1) This is a player problem not a Merc problem. 2) They could give them rk 1 spells would literally make no difference to their performance/usefulness at all. 3) First part makes no sense, second part about being stackable is no different than any other Merc or class being stackable so also makes no sense.
Merc rez behavior was fixed years ago if I remember right. If you decline a rez, they'll wait 2 minutes then try again. They tend to throw the first one as soon as possible. As others suggest passive stance on corpse recovery until you're ready and they're quite reliable.
One of the reasons I've likely lasted 19 years with a druid main is because I've been on break when some of the nastiest druid nerfs hit, so I missed them. For some, I was so far behind current content, they didn't really hit me. And for a few years, I was three-boxing, and could power through. But, it's true, there have been some really stupendous decisions made regarding development of the class. I don't see what you're talking about. When I bring up GamParse, and look at my tanking (which, thankfully, isn't a lot), I see a normal distribution across the DI levels. Could you be more specific under what circumstances this happens? (Note: I was looking at time recently spent in Evantil, so mobs were in the 98-100 range. Hardly current, but right in the middle of the light blue range. I'll look to see if I have something higher-level).(Found more in Lcea, so mobs are ~103-105. Still seeing a normal distribution of hit values). That's all well and good (chanter pet, etc) if you box. I have been off of boxing for the last 16 months due to PC issues and Windows video driver issues. So, that was that, use the tank merc, change main (<-- see previous comment about stubborness!), only XP where I could kite (wonderful fun for a couple days, then gag me with a spoon, gets boring), or quit. Miraculously, a new driver patch came out two weeks ago, fixed the issue I had, and I have been 2-boxing just a bit. So, Jimrar (tank merc) may be put out to pasture soon, who knows?
Every kiting player I know has the same view on kiting as you do. There are a couple of spots in EoK that are decent kite spots for the day or two before you gag. There is no place you want to even consider kiting in RoS or TBL, especially after the dot nerfs. One of our Druid CLs said it took him a full bar of mana to kite one giant, but he may of been being facetious. The AC problem is old news, and a point of many jokes on the original live forums as well as many of the class specific sites. Not a raid goes by that you don't see a druid or three get one rounded in less time than it takes to cast a mez, stun or for a tank to peel. If you seeing any DI shifts, its from your shield, buffs and food/trib. I was trying to drag my main through TBL progression. in alishai(sp) we had to talk to the "right" udex. We went into the room and killed the close fire mob. Which would normally mean its safe, but we somehow got agro through the floor above, where the other fire mob was. My fully raid geared max AA druid main went down in less than 1.8 seconds from the fire mob in the room. My chanter sat on the mob long enough for my druid to rebuff and get a half bar or mana to kill the mez at which point the first fire mob we killed respawned and one rounded him again... If long, uninterrupted streams of profanity could somehow find their mark, there would be no devs left alive to work on the game. Instead the old Hispanic lady that lives next door started making the sign of the cross whenever she sees me...
LMAO - Just gotta love it when mercenary clerics redo all your buffs, then med up before casting the rez. Also maddening that even when you can group with characters lower level than you, cleric mercs only have the current to them spell set, so if the lower level is ineligible for the highest buff, none are cast, as if the merc NEEDS to delete spells from their spellbooks. EQ+AI = Always interesting.
Tank mercs are as useless for tanking post-100 as a shield is to a Druid. They play loosey-goosey with mitigation discs as they go full-burn on aggro discs. Or run halfway across a room to aggro a mob (ignoring the group perimeter radius) only to grab aggro, turn its back on the original mob to build a mountain of aggro on the new mob, and die within seconds taking unmitigated slaps to the back. And don't tell me this is some quirk or 'feature' of Mercs at endgame. EQ2 uses mercs to outstanding effect at endgame, playing at around 70% capacity of a real player. Doesn't matter which merc you pick. They're just a little bit better than okay, but they are incredibly predictable. EQ1 mercs at endgame means all bets are off. If the Shaman AE punted some adds, you can rest assured your merc will run within melee range of them due to piss-poor merc pathing, regardless of zone. I do have to say I side with Ninelder on his take of the healer exodus after cleric mercs were introduced. In fact, I cannot remember the last time I saw someone with a non-cleric merc. Cleric mercs are incredibly powerful, regardless if people want to admit it.
I usually go with a Rogue and Cleric Merc. The former just for fun and because I never really went one before. And I always birddog the cleric merc with my shaman, but its still pretty solid. I think that the corpse itself might have its own timer. The major problems seem to be when the merc has cast the rezz on it, but I couldn't take it or i'd insta-die. From there on, it takes a while before its willing to rezz that corpse again. I could see someone coding in a timer so that the merc doesn't continually try to rezz the same corpse, in case you have multiple.
My memory of what actually happened is that Clerics specifically and healers in general stopped grouping unless they got something out of it years before Mercs even were added. When Tank and Healer mercs were originally added it was specifically because groups were prevented from doing anything because they lacked those classes. I clearly remember being in a group for hours trying to find a healer who was logged in that would do the content our group was going to do, and most of the time they were not interested because the location or progression was not going to get them anything which they needed. Merc healers are not in anyway OP, they are just consistent and average at best while not complaining about what content they do.
While I agree that tank mercs are horribly underpowered, this is exaggerating things a little bit. I still run the 95 Teek quest every day so I'm in VoA every day and I can pretty much drop as many mobs as I want on my tank merc and still keep him alive. I don't start running into problems with named really until RoS, which is still relatively current content. I can easily handle 3 EoK trash mobs at a time.
As a cleric, or as a druid? I think that's the big difference there. For me, 2 EoK trash mobs is handled with great difficulty. Granted, I have EoK merc gear, and not all merc AAs (lacking probably the last ~4 ranks of everything, so I have quite a few, but have more to go.
You are doing well to even state that, i have seen light blue adds one round them. Even if some of the posters here live in fairy-tale land where they see tank mercs every day handling current content(This is EQ, I have no clue what game you are playing.) This is the rub of coarse salt ground into open wounds. You can be a brand spanking new player get PLd up and still have a useful cleric merc even if it has no AA or gear; or do what someone wanting a tank merc would have to do, join a group beg to use your obviously useful cleric merc; then put all that merc XP into a tank merc that is still useless.... Hello??? McFly???
I really believe the key factor here is positioning. The tank merc makes no effort to keep mobs in front of him, and he takes A LOT of damage from behind. When mobs are easier, I can set merc to passive, move so that they would all be in front of him, and then set him back to active. With current-level mobs, there just isn't time. Either the merc or myself (or, more likely, both of us) will be dead before i can accomplish that. If they do nothing else with the tank merc revamp, this is the number one thing I'd like to see. If multiples, move so that they're all in front.
So a level 110 tank merc is able to handle some level 95 content??? Fantastic news! That is good to know! Although the VoA hotzone task is in Resplendent Temple which is only T3, its nice to know that maybe in a year or two my two All-Access casters will be capable of accomplishing the same level of content as a level 95 FTP tank, melee or pet class. Thank you so much for that hope-inspiring tidbit of information! VoA is still where I go to test the tank mercs whenever the level cap goes up. My quest box is still haunted with unfinished Sepulchre Quests. Every tank, melee and pet class was able to molo them when they were current using a healer merc. But even two OP level 110 healer mercs cannot keep a level 110 Tank merc alive there. Its just to hard!. Maybe when the level cap is 115 they will finally be good enough for VoA T-4! One can only hope!!!
