going above level 105 apparently means healer mercs becoming unable to work out which heal to use... I'm killing light blue mobs x4 with alt tank geared up to 160k HP and TWO healer mercs apparenly are unable to keep the tank up, let alone one. Clicking defensives all the time and not for named. What the hell is happening? I've blocked every idiotic cleric spell that isn't helpful... promised heal etc.
Two should easily be able to keep up a decent warrior, hell I was tanking easier nameds in Frontier Mountains on a 100 warrior with questionable gear with just two healer mercs and a ranger. The problem I sometimes have is merc walking very slowly trying to catch up to group, so I've learned to make sure the merc is with group before engaging, and also to always click off perma levitate on cleric mercs. that seems to help as they sometimes act like they can't decide which way to go when floating.
That's a good point! I think one might have been was around the corner away. I have no idea why they're having trouble, I've reblocked all the promised and HoT spells they cast when not needed. It's really puzzling.
Mercs, especially healer ones, are all BUT useless - if properly used. You mention setting them to different stances, which is good. You mention blocking some spells, which i don't do - it's not needed really. IMO: Filter the merc-speech to an easily observed window. If you do not see one casting that is supposed to, there are a few things that could've possibly gone wrong - one of them was named above. As was said, mercs often take their time (due to bad pathing mostly) to get to you, so when you did some moving, waiting before engaging (as a general rule) helps. Especially when using group roles (puller especially), mercs can become "lost" or stuck and thus may be out of range even with levitation off - if such a thing happens, only the un-setting of the role for it's owner, followed perhaps by setting it to passive and reactivating it, helps. If a merc "insists" on making problems, setting him to passive and then back on to the desired stance might help. And finally, there are some Areas (SL hall of silence for example) where "Furniture" seems to cause LoS issues which would not stop a player character but does seem to stop a merc one for some reason. Contrary to wizard mercs, which can be half a zone away to cast (yay for wizard mercs pulling the whole of Crystal Caverny onto you!), healer-mercs seem to have problems with casting through walls, around corners and the likes sometime (not consistently though to properly bugreport it). Only knowing the zone/area specific issue and working around it helps in this case.
Nothing beats a cleric... Infusion/Retort, Divine Intervention, Divine Guardian, "Emergency" DA On difficult named a merc is always lost and does not cast these. I wonder why a cleric has problems to find a group...people don' t know the advantages?
To give more detail... I was camping sol'dal armor drops in Argin-Hiz. On warrior alt. I play a cleric as main and didn't send the cleric in... I was doing something else! Having two cleric mercs not keep a level 107 Tank up with sebilis armor in argin hiz is just shocking. Makes them completely redundant. Which is a good thing for getting more groups for real clerics!! If only people would role them...
there's multiple issues. they cast group elixir single target elixir then they cast promised. if you block all those they should cast single or group healers. however nothing can be done about group elixir. the group one is the worst offender and only heals for 2300 every 6 seconds to boot.
it should be made more of a point to control what spells merc's are casting. if they can in the future give players some way of doing that
This was from earlier today. LB and DB mobs. The merc was 110. My 110 warrior merc died once. Combined: A Drogan venomeater on 12/28/2017 Utaethelle - 533 --- Benediction of Sanctity Rk. II - 1 --- Expurgated Blood Rk. II - 1 --- Furial Renewal Rk. II - 52 --- Greater Guard of Vie Rk. II - 4 --- Mending Splash Rk. II - 35 --- Merciful Elixir Rk. II - 25 --- Merciful Light Rk. II - 323 --- Promised Remedy Rk. II - 29 --- Received Auspice of the Hunter - 3 --- Received Black Wolf - 1 --- Received Chromatic Haze Proc - 1 --- Sixteenth Serenity Rk. II - 4 --- Word of Greater Restoration Rk. II - 59 Produced by GamParse v1.5.2.17
Happens every level increase.. until you're 110 the mercs will cast odd spells. Lots of splashes and group heals instead of normal spells they cast. Logic goes out the window for some reason when they're 106-109.
Here is a larger sample from 106 to most of the way through 109 starting patch day and running through the next day till raid time. Couple of different sessions in there. I don't know if there is really anything weird or not wanted in there or not. Just offering up a data point. Combined: A Drogan reveler on 12/12/2017 Sugalle - 4715 --- Ardent Elixir Rk. II - 43 --- Ardent Light Rk. II - 378 --- Armor of the Ardent Rk. II - 1 --- Assurance Rk. II - 1 --- Benediction of Sanctity Rk. II - 13 --- Convalescent Splash Rk. II - 290 --- Cry Havoc - 33 --- Elixir of the Seas Rk. II - 110 --- Expurgated Blood Rk. II - 1 --- Fervid Renewal Rk. II - 468 --- Greater Guard of Vie Rk. II - 107 --- Greater Ward of Vie Rk. II - 53 --- Hand of Surety Rk. II - 1 --- Merciful Elixir Rk. II - 366 --- Merciful Light Rk. II - 1519 --- Merciful Remedy Rk. II - 116 --- Promised Rehabilitation Rk. II - 104 --- Promised Remedy Rk. II - 364 --- Rallied Greater Ward of Vie Rk. II - 3 --- Received Auspice of the Hunter - 25 --- Received Chromatic Haze - 23 --- Received Chromatic Haze Proc - 186 --- Received Illusions of Grandeur - 23 --- Received Vie - 3 --- Sixteenth Serenity Rk. II - 14 --- Spiritual Remedy Rk. II - 1 --- Symbol of Emra Rk. II - 2 --- Word of Mending Rk. II - 727 Produced by GamParse v1.5.2.17
I would not brag smoke, that healer mercs had a terrible amount of logic anyway. I can heal better on a 93 druid then a 110 cleric merc can. against same mobs
Really good data - thanks for sharing! --- Ardent Elixir Rk. II - 43 --- Convalescent Splash Rk. II - 290 --- Elixir of the Seas Rk. II - 110 --- Merciful Elixir Rk. II - 366 --- Promised Rehabilitation Rk. II - 104 --- Promised Remedy Rk. II - 364 --- Spiritual Remedy Rk. II - 1 --- Merciful Remedy Rk. II - 116 This is the problem!! 117 casts of remedy to 468 casts of promised healing... which only get cast as you start fighting with an 18s "promise" time... And WTH? casting splash heal 290 times?? I literally use that on raids only. No wonder my tank is dying to a healer merc if this is the cast mix.
Healer mercs love chain casting splash on my necro every time Death Bloom is used and randomly for damage from forgotten side line. If a cleric is in group with healer merc every time some one re-enters the cleric hp aura merc will cast splash also. With promised heals and elixir heals blocked 2 mercs have no issue keeping summoned pets up against current content other than some harsh spells from named mobs. I end up using two on reactive almost 100% keeps group HoT from happening. IMO it is much more workable that mercs cast heals and sometimes 'duck out' of casting(happens much less now than when merc came out) vs. standing around waiting for HoTs to heal and watching you die.
