The Spirit Realm

All of the information I have found about this is really really old.

If I deleted all of the equipment on my characters, then deleted them, then made new characters with their names, then deleted those, is there any chance of getting my characters back?

I also have a totally off-topic question: How do shamans compare to healing mercs in terms of keeping up a tank against a very hard hitting mob?

Thanks.

Possibly yes but you have to ask nice and keep asking nice...all those items i don't know...its a big thing to ask

Any tank worth salt is going to have a healer merc anyway...shaman would be there to spot heal and slow / dot BUT that said I have kept tanks up many times when the healer merc went splat early in a tough fight.