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Stupid mercenary.Follow

#1 Jan 11 2014 at 4:28 PM Rating: Decent
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No matter which mercenary Rogue or Wizard I have a level 80 necromancer can attack the mob, knock it down by 10% or 15% it will agro on the mercenary and kill it. The idiotic mercenary will stand there take a beating not move and die. I have to laugh out loud because I know mercenary is not a true replacement for a live person playing a toon, however I never realized they were designed and programed to be so idiotic. Any suggestions how to keep agro so mercenary can attack mob without dying. I tend to use mercenary because it does speed up the kill rate even though they take away 20% of the xp gain well worth it.
#2 Jan 11 2014 at 9:37 PM Rating: Excellent
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Your necro is higher than mine, so my insight might be useless (content does change).

I don't use a merc on my necro for any xp killing, unless I am feeling lazy and want to tank light blues in a hotzone (a tactic which likely becomes less viable into the 80s, but maybe not). Note that my exception would be 1% of the time at most.

I do let the merc buff my necro.

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Trappin started to explain to me in game once how to toggle the assist/passive/aggressive and manipulate the tank/puller settings. If you're going to use a DPS merc with a necro (who probably has aggro reduction AAs) I would think you'd need to play with this stuff.

I'm imagining that I would try having myself (the necro) set as the tank, and the merc in passive mode until my dots have ticked down a sizable % on the target. Then toggle aggressive.

I may be off-base though, as I'd rather not regularly share xp with a merc when playing a necro, as needing no one else was the main reason I rolled one in the first place. I concede that if you are levelling the merc AAs, or just like playing differently than me, that you may enjoy merc/necroing the majority of your play time.
#3 Jan 14 2014 at 3:39 AM Rating: Excellent
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toggle the assist/passive/aggressive and manipulate the tank/puller settings. If you're going to use a DPS merc with a necro (who probably has aggro reduction AAs) I would think you'd need to play with this stuff.


What Snailish said ^^^

Just like in a real group, you tell everyone to let the tank get aggro before attacking, if not there is usually a wipe incoming...
With mercs you do this with the above mentioned settings.

Think about all the times you did a random pick up group and had to explain to (random-level xxx-ebayed-newb) "Hey! Don't cast anything until the mob drops to 85%" "why?" says (random-level xxx-ebayed-newb), "because if you get aggro you will die!" you tell (random-level xxx-ebayed-newb).
At this point one of two things follows...
1. (random-level xxx-ebayed-newb) follows your instruction and becomes a successful group member...or...
2. (random-level xxx-ebayed-newb) tells you " you can't tell me how to play my toon...I have played to level xxx in (any of ten random games) and I know more than any fifteen of you (random everquest player slur) will ever learn"
(random-level xxx-ebayed-newb) doesn't listen, doesn't learn, dies and you disband him/her/it,
You turn on LFM flag and try it all again.

Unfortunately mercs can be used fill your group...but to play them right you have to learn about them and put forth some effort to do it well.

You may be able to hotkey the merc settings for ease/clickability...I haven't tried that.

Good luck to you...
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#4 Jan 15 2014 at 3:47 PM Rating: Excellent
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creativedude wrote:
No matter which mercenary Rogue or Wizard I have a level 80 necromancer can attack the mob, knock it down by 10% or 15% it will agro on the mercenary and kill it. The idiotic mercenary will stand there take a beating not move and die. I have to laugh out loud because I know mercenary is not a true replacement for a live person playing a toon, however I never realized they were designed and programed to be so idiotic. Any suggestions how to keep agro so mercenary can attack mob without dying. I tend to use mercenary because it does speed up the kill rate even though they take away 20% of the xp gain well worth it.


I'm curious what you expect the merc to do other than stand there and die? Mercs are not programmed to kite mobs. They attack them. This generates agro. If they get agro, they have no means to shed it. It's your job to manage agro in this case. If the mob is attacking the merc instead of you, then you aren't generating enough agro to hold its attention. Try casting more often and casting spells that generate more agro. If you're trying to kite, you'll need to do more to get agro since the melee and caster mercs tend to generate a lot of agro.

If you don't or can't out agro the merc, then switch to a tank. Let it tank while you dot. Or, just drop the merc entirely if it's more trouble than its worth.
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#5 Jan 15 2014 at 4:13 PM Rating: Excellent
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Some threads about mercs. https://everquest.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=1&mid=133219935614211828#6 and https://everquest.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=1&mid=1312609276177414664

Basically, take them off Burn stance and put them on Balanced. For more control, turn off Auto and use the assist keys to activate them when you want. Use low mana, fast casting snares, so you can afford to chain them. Use debuffs, for more aggro, and high dps dots. Don't Feign Death or you'll never keep aggro.

Yther Ore.
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