Tika's General Rules For Being A Mercenary

While in a team, while your Mercenary, it is upon yourself to be the punching bag. Well this is true for the most part, it's harder then it sounds. You have to hold aggro and keep it off your teammates. Please remember, in a party, Merc is useless without the help of a Doc and Muse. If either die, you can be sure that others aren't far away.

Doctor: These people will heal you. Don't be rude with them. They hold your life in their hands. If they are attacked at all, make sure you quickly get over to them and get the aggro off of them.

Muse: These people will recharge your mana. Without mana you will not be able to hold aggro. Your teammates will also run out of mana and unable to help you. While in these situations the Merc usually lives, but your team might blame you for their fall. If doctor runs out of mana and there is no muse, make sure to tell your team to run to closest safe spot. Cover them until they are safe, then run yourself.

Aoe: Usually there will be two of these in a party. Whatever you have on you as you keep aggro, these people will kill. Remember it is not your job to kill the monsters, only hold their aggro. If you can do both, that's even better. Remember these people are doing the same thing as you. If you miss a beat the aggro can quickly go from you to them. Aoes usually have weak defense and will die within a second if your not careful. Make sure to pay attention to which people the monsters are attacking.

Puller: These people will die the most. They will die more often then you. While you are built for getting hit by numerous monsters, they aren't. Pullers go out and bring back monsters for you to aggro. While their life does not affect the whole group if they die. there are a few things you should understand. First. If puller dies, the doctor will most likely run over to try to heal or resurrect. This usually ends up with the doctor getting hurt. Tell your doctor to wait, then go over to puller's dead body and hold the aggro while the doctor rezzes. These situations are dangerous for everyone, so try to avoid at all costs. Second, if puller gets back to group alive, it is your job to quickly take their aggro off them. They will die otherwise, and since they were beside you when they died, they will most likely blame you.

Stats and Builds

There many different types of Mercenaries, and if you plan to be one there are a few things you should decide upon. Are you a solo Merc, or a Party Merc? Do you want to wield an axe or a spear?

Some of the first things you need to know are the following. First off, everyone needs a tank. There are few exceptions to this fact, (Like DDen). When people look for tanks they automatically look for Mercs. Merc is a base class made specifically made for tanking.

Your build will decide your fight. For the purposes of this topic, I will talk about two kinds of Mercs. Party Merc, and Balanced Merc.

First is Party Merc. These were in short supply awhile ago. Everyone seems to be ditching the class. While that phase is over with it could happen again. Will you be there for the instant teaming? A build for a Party Merc is the following:

2 Dura, 1 Agi

This build is designed for defense with a bit of dodging. This is a common build that most Mercs in teams use. If your unsure use this until you get a better feel for Mercenary.

The Second kind of Merc is Balanced Merc. These vary from Merc to Merc. I will talk about my build. This type of Merc is good for both soloing and partying. Equipped with the right subs make this Merc deadly. While this Merc doesn't have specific build to follow, for the first 30 lvls you should do:

2 Dura, 1 Agi

After this is up to you. A good base is to have 70 Dura and 45 Agi. Then you can use the rest of the points for some of you other needs. You will need some magic defense for when you go DDen.

Armor

Next is Armor. Tanks use Heavy Armor (also known as HA). You must face a simple truth. HA is expensive. Buying it costs alot, and even more to maintain it. Regular mercs go throguh several sets of HA during a session of tanking. Few Mercs can maintain their Armor while tanking. Party's will have to take regular trips to Marshal to repair.

HA can easily make you broke. But a good way to avoid this is a mixture of toolboxes and dream stone powder (the ones that repair 200 dura). Tool boxes repair armor, and dream powder raises the durability back up. Both are hard to come by. Dream stone powder can be bought from Item Mall in stacks of 50. While Toolboxes haven't been added to IM yet. Both can be bought off other players if you find them.

Beside if you have the above, make sure you take around 4 sets of armor to a party session. This will cost 20 inventory spaces. You should have 2 sets of armor in your level range. 1 set of armor from your previous level. And 1 set of armor for if you level while in team to start wearing it.

Up until DDen this is will all remain true. An exception is DDen. Here all the enemies are magic, thus you don't have good defense for them. It is tricky for a Merc to get invited to one of these parties. There are a few subs that will help you get a position in a DDen party, which I will explain later.

Weapons.

For all mentioned above is for the Spear weapon. I haven't much experience with Axes so i will update that part when I get some.

Anyway. A spear is a Merc's best friend. It will allow you to access a wide variety of skills needed to help support your party. Always keep at least 2 spears with you at all times. 1 your level and 1 for when you level up. The power of your Spear can help keep aggro. The more damage you inflict the more they will look at you instead of your team.

Always upgrade your spears when you level up.

Skills and Abilities

I will talk about all skills required and suggested, after which all remaining points can be spent how the user sees fit. Everything in bold is require knowledge. Don't skip their descriptions.

Axe Attacks:
I will talk about the four skills here that help with the above.

Tier 1:
Splitting Chop: Requires Axe
This skill is simply a power hit on an enemy. While it does require an Axe, it isn't necessary to have.

Taunt: Requires nothing
This skills makes a monster attack you, and has long range. This skill is good for picking up some minor aggro that your Windmill and Mock couldn't get.

Tier 2:
Cross Chop: Requires Axe and lvl 5 Splitting Chop
This skill is an extra aoe for Mercs. It requires you to change between weapons if you choose to. While this skill is not needed, if your having trouble keeping aggro, add this aoe to your roster to help boost your aggro holding capabilities.

Mock: Requires lvl 3 Taunt
This skill is required. Get at all costs. This skill is an Aoe that grabs all the close monsters' aggro. Though it doesn't inflict any damage, it is designed to grab and hold aggro. This skill can overwrite almost all aggro on other players and change their aggro to you.

