What's the point of a Healer Mercenary?

I ask this question because what is the point of bringing one that doesnt heal? I can understand a healer mercenary not performing as well in a current or previous heroic expansion zones. But trying to go back and do some Heroic zones from 4-5 years ago with content that is super green or even grey, but still needing to execute scripts and having these mercs get nearly one shot is pretty lame in my opinion. Can the damage the mercs receive in these super old zones please be adjusted so they are viable to bring in there? Not everyone is willing to spend their in game time doing super old content for some else so finding another person isnt always a success. Thanks for your consideration.

You make valid points about the mercenaries and their general usefulness. To answer your first question, a healer merc that stands around without actively healing will still cast single-target cures, group cures, and single-target rez. This can be quite useful on its own, as the merc (at least the ones I've tried) can cure me faster than I can cure myself. There aren't any that can cure curses though, and even this is pointless if the merc dies in one hit.

one would think that having a healer merc, you would not have to worry quite so much about heals. i am glad my paly can heal both of us becuase the merc just seems to do nothing at times. being able to cure curse is sorely needed. is this too hard to program into the merc?

Have you leveled the mercenary and equipped it in good gear with adorns?

Come on Sig. Cant you tell by my account who it is posting this issue? I have a full RO celestial merc level 20 with Ro H1/H2 level gear. But like I said the issue is going into OLD ZONES. Practically grey almost. I can't take my chanter into say Enkindled Towers Heroic I and complete the last zone boss without a serious number of wipes. Its rediculous.

I used to be able to do it but something has changed over the last year or so since i've gone into those zones. Its almost as if Mercs are getting either worse or the encounters have been made to eat more dps than before.

You're going into heroic zones, which means your mercs are not getting Fount of Power/Grace of Norrath, and auto-attacks from NPCs are not percent-based.

jollinor is not a good merc

The O.P. is complaining that their healer merc is not performing well in heroic content. Now I have used a merc in heroics, but only along with other players *example no power regen, so I pop a coercer merc* and I spent most of my time trying to keep my merc alive!
As hard as it is to keep my coercer merc alive, I can imagine any merc without a real healer to keep it alive, would fail in any heroic / raid content.

Chrol, I am also going into zones that are 5 years old. I think there should be some wiggle room here. Half of the classes in this game can solo those heroics. Half can't. Not exactly fair for people who wish to go back and do some old content that no one else is doing right? Its also not fair to ask someone to devote time for old content on your own personal behalf. Lets be a little generous here. I specifically said OLD CONTENT. Not newer content. Green practically Grey content.

To put things in perspective. I asked a Beastlord friend of mine to do Vegarlson: Council Heroic. He complete the zone without dying once without a MERC. I got up to the last named with a merc and died 20 straight times because the merc gets insta killed and as a chanter I can't heal myself.

I mean I would think you would want people to enjoy your game at all levels. I get my fill in raids and I do fun personal stuff in my own time. But if that content isnt fun or even doable then again I ask, what is the point? So I think there should be a concession made in this instance specifically for the reasons I mentioned. Or should all old zones just be graveyards we dont go back to for half the classes in this game?

the better answer for this thread is quite simple: Revamp the whole mercenary system
after all besides the healer mercs no other merc type is even used...besides for buffs which is pointless because they keep making other types of mercs (Ranged+Caster+Tanks) and who even uses them? they cant hit like actual players with billions of dps and the tanks die in two hits in current expansions they cant actually mitigate damage so what's even the point? cosmetics? pffff i keep asking for those to avoid using other systems for pure cosmetic value...just take one entire week or month to work on the mercenary system and forget the expansions for while...POINT*

I'd use a tank merc for old content if it would cast Bulwark.

That is true. Other than healers, I appreciate you bringing up the issues with other Mercenaries as well. What's the point in multiple types of mercs if they dont really work as intended.

GOOD For you i do that too but besides ol' content uses they are basically just there and they released two mercs in this expansion one healer and one caster and besides using them in old content and making a collection out of them what's even their point if they dont work properly in the current expansion? if the devs want a advice just release healers from now on...or fix the merc system. your choice

The 2023 Roadmap says they plan updates to Mercenary AI in May. This appears to be limited to healer mercs, since the full description says, "Mercenary AI Update - Mercenaries will more reliably heal and resurrect their companions, and generally react faster, with higher tier mercenaries gaining increased reaction time over their common brethren."

Jollinor is just... broken. I see some people love him, but my experience has been that he doesn't heal or cure. It's like a bad PUG where the Fury thinks their whole purpose is DPS, but Jollinmor isn't even good at that.

well lets hope they continue to update the merc system more...maybe someday the other merc types will cause actual damage and tank actually well. it will raise the heroic problem again since isnt meant be soloed by one player so they will update and nerf in this order just like the coercer charm spell.

Also allow us to make mercs look like any other merc. We can do this with mounts and familiars but I have to have this ugly merc that I maxed out all the time? I think it's time we can use wardrobe and rename mercs at this point.

Well they make most of their money from casuals, So if they wanna keep making money off DB cash they need more solo friendly ideas. Solo players want to feel some achievement also not just from 1 solo instance but to do H1 alone with a merc. Leave the H2/H3 and raids for the hardcore'rs

Several times now I've seen you say "They make most of their money from casuals." Unless you're talking about the subscriptions for the TLEs, I see no evidence of that. In fact, even in your next sentence you say "if they wanna keep making money off DB cash they need more solo friendly ideas." If the company was really making more money from casuals, I'd expect that we'd already have seen all those solo friendly ideas. Instead we see the opposite. I doubt it's the casual player buying the most expensive version of the expansion and paying real money to upgrade their mercs/mounts/familiars/ascensions/spells/combat arts. No, for may years the game has focused on raiding and decorating. That's where they make the money.

Well I'm proof of that. I play every couple of years and I've bought the premium expansion and have spent close to 500 bucks on DBC and upgrades in last month. So your point is?

My point is that just because you bought an expensive version of the game isn't exactly proof that "they make most of their money from casuals."