Will 2 Healer Mercs Cooperate

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Cacafuego, Jun 14, 2021.

  1. Cacafuego Journeyman

    Hiyas. I am a returning player and am going to Level 3 toons to L 115. Specifically, Necro, Bard and Mage. I am now trying to resolve which 3 mercenaries I should drop. I will be Pet Tanking with Mage pet (earth), melee and singing with bard (will pet hold aggro?) and dotting with Necro and no taunt pet. Does this look doable? Now If I drop 2 healers will they cooperate with each other or will they do stupid things that waste mana and interfere with each other? I'm thinking my 3rd merc. to be a rogue. Thanks for your ideas.
  2. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    Merc Logic is dependent upon a few things, and setting the roles of each player correctly is a big part of that, setting the Mage as the groups tank role will mean the Mage's pet will get healing priority.

    Do Merc cooperate, no not in the sense that they understand what each is doing, you will want to block the Merc's "promised" heal spells & their heal over time spells so that all they are casting is just direct instant heals. Merc Healers don't have any "oh, crap" save tricks up their sleeve like player healers do.

    I've not used Merc Melee DPS much myself but the Mage Earth Pet with aggro weapons should hold aggro vs one and also vs the Bard.
    Gyurika Godofwar and Bardy McFly like this.
  3. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    2 healer mercs on different settings work well, I usually use one on reactive and one on balanced which means they cast different spells, so you get less over healing.

    I'm not sure if they fixed the melee DPS merc, but I'd go caster DPS merc and have the bard sing caster ADPS as that is what the rest of the group is made up of. When you get further up the levels Caster merc will benefit from things like mage synergy. But you can try both and see which works better for you, you can have multipul mercs (but not at the same time) so they are easily switchable, not sure if it was AA or purchased in the market place or it may have been a quest or even all of them. :)

    Must for using mercs is setting up the roles, not just who is main tank but also, puller and main assist this stops the DPS mercs doing silly stuff like engaging early and DPSing wrong mobs.

    Good luck and most of all have fun.
  4. Velisaris_MS Augur

    You probably won't need two healers for quite a while (maybe on named). I'd go with a healer (block all but the buffs and direct heals) and two caster DPS mercs on balanced to start with. When you're comfortable with the pet holding agro, start putting the casters on burn. If they grab agro once in a while, it's OK...the caster mercs aren't too squishy and can take the occasional big hits. I've had instances where a caster merc can tank trash mobs just fine (with healing) until the main tank can be rezzed/resummoned. Make sure you're keeping up on the merc AA (the ones for less agro, more HP, and more damage). Get the best merc gear you can.

    The melee DPS mercs are a whole different ballgame. They WILL steal agro on a regular basis until you've got the AAs for less agro, even on balanced. They will take some getting used to as far as agro management. My normal group is SK/cleric/ranger with three melee DPS mercs on burn, and I have to really be on top of things with the SK to make sure he keeps agro.
  5. CatsPaws No response to your post cause your on ignore

    Use 1 (one) J5 healer when you obtain level 85 thru easy quest or level 75 on longer quest. Have to be a paid account.

    My single J5 healer can keeps up on heals for the other 5 players/mercs and pets in my groups until well past level 110. She is also well rounded and will stand there and get the crud beat out of her and not run and even fights back sometimes. I think its cause she knows I am a ranger and need all the help I can get.:)

    I thought I needed 2 healers at one time, tried it and it worked ok but found the second healer was not needed.

    I run her on "balanced" No one else in the group has a "role" like ma or whatever. Now and then if I don't want the mercs following I will put on "puller"

    This will leave the other 2 mercs for whatever you wish them to be. I use a tank and a melee damage. This way the melee damager does not steal agro. So you may want to look at that as an alternative.

    The good thing is you can play around with combinations of type of mercs and or the stance they run

    Am sure I will get flamed for this view but at least I am offering an "out of the box" way to play and yes, this is my personal experience with mercs so it is about me. I cannot answer for others:D
  6. Tatanka Joe Schmo

    Why are people recommending caster mercs?

