That's fine, but what about the part where others are SUPPOSED to group with you? (see comment above about guild clerics not able to complete progression without begging for help)
There is an important point to be made here. Cleric mercs aren't coded well and cant be trusted. The code running them gives me a headache, period. Any time an AoE goes off and the group takes a bit of damage, you have a 50/50 chance it'll stop giving the tank any attention and chain cast group heals into oblivion. Take one into EWK2 group mission and you'll get a sense of this. Luckily, I have quite a few friends who play cleric alts, and its always preferable. Anytime I have to pop 'HoTsAlot' from my merc tab, I know its rolling some dice in the background as to when its going to go insane and kill us all. Mercs are great for Gribbles or trivial HA's. Some people say they're stable in more dynamic environments. I strongly disagree. They are a last resort for me.
That is on the players and not something that can be controlled by the game. If they don't want you as a cleric, then that's on them, nothing you could have done about that. Suggestion at that point, make new friends. I like to go, "hey buddy, whats your favorite song" And pray their answer is "everything is awesome!" if it is, we roll, if not, well, we still roll, just listening to different tunes along the way. friends are friends no matter the class you pick, yes i have rolled with 3 clerics, sk, pal, and shm before, its not the best group, but we were all friends and didnt care about the rest, just that I was spending time, bs'ing, and having a great time.
The point is that melee and pet classes have molo options. Clerics and non-pet casters do not. Everyone is better off having real players in group, thats a given. But lacking that melee and pet classes have a lot more options than a cleric has. That's the drawback to the cleric class atm. I am actually enthused they got some of the abilities they got 2/3 years ago they were in quite a pinch. SoD was devastating to the cleric class, this was directly shown by the large decline in numbers playing them. The devs have made some efforts to strengthen the class up since then. But the major drawback they aren't probably seeing is the difference in utility between a tank merc and a cleric merc. Which has a large negative impact on this, and some other classes.
Porky, it was just shared with you that clerics can most definitely molo and they always have been able to. We're telling you exactly how it's been done. I've solo'd my entire career (including PoP and higher) up until SoD when mercenaries were created and then switched to moloing. HoT expansion I did a fair amount of mercenary tasks with me healing a wizard merc on burn. 2-3 years ago we had some issues but anyone who actually broadened their mind could still make it work effectively. And tank mercs do what they're supposed to and can be used to tank anything in the group game as many have said. If some uber super geared folks are saying caster mercs can tank better ... that's an issue with the AC on the caster mercs and NOT a downfall of the tank mercs.
All classes have a way to molo, and I can molo on a cleric way better than many melee or other casters can. This is an issue that is seen by all "pure" classes is the fact that they depend more on others because they don't have the wide range of abilities that hybrids/non pure do. A war can molo with a clr merc, welcome to next year for a mob to die. A Clr can molo with a dps caster merc, tank merc, melee dps merc A rouge can die a horrible death with any merc ~ A zerker can die a horrible death with any merc ~ bst has pet nec has pet mage has pet ranger can tank with healer merc, but iffy in current content without raid gear monk can tank with healer merc, but iffy in current content without raid gear SK- well i don't need to say more Pal - pal gonna suck anyhow, but yeah same as sk wiz - only seen raid geared ones tank, I root rot with mine, haven't done any current content, so dont know Chanter - charm, other than that, rune tanking, and same as wiz sham can use tank merc, or root rot, even seen some tank a bit - with tank merc takes forever, but with a real healer and using fatigue debuff and slow it works. or can use dps caster merc and keep them healed same as tank merc, less time to kill. Druid - charm, root rot, heal tank merc - with tank merc takes forever, but with a real healer and using atk debuff it works. or can use dps caster merc and keep them healed same as tank merc, less time to kill. bard - well bards are just amazing! and they don't complain as much Guess the point is, clerics are actually one of the more versatile classes if you use their tools right.
What Sojero said, you have to change their minds for them. I have never, not a single time, had to say the dreaded LFG. I am hounded the moment I sign in for groups, so bad I had to create new clerics on another server just for peace. This sounds arrogant, so let me assure you, I am in no way the best cleric ever, just different I guess, maybe it's cause I do it different, maybe it's attitude, I don't know, but NO ONE in my guild ever says "meh...clerics" anymore.
