A little background information. Started playing in 1999. For the last 4 or 5 years, I will subscribe for a month or two for nostalgia reasons. Have played all the classes to Level 80+ with the exception of Ranger, Bard, and Rogue. The very first character that I started on EQ was a Cleric, so have to keep him around for sentimental reasons. I molo with two accounts, with the secondary account almost exclusively an enchanter. I have to say that based on my own experience that if the Cleric is not in a permanent group, they are in a big disadvantage relying on the Mercenary tank. No problem until about level 65, but here is when things slow down and even with a 2nd account frustration sets in. At present, the Cleric is level 76. The problems come down to the Merc Tank no longer being able to mitigate damage, nor do enough Dps. The battles are painfully slow. The Clerics damage spells are terrible both for the damage they do and for the high resist rate and their melee damage is anemic too. There doesn't seem to be any decent 1h blunt weapons around at all. I generally use the summoned hammers. Just for and giggles, I have dropped the merc and enchanter buffs to see how my cleric would fare against a deep blue mob on his own. It was not pretty. Cannot heal through the damage at all and perma stunned half the battle. Had to gate out. In contrast, I have no issues whatsoever with leveling a Druid and Shaman. Both just seem to have way more tools in the toolbox to be successful. I understand Clerics are supposed to have the best heals in the game, but the tradeoffs don't seem to be worth it. Going from 1 to 110, I can see why most players quit.
Trying to molo your way to 110 as a cleric is an exercise in frustration. And at 110 your tank merc is still garbage, even if you get him fully geared and AA'd. You've played since the start, so you know that clerics were never intended as a solo character. Your best option is to be in a solid group, but it's hard to find a group reliably. I'd recommend considering getting a warrior box that you can use to form a group. They're the easiest boxed tank and a cleric/war combo looking for DPS is going to be able to start a group very easily.
I've mained a cleric since 2000. I leveled him mostly in groups of live players as expansions were released, both AA's and levels. There is never a shortage of groups or group invites. It used to be, as a cleric, you were responsible for replacing yourself for the grind group - putting other clerics on a wait list for that Seb AE group or Velks kobold camp. That was a while ago. But it's the same today - my progression in TBL has been stunted because I'm progressing my 6 box crew as one (it gets tiresome keeping track of different progression levels on different accounts). But everytime I login to get some of the mercenary tasks done, I get picked up for groups to do TBL trials or missions - guild groups or otherwise. First world problems, I know. But that's #clericlife. Recently I typed "who needs help running missions/trials" and it went to /general and not /gu. Still recovering from tell hell. Molo for clerics? The ? Conq
Not a great help, but worth a mention... Druids have a somewhat similar issue in that the only places to XP really well need very specific opponents (charmable animals or good places to quad/quint). I looked over the cleric spell list on ZAM, and I see that clerics have one REALLY nice DoT in their lineup (good DPS, very mana efficient). But, it only works against undead. So, if you try to find some nice hunting spots filled with undead, you may have better results. Couldn't hurt to try it. I also saw a stun spell which lasts for 8 seconds. If you make good use of that, it can cut down the damage your merc takes by quite a bit.
Good post OP. There is no real solution other than grouping or boxing as mentioned previously. As Tucoh said, adding a tank class would make things a lot better. I personally prefer SK but a War would do well too. Since you already know how to play Enchanter, that added tank would give you a very resilient 3 box. Your DPS would still be a bit low but if you follow Tatanka's advice and find undead to kill then your cleric's dps would actually be a big help.
I'm starting to think I made a bad decision on creating a cleric to level on Phen... Reading this makes me want to switch to something else.
Soloing cle should use wiz merc not tank. Keep agro with stuns & turn off Spell Casting Subtlety AA. Fire up Vow of Victory & Ward of Reprisal, use summoned cle Hammer of Reproach not other things (unless you have a raid version of cle spamhammer). The actual nuke spells are pretty much junk, but the other tools aren't. If you're trying to level by just healing a tank merc, then yeah you're for sure in for a bad time
In a pinch you can alt tab box a cleric and pally and level in undead areas. It's a odd mix of added dps with those mob types that makes the usual melee tank\spank combo bearable.
Wiz merc on burn is the answer Same goes for molo with a palie. That being said, the leveling game is tedious and annoying. I made a long winded post about pretty much the same thing in the vet forum.
Grouping is still your best option. But as Brohg and Ultrazen mentioned: at some point, for me it was around level 95 and a good amount of AAs for your merc, not to mention the tank-y merc gear (4 slots, just go for AC and hps), the Caster merc takes hits just about as well as the tank merc does undisced. My approach is a little different than Brohgs'. Leave your spell casting subtlety on and just use your other tools for keeping the Caster merc alive- Shining Armor, Heal over times, vie, undying, interventions, contraventions and also the stuns. Unlike many other classes, adds will straight up kill you, so have an escape plan. Root is not a great one. No matter what you do, it will be slow and painful compared to most other classes..maybe all other classes. The last time i did a lot of this was in Scorched Woods, working on faction for centaurs or burynai. It was not too hard to pull singles and let the Merc do most the damage. At the time, i tried soloing those same blue mobs with the full battle cleric set up: Vow, Ward, A slow proc belt, and all the other gimmicks. Contraventions, Stun/heals, Self Promise (helps deal with all the stuns and pushing- at lower levels or in dungeons, if you're going to solo, i strongly recommend putting your back into a corner, every time, without fail.) Most fights required some AA or disc of one type or another: Third Spire, Armor of Experience, Keep in mind i am also raid geared. I know some group clerics who have accomplished similar or better molo'ing and solo-ing stretches, so don't give up. It's possible but glacially slow. There do exist good spots out there. A couple of my favorites were Cooling Chamber, House of Thule Lower Floor, Caverns of Endless Song etc.
OT but wow, Caverns of Endless Song I really struggled in with it current. I just couldn't reliably pull singles and got crushed in COTF T1 Raid gear. I eventually came back in TBM raid gear and discovered it was a fantastic zone. If you were moloing there as a cleric current content where did you go? Was it a single room style camp or were you able to do progression?
Not progression at current times, no. Typically the soloing/ moloing i've done was just for xp or collectibles etc. The zones i mentioned were started in usually one expansion later, when the mobs were dark blue and i had full raid gear or better. Caverns i think was a lot of fun right after they had given us some new tools for crushing undead (tools they later took away).
