Looking for THREESOME with wife and a merc...Follow

My wife has agreed to try Everquest! I played from 1999 to about 2005, but have been retired since. We want to start from scratch, and I don't want her to lose interest (my wife playing is a dream come true!), so I am looking for a great DUO + merc. Before I retired, Shaman and SK were awesome, as well as BL/necro. She is leaning toward a healer class, and I am cool with playing any compliment to the class she chooses. My question: What is a great combo when you factor in MERCS? I have not played the expansion and I am sure MERCS change the dynamic of the game. I am not sure if mercs are reliable healers/tanks/DPS. Any suggestions for a duo when factoring in mercs?

Remember you both can have a merc also...one of you get a healer and the other a melee....

I would agree Sk and Shaman can be powerful. But dont overlook the druid for ease of movement, especially if she wants to play a healer type.
Druid Sk, or druid paladin. merc can be cleric or even two clerics.
However No merc can replace a well played human cleric for healing versatility.

I play a Ranger as my main, and box a Shaman. Ranger has tank merc (because ranger is a few levels higher), shaman has a cleric merc. I'm constantly amazed at the content I can experience with this group and would recommend it to anyone.

Edited, Nov 10th 2008 1:12pm by Gladestrider

Many thanks for the great responses!! One additional question: at higher levels, which of the mercenaries are the best for their class? Are tank mercs or cleric mercs more reliable when you reach 70ish+. We're really leaning toward SK/Chanty (and have started a couple), with two cleric mercs as back up. As long as the clerics can hold up at later levels, this looks like our winning combo. It just seems from what I know about tanks, it is MUCH more difficult to have a "late game" worthy tank (due to gear and AAs) than healer.

I two-box a warrior/shaman pair. The warrior has a cleric merc, the shaman a tank. Add in the shaman pet and killing yellow/red mobs is non-stop.

We came back with a Shammy and Rogue mains...

One of the reasons we left in the first place was there was little or no content we could duo at what was the level cap of 65. On our return we picked up a tank merc for the Shammy, and a healer for the Rogue, and all I can say is WOW!!!

The only time we get in serious trouble is when we are overwhelmed by adds, because of our lack of crowd control, but this grouping has opened up all available level appropriate non raid content (we are now 74.)

Obviously player tanks and healers are better, with much more sophisticated use of abilities and spells, but I think a combination of a DPS class and a utility class will work just fine. I want to try a chanter/wizzie combo to see how that works out.

If you are playing a real tank like an SK, you don't need a tank merc. If you are playing any other combo that does not include a Warrior, Paladin or SK, you should use a tank merc.

My 80 Monk can tank mobs that hit for 3,500 but the Journeyman Tier II tank merc I bought does it better and requires less mana to heal. Mercs are not a replacement for real tanks but they are certainly well geared and can really "tank".