The problem with mercenaries is not quantity but quality.
The game is just a lot different from when the mercenary system was first created back in 2006/2007. The level of players, the strength of the monsters, the power of the equipment, the quantity of new content has all increased dramatically.
Half of the mercenaries currently available are completely obsolete for 90% of the players playing.
That wasn't the intent when the mercenary system was first created and it shouldn't be the intent now.
Just eliminate some of the weaker mercenaries from the game understanding the game has evolved past their use. Nothing wrong in that.
Yeah I agree with this completely... alot of them really are of very little use, if any use at all.
So, maybe replace these with new Mercs that are of use.. these don't have to be more powerful than what we already have but equal to the better mercs that we have. I think it is important to still keep the same number of mercs available so that guilds are not left short if/when they need mercs
This is kinda what I was thinking about the other day, as it seems 80-90% of the mercs are below level 200 as of right now, and pretty much useless to most of the guilds that want to hire mercs.
Currently there are 4-6 super mercs (425 SE and up and the 500 elites and up)
Good mercs would be probably another 4-6 (225 SE-375 SE 285-400 elites)
There are some intermediate mercs that can serve as a filler in a pinch maybe 10 (The SE-100-200, and the elites above level 150 and the higher Champion 1's)
But the rest of the mercs add almost nothing to group stats since the are such a low level and add 20% of their total stats.
The mercs do not have to be any more powerful then the top 1's currently are, as you can kill anything in the game with just those 3, but the quality to quantity ratio really should be looked at.
I think there are now around 75 mercs in the game and maybe 1/3 of them have any use to anyone over level 300.
The mercs would get used a lot more and sink more gold if their average level was around 300 instead of maybe 150 like it is now. Upgrade some of the SE mercs if anything, its sad to see hoofmaster, forn the dreadlord and many other lower level 1's be so useless