They had a preview for feedback and bug testing of the Hirelings in DDO today. I was running favour runs on my lvl 15 Sorcerer and was clearing low end lvl 3-5 quests in the Marketplace when the announcement that the vendors were live and running. I got there second since I was just hanging in the Rusty Nail around the corner from the vendor. Having a look at this specific vendor, the hireling range was lvl 4-6, and cost 600 to 1900 gold with my haggle skill (Charisma based Class, haggle skill will be involved). I took a Aiden Rumrunner, lvl 4 wizard with me.
The contract lasts for one hour, and on the contract, there is a timer that is only visible when you examine/tooltip the contract in your inventory. I ran the Catacombs chain on Elite with him. He functioned like a standard NPC like the guys in the Threnal series, following as commanded and casting a range of spells. He did get smacked quite a bit, and died a few times too. Interestingly, he healed himself a lot with potions, and he hadn't run of of spell points at all during any of the quests. When he did die, and I carried his stone, his ghost automatically used a ressurection shrine when he was within a proximity of it. When his ghost was outside it, he just stood there. Now, this is a little bit dumb since he was well within the ten second range that you can run before you get 'rubber-banded' back to the stone location. I guess the coding to sense the distance from the shrine is set to a much much closer range.
Spell wise, he has a combination of spells. On the quickbar that appears when you activate/summon him, he had web, scorching ray, summon monster and his command buttons. In addition to this, I also caught him casting some kind of acid based spell (melfs acid arrow perhaps?) and even more surprising, I caught him using PK once... (Phantasmal Killer)... considering he is lvl 4, it must have been a scroll based PK, but it did kill the dog....
I think Hirelings add a lot of dynamic to peoples ability to solo, or fill up quest slots if the population is a bit low. On the other hand, keeping tabs and controlling them appropriately may be tricky. Sometimes the action is quite hectic in combat, and the standard tactics in some quests like legging it means you really have to be nimble to change how your hireling will behave, otherwise they will lag behind, pull aggro, get smacked and die and so forth.
However, I think it's still pretty cool. I will probably use them a little as aggro pulling fodder more than anything else, or hire a cleric as heal support when I attempt to solo quests while doing favour runs etc.
The contract lasts for one hour, and on the contract, there is a timer that is only visible when you examine/tooltip the contract in your inventory. I ran the Catacombs chain on Elite with him. He functioned like a standard NPC like the guys in the Threnal series, following as commanded and casting a range of spells. He did get smacked quite a bit, and died a few times too. Interestingly, he healed himself a lot with potions, and he hadn't run of of spell points at all during any of the quests. When he did die, and I carried his stone, his ghost automatically used a ressurection shrine when he was within a proximity of it. When his ghost was outside it, he just stood there. Now, this is a little bit dumb since he was well within the ten second range that you can run before you get 'rubber-banded' back to the stone location. I guess the coding to sense the distance from the shrine is set to a much much closer range.
Spell wise, he has a combination of spells. On the quickbar that appears when you activate/summon him, he had web, scorching ray, summon monster and his command buttons. In addition to this, I also caught him casting some kind of acid based spell (melfs acid arrow perhaps?) and even more surprising, I caught him using PK once... (Phantasmal Killer)... considering he is lvl 4, it must have been a scroll based PK, but it did kill the dog....
I think Hirelings add a lot of dynamic to peoples ability to solo, or fill up quest slots if the population is a bit low. On the other hand, keeping tabs and controlling them appropriately may be tricky. Sometimes the action is quite hectic in combat, and the standard tactics in some quests like legging it means you really have to be nimble to change how your hireling will behave, otherwise they will lag behind, pull aggro, get smacked and die and so forth.
However, I think it's still pretty cool. I will probably use them a little as aggro pulling fodder more than anything else, or hire a cleric as heal support when I attempt to solo quests while doing favour runs etc.
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