Help choosing a Merc

[ssoutrs]

Hello guys. This is my first post on these forums so nice to meet y'all .

I have a question that I was hoping some of you guys might be able to answer. My main is an 85 Magician with a pocket cleric mercenary. I also box an 82 shaman who currently has a cleric mercenary as well. The magician's mercenary is T4 and the shaman's mercenary is T3 (although my shaman is eligible for a T4). I have been considering switching my shaman's mercenary over to a Tank mercenary. I was wondering if you guys think I would get more mileage out of a tank mercenary or if I should continue sticking with a cleric mercenary for the time being. It is nice having a 2nd cleric mercenary that I can pop to help with the really tough named or just as a back up res machine. I have not used a Tank mercenary before so I don't know their actual effectiveness especially since I would be using it as an extra tank on some encounters or to tank some named instead of having my pet tank them. Or would even one of the dps mercenaries provide a nice complement?

If you guys have any suggestions that would be great! Thank you!

[Brohg]

The magicians pet will outtank the tank mercenary. If you really feel the urge to make a switch, use a caster dps merc.

[ssoutrs]

Thanks for the advice Brohg. Yeah I figured that the pet would probably out tank the Tank merc but I haven't used one before so I wasn't sure.

[Tharkis]

Pick the sexiest merc you can find =)

[elryche]

nothing parties like a rental dark elf!

[Tordail]

[ssoutrs]

Hehe I always go with gnome female mercs...I find them sexy.

[Lubal]

I'm currently 65, and will be for some time, as my group is doing sort of staged progression-ish leveling. Especially under those circumstances, how does the rogue merc compare to the wizard? We don't really have much in the way of caster support buffs, but I can of course buff the rogue quite a bit, including making him a kittyproc mounting platform. Is that enough to make the rogue a viable choice, or should I just go visit the nice ogre for my lizard wizard?

[dohrian]

[shamy60]

hi,i play shaman as main and mage as alt ,both lv 85.mage with minion 8 as pet focus.
that combo ROCK HARD
get your merc tier 5,it's worth it.......
your shaman got counterbias slow? lv 83 it rock. (nm. u are lv 82,get lv 83 and get counterbias slow asap ).
only the shaman HOT combined with counterbias proc HOT = 5200 per tic overtime heal and that s before the merc healer start to heal. (got rk 3,not sure on the number for rk 2 ).
DPS merc? he will die fast if pet tank,my mage pet is maxed on pet def and offensive aa,and the dps merc still get agro over pet and die very fast usually .
i got 2x tier 5 mercs healers ,and i don't even check heals with my shaman and concentrate on dps,,5 dots plus the fast dd when it's up plus lynx.
on tier 7 or 8 trash i use only one merc and not even check heal with shm. if i have to kill UF nameds i pop my 2nd merc.
on most converteum nameds i help on heals here and there tho ...........
good to have listleness buff on pet (help to keep agro and proc a HOT also ). and don't forget growth buff (5600hp for rk 3 ).

BTW, pet tank much better than a tank merc (at higher level ),specially with a good pet focus.

[Valdemar]

I'm glad to see this question posted because I've been pondering the same question. I'm only 66 and I've been leveling/AAing a Mage so I haven't needed a Merc of any kind so far, but I've been wondering about what Merc to obtain for my SHM. The MAG gets a CLR Merc for sure, but I haven't been able to make up my mind for my SHM....

Couple o' questions....

1) MAG pets tank better than WAR Merc. Right, got it. But, can you put the WAR Merc on passive and use him as sort of a tougher version of a Rogue?

2) Doesn't the ROG Merc use the class aggro reduction skills? It would suck if they are gaining aggro - especially because the Merc is not using skills to reduce aggro.

3) I've heard several players commenting that the WIZ Mercs are gaining aggro from over-nukage. True? Or are these folks not employing them properly?

Regards,
Valdemar

[Retron]

[Valdemar]

Retron;

Thanks very much for this information. I apologize that I haven't kept abreast of the changes with HoT as I am sure everyone was aware of the paradigm shift except me, my defense is that my life is full and demanding on my time, so being au fait - EQ wise- is a low priority.

I'm glad for the changes and it looks like WAR Mercs are the way to go even for MAG users. Interesting.

What are your thoughts and experiences with the ROG and WIZ Mercs?

Thanks again for the information,
Valdemar

[Brohg]

[Valdemar]

[Sowslow]

I box a mage, so your usage may vary. In SoD I would run a tank merc on shm and cleric merc on mage mostly, as I didn't need the extra healing and they didn't have another option for dps which the tank merc did better than nothing. The mage pet could tank better as he was semi raid geared at the time, but I could pull many more mobs and not worry as much as about aggro issues with the tank merc. It was an easier box setup for us lazy boxers.
In the start UF the tank merc was useless so I switched to two cleric mercs, which was a pretty good combo but a lot of extra healing that I didn't need so I would only run one at a time usually.
I then switched to a wiz merc on the mage for some extra dps as I rarely used the two cleric merc setup even on named. It is pretty sad dps, but on balanced it can go on forever without any downtime. If you really wanted to max the dps, I guess you could switch between burn and balanced to keep aggro right, but seems like to much effort for little gain.
Recently I added a war box the mix and tried out the rogue merc just too see what it could do and it was pretty sad too. It wasn't jt5 merc but still wasn't much to work with.
Honestly, in lower levels the tank merc is pretty awesome, but in higher levels the cleric merc is just more useful than the rest. It can stand a beating better than the rog or wiz and heals/rezzes are better for most than a small increase in dps.

