Fastest way to upgrade merc

[Kevis]

Back from a semi long break and just hit 80. Someone mentioned to me that I should upgrade my merc but I'm not sure how. It looks like I need to complete the rathe theme to get tier 5, and you can skip the first 4 upgrades and go straight to getting a tier 5 merc.

My question is can you do that at 80, or do you need to be 85? Should I bother now, or just head to 85 straight away then worry about it?
Lastly, does completing the rathe tasks for tier 5 merc give you access to void d or whatever (b, c, d, e, f) or is void access and upgraded mercs two seperate things?

Or should I just start from scratch and do all the SoD progression stuff?
I am in a smallish guild on povar and all they do is sit in UF zones working on that stuff, do people still work on SoD progression? Is any of it solo/moloable?
Ok enough random questions.

Thanks!

[ariowen]

Basically, doing the Rathe theme will give you access to the T5 mercs. Void access is a bit different, as you only gain progressively higher void access with each theme you complete and it matters not the order that you complete the themes, you will still only go in A, B, C, D, E, F, G order. Everyone starts off with void A, so if you complete the Rathe theme to get the T5 merc, you will be void B flagged, if you then complete the Oceangreen theme, you would gain Void C access and so on till you have completed all 5 themes for void E access. You can progress in a theme via one of two ways, complete all the group level progression tasks/instances or beat all the raids for that theme, but not a mixture of the two.

With a T1 merc at level 80/81 I was able, on my ranger whom was at that time Steamfactory raid/Chrystalos group/TSS raid/elegant cultural geared, complete the easy kill animals count/get drops quests in OG theme as well as kill undead get drops quest (undead I had to make sure I got only one per and hoped to get an early earthcaller proc). Kith theme was able to do most of it molo, granted I had a T2 merc then, out side of the two group instances. FoS, you will need a group to do all of the progression instances and the upfront FoS task work to be able to progress to the point to request them is large, just find a group and someone that can request them for you and you are golden. I would suggest that at the very least for FoS on tasks, do the ancient Iksar illusion mask as it allows you to move freely about FoS theme when you have it on. Warrens, only the first task is soloable at that level and then with invis. It is a find ground spawn, turn it in, get a loc update and hail. Rest need a group at that level.

Hope this helps some.

[Dakshere]

When SoD was new and there were plenty of groups to be had, many people were able to do the progression in the full PC groups to get their T5 merc right away. Now that progression seeking groups have dropped off, beelining straight for the T5 merc is difficult if you don't have a full group of PC to assist you.

[shamy60]

you box a mage also? shaman / mage rock hard .
the lv 81 air pet can be a great tank with their aa tanking ability.
i box shaman / alt mage (both are lv 85 ),mage pet got all the aa now into the tanking ability and he is my main tank in xp group usually in articrex (UF zone ),and a single merc can keep him alive pretty easy on the trash.on nameds i need to heal on heals tho.....

some rathe theme progression task need some serious pulling,but with COH pull it 's pretty easy.
BTW tier 5 merc is MUCH better than the tier 1 merc...........