Question - group comp question

[Aspence215]

So been at this for a couple months now and loving it. Got a couple friends to come back and play the boxing strategy and its a whole new game for us.
Being that I was away from the game when mercenaries came out, what is best; a full group of characters but all capped at 250 AA, or maybe not be cheap and sub three accounts and have 3 mercs? or maybe just sub my tank? The AA cap is kind of annoying.

Currently running two 6 man groups
WAr, BST, Rog, Brd Zerk, Clr at lvl 70
SHD, Chanter, Druid, Clr, Wiz Mag all at 58

 

[Randyleo]

I usually drop a krono on each account, then when it runs out they are silver, with 1000 AA cap.

 

[Aspence215]

I usually drop a krono on each account, then when it runs out they are silver, with 1000 AA cap.

Is 1000 AA's enough to beat out the usefulness of mercs?
Also, The forums the Everquest forums are saying that silver accounts are a thing of the past

 

[plure]

you get to keep any aa you gain during the month you are gold status.... I generally have all my casters only gold to aa them and then let them lapse once my aaing is done.

 

[Minuteman]

My 78 sk has 2975/1000 AA from autogrant. You get to keep them when your krono or subscription expires. You just can't earn any more until you pay again. You end up silver after a krono expires. I think it's a bug so I wouldn't spread that around.

My sk tanks fine in the TBM instances that scale.

 

[Aspence215]

Another question on this same line of questions, If I go gold and sub for one month and create a third character, Can I still play that character after I lapse and go back to silver? so I guess does Silver allow you to have more characters than the 2 for FTP?

 

[Minuteman]

Silver gets 4 characters per account.

 

[scotsbiker]

Note you only go silver if you got Gold access via Krono, not via CC or Paypal. However you can always buy an Doll of Character via loyalty Tokens if you have enough.

 

[Randyleo]

For mercs you get to use the A5s.

 

[scotsbiker]

best thing to do is level toon to 105-110 depending on what expacs you have. then Drop a Krono on them Earn AA upto 4kish in your Bonus AA's and or tradeskills etcs which will come quick and fast.
Then Select auto grant. that will take you upto anywhere between 15k and 20k depending on Class.
then spend the rest of your Gold time earning more AA which you will still have use of when your Gold access runs out.

Once your Gold access runs out you wont be able to earn any more AA but still have all the AA's you earned while Gold.

a f2p tank with enough AA's can tank everything but latest Expac. if you can make him heroic you even get a decent set of 30+Ac augs as a starter point.

 

[Redfrog]

Aspence,
A boxed character is always stronger than a merc. Mercs are decent until about level 80. Tank mercs cannot hold or make smart decisions, melee mercs tend to get hit, caster mercs work decent as they just blast away, and healer ones heal decent if you block certain spells (that's how to control what heals they will use). Using a group of 6 characters instead of 3 and 3 mercs, will give you a lot more options in your playstyle and better control, and they won't eat up your plat.
Buy a krono for your tank first, gear the tank up with weapons armor and ac augs, if you want to AA immediately, remember to use auto grant. You will go to Silver after the month of gold is over. As you can let every character have a turn with a krono, and you'll have a powerhouse team before you know it.
Welcome back to EQ and big welcomes to Redguides.