Simple quick question here. With the changes to pulling coming down the pipeline can the mercs be made more aware of the surroundings. For example: I pull a mob to camp and my healer merc decides to sit on the mobs head and start casting then proceeds to die within the next 5 seconds unless I as a mage coth the merc by me and off of the mob. Fixing this ongoing problem would vastly be appreciated since I think we are going to be needing all the heals we can get.
I've always found healer mercs will try and move away from a mob that is beating on them, but that is J5 maybe they are a bit smarter.
Healer mercs have been made "dumber" like 10x so far since SoD beta since they were too good. They are intended to be worse then avg players of the class so you get a real player instead of them. They've always only been intended to be a desperate need this role type thing.
I found it to be the opposite; they gravitate towards the person they are healing or pull agro and start tanking. Healer mercs seem to off tank better than a merc tank...
I've rarely had this issue; it might be because I make sure to remember that my merc stays 'x' space behind me, so I just have to move around into the right spot sometimes so that I move the merc out of the mobs on those rare occasions that they don't move themselves (they usually wait until they're 100% health before they move I noticed).
I have maxed out merc aa's as well, that could make a difference, but I can honestly say I cannot remember the last time my healer merc drew agro away from one of my pets or from my warrior merc even.
I refuse to get my merc the subtlety aa's. My druid boyfriend and I duo with our two healer mercs. He gets to feel like he's dps, unless it's a REALLY bad pull. But *shrug* I use our healers as OT's when needed. They tank better for us than his stupid tank merc does.
Healer mercs are secretly face tankers who hate their existence so they voluntarily suicide any time you get a few mobs in camp as a means of escape.
If you're having a problem with the merc's tendency to cast heals on incoming, sneak a stance change into your pulling hotkey, and the same with your engage, assist, or attack macro. Once you have control over their stances, and understand what effect setting group roles can have, the AI is fine, they're effective at what they do. And you'll never find yourself losing healers on pulls, or dying because you accidentally left the merc on passive. For that reason, it's really best if the puller, and only the puller, has an active healer mercenary out.
even assuming the dev had desire to make merc actually smart... and not just a poor replacement for a real healer ( like they are meant to be)... there's too many if / else statement to code on how they should behave around X group composition with Y mob in camp and Z other factor... it's better to not rely on merc too much and just consider them for what they are.
I swear if there is so much as even a puddle within 200 feet, my merc will find it and jump into it to make healing more difficult.
Can't be stressed enough. I have my fade key also set the merc to passive to avoid healing me as I'm working the pull, switching bandoleer to sword and board tanking ramps it up to reactive, drum+shield pulling, passive, standard dual wielding, balanced. Ok, now and then if fading/switching around too fast, it sometimes looks like it's in balanced mode but just stands there with it's mouth open watching me splat, but overall, having more control over the merc really is the pullers job to get it sorted. Setting you to puller is the first hint to the AI, but going full control and telling it when's safe/when more heals are needed can only be the best way to manage healer mercs.
I've had an idea for merc. It would be cool if we could set our own logic for the merc, the same way Dragon Age use. Example: Cast complete heal if HP =< 35% etc...
I still like when they suddenly decide they need to be on the other side of the zone as you bring a mob into camp. Hey merc where you going?!?!.... (Merc response) brb my fish tank is on fire and I left it over here.
