Is there any possibilty that you can tweak mercs to ignore mobs rooted outside the 'group' perimeter (the same one used for 'puller')? Root crowd control (VP, Bluster, etc) is basically useless when using a tank merc. As a ranger, I will use Bluster to split pairs of mobs. If I happen inside the 'puller' perimeter, then the merc gets stupid and short of putting it on passive until there is only one mob on the hate list, root is more likely to get our group killed. It is really a worse situation when the extra mob is a true add, and not a double pull. Yes, I have learned a few tricks to help reduce the likelyhood that the merc will spaz out on me, but they are not always 100% effective. Also, on a side note, the 'bow shooting animation' does not show with the cultural bow on any character I play. Also, some shields get all wacked out of position when my DE Mage gets on a mount.
I haven't tried it for a while, but they used to not attack anything if you put them on manual assist and used a the assist button (hotkey) on the merc window to tell it what to attack. Problem is the merc tank owner has to do this and know what to do. Yther Ore.
Sounds like you either: A. Don't have someone set as main assist. B. Have your ranger set as main assist, and the merc was doing as he was told and running out to assist you on the rooted mob. C. Have the merc set on Aggressive or as Main Tank, meaning the merc want's to be at the top of the hate list for every mob in your extended target window, so when you rooted the mob he ran out to get above you on the hate list, then turned around to resume on his original target.
Yes, as the above post suggests, the only way around this is to set somebody as Main Assist, set the tank to Assist, and make sure that person only targets the appropriate mobs. Requires a lot of vigilance to make sure the merc doesn't autonomously come to any genius decisions. This becomes messy when moloing, as the merc will run between targets as you switch to mobs to root them, getting the merc hurt, potentially breaking root, and wasting time. If you keep a bit of distance and switch targets quickly, you can pull it off.
If I use manual assist, will it still taunt to be the tank? I do make it the main tank, because I want the cleric mercs to focus on it. Also, I assumed making it main tank would make sure it did its best to maintain agro. What is the purpose of making anyone main tank if not for those two actions? I tried making different players in the group the main assist and that didn't seem to make any difference. The dps mercs follow the main assist, but the tank couldn't care less. The only thing I can do is make sure that I clear agro with all but one before I return. But if I get a true add, short of making it manual assist, rooting was a waste of time. If I get an add, I first put the merc on passive, then deal with the add with Bluster. Then, only after it drops agro do I return the merc to aggressive. VP is useless. I'll try to work with manual assist and see if I fair any better.
I have had good luck with just waiting a bit, after the add starts beating on my merc tank, before VP'ing the add out of camp. At that point, the merc already has agro on the add, and my shaman's VP does not generate enough hate to put agro on the shaman. When I do it this way, the merc tank does not go chasing the add. This is with the merc tank on aggressive/auto assist, and a player character other than the shaman set as main assist. That said, I would like to see this fixed so that I could VP an add on incoming without the tank chasing it.
Could wish, but doubt it gets fixed. Agro on merc tank is weird and varies by zone, some places I can tag a mob snare adds and let chanter park them as they mosey into range. other places as soon as I (puller) come over the horizon same merc same settings will go tearing out of camp to grab agro wish the merc tank would be restricted to a radius camp for their agro ignoreing stuff out beyond that. Sort of like the pet command guard as I understand it It can even vary in same zone depending on direction of wind it seems. Set self as puller my merc tags to party member not marked as main assist for follow purposes automagically. I go out to pull get smacked a few times during pull. Sometimes merc runs out and jumps on the mobs, sometimes I run right past them and they don't respond til mobs are in camp. Was thinking the problem was if the mob had hit me and taken damage or not, but that doesn't seem to be the case. What is frustrating is when the merc decides to pull the noob mistake of waking the mezzed adds. Stuff has been parked for a little bit chanter is cycling targets to keep them locked up. Merc suddenly runs over and tags an add waking it. Main Assist is either still targeting current mob or has no target.
I have found lately, I've done /mercassist off, then manually pressing the call to assist button in the merc window. I should make a hotbutton for that key now that i think about it, its really small button to click !
Depends what my playtime looks like, not fair to ask somebody to join group if I am going to afk for random periods with little warning. Boxes and mercs don't care. If I am able to play solidly I prefer live people in group, but then the times this happens everyone is in bed it seems. Or I am just filling a bit of time before raid call.
