There is one advantage to having a tank partner instead of a merc tank when it comes to charming, and it becomes available at level 73 I think? Beguiler's Directed Banishment. I personally use an audio trigger and set one of my xtargets as my charm pet. Then when I hear the audio trigger, I target the pet and banish it away from the group. With a merc tank, he'll run off and fight wherever your charm pet is.... but with a real tank, your charm pet is now rooted safely away from him, and you. You then retash if needed, charm again, and summon it where you want it fight (summon companion aa) and send it back in. I've duoed with an sk and a paladin, maybe suboptimal but IMO though I can take a hit and often do, I prefer to be casting nukes for the ADPs than tanking.
Yeah...hammered out 55-60 last two nights...and our DPS is suboptimal if I cannot charm, but overall, we seem to be moving the bar pretty reliably (for EQ anyway). When I can and do charm, I have a bunch of macros for alerting him on charm breaks and if I am recharming and all that. We're making it work pretty well I think. Running a rogue merc who only cares about burning whatever the SK has targeted, so my charm is pretty much like soloing the old way. Fun, when I am fighting things I can actually charm that is. At 61 things will get easier because I have no-component rune and already have no sweat dealing with charm breaks and mob trains and all that. My 2 years of enchanting back in the day must be that whole "like riding a bike" thing. I do need an audio trigger, just because I forget sometimes to pay attention to the timers and the pet window. Pretty happy tonight...parked 6 mobs, charmed another and still played tash/slow duty on the SK's targets. Love being an enchanter.
I'd switch to a wizard merc, especially as what ADPs we chanters get are lost on rogues. When you get auras etc the rogue is not gonna get boosted at all but the wizard merc will. I also find a wizard merc on balance does more dps than a rogue merc.
yeah, I am considering switching to the wizard merc. I've been saving the first couple AA to increase someone's damage, and haven't decided yet. It would just seem more natural to take advantage of an enchanter toolkit fully, I'd want the wizard merc.
Don't forget our haste is a big buff, and don't forget to stack Wonderous Rapidity for an extra 2% haste on mercs and pets. Despite that, pre-TDS, the Wizard was more DPS. I haven't tested since the changes. I suppose the difference was due to the rogue merc buffing melees.
