The first thing I did in EQ today was switch mercenaries, from a Tier III Apprentice healer to a Tier I Journeyman healer. It costs about three times as much to maintain, but money hasn’t been a problem so far. Since it’s only Tier I (higher Journeyman tiers have to be unlocked) there’s a chance it might run from combat when it shouldn’t, but it hasn’t happened yet.

The main reason for the switch was because I’ll probably need better healing when I start charm soloing higher-level monsters again, since they’ll hit a lot harder. The previous merc also had a bad habit of overhealing me with a big heal-over-time, when I only needed a small top-off, wasting a lot of mana. The Journeyman merc has more ‘modes’ to choose from, and…unfortunately she still overheals that way in the ‘efficient’ mode. But she should still be better overall, and uses the Rk II versions of spells.

And then I hit level 72. I got my all-important new mez and charm spells, a new haste (the new ones aren’t actually any faster, but add other stats instead), a new lull, and a new tash. I was still missing a colour stun, so I broke down and bought the level 69 one from the bazaar, since I don’t get the next one of those until level 74 and it’s somewhat essential to my charming strategy.

Didn’t have time tonight to actually go play with my new toys, but there’s the whole long weekend to go…