I wanted to type here and share. While it's probably motivated by my fun/excitement. It also serves the purpose of telling others what they can expect. While I'm (omg-super-noob) really these days in EQ, I figure anybody coming back to do something like this might be. So here goes. If you recall, about 1-2 months ago, I made a thread asking about 3 PC and 3 Merc group. I even asked Tucoh to speak up on it, the thread was very helpful, and so ya! Here we go. Again, to be clear, I'm an old man, and I don't think I'm bragging.. like I'm leet or something. It's just meant to be a bit of help for other lurkers or new returners to have an idea of what they can expect. My Setup: Warrior, Shaman, Enchanter. --- Originally a Bard instead of an Enchanter, and I think most would say a better setup, but I didn't have to worry about start/stopping the bard for fear of agro on the pull from his Mana/regen songs. My 3 Mercs are 1 Cleric and 2 Rogues. I think most use Wizard DPS Mercs, but it just seems like those rogues do a great job taking some hits when crap hits the fan and I need to spam slows or mez's to avoid a wipe. I think at this point I've had a full wipe about 2-3 times unexpectedly (like, not trying a raid mob). So, I play it very Low Maintenance (lazy) and My warrior pretty much does everything. The Shaman and Enchanter follow him around all day providing buffs and debuffs where helpful. There is slowing involved on tough mobs, and a very small bit of mez'ing involved. But usually? It's just a straight pull from my warrior and then my cleric merc keeps me from having to use the Shaman to heal (except on tough named) and my 2 rogue mercs pound away with me. If someone wants more info than that, just ask.-- Moving on! 1) Did Naggy and Vox at 52. 2). Did all Kunark (except Trak) at 60. Gorenarie still took long time. Also did Wuoshi and Kelordek Dar at this point. Also did Klandicar and Zlandicar at 60. --- All of this shouldn't be too surprising.Oh Venril Sathir was tough for me, even though I won, but it was because I didn't do the whole chain-rune thing out of cockiness. 3). at 65 I cleared Ikitar and Eashen. I cleared some PoG midbosses, but nothing special. Also did Vindicator. Trying to think if anyting else.Also did Trak at 65, was avoiding because banishment, but the mercs finished him off. 4) at 70, I hit my first true roadblocks. -- Barely beat Aary, Barely lost to Tormax (bad pull, also went to sleep after), Barely beat Dain, definitely could not handle Statue's DPS. -- Cleared Plane of Sky, all the way through. (procrastinated because death-touch) --Cleared Cazic Thule 2.0 (Now Shade of CT I learned) -- Tested Luclin and killed Itraer Virus and Grieg, but two attempts at Shei Ventras I lost. -- Cleared WToV (don't care about Dozekar on East) -- I also killed ST: Master of the Guard, Progenitor, Overseer, and few other bosses I can't remember. Final Arbiter was not up, neither were any Ancient Dragons. My understanding is that I would have been able to beat Arbiter, but probably not all Ancients. 5) So leveled to 75 and got a little bit more gear, and just went and cleared Toramx, Statue, Idol, and Avatar of War all first tries, and pretty easily too. That gets me excited. It tells me I'm ready to clear NTOV all the way through, as well as Tunare! -- Also soon I'm getting to 100% new territory for me in a "raiding" capacity. --- Planes of Power! -- I was one of those who quit right before Luclin. 6) So! now I continue on my 75 trek, until I hit a roadblock, at which point I go to 80. But I will now Finish NTOV, Tunare, and then ST if Ancients are up. I will then continue with Shei Vintras, and see how far I can get with Luclin's final bosses. Then I will look at how far I can take PoP. To some this may seem trivial, but it's mega fun for me. I imagine at some point very soon, I'll hit that point where raids required a bunch of people all having set roles/jobs/emotes, whatever.. the raid scene of EQ I never experienced, but until then I'll keep going .. and when that happens, I guess I'll just progress through group tiers now that EQ has that around SoF/SoD. Cheers Folks! Tucoh, if you see this, thanks for your help. I'm getting pretty good at molo'ing my 3pc/3merc. -- My rogue merc dps is finally starting to slow down, but I hope to have j5 mercs soon. Edit: Oh and Sontalak lol! Things I wonder... How big a deal will J5 mercs be when I'm strong enough? How much am I hurting myself that I haven't taken the time to do 1.0 epics, (more importantly) 1.5... and I think 2.0 is getting close to my level range?
If you are currently using J1 mercs J5 are several orders of magnitude better, you will most definitely enjoy them. 2.0 you will need help with probably until 80 maybe 85, pretty sure raid instances (DZ's) will not allow mercs to be used in them.
