Hi all, From the past few years I used the j5 tank merc and somewhat understood the limitations. I took a break from EQ and now am willing to give it another go. I'm setting up a 3 box and was wondering if the j5 tank is improved at 105 compared to a year or two ago. The box will have a shaman as well. Can the j5 tank handle more? Cheers
Get the new merc equipment from EoK and they are fairly sturdy. Extravagant (defenders? the tank gear has AC) for all four slots and any of the J5 Journeyman mercs can tank EoK trash with a pc priest healing them.
I have no personal experience with the tank merc, but was intrigued to see someone doing bi'faak with a shaman and ranger. Its an easy camp but he had multiples at all times and merc seemed to do well.
Thanks for the reply! I was thinking of rolling a rogue for my main and was trying to determine what combo of war, sham, and bard I would use with it.
Unless the tank mercenaries have improved a great deal, any DPS in the group end up tanking most of the time. Tank mercenary agro was pretty laughable the last time I tried using one.
Level 105 J5 Tank mercs do fine in Frontier Mountains on trash mobs, even 2 at a time, even with a J5 Healer merc. Named tear them up pretty bad without slow though. Will want two healers for named mobs, otherwise you'll wipe occasionally.
I 3-boxed all EoK progression using a tank merc. I boxed a monk, druid and wizard. The merc tank has excellent agro. Here are a few short videos of them in action in Lcea. Especially fun is the video of the 3 mercs (tank, healer, dps caster) killing without any player involvement.
Hi All, Thank you for the updates and additional comments. I'm going to try out the tank merc for my box build then. I think with the bard/sham support it should do quite well. Cheers, Neb
Good luck. A merc is a merc. The healers suck, the tanks suck, the dps suck. If you're good with living with the limitations they can fill a hole for sure. The people that expect them to fill more than one hole (tank + healer + dps) are the ones that usually complain about them not working.
