So, I'm back after a 4 year absence. I've been doing some charm kiting in LP (zzzzzz) and had a few groups in HoT and 1 other zone I've forgotten the name (YIPEE). Groups are much more my style.
I'll be switching from F2P this week and going to get my good merc - J5. I'm curious what my new merc tank can tank. I'm lvl 83 and looking to spend some time in HoT as well as UF (doing the Prayer Shawl 2.0 quest).
a) What can I molo
b) What can the merc tank with a support cast of other players
c) What SHOULDN'T I try to use a merc to tank.
At level 83 I had a J3 merc tank and was killing in Field of Scale. XP mobs were no problem at all, but killing named mobs was impossible. I couldnt kill named in FoS until I got the J5 merc at level 85.
Level 86 did seem to make a huge difference, suddenly named mobs in tosk were no problem at all, I moved to Pellucid and was able to do some of the tasks and kill a couple of named mobs with only the druid healing (with poor gear ~30khp/mana).
I've also tried out House of Thule at level 86 and the merc can tank rotdogs/snakes pretty safely, I havent explored HoT much to give any more details than that.
No, you can do the quests at lower levels. I had a J5 merc on my mage (when I was paying for that account as well) at about level 75.
That said, they can be quite difficult. I was able to do Murdunk's Last Stand with my group + mercs but it was quite difficult, I didnt have as much DPS as I would have liked. At the time there were no DPS merc's so perhaps that would have been a little easier now.
Well - thought I'd answer my own question a few months later.
I'm now lvl 95. My merc tank is quite good at tanking in most VoA content. I spent 3 hours in CoB with me as the lone healer and my merc as tank the other night. Works just fine. Names - not so much. Prefer real tanks for those in T3-4 VoA.
Also - killing old raid mobs is now rediculously easy. Dropped AoW the other night. Was sort of sad how easy he goes down now.
