I'm currently boxing a rogue, shaman, mage and wiz (not an optimal boxing setup I know), and due to the fact that the rogue has horrible range I like to use a merc tank so he can melee. However the merc tanks have really become weak at around level 90 (I haven't done the J5 quest yet, I'm using J2 merc, so that may be an issue). Now my question is, at level 100 will the J5 merc tank suffice, if I have a shaman slower? I know they get shredded without a slower, but since I have a shaman slower wouldn't this box work on nameds at lvl 100 with 1 merc healer? Or would it be necessary to drop the wiz or mage and add another merc healer?
Would just use your mage pet to tank named to be honest, I box a wizard, shammy, zerker and have to use 2 cleric mercs and shammy to keep tank merc alive. Most named can handle if slowed and crippled some T4 ROF not a chance in hell, (Deathfist for one). Maybe after merc aa's get released might see some improvement.
I use my j5 tank when I'm doing trash, just so I don't have to worry about positioning while boxing. When I'm doing a named though, I use the earth pet. Much more viable.
I box a bard, shammy, and cleric and use the J5 tank along with a wizzy and cleric merc. If I'm not being lazy I will drop the cleric merc and add another wizzy but I usually don't do a whole lot on the boxed cleric unless im fighting a named mob. The J5 tank will do fine for all trash with just one merc healer. But for most named mobs you will probably want 2 healers, and like Gragas said, there are some named like Deathfist that I have not been able to get a merc to tank all the way thru. And you will notice a difference between the J2 and the J5 mercs for sure.
Ok I just wish they'd change the pet tank mechanism, so that it can hold off aggro from melee the same way it does for ranged. Is there a good reason why it can't hold aggro off melee? There seems to be something hard coded with them so that if a melee does even 1 point of damage to the mob, it always goes for the melee and ignores the pet. But it can hold aggro fine with my wizzy and mage chain nuking. Seems like a pretty big handicap for melee, since boxing is so popular right now.
I believe the devs have stated that this is by design. They want actual players to be the best tanks, so pets were given the handicap of not being able to get aggro off melee while Mercs are tuned a bit low at the higher levels. Your choices are to either replace the rogue with a ranged DPS (caster or a Ranger) and use the pet to tank or replace the Merc with a real tank and keep the Rogue. Of the two, going ranged is probably the "easier" option since you don't need the same level of gear and AAs that you would need on a proper tank, but having a real tank as opposed to a pet or a merc has it's benefits if you have the patience to build one up.
Sebekiz's suggestions are reasonable, but I would do the J5 quest arc first to see what a J5 merc feels like. My Shaman's J5 tank worked reasonably well for moloing purposes even after level 90 (never got him to 100, though), so perhaps it will work for Dday99's crew as well.
Been actually curious on this topic myself. Currently building a rogue to run Rogue/Sham/Bard. I see a *lot* of complaints on tank mercs. Never really used them higher level (most of what I always did was in lower levels, constant rerolling) It'll be a little while yet before I get rogue up to the higher levels (85+. She's at 71 atm, building AAs. haven't been playing lately). I like my melee toons, get bored in caster groups. Tried the mage/mage/nec and mage/nec/bard combos and always got dull in the 70s/80s to me. Been trying to figure out if I want the rogue as a main with the group boosting her mainly, what the choice is tank-wise. Can't do mage pets due to melee range, don't want a range group, and don't want to main a tank. Is aggro easy enough on any of the tanks to just be able to click-and-tab to tank? Or am I honestly out of luck and stuck with whatever the max the tank merc can do?
I've been running a SK/Cleric/Enc trio with 3 rogue mercs and have very little aggro issues. The few times I've had an issue it's usually been because I was a bit quick to wake up something I had mezzed and hadn't properly set up aggro on my SK. My group's only in the mid-50s (in no hurry to level, just enjoying the game) but I can pull 5 or 6 at a time on a LDoN hard mission and have very few problems with tashing/mezzing the adds before the tank is beat down too far. Once he gets some AE aggro spells it should be even easier.
Tank merc aggro seems to be better when you mark yourself puller/main assist a d do t mark the tank merc as main tank
I have yet to see my merc tank let me down..I 2 box chanter/wizzy..using cleric and tank mercs I have killed almost every named in RoF that ihave tried ..again almost im not saying all
I have a J5 merc tank, and he is amazing for content a couple of levels below them. I box druid, enchanter and sometimes a magician. Merc tanks rip through stuff that is an expansion old.
A J2 and J5 merc are supposed to be the same in everything, except that J5 has better morale and should not break as easy, against one mob there should be no difference.
Relying on merc heals is bad. If you have a good healer, or can play back up healer well, the merc tank should be able to tank all or almost all of any group content. You will most likely have to do a lot of back up healing with the merc on most of the current nameds.
I have seen this idea mentioned a few times, but my experience is very different. I don't have a way to quantify it, but when I upgraded from a J1 merc to a J5 merc, the difference was nice and day.
