So how does the Mercenary work again?

[VanishingClimax]

I’m gonna finish my prophecies character soon and will start Factions with a fresh Ritualist. I wanna make the Prophecies Ele a merc but what I want to know once he’s made into one, can I still switch up his gear/weapons/build? Nothing gets fixed right? He just takes up one merc slot and I can add him to party that way? Anything I should be aware of before doing it, is it a one time thing making him into Merc? Can I still play my Ele after? Sorry for many questions, I just wanna be clear

[kazerniel]

VanishingClimax님이 먼저 게시:

once he’s made into one, can I still switch up his gear/weapons/build? Nothing gets fixed right?

At the moment of merc registration the game creates a hero copy of that character. Their armour turns into unsalvageable hero armour with the skins/dyes you registered it with, but no weapons or armour mods are equipped. So you have to gear them like any other hero. Same with skills, it's essentially a fresh hero.

If you don't want a helmet to appear on them at all times, iirc you can register them without a helmet equipped, and the merc still gets an invisible hero helmet that you can insert mods into.

After the registration, no changes you make to the original character gets transferred to the merc, you need to delete and re-register it to update. (Take care though bc afaik anything equipped to that merc will be lost on all copies across your account.)

VanishingClimax님이 먼저 게시:

He just takes up one merc slot and I can add him to party that way?

Yea, they just appear among the other heroes in the party search window.

VanishingClimax님이 먼저 게시:

Anything I should be aware of before doing it, is it a one time thing making him into Merc?

Not necessarily a one-time thing, but be careful to unequip everything across all your characters who have geared that merc hero before you delete the merc.

VanishingClimax님이 먼저 게시:

Can I still play my Ele after?

Of course :) It wouldn't really be a feature if you lost your playable characters from it.

Btw what people commonly do is to make lvl 20 pvp characters, register them as merc, then delete the character. So it doesn't take up character slot if you don't actually want to play as that profession.

[[RvB] RedArmyGrif]

You can change the weapons, insignias/runes and builds of Mercenary Heroes, but cannot change the appearance without deleting the Merc and remaking them.

Once he's made he can be added to the party of anyone EXCEPT the parent character.

It is not a onetime thing.

Yes.

[VanishingClimax]

I have 3 slots open. I can reuse these slots over and over?

Ah so if you want a different character to take its slot, you need to take its gear off first across all your characters on your account before you delete it right?

also, the pvp thing I've heard, so I don't really need them on my account? I can throw away a toon i made after making them into merc? You don't necessarily need the original toon anymore after its a merc?

Okay, What are some ideas/themes that people do to make a powerful/interesting squad? say if one started a fresh account, full of open slots, make one to play, and I guess 7 pvp toons to make for the mercs. What would you do? Maybe you guys already have.

[kazerniel]

VanishingClimax님이 먼저 게시:

I have 3 slots open. I can reuse these slots over and over?

Yea, 3 slots just means you can have 3 concurrently registered mercenary heroes, but you can change these with whatever frequency you want.

VanishingClimax님이 먼저 게시:

Ah so if you want a different character to take its slot, you need to take its gear off first across all your characters on your account before you delete it right?

Yea, otherwise you lose all that gear, as the hero it's equipped on ceases to exist.
(+ Remember to do this on every alt where you use that merc hero.)

VanishingClimax님이 먼저 게시:

also, the pvp thing I've heard, so I don't really need them on my account? I can throw away a toon i made after making them into merc? You don't necessarily need the original toon anymore after its a merc?

Yea, you can just delete them, that's what I did too. Only had one free slot and used it to register multiple mercs. Didn't keep any of the characters they were based on.

VanishingClimax님이 먼저 게시:

Okay, What are some ideas/themes that people do to make a powerful/interesting squad? say if one started a fresh account, full of open slots, make one to play, and I guess 7 pvp toons to make for the mercs. What would you do? Maybe you guys already have.

Interesting is subjective, but for powerful two mesmers and one rit is a common choice. You don't actually need more than 3 merc slots anyway. For a meta hero team[gwpvx.fandom.com] two mercs are enough, three is only for if you sometimes want to run 5 mesmer heroes instead of 2 rits. (Or to carry your alts before you unlock all required Nightfall and EotN heroes on them.)

[Metal]

Just wanna throw one small information.

"Meta" can be easily break down and much better team combination can be made among your team.

I would consider "Meta" starting area of something to work on on.

[meheezen]

yeah, "meta" means its popular (or used to be), not necessarily good

my team consists of
tease mesmer
ineptude mesmer
pain of enchantment necro / healer ritualist
minion bomber necro / prot monk
SoS ritualist

i can breeze through all NM content with this, for HM i add a smiter monk and sometimes another minion bomber healer (or just play with 7-member team and carry someone)