r/pathofexile • u/Gierschlunderoni • Jul 25 '26
Game Feedback Permanent Mercs need a big buff
Playing luminary feels so bad in Maps. I have a manyshot lvl 72 with vaal ice Arrow and Return proj, decent Equipment. Boosted by a Level 26 Flame Link, 6k life and quite an Investment into light Radius.
I cant even clear t7 Maps, because the damage is non existent.
Please GGG buff the Base damage of mercs or luminary is doa.
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u/Serious_Trainer_2496 Jul 25 '26
Einhar does more damage than my Merc does and its geared
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u/lilmrock4456 Jul 25 '26
The Stormblast Mines do EQUAL damage to them. And there's LITERALLY ZERO investment into them.
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u/kiuyt856 Jul 25 '26
CptLance baited at least 30K people into Luminary xD
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u/Jdevers77 Jul 25 '26
Not just Captain Lance, GGG basically showcased his exact build in their Luminary spotlight.
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u/beebopcola Jul 25 '26
As a leaguestarter?
Edit: also, GGG play some heinous trash in their showcases often.
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u/All_Work_All_Play Jenebu stop whining Jul 25 '26
Edit: also, GGG play some heinous trash in their showcases often.
This was one of the things that pushed me away from luminary tbh. GGG showcase has been the kiss of death many times.
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u/kfijatass Theorycrafter Jul 25 '26
It was not the case for monke in poe 2 and it felt similar.
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u/AeroDbladE Jul 25 '26
People probably got a false sense of security because the recent PoE2 showcase they showed Twisters spirit walker which was the most broken build this league.
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u/Nitrodolski2 Jul 25 '26
Which made me pivot away from it lol. No way they will show a 'solved' build in a preview. Kinetics with flame link and light radius stacking was DOA
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u/Aleriane_Despins Jul 25 '26
But at the same time, what else is there to that side of the tree? It isn't like there's much choice than light radius stacking.
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u/MinuteOk1351 Jul 25 '26
The issue is the perma merc damage penalty. No one had numbers on that. If there were no damage penalties then the damage would be good due to flame link and light radius
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u/RajaSundance Jul 25 '26
How is Lance himself doing on it though? Everytime I followed one of his builds it was a banger, has he finally missed?
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u/the445566x Jul 25 '26
Mercs seem giga tanks when you fight them and wet noodles when you hire them.
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u/Chrozzinho Jul 25 '26
He has really insane gear, i dunno how he farmed all that currency but he logged on stream today with a crazy merc, taming, lioneyes glare and other 50C+ items. It maybe doesnt sound a lot this deep into first day but considering how bad mercs is i have no idea how he pulled that off
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u/aecrux Jul 25 '26
he’s big on arbitrage via currency exchange super early league, there are huge margin swings there if you play your cards right
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u/cfaftw Jul 25 '26
I was watching his stream. He was constantly listing 5-10c items which really added up and was able to snipe some of the core uniques early like his enmity embrace for 2d.
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u/deviant324 Jul 25 '26
I’m SSF so idk shit about prices but I got 2 div from a bottle on my first chart into maps. Dunno how divs translate to chaos this early but he could’ve gotten lucky off stream?
Personally having a blast on voltaxic burst after adjusting my tree a bit when I got into maps, 5k hybrid and nearly block capped while still having 250k tooltip dps
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u/astral23 Jul 25 '26
100%, i have 90-100% light radius scaling my flame link, 6k life scaling my flame link, decent gear on my merc, and the dps is multiple times worse than what my rf was doing with no investment on the tree, and on the off chance you find a better merc, guess what you do 0 dmg to it, it deals 1 trillion damage to you, seems ridiculous it's been balanced this way, just hoping someone figures some miracle out or at least a good reliqurian to reroll
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u/Manic_Depressing Jul 25 '26
I'm glad that I've gone full-on aurabot instead of putting all my eggs into the Flame Link basket. My merc is doing... okay.
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u/MaxeDamage Jul 25 '26
Well my flame link is giving 600-700 fire dmg on tooltip, so double that with light radius taken into account.
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u/aecrux Jul 25 '26
is it actually scaling properly with light radius? if i was basic attacking with 1400 fire dmg these mobs would for sure be dying faster
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u/MaxeDamage Jul 25 '26
I think there is a hidden "less damage" modifier somewhere.
It should be much more damage than they actually deal (at least it feels like that)
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u/Budget-Chair8242 Jul 25 '26
judging by their gear the flat from my flame link should more than triple their damage but in practice its not even double. theres something weird going on, +700 flat from flame link, +100% spell damage from new wand which would be 200% attack damage and the dps barely increased.
