Hired Mercenaries: A Few Questions

[Siberys]

No, it doesn't. Again, Players 8 isn't just a simple multiplication formula where it multiplies the XP you get by 8.

It multiplies everything about the monster by 8 except for the drop rates and XP. XP I believe is 4.5 and drop rate is 2.75 in /players 8. Players 4 however, multiplies everything including XP by 4 and drop rates by 2. If you weigh it in, /players 8 is not worth the effort and players 4 may not get you as much XP but it will give close enough to /players 8 and halve the effort you have to put into killing monsters.

Anyway, we've detracted from the original post, lets get back on topic.

[Caden]

You are mistaken, my friend. Every added players increases XP by .5 or 50%.

This means /players 2 equals 1.5 XP, /players 4 equals 2.5 XP, and /players 8 equals 4.5 XP.

Increasing players only affects the monsters stats by increasing their HP. It increases their HP by the same ratio, 50%. /players 8 equals out to 4.5 the HP on monsters.

This works the same way on bnet. 8 players in a game equals out to 4.5 the XP and monsters with 4.5 the HP.

In /players 8 or with 8 players on bnet, you will also fight more monsters and have a higher drop rate than on /players 4.

Though, not 8 times the monsters or 8 times the drop rate. Which you know, I'm just showing that I do as well.

[Deadalready]

This topic is going off track but I still wanna add my 3 cents...
I play single player and I only play on players 8, I enjoy the massive drops and experience but it boils down to personal preference.

I usually finish act 1 at level 20, act 2 at level 26, act 3 at level 32, act 4 at level 40 and act 5 at about level 50.
Nightmare often leaves me at 70ish and I still haven't finished Hell mode but have a level 88 in act 5.

~

Back on topic though, mercenaries shouldn't take any experience from you, anything they kill is added to your experience score. You can check this by simply killing with either your character sheet open or the mercenary tab open.

In the higher difficulties it might be worth having a Mercenary to keep the nasty brunt of monsters off. Stygnian Dolls are extremely nasty to find toe to toe but fail to affect hirelings.

[Ferrick]

I just finished playing through Normal and I noticed that with only one exception my mercenary never encountered damage to his equipment/weapons at all. We could be in a huge battle with all kinds of damage being dished out and received and his equipment was perfect. Of course he would die from time to time, but overall he would fair better than me.

Another thing I also noticed was that we could be of the same level, with the ability to deliver the same amount of damage, and he would dispatch an enemy in two to three strokes on an average and I would be wailing away hitting, hitting, and more hitting.

[Deadalready]

Hirelings are good in that their equipment never degrades, which means if one finds a powerful piece of ethereal armour or weapon it's a perfect piece for the hireling.

~

If you're not doing more damage than your hireling then I would probably say your current build really isn't working for you, that or your equipment is horrendous. If your hireling is a Barbarian from act 5 then, it's possible they he can keep up with any damage dealt though.

It's mostly in the skill point distribution, I do thousands more damage than my hirelings all the time, I tend to use them a more meat shields than anything

[Loki[D.d.G]]

Only problem with using them as meat shields is that against strong opponents, they rarely hold up long enough to be of any notable difference.

Usually I find them useful for freezing the masses, such as the mage hireling in Act 3

[Deadalready]

I use copious amounts of town portals and teleports with my Mecenaries. A spot of bother but much more acceptable than paying 50k every minute... stupid Chaos Santuary.