3 boxer, thinking about returning

[Kittoo]

I quit playing Everquest in early 2008 but i am thinking about returning because of the new mercs. I box a 75 beastlord (epic 1.5/400+ aa's), a 68 druid and a 68 enc both with around 50 aa's. My system of boxing was to fight mobs that were dark/light blue to my beast, and yellow/white to my enc/dru. So while my two 68's were getting good AA exp my BST would get average AA exp. I mainly single pulled, mezed if there were more then 1 mob and ran/evac'd if there were 3+ mobs. Seeing as how my druid heals lacked and my BST tanking skills lacked it was a dangerous trio and I usually could not take on any bosses in the zones I camped but I had a lot of fun. With the new addition of mercs I feel I could take on higher level mobs due to having a war and a cleric merc(dru heals suck at 68) and be much more efficient. I'm not sure if id have a 3rd merc, depends if I want to buy the expansion for my 3rd account and if I have the in game money to pay for the merc. I should also note that I definitely prefer soloing in quiet places over grouping except on occasion to gear up my BST in higher level zones. I also hope to one day go kill old school raid bosses, like Vex Thal bosses, or luclin bosses, who I never had enough dps or a good enough tank for. However with a cleric npc I could focus my druid on dps and off-heals and have my beastlord not have to worry about getting pounded. I know some people think mercs. ruined the game but for a person like me who likes to play his Everquest as if it was a single player game, it sounds like just the thing to rekindle my urge to play. Anyways, I have a few questions if some of you wouldn't mind answering.

1. I thought I read something about a change in exp so that it scales with the highest member of your group? How does that work, and should I try to level my 68's up a few levels, perhaps to 72?

2. How is the population on the Luclin server these days? I would rather not start on the new level 51 server because my beastlord has decent gear as well as epic 1.5 and I have put a lot of time into all of my characters.

3. I have been reading up on these forums as well as the Everquest forums but I'm curious if there are any BIG changes I should know about because other then the addition of the mercs. I haven't found anything. Remember I quit in march of 2008.

4. I read something about lower guk being ravamped? That makes me sad

5. I read that the mercs. have some restrictions such as not being able to go to the level 80 zones. I dont really care about that since I wont be in any zones above 75. Are there still restrictions I should worry about? Can I not use mercs to tank in certain zones like Vex Thall, Plane of Fire, etc? What about zones that require keys like my favorite zone The Howling Stones.

6. What do you think of the bst/dru/enc combo. I love having enc buffs and the druid i made for porting/evac/heals. However, if I have an npc to heal for me why not go with a better dps class like a mage. Maybe use a wizard instead of the druid, he has better dps and can still port. Or should I just stick with it since there already 68 with some aa's?

Thanks,
   Kittoo

[Kittoo]

I just read that its not recommended that the puller have a tank merc because it can be hard to control. However if I got a merc on one of my 68's it would be much lower level/stats then my 75 bst's and therefor not be able to tank the mobs in the zone I was in very effectively. How hard is it to control a tank merc while pulling? Is it as easy as putting him on passive/hold then going to aggresive when mob is near?

[Khauruk]

A - that combo can work fine.
B - learn to pull w/ the enchanter.  They make beastly good pullers if you focus on them.  Or get crazier w/ your enc - they can lock down ridiculous numbers of mobs at least 75+.
C - get all toons to identical lvl.  AA xp is based off of how mobs con to the highest lvl player in the group, so if you fight mobs lb/db to the bst, you'll be gimping AAxp for the other toons.  Normal xp scales as it did originally.
D - Mercs can't go into raid instances primarily.
E - LGuk was *temporarily* revamped.  It's back to original state now.
F - Luclin is generally seen as being one of the healthier servers.
G - send me a tell on Luclin if you get back in.

[Kittoo]

Thanks for the reply Khauruk. It will probably be a little while before I activate my accounts back up, finals week is coming.  :-D

-Kittoo