Cool, thanks for the replies.

Do you notice much exp drop when using mercs?

I logged in some old characters to take a look around. There is a ton of new stuff in the UI, speaking of that what custom UI's are people using?
I noticed there is a slider for exp-AA. I figure I want to set it to the AA side to start gaining as much as possible - do people have a recommendation for this?

It is encouraging to hear that healer mercs are viable. Sounds like they might be the best fit as they are unlikely to pull mobs on you. That allows me to have a tank, dps and bard.
I'll probably try a team of just support/DPS as well, I can have the fun of crazy pulls while the mercs deal with tanking and healing

Not sure if I should wait for Age of Discovery to go on sale or jump straight in. I picked up some Station Cash codes from Ebay so my accounts are charged up - it would be great if we could buy the expansions with Station Cash.