My wife and I typically duo with her mage, my paladin, her Templar merc, and my monk merc. I went with the monk to learn how to tank above it. I don't think I'm up to par, though. With our typical group, the game is ridiculously easy, but I'm struggling being the main tank of the group, above the monk. When I round up a good pull, I've normally tossed out a couple group heals while doing so to establish some agro. Then when the mobs get in range, I throw every area effect ability that I know of out, but the monk and wife's mage are going crazy with their own area effects and often peel. Now I have an excuse for the monk, as I often keep him set to assist and protect me. So he's bound to try and get agro. To be clear, I'm not having difficulties with single targets, just multiples. I'm trying to learn how to be better tank here, and I'm sure players and devs alike will agree that a real player tank should beat a mercenary hands down. So I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong on multiples. Any help here is greatly appreciated. I'm not in game now, so forgive me for not knowing all of my ability names, but I typically use my everlasting taunt-off ability on her pet. Takes 33% agro from her pet or something. On huge pulls, my wife's mage probably gets as many mobs on her as the monk and I have on each of us. Again, the question is: How can I keep agro of all mobs on big pulls as a paladin? Also, at 78th level, the monk mercenary still doubles just about all of my stats. I mentioned above that I think a real tank (or real dps or real healer) should outshine the mercenaries hands down, but it's hard to think that this is the case. The monk easily handles three to five heroic mobs five levels above us taking very little damage. If I miraculously learn how to keep agro on big pulls, I'm sure I'll have to adjust and make them considerably smaller if I'm tanking all of them. That doesn't stop me from wanting to learn, though. Can a real paladin out tank a monk mercenary with multiple mobs? I'm sure that the answer is a resounding "Yes!" I'd just like to hear how to go about it. Again, any help is appreciated.
Honestly, this isn't the group set up I'd try and use if learning to tank is the main goal. Mage, tank, healer would likely work better. Daeron Ashenwing is pretty great at his job, which is to pull aggro and keep it. Under level 90ish he does very well, so you are in essence competing with your merc (no real groups tend to run two tanks, as a rule, in heroic group content.) Look at another merc if primary tanking is your main objective. Having said that, I play a plate tank and I use Daeron. Why? He does good dps, and he ain't fragile, I'm not running hither and yon saving him, we are both able to round up a slew of mobs and smash it. But that's just me. If I wanted time as primary tank I'd go out with Stamper, and a Mage.
At that level, you shouldn't sweat not being able to keep aggro of the tank merc. The guild I'm in is currently locked at 80 for TSO content, and the only tanks we have who can reliably keep aggro from them are our MT and OT. EVERYONE else struggles with it at least occasionally... So to put it in perspective, assuming those others aren't terribad, which I don't think they are: You'd need gear equivalent to T4 TSO raid gear to hold aggro off of them, which at level 78 you just won't have. (Even our guys in the T3 stuff have issues.) As for the others in the group, part of being a DPS or healer is learning to not do things that will get you eaten while the tank is pulling. This is less true of the healers, as precasting wards and reactives can make the difference between you splatting mid-pull and living easily, but as DPS, it's usually best to wait a bit for the tank to build up some aggro before you smash everything in sight with your uber AE.
If you want to tank over Daeron, you'll have to put Amends on him. You probably won't have aggro issues after that as long as he is set to assist on your target. At level cap, a properly geared fighter is definitely stronger than any merc including Daeron or the 10 year vet mercs.. Until you are at level cap though, he is definitely a better Amends target than the conj pet. Amends III which you got at level 49 is the final version of that spell. Upgrade it to master now. If nothing else buy the expert and research the master. Since it's a 49 spell it won't take that long. (Maybe a week?) Sigil of Heroism level 52, and Holy Ground at level 80 are also final tier spells so no reason not to fully upgrade them. All of those deal with threat or hate position. Otherwise, your heals really aren't going to generate much hate on pull. 1 point of healing is less than 1 point of threat. 1 point of damage = 1 point of threat. (not counting modifiers to threat) Plus you are healing at a time when nobody really has any damage so it's doing very little to nothing to help you. As long as social aggro isn't an issue, pulling with a damage ability (taunts, bow attack, spell, run in and Blue AE, etc.) will be much more effective. Paladins have a ton of Blue AEs. You should be pretty solid on group threat by using them in conjunction with Amends on the right target and snaps as needed.
Interesting how Daeron generates so much hate without either Hate Mod or an actual taunt/defensive stance etc.
Thank you for the replies. Before switching mercenaries, I tried putting Amends on the monk and adjusted him to protect my wife's mage and now I'm tanking more than I can handle now. I love it! Daeron is impressive, no doubt, and I just learned that I can keep him and employ another mercenary and switch them out as needed. The Templar is pretty bad in comparison. I seem to be healing more than he does. Would anyone recommend a better healer? To replace the monk, I was considering something for crowd control, if mercenaries can be used for that purpose. I guess now I'm asking for mercenary suggestions for a paladin and mage duo. My wife's mage should probably have the healer. Thanks again.
The inq, Stamper, is the best healer imo (some say the Inq from Skyshrine is better, but you have a few levels to go before worrying about acquiring him). He can easily be grabbed from Freeport despite being of good alignment. Enter the sewers from the Commonlands, exit the sewers to East Freeport and the inn is directly across the way. The guards are few and far between and regardless, your level will grey them out in that area. That said, all of the healer mercs tend to have "blonde/senior moments".
