Healer Mercs

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Fistix, Sep 3, 2021.

  1. Fistix New Member

    Are there spells that you should block from healer mercs? I have a J5 with merc with max have healer AAs set on reactive and sometimes he just seems to sit there and not heal. I know mercs suck compared to real players, but can usually group content well enough until they just want to take a break.
  2. Kaenneth [You require Gold access to view this title]

    Promised heals.
  3. Andarriel Everquest player since 2000

    I block Promised and HoT.

    Andarriel
    Stymie and Wyre Wintermute like this.
  4. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer

    I block mercs.
    Conq likes this.
  5. Winnowyl Suffering is optional.

    I blocked CH. Mine uses hots and promise, but never without spamming me with fast heals.

    Check that you're on as level of ground as possible. They can get a little wonky with the z-axis if there's a slope or wall that they're on.
  6. Vumad Cape Wearer

    Your merc will say when they are casting spells. Block the ones that seem ineffective for what you are doing. If you are a melee, you probably don't want it wasting time on a promised on you, but as a tank you may want it, so I role and play matters.

    There are a number of spells that cure tash and malo that should be blocked while charming.

    You can block spells on your pet differently than yourself, and you can hotkey them. As an ENC, I hotkey all the heals a healer merc can cast so the healer completely stops healing my charm pet. Makes it easy to toggle b/t charming and my animation.
    Wulfhere likes this.
  7. demi Augur

    also some mercs are bugged , like the restless orc .. they dont heal worth beans..

    and they've never been fixed afaik ..
  8. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer

    Check which merc your orc is. I would bet dollars to donuts you have an apprentice or low-tier journeyman.
  9. demi Augur

    um no its a journey T5 .. I think i would know which tier i had cause im all access and I always use T5 mercs ..
  10. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer

    Per an EQ developer, the different merc skins have zero impact on the performance of a given merc. Which led me to theorize that you weren't using a J5 merc.
  11. demi Augur

    Developers' (devs) say alot of things .. tell ya what you go IF you have a restless orc merc .. go and take it to FM or wherever and try it out for yourself then come back and tell me the dev's know what they are talking about .. ..

    I was using my 115 warrior in FM .. they conned LB so no biggie .. the merc (restless orc) couldnt even keep me alive .. if it wasnt for my 115 shaman there warrior would of died ..

    granted I didnt have any spells blocked for my merc , not sure if that could of been an issue , but if a 115 merc cant keep a 115 warrior alive on LB mobs there is something wrong with the merc .. and warrior wasnt pulling anything over 5 mobs .. especially after almost dying warrior was taking it easy on merc .. once i switched mercs out for a different skinned merc , that merc had no issues keeping me alive ..
  12. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer

    I mean...okay. Settle down there.

    I don't use mercs. I prefer real players. If those aren't available I pull out my boxes. Even a poorly-boxed Cleric will outperform two healer mercs. If you learn the Cleric class, get some AA and gear....phew....can outperform even four healer mercs. No lie.

    Mercs are worthless to me. In any case, was just trying to help. I'll stop now.
  13. Bigstomp Augur

    There have been cases where this was untrue and mercs were bugged. I think they have sorted that out but at one time it really was an issue.
    Kaenneth, Skrab and MasterMagnus like this.
  14. MasterMagnus The Oracle of AllHigh

    There was an issue that became most noticeable with that Ry Gorr Merc, and I don't think they ever fixed it.

    We had a long discussion on it some time ago.

    It is my belief this is mainly based on geometry issues with the environment and the merc's model/bounding box/origin point. It should be obvious the merc stats and AI are designed to be the same across all races. The models and geometry are the clear difference among them all.

    -Caster mercs can't cast when forced into a crouch.
    Larger races don't get in that situation hardly ever, nor do smaller races. But mercs that are around human size can be pushed back into an overhang (or lamp post) and forced to crouch.

    I wonder if maybe the Ry Gorr lacks the crouch animation, and gets stuck in that situation often, but we can't see that. Unlikely, but possible I would guess.

    -If the merc 'thinks' they can't 'see' you, but are within range, sometimes they won't move to get a spell off. With the Ry Gorr, I think maybe the model's origin is set slightly low, and sometimes it's 'eyes' get stuck behind a rock or something.

    Bottom line, if your merc is acting weird, move around to get them in a bit more clear or back to a vertical wall position, and see if that helps.
  15. CatsPaws No response to your post cause your on ignore

    Not all players have the same experience in the game.

    I tired blocking heals on my healer merc but it did not seem to help much. But then I was taking everyone else's advice on how to set up roles, and stances, assists, keys etc.

    Plus it seems the block list did not carry thru when you and the merc level so you have to go thru all that blocking list again. Too much work so I stopped bothering

    I run my healer on balanced. She does just fine at 115 keeping my group alive and actually seems bored sometimes as she will throw a few punches now and then. I do not use any roles or assists or whatever. Now and then if needed I will set myself as puller so the merc does NOT try to heal me.

    As far as skins go, I am in the camp that they do not matter as the dev said years ago and are just eye candy. But players do have preferences as far as size of the merc based on what it is...like frogs are small and vah shir are larger.

    And yes, sometimes there seems to be a bugged merc skin, like the dwarf line which you could fix by just buying a different one, like gnome. Or there may be a bug like the one where if you were over level 110 the healers did not heal right. That was resolved.

    Another thing that affects merc is the player themselves. If you pull a lot of reds then your merc is going to spaz out. If you pull a lot of blues, dark or light, then a J5 should be ok with it. But not if you pull 20 of them.

    And finally....lag yes lag. You may not see it but it can affect mercs terribly.
    MasterMagnus likes this.
  16. Wulfhere Augur

    It's a good theory.

    Have you tested it by shrinking your large merc or growing your small merc? Or levitate them above the terrain?
    Skrab likes this.
  17. Skrab East Cabilis #1 Realtor


    I'm in the camp that since they don't have an actual replicated Live environment that their hypotheticals don't line up with the actual.
    MasterMagnus and Velisaris_MS like this.
  18. MasterMagnus The Oracle of AllHigh


    It's been a while since I noted this issue, and haven't been playing (with any sort of regularity) for a year or so.

    I would often lev my merc (Dead Men Floating), I don't have, or didn't know there were any size things that worked on mercs.

    I have noted Female Erudite Healer can get in a crouch under lamp posts (like the hole,city of mist style) while not lev.

    People swore by the clockwork, but I figured with it jumping up and down it might be weird. It actually might avoid some geometry/LOS issues with the jumping.

    But I don't have anywhere near a big sample size or various testing.
  19. MasterMagnus The Oracle of AllHigh

    To the OP. As a necromancer I always have 3 spells blocked.
    Complete Heal
    Promised Recuperation
    Elixir of Healing
    Situationally I will also block
    Celestial Healing

    It makes the healer merc an amazing off tank (A5 or J5), and only run out of mana if you're taking many adds for a long time. Whatever they look like, right out of the box, don't forget they are wearing plate under there!