. They just sit on defense and accumulate points over time. Players on offense do not obtain any AP wasting their time killing an endless wall of NPCs.

2. Perhaps if you, yourself, use them constantly in order to counter enemy groups. I have little interest in using mercs because of how they currently function especially since they are broken. Mercs are meant to compliment the defender. I can assure you they were never intended to be the main force of defense.

3. Static NPCs won't stop organized groups. They will stop a lot of unorganized zergs, however. Most groups in AvA are PUG groups and they rarely know what they are doing. Static NPCs were boosted to slow the pace of capturing keeps and resources, which is exactly what they do.

4. NPCs compliment the experience. PvP is still the major focus. It takes less than two seconds to drop a merc, and one can do it in the midst of battle. As I stated before, I do not mind the concept of mercs. What I do mind is when they take over the entire experience of AvA. That is a problem.

5. Now you are just putting words into my mouth. Clearly you are a big supporter of exploiting mercs. That's entirely fine, even though I do not agree with that kind of game play. The issue with mercs is that they bug and players can spawn them infinitely. I never stated they were difficult, although they can hurt if more than one is on you, regardless of your level.

6. Mercs are cheap. An entire premade can 250 mercs if they all buy ten. The are essentially unlimited and you gain AP for defense, which allows them to buy more. If you don't understand the ramifications of what is wrong with the current setup, it's likely because you enjoy their broken nature and want to avoid actual PvP.

ESO is far from balanced. AvA is far from perfect. There is a lot to be done, and so far ZOS has done very little. The only major change has been the vampire nerf and boosting NPCs in Cyrodiil. A lot more needs to be done to make AvA work as intended, such as fixing mercs.

Imperator_Clydus

Teevesnacks wrote: »

Yes let's stop small forces from defending a keep so larger groups can take them, we certainly don't want people taking stuff from our alliance dominated campaigns and have to fight for it back

I don't mind mercs as a concept. I believe, in theory, they are great and provide smaller forces with a way of competing against a larger one. What I don't like is how buggy they are and how you have an unlimited supply to use at your disposal.

Population imbalances can only be fixed by ZOS if they get rid of most of the campaigns, potentially remove guesting, and higher the cost of transfers. Infinite, broken mercs are not a solution but an issue with the game.

Imperator_Clydus

Teevesnacks wrote: »

Imperator_Clydus wrote: »

liquid_wolf wrote: »

I use mercs.

I'm not going to talk to you about how to beat them. I'm not even going to mock you and what you appear to be doing wrong.

I'm going to teach you how to use mercs... and then you can see how enemy players handle them.

I spawn them amongst enemy siege equipment outside the castle and inside. I fill a hallway/doorway with them when attackers are about the break through. I set them up around a corner or up a staircase then lead enemies to the trap.

They are useful anywhere, and everywhere... you can throw caster mercs all over an entire wall, and set melee mercs near enemy healers and casters.

Wherever somewhere can setup a siege engine, you can bring in mercs. Try it out.

Then learn from your enemies.

Thanks for telling the obvious? Your post did not add anything constructive in the slightest to the discussion. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where people are going to deploy them. That doesn't resolve the issue that they break easily and that people exploit them. A hard cap would fix most of the problems because players are just spamming infinite amounts. The majority of my time in Cyrodiil should not be killing broken mercenaries. It should be killing players.

Yes let's just focus on nerfing mercs ofc we don't want other alliances having a chance to hold keeps on a dc dominated campaign such as bloodthorn

If you knew anything about me, you would know I despise the current state of Bloodthorn. I don't enjoy dominating on a campaign anymore than I enjoy being dominated. That being said, guesting, transfers, and too many campaigns are the reason for the current state of AvA.

I have been on the same campaign since day one, back when EP used to dominate Bloodthorn 24/7. Unlike most players, I'm actually interested in sticking to the campaign I chose, and building a community and an alliance worth playing with.

My interest is to only make mercs function properly and in a reasonable fashion. As it currently stands, they are not and players are exploiting them blatantly. They are the new vampire, and hopefully this is an issue that ZOS will resolve sooner rather than later.

SilentThunder

The real issue here imop is they buffed the mercs substantially but left the cost the same up the cost to 5-10k AP and make them like any other siege where you cant place them to close together. But until they fix the invulnerable bug they should disable them entirely.