    They greatly increased the melee merc's DPS a while back, and to the best of my knowledge, they still haven't done this for the casters. I'm pretty sure, currently, that melee mercs do a lot more DPS than casters. And, they don't seem to run out of endurance, even on burn, unlike caster mercs and mana.

    Happy to be proven wrong, but pretty sure that's where we're at right now.
  7. Niskin Clockwork Arguer

    That's the impression I was under, but I play an Enchanter a lot now so I tend to use as many caster mercs as I can. With Twincast Aura, Mana-Reiteration Aura, and VoP they do pretty well.
    Gyurika Godofwar, Yinla and Tatanka like this.
  8. Filter Augur

    I think they evened it out a bit recently Senior Buffalo. My understanding is that they are closer in dps than they once were but melee is still better by a small margin. THis is coming from someone that does not use them but my info is coming from the boards, foggy memory and player discussion in game. Take this with a grain of salt.
    Tatanka likes this.
  9. Tatanka Joe Schmo

    Thanks for that info. I remember the official announcement when melee mercs were buffed, but don't remember anything being announced for caster mercs.

    I probably just missed it.
  10. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    If the bard is going to be playing caster songs for the mage and necro, the caster merc will be the better of the 2.
  11. JimBob Elder Lorekeeper

    Hate to get off topic, but I think you have a very large misunderstanding on how bard songs work for casters.

    I presume that when you refer to caster songs for the mage and necro, you mean Sontalak's Aria and Velketor's Psalm of Potency (because those are the only caster dps specific caster songs I know of). The thing is, if you are playing those songs for caster ADPS, you are playing your bard really really bad.

    Let's say you have 3 casters in the group (mage, necro, and caster dps merc) and they are each casting 8 spells per 30 seconds (30 seconds is how long each song lasts and 8 spells per 30 seconds is very generous). This would mean you are getting a total of 24 spells cast per 30 seconds. Each spell cast that is augmented by Sontalak's Aria or Velketor's Psalm of Potency will do an extra ~2500 damage. 24 x 2500 = 60,000. 60,000 / 30 = 2000 dps.

    On the other hand, instead of using 2 of your songs on Sontalak's Aria and Velketor's Psalm of Potency, you could have been playing two of your dots. Each dot does about 1,000,000 total damage per 30 seconds. 2 dots = 2,000,000 per 30 seconds, which equals 66,666 dps.

    Therefore, the point is that if you are playing the "caster songs" I think you are talking about, you are trading 66K dps for 2K dps... and that would be a shame if you were doing that.
  12. Loratex The Ridiculous Necro

    I use 2 for named or camps with constant adds. One on Reactive/balanced and one always on efficient (for hot and delayed) this prevents them casting heal at the same time.
    Velisaris_MS likes this.
  13. Tornat Augur

    I been using 2 merc healers for years . just block all the heals but the instant ones. no hot , delayed ch ect. make sure do it on pets to. I do think on most mobs it does help to have one reactive one balanced but on names or hard content i just stick both on reactive and its np. and yeah they do good at healing a mage pet , I have a sk tank but when he goes down mage pet takes over they keep it up np.
  14. Bardy McFly Augur

    2 healer mercs will work, but to do it optimally you will be micromanaging balanced/reactive setting on both of them periodically. You're somewhat "playing the merc" to manage their mana and healing throughout depending on the situation. When I used to 3 box I would swap between 1 or 2 healer mercs depending on the situation. When I had 2 healer mercs they both mostly got left on balanced and would swap between toggling one reactive as healing pressure rose. I would throw one into efficient if mana started to get low so the other would do most of the healing. Keep in mind, if you roll 2 healers you really need your played toons to be well geared DPS, otherwise damage will be an issue and fights will take forever.
  15. Veteran_BetaTester PIZZA!

    I don't know how far you will get with a Mage pet. Agro is going to be an issue. They aren't the same as tank class.
    I don't play tanks so I could be wrong?
    Adds are going to be an issue. Bard dots are going to be doing dps.
    I don't know if substituting one of the 3 mercs for a tank will help vs player. Well, player will win for sure. But how far can you go with a War merc, 2 clerics then the Bard, Nec,Mage.
    Pick a female Bard, they rock!