My warrior merc does not stay on the mob the MA is targeting. Problem is ( and this happens a lot ) the merc goes after the add others are trying to CC... but the MA is still on the namer Anyone else notice this 'assist' feature on warrior mercs just doesn't work most of the time? For me to fix this, I have to passify the merc, let those CC the add.. move away from the CC add (even if the add is flung away), then put assist back on.
Aggressive doesn't really work, either. If there are multiple mobs attacking me, I have to target a different npc to get the tank merc to attack and eventually get top aggro on that mob.
This is the truth: Mercs are designed to eventually be a very expensive way to fill out a box with helpers that are anything even close to helpful. Merc at lower levels are really good, but they've never been designed to take the place of real players at the endgame. Probably dps mercs are the only consistent mercenaries. Healer mercs follow the tank like a lost puppy, making it so hard to position them against a mob like "a bluff golem" in OT (RoS), which has a cone of silence. It can be done, but you can't use the healer merc used by player tank. -I've never used a tank merc, since I play a warrior. That being said, mercenaries are not bad in themselves, but for obvious reasons they are NOT players or intended to replace players. Just a nice band'aid, and more useful in certain boxes than others. I think long time players or players returning after a long absence are more likely to create a traditional box that doesn't use mercs. Then, use the mercs to make their life a bit easier, or be able to do content a bit faster. I will say this: By 110, if your 3 boxing, you'll be cursing how much they cost. I was 4 boxing with 2 mercs at 110 and was tired of the merc tax. -I six box now. A level 125 dps merc is 285pp every 15 minute. So you're grinding 30 hours a month with 3 mercs, that's about 1M plat a year. -The low number of hours is because by level 125, you'll be not grinding far more often than grinding: and if your working on quests in lower level zones, you might go weeks without using a merc, then grind constantly on XP bonus days. Edit: Mercs are terrible at conserving mana/endurance, but on the flip side, can regen those at a rate that far exceeds players once out of combat.
The price is fairly low. A perfectly casual / slow kill rate is 1 per 2-3 minutes on average. if you're 3boxing it SHOULD be much faster (or you're doing something wrong). So that's say 20 mobs an hour, minimum. that will pay for the merc cost easily on an average grind. you're not going to get rich that way, but it's self-sustaining with a little left over. even more so if you sell the loots.
Like I said, there's nothing wrong with mercs, but it's not ideal. Haven't you ever met anybody that asked about how to farm plat so they can afford their mercs? Not an issue at the higher levels, but a huge issue between around level 75 to 95. (once you hit 95, you can group with level 125 players) Once I hit 6 toons, I felt.. liberated, and not just from saving plat, but being able to play my box the way I want to play my box and not be hindered by the limitation of mercs. Nobody can box with mercs without calculating how mercs will play out in an encounter. Not to mention the occasion you go AFK and forget to turn the mercs off. That can add up if you come back several hours later. Not an often thing, but once every 3 or 4 months is too often. I could tell you the day I started to despise mercs: I'd spent a week or so in OT (RoS), just grinding, there was XP bonus thing going on for some of that, but "a bluff golem" was up and I tried to kill it.. over and over and over. I finally figured out how to do with with 2x healer mercs (and I'd been using my shaman for buffs and spot DPS, so I hadn't yet learned how to heal with my shaman as a major healer back then). The day I killed "a bluff golem" with 2 healer mercs was the day I decided to 6 box.
Healer mercs suck compared to a real player but if you block the promised line, its doable to get stuff done. Most people only use the tank merc to PL their alt to level 60ish, that I know of. Mercs also seem to only work well if you have a gold account. The apprentices are just like the ones we get from the union hall.
The warrior merc acts predictably in my experience. The trick to controlling it is to assign group roles. Last time I tested your case, it was like this for an aggressive merc: Tank role: It'll follow main assist once it has aggro on all the mobs. No role: It'll follow main assist as long as tank role has aggro on adds. Give your CC the tank role.
I had a problem with a dps caster merc consistently nuking mobs that were being mez'd or already mez'd. The problem seemed to be fixed by marking the ranger as Puller.
