The Spirit Realm

Since SoD release I've been using a healer merc. When not grouped, I had been root/rotting trash and popping the merc when a named spawns to keep me alive while I tank. However, by Tier 3 zones, I'm finding it to be increasingly more difficult to tank the nameds and do any reasonable dps on them. So, I've been contemplating switching to a tank merc. I'm currently VoidD and 2 tasks from ViodE (should get them done this weekend)... so I can grab a pretty decent Journeyman tank. Late last night, after we lost a couple of people from our group, we popped a tier 4 J Tank and a tier 4 J healer. The tank held aggro really well and even tanked a named and an add simultaneously... granted we had a cleric in group along with the merc healer. So, it really got me thinking about trying one out.

Anyway, I'm curious to know what other shaman are doing for mercs, and if anyone has duoed tier 3 nameds (and above) with a Journeyman 4 merc.

I know for my shammy.. I have a tank merc.... on my Rogue... I have a healer merc...

Tank merc works really well for a shaman.... root rot all day long with just the shammy... get tired of that.. pop the merc out.. slow.. heal.. send in dogdog.. panther... etc.. Tank takes the hits and you have a really good speed bump there with some decent aggro abilities.. if things start to go south.... gate out.. and all is good..

Healer merc might be fun, but if something is hitting you... it is really hard to get out of a bad situation fast..... and the healer really doesn't help you pull aggro off yourself other than standing there and getting hit by rooted mobs...

I have been in several groups with a merc healer or a merc tank... and sometimes both. We take down nameds, but that is as a group. Really haven't tried any merc duoing above about the Library, but I am sure it is done.

As a fairly well geared raid shaman, I prefer the Cleric Merc. That way I can tank mobs in the face while meleeting, nuking, doting them and the cleric healing me. And I can use dogdog also.

As a non raid geared shaman I have been using a tank merc and have had pretty good success with this setup. I've tried both types of mercs and when using a tank merc I feel like I'm in much better contol of the situation. I've been using a J2 tank merc and just gained void C access last night and I'm already looking forward to using the J3. From my experience I have found that in tough long duration fights I can keep the tank merc up where as the cleric merc would run out of mana causing a wipe.

Everyone's playing style is different, but this is what I have eperienced... my 2cp.