Mercenaries who need to be nerfed or buffed

Age of Empires III: DE III - Discussion
1

Mercenaries who need to be nerfed or buffed

Infantry Mercenaries

Armored Pistoleer

Population: Should be reduced from 4 to 3

Cost: Should be increased from 250 to 400

Ranged damage attack and melee damage attack multipliers: Must have a negative 0.25x multiplier for light infantry and artillery (0.25x light infantry, 0.25x artillery)

Arsonist

Population: Should be reduced from 3 to 2

Cost: Should be increased from 250 to 300

Ranged damage attack and melee damage attack multipliers: Must have a negative 0.25x multiplier for cavalry, shock infantry and artillery (0.25x cavalry, 0.25x shock infantry, 0.25x artillery)

Askari

Balanced mercenary

Barbary Corsair

Balanced mercenary

Cannoneer

Balanced mercenary

Dahomey Amazon

Population: Should be reduced from 3 to 2

Cost: Should be increased from 300 to 400

Ranged damage attack and melee damage attack multipliers: Must have a negative 0.25x multiplier for cavalry, shock infantry and artillery (0.25x cavalry, 0.25x shock infantry, 0.25x artillery)

Fusilier

Resists: Melee resists should be increased from 10% to 20%

Giant Grenadier

Cost: Should be increased from 250 to 300

Ranged damage attack: Should be increased from 36 to 45

Melee damage attack: Should be increased from 42 to 45

Ranged damage attack and melee damage attack multipliers: Must have a negative 0.5x multiplier for light infantry and artillery (0.5x light infantry, 0.5x artillery)

Highlander

Balanced mercenary

Irish Brigadier

Cost: Should be increased from 100 to 120

Ranged damage attack range: Should be increased from 12 to 14

Iron Troop

Balanced mercenary

Jaeger

Balanced mercenary

Landsknecht

Population: Should be reduced from 3 to 2

Cost: Should be increased from 250 to 300

Melee damage attack multipliers: Must have a negative 0.5x multiplier for light infantry and artillery (0.5x light infantry, 0.5x artillery)

Ninja

Balanced mercenary

Pandour

Balanced mercenary

Ronin

Balanced mercenary

Swiss Pikeman

Balanced mercenary

Zouave

Population: Should be reduced from 3 to 2

Cost: Should be increased from 300 to 400

Ranged damage attack and melee damage attack multipliers: Must have a negative 0.25x multiplier for heavy hand cavalry, hand shock infantry and artillery (0.25x heavy hand cavalry, 0.25x hand shock infantry, 0.25x artillery)

Cavalry Mercenaries

Black Rider

Balanced mercenary

Bosniak

Balanced mercenary

Elmetto

Balanced mercenary

Gatling Camel

Balanced mercenary

Harquebusier

Cost: Should be increased from 330 to 400

Hit points: Should be increased from 295 to 320

Ranged damage attack range: Should be increased from 6 to 8

Jat Lancer

Population: Should be reduced from 4 to 3

Melee damage attack multipliers: Must have a negative 0.5x multiplier for cavalry and shock infantry (0.5x cavalry, 0.5x shock infantry)

Kanuri Guard

Population: Should be reduced from 3 to 2

Cost: Should be increased from 220 to 250

Mameluke

Balanced mercenary

Manchu

Balanced mercenary

Mounted Rifleman

Balanced mercenary

Royal Horseman

Hit points: Should be increased from 750 to 900

Sennar Horseman

Balanced mercenary

Stradiot

Balanced mercenary

Yojimbo

Balanced mercenary

Zenata Rider

Cost: Should be increased from 250 to 300

Artillery Mercenaries

Li’l Bombard

Balanced mercenary

Napoleon Gun

Balanced mercenary

Gatling Camel

Balanced mercenary

Ship Mercenaries

Battleship

Balanced mercenary

Privateer

Balanced mercenary

War Dhow

Balanced mercenary

Wokou Junk

Balanced mercenary

Xebec

Balanced mercenary

1 Like
2

Giant Grenadiers do not need an attack increase. If anything they need nerfed

4 Likes
3

Giant Grenadiers are fine as they are now, but if they’re going to get changed they should get a little more hp in exchange for lower damage.

4

yeah especially since they had higher attack before and reverting it would be a huge mistake. i think they are ok-ish now, but natives need better counters against them since they dont have access to artillery

2 Likes
5

The area damage is stupid. Some civs have paper like skirms, fragile and cheap, suffering from area damage too much, im talking about aztecs russian chinese inca. The skirms even lose to those guys. And these civs dont have cannons either except russia

3 Likes
6

Giant grenadiers need to be vulnerable to heavy cav as of now they aren’t

7

Almost every single change proposed here is restoring stats to the most abused mercs of prior patches, and is slanted to allow spamming of them.
My only suggestion is remembering in regards to pop is mercs arent supposed to be pop efficent because they take buffs so well and are amazing shipments far beyond the usual value. Youd have to rebalance far more than just stats, shipments and access for civs like sweden and germany would have to be addressed. Also, mercenaries are a personal preference and have less counter play options for civs like natives or africans.

