Tank merc

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Icepic, Oct 9, 2013.

  1. Icepic New Member

    Tried a tank merc in the new Heroic adventure .. He died in 3 to 6 sec with 2 heal mercs. We had no tank for are group ... so looks like someone is going to have to reroll to a tank ( Hint ..Ranger) . rofl
    Druid ,Ranger and Bard.. Mercs seemed to have been nerfed or maybe just toned down so that when you gear and aa them up . they will be as they where befor xpac. I hope this is just some bug that they can fix.
  2. Kiras Augur

    I haven't tried a tank merc since the patch, but I did try a heroic adventure as well. My group was ranger + wiz + 2 cleric mercs. I can beat HOF names with a fairly good success rate with this group, although it isn't 100% and depends on the name's abilities. I stomp on Menace, Doom, and Horror. The mobs in the heroic adventure, on the other hand, killed me ridiculously fast, even when I had a shield up. Hitting 7 times for more than 70k combined in one round is nuts. The mercs did *feel* worse than normal, but even if they were working just like they were pre-patch, the trash has such high damage output that their healing just won't work without a really strong tank or lots of stuns. Mercs are reactive (not the stance, but how they work). They start casting after you take damage. Combine that with trash that can kill you in 2 rounds if you're not lucky, and reactive healing won't work. I think I managed to kill roughly 2 mobs for every time I died. I've been a better tank than merc tanks throughout ROF. Could be the particular adventure I tried (it was one in the Bixie Warfront), but this feels like an overtuned mob issue.
  3. TheOriginalShaard Lorekeeper

    Try some of the Hills (Karana?) adventures; when I tried them on test last week they were boxable (nec/shammy + tank/cleric mercs) although they might have "tuned" them since then...
  4. Feldian Journeyman

    Some of the mobs in heroic are def out of tune. My tank is mostly raid t2-t3. In the bixe wf heroic, most of the mobs were a cake walk, I could tank 2-4 at a time np. Then there other trash mobs that would literally drop 1-2 rounds. It was so fast the merc could even react. I had to use defensive on the ones that hits like a truck. Funny thing is, the boss was 100x easier lol. The need to go back and smooth out some f these super demons.

    Excuse the terrible typing. It's late and I'm using my mobile.
    Leerah and Fenthen like this.
  5. dc88 Journeyman

    From the EQ Wiki...Indicates they are tuned to a 6 players in the group.
    Heroic Adventures

    Heroic Adventures are a system of missions that scale to your party's level and equipment. To be first released with the Call of the Forsaken expansion. They may be considered a more advanced version of Lost Dungeons of Norrath.
    Mission style content that allow for unique experiences each time you play through them, including a chance at new loot, rares, and currency you can collect and spend at special merchants!

    Heroic Adventures are designed primarily for 3 players + 3 mercs. 2 players + 2 mercs should be viable in most cases, but they will need to have a bit more skill, gear, or class synergy to pull it off effectively.

    During Heroic Adventures tasks, there is a chance that a rare (named) mob will spawn.
  6. Qest T. Silverclaw Augur

    Dc88:

    Where did you get that info in red, the Wiki?

    I seem to remember the Developers saying it was tuned for 2 players + mercs, not 2 players of the right classes + mercs.
  7. dc88 Journeyman

  8. Qest T. Silverclaw Augur

    Couldn't I edit that wiki and make it say "Group missions are tuned for 72 players and they all have to be Bards?"
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  9. Riou EQResource

    That quote was from Augur in Beta (Believe he was the one who came up with the system)

    I believe only 1 or 2 of the 17 heroic adventures were tuned for 2 + 2 (They were the Ellyra made ones that were meant to be quick 30 minute adventures where the rest are meant to be like 60-90 minutes)

    Elidroth quote was like 2 months ago that was 2 + 2 for them, but that was changed to 3 + 3 since Beta started so who knows how much earlier then that it was changed :p
  10. dc88 Journeyman

    Yes, that is true...but does it does correspond to what is being said in this thread. Groups of 2 players + 2 mercs are having trouble with the content. Try to add another player and merc, or a group of 4 players and a merc. And the HA's also tune to the highest level character from what I have read as well. I guess what I am trying to say is give it some time and experiment with different group makeups
  11. Gnomeland Augur

    When devs say 2 + 2, what they're talking about is -

    1 tank + puller + 1 dps + 2 healer/dps mercs
    1 pet class + puller + 1 dps + 2 healer/dps mercs

    Not 1 dps + 1 cdps + 2 tank/healer mercs.