And as far as moloing goes, I'm a moloing fool. 3 clerics, 3 dps casters on burn, "I don't need no stinkn tank, I use Jessie's face!" is my motto (of coarse I prefer a tank, makes things much easier) but for along time, my guild had no tank. I finished Tier1 TDS that way. I hit a wall on Brother Island, but think I'm ready for another go now that all 3 of my ladies are 105.
One of my many low levels alts is a cleric. I envision moloing (tank merc) with me meleeing, dps spell casting dps when pulling, and supporting my merc with heals. Does this sound accurate? I am enjoying meleeing with my cleric, does this become silly at higher levels?
This. In even current high level content, if a cleric finds a good spot for undead mobs, and they have a J5 merc, and they have all their undead/nuke DPS AAs...a cleric can rock serious moloing. Just need to find the proper place to do it, and if the mobs hit really hard, let a tank merc keep aggro, and use all the cleric undead goodies at your disposal. I am tempted to jump off my full group AA grind on my cleric and do some moloing trials to prove this point. Just cannot fathom why clerics are considered so weak at soloing?
All meleeing becomes silly at higher levels. Every xpac was designed with max level, AA, gear toons starting the new content, so the challenge needed to be there. Underfoot, maybe House of Thule at the latest, it will become very apparent.
It's not silly, but it isn't especially efficient, nor will it be the beard and butter of how you play the game. At higher levels you'll have several heals that nuke your target's target, as well as those that heal your target's target, allowing you to both heal your tank merc and dps the mob at the same time. You'll also get an array of nukes (live and undead), DoT's (undead), and some very powerful AA undead spells with a relatively fast recast time. You'll also get special buffs that increase your dmg output via a proc and also proc a heal over time on yourself, but come at the expense of limiting your healing output. Items like the CoTF chest will also increase your damage output, but again at the expense of healing. Furthermore you'll have various AA's that increase your spell and melee dmg output. You'll also get faster heals, some nice heal over times, damage mitigation abilities, and so on that make it easier for you to keep your tank up so you can go back to DPS'ing, stunning, etc. All that being said, you don't see a lot of clerics moloing with a tank merc. Their damage output is just way to poor, and ours is not a whole lot better, despite all that I mentioned above. Clerics can absolutely solo / molo things, including difficult names, but the issue you run into is damage output. They all die eventually, but many will find it to slow to be enjoyable or a practical means of accomplishing objectives. The tank merc just doesn't help us in that regard. Most clerics will either use a wizard merc on burn and just heal it as if it was the more traditional tank. Or, be selective on what they hunt and just solo undead, maybe with wiz or healer merc for added dps or support. And while soloing / moloing, however you choose to do it, can be very fun, a nice break and change of pace, the bulk of your game-play at higher levels will be in groups (and raids, if that is what you like).
Each expansion is not designed with max AA from the prior expansion. It is designed with adequate gear (but not max gear) and close to max level, so you do have that partly right. ~~ to add to what tour said, don't forget CoF also gave us a new summoned hammer which does some pretty good damage. Granted, most of our actual damage done is from our other spells (VoV, Ward, etc.) versus our actual melee damage. But it all adds up really nicely - and particularly on undead which has been available in every expansion for years.
I wanted to mention that, along with how often it procs (seems like every few seconds) but I was afraid the amount of damage you can get that thing to do was a mistake, and would be taken away. -lovingly cradles her hammer-
I have done the same thing on my druid and cleric Crystilla, I believe you are the one that gave me the idea. I wasn't implying that clerics cant molo, I was saying that they have much less options. Every melee/tank/pet class can use their main/pet to tank and a cleric merc to heal and do progression with it, often times able to molo missions/HAs. If you tried to do the same with a tank merc/wizard merc you are in for a mountain of grief. I am trying to think of anytime in the last few years any of our cleric mains(that do not box) have finished progression in any expansion since mercs came out, I can think of none.
