Tank mercs

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Dagum, Dec 10, 2019.

  1. Dagum Elder

    So like this was brought up in another thread, but I think it needs to be addressed here.

    I'm a druid I have a merc healer. Why because it does me more good than a merc tank. I have the new merc gear.

    My question is does anyone use a merc tank? The tanking class in general is too reliant on disc for survivability.

    These tank mercs do they even get a disc to use?
    When do they use them?
    How do you know when they are down?

    Tanking requires more than just holding agro and having a gear level.
    Also how's the community's view on merc glyphs. Instead of buying fireworks I could buy some glyphs that would effect my merc. Maybe give a tank merc a glyph of dragon scales that I could buy.
  2. Nniki Augur

    Not normally, as they are typically on the weak side.

    Here are the abilities they're using at level 115 on beta:
    • Final Stand Discipline Rk. II
    • Fortitude Discipline
    • Kragek's Roar Rk. II
    • Mercenary Area Taunt
    • Mercenary Taunt
    • Precision Strike Rk. II

    There's obviously some sort of logic behind it, but it's probably pretty simple and not when you want them to. :p

    There's no way to just check if their ability is down or not. You can watch for the activation text to see when they used it, but then you'd have to keep track of the timer yourself.

    You'd probably have to use something like GINA to create timers for them if you wanted to see when they'll be available again. Reuse times can be looked up on any site with spell data. Otherwise, if you just wanted to know when they were using them, you could create an audio trigger to match the discipline activation you were interested in.

    Example Activation Text

    MercenaryName activates Final Stand Discipline Rk. II.

    Reuse Times
    • Final Stand Discipline Rk. II = 10.5m
    • Fortitude Discipline = 40m
    • Kragek's Roar Rk. II = 30s
    • Mercenary Area Taunt = 36s
    • Mercenary Taunt = 6s
    • Precision Strike Rk. II = 35s
    Corwyhn Lionheart likes this.
  3. Allayna Augur

    The problem is merc tanks are based off of warriors and not knights. The exact reason why a healer merc tanks better than the tank merc.
  4. Enigma Maitreya Augur

    I mostly only use my Tank when fighting mobs that are 3+ levels above my level.

    What I watch for:
    Caster DPS is less effective meaning mana downtime vs what is acceptable downtime.
    Melee DPS is less effective meaning my and/or Melee DPS downtime vs what is acceptable downtime.

    Overall, the Tank engages instantaneously and is more a meat shield than a dps source.

    When I do use a tank I set me as main assist and tank merc as main tank.
  5. Vumad Cape Wearer

    I have minimal merc AA, because I typically try to fill the group.

    I think some important things need to happen.

    1) We need a way to merc share to everyone in thr group so the person with the most merc AA doesn't just keep getting more merc AA (usually the tank which is always dragging a cleric).
    2) We need a way to earn merc AA while in a full group of 6.
    3) We need some amount of autogrant merc AA, but if the 1st 2 happen this 1 is less important.

    I use a tank merc in old content. I use a tank merc in new content as a speed bump for charm breaks.
    I use a wizard merc and it DPS's every bit as poorly as the merc tank tanks.

    I would definitely love to see a merc revamp, and as I mentioned before, I would LOVE to see the merc system merged with the shroud system. It would be a GREAT way to earn merc AA if while in a full group of 6 I could shroud into a merc that is scaled in some way.
    Petalonyx likes this.
  6. Bigstomp Augur

    Merc tanks tank as well as the merc healers heal.
    ie: Poorly.
  7. Conq Augur

    Merc's are the Devil.
  8. Ninelder Augur

    If this were to be true, the healer merc would require at least one real tank and one merc tank to hold agro off of it while it only cast heals every ~5-6mins.
  9. Tallie Elder

    Big, while I agree with you on most things, a cleric merc heals a lot better than a tank merc tanks, unless you are going to tell me that Tattertott + a tank merc can do everything that you can do with a cleric merc :)
  10. minimind The Village Idiot

    I have a nearly max-AA mercy tank with 4 pieces of new merc gear. It tanks just fine in the revamped GMM Darkness Howls with a near max AA cleric met and boxed shammy healing. I try to make sure it’s not tanking more than 3 trash at a time. It can tank trash in Stratos just fine. It cannot survive Stratos named. Maybe after the strike through revamp takes effect, but it dies 4 out of 5 attempts now.
    CatsPaws and eqgamer like this.
  11. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer

    Intriguing. Please post a video of your tank merc tanking 3 trash in GMM HA, or tanking a single trash mob in Stratos. Thanks.
  12. Tappin Augur

    Merc tanks are nothing more than a speed bump. Useless almost 100% of time.
  13. Bigstomp Augur

    Have not tried it.
    If I go play with tatter without big I use a wizard merc and turn off spell casting subtlety.

    I don't trust a merc to heal, I don't trust a merc to tank.

    Even live players, a big tank can paper over a lesser healer. A lesser tank still dies even with a great healer.
  14. Petalonyx Augur

    Out of curiosity, anyone know the HP of a max gear/AA tank merc in TBL/ToV?
  15. zhay Journeyman

    tank merc can tank in TBL and in GMM

    i am a bard - i use tank merc and cleric merc when i play and have done most merc quest

    they cant do mission and cant do named in T2/T3 , but else they work fine

    zhay
    eepok and CatsPaws like this.
  16. eqgamer Augur

    He's right. Doesn't need to post a video to quell your disbelief. :p
    eepok likes this.
  17. Evye Augur

    As an end game ranger my setup was:
    Max Ranger
    Group Shaman box
    Healer Merc
    Tank Merc

    This proved to be unreliable.


    After a few too many wipes camping namers in TBL/GMM
    I switched to:
    Max Ranger Tank
    Group Sham box
    Healer Merc X2

    I was able to camp more than 50% of the namers myself to finish hunters.
    Petalonyx likes this.
  18. Numiko Augur

    I've always found merc tanks do fine vs yard trash, but not so well against named.

    Whenever I run across a named I often change my Tank to a DPS merc or second healer and use my Mage pet to tank, that seems to work well in most situations.
  19. Vumad Cape Wearer

    Last night a server topping raid SK was tanking 4 mobs at once in goro with only a cleric merc. I'm sorry but a server top cleric is not keeping up a tank merc in the same situation.

    And lets not forget that the tank using cleric merc was putting out 150k DPS (with a bard), while my (AA lacking) tank merc is around 8k DPS (without a bard). So even if the cleric can keep up the merc, nothing is dying.

    As an enchanter, I out DPS my wizard merc by 100-200%. The 110 (AA lacking) wizard merc is about on par for DPS with my 103 mage with only autogrant AA and defiant and RoF gear in almost every slot.

    And the SK with a cleric merc and my group cleric at one point was tanking a named and 5 adds.

    I don't know the solution, because we don't want merc tanks out doing real tanks, but there has to be some amount of balance for those of us who are not SK/Pal/War/etc.

    I will admit my numbers might be wrong, I haven't graphed it or anything, but Gamparse observations are probably pretty close.
    Tallie likes this.
  20. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer

    I said please.