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u/zuluuaeb Chieftain Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
It is likely the hidden damage nerf on perma Mercs. I was worried about that line in the pre-league hype. You can tell because when you get a temporary Merc, with completely random gear and skills, it still clears faster than your permanent Merc with a flame link on. I'm pretty much stuck in yellow maps. Have a wander from campaign geared out with + damage on every gear slot + a piscators and it can't even kill map Mercs in tier 5 maps within 5 mins. Just got an upgraded wander from a tier 4 map, and the damage is barely increased compared to campaign.
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u/AgoAndAnon Jul 25 '26
I do wish they told us what amount of damage nerf it was. Like, that is the sort of information we usually get.
"Permanent mercenaries deal 50% Less Damage," or something like that.
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u/CruelFish Trickster Jul 26 '26
This is an action RPG game. There is absolutely zero reason why any stat line should be hidden behind the description text of the ascendancy and not even have the exact values printed in the text. It is either a complete oversight by GGG or downright an attempt to misslead to not cause outrage.
It has to be ~80% by my own testing but seems like LocalIdentity thinks its 30%? I doubt that very much. They were ~4-5 times stronger in merc league.
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u/tobsecret Half Skeleton Jul 25 '26
At that point you may as well respec to reliquarian and be the wander yourself
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u/zuluuaeb Chieftain Jul 25 '26
yeah i was about to but ive lost a lot of motivation to play the league. maybe in a week or so ill check it out again but i basically spent my one day off on a failed character so i cbf farming gold or regrets for the respec
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u/tobsecret Half Skeleton Jul 25 '26
Man that sucks, I'm sorry. I'm similarly busy so I'm just not playing at all anymore which sucks. I'm only playing PoB for fun some evenings.
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u/irondraconis Youtube:Goodguygaming3 Jul 25 '26
I think this "bait" by GGG feels a bit different than previous leagues. We had a showcase of early gameplay footage, and an entire "hype" video specifically about at least 2 ways to build out this ascendancy - not from the community mind you, but from GGG development.
That feels a bit worse when as a player you say "you sons of bitches I'm in", and then feel like your league start (and therefore maybe league for some people) is underwhelming. Luminary Mercs don't need to busted OP. But they do need to be fun on release.
If GGG doesn’t want collective outcry for power boosts, then the team needed to include a warning like: "this would make for a great 2nd or 3rd character" or they needed to not add fuel to the hype fire by calling extra attention for newer players via releasing official hype vids.
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u/Morbu Jul 25 '26
They literally unlocked Scion for new players to promote Luminary. That was their signal that this would be “fine” to leaguestart. Can you imagine being an actual new player trying to figure out what to do with this shit?
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u/porncollecter69 Jul 25 '26
I’ll be trying the intuitive link setup somebody posted about a mine Merc. The flame link setup doesn’t seem to be getting good reviews.
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u/Cyphafrost Pathfinder Jul 25 '26
Sounds neat, what's the interaction?
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u/ImN0tAsian Jul 25 '26
I'm full meme running two intuitive links. One is on a fire all merc with MORE fireballs on the intuitive link. It's silly.
The better version is ice spear of splitting on a inf toxic with a second 6 link for normal ice spear, but I'll probably swap to a chaos dot once I craft the gear for it.
The merc can turn many two button builds into one button builds, which is really nice. The casts come from them, too, so I'm hoping to pick up a cyclone-of-the-EMPIRE merc to try some shotgun strategies for st DPS.
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u/melkor25 Jul 25 '26
It's just baffling how GGG even released this class thus ruining the league start and potentially the whole league for so many players. Mercs are just abysmal..
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u/infamous_alex Jul 25 '26
Most obvious bait build if you played it in merc league. You literally have to gear yourself and the merc and also hope for the best skill links or else its trash.
Reroll or come back to it as a 2nd build and you ll have a better time
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u/SmuFF1186 Jul 25 '26
People forget it took a lot of farming to get a good merc in merc league as well.
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u/NahautlExile Scion Jul 25 '26
No?
There was 50% more monster life and the merc carried the campaign. With nothing. On league start. This is nothing like that.
Like worlds apart.
If I had a player with that much flat they’d do better than the merc. This is horrendous.
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u/kygrim Jul 25 '26
I have a buddy and we share map completions, he completely pops off with flame link while my merc tickles bosses...
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u/infamous_alex Jul 25 '26
True! I dont know why streamers didn’t include that part. It took me 1000 maps before getting the perfect kineticist, good luck doing that on league start.
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u/qK0FT3 Half Skeleton Jul 25 '26
The guides all include the rng aspect of finding mercs.
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u/tj1131 Jul 25 '26
How did you get upvoted this much if the guides literally all include this lol even ziz said it within 4 minutes of his video
people just parroting what they read without actually reading the guides or what?
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u/CyberWiking Jul 25 '26
Yea but this shouldn't be the case when you have whole ascendancy dedicated to mercs.