All that said, most of the time, besides named or really hard pull spots, I don't waste the extra spot on a merc. I just duo the old way. It saves me pp and gains more exp per kill.

[wheel]

I've been fairly pleased with making the switch back to a Journeyman T5 Tank Merc. From at HP/AC point, it seems very viable in content up to T3 trash (I'm not T4 yet). I was able to Molo a couple yellow squid guys in Fear Itself with some work. I would imagine it would do just fine on named in a full group, but doubt that I would be able to Molo one.

There are a couple downsides I have to mention.

1) The agro control on the 86-90 mercs isn't all that great. The merc is always set as Aggressive. Generally, those I group with have to drastically dial down their dps to accommodate the merc.
2) The second problem is relative to multiple mobs in camp that aren't mez'd. Even with MA/MT set properly in group, the merc will switch targets to a VP'd mob and when it goes back to the main mob, it stays next to the CC'd mob. If room is available, you can either passive it to pull it back or just start healing to keep the idiot up.

A couple positive points...

1) Proximity agro. Yes mage pets tank better, but with other players or rogue mercs, the pet will loose agro everytime. Player characters on the mobs agro list will always take agro over a pet when in melee proximity, and all mercs are considered a PC. Adding a tank merc opens up options for adding other players. If you never group with other characters that like to swing a weapon then the wizard merc is the better choice because it can do its damage from distance. Otherwise, go tank...
2) Defensive discs. The Merc has a nice defensive disc that can be a savior on ugly pulls and you don't have to activate it, the merc does it on its own...

All in all, I miss my wizard merc at times, but I use my Warrior merc far more then I used the wizard. Good job Sony!

[Retron]

[Brohg]

[Valdemar]

[Valdemar]

[Retron]

[Lubal]

[Valdemar]

Thanks Lubal.

The setup for me is wife plays either her Bard or her Mage and I play my Shaman (of course) or we bot one another. These three characters are 65 (give or take a level on one or two) so I never molo. We're haven't needed a Merc until now, but since we want to do spell arcs and the like, it seems like the only way to progress through the content without help (We're also doing the "progression-ish leveling" scheme.)

While your comments make the ROG look a lot more attractive and remove much of the mystery about their performance, I'm afraid I'll have to choose a WAR. Because whether its BRD/SHM or MAG/SHM, we'll need a tank who can hold aggro. With the Bard, I toss SoLeopard and aggro is locked down and I can do as I please, but there's no way the Bard with SoLeopard alone is going to hold aggro against a ROG Merc on burn. Perhaps it might be possible with Sloth + Leopard, but even if that was sufficient to keep the aggro on the Bard, it would do nothing to keep the aggro off the ROG when I'm teamed with the MAG as the aggro will default to the "PC" ROG Merc instead of the pet.

So, I've got to take a tank it seems. I just hope the DPS from a WAR Merc isn't so low. But, I appreciate the information and maybe we can add a third account in the future and put a ROG Merc on that. Also thanks for confirming the Sloth aggro trick. I'll be using that in a couple of levels to lock it down.

Regards,
Valdemar

[Lubal]

I think that sounds like the best approach for your grouping situation. I agree that there is no power on earth that is letting a bard hold aggro off a rogue merc, with kittyprocs, in burn stance. As for the warrior's dps, while they're not a rogue, they aren't bad at stabbing the mob by any means. And of course they benefit from shaman buffs, including kittyprocs.

[Jandora]

Came back to EQ in February. Main is a Mage and love the pet with a T5 merc healer.

Alt is a level 70 Ogre Shaman that I play solo and groups on the same account. I would like to get a Merc for the shaman to molo with but not certain which one would yield the most benefit. I have mostly root rotted in WoS on murkgliders in the caves and did not feel I needed a Merc yet. I would like to go to Loping Plains for some non-visible armor upgrades and will propbably need a merc there for moloing. The merc will of course only be a JT1 until I find time to do SoD progression to get it leveled up in tiers.

Which Merc is the most benificial for a Solo Shaman and are any merc races better than any others?

[warador]

you only have to do the tosk/ warrens line of prog for a jt5 i would go that route as t1is really a waste of money in the meantime i always root rotted the gators in lp around that lvl ggod xp drops nice vendor trash and spells also

[Dobbs]

Partially depends on the style of shaman you play. If your not max healing but have your survival/stat aa's a cleric may be an option and tank them yourself. If your more cleric than dps/tank grab a tank merc let em hold the line for you and add your adps and dots to shorten the fight. If you have the gear and AA's grab a DPS merc (melee) and got town tanking/healing but mob drops fairly fast. I'm the cleric type so I've had my hot DE warrior for some time. now that I'm rounding the corner aa wise I may change it up. With the countless play styles shaman have...find the merc that suits your current play style.