Good day! It's a slow process, but I've been going through some of the older epics with new characters and am curious now if there are still any original epics that have targets that wouldn't be trivial to molo for characters by 51st level. So far, I've only done the ranger and beastlord epics, but I'm currently working through the shadowknight epic and it looks like alternative targets won't require killing 80th level raid mobs. As powerful as the journeyman tank and caster are at lower levels, are there any epics that still have targets that wouldn't be trivial for either of these mercenaries to handle without healing by 51st level?
At 51 with no healing I see some potential hang ups with Trak on Bard 1.0, potentially Sev for the Warrior epic (the Merc may live, but you surviving the AoE is a question), General for Rogue 1.0, Ragefire (this one might be ok) for Cleric 1.0, and Xenevorash for Monk 1.0. Can't think of any other fights that would be significantly challenging otherwise. Some mage fights would be challenging but doable, Faydedar maybe for druid epic.
The challenges would be in the raid targets and their.. umm... abilities like fear or banishment. Fighting Trak in his den, you need to kill him before he punts you to the mushrooms. That's true even if you're of a high enough level for the dragon to be green or grey. You need 6 in a group (not sure if mercs count) to be able to use AoC for a DZ so the raid fights would be in open world. However, on Live you also have Harbingers that are sometimes available (they have a spawn cycle when the named is not spawned). If the one needing the epic piece in that zone/area hails them, a "special" version will be spawned with all the same abilities of the original but with only the drop for the quest of the one who hailed the harbinger.
From the title it seems like you are asking what would be trivial. Is this a typo? Anyway, thinking about it real quick; Trivial: Monk, Cleric, Mage*, Shaman, Necro Non-Trivial: Warrior *Does Sky require keys still on live? If it does, then you would need to be keyed for 7th island or buy the crown. Can a 51 merc solo naggy? I assume so. That adds Paladin to trivial. Trak is probably doable. If he banishes mercs, then you just pull him back near banish spot. Idk how you would do the warrior epic tbh. Since Spiroc Lord death touches.
The early game has changed. Both making it easier (via code changes to support the ongoing game), and player knowledge. Player knowledge is probably the biggest. If you know exactly how the event works much of the difficulty of early raids is solved. Back in the day the unknown was a large part of the difficulty.
I had never tested it before, but I had always thought that the shadowknight harmshield spell/ability worked against death touch mechanics. I was vastly incorrect there or, at least, Dread's Cazic Touch mechanic works differently than other death touch mechanics. So I'm rather stumped now for shadowknight moloing his epic by 60th level. I play almost exclusively on the Firiona Vie server, so I can purchase some, if not all, of the DA clickies that are readily available there. I'm unsure now, though, if I've ever actually tested DA against such mechanics before, too. Not tied to his epic, but I found that the Dracolich (58th level raid tagged mob) entirely curb stomped the tank and caster mercenaries. I hadn't tried tanking that one with a healer, but "we" had been unable to put a dent in that one with two mercenaries that normally do pretty well at these levels, so far as damage dealing goes. I'm curious now if the other raid tagged mobs in the PoF will be similar, even if I manage to work around the death touch mechanics. Nagafen, at least, was soloable at 52st level for a number of classes long before mercenaries were available. He does have a raid tag iirc, but, now that I'm thinking about it, I don't think that, either, the ranger or beastlord actually required any raid tagged mobs for their epics. Or if they did, the mobs in question were actually considered "minis" even during Kunark era. More than a good group or two was likely never required for them.
