How far can I go?

[Archaious]

Hey all returning Mage/bard duo.
I've always been a little behind the power curve, and greater responsibilities in real life (I hate it when reality interrupts my fantasy life!!) have meant I was slowly slipping further back from the pack as compared with my raiding days of a few years ago...

We are geared in a mish mosh of demiplane and grouped SoF gear, both a little shy of 1k aa's. This means no tier3 gear of any kind and only servitor of scale focus etc. Both lvl 83. I am looking at "that threshold" now: In order to upgrade, I need to kill tier 3 steamcore droppers in sof or the comparable tier3 names in SoD. At present I cannot possibly tank a 4k hitter and I've upgraded about all of the odds and ends I've been able to find, any other upgrades are modest at best.

Currently. Anything hitting for over 2200 taxes either the merc healer, or the merc tank, or the pet tank.

Groups are few and far between, (as is regular raiding due to rl commitments) mercs and a boxed shammy on computer #3 have expanded my options significantly, but I am starting to think I am up against the wall...the bard can single pull anything, and the utility is simply fantastic as has been pointed out on other forums, and has been the saving grace, allowing me to finish oceangreen theme alone for example, but the real issue is surviving a mob that can dish out 15k in a single round...

I guess my simple question is, am I stuck now? Is there a path I might take to upgrade gradually until jabober or a merc can handle those kinds of mobs? Or do I just have to hope to find folks who can deal with my inconsistent play times?

I have been using one merc healer and one merc tank to allow for adds as well as allowing the bard to contribute his meager melee dps, would switching to 2 healers and letting fluffy take over all tanking and telling the bard to 'stand back and watch how it's done' be a more viable dynamic for hard hitters?

thanks in advance for the advice, and for restoring some formal venue for us to pose these kinda of questions

[Darkenr]

How is your pet defensive AAs doing? If you haven't already, max out all of your pet defensives, get the first rank of fortify companion, and blessing, and once you're completed with that you should even with servitor of scale focus be able to pet tank most T3 named pulled solo with 2 healer mercs. Is the bard of yours a bot? If not, than I'd say just have the bard get used to hanging back and running nuke aura, mana regen + DoTs on the mob, etc, while your pet tanks, and you burn it down.

[Archaious]

Yes indeed the bard is me as well, so he will obey

pet defensives were maxxed at sof, have to finish the sod additions now.

Sounds like replacing the tank merc with a second healer is the way to go for heavy singles.
For the SoD defensives, is companions durability (HP) or Sturdy companion (mitigation) more beneficial in your opinion?

Thanks for the tips

[Glaven]

I'd say get both ASAP since the ability of your pet to tank is really all that's holding you back atm. I would make upgrading your pet focus a priority at the moment too...if you aren't able to get through SoD group progression which can get you EM1 at void D or EM2 at void E, make a priority to get the EM1 range focus in crystallos off the trio in earth. I would imagine if you can box well enough to mezz adds with your bard you can pull that off. Pet focus upgrades would really be a difference maker for your crew.

Keep in mind though void progression will get you better mercs as well too.

[Archaious]

terrific, thanks for the advice, knowing the increases will mean that much gives me my area to concentrate on next thanks!

[Piemastaj]

T3 named should be np with 2 healers, and the void tasks for Oceangreen and Bloody Kithicor should be fairly easy with your setup also.

I would strongly recommend doing solo/group tasks in Field of Scale to get warmly faction so you can get Rumbling Servant Rank 2. It dominates Rancorous Servant in DPs/tanking.

[Archaious]

gotcha definitely sounds like I need to switch tactics for nameds and go with 2 healers. having the tank/healer is great for mowing trash and exping, but clearly not enough for names at my capability level.

Oceangreeen tasks were np, blackburrow boss required a little care, but was completely doable. Kithicor I got stuck on the 4ranger spawn in 'rain of ruin' task but I hear everyone struggles getting the rangers locked down fast enough to keep them from killing the npc, I'll give it another go soon, it's just tedious having to start the task over to retry that encounter.

I appreciate all the commens and advice!

[Ottaro]

T3 named should be np with 2 healers, and the void tasks for Oceangreen and Bloody Kithicor should be fairly easy with your setup also.

I would strongly recommend doing solo/group tasks in Field of Scale to get warmly faction so you can get Rumbling Servant Rank 2. It dominates Rancorous Servant in DPs/tanking.

I second that, switch the tank merc for a healer, work on the EM1 focus either from void D or Crystallos (i'd say crystallos since its a camp set up, faster to get the focus) and then get that faction for the RK2 Gargoyle. You should be well set to progress once thats done.

I Duo with my wifes Chanter with 2 healer mercs and we can kill just about any T5 named. (Just camps with those darn snakes in Kora keep draining us of mana, even at 590 all resists )

[Redius]

(Just camps with those darn snakes in Kora keep draining us of mana, even at 590 all resists )

Those snakes will and do have the ability to have that DoT land on 700 resist toons. They suck.

[Darkenr]

T3 named should be np with 2 healers, and the void tasks for Oceangreen and Bloody Kithicor should be fairly easy with your setup also.

I would strongly recommend doing solo/group tasks in Field of Scale to get warmly faction so you can get Rumbling Servant Rank 2. It dominates Rancorous Servant in DPs/tanking.

I second that, switch the tank merc for a healer, work on the EM1 focus either from void D or Crystallos (i'd say crystallos since its a camp set up, faster to get the focus) and then get that faction for the RK2 Gargoyle. You should be well set to progress once thats done.

I Duo with my wifes Chanter with 2 healer mercs and we can kill just about any T5 named. (Just camps with those darn snakes in Kora keep draining us of mana, even at 590 all resists )

Are you using air or earth pet to tank named in Korafax? My air pet can tank pretty well with EMVI, and full pet defensives, basically to the point where I can actually solo nearly any T3 named, and molo it's no question. I've never tried anything in korafax yet though, so unsure whether to use air pet or earth.