Ngreth or other developers, whatever you think is an appropriate boost to tank merc's survivability and caster merc DPS, double it. Also give tank mercs a moderately good pulsing AE aggro ability.
When I see a comment like this, it makes me scratch my head and wonder why. What you call "dumb things" are upgrades that benefit at least one person. It's the kind of upgrade to the game that doesn't harm anybody. In essence, it's a net POSITIVE for the game's community. No matter if it benefits you directly or not, it benefits someone somewhere, and it harms no one. What you say you would rather the developers spend time on though (fixing exploits in Plane of Fire) is a change to the game that only takes away from someone somewhere. There is no benefit to anybody with this kind of change. It's akin to just being mad about someone doing something you aren't doing, and wanting it to be changed because it makes you mad that they may or may not be doing it. In essence, it's a net NEGATIVE for the game's community. I don't like when people use exploits in games. It bothers me. I hate cheaters, but I personally would rather the developers spend their time working on net POSITIVES than net NEGATIVES.
I almost never use mercs and certainly not a tank merc. However, I think upgrading the 110 merc is one of the best possible uses of developer time right now. On my server, the only folks in TBL are the six+ boxers with a few select exceptions. I’d love to see more traffic in these zones and I think improving mercenaries is precisely the way to do it.
I pretty much only use the tank merc, since i can't tank, and can't do much useful DPS when I try to. For me, the tank merc works fine up to TBM. Once you start getting to EoK, the tank requires so much focus to heal, that actually killing the mob becomes an issue. One mob is fine. A second one often means giving up and going elsewhere. I could easily skip the merc and XP faster elsewhere, for mobs which don't summon. But that gets boring, and I'd rather work on quests and (old) progression, which are biased against kiting or non-tanky classes. I don't expect to be able to molo current content, but I do think the tank mercs could stand some beefing up.
Not sure why you quoted my post. I completely agree with you. I personally never use the tank merc (nor any of the mercs really), but I very much support improving them.
To bring the mercs up to non trash, probably ok? They would need like at least 60k more hp and the dps ones would need like at least 2x the dps they currently do But would be surprised if they got buffed that far and that would only make them "ok" in TBL content, not even whatever is next expansion
I quoted your post to highlight that we're the opposite ("I almost never use mercs and certainly not a tank merc" while I use them all the time, and almost always the tank), and yet we're asking for (or supporting) the same thing. It's called reinforcement.
Everything you said but especially this. It benefits the vast majority and literally takes nothing away from anyone. Real healers will always have a place in-game, and boxers using mercs will always have a place in-game. There is room for both. So you mean to say that you can objectively look at an issue that doesn't affect you directly and come up with a logical conclusion? Are you sure you play Everquest? But seriously, bravo for being the voice of reason. I confess I am not objective in this regard because I almost exclusively play with mercs and they are absolutely dreadful.
I play 7 characters at 110 in 3 three person groups with mercs. I’ve been in Chardok a while, both getting my AA count high enough to move on and doing EotD progression. Two groups use pet tanks (mage/chanter and necro/chanter), and the third group uses merc tank and chanter pet. All use two merc clerics because I don’t need to switch mercs for more healing on a named and I get enough DPS from the three toons that mobs die pretty quick now. When the tank merc was at 109, with a full set of tank merc gear and decent defensive AAs, Watch Captain Hiroul would always kill the tank, sometimes on contact. That’s tashed, slowed, maloed, with shaman lethargy line, shaman heal slow, and shaman roar of the lion running. The Bridge Keeper likewise killed the 109 tank merc a good 3 of 4 times. At 109, I’ve had the chanter pet tank the Watch Captain from over 90% because he killed the merc that quickly. This is a reasonably geared and AAed 109 merc in 105 content. I don’t have enough named at 110 to tell a difference, but my experience is also that the mercs really could use a boost.
Crappy Tank Mercs were a major contributing factor to why I stopped paying for all access on my 2 main accounts and just moved to test. The ship sailed for me so I don't care either way but beefing them up might help many people and keep them paying.
It almost doesn't matter what spell(s) NPCs cast once a dot or large nuke is cast on a Merc the chance either the merc or a neglected player death will happen is way too high. There are simply not enough tanks and healers to go around with trash mobs casting DoTs that deal 50% plus health per tick then named in EoK and TBL AEing like crazy. Are mercs even getting any spell/dot resist mod? Players have something like 33% even with the most basic heroic stats.
Every TBL named I've come across, their spells are unresistable. Resists have been obsolete for a while now.