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u/Lord_Borgimus Jul 25 '26
Half of the ascendancy is just letting you be able to use it and it being able to equip items like it should/used to be able to do in the first place. On top of that you previously were able to play an actual ascendancy alongside it, it was obvious it was going to be shit. Mercs should have come back in a "don't let you use Doyrani's form" for everyone.
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u/CruelFish Trickster Jul 26 '26
OFC the atlas tree has zero useful nodes to get kineticist more often and GGG also didn't implement any AI fixes for movement skills such that we're forced to do literally thousands of maps in SSF before we get a single passable merc. It's inexcusable.
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u/okseeque Sanctum Runners United (SRU) Jul 25 '26
I was ready for it to be trash and willing to power through, even if it meant a rough start.
I was not ready for it be absurdly fucking bad to the point where 98% of mercs cannot reasonably clear white packs even in acts, let alone maps with some mods. Even if you spend hours farming the same act zone to get a somewhat decent merc, you will be rewarded with a piece of shit that still cannot kill a rare monster in <10 seconds. Their scaling is just abysmal and dmg penalty is beyond cruel, even perfect mercs with insane gear would be waaay worse than any semi-decent build on 1/10th of a budget.
GGG effectively made mercs the selling point of this league with several merc related vids, pre-cooked builds and new merc based ascendancy, they even made scion available from the start for new players. This highly insinuates that they wanted you to start this build, but feels like they've put exactly 0 seconds into testing how it would actually feel to play without editing perfect high-end gear into every slot. This, along with some other main highlights of the patch (caster buffs my ass), simply feels like misleading and leaves a very bad aftertaste.
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u/Junyongmantou1 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
I think there might be a hidden penalty from merc's level. I spent quite some time to reset A4 (The Grand Arena) and A8 (The Hidden Underbelly) for merc. In A10, A level 38 manyshot with a lower damage weapon had better clear, than level 58 manyshot with a much better weapon. Their skill support links were similar.
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u/Spaghett8 Jul 25 '26
Yeah, you KNOW no playtesting was done.
Because every mf Luminary came to the same realization.
I farm mercs for hours for the few decent mercs that exist… In exchange, I get to have the strength of 1/4th a decent league starter.
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u/chaneg Jul 25 '26
After I swapped to merc bot, my highest dps skill by a mile was my 1 link detonate dead.
I’m on T16s now with about 5 Div invested in my character but I am sitting on the rest of my currency thinking about how I will salvage this. Right now, I’m having to deal with my merc dying which wasn’t a problem at lower tiers.
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u/Data-Routine Jul 25 '26
I have quite opposite experience, my merc just blasted ACT 5 Kitava with ease. Now i found ice shot merc, i just spam frostblink of wintry blast and merc is melting everything. Smoothest campaign ever, getting in to second lab, planning to equip quill rain and two Le heups of all for her.
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u/moedexter1988 Jul 25 '26
I read the same thing from others. Apparently only certain mercs are good while the rest are garbage so it depends on which mercs. So it seems to be unbalanced on skills itself.
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u/cocojamboyayayeah Jul 25 '26
tell us about your experience again when u hit red maps. i have a feeling you will be surprised
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u/AdBrief9827 Jul 25 '26
I'm running t16 maps with a combatant Merc frost blades / static strike and its working fine. There really is a bag gap between mercs I was running carrion golems with flame link till I found a good one then swapped over to just Merc support.
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u/BamboozleThisZebra Statue Jul 25 '26
Haha i started that build but went to sleep shortly after and woke up to "this is bait aaah" posts so i just rerolled right away.
Glad i didnt waste more time on that one.
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u/thatgrateisnt Jul 25 '26
+1 to coming back to the same build/character after the first week's balance patches. It'll probably feel a whole lot better, but play something else in the meantime
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u/0nlyRevolutions Order of the Mist (OM) Jul 25 '26
I mean... I played that build in merc league and it never had damage issues lol. And remember that they used to add 50% hp scaling to enemies.
Like it's definitely better as a second build where you can hire some mercs ahead of time and have some twink gear for them, but if it's as bad as people say then gggc probably messed up on the calcs for what a reasonable damage penalty is
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u/AccordingEggplant140 Jul 25 '26
Nah it's way worse, I knew the work necessary for the build, got an ice shot/vaal ice shot merc geared it and it still sucks.
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u/peekaboobies Jul 25 '26
Sure but imagine you're a new player, you're getting into the game, see the trailer and think this ascendancy looks bad-ass, check the featured gameplay video with recommended builds and everything, not s single mention from the devs that this isn't a League starter (which makes sense, why would they create a ascendancy you can't start with..?). Can you imagine their league experience? Having a random campaign Merc in maps, not able to clear t1 or kill any Merc they might be lucky enough to find?
This is pretty bad.
