Who’s the best DPS merc that I can bring on quests with my healer? I would like to have a good dps merc because my healer as intended doesn’t do much dps and want to blow through the solo zones. Please tell me best Merc?
If you are on the good side, sneak into East Freeport to the merc den there, and hire Lord Valkiss Somethingorother, if you have access to him (he and Lady Liae Croae (Qeynos side equivalent) are veteran reward mercs). He's a shadowknight, and she is a paladin. I find both work very well with my wee healer characters while levelling. Others may have other suggestions for you though.
Cyrrena and I have been working on an apples-to-apples of all mercenaries. What we're doing is looking at the mercenaries while our toon is chronomentored to level 5, with no equipment on us or the merc, no buffs, all AA turned off, etc. If you want to compare stats, you can look at a copy of our Excel spreadsheet that has the mercs we have done thus far in it. What we have found is that training doesn't add to a merc's stats, other than allowing you to put more equipment on the merc. Equip your mercenary well. Click the training button when it becomes available. I wouldn't spend money on training your merc. Most mercenaries have very similar stats, as you will see if you review the worksheet. Just because a merc is newer or comes from the Marketplace doesn't mean it's "better". What does change is the spells any given mercenary has. Most mercenaries have Master level spells. A few have Grandmaster spells. Look at the spells the merc has (you may want to compare them to the regular class spells for whatever the merc's class is). Some mercs have a heal or a cure that you might not expect (there are a couple of rangers that have a heal, the Gardening Goblin has a heal even though he's a brigand, etc.) You are going to want a merc that has the ability to dish out damage. It might also be good if it can hold aggro.
If you're looking for end game.. there isn't such a thing as a dps merc. Even my low dpsing healers blow all mercs out of the water on dps since AoM or ToT. It's only gotten worse as the stat inflation has gone up. Before lvl 80.. all mercs do decent dps.
I was working on my mercs this morning and discovered something odd; some mercs reduce your character's health. This is just weird and quite unexpected. Down about 4,000,000: Bhoohgar, Claz'zakla, Delidrae, Raffick, Skando, and Zizzaxa. No effect: Lady Liae. Up about 1,000,000: Gardening Goblin.
I used him for the longest time. More than once my group died and he managed to finish off the boss in some runs a few expansions ago. He would hold agro by sheer damage since he had no true agro abilities, so yes, I recommend him unless you get a better tank from the broker (such as Zelbie Whackya).
No go for me! Guy's chewing my ears off with his endless boasting. I swear he doesnt even breathe inbetween. I'll have died from a nervous breakdown long before we could have reached some boss mob - If I didn't kill him first. Oh yes he does. See above
I just talk back to him "You aren't a dragon, you are a misbegotten halfbreed!" "More whacking, less yacking!" "Try leaning a little closer, with all your talking, you should breathe on them more! You are a dragon, right?" *laughs*
Does "/cl_ignore_merc_chatter true" shut him up? I don't recall right now if that shuts down all chatter or just some.
I been using Claz'zakla on my healers he does good. The only exception is my Fury, I actually use a tank for him since I seam to have died so much. I really did not care for Daeron Ashenwing, I might have to go back and look at him the only problem is training him up, as I not touched that merc well since that expac.
