Having just ding'd level 61, and decided to refresh buffs, the cleric merc is now in endless self buffing mode. The character is Ranger level 61, and merc is Halfling level 61. The merc casts Aegolism on herself followed by Ward of Gallantry, which over writes Aegolism, and so the loop continues. This is very repeatable as doing this with another character (Shaman level 61) produces the same results. I am currently stuck in PoK looking at the merc self buff in an endless loop, and totally ignoring me. I am having extreme mental stress trying to handle the merc's self centered rejection of myself. Yours truly Fractured Ego aka Kozzit
Did you try to go kill something to force it to do something other than buff? Right now, there's a bug with the mercs where they lose health every time you zone, so just zone and see that clears it.
Try having someone cast a higher level buff on the merc. I don't remember what the next spell in the Aego line is, but ask a real cleric to buff your merc with that and see if it stops.
I don't want to sound like I'm an endless loop also, but I got Conviction on the Shaman but they didn't buff the merc, so that merc still just buffs itself, and the level 61 Shaman is approaching uber now I have not been able to get a buff like that for the Ranger. I still "need" the Healer to function correctly tho, but will continue to try to get a higher buff ... even Virtue would be great. My first ever EQ character was a Cleric. Thanks for the recommendation, and I will continue to try to get a higher buff so that merc will stop buffing herself. Kozzit [Edit] Please note that the Shaman uses a Tank merc and only being used with the Healer to try to find/get the issue sorted. :O
You could try copying your character to the Test server with /testcopy and see if happens over there. One thing you could try would be to have the merc die. Not sure if that would help, but maybe it would clear it up. Another thing to try would be to max the cleric with buffs. Put any and all buffs on the cleric so that they can't put any more buffs on. When the cleric is trying to self buff, click off her Aegolism/WoG and cast some other buff on her. If there isn't a buff slot for her self buffs, maybe she would stop.
I can confirm this is a problem, at least for a level 61 Journeyman cleric mercenary. There are weird things going on with buffs at this level, and I did some testing with a level 125 player cleric. The issue might be that Ward of Gallantry (level 61) overwrites Aegolism (level 60) even though it lowered my cleric's displayed AC by 2, and it doesn't provide any hitpoints. At level 61, a possible solution would be for the mercenary to cast Faith, Ward of Gallantry, and Symbol of Kazzad. These 3 stack and provide the same AC and a little more hps than Virtue (level 62). That also means this trio provides more AC and hps than Aegolism. Alternatively, at level 60 through 62, the mercenary could cast Blessing of Aegolism instead of Aegolism. It's a group buff but provides slightly more hps and 1 more displayed AC than Aegolism. Ward of Gallantry doesn't overwrite Blessing of Aegolism. I haven't yet raised a character to level 62 to see if the buff loop is fixed by the mercenary casting Virtue, but I expect it will be.
If you're on Emarr, I can give your merc a better aegolism buff to stop the cycle. Alternative, you could try using a tank mercenary for level 61. Assign it the group role of tank so that it will use Mercenary Taunt. This is still a bug and problem, but one of the above 2 suggestions will at least let you get to level 62 faster than this bug is likely to be fixed.
Immense thanks for confirming there is a problem. I was going to ask someone to confirm that things weren't working as they should ... and you volunteered I looked at using a shroud to try some other things but "shrouding" is done with a level increment of 5, and this would not check level 61. I have been unable to apply Blessing of Aegolism, as with the Ranger and merc zero buffed, the merc still casts Aegolism. I believe that I may need 3 in group requiring buff to get merc to cast Blessing Aego. I will add this to my list when asking for someone (real Cleric) to buff. The toons are on Bertox and same account, so many thanks for the offer. Ranger - 61 - Stragla - Wood Elf - Healer is Halfling ... also tried Gnome and Dark Elf Shaman - 61 - Kragsol - Barbarian - Healer is Dark Elf.
I have had many instances where a cleric merc just kept chaincasting it's _____ of Vie line after buffing group. The <only> fix I have found is dismiss the merc and hire a new one. No amount of logging out and back, stripping buffs, shrouding to change serverside view of merc level or zoning / swapping mercs will stop it. It also then will fix itself once you level up a time or three, but other than that, fire it and get a new one. This has happened for years and predates any UI / Directx etc rollouts.
also- FWIW the alert for Catspaws Quoting my post took 27 minutes to spawn. it <just> poppednow (and took 3 cicks and 4 minutes to view) I must wait 70 seconds before I can reply? Last post was 26 minutes ago.
This has already been mentioned and I replied. It just don't work. This was all fine probably up to the launch of the new expansion. I had no problem with the Shaman and level 61 buffs prior to that. The Ranger is a new toon - as in just arrived at 61. In any case I have been able to obtain Blessing of Aegolism (required 3 peeps to buff), the merc is behaving, and no longer in a loop. Hopefully I can get up a level to 62 before the 2.5 hrs of Blessing of Aegolism wears off or I will have to go back to PoK and spend time chasing buffs due to a defective merc. My opinion is that software bugs should be fixed so that the software works properly, and reporting the bugs and finding a work around allows time for the personnel working on the problem. Apologies for the maximum verbosity.
I suppose you might also be able to get the mercenary to cast Blessing of Aegolism with enough players in group. It might only take 2 plus the mercenary. First, put the mercenary on passive. Then remove all Aegolism buffs both players and the mercenary. Then put the mercenary back on Reactive or Balanced.
I asked a level 50 to join my group (merc and I) for a buff, and he agreed. I asked him to remove the Temperance buff that he had. This allowed/forced my Healer to cast Blessing of Aegolism as we had no buffs. All is ticking over nicely with us buffed and the Healer in "hi-speed wait" to heal me It is time to try to get to 62 and get Virtue before the Blessing of Aegolism runs out.
Can confirm got a toon to lvl 61 on Vaniki and cleric merc is stuck casting these two buffs over and over
Same happened to me recently when my character dinged 61. Was annoying trying to figure out a workaround.
