Busy Days In Norrath: Mercs & Beastlords

Merc: "I thought you needed help? This is a bedroom!!
Look, Lady, I'm not one of those kissy, kissy BioWare companions!"

There has been so much to do since picking EQ2 back up. My new Beastlord is only level 16 but I've been messing about checking out new things and all of the holiday stuff. I've also been poking about with my Fury, pondering a server transfer so she can be on my home server with the other characters, she started on Freeport when it was EQ2X. IMO these characters should have gotten a free transfer option. I'm still considering if I want to or not.

I'm enjoying the Beastlord a lot, it is a Scout archetype but it feels more 'in your face' than the other scout classes I have played. It is a strong class with some fun mechanics. I've been taming some interesting pets, I managed to grab a sweet looking lizard, a cow (yes a cow, lol), a deer, a pig (not a boar- an actual pig) and a few others. You can have many pets tamed but there are families. You can have one of each family tamed, if you pick a different pet from a  family it basically overwrites the skin you were using. Pets also ding when you do. Tame a low level pet and it scales to your level. If you manage to tame a mob higher level than you, it is yours, once again scales to level. Pet taming is similar to what we have in WoW, perhaps the casting of the ability is a tad longer. However, you can have a healer merc heal you the whole time [you are getting beat on] or you can even have a merc grab it's attention while you tame it. Which is quite handy. <3 Mercs.

Speaking of mercs, they are adding in a few new ones! Thank you, SOE! They are already on the test server, I'm currently downloading test to check them out. I was hoping for more of a selection of mercs so this makes me quite happy. Purely cosmetic but choice is everything! If you don't like the mercs your factions offers you can always sneak into the opposing faction's city and grab one. I wanted to check out the mercs in Qeynos so I snuck in with my little Beastlord to see what they had to offer, it was a fun adventure.

I haven't tried the dps mercs, mostly I have stuck to the Paladin and Inquisitor with my two characters and I must say I really enjoy them. They are a great addition to doing things that would normally be a bit of a pain. They are not perfect nor are they over powered, IMO. There have been so many times when I just needed one other person to help me with something for a short time and I couldn't find anyone in the guild to help, so this is a huge improvement for quality of life in Norrath.

On a side note, after a bit of researching and trying things out, you are only able to have one merc at a time. If you drop one for another it will still be there in town with the same name and appearance you gave it, for when you next want to hire it. There are also elite mercs but they are around the world, not too much info on where exactly, they also cost a hefty price when compared to the normal mercs.

I haven't gotten high enough to really give much insight on the BST class but EQ2Wire has some great information on the class and the warders (pets) check the link out here.

Hope everyone is having a great week and has a wonderful holiday!


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(Additional Merc Info) Edit: After checking test, it seems the new mercenaries are not simply cosmetic but additional classes to pick from. Druid (Kelethin), Shadowknight (Neriak), Monk (Qeynos), Wizard (Quenos), Necromancer (Neriak), another Rogue (Freeport), also looks like two shaman (Halas and Timorous Deep) and another tank/protector (TD), oh and a ranger (Kelethin)! Some interesting additions. I had hoped for some additional class/race choices but I'm not going to pout about it.

Current list on live is here.

Another thing to consider, if you manage to hire mercs from an opposing city (for instance I snuck into Qeynos and hired one), even if you hire another in it's spot it will be available to you in one of your factions cities next time you wish to hire it. For me it was Freeport. I'm thinking Qeynos and Freeport will store those for you.