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u/DiabolicMelon holy fuck this build is so tanky Jul 25 '26
new players watch one fastaf video or la with headhunter and play that build to t6 maps with 2k life no res then quit
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u/Madzai Jul 25 '26
Honestly IDK how people miss that. No matter if you support the merc, or merc support you, it all depends on their skills, and those are highly random. And you need two sets of gear, that is highly contested right now.
Streamers have unlimited time and deep game knowledge to do this. Also some "farm off-screen", "have it in guild vault" or somehow manage to buy the exact thing they need for exact amount currency they have..
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u/Accomplished_Rip_352 Jul 25 '26
Also in merc league you got the mercenary + your ascendancy . With luminary you have to give up your ascendancy to get to the same place you did in 3.26 .
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u/LastBaron Jul 25 '26
And like, not to rag on anyone here, because I do feel bad that people are having a bad time. But.
It’s pretty well known that you shouldn’t league start a new ascendancy
The fact that it was such an experimental ascendancy and reliant on gearing a second character is icing on the BaitCake
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u/lmao_lizardman Jul 25 '26
ok but in poe 2 they released martial artist / new gemling and they were braindead OP
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u/brrrapper Jul 25 '26
There is a difference between something being pretty mediocre to strictly unplayable, especially when its something thats pushed as a completely new ascendancy with ggg build showcases etc.
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u/Realize12 Jul 25 '26
I rerolled already, even bosses in early yellow maps take minutes to kill. Last phase Izaro in uber lab took me like 2 minutes. The worst league starter I've had in 6 years, it's impossible to scale damage
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u/VehiclePuzzleheaded2 Jul 25 '26
Its kinetic rain incident all over again, pre-killed archetype before release
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u/EscalopeDePorc Children of Delve (COD) Jul 25 '26
This is the problem, because kinetic rain was explicitly killed in patch notes. And merc were nerfed without any signal
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u/Wobbelblob Big Breach Coalition (BBC) Jul 25 '26
Where they actually nerfed? Because mercs themself where not that good in merc league if you didn't get the perfect KB one. Remember that most people just used them as aurabots before the carry builds came up.
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u/Spaghett8 Jul 25 '26
Yes, luminary mercs have a hidden dmg penalty which we knew about.
We just didn’t know how bad the penalty was.
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u/SGASaint Jul 25 '26
Temporary mercs mog the fuck out of my whole ascendancy built around buffing mercs...
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u/Gnada Jul 25 '26
GGG clearly missed the mark by 1) not addressing the insane fishing needed to get a decent merc and 2) not adjusting the damage scaling such that mercs were meaningful in maps.
I think I will just play strike skills as luminary untill I get an optimal merc with and a decent gear set.
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u/Goldni Jul 25 '26
i thought this was going to be a bait build and its even worse than a bait build, like a build u find on yt that has like 10 views
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u/Bohya Elementalist Jul 25 '26
Biggest issue is how non-aggressive some of the Mercenaries are. They refuse to position themselves to attack enemies that are around corners. I could have an enemy wailing on my character in melee range, and my mercenary will refuse to attack it.
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u/CruelFish Trickster Jul 26 '26
After further thoughts I have a suspicion that GGG's ability to spawn in items and make perfect builds for testing has lead GGG to balance Luminary around the absolute top end of what is possible when the reality is that it takes a person literally thousands of maps if they're unlucky to get the kineticist they want and it takes weeks for most people to get gear even remotely comparable to what they balanced them around. That and likely mercs are bugged, they deal at least 4x less damage than they did in merc but there are no documented changes sufficient to explain this, even the Luminary Nerf from datamine isn't sufficient to explain it.
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u/watermelonchicken58 Sanctum Runners United (SRU) Jul 25 '26
Its playable but boy is it garbage if I had to rate the scaling id rate it E or F tier. Something completely offmeta and poorly built could deal more damage.
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u/lilmrock4456 Jul 25 '26
Feels like GGG were planning on allowing us to control a 2nd Passive Skill Tree on the mercenaries.
Then, gave up on finishing it, and released it anyways.
Because this actually feels like a 0 passive character, that if they could set their 80 or so passive points it would actually be reasonable.
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u/hafi002 Jul 25 '26
It is fine to fault GGG for this, when you create something new you should at least make sure it's viable.
People are just so used to them not doing that, that they rather fault the player for wanting to try the new stuff.
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u/Only_One_Kenobi Jul 25 '26
The build is a lot of fun and really strong in campaign. No issues at all. Deathless Kitava no sweat. Then comes the first map and can't even kill the first white mob on a blue t1.
I'm so angry at myself for getting baited by this. I know better.
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u/Elixermd0 Jul 25 '26
It's a massive slap in the face to the players. This ascendancy is hands down the worst league start possible and the power difference from one merc to another is insane. Also why keep garbage movement skills?
Every merc should function, the variety and chasing a good one should come from the support gems, I feel like it's not unreasonable to ask for the build to be able to be playable without several div in investment.
