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Question - A Problem with Cleric Mercs (1 Viewer)

wymranar

I <3 SKs *kissy face*
Joined
Jun 16, 2019
RedCents
878¢
Hey Everyone,

So, I've been trying to figure out WHY I keep dying in areas where its entirely inappropriate with my box set-up (110 WAR, SHM, MNK, plus Cleric Merc)

A couple of caveats..
-I have blocked all the annoying merc spells on all my chars plus pets
-merc has 200 aas
-Do not have any merc equipment, but will be getting some soon
-I don't really want to PL a real cleric because I already have the SHM and I don't want to pay for 4 expacs.

After some observation last night, it looks like after a multi-pull my group will kill a few mobs, then I'll get one stuck on the cleric merc off in the distance. Merc is about 50-125 EQ distance units away on average.

The merc will get stuck with the mob beating on him, but he wont come close enough for my tank/group to engage.

The tank/group will just sit there with the mob on /xtar, while it beats on the cleric merc in the distance. This will go on until the merc slowly dies, and it appears my tank will STOP pulling while the mob is still on /xtar. After the mob kills the merc, it will aggro on the group and die quickly. Then the War will start pulling again.

I've tried messing with the MeleeDistance setting under Melee in the War's .ini. Right now I have it set at 150, but that appears to do nothing.

The problem is, after the merc has been killed, my War will eventually bring in a pull that wipes him because he doesn't have any/enough healing with the merc gone.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on how to fix this?

Thanks in advance!
 
Just found this on the DGB forums and thought it was useful!

Merc Interaction with Group Roles:

The person assigned Main Tank will get priority healing from a Cleric merc. If everybody is taking damage, the MT gets healed first.
If a Warrior merc is assigned as Main Tank, they will actively try to build and keep aggro on every mob in the Extended Target Window. They will taunt if not the highest on aggro. If a mob is rooted off and somebody gets highest aggro on that mob due to DoTs or debuffing, the merc assigned Main Tank will sprint to the rooted mob to regain highest aggro.

Mercs cannot be assigned as Main Assist.
Mercs usually follow the Main Assist's target ring, but sometimes just do whatever they want. I have seen no pattern for when they think they know better, so I think it's either bad coding or intentionally coded that way.

When a player is assigned as Puller, mercs ignore the actions of the Puller until they return to "camp." Camp is some loosely defined area around the rest of the group.
If any player that isn't assigned as the Puller interacts with the mob being pulled (such as an arrow, nuke, or debuff) before it reaches "camp," tank and DPS mercs will spring into action. The Puller still needs to enter camp before the Cleric merc will automatically heal them.

If Auto Assist is toggled off, mercs will not take any action until Call Assist is used. Mercs will act normally for every mob on Extended Target Window at the time that Call Assist is used. So, if an extra mob adds into the fight, mercs will ignore it and work through the previous mobs unless you hit Call Assist again. This can lead to the Main Assist ring being on a mob and DPS mercs not assisting to kill that target due to the Call Assist targets not being updated. Call Assist can also be used to temporarily allow Cleric mercs to heal Pullers that are not in "camp" range.
A warning about Auto Assist: mercs remember targets. If you have a delayed memblur, such as Monk's Echo of Deceit, and you use Call Assist while the extra mobs not being pulled are still in the Extended Target Window, mercs will automatically engage those mobs if they ever enter into combat with the group again instead of waiting for you to use Call Assist.
 
I hear you about not wanting to pay for another account. I personally gave up on mercs altogether. I leveled up a cleric on a free account and it was far better than any merc. I was using eok t1 armor and anything non prestige I could find. The problem with the built in cleric merc is the stupid use of healing spells. The huge delay at times before they do anything doesn't help. Then they use a slow casting heal which means you are half dead by the time you get your first heal. I was struggling with some eok and ros content with the cleric merc but after making a real cleric I'm pretty far into tbl and blew threw eok. I have since went paid but you can get a lot out of a cleric on a free account using kiss or IHCMercs. The major difference I saw from free to paid was mana pool. My cleric went oom at times and now doesnt go under 80 percent. Some is due to gear but the rest aa.
 
That's interesting. I might look into it, I didn't realize that the CLR Mercs were such a PIA later on...

I wouldn't mind leveling one then subbing for a few months to get the AA's up, but I don't think I want to buy yet ANOTHER expansion. Then, thinking ahead to December, eventually having to shell out for 4 expacs.

If I had a F2P Cleric, I would be restricted to using him in EoK content and below right?
 
Something you could also do is level the F2P cleric to it's max level then pop a Krono and use auto-grant and then grind out the rest of the month in aa for that cleric. Then let it turn back into F2P. Yea, you don't get to use prestige items, but you'll still benefit from all of those aa. I don't play as often as I used to. In fact, once or twice a month, if that. But when I do, I'm running a 102 SK, 98 sham, 96 mage, 90 necro and cleric I think is in the mid 80s. I'm essentially power leveling the group and haven't done much of anything else honestly lol.
 
One of the old suggested methods of dealing with that heal issue was to do a buff block on the ones you didn't want the merc casting.

I don't run with mercs, so I don't know if it's still true.
 
One of the old suggested methods of dealing with that heal issue was to do a buff block on the ones you didn't want the merc casting.

I don't run with mercs, so I don't know if it's still true.
aye definitely still true.

the ai for the heal mercs is suuuper outdated, its a real shame they're as bad as they are
 
So far, as far as blocked spells go, I've got these added for the Cleric Merc. Does anyone have any other iteration?

/blockspell add me 13 18272 18254 25124 25242 2198 2199 8165 1388 2538 1285 1299 43131 18271 43180 55159
/blockspell add pet 13 18272 18254 25124 25242 2198 2199 8165 1388 2538 1285 1299 43131 18271 43180 55159
 
Question - A Problem with Cleric Mercs

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