Another boxing question involving mercs . . .

[Brewtish86]

I have a question for all you guys. I have been out of EQ since before mercs and am looking to start playing again soon. My current 3-box team consist of:
80 Shaman
78 Bard
74 SK

I was wanting to switch it up with mercs and was thinking along the lines of Shaman, Wizard, and Ranger with War and Clr mercs? Or how viable would the Shaman/Ranger w/ cleric/war mercs be if I just 2-box?

I guess what I really wanna know is what kinda content can the merc warrior tank? I really only started playing the SK so I could have a tank for the stuff that the bard couldn't handle but it's boring as hell to me and I want to play some DPS classes. I do have a 80 zerker/necro on a 2nd account but I will never play them anymore. The necro was max AA before this last x-pac and the zerker was close and I got bored of both of them. I am not looking to kill any big time stuff. I just want to be able to take out reg xp mobs to get the xp flowing once I get back in the game.

Oh yeah, what lvl can you start using mercs? Are they available at lvl 1?

[Kneesmasher1]

I know you said you'll never play your Necro anymore, but with that combination I'd drop the SK and use Shaman/Bard/Necro and forget about a Warrior Merc. Just root/rot everything. You don't even have to kite. If you have all of the Virulent Paralysis AAs to extend it's length, you can VP the mob and sit on your steeds (if outdoors) while the bard plays the right songs and just root rot the heck out of just about anything that doesn't summon. Since VP will refresh before the old one breaks, and the Necro can snare, you have plenty of time to reapply VP. The XP is descent and you have lots of places where this will work. Almost all of SoF, A lot of SoD as well.

You can add a Cleric Merc into the mix as well for buffs or if you need them for some reason while root rotting, you can keep them up, but they won't do much. You can't use your pets much this way because the mob will aggro them since it's rooted, but I do keep my Shaman pet up (I don't have pet hold on my Necro pet yet) to kill Cleric and Wizard Pets that are summoned by the mob being rotted. It works well.

[Brewtish86]

I actually leveled my bard/shm/necro up that way and its kinda the reason I rolled a tank on a 4th account and was planning to 4 box. I really like the regular killing method (i.e. pulling, slowing, killing, healing, etc lol) and would like to stick to this but I want a dps class. My 'plan' was to probably just had my shammy and the ranger out then use a war and clr merc. I would only use my shammy to slow, panther/leopard/we it is now, and throw some hokeyed DoTs. Maybe a quick heal now and then if needed. That way I could focus on DPS'ng with the ranger or whatever melee dps class I decide I want to go with. If I do decide to play my 3rd account it would probably just be the bard to pull and then /melody. The only way I could see bringing out a 4th account would maybe be to bring the boom with a wizzy bot.

To make a long post short, I got tired of kiting/root rotting and am wanting to go more melee now.

[Kruzar]

You can get mercs at level 1, and basically utilize them all the way through the game. The tank mercs do ok, the biggest difference being their tier and level. Personally, I end up tanking more than the tank merc, but it is nice to be able to dump off aggro onto someone if need be. They also allow me to get in my super opening backstab by engaging the mob first. My normal grouping is either with my shammy duo- me an 85 Rogue, 85 cleric merc, 75 shammy and 75 tank merc... working on leveling the shammy.... or with my friend who is an 85 druid... and she has a 85 tank merc. We have taken each of these combos into different places, and we have noticed better results on the merc especially after doing Void progression and obtaining higher tier mercs... (the Druid and I are Void E flagged)

Some zones the mercs have no trouble in.. Library is a nice easy hang out spot for some decent xp with single pulls being np. We also like the Warrens, but merc tanking requires much more healing and the xp is not so fast.

If you want to go with the duo of a shaman and ranger... I say go for it.... nice thing about the Ranger is you can always go onto /autofire and stand back away. The tank merc will hold the aggro just fine for your shammy, and you can send in the DogDog for extra DPS. Panther the whole group and go to town. Slow the mob and then toss on DoTs.... let the cleric merc keep up with the healing.. and it should all work for you... With the Ranger if you want to melee, you do have that option, but gearing and how much aggro you generate is going to be a key thing to keep in mind. I know with my Rogue, I have no issue what so ever pulling aggro from the Tank merc if I want it.... with a Ranger... your experience will be very similar.

[Brewtish86]

Thanks that was basically the answer I was looking for. I just needed to know if the tank is actually viable as a tank. My shaman was able to keep my sk healed/buffed while panthering and DoT'ng so I really don't care whether the cleric merc can preform perfectly or not. Anything a cleric merc can do will just be icing on the cake. Thanks again.

Also does anyone know the approximate costs of the different levels of mercs? Or know of a place I can find this info?

[ariowen]

Tier 5 journeyman merc cost a bit over 9K to hire and right at 95 PP per quarter hour salary. The lower teirs are obvously less, but exactly how much I don't know since I went from tier 1 JM merc to tier 5 on the ranger and still have tier 1 mercs on the boxes.

[willain]

I think the T1 Journeyman cost is about 1-2k upfront, 30 pp / 15 minute.

[Brewtish86]

Awesome, thanks for all the help guys. Now just to get comsuck, I mean Comcast, to hook my internet up again!