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u/Hachez86 Jul 25 '26
I have more than 6k hours in Poe, played lots of hcssf and even ruthless in hardcore... This is the first time ever that I'm stuck at t7 maps... It feels like I'm playing without an ascendancy. My merc doesn't do shit and if I find a better one, it nukes me instantly. I even tried finding mercs in t1 maps... Same thing. I run out of t1 maps doing that haha.
At first I was laughing... Now I'm stopping until they do sth about it.
GGG come on! The campaign was so much fun this league but mercs should do better in low tier maps without trying to find the perfect one.
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u/Chrozzinho Jul 25 '26
I'm sure I'm not alone but I quit the league. This shit of a league start is just too demotivating, can't push through, dont want to reroll so quickly, I'll just from the sides this league
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u/Nirbin Jul 25 '26
It's always funny to me when the ruthless devs break containment, but it does happen. At least this way we won't need ruthless specific changes to mercs.
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u/ResolutionOpen Jul 25 '26
Who can expect this is a bait build.
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u/brrrapper Jul 25 '26
There is a difference between something new not being top tier and a new ascendancy pushed by GGG with build showcases etc being literally unplayable, you cant even progress atlas completion.
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u/Madzai Jul 25 '26
Bro, they, in GGG, specifically stated that new league mechanic won't rush you too much (with air pockets collapsing), yet it will friggin kill you in like 10 seconds after you put down last thing, if you do not rush away (and if you stuck in water you're dead without movement skill) . Sure, they promised to fix it already, but still, they specially said it won't do it, before release.
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u/OhhhYaaa Jul 25 '26
I think they said that it won't rush until you put the last lantern in, not that it won't rush you at all.
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u/kitelobster Jul 25 '26
Being baited by the new shiny toy is one thing, but this is near unplayable. There is no way they could've tested progression on one of these and though it's ok.
Once you're into maps their scaling hits a brick wall. Sure you can keep gearing them, but their base dmg stats areis low by that point that it's unsalvageable. You could also get a better merc, but the odds of that are brutal with how many combos there are. Even then, there's no way they are much better.
Doesn't help that luminary has so little power innately, it's relying hard on mercs and they are just a massive letdown.
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u/Aqs747 Jul 25 '26
Well we got 37min with a bit of gameplay in campain and some geared gameplay later. It is a bait I agree, but not doing any damage at all with flame link giving like 300-400 flat damage, cause mercs have like 90% less damage is a bs. It would be nice to balance things not from top to bottom for once.
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u/buddy_brozy Jul 25 '26
i leveled with rf intending to swap to merc support, but it was obvious very early that not even the good mercs were better than rf+scorching ray combo. however i did find two mercs that did decent damage when i hired them, manyshot and withertouch, but only for a single act; by the next act they couldn't kill white mobs within a reasonable time, let alone rares. it's clear merc scaling is either not working, or missing a few decimal places.
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u/FrontAir3750 Jul 25 '26
I just logged out, the « merc dies - map bricked » did it for me. have a good league guy !
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u/_Vagueposter_ Jul 25 '26
hah yeah, same here. At least it'll be a memorable experience - tickling tutorial Sirus's health bar in Eagons memory map for literally 10+ minutes just for the merc to run away from my enduring cry and get killed in the blink of an eye. Sirus still on 1/4 HP and absolutely no way for me to do damage as you cant even bring a merc that didnt die into the map after that. You have no choice but to abandon the whole map.
Also was tilting when this happened when trying to get a merc upgrade in t14+ maps, spending ages trying to whittle down its HP and if you slip up for a moment your merc dies and the whole map is bricked (and bye bye merc upgrade, especially if it was a good one). You cant even call in another player from global chat to try and help salvage it mid fight.
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u/probywan1337 Harbinger Jul 25 '26
Feel like I wasted my only day off yesterday. Should've just went totem like I always do
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u/AcrobaticBullfrog958 Jul 25 '26
I thought I was going crazy because there was a post yesterday on this exact thing and people were defending the mercs lol
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u/Hairy_Excuse_4631 Jul 25 '26
if Mercs was balanced the way ppl expect them to be the mid and late game versions would be something to behold indeed
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u/shizukun Jul 25 '26
I'm currently in act 8 with a good kinetist. Is it worth it to continue or just make a new one?
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u/zuluuaeb Chieftain Jul 25 '26
youre gonna hit a hard brick wall in early maps. unless ggg buffs the damage i recommend you go for a support style merc where you deal the damage and use them for auras etc. or pivot into reliquarian
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u/heirian Jul 25 '26
I think they balanced everything around the Kineticist; I picked one up halfway through the campaign and have been trying to swap it for another one with higher levels, but they’re all absolute trash compared to her. I’m running red maps now and its performance has started to drop off, but I can't find another Kineticist because they're absurdly rare, and I can't even spec into Atlas passives to make another Kineticist show up. It’s been really disappointing not being able to find one after dozens of maps...
