DPS mercs

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Andarriel, Sep 1, 2021.

  1. Wulfhere Augur

    Sounds like it's time to experiment with a rogue merc in your melee box and a wizard merc with your caster box (2 if you have a wizard?).

    They will under perform but you might find it entertaining, insightful, even relaxing, to compare them.
  2. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    I am still not sure what your point is, this is a discussion about adding a merc to a group not another player (or box). No one is denying the fact that a well played DPS class will beat a merc and this is just a debate over which type of dps merc to use.

    Just to be clear this is about which merc is better to use to fill an empty slot that would otherwise be unfilled. In the end a merc with bad dps is still better than an empty group slot. As to which one is better that depends on what the rest of the group is as some will boost a caster and some will boost a melee better.
    Coagagin likes this.
  3. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    This is the best way to look at it, the best one to pick is going to depend on the rest of the group.
  4. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer

    Have to disagree with you. Even a mediocre to bad player will hit 150k sustained without much effort (assuming lvl 115 and autogrant AA, ToV T1 group gear).

    "Good" is a relative term. The circles I run in a "good" player is third or fourth chair in a raid force, knows what buttons to press and when, has a working knowledge of inter-class synergies, and generally hits the bell curve on a parse. Not the best, not the worst. Top 30%. That's a "good" player.

    The good players I know sustain 3-5x the DPS of a Rogue merc, and can burst 8-30x the DPS of a Rogue merc. Mercs are a last resort. If you are avoiding filling out your group with players and using mercs on purpose, you are doing yourself a disservice.

    That said, Rogue mercs are the best Merc DPS option right now.
    Qimble likes this.
  5. Qimble Augur



    That is not always true, which is my point. Wizzie mercs at 115 should always result in lower net XP/hr, rogue mercs very often will as well. Having a merc out is treated like having a second player in group, you earn less XP per kill. If that merc isn't carrying their weight you are in a strictly worse position having them in. (and my understanding is that they don't even count as a player for the purpose of full group XP bonus)
  6. kizant Augur

    They want to incentivize grouping with real people. The merc DPS is going to be toward the low end on purpose and considering they don't take breaks or say annoying things in chat they have other benefits.
    Andarriel and demi like this.
  7. Qimble Augur

    There's a pretty wide gulf between where DPS mercs are an incentivizing grouping with real players. Last time I parse'd a wizzie merc they were clocking in at around 70k DPS set to burn. I wouldn't take a real player that had such low DPS, and I generally won't take a merc either for the same reason.
  8. Skrab East Cabilis #1 Realtor

    Haha it’s true, but they don’t realize people don’t want to bother with each other on Live anymore, especially when it comes to camping items. It’s supposed to be a group based game, but it’s more rewarding to play/box alone.
    kizant and Andarriel like this.
  9. Tucoh Augur


    hmmm....

    nahhhh.

    But I might parse a melee DPS merc with a bst/brd/ber ADPS.
    Wulfhere likes this.
  10. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    Sure if you care about getting the best xp rate and that is your goal. There are still times when adding a a merc to a group allows you to do things that you can't do without them.
    Wulfhere and Tucoh like this.
  11. Accipiter Old Timer


    It's all relative. No one is saying rogue merc DPS is as good as a real player. They are just saying the rogue is better than the wizard merc.
    Velisaris_MS and Wulfhere like this.
  12. Accipiter Old Timer


    Therein lies the rub. Your merc will never AFK, will never be watching Netflix, will not leave the group, etc. I believe you that over an extended session a real player will get you more xp. But how consistent is that real player? Are you spending 10 minutes per hour with 5/6 of a group? If you have a pre-made or a regular group then you're in great shape. For pickup groups, though, I think I'd rather have the merc.
  13. Wulfhere Augur

    Not quite true. They temporarily leave the group when they fail their confidence check. They bug out and stop casting, no one is sure if it's a bio break or Netflix or something else. :)
  14. Accipiter Old Timer


    Not the top mercs (J5?). That's all anyone would be using anyway. Unless even the J5 tanks bolt, I don't know. I only use healer and DPS mercs.
  15. Wulfhere Augur

    Yes J5 can bolt too. Their chance is lower but nonzero. Just look at the merc info page.
    Accipiter likes this.
  16. Accipiter Old Timer


    There's another reason mercs poof FWIW. If a zone hits a certain population cap, all mercs get suspended. It usually happens when a raid passes through your xp zone.


    \
  17. Qimble Augur


    That has not been the case in my testing. I pretty much only ever use the merc healers for any of my geared / 115 toons. I guess maybe I would pop a DPS merc for a named in CoV rather than leave the slot empty but the DPS they bring over an hour+ grind is not high enough to offset how much XP they take.
  18. Bigstomp Augur


    I'm not sure what mercs you are using, but mine may as well be both AFK and watching netflix.
  19. Joules_Bianchi A certain gnome

    Wizard mercs can gank mob positioning. Merc over there nukes, mob runs to it (but not the other 2 mobs on tank) = headaches.

    Wizard mercs at lower levels, even Apprentice I to V mercs with zero "burn" setting <WILL> default to their best DPS, which at some levels will be- you guessed it- an AoE! As a specific example, levels 26-40 at the Moonwhisker rat camp in norther Blightfire, mobs are utterly non hostile. wiz merc will often AoE aggro nearby mobs, then.....

    Wizard mercs also will chaincast aggro debuffs if they're over 50% on aggro meter and stop DPSing entirely, even when mobs are a 1 shot to finish killing. They will also often refuse to kill off a morale failed mob, even with proper group assist roles set.
  20. Accipiter Old Timer


    Just J5s. I basically only use the healer merc now and don't have any issues like that. The only issues I have is when they decide that sitting half way across the zone is a good idea. That's an implementation issue, not a gameplay issue.