My brother and I started playing on FV recently, and we currently are playing a SK, Monk, and Enchanter with 3 mercenaries. I play the Shadow Knight and Enchanter, but there are two problems. First problem is that I am probably the worst person in the world when it comes to boxing. I suck at it. When the crap hits the fan, I tend to focus on one character or the other, and that ends up leading to a fast wipe. It's interesting how EQ is a slow paced game, but when things go bad, it happens in milliseconds, but that's another topic entirely. Having the third account is preferable if anything just to have a third merc at all times. But, I feel like I am not doing either of us any favors playing an enchanter lol. By the way, this is a level 75 group right now. Question number 1... Do you really need a crowd control in modern EverQuest, or can I replace my enchanter with something else (like a wizard, druid, mage, shaman, etc)? Question number 2... Does slow really do anything in modern EQ that makes it so that I need an enchanter or shaman in group? I ask because almost everything I slow says it was partially successful. That makes me wonder if it was necessary to even slow if it wasn't fully effective. Question number 3.... With what class would you replace the enchanter, and why?
Depends on your goals. If you want to push the limit and tackle difficult named and missions, enchanter is pretty awesome. All the buffs, slow/cripple (mental contortion is awesome), group DPS burn AA, CC, melee and spell group runes are huge, etc. For grinding xp/AA, no, you don't need all that, and a Mage would be the best replacement.
Question 1 and 2 are both answered by: Depends how much DPS you have, and what classes you use. I use a Shaman for healing and aDPS only. I never slow anything because it dies very fast. (Rogue/Zerker/Zerker for DPS). If you aren't killing super fast, then CC and slows aren't a bad idea at all.
Basically, what we both are looking to get out of the game going forward is completing the group content for each expansion. There will be zero raiding for us. We simply do not have the time in our lives for raiding schedules anymore. Therefore, the vast majority of our gear will be group gear. As long as I am not having to main the enchanter, I am fine with dragging him around doing CC and buffs. I want to spend the majority of my time focusing on the SK. I just don't want the SK to become the box and the enchanter the main. I'm a tank at heart
Replace the enchanter with a bard. You'll have CC when needed, but otherwise you can just /melody and reap the ADPS rewards. You've already got a good puller, but having a pocket bard to help out there is never a bad thing either.
I run WAR/ENC/DRU. Here's what I do. Concentrate on your shadowknight. Get aggro on all the things, start disc'ing, then move to the enchanter. Use the extended target window. My slots 1-3 are reserved for other things. Slot 4 is main assist. Slots 5 on up are set to auto hate. So extra things beyond what I am tanking are on slots 5, 6, 7 etc... On the enchanter, I have 3 hot buttons with macros. Buttons 5, 6, 7. These buttons are. /xtar {button#) , pause 3 /cast ## (single target mez) When the furball starts, my warrior hits appropriate area taunts, then I slap button 5, then #6 and #7. Thats three adds paused. If there are 4 or more, and I'm worried, I hit button 8. Button 8 is my AoE mez. Once things are under control, I start thinking tactically. Even with an enchanter for pulling, things can get messy. I use crowd control all the time, even as a warrior. I do notice slow+cripple on white and higher mobs. I can usually take red-con named (within reason) once the enc has them debuffed. Without those debuffs my druid is on spam heals. Shaman. With a shadowknight and a monk, the shaman melee buffs will greatly increase your dps and you don't need any pulling help from a bard. Both SK+SHM and MNK+SHM were classic power duo's. Bard would be a 2nd choice. Honestly, the enchanter stacks well with a SHD and a merc (wizard merc or healer merc). Slow+cripple, haste, manna recursion for sk taps, AoE and single target mez and manna regen. Only you can decide what mix you want between dps, utility and survivability. The enc is a good mix of all three. Move to wizard for more straight up dps (evac instead of AoE mez), or to shaman for more defense and boosting your shd and monk melee dps.
Are you alt-tab boxing or do you use different computers or a boxing program? If you want a near 0 effort /follow alt that contributes something in addition to 1 more merc go with bard. They are the only class with /melody that makes them do something for the group constantly without regular input from you. They also have awesome utility in those times you feel you need it with practice. Just be aware that bards have a natural affinity for finding stray mobs and dieing when used this way. Use rune procs and ae taunts liberally to help alleviate that issue. The more you are willing to tab or improve your boxing the more options open up for effective use.
The extended target window thing sounds promising. I've never really explored it that much. I didn't even know about /xtar. I will definitely take a look at that. My main issue with failing on the enchanter was that when a bunch of mobs would come in, I would try to mez, and inevitably one would resist mez and kill the enchanter in like 2 to 3 seconds max. Even with Eldrich Rune up, it just gave him like 1 extra second. So, it was frustrating because he would die before I could think to react lol. After reading what you said, I should have been pulling all the aggro to the SK before attempting to mez. The extended target thing will make that a lot easier knowing that I can have a button for mezzing specific targets on the extended target window. That will take a lot of the stress out of it.
