A question about scaling

[Cantiz]

Ok, forgive me if the question is silly, I came back for the free month and decided to re-sub and I am still finding my way around. A brief history, I dinged 85 on my Shaman this weekend and also completed Kith for the J3 mercs. I BOT an 82 Ranger alt with a cleric merc and a 78 Bard with rogue merc.
I got my Ranger the brutal enforcer and axe of the woodcutter for weapons and he has 500+AAs, almost all in DPS stuff and CS/CA at roughly 14 each. What I am having trouble with is, my ranger steals agro from the 85 tank merc all the time and I worry about trying Brells rest or Thule since I know those two exp. are drastically tougher than SoD. My question is, when I got BE and AoW for weapons, did I surpass what my merc tank has in capability to generate agro or do mercs scale with new expansions?

On a side note, I am really liking Rathe. Prexus was pretty sparce the last time I was on and the population sure makes for a better economy.


Cantiz
<Retired Old Men>

[Brohg]

A level 85 J3 tank merc is indeed outclassed by Feerrott weapons. The mercenary scales to its owner's level, so as you go from 85 to 90 it'll get better. Even better than that is going up to J5 by doing the flag missions in Toskirakk/Warrens. You can jump past the Field of Scale ones like you jumped past Oceangreen.

Ranger agro is a perpetual issue even for real tanks, so make sure you use Jolting Strikes instead of the other imbue procs, and keeping Jolting Snapkicks grayed out all the time. +dmg aug not proc augs in the weapons. Use the Arc of Arrows as your main nuke, only do fire or ice spears if you're outpacing mana regen, and don't ever cast the Summer's line (unless you want to be tanking). Buffblock Talisman of the Lynx, maybe, until you can try out the agro on a J5 tank.

Um, and make sure the tank merc has haste? Sounds dumb, but merc buffs are an easy thing to miss

[Cantiz]

Thanks for the info. I just recently found out how arc of arrows works so hopefully that will make a difference.

For Murdunks, should I drop the tank merc and get a second rogue and have the ranger tank? If the mobs hit for 2.5K+, he won't be able to, he is only CA 18 and CS 12. Mind you, I have no plans on trying that progression till my bard is at least 80 so I can get it better gear from the dream mote vendor, I could focus the rangers AAs on defense if it could be done. Also, I three box on one PC, the bard was created for the sole purpose of mana regen but she does have fade and max run speed so I do use her to pull when it is needed. Over the past 7 weeks I've gotten semi-proficient at alt-tabbing but I tend to "main" the ranger and use him as the main assist. Shaman has counter bias slow, union and what ever else "oh crap" I could get so I do have "some" survivability AAs but access to gear is my big limitation right now. Shaman Abstruse gear is pretty pricey on Rathe and Ranger is rare. I go through money pretty fast trying to keep two "main" toons dressed for the enviroment so I am struggling there. I have been doing Sleepers tomb runs for the gems since they sell for 142pp each and in an hour or two I leave with about 10K, respawn is slow though.

For comparrison, I kept a j2 merc tank alive in bloodfields for several hours till "A Kyv" got pulled. I didnt realize how spikey that mobs DPS was and wasnt paying close enough attention and the merc tank died, had I paid better attention I could have done it.

[Brohg]

ST (or anywhere really) for cash w/o exp is a poor idea. If you just loot the bodies, you can get plenty of plats while building your guys. Murdunk's Last Stand isn't a particularly dangerous mission, almost entirely a dps test, but if you can't handle it yet just find someplace you're comfortable grinding and settle in. If you pick Bloodfields again (which may be a great idea for getting +4dmg augs), I recommend being choosy about your pulls not just due to spikey kyv dps but because all the muramites there have big damage modifiers that vary by model, like -20% blunt or slashing.

Also, moved your thread since the topic has changed.