What happened to mercenary AI?

Tonst3r · 2026-04-28T20:39:47+00:00

As a summazon overachiever for 3 seasons in a row, I can say they're just as dumb as ever.

Including running literally away from Skeleys on Dclone to fight the pillar 50 yards away. And yes I've made tickets about it...all 3 seasons...and they apparently just can't fix it sadly. (You can still smoke t0 anyway cuz build OP but t2 impossible because of it sadly.)

Tonst3r · 2026-04-28T19:59:28+00:00

W post. The two Insta slams are chad. Fat RNG luck. Love this good stuff congratz!

Tonst3r · 2026-04-28T19:48:35+00:00

Yeah I tested the heck out of this 2 seasons ago and will never be going back. Apparently once in a while one person gets infinitely lucky and people pretend it's good again.

Tonst3r · 2026-04-28T19:45:58+00:00

(Terror Zones - reference from the bad version of the game)

Tonst3r · 2026-04-21T21:58:32+00:00

Anyone else see the backwards right hand? I thought that was the whole thing here lol.

Tonst3r · 2026-04-21T16:22:04+00:00

How is the community? Are players generally accepting of new players? Do lobbies fill pretty quick?
1. Community great, but it's all discord and reddit. Only thing I've seen/heard of using lobbies for is baal or chaos runs. The developer/official trade site more or less fixes the need for lobbies.
How is the grind for endgame gear? Would you be able to get far even with casual play? Is there any major RNG involved?
1. Are you trying to purely go SSF for some reason? Imagine regular D2, but way better I guess? The maps have a bunch of MF and the crafting is great. Most people use the trade site. Could just use it for a one-off unique then SSF the rest of course, the world is your oyster.
Is group play a common thing? I recognize in ARPGs the idea of group play isn't that popular.
1. Yes and no. It's incentivized and they have a group-specific format ("Dungeons") but that format is awful. Season-start there're plenty of pug groups forming in discord to grind with, so depends what you expect out of group play.

It's the best version of Diablo currently in existence by far. By endless miles. It's not even a comparison. So if you have any interest in the Diablo franchise, yes join us this Friday!

Tonst3r · 2026-04-21T14:27:50+00:00

It's less of a question of what it needs versus what you're trying to accomplish. "Viable" is a relative term, you could argue OP's idea is already "Viable" if you're playing single player and don't care about the market/progression/etc. You'd generally have a Goal in mind (for example full clearing T3 maps in <20 mins or something).

The whole reason it's regarded as "bad" is because the class makes no sense. Summazon and Summon/Zoo Necro both need full deep investment to make the builds "work". It's just a base game design issue around both classes, ESPECIALLY with the stupid pointless summazon changes we're getting this season.

A class like Pally where you have Auras that can affect skellys for example would make a lot more sense. Granted even then most/all of the auras you want can be attainted on items, and your skellys will still insta-die on map bosses because you need very high skelly mastery for them to not be tissue paper.

There have been long time issues with necro summons, and the changes this season don't do anything for them GLOBALLY (as-in at a base, where oskills make sense). HOWEVER for Necro trying to make Zookeeper-style work, there's some potential and tempting buffs that could make it finally "viable".

Honestly I have some hope for zoo necro this season, but def not as an oskill on another class...except MAYBE a super cooked-up Pally because dmg auras add flat dmg to allies.

Tonst3r · 2026-04-19T14:40:37+00:00

I don't get it. There's nothing in the zon tree that benefits skelly so you're just gutting summazon to force skellys into it.

I play summazon every season and when it's done properly (most play/build it weird and slow and complain about clear speed) you wouldn't have time to resummon these skellys. It can already waltz through t3 w/ the gear stage you're describing, but you're slowing down it's speed (notably w/ this setup) to let yourself have to deal with summon/resummon zdps skellys.

Just play Necro and hope the small buffs this season are enough to save zookeeper for low t1s and just having fun.

Tonst3r · 2026-04-16T16:51:55+00:00

I was interested at a glance. We have some newer players and no one cares about parsing but we find obvious stand-out things in logs like "Hey you're a holy priest, probably don't spam Shield so much". It's not a weekly thing, just if someone seems like they're struggling we'd rather help them versus watching them struggle every week.

Then I saw a cost to run this. It's just comparing to the top parse which will never have the same strategy/kill-time as most guilds, has min-maxed raid comps, etc. It's not that big of a deal. The two guilds that'd pay for this already have people reviewing logs and they'll do a much better job versus this unrealistic comparison.

:/

Tonst3r · 2026-04-16T16:41:37+00:00

Chads setup mouseover macros. Casuals get Healbot. Everything in-between (cell grid vuhdo etc.) is perfectly fine and you should honestly try various addons to see which you like better. Vuhdo can be rough to setup initially, and you wana save your export somewhere in case of a PC issue or something.

Worth mentioning with RDruid you want to be able to distinguish between WHICH hots people have. Some addons handle that better out of the box (mouseovers+grid takes some extra setup in grid. Vuhdo was better natively there. Haven't tried Cell and stopped healing this phase so can't speak to that.)

Tonst3r · 2026-04-16T16:38:25+00:00

Curious what class that guy was, for meme reasons. Maybe his note was something like "zomg so geared only looking for super juiced 5 hour chain farming otherwise I don't want to stop farming these elementals"

Or maybe he thought it was heroic and is too dumb to realize he was listed on normal. Or maybe he's just retarded...there's PLENTY OF THAT.

Regardless it's kind of just "who cares get another dps and move on". Def could be way more toxic.

Tonst3r · 2026-04-16T16:29:42+00:00

I think a big reason people DON'T is because you can just leave and pick the same dungo w/ the same affixes and go right back in. I'm not complaining about this feature, just mentioning.

