Are mercenaries useful after the main quest?

The only thing I've used mercenaries for thus far is to run through the main quest solo. Get a level 200 mercenary, and level 200 accompany and you can get through everything yourself on easy. I've planned on making 4 mercenary equipped/statted/skilled characters, a close up attacker, distance attacker, and distance defender and distance attacker. I was going to take them to level 200. Is there really any use though? After the main quest I haven't really found any use for mercenaries myself. I thought it was a good idea at first, especially so my guild can use them, but my regular level 200 characters seem to be plenty powerful for guild use anyway. Thoughts?

 

I use merc as tank to level up my pets. It is more efficient to deal damage and not worry about pet's hp all the time.

 

• solo certain bosses using mage finale with defender merc
• a good exchange for tank(aggro keeper) in a -aggro(at least -90% for finale user) parties (if it is difficult to find tank(player)) with defender merc
• help alt acc by friend merc

All I can think of...don't know much about attacker merc tho

 

they do more proration than a lot of players

 

I use them while farming for weekly emblems. Going with randoms can be a hassle especially if there is no one in the map at high level bosses I pick. Besides, it's easy to shred through the hp of bosses anyway. They're just there for easy proration.

 

Attacker merc uses.

newbies use em to farm oddball items when theres no players around.

They can also help in killing the target mob (to avoid flinch) when solo farming with finale.

 

Okay, long post ahead. Spoiler: enjoy them because they are actually useful, but don't spend all your efforts trying to find the ideal build. Just experiment a lot.
I use mercs when I log in without knowing how long I'll be playing that day, since I don't want to be rude to other people because of leaving too soon. Basically, they remind me of those companions that you can summon as a necromancer in other games, so their purpose usually is killing faster while staying independent. People mention farming, there's two ways of doing that:
-"Ambitious" farming: there's an event boss that drops interesting stuff, there are quest items or your spot is famous for a certain material type. You'll always find people there, so a party will be more productive.
-"Random" farming: you are getting recipe materials, furniture materials or you just found that a certain monster drops a cool app/dye. Unless your items are super rare to get, you'll leave as soon as you get what you want instead of getting huge amounts of that item. Since the chance of seeing people with the same purpose as you is low and it's not that hard to fulfill what you want, mercs will make it easier.
So basically, it doesn't have much to do with your gaming experience. I'll probably reach 167-168 tomorrow, and I still enjoy the merc/partner system. I'm planning on doing MQ with my third character since I've had luck when getting boss knuckles, but no further investment. Level isn't that important when mercs die because of red/blue attacks, so you can experiment with weapons and elements. Also, there is supposed to be a maintenance this year that will improve the system, so they will be more used.

 

If your going DPS and wamt to level/farm without the need of joining a party, thencdefender companions are really useful for keeping the aggro. Bonus, if they have First Aid as well as Play Dead.
I can't say the same for Attacker mercs though, but I guess if the update on mercs using skill is released. Perhaps it may change?