Merrin S1 locked behind g12?

Yes it’s been done before at varying levels but never as high as G12.

Pretty sure it's been said in this thread before, @Ravens1113 , but this is not true.

It is true of non-Galactic Legends, but GLs are characters in this game, and they do have abilities locked behind a relic gate, not even g12, so for your statement to be true, you would have to discount those.

Again, I'm not saying it's not something of a departure, but it's very similar to the g10 requirement for Zombie that they instituted very specifically because of the NightSisters' dying/reviving mechanic. The game has progressed so much that with the new gear economy g12 for Merrin now is a pretty good equivalent to g10 for Zombie back then.