It's called Mercenary recruitment and you must have 300 in all trade skills. You can earn one extra slot (Hero's Barracks) and it is the character who did the quest specific. I think you can do it x 4. https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=5552 If you buy the slots in marketplace they are account wide. you can also get 1 rank of Hero's Barracks from completing All of the non-raid achievements for VoA; Master of Alaris.
Well, after reading this thread, I decided to see if the suggestion of a melee was right on my 32SK, especially given that my cleric merc never seemed to take damage or use any mana. I'm another player from 1999-2004, have come and gone periodically since then. As I write this my apprentice Merc just solo'd 5 yellow con accursed lookouts and the named shadow witch in Blightfire moors.
So my SK is now at 51, the melee merc is still easily the best merc and can solo single lvl 55 / 56 'trash' mobs. I can see what's going to happen over time though, for the past few levels I've been able to see situations where the mercs hitpoints start to slowly drop in a fight - like one lvl 54/55 + 2-3 lvl 46-49 hitting him - and the merc is not quite as OP compared to my SK as he was earlier. I think things will get more difficult at 60+, requiring single pulls for even con mobs. I have to say the devs seem to have done a good job of making 1-60 more of a training bump in the road. It used to be just a massive many month grind. lvl 60 is like the new lvl 20 or something.
Yep, at some point you will want to swap to a tank merc, they will hold up a bit better. After that, you'll want to swap to a healer, and just tank yourself. After that, you'll go back to a melee merc, tank yourself, and use your tap abilities to keep healed. And swap back to the healer merc for the really tough fights