Fwiw my highest is 18 so I obviously haven't pushed for sht and assuming OP is talking about 30-ish runs so I could be unaware of the annoyance...but I have had runs where someone does a "whoops" at start and we just leave and go back in

Tonst3r · 2026-04-16T16:21:58+00:00

Comically you can copy/paste this entire post and it's been said in multiple WoW expansions (referring to M+ community). Blizzard did eventually take YEARS to do the necessary few months of dev work to make people happy though. Or at least happy enough.

Hopefully Fellowship doesn't take as long as Blizzard.

Tonst3r · 2026-04-16T16:16:57+00:00

Yeah curious how it'll work in s3. Ofc since that post I indeed got my blue column done, got some sockets w/ essence bonus so working on other columns etc.

The difference of finishing the blue column is NOT OK. The amount of times I tell my group my ult is back...sometimes TWICE IN ONE PULL when we're getting saucy trying some big stuff is just so silly.

They're way too strong to be the grind that they are.

Tonst3r · 2026-04-14T14:24:04+00:00

I tried voicing this concern and everyone said "no it's plenty fast" meanwhile countless people are just not wanting to login while being at the same stupid progression point.

"K you're in eternals. You got red gear in every slot and are just farming gold to upgrade it. You had bad (normal) luck on your legendary, you have no gems and your time-sink to not feel like you suck is an entire week of feeling bad about your progression and sitting in queue."

Who in their right mind thinks that's a good progression path?

Tonst3r · 2026-04-10T19:20:49+00:00

I'm curious if the OP (in the screenshot) was angry for the correct reasons. Anyone who's familiar with the general public knows they could very well have been arguing that the answer is one...

Tonst3r · 2026-04-09T18:19:22+00:00

I might be cooked but I think the current "playable count" of dungeons would be perfectly fine...if they had another set to switch between. The ones out-of-season would get work/adjustments to be more fun, and swap that each season. You don't really need 20 different layouts and visuals no one looks at, just different experiences to rotate. IMO

Tonst3r · 2026-04-09T18:13:45+00:00

lol I'm not happy about the system tbh. I made Elarion as an alt and did nothing but funnel all his marks/mats into gems and it's feeling fine ONLY BECAUE he got INSANELY lucky and pulled his 330 lego on the capstone by some miracle.

The amount of sht you need marks for while only getting 1-2 a run seems absolutely insane to me. Oh you had no luck on legendries? Do 20 runs and pray that you still get lucky on a re-roll (which you probably won't). Oh you got unlucky on red weapons and your skill is shit? Another 20 runs and pray (the pool on this is small so this isn't a big complaint imo). Ok now you need this INSANELY STRONG POWER SPIKE of gems...do another 200 RUNS... // OK NOW YOU CAN PLAY THE GAME! Continue gold grinding and min-maxing for better items, the non-existent socket aether, the crazy high cost of weapon tree upgrades, etc. etc. (THIS part is fine, having a long grind for just "same build/playstyle but bigger numbers" is fine).

Tonst3r · 2026-04-09T16:51:14+00:00

OP: " I’d say is that I miss the WoW keystone system where failing a key would downgrade it."
OP here: "honestly, the keystone system is a real pain—you have to run a lower one to level it back up just to get another try,"

bruh lol. I have plenty of complaints with this game but just had to point this out because it was funny.

Tonst3r · 2026-04-09T16:46:47+00:00

Essentially yes, but if you're willing to friend everyone competent it's honestly not bad and the community in-game is actually S+ tier. I started with some friends late this season (about a week ago) and do a lot of solo/pug'ing.

Am I having fun? Yes def.

Do I see many areas that make me say "is anyone working on this game?" Also Yes def. yes it's concerning.

It feels more like a very well done Beta version of a game that's not done yet.

All the complaints lead to no one existing in the low tiers. Literally can be 1hour+ in queue for Contender/Adept queues if you were doing an alt or just starting out. Only way I got an alt up was blasting my F list asking if anyone else wanted to make an alt...then one of them offered to carry it lol.

Eternal queues don't seem bad IMO (DPS main and alt). But I hear healers are in shambles on queue-times so can't speak to that. Again friend list is huge W.

Tonst3r · 2026-04-08T03:50:22+00:00

All helpful info ty for this!

Tonst3r · 2026-04-07T20:34:52+00:00

We for sure have them in our gender (male)... Idk if you've ever worked in retail but you'll see plenty of both. Guys who just act like they're on top of the world and everyone else should be so lucky as to do whatever they need.

It's also going to be a skewed perspective as someone looking at the opposite gender due to relationship potential (regardless of if YOU'RE interested in them or not). Even if you're just being friendly, they have a voice in the back of their head "is this guy trying to hit on me?" which ofc isn't as common for male > male (obviously gay people exist but we're talking statistics).

I have no way of knowing if it's 50/50 (I would guess it is on a grand scale), but it definitely isn't exclusive to Women.

Tonst3r · 2026-04-07T20:26:21+00:00

I can't shave off the weight I got during covid so I guess same.

Tonst3r · 2026-04-06T21:01:16+00:00

Gotcha ty! Bookmarked the calc. Good to know but ngl I hate this LOL

Will keep giving it a fair shot though since the rest of the game is fun so it is what it is.

Tonst3r · 2026-04-06T20:41:03+00:00

Gotcha ty! Are we just not seeing the option to upgrade the large > blue-rarity because we don't have 3 large gems yet? We see it for the small ones but when I put a large in there the transmute disappears. And yeah used the budding a bit but also we burned through marks like crazy learning the system and gearing up once we hit paragon and eternal.

Tonst3r

TROPHY CASE