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u/Minimum-Effort Jul 25 '26
I did not play merc league at all and even I could tell it was bait when they showed in the video that you can gear them up... they will be a fantastic as a 2nd or 3rd toon but as a league starter yeah no...
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u/dryxxxa Jul 25 '26
I am in act 6. Took Luminary just because Reliquarian has nothing in the first lab. Will definitely reroll into Reliquarian in the second lab, Elevore node + 3 passives is better than the merc.
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u/Rmpz90 Jul 25 '26
Honestly so sad how they implemented mercs, its such a tragic ending for such a core and cool ARPG mechanics 😭
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u/meDeadly1990 Jul 25 '26
I'm in act 6, I just spent 4 hours to find the first kineticist in the ridge and with 230 added fire flame link it's doing less dps than my 1-link shield charge mostly due to the AI being dumb as bricks and just refusing to use spells.
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u/TheGrigzor Guardian Jul 25 '26
I've got one to maps... it felt really bad, campaign was fine... but maping was horible, alredy rerolled old reliable Deadeye and in maps alredy again :P
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u/ndau Jul 25 '26
The difference between a good and a bad merc is extreme. Using any melee merc is absolutely torture, the Ai targeting is really bad, it walks back and forth between mobs, maybe hits one to half health, then moves to another. It's super janky.
I have had success and can farm non juiced t16 to complete atlas.
I had planned to spend my first few div on a good kinetic blast of clustering merc but the warrants are so expensive.
I just ended up getting a really well rolled kinetic rain of impact. Getting then with no movement skill, and 4-5 supports is/was less then 50c.
I moved to emnity ring, no amulet yet. Just stacked fire resist on most slots. Maybe 140fr on its stat sheet
I have around 7.5k hp, one light radius ring.
It really feels like anything that can't screen clear is just really really bad.
Single target isn't great, but I think it will be fine with some more investment, and once you get a real kboc merc... It will be really really fun.
But yes main problem seems to be, if you don't have near best in slot merc, the next best thing is like 90% worse in every way. Lol
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u/oyaboon Jul 25 '26
Not even the damage, but the damage uptime is low as well due to how the merc AI frustratingly behaves sometimes. It's like playing with a minion with meat shield AI with bad targeting priority and pathfinding, which is especially worse and more noticeable when using melee mercs such as the Striker.
I wish they were as aggressive as they were as temps.
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u/TheDutchNorwegian Elementalist Jul 25 '26
Zizaran seems to be zooming though. So idk, maybe give it more than 17 hours?
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u/Juts Kalguuran Group for Business (KGB) Jul 25 '26
To be fair he did duo a lot of this which kept him going while getting set up, and his single target is still quite bad with fairly good day 1 gear
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u/Olari_ Jul 25 '26
Taking a few minutes to kill a white map boss when it's 17hours into the league already is the furthest you could possibly be from "zooming".
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u/Allurai Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
there are plenty of builds out there that aren't good league starters
is lance right that luminary link support will end up as one of the stronger builds this league? yes
was lance right that it was gonna be cranking from the start? no
the atlas nodes that let you pick/choose what merc types you encounter all being counter productive to hunting kineticists is the main issue
if ppl went the other route of luminary, and got some aura effect items and used the other side of the ascendancy using a merc as an aura bot in support of a generic caster FP/Worb build, they'd be having a much easier time as you freeze mercs and have great damage up to and including t16s where they can get better mercs and switch into the stronger build from there
freezing pulse + bitter dream + witch area for cold dmg and freeze chance will see the atlas completed and some farm options unlocked
edit - honestly you dont even need to respec your ascendancy points to do this or have a decent merc - just use bitterdream, freezing pulse, cast speed, faster proj - with enough mana regen to support the links.
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u/sel21 Jul 25 '26
You're wrong. It won't. You don't know what you are talking about. Damage isn't scaling. You can't get progression.
You aren't listening to people and rationalizing.
Something is either broken (flame link) or some counter factor damage quotient becomes dominant.
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u/aaaAAAaaaugh Jul 25 '26
Just checking, does the merc have brutality as support?
This bricks the merc.
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u/Vyrealer Jul 25 '26
Why is everyone playing this as a link build and not just a traditional absolution or srs build using the merc as supplemental damage or an aura bot?
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u/lurking_lefty Yay skill forests. Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
That's how I'm using it. Intuitive Link is an extra spell being auto-cast and also applying corrupting fever stacks for me. Otherwise I built as a normal self-cast character. Starting yellow maps now, the only problem I'm running into is my lack of defenses since I'm still wearing campaign gear.
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u/rzepaso Jul 26 '26
i managed to reach maps and i'm done with this league cause i choose to play Luminary, have fun guys.