I am running the shadow knight and enchanter on two separate computers, and my brother is running the monk on his computer. Outlander gave some great suggestions above that I think are going to make a great deal of difference, so I will likely keep going with the SK/Enc.
Is your enchanter free to play? Or do you have the auto-grant AA's? A few AA's make a huge difference in enchanter agro. I really suggest taking the time to set group roles and using them in your macro's. I'd never box without them again. You can figure out 90% of targeting and group roles by just right clicking on the group window or the extended target window. Also, your healer merc will concentrate more on your "group tank", and will not run off to help your "group puller", but will wait until he's back in the group. Fanra's wiki helps a ton. http://everquest.fanra.info/wiki/Useful_commands
All three accounts are paid accounts. I know I'm probably crazy, but I chose to not auto grant AAs this time through because I wanted to better understand what the AAs do that I earn. The last time I did auto-grant (on a heroic character), I was completely lost on the majority of the character's AAs. /(>.<)\ But... yeah I get it. The AAs would help a lot on the enchanter's ability to not get destroyed so easily.
chanter rock , be sure to always have [Ward of Bewilderment ] on you=http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/spell.html?spell=10666 { when mobs hit you they have a chance to me mezed } and [ Polychromatic Rune who last few hits and will need to reaplly when it fade ] =http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/spell.html?spell=10675 when it fade it proc an ae stun for 6 sec, usually enough to ae mez ( not sure if lv 75 chanter have that ) but later one chanter have great ae mez and other stuff at level 90? chanter start to get a combo spell rune buff as well .
what is your sk name in FV ? TBM armors and augments ( form the npc using remnant of tranquility are pretty good starting at level 75,). I could give you some for free ( at least for you sk, to let him tank better ), specially at lv 75 the armors from npc are about 5 currencies each, ( a little more for the augms ) and one task there give me about 1237 currencies for each toons ( 6 ).
SK is Mugh on FV. TBM armors at 75... are you talking about The Broken Mirror? Isn't TBM a much higher level expansion than 75?
This x10000. Shaman is a decent second choice, for additional heals, top-tier slows, and a bit of melee ADPS, but the Bard is going to give you and your friend's monk so much more mileage (literally, because Selo's is king) than Enchanter or Shaman. Talk to any Knight tank who boxes a pocket bard - they'll tell you it's impossible to go back once you've gone Bard.
It is but the gear is base level 75 with new augs ever 5 levels that you buy with mission currency from a merchant. The main quest you have to do to get access to the augments is also a HA so it level scales down the 75. Crypt-hunter gear on FV is decently cheap and the TBM merchant augs for it would set you up pretty well.
I've been curious, and I have no idea how to look it up... How fast is Selo's? And, I assume it also depends on foci, which will vary from bard to bard. But just a ballpark, as a percentage of normal run speed. I have permanent Cheetah on my druid (buff lasts 4 times as long as the cooldown, so... ), and it's decently fast. It's practically the #1 reason I don't like to play alts! But I'm curious how much faster Selo's is. Thanks
One simple thing I've taken to doing on my 3 boxes, is run a warrior merc, even if I'm playing a tank class. They are great at picking up snap agro until you can get things under control. The real problem you're having, is that your brother should be playing the chanter. When you box, having 2 characters that have to act at the same time, especially at the start of a fight, is tough to deal with. SKs are very "busy" tanks as well, and require a lot of attention. As far as the bard goes...meh, I'd rather have a chanter any day. This is coming from someone that has a lot of bards lol. Bards are a lot clunkier to deal with when it comes to CC, the long lasting, hard cast CC of a chanter is much much easier to deal with if you're boxing. Bard buffs also tend to really screw up feign death splitting, and will do all kinds of funny things with your other mercs and the 'puller' radius/agro. You also lose the bard buffs every time you go out to pull, so your mana regen is constantly dropping in and out, as well as other buffs. If your bard is set to a 5 song /mel, it's a long time before that 5th buff is back up on you again if you're the puller. A bard is also not going to solve the problem you're having, it will actually be worse, because you're going to have to spend more time tabbed out dealing with the bard, as it's much busier to keep juggling CC with. /shrug. I love bards, they are my favorite class in any MMO ever, but the reality is, they are just crappy chanters that run fast.
@ Risiko , what time of the day are you usually playing? I got many of the TBM stuffs that I can give you for free , is TBM now unlocked for anyone? if so I can even parcel you the currencies to buy them ( have you done the task to see the augments from the npc ? ) if not I could add your toon to do it.
