Issues with healer mercenaries at low levels

[Zedzorander]

<p>Howdy, I have been having some pretty big issues with all healer mercs on my new alt.  What it comes down to is they simply do not heal until my life is at 50% and do not actively attempt to heal me above 50% once I get that low.  It essentially treat 50%+ as if I'm at full life for purposes of healing.</p><p>I have been playing a bruiser from level 20-currently level 40.  On the bruiser I have tested all healing mercs except the defiler (inquis, templar, mystic, and warden).  When I have the mercs set fully to passive, only follow me and nothing else checked, they will cast cures and absolutely nothing else until my life crosses the 50% line and from that point will do the bare minimum to keep me exactly at 50%.  If I set the merc to protect me I get some sporadically different results.  Sometimes they will keep me at full life and other times they will not heal at all in favor of dpsing.  Having them set to protect is not generally an acceptable option because they so quickly burn through all of their power dpsing their robotic hearts out and it doesn't even guarantee they will heal properly.</p><p>I also tested various mercs (generally inquis or templar) on multiple other characters in the 20-40 range.  Swashbuckler, Zerker, etc all had the same issues.</p><p>This seems to be a somewhat different issue than what has been happening with the same mercs at high levels (only heal when they feel like it but do heal you to full when they feel like healing whether they are on protect or not. </p><p>This issue does still seem related to the protect target change and is a merc breaking issue.  They are simply worthless as healers right now with this massively reduced healing output.  I hope this can be looked at and corrected asap.  This should very easily be reproducable for other players unless it is just a bug for me.  Yes I have submitted a bug report but I'm hoping to get some feedback here to see if other players are having the same issue.</p><p>Thank you.</p>

[Jrel]

<p>I've complained about my inq merc a few times through feedback/bug already.  Every time it does something really stupid (again), I send another report. </p><p>This is how my inq merc heals:</p><p>My health at 59% or less:  50/50 chance of a heal</p><p>My health at 60-100: no heal</p><p>My health at 40% or less:  60/30 chance of a heal.  The other 30 it will keep fighting and not heal me until it has killed a mob; even if I die.</p><p>1-5 seconds after I'm dead:  It won't rez me; regardless of whether it is fighting or not.</p><p>More than 5 seconds after I'm dead:  It will rez me unless it is fighting.</p><p>As for detriments, it will cure those if it isn't busy.</p><p>Other than that, it heals me pretty well when it does heal.  If you want to find a semi-afk pug healer, the inq merc is it.</p>

[Gealaen_Gaiamancer]

<p style="text-align: justify;">I'm not sure how much this applies to lower level healer mercs--the only one that I use is the inq merc paired with my 92 SK--but I figured I'd mention it, just in case.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I've found that the best way to make sure the rat actually heals is to make it not assist and not protect, as well as turning off its defend me/defend self options.  In other words, make it NOT fight <span style="text-decoration: underline;">anything</span> by default.  Once that's set, also make sure that the merc has line of sight on you at all times.  Even a stupid little piece of rubble on the ground can break LOS, and it does seem that the merc won't heal what it can't see.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">If you need the combat assistance from the merc--after you've established that it is healing you--then press the red X button.  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Edited to remove extra letter from one word.</p>

[Lizabethan]

<p>Though I've only gotten this to replicate a few times (read: not consistently) the basic problem is that the protect settings had been changed and he's getting so "overwhelmed" with fighting that he forgets to heal. Try turning everything except follow off and see if that helps.</p><p>Devs are still looking into the issue <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Zedzorander]

<p>Just wanted to add a couple updates after doing additional testing</p><p>Starting a fight with stamper (inquis merc) set to protect me in the drop down menu-  He will heal me to full in general while burning tons of power fighting.  During the same fight if I take him off off protect me/self and make him stop fighting he then goes back to healing me up to 50% only.  This is a crystal clear difference between the two settings and seems like a bug to me, I sure hope this isn't intentional.</p><p>Mercs seem to just have gotten a wire crossed somewhere so hopefully this will be a quick and easy fix.</p><p>Also adding that 2 of my 92's use healer mercs.  Both usually use the inquis golem merc and do not have this specific issue.  Even while keeping them on completely passive mode, they still heal my player/pets to full.  While I was leveling my shadowknight a few months ago (give or take) I absolutely did not have this issue.  It very clearly is due to a recent change.</p>

[yohann koldheart]

<p>i use stamper on my locked level 30 sk , he heals me as soon as i take any damage at all. im not seeing the bug..</p>