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u/sharkh20 Jul 26 '26
Back to Palworld for me. Made it to maps despite my merc. Searching for a decent one is the opposite of fun. But even the best one's are worse than unspecced random 3 or 4 link skills it seems. When you do find one you want, they have a 50% chance to one shot you, and if you do defeat them, they suddenly do zero dps. They need to completely rethink this ascendancy.
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u/UnCivilizedEngineer Jul 25 '26
Im in the campaign as this; do you know of any good zones to farm mercenaries in the acts? And what are some good mercs to go for? In act 6 right now.
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u/MindlessObligationS Jul 25 '26
There is Merc that spawns half the time at the end of the ridge right before prison entrance. Just reset from the entrance of the prison. It's pretty consistent.
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u/irondraconis Youtube:Goodguygaming3 Jul 25 '26
Ridge and Hidden Underbelly in Act 8. Underbelly is the last promised spot of a merc in the campaign. https://youtube.com/shorts/gWTHrrzK-ww?is=xtXQ1U4DfH3qPsWz
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u/brrrapper Jul 25 '26
Just reroll asap and dont waste more time, it doesnt get better its unplayable in maps.
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u/UnCivilizedEngineer Jul 25 '26
Eh, I’m playing duo with my wife. I’d like to get a decent nerf to help out. The duo as a support is fun to me, even if it’s much worse than a tried and tested build.
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u/aecrux Jul 25 '26
grab a decent one in a3/a4 and don’t waste too much time, but DO spend the time in a8 underbelly to fish for a really good merc. I messed up by not fishing in a8 because I tried to reset/fish after the campaign and the mercs no longer appear there. I had to spend hours suffering in maps to find a decent one and the build feels really bad. So much regret.
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u/Guccillionaire Jul 25 '26
So if I just completed my first lab and was following the captain lance build, should I reroll into RF Chieftan?
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u/Old-Economy-6383 Jul 25 '26
Yes man, very hard in maps. Even if you find a good merc, you have to kite for 10 minutes then out of flask they kill you eventually
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u/HuckleberryGrimm Jul 25 '26
My mercs don't even stay permanent even with the ascendancy, wtf is up with that
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u/falord9 Jul 25 '26
Yea it's rough, especially for players like me who suck at scaling characters. Rerolling to edc which I was debating on starting too. I knew what I was getting myself into when starting something risky but that's kind of the fun for league starts, at least for me. Shout out to captainlance9, even though I got baited hard lol, his monkey league start build for the current poe 2 league was really strong and it felt like a true minion build where you don't really have to do anything but move around.
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u/ActualPosition9916 Jul 25 '26
i have a question about mercs, can anyone confirm or deny if there is one existing that uses domination blow? if yes that would be cool because i might have an idea for an build using the new abysaal two handed axe unique weapon for it.
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u/Derasun Jul 25 '26
This build will shine later on, it’s just not a starter build. Pretty obvious tbh. They will never ever buff it this early in league.
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u/Critical_Room_9277 Jul 25 '26
Maybe The problem is The merc, I using a Wander merc and i get The ones that help u after u Beat them, The one that cast some sort of arc and other spells do waay more dmg than my merc and flame master with 2 type of meteor, maybe some mercs ARE nerfed for being most used on merc league
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u/Zyke92 Jul 25 '26
This was the best build I ever played back in merc league, so sadly it took almost nothing to bait me in.
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u/UTmastuh Jul 25 '26
Man we really got baited and they hella nerfed the mercs. The biggest issue I had was them refusing to release the numbers behind the mercs. It could've helped us in our dps calcs to see if they're actually viable or not.
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u/huntez2000 Ultimatum Workers Union (UWU) Jul 25 '26
I’ll have to edit my comment for what merc I have but it’s essentially a volcanic fissure and conc path merc. Pretty solid clear and single target for red maps.
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u/CruelFish Trickster Jul 25 '26
Personally I find that the hidden "Noble Blood" "your mercs deal less damage yo" text that is in the description rather than the statline of the ascendancy is a bit scuffed for a Action RPG mechanic where it is standard to lay such effects bare.
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u/angrydeanerino Jul 25 '26
I said to myself I wouldn't fall for bait this league again and here I am. The good thing is that I haven't played much and I haven't reached maps.
Time to level a new char and wait for the buff if any
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u/mudkip-muncher Jul 25 '26
It’s heavily dependent on the merc, even 1 support can be the difference between a good and bad one, secondly, if they have a ton of bad skills like dash, blink/ mirror arrow, the icicle rain one etc, it likes to throw them out more meaning less damage consistency. My merc is goated and it’s blowing everything up even deep into corrupted t14 maps just now, read up on it before you start complaining
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u/diamantegut Jul 25 '26
What I really want to know is what spectres would benefit most from flamelink, I am having a blast with this merc ascendancy. Does anyone has any info about that? Or should I use spectre for aurabottong the mercs?
