Last night I decided it was time to look into getting a mercenary to hopefully help me be able to go smoosh things with my maces.

I ran around forever looking for the barbarian mercs before finally giving in and asking for help. Someone mentioned that I could bring up the "find" menu and get to them that way. But before I actually took the advice I got a message letting me know that the barbarian mercs didn't offer a healer option. I hadn't realized that they were only available for races who could be clerics. So much for my dream of having a bear headed northwoman kissing my booboos better... or uhmm... something like that. **coughs**

Anyway, that helpful bit of info and more came from an Ogre warrior that I subsequently invited to appear in the comic. Thanks Sroas!

The live stream is done. Thanks everyone that stopped in to watch.

Haha! Nice throwback joke! I've really been loving the EQ comics. It's like getting hit by the nostalgia train. You're making me consider firing it up again but I would quite literally have NO ONE to play with. I'd just be a lonely ranger in a sea of people I don't know.

Is that the same dark elf from so many years ago? :P

Haha! I don't play EQ anymore, but I love the jokes still. Keep up the good work Woody

I love it!

Your ogre/look fat line of jokes is great.

Thank you.

So glad you're doing EQ comics again! Keep it up!

northwomen kissing booboos FTW!

As for the updates, how exactly (Reader's Digest version) do mercenaries work? Wondering if this is something they might implement in EQ2 eventually

I thought Barbarians could be shaman being able to heal? I also remember them being able to DoT, Kite, and do various other things too.

And I'm sure Zug would be proud

Oh man, great redo. I was in tears from laughing so hard. Awesome job Woody!

@Breandan: Each merc type has different stances that dictate how it reacts to the situation. You pick the stance and that's it. Most common one for healers is 'reactive' which does the fast heals and 18 second big heals. If they die, you have a 5'ish minute wait and can pop them out again. You have to be out of combat to bring them out (which was nerfed from being able to pop them out anytime when they first came out).

And as long as you have the coin to pay for them it's automatically deducted from your carried amount. Run out of coin and they go poof. But with coin now weighing nothing, no worries on how much you're carrying. Warrior mercs require more babysitting than cleric ones.

@Mordican: Yes, Barbarians do have shamans, but the healer mercs are limited to just clerics and those races than allow clerics for players. It's kind of a funky to draw a line like that, but that's what SoE decided to go with. Maybe it was too much to code, or offer, with shammy slow and DoT'ing or druid nuking and DoT'ing. Who knows for sure?

Hi, name's Christian. I helped submit an idea for an EQ comic you did a year back or so, I think.

Just figured I'd stop in to say that I think it's great that you've picked up EQ again, and I hope your experience with the game turns for the better very shortly, as it should if you pick up a healer merc. Mercs are probably the greatest thing for EQ players that don't have a tight group of friends that actively play.

A couple of FYIs for ya, Woody. You can get a merc outside of your race, so don't think that as a barbarian, you're STUCK with only a warrior merc as your option. Grab a dark elf cleric so you have some boobies to stare at or something! Also wanted to let you know that there are potion merchants in the eastern trader building in PoK, and you should be able to pick up some healing and haste potions there. I'd recommend being fully stocked on haste potions as much as possible. Bind yourself at the guild lobby by the corpse summoners, so in the event you die, you're right next to a bank and summoner, and keep in mind that NOW, when you die, you respawn with all of your stuff on you, so the only thing you need your body for is for ressurrections. Oh, and on your AA tabs, you should have a year or two of Veteran Rewards to claim on a character or two, so I'd do that, too. Happy hunting!

I should be firing up EQ sometime this month and starting back up, so if you need help, send a serverwide tell to Elizuth on Quellious