The suggestions for Clerics

[Szilent]

Just trying to divine what suggestion was coming from "the game has devolved", man. Like what subtlety or skillful play would look like to then make playing EverQuest better for that poster.

 

[Pyne]

So you think Pyne's idea to make cleric play better is to make killing enemies bad, actually? "well, since killing all those enemies is a waste of time, we should invite Pyne/Spacemonkey555 to our group?" - is that how that would go if some change happened?

I think you completely missed the point. This comment was directly responding to a post about group content, specifically the comment "most groups will happily replace a merc with a cleric". I disagreed and stated why. I have posted on many threads in these forums regarding post level 100 clerics usefulness.

 

[Gundolin]

Many of todays groups are 1 person with 3 mercs and if they do replace a merc its generally more dps - the game has devolved into as many mobs as fast as you can with no subtlety or skill.

They can pull more mobs faster with a real cleric. A cleric out heals a merc by a lot.

 

[Gundolin]

Except for when the meatsack cleric decides to ninja afk and the group wipes...

Ok, that one is true.

 

[ak492silenus]

As a cleric main since 2001 I find that the current cleric mercs are more than adequate to handle group healing content including names. In fact they are really great at healing in most situations. No need for a real cleric! However the tank mercs are very far below where the cleric mercs are in group content. As a tank or dps main, a cleric merc is generally adequate for most content. However a tank merc for a cleric main is far from adequate. Even if the cleric main is good enough to keep a merc tank alive in current content including names there is not enough dps to actually kill the mob in a reasonable amount of time. This game claims to be a group oriented game that promotes group cooperation of all classes but by the inclusion of advanced cleric mercs that make real clerics unnecessary, how does that actually work? How am i supposed to progress current content without a group when groups can just pop a cleric merc for their healing needs? Groups don't need me. I admit real clerics are necessary for real raids as mercs are excluded. Thank you for that. But I still can't get a group after raids are over, as merc clerics are just as good and easier to deal with than real players. How can cleric main compete with group content cleric mercs for exp and progression when the mercs are just as good as a real player while the tank mercs never come close to a real payer tank? A very frustrated and fading cleric...

 

[Metanis]

A very frustrated and fading cleric...

I've advocated in the past they should allow clerics to have 2 mercs so we could field both a tank and a dps. But they have simple tools already at their disposal as evidenced by the current expansion's huge upgrade to our Mark spell. For example, they could add a Merc-only version of Retort that has an even stronger damage component than Mark with a higher proc rate. A 1-2 million damage proc hitting several times a second would be awesome fun. And it could help alleviate the tank merc's problem holding aggro on multiple mobs at once.

 

[Vumad]

I've advocated in the past they should allow clerics to have 2 mercs so we could field both a tank and a dps. But they have simple tools already at their disposal as evidenced by the current expansion's huge upgrade to our Mark spell. For example, they could add a Merc-only version of Retort that has an even stronger damage component than Mark with a higher proc rate. A 1-2 million damage proc hitting several times a second would be awesome fun. And it could help alleviate the tank merc's problem holding aggro on multiple mobs at once.

This is not a complicated problem. It doesn't need 2 mercs or any other complicated implementation.

Copy and paste MAG/NEC swarm pet stats onto the cleric hammer.
Heal the hammer. Nuke/Stun the mob. Use a wizard merc. S/Molo CLR LFM/LFG.

The only complication is changing the minds of the people not willing to admit there is a need for change in the PUG startup/forming process.

This is not 1999. All classes need to have an enriching solo/molo experience with class synergy/aDPS being the motivator for forming a group. 1+1=3.
Everyone should be wandering around the world doing something, bumping into new people and forming groups, instead of sitting in the PoK/GL/GH twiddling their thumbs because they can't do anything alone.

Actually, it should be 1999, because that's exactly how PUGs got started in the OG.