Spear Attacks:

Tier 1:
Stabbing Strike: Requires Spear
A powerful attack on a single target. This skill is very useful if your team is in an area where a boss spawns regularly. Use this skill on the boss to help get it's aggro onto you.

Wicked Windmill: Requires Spear
This is the Mercenary's main Aoe. Depending on the mob of monsters, this can do a lot of damage, or barely any. And it's chance to hit the target is based on your Dex (So put a few extra points in that after level 30). But this skill is required. When use in alternate with mock, this will almost guarantee the aggro stays on you.

Circle Formation: Requires Spear
Another required skill. This Skill is needed for parties. When used it buffs you and your party, increasing their defense (this means you'll take less damage). Your team will hound you if you don't cast this on a regular basis.

Dustpan Formation: Requires Spear
This skill is Not required until around level 52. This skill increases Magical defense. This skill is absolutely needed in DDen. If you actually get into a DDen team, they will most likely ditch you if you don't have this skill.

Tier 2:
Stick and Twist: Requires Spear and lvl 3-5 Stabbing Strike
This is another power blow on a single target. Again use this in the same method as Stabbing Strike. It's not required but good just in case.

Corkscrew Slice: Requires Spear and lvl 3-5 Wicked Windmill
Same as Stabbing Strike and Stick and Twist. Useful for same purposes. Please note, this is NOT an aoe.

Crane Formation: Requires Spear and lvl 3-5 Dustpan Formation
This is another buff, but is not required. This buff increase the magic attack of you team. This means the aoe's in your team will be able to kill faster, and you will take less damage. This also allows for faster EXP.

Mercenary Skills:

Bronze Sinew, Iron Bone:
This is a good skill to pour extra points into. It increases defense for regular attacks from enemies, this is a constant and will always be active.

Subs

Subs. People who are just starting out don't have these. These require training other jobs, then using them as extra skills on this job.

Good Subs to have:
Healing techniques: Doctor will sometimes take their eyes off you, it is always good to have to heal yourself for a few extra seconds of life, for the doctor to notice your hurt and heal you.

Pet Muse: To heal your pets if you soloing or are in the party to level your pet. Muses have to focus on keeping everyone's mana up, not healing your pet.

Extra Aoes: Most jobs have at least one aoe. Try to get some that don't require a certain weapon equipped to use them. These will always help you keep aggro.

Situations

While being a Merc, you will come across a great variety of situations. I will briefly describe a few, in hopes it will help you learn how to be a good Merc.


Tank lvl 1:
This is a party in which your a tank. Mobs consist of regular monsters, and is the easiest of tanking parties. These are good for slower EXP, but a higher rate of staying alive.

Main Point:Tanking for this kind of party is simple and easy, great for trying out new methods for tanking.


Tank lvl 2:
These are harder parties. Usually consisting of a greater amount of mob numbers. Well still pretty simple, these can get ugly if a team is unprepared.

Main Point: These are parties that want to be mostly stress free, while leveling.


Tank lvl 3:
VIP parties. These parties take place in the VIP area on a dungeon. As such, they have the highest concentration of monsters. These parties are considered difficult, but have great reward behind them.

Main Point: These parties are for fast EXP. Expect a few deaths, (,especially of the puller) and posers. Posers will try and grief a party out of VIP. To combat this, let monsters aggro the poser. This should shut them up, often making them run away, as well as relieve you from taking as much aggro. But make sure your team isn't getting attacked.


Tank lvl 4:
Special VIP. This party is usually in an area like VIP, as well as a boss spawn. These are great sources for leveling up, and as such, are also dangerous. Bosses are feared creatures who can easily wipe out an unprepared party.

Main Point: As tank of one of these areas, it is your job to watch for the boss. When a boss spawns, use a couple of power hits on it. Once you have the aggro, go back to normal tanking. You will take more damage then usual, but will save you teammates from dying.


Tank lvl 5:
Advanced tanking. These are often parties that are experienced but fighting higher level of monsters. These are the most dangerous of parties, and one mistake can wipe out a whole team.

Main Point: If you are uncertain about your ablility to tank, or faith in the doctor that's going to heal you, it's best not to even try this. but if you do, it's the same as the methods above.


Power Leveling.
These parties are for high leveled Mercs. It's where one person in party is around lvl 50 or higher, and tanking mobs between lvls 30 and below. It is the job of this tank to keep aggro off the low leveled people as they attack with everything they got. Usually the monsters are higher leveled then the members of your team, and thus the slightest mistake will get them killed, but you yourself most likely will never even come close to death.

It is also good to have a friend as high as you doc with you. I cannot give much advice on this, as I have not been on the high lvled person. So read a power Leveling guide if someone chooses to write one. (Sorries )


AFKs
These are people in your party that say things like "brb, and "going to washroom". The whole team will suffer from these, and often the whole team can die, if no warning to afkness if given.

The best thing to do in these cases, is to run to safe spot before going afk, and have team wait until afks are back and ready. If it's an easy party, or the afk is useless anyway, you can continue with tanking, but keep your eye out.


Leechers
These are among the most annoying people you can have on your team. They don't pull their own weight, and more often then not, are afk most of the time. They are simply in your party for EXP that they don't have to work for. If you see a leecher, make it so they can't get any exp. Like kicking them from team until they're back from afk, or finding a rep.


Repping and Reps
Rep is short for Replacement, and is as the name suggests. If you or one of your teammates are/or need to leave party, they should look for a Rep. A Rep will take the place of the leaving team member, and do the same job. It is important in higher parties, to stay with team until Rep arrives, and then leave. If they can't wait, and Rep is not coming yet, it's best to run to a safe zone until a Rep shows up.

End of Guide