Returning player loving my mercs, 2 boxing SK/Mage but thinking of trying different combinations. Want to keep the Mage and of course healer merc, looking for suggestions, what would be your optimal 2 box/2 merc combo? Thinking of Monk or Rogue with a nuker merc, but I'm open to other suggestions on what would be a fun/powerful combination, any experienced boxers want to weigh in please....
It really depends on what your desires and goals are, and how you want to play. Tank/healer or tank/bard is a classic for a reason. Monk/shaman is quite good, as is paladin/chanter. If you're set on the mage, you want another caster - mage/shaman, or mage/enc or mage/bard are quite quite powerful, and can destroy the group game at will.
Mage/Mage is pretty much the strongest brute force duo you can go with BUT i'd personalyl say go mage/bard despite being a physically weaker combo it opens up a lot of other options and play styles to you... 2 mages of course can do the whole COTH pulling thing but a bard box is pretty mindless and will allow you to pull any camp in the game. Also you can sometimes suicide your mage and use the bard to drag him and rez him in a better location deep in a zone to coth a group to.
If you want to keep the Mage and you think you would like the Necro, just go for it, it is a very good combo. No need to worry about summoning mobs if you remember to FD after every couple of dots.
You should probably avoid monk and rogue because the mage pet can't hold aggro from a player in melee range. You could use tank/healer mercs, but they don't do so well together without debuffs. One option I didn't see mentioned is Druid.
Well. Druid would work well with Mage. But Enc offeres more to the Mage then the Druid does. 1. ENC can slow 2. ENC can CC 3. ENC Can caste haste C Druid 1. Druid can Heal 2. Druid can DPS 3. Druid can port 4. Druid Buffs are largly useless to the mage, Druid doesnt mesh well with the SK. Shaman trumps this in every possible way Druids = Caster healers SHM = Melee healers I just started a druid actually. he's 85. !
I'd rather have an optimally played enchanter in my group than an optimally played bard personally speaking but as far as boxes go I prefer bard due to the fact that you can box a bard at 80 percent efficiency almost effortlessly, where as a chanter is much harder to maximize as a box. Druids are indeed the caster healer BUT honestly druid abilities do not really add much to the table, their debuffs are pretty mediocre in the grand scheme of things compared to what other box classes can do, their DPS aura is inferior to the enchanter aura AND there is a mage elemental form that is an extremely powerful defensive tool and worth using in place of druid aura (they do not stack). I'd honestly rather have shaman regen / unity / taisman of the snow leopard for pets than the debuffs and buffs druids have. Druids are in a pretty bad place right now overall. It can be a fun class and the tides of things could change and come next expansion druids may be utterly amazing but at the moment, even as a caster i'd rather have a shaman than a druid personally. Honestly though, min/maxing or overanalyzing the classes aside any of these combos are fantasitc mage combos: Mage/mage mage/necro mage/wizard (slightly more dps at the expense of slightly less tanking) mage/enchanter mage/bard mage/ranger mage/druid mage/cleric (shining armor bot!) mage/shaman mage/beastlord (but only if you play the beastlord like a mage)
Thanks for the replies, I'm torn...I love my SK, I also love the Necro class (leveled to high 60's back when cap was 70)..Also level a Beastlord to mid 50's. Like the Monk class but I see the point about aggro and know a Shaman is better suited to melee classes, my problem is I cannot get into the shaman class (boring to me)...decisons, descions, you have all given me alot to think about thanks again.
I never thought about cleric/mage cleric seems boring to me too, but let him get agrro and stack some damage shields on, with either 2 wizard mercs or a rogue and wizard merc for dps. You could survive quite alot there.
What is it about the SK you don't like? Switching to Monk or Rogue would mean either using of them as tanks (not optimal) or using a Tank Merc (again, not optimal beyond a certain point.) I'm not seeing how SK/Mage/Cleric Merc #1/Cleric Merc #2 or Wizard Merc would be anything but extremely solid.
What's "best" doesn't matter if you aren't having fun. Any two characters can make their way through the game, it just takes longer or is more limited by potential targets that other combos can handle. The druid will also mean nicer gear thanks to tracking and healing in raid instances where mercenaries aren't allowed.
It's very solid imho, maybe I should rephrase the question, With a Rogue (always wanted to try) or monk (like) what would be another option besides shaman? Like I said just can't get into it, although if this combo starts to shine I'm all for it....Mixture of fun with enough power to take down some of the group oriented mobs/quests, Thinking of adding 3rd but would definitely need an upgrade in a video card. Maybe just stick with 2 tried 3 boxing in EQ2 and it was a handful at least for me. I used SK/Necro/Fury liked the Brigand class but took alot of positioning. I guess I'm getting the basics of boxing down and want to try different combos. Maybe one of a class I never played or played very little. Sorry rambling here..just enjoying my time back, this game has and always will be the best when I think of my time in WoW (I was talked into it) . I want to puke also messed with LotR and Warhammer nothing compares, easier yes but hand holding no..and content forget about it...
Enchanter, Bard, Beastlord can all slow. Enchanter is best if you pay attention to it, bard if you won't.
I agree with Falos that lots of combos work great with a mage for a pet-tanking duo. I have used shaman, bard and wiz with my mage, and would say this: For named fights, the shaman is really nice. A cleric merc on reactive with the shaman debuffing and backup healing can keep the mage pet alive through most anything. For example, 3 or 4 yellow mobs at once in T4 RoF is survivable as long as you can establish agro quickly enough on the mage pet. This box group almost never dies due to the mage pet getting killed, they only die when uncontrolled adds kill the mage himself. So your ability to do a mission or event is really limited only by your ability to establish agro on the mage pet. The missions you cant do are the ones that require multiple tanks or too much running around by all characters. The shaman is easy one button dot layering dps when healing backup is not needed. For general play, the bard is a pleasure to use for pulling and exploration ahead of the group. Here you rely more on single pulling and bard crowd control to ensure survival of the pet tank. You can still handle a two pull, but are a bit more dependent on the cleric merc not glitching out. This is a fun play style for me, because you give the bard full attention on the pull and CC phase, and then switch to the mage. The bard does no direct dps, but certainly helps boost the overall group. Lately I have been using the wizard just to get his AAs up. I have to admit it is just fun to put the mage on macro dps and actively play the wiz to blow up the mobs fast. Having ports is really nice with the wiz, especially to quickly grind out the daily quests and jump to missions. But this combo has less tools to survive when the content is difficult, for sure.
Playing a mage your optimal pairing is going to be an enchanter or a druid. Mana Regen, Attributable dps, slows, mezzing, and charming with the Enchanter. Attributable dps, ports, healing, dps,snare and tracking with the druid. Playing an SK opens up your choices in what is optimal, but for best over-all duo with the SK it's going to be a Shaman. Your next best option is a bard. SK can pull, snare, tank, slow undead. Shaman will give you attributable dps, healing, and slows. Bard will give you Pulling, attributable dps, tracking, snare, Mezzing, Charming and more. What I play is a warrior and bard duo and have been playing this sett-up for years and still love it. Bards are the most versatile class and for me the most fun, a well played bard makes Everything easier and opens up so much more in what you can do. Warriors can take and dish out the most beating of the tanks and are fun to play. In the end though just play with what you enjoy. These days with mercs and cross over of abilities between the classes you can pretty much get away with matching up any class and being successful.
Oh I haven't bought CoF yet but plan too, are most of the named slowable? Any off the top of your head that aren't?
So let me ask this which could handle more SK/Shaman or Mage/ Shaman? I think I know the answer but I'd like to see some opinions.
