Path of Exile's new mercenaries are very strong. Unlike Diablo 4's mercs, PoE's are essentially NPC allies using all the same gear and items a player could. At high enough levels, they're arguably better than we could ever be—tireless soldiers on the frontlines of the war for loot.
PoE streamer Pohx Kappa discovered this firsthand soon after the new league (read: season) started. Despite running an AOE-based build made for running through enemies and leaving their smoldering corpses behind, his merc simply deleted every monster in sight before he could even touch them.
"I can't even hit anything!" Pohx exclaims while watching his merc wipe the screen clear of enemies with a wave of energy bolts. "I can't even explode the mobs!" he said, realizing he was now playing PoE like it was a walking simulator.
Grinding Gear Games may have made mercs a little too powerful. There are already clips of streamers playing in hardcore getting unexpectedly one-tapped by them. You're allowed to take a peek at their equipment before accepting a duel against them, but there are some skill combinations that might be doing too much damage.
If you can survive the duel, however, you can have them at your side while you clear out maps. Most experienced PoE players seem to be loading them up with supportive items, like a weapon that prevents elemental ailments from affecting nearby allies (AKA: you). We're still early in the league though, so I expect players will discover even more broken ways to set them up soon.
Pohx's experience is apparently what it's like to bring a merc along with you while you're leveling up a new character. Mercs can stick around as long as they're within 20 levels of you, so some people are keeping a few around to power level themselves later.
I'll be very curious to see how GGG decides to balance them. Surely it will make sure they don't pop players out of nowhere, but nerfing them so you don't randomly find one with a better build than you might kind of ruin the fun. That said, nobody would want a meta where you're the support as your merc does all the work for you, right?