    A group built around a tank merc is not going to complete every mission.
  12. Shugz New Member


    This always makes me+my gf's Shammy+Bard duo sad.
  13. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    Which is why tank mercs need a boost!
    Leerah likes this.
  14. Gnomeland Augur

    Well, looking at what just happened to wiz mercs, I won't hold my breath on a tank merc upgrade...

    My advice to the OP and others using a tank merc is simply to invest in your own player tank.

    There are only two practical options for tanking high-end group content - mage/bst/nec pets and shd/war/pal tanks.

    The former is further limited by mechanics that prevent melee participation and content that is specifically made to be not pet tankable.

    The latter is therefore the only fool proof option for high-end group content, so though it takes a big investment, in the end it's what you have to do to not be hamstrung by developer whim.

    CoTF is a great time to make a warrior, with that massive mitigation boost they just received from No Time to Bleed.
  15. Icepic New Member

    Am I the only one that thought this new xpac was to be about the MERCS. I mean dang my bard got nota with this xpac. The focus seem to be on the mercs. Merc gear ,Merc aa .. .. should the mercs not be able to handle the Group content?.. As I have stated before I hope this is just a bug. I was really looking forward to this xpac.
  16. Gortar Augur

    "The former is further limited by mechanics that prevent melee participation and content that is specifically made to be not pet tankable."

    My emphasis. This includes Everquest. No content is made to be pet tankable. Context readily exists that a pet _CAN_ take the damage of. Tanking means holding aggro from OTHERS. Pets cannot hold aggro from a PC period (stupid design decision that nearly made me leave EQ like many other stupid decisions). I understand not wanting a pet to tank for raids, I don't raid. When I made my beastlord my pet could tank for ME. I simply stood behind the pet and meleed while he took the damage. This is what being a beastlord was about. If he needed heals that I couldn't keep up with Id tank while healing him.

    Now its either pet group, pet holds mob while I twiddle my thumbs, or we have to find a PC tank (thats not a bot? yeah right!). Tank mercs cant tank current content with less than 2 (sometimes 3) healers.
  17. Gortar Augur

    During the beta there were many pointed /feedbacks about the fact tank mercs cannot tank the content. Of course there were even more about how ROF t4 MAX AA warriors couldn't tank the group content as well. They at least adjusted toward reasonable a bit for the plate non raiding tanks!
  18. Gnomeland Augur


    Obviously we are not privy to each other's feedbacks, but on the Beta boards, the only posts I saw were how easy the content was and how they all needed to be tuned up. Of course, everybody who posted was in one of two camps -

    Used a plate tank
    Used a pet tank

    Nobody using a merc tank piped up.

    Course, it didn't help that Elidorth declared that this content was all designed to be done with a player group, which I think discouraged the merc tank users.

    No feedback using merc tanks was asked for.
  19. Qest T. Silverclaw Augur

    It's amazing how many people haven't witnessed the power of a fully skilled and operational Enchanter.

    When facing just one enemy, since the others are all controlled by the Enchanter, and the one enemy is completely crippled by the Enchanter's debuffs, one tank merc, and one healer merc are sufficient to that simple task.
  20. Gortar Augur

    If your not a raider or a INT caster "unnamed dev" doesn't care. He told me so publicly in an IRC Chat sponsored by casters realm. The only opinions that he will listen to are plate tank - cleric (not healer) - INT DPS for groups.. and raiders that are current content. No one else matters. The beta forums were dead, I talked to several devs on the beta server and expressed my views. I did feedback (as did many others I grouped with there) about the issue. I have no idea who/what was thought about the feedback, but from the opinion of "unnamed dev", I assume it was nothing but confetti.