In short buffing these units to be spammed again is probabaly requires far slower and modest tweaks. Just food for thought

6 Likes
8

My only concern are arsonists. Anybody use them?

9

Arsonists make no sense as a mercenary. They should be an outlaw and the Mysorean Rocketeer should be made into a proper unit that replaces them.

3 Likes
10

I don’t agree with you on this. Mercenaries should definitely take up less population space. If a mercenary is overpowered, balancing that mercenary by increasing its population makes the mercenary less useful. There is only Swedish civilization where you can play smartly with mercenaries anyway. If other civilizations like the Swedish civilization can raise mercenaries from military barracks and Sweden has 1 population of skirmishers and strong heavy hand infantry like Halberdier, then mercenaries can cover more populations. Sweden does not need to train mercenaries. Swedish civilization is not as strong as it used to be, especially in the treaty games. It’s constantly nerfed. Swedish civilization needs powerful and underpopulated mercenaries to balance this situation. For example, the Landsknecht mercenary. When Landsknecht 3 became the population, most people stopped using Landsknecht, especially in treaty games. However, if Landsknecht had received a negative 0.25x to 0.5x multiplier against light infantry and artillery, which are the units that oppose him, Landsknecht would have remained in the 2 population and would have become a more balanced mercenary. With the latest update, Landsknecht will be 2 populations again but does not have a negative multiplier against light infantry and artillery. Soon they will again want Landsknecht to be nerfed. However, there is no need for Landsknecht to be nerfed. Landsknecht only needs to get a negative multiplier against light infantry and artillery, which are the units that oppose him. If they nerf Landsknecht as a whole then Landsknecht will become a useless unit. In short, mercenaries should not be nerfed by increasing their population or reducing their characteristics. The mercenary must gain a negative multiplier against units that oppose him and be nerfed by increasing their price. In this way, it both preserves the quality of mercenary and becomes a more balanced mercenary.

11

yes exactly, good that a Multiplayer Player mentioned that :smiley: Its just like spending the already most strongest mercs even more buffs :smiley:

12

mate, you realize a merc type is already a stronger version of the normal type and despite that, POP regulation is the only way to “balance” those Unit. Even if you will never balance them because any useable Mercs is just too strong. Probably from a perspective of a casual player (who is not trying to play competitive) this is not understandable or cant seen, but if you have ever faced players who are abusing German Mercs any Game, does not matter what comes and they still win mostly then you would change your opinion, im quite sure. But probably you have never faced something like that. I saw also you made a Thread where you asked for to make spahis trainable…
i mean here are speaking Multiplayer Gamers to you which have experience and they know the Units etc.
Sometimes maybe its better to listen to them or to ask them what they think.

1 Like
13

I don’t think experienced players are very experienced. If they were that experienced, they could also manage to balance civilizations and units by buffing instead of nerfing them. Nerfing a civilization or unit will alienate the player from the game. All civilizations must be buffed and balanced. I just shared my opinion. People can find my thoughts right or wrong. This does not concern me at all. I would appreciate it if you would not advise me on that.

14

thing is it don’t goes about what i find right or not. It is just your opinion is wrong and as you can see on the reactions to both threads the majority is mostly agreeing that your opinions are not good and they disagree about your suggestions.

also i find it a bit risky to claim players who have 5k+ Hours in this Game and who trying to play this game in a competitive mood as “not experienced” as you did in your first sentence :D. The second Sentence shows also that you are not really enlighten about how the game is balanced and from whom and the third sentence is a bit whataboutism tbh. Not Offensive meant. You can have for sure your opinion but if you get so much responding’s and the majority disagrees hardly then may be you should start to think about if your opinions are right…

2 Likes
15

SI les dev devaient que up les unités, cela deviendrais une course à celui qui a la plus grosse, parfois il faut que certaines unités soient nerf (que ce soit en augmentant le coût de pop, leur prix ou encore en réduisant ou pénalisant certaines stats) et encore je dis ça alors que j’ai vu certaines civilisations que je jouais nerf (par exemple les bonus aux indigènes nerf chez les Français) car c’était nécessaire (encore une fois les français avant l’ajout du rework les concernant ou les haud avant qui pouvaient booster à mort les infanteries indigènes par exemple).

Toute façon il faut se dire que l’équilibre parfait n’existera tout simplement jamais et cela implique donc des up et des nerfs des civilisations que nous jouons, certes les up ça fait toujours plaisir et moins quand ça concerne des nerfs sur ce que nous jouons (surtout quand nos civilisations préférées les enchainent), mais nous devons faire avec.

