Hello everyone, I wanted to get some feed back of using a mercenary as a group main tank. I took a break with Underfoot and was using my SK as a tank while boxing 3 to 6. I am now thinking of limiting myself to 2 or 3 box, and wanted to know if I would be limiting myself in a major way with not running a tank myself. My concerns in upgrading the SK, and my preference for fewer tabs to worry about. thoughts????
A real player will always be better than a merc. Merc tanks with the AA and Gear can do just fine for casual single pull day to day grinding and leveling; They will fail at anything much past that. If you are boxing I would suggest running a real tank. Merc healers seem to be the most refined, because without a doubt they get the most use, and even with this being the case if I am using a merc to heal(outside of solo play obviously) I always have 2 out and forgo the extra dmg from a dps one.
A friend of mine has fully Huntered EOK with a well-supported tank mercenary (Enc+Druid with cle merc), with the exception of ... some mob, I forget which, I helped out on.
My main is a WAR, but i have a Tank merc for my ENC. As was said above, a half-decently geared player tank beats the Merc. If not in sheer tankability, then very much in the way they (re)act. Unless you micromanage the merc, with Assist/agressive and above all call assist vs. auto-assist, You need to choose your camp very well. If you can support the tank merc with a live healer, then i would say it's a feasible choice. If not, if you rely on CLR mercs, then imo it's only for non-named. Also, Tank mercs tend to struggle somewhat against more than singles. I have done a lot of EoK-progression with the tank merc (ENC,CLR,SHM with WAR,ROG,CLR mercs each with a full set of dropped merc items) and if adds could not be mezzed (Giants in scorched woods for example) the tank was in trouble. The more you can concentrate on the live healer though, and the more reliably you/your group can assure singles, even nameds are doable.
Oh gawd, Underfoot - hated that expansion. Hopefully one of your box is a mage or bst. If you bring the dps, then a pet can manage with a pair of j5 healer mercs. Make sure to block all HoTs and promissory heals. The merc tanks are broken out of the box and require gear and AAs at 105.
At 105, you can use a merc tank and do the vast majority of all normal group content. Yes there are fights and times when it just dosent cut it, you learn and move on. I will use myself as an example, I mained a monk for ages, quit, came back now we have mercs... cool. Did the molo thing from 72-88 ish between various zones and Gribble HA's. My gear lacked and once I corrected that I was gtg then, monk and healer merc. Fast fwd, I started a shaman, and hero'd a ranger, that pair with heal merc and tank merc pretty much geared every toon I have with T1 EoK stuff. So fights just suck... but with appropriate AA's in the mercs and their respective gear, I can say they work, it takes time to get dialed in know where/what can be done. Now prior to 105, I honestly just sucked it up and ran Gribbles and Tainted Karana HA's till my eyes bleed... the marks of valor can be used to buy gear but it seems like I went thru it faster then I could make the currency.
And a human-driven warrior can tank nekkid? A regular toon needing 20 pieces of appropriate gear plus augments and tens of thousands AA is normal, but a merc needing 4 easy to get items and about 150 AA is 'broken out of the box'? Yes, vs tougher stuff like named, you want backup healing. And you want to debuff quickly. Healer merc on reactive. About only names that give me trouble in are those with real nasty AoE (like Plague Bringer in Other Brother HA)
I some times have to use 2 merc healers with my merc tank but it can work in some fights and in some not work.
The whole point of merc is to be able to use it when you can't find someone LFG to fill a spot. However, if I have to spend month getting AA and gear before it's usable, that's broken out of the box.
Merc AAs are less powerful than y'all are giving them credit for. There's benefit, but it takes parsing to actually see it, there's no night/day capability difference
The bottom line here is that tank mercs suck. If you bring the dps, you can use them in most case, otherwise good luck to you. A mage or bst pet much better choice.
Thank you all for your input. My original main was a bst, to which I then added a Druid. I eventually shelved my bst for an sk to be able to handle content better, and then added a shm + mage. I was hoping that this "come back" I could make it with the bst/Druid using merc tank/cleric, and if need be add the mage with caster merc.
Merc is just another aspect of your character. And like any other aspect, they require investment of time and effort as you get into top levels. Their power curve is actually quite good. They can pretty much carry you through lower-mid levels where grouping can be downright scarce, but at the top they require mire work. You think you can dust one off at 105 and throw it into the mix? Well it will perform about as well as a player who paid as much attention to his gear and abilities as you paid your merc. And mage/bst/necro pet? It aint like you cast a spell and up pops a beastie that can tank EoK named. You need to put in the time and effort to get the highest possible EM focus. You need to invest hundreds if not thousands of AA into companion lines. Or that pet will perform about as well as an undeveloped merc. It goes without saying that an adequately developed tank player is superior. But a well cared for tank merc can be quite viable.
Tank Mercs are powerful and work great for end-game content: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/mercs.238988/page-2#post-3516197 I was able to finish the remaining Mercenary/Partisan tasks 6 days later, just using a merc for tank. The Missions were a different story, and I may have done all of those with a real player tank.
I've done almost all nameds/quests/ and probably more than 75% of the missions with tank merc the past couple years. Just need competent healing and a slower is key
With proper support a tank merc can do most things; everyone seems to agree on this. But if you plan on doing the challenges and later progression in EOK the merc tank will not cut it. Where with a real tank you will be able to do almost all of the content just boxing, with the exception of 1 or 2 of the harder challenges. Almost every player that I play with, or is in my guild that boxes, uses a real tank; I don't think this is a coincidence.
A wizard merc can tank most of EoK with proper group support and character development. The problem is if you're new content you probably don't have the proper gear and AAs required to put out enough DPS to make the encounter manageable on a consistent basis. If you have EoK gear or TBM and all the basic AAs through TBM you can use a tank merc for most content. If not you're going to struggle. Also, some of the EoK missions require a group. Much easier to find one than to try to box one.
I linked videos showing how powerful and capable mercs are - and they are. But in hindsight, the OP's question of using an SK vs using a tank merc really only has one answer: use the SK Choosing a tank merc at this point would be like choosing, before a race begins, to walk the whole way. Using mercs effectively requires constant micro-management and macros: not much different than playing a real tank. Using mercs at higher levels requires them to have gear AND lots of AAs, which is no different than an SK (in fact, my SK with max AAs - almost 32k - still doesn't have max merc AAs). For the second part of the OP's question: a) For upgrading your SK, begin by buying the TBM vendor gear. You can cheaply buy and upgrade it all the way to lvl 105. Then read up on all the excellent SK guides and tips already on these forums. Finally, play the out of your toons, because that is the real way you'll get better b) For your "preference for fewer tabs to worry about", I recommend IS Boxer and multiple monitors. Also, drive your crew from your SK, and don't pick other toons that require too much micro-management. Your SK is your crowd control, there is no need to try to mez with your enchanter or bard, etc.
