Mercenary Dungeons and Raids

[Arthritis]

I enjoy the mercenary feature in PvP - it has definately made queue times shorter than what they were without them. Now, how about mercenary LFG dungeons and allowing Defiant and Guardians to group for the 10m and 20m raids as well?

The lore in RIFT is basically that we are all on the same side fighting for the same thing just going about it from two different approaches. You can think of expanding the mercenary feature to dungeons and raids as a kind of "reunification" of the Ascended - a "test" by the Gods of Telara to see who among their "chosen" are worthy to bring about the downfall of Regulos and usher in a new era of peace.

It is the common goal of all Ascended to vanquish Regulos once and for all is it not?

Its just a thought. Thanx!

[Charlice]

That's a very good idea.

+1

[HEY Z]

First off, it wouldn't do squat for tank and healer shortages, so if thats what you're getting at, you're SOL.

I always thought factions didn't make as much sense in this game. Pvp is pretty much the only reason it's still around, especially since the whole world is out to get us. Regulos isn't going to spare one faction at the expense of the other. I have nothing against guardians, but I know that if we dont help them, they will fail. Im from the future, trust me when I say it doesn't end well.

In dungeons and raids, it doesn't matter to me. Pug guardians can't be any worse than a Pug defiant. It'd instantly double guild recruitment. Hell, make the cities of opposite factions on PVE shards neutral- can't do their quests or talk to their leaders, but we already use the same AH.

[xanduin246]

it wouldnt really work with current lore, something drastic and world changing would have to happen

the defiants see the guardians as fools who are putting their trust in gods that have already failed us, and the guardians see the defiants as heretics that are abandoning the gods and going against their wishes

Guardians also think the defiants are to blame for the dragons appearing in the first place, and the defiants think the guardians are to blame for letting it get out of control..

theres no way they would work together, the Defiants do not trust the gods, and the Guardians do not trust in their technology, in fact, the Guardians goal is to destroy both the dragons and the defiants and their technology, and the Defiants to kill the dragons and the guardians

mercenary warfronts already shouldnt be in by lore standards, there is no reason at all currently that defiant and guardian could work together, they each think the other's methods are flawed and will basically doom the world

for more clarification on the faction stances/their opinions of each other.. you should watch this

im not saying the devs couldnt make it happen, but for those that care/know about the lore would most likely agree that it just wouldnt happen, nothing so far has brought them together, what possibly could?

[Sargonnas_KoA]

it wouldnt really work with current lore, something drastic and world changing would have to happen

the defiants see the guardians as fools who are putting their trust in gods that have already failed us, and the guardians see the defiants as heretics that are abandoning the gods and going against their wishes

Guardians also think the defiants are to blame for the dragons appearing in the first place, and the defiants think the guardians are to blame for letting it get out of control..

theres no way they would work together, the Defiants do not trust the gods, and the Guardians do not trust in their technology, in fact, the Guardians goal is to destroy both the dragons and the defiants and their technology, and the Defiants to kill the dragons and the guardians

mercenary warfronts already shouldnt be in by lore standards, there is no reason at all currently that defiant and guardian could work together, they each think the other's methods are flawed and will basically doom the world

for more clarification on the faction stances/their opinions of each other.. you should watch this

im not saying the devs couldnt make it happen, but for those that care/know about the lore would most likely agree that it just wouldnt happen, nothing so far has brought them together, what possibly could?

I support mercenaries for dungeons

Im willing to bet the lore will start changing to allow this.

At some point the stupid leaders on both sides have to realize fighting between the two factions is really not a good idea when near godlike beings are trying to destroy your world.

[Jonus]

xanduin246, you are forgetting that the AH could very well be run by neutral merchants; and throughout history, merchants never really cared who they traded with, whoever gave them the bigger bucks worked out. No different here.

As for raids/dungeons, you need to focus on the word Mercenaries. Does every Guardian believe in the gods? I doubt it - remember, the Ascended were chosen for their might, not their belief in the Vigil. And it shouldn't be too far a stretch to say that at least some Defiants have the brains to realise that working together is a better strategy than killing each other off and providing more minions for Regulos.

And Mercenaries; they don't have allegiances to anyone - whoever pays them the most gets their services.

I see nothing wrong with Merc Raids/Dungeons. Eventually the two factions will converge anyway, most likely once our focus is on Regulos. To not do so would be sad to say the least - Trion can't really be making Telarans out to be that stupid and incompetent, right?

[Alex113]

Well merging the factions seems to be the only viable option to me if things do end up going waaaay south with all the new competition coming out soon on the market these days.

[Gumdrop]

I dunno, Guardians and Defiants working together to defeat a raid boss seems more plausible lore-wise than the PVP mercenary system. So, maybe.

[Glamour]

it wouldnt really work with current lore, something drastic and world changing would have to happen

Actually in the lore the split between the two factions is a fairly recent event. The defiant and Guardians did have a fragile peace so there is no reason why they couldn't call a truce and work together to beat back a bigger threat. there is already some co operation between the two sides in the story lines. Scarwood reach for instance.

[XaviourEQ2]

First off, it wouldn't do squat for tank and healer shortages, so if thats what you're getting at, you're SOL.

Sure it would.Math doesn't lie.

[Naesraen]

It does seem strange that when we're trying to kill one another, faction doesn't matter; but when we're trying to co-operate to get something done, faction does matter...

As for the lore, we've crossed that bridge and burnt it to cinders with the mercenary system - if the 'lore' can cope with PvP full of both factions helping the other and killing their own, it can cope with PvE mercenaries too.

[Ajax1114]

Just make it something optional (unlike the PvP merc system) and no one has an excuse to complain (unlike the PvP merc system).

Really, the only complaint I've seen regarding the "mercenary" concept is the simple fact that in its current implementation, there is no "opt-out" feature. Although I'm on the side of the arguments that opt-out would not be a good idea for PvP specifically, I don't think PvE queues and groups are in a desperate enough situation to warrant not having an opt-out option.

Simply make it something you can toggle on for dungeon queues "Queue as Neutral" or some such thing and give guardians an option to group with defiants for raids. Without rocking the boat too much, I'm pretty sure you could create a system where guardians and defiants cannot attack each other if they're in an instance together - even if PvP flagged - but could turn against each other if grouped and in open world.

Might boost accountability a bit too and open up the possibility for spies/creative backstabbing in world PvP. Imagine it: Guardians and defiants doing a daily RR together. Someone ninjas an item or acts like a jerk. Suddenly, that player is swarmed by people on the opposing faction.

Oops, should have watched your behavior there, fella.

(Such a system would make more sense, anyway. Being born into a tribe or "faction" of people does not automatically force you to stick with it and its principles forever against your will.)

[Gumdrop]

Sure it would.Math doesn't lie.

Math doesn't lie but you have to understand what it's saying. The point is that tanks and healers are a limiting factor because of their proportion to other players and not their quantity. This is why cross-shard LFG did not significantly improve queue times but only normalized them.

[Zoam]

faction splits are stupid


guild/group/raid with other faction please

[Behindya]

Math doesn't lie but you have to understand what it's saying. The point is that tanks and healers are a limiting factor because of their proportion to other players and not their quantity.

This would be true if everything else was a constant, but it's not. The proportion ain't static and not everyone is logged in on all servers all the time. Thus a bigger pool size is ultimatley better.

This is why cross-shard LFG did not significantly improve queue times but only normalized them

This doesn't make sense, you're saying that Cross shard LFG made everyone's queue about the same length; that's just wrong. It did shorten the queue and it normalized it in the sense that everyones queue time is shorter.