Returning To EqFollow

Hello everyone I am now returning to eq after a long absence. I
am aware eq now has henchmen but my question is are they available at level 1 and can they follow me to all zones new and old??? I am considering making myself either a necromancer or shadow knight since now the henchmen are available that way I can just solo and not sit around hours "LFG".

Either one works for a necro. Just matters how you intend to play. The warrior can basically be used as another kiting pet if you so wish. To be honest... I would start with a cleric merc though. This way as you get more comfortable with the necro your pet can tank while your cleric heals. Allowing you to be able to take on bigger mobs in the process. Thus getting more return for your time. As you get bigger and your pet gets tougher you may wanna try switching to a warrior merc for more dps. But since mercs are free at the low levels, try each one out initially and see which playstyle you might wanna do for awhile.

My main is a necromancer and I don't have use of the mercenaries (henchmen) since I haven't bothered to buy the expansion. My regular groupmates however use them regularly so I am quite familiar with their impact on the game.

I would suggest using a mercenary would hinder a necromancer's xp more than benefit. If you know how to aggro kite you can basically be gearless and buffless and still have a measure of success. Why would I want to share my xp with a merc?

Having said that, a pocket merc to buff my necro might be worth the cost of unsuspending it once in a while. For the rare situation where I know I am going to be tap tanking (i.e., a summoning boss) then it would be handy too I suppose. I tend to get friends to come along for those instead though.

I have seen merc clerics turn mages into gods, allow rogues to solo to 60 with ease, and tank Nagafen (since without a taunter in the group it can be hard to get aggro back from a merc).

Basically any class that heals likely wants a tank merc. Sure a tank merc is overpowered at least until 60, but I would rather have my real tank working on defensive skills as I level up.

The Mayong server is dominated by SK, monks and mages. There's also an over-representation of rogues and enchanters there. Necros weren't rare there, but they weren't the solo class of choice by any means. Pretty much all of them are running cleric mercs. Since that server is a fresh/reroll kind of server it sheds some light onto what is working now in EQ.

Mercs have made any class a viable solo to 65 at least from what I have seen. Other posters give me the impression you can work mercs into the SoD progression (at least the early tiers) where you will be able to get groups as it looks to be a bottleneck for all characters to pass through at the moment.

I would like to add that my first and main character is (was) an enchanter, level 75. I got a tank merc for him when some groupies suggested it. As I understood them more, I decided to get one for my rogue. We all know that rogues can't solo right? That used to be true, to be truly effective, they needed a group so that they could backstab as often as possible. At about level 60, I started looking at his AA's and a healer merc. I've been farming aa's now and I'm at level 70. Most of that time has been 'moloing', soloing with a merc. I have 860 aa's and I have molo'd Gimblax the goblin for the Lavastorm spell progression quest. He conned yellow.