Quoted from "Ginko" There are way better options with better graphics, gameplay, etc... Obviously that's down to personal opinions, but I still think the game looks good, especially the designs/art-style. I just wished they went the Guild wars route with Buy to Play and kept the cs purely cosmetic with some qol items, then maybe the population would be way better.
Personally been leveling an engineer and been having a lot of fun with it, you could always try that. Mercenaries are mainly used in low level dungeons, like groot said, not many people are leveling low level toons. But the mercs are not bad at all, have zero trouble clearing dungeons whenever I used them.