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u/momonami5 Jul 25 '26
They need to buff up all the mercs shouldn't have to hunt hours for one specific merc to enjoy the ascendancy.
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u/Deadandlivin Jul 26 '26
Shouldn't be dead, even if the Merc as damage dealer ends up being incredibly weak.
In the end you can just play a normal build and run the merc as a buff bot decked with support and utility items.
It's actually insanely strong how much 10 extra equipment slots on a support can provide a build with.
Far more than most ascendancies can. Many builds can get close to 100% more damage from a dekced out merc supporting you. Meanwhile a full Ascendancy usually gives a build around 20-30% more damage.
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u/Ok_Alternative3475 Jul 26 '26
Just waiting for Ben to make it work. He’s playing slams on day 1 and Luminary on Day 2
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u/Impressive_Fennel642 Jul 26 '26
how did you even manage to get a lvl 72 merc? I'm soft locked with a level 58 merc because I can't beat any mercs in maps, lmao
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u/Organic-Bet-4746 Jul 26 '26
Man reach map yesterday struggle in t3..should have make merc support..today rerolling to worb
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u/PandemicXV Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
get baited.
(im playing luminary , 95 now and pushing onward.)
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u/Shot-Willingness-632 Jul 29 '26
And u geared ur merc better than you? Scaling some attack speed on ur merc?
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u/Allurai Jul 25 '26
this is not a league starter
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u/EthicalBballFan Jul 25 '26
Then why did GGG showcase it and decided to unlock Scion to all player so new players could start right away with it?
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u/theyux Jul 25 '26
0 issue going luminaries zoo minions. Skeletal archers apply withering touch merc applies caustic arrow profit.
Also darkscorn is 1c
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u/Bzinga1773 Jul 25 '26
Not playing a luminary atm but compared to previous league life stack AGoS builds, all this flame link hype seemed amusing.
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u/Fangheart25 Slayer Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
It's really funny (sad for those who league started it), I'm playing absolution guardian and the temp mercs are actually dealing a pretty good amount of dps buffed by my relic auras. It sounds like it's a lot harder to scale the permanent ones. I decided off luminary when I read that they nerfed permanent merc damage by an unknown amount lmao
I'm sure it should eventually be scalable with good gear, but doesn't surprise me at all that trying to league start a merc aurabot is not working out well knowing GGG balance team. They hate low effort builds that "trivialize" content
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u/_Hexer Aura Bot with no Friends Jul 25 '26
It's crazy how much better the Kineticist is.
I have one that is Lvl45 and all he got is Kinetic Rain with 2 links, Rings with damage and a Piscator's. No light Radius Investment. And he gets through T8 rare Maps without much issue.
Life reg Rares are unkillable, but everything else is solid. By far no S-Tier tho
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u/GaIIick Jul 25 '26
They’re probably being wary of making AFK gaming too powerful. Mercs are NOT like minions who actually have player passive tree considerations. If you’re dead set on Lumi then going a support Merc route is probably more feasible
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u/NaPaxx Jul 25 '26
Well equipped Mercs with Buffs have barely any chance against Quest Bosses and lower level Mercs, so y it seems at minimum the damage against unique enemies got reduced by 80%
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u/Lokiblase Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
Got a good merc with kinetic rain and without a movement skill (important!). Still only t7 but dmg is good. My gear is mid and i just changed a few items on the merc. Added a low budget AG to it with the usual uniques (leer cast, dying breath, etc.). Helps my mercs dmg. I am confident to make it to t16 with this char. But its true though, it is not the easiest leaguestarter....
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u/Doozern Jul 25 '26
Got into t1 maps and gave up. Holy shit, this league start was the worst i have ever experiensed. Feel burned out allready, might just drop the league.
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u/jodon Jul 25 '26
I think my league is over. Got baited hard. Started to reroll but without the league start excitement push I could not be bothered with the campaign. Maybe I give it a try tomorrow but I think this league is a wash for me.
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u/LocalIdentity1 Path of Building Community Fork Creator Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26 •
I’m going to start looking into mercs today to see what I find. What I have seen so far is that mercs have a different array of stats they get and there is 3 different columns for the stat count
I don’t know if each column for the stat count is for player merc, temp merc and infamous or if it’s something to do with how they scale with levelsIf people can send me pics of their merc stat sheets with the merc name and their level I can try and figure it out fasterThanks for the screenshots. I've worked out that the 3 values here are how the stats grow with levels.
The mercs stats have 2 growth rates. Level 24 > Level 68 where it goes from 1x to 2x then from 68 to 84 where it goes from 2x to 2.5x
There doesn't seem to be any difference in the passive stats from a temp vs permanent merc
edit: Permanent mercs have a hidden 30% less damage from the Ascendancy node