16

My thoughts may be wrong or right. I’m just sharing my opinion. I don’t need your advice. I would appreciate if you don’t reply because there is no end to this. There’s no point in texting until the morning and torturing each other and other people. It’s a game after all. Whatever the developers say goes.

17

I like reducing pop costs for some mercs.

Putting negative multipliers on any of them is generally a stupid idea though especially hand infantry like landschnekts.

Personally I think the Royal Horsemen HP is fine. They don’t do nearly enough damage though.

18

This is how developers nerf strong units against everything. That’s not a stupid idea. The goal is to maintain the unit’s overall strength and make it more balanced. Nerfing mercenaries only against those who oppose them, rather than generally nerfing them, preserves the overall strength of the mercenaries. For example, the Li’l Bombard mercenary. Li’l Bombard used to have no negative multiplier against cavalry and shock infantry. Li’l Bombard was forced to take a negative multiplier against cavalry and shock infantry, as those who opposed him could not stop him. This is how they stabilized Li’l Bombard. Otherwise it would be useless if they nerfed Li’l Bombard’s traits in general. You better follow the rules of courtesy when sharing your thoughts. A smart person is one who shares his thoughts within the framework of courtesy rules.

19

Mercenaries who need to be nerfed or buffed

Infantry Mercenaries

Armored Pistoleer

Population: Should be reduced from 4 to 3

Cost: Should be increased from 250 to 400

Ranged damage attack and melee damage attack multipliers: Must have a negative 0.25x multiplier for light infantry and artillery (0.25x light infantry, 0.25x artillery)

Arsonist

Population: Should be reduced from 3 to 2

Cost: Should be increased from 250 to 300

Ranged damage attack and melee damage attack multipliers: Must have a negative 0.25x multiplier for cavalry, shock infantry and artillery (0.25x cavalry, 0.25x shock infantry, 0.25x artillery)

Askari

Balanced mercenary

Barbary Corsair

Balanced mercenary

Cannoneer

Balanced mercenary

Dahomey Amazon

Population: Should be reduced from 3 to 2

Cost: Should be increased from 300 to 400

Ranged damage attack and melee damage attack multipliers: Must have a negative 0.25x multiplier for cavalry, shock infantry and artillery (0.25x cavalry, 0.25x shock infantry, 0.25x artillery)

Fusilier

Resists: Melee resists should be increased from 10% to 20%

Giant Grenadier

Cost: Should be increased from 250 to 300

Ranged damage attack: Should be increased from 36 to 45

Melee damage attack: Should be increased from 42 to 45

Ranged damage attack and melee damage attack multipliers: Must have a negative 0.25x multiplier for light infantry and artillery (0.25x light infantry, 0.25x artillery)

Highlander

Cost: Should be increased from 200 to 250

Irish Brigadier

Cost: Should be increased from 100 to 120

Ranged damage attack range: Should be increased from 12 to 15

Iron Troop

Balanced mercenary

Jaeger

Balanced mercenary

Landsknecht

Hit points: Should be increased from 345 to 385

Melee damage attack: Should be increased from 43 to 48

Siege damage attack: Should be increased from 58 to 66

Removed: Fortress Age upgrade must be removed (25% hit points and attack should be removed)

Ninja

Balanced mercenary

Pandour

Balanced mercenary

Ronin

Balanced mercenary

Swiss Pikeman

Balanced mercenary

Zouave

Population: Should be reduced from 3 to 2

Cost: Should be increased from 300 to 400

Ranged damage attack and melee damage attack multipliers: Must have a negative 0.25x multiplier for heavy hand cavalry, hand shock infantry and artillery (0.25x heavy hand cavalry, 0.25x hand shock infantry, 0.25x artillery)

Cavalry Mercenaries

Black Rider

Balanced mercenary

Bosniak

Balanced mercenary

Elmetto

Balanced mercenary

Gatling Camel

Balanced mercenary

Harquebusier

Cost: Should be increased from 330 to 400

Hit points: Should be increased from 295 to 330

Ranged damage attack range: Should be increased from 6 to 8

Jat Lancer

Balanced mercenary

Kanuri Guard

Population: Should be reduced from 3 to 2

Cost: Should be increased from 220 to 250

Mameluke

Balanced mercenary

Manchu

Balanced mercenary

Mounted Rifleman

Balanced mercenary

Royal Horseman

Balanced mercenary

Sennar Horseman

Balanced mercenary

Stradiot

Balanced mercenary

Yojimbo

Balanced mercenary

Zenata Rider

Cost: Should be increased from 250 to 300

Artillery Mercenaries

Li’l Bombard

Balanced mercenary

Napoleon Gun

Balanced mercenary

Gatling Camel

Balanced mercenary

Ship Mercenaries

Battleship

Balanced mercenary

Privateer

Balanced mercenary

War Dhow

Balanced mercenary

Wokou Junk

Balanced mercenary

Xebec

Balanced mercenary