Returning player 3 box heroic team

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by kn7cker, Apr 26, 2020.

  1. kn7cker New Member

    Hello I have been away for five years. I created new characters to get back into the game to learn the mechanics of the characters I wanted to play. After 2 weeks running around and playing I upgraded my 3 box team to heroic. My team is sk,wizzy, cleric. I dont plan staying member all the time I will bounce back and fourth between silver and gold member. What should I focus on first to get my team moving in the right direction? I was thinking doing the 1.5 for each first, will I be able to complete them with my 3 box team? I could do the journeyman quest but if I drop to silver then cant use that merc.
  2. Vumad Cape Wearer

    Journeyman quest is simple. There is no reason no to do it. Plus you are probably going to want to keep a sub on your tank. Not being able to use a lot of the augs and armor plus AA will make for a lesser experience with a SK.

    Otherwise the direction you head is up to you. Just do the things you enjoy. If you want your epics then just do them. It's a game so anything you enjoy is the right direction. The only way the right direction matters otherwise is if your goal is to get to the end to start raiding or etc. In which case you need to plan to keep your sub and maybe consider a different group makeup than the one you are currently boxing.

    For me, my 2 boxes support my main. Cleric epic 2.o is an extra divine arb so it's hugely beneficial, while the mage epic I haven't bothered to get yet. Cleric has a rez AA now that is better than epic 1.0 so, I have it, but that would be a waste of time now. The only thing that matters with my boxes is how much stronger they make my main. That might not apply for you.

    You are going to have the best experience if you plan to keep your tank subbed with a J5 cleric merc.
  3. Bronk Elder

    SK Epic 2.0 is a must.
    Yes, subbing for the SK would be the first priority if you have to choose one.
    You should be able to do most of the epics with your boxes. Join a helpful guild for the rest.
    It's good to have the J5 quest done so that it's there for you during those times when you are gold.
  4. Tucoh Augur

    What you do first depends on your near-term goals. If your goals are to hit max level and get geared ASAP so you can raid or play with other high level people, then generally you'll want to find good ways to grind out the levels. Checking out Gribbles in Dead Hills or maybe The Broken Mirror adventures or Gnome Memorial Mountain might be a good idea. They also provide you good gear as you level, with GMM gear not usable till you're high level.

    If you're tryign to have fun I recommend checking out level appropriate content and either doing quests or just clearing the zone of mobs. This is what I prefer to do when I level, just see content I haven't done in a while or haven't seen period and murder everything in sight.
  5. TheTone Elder

    A couple points - some of them echo the answers before me:
    1. Keep your tank subbed - it's going to be hugely problematic to clear content not <5 levels below you without a subbed tank. There are no type 7/8 augs available to silver accounts, so your SK is going to have ~15% lower AC than they otherwise should have.
    2. SK 2.0 is the bomb - definitely make this high priority. Easy to get all 2.0s at L85.
    3. Level up and use autogrant AA - I didn't know about autogrant when I started and essentially wasted over 3000 AAs.
    4. If you use "software" you can easily heal your group with the cleric, they are super powerful. If you are alt-tab boxing, you might consider just rocking a J5 merc on your subbed main, and swap out the cleric for something easily boxable.
  6. Zamiam Augur

    1. there are a few 7/8 augs that are Non prestige .. so silver toons can use non prestige augs .. especially sense the OP stated he upgraded his toons to heroic .. he has access to all the heroic augs (which are non prestige) from the HoT quests line.. also i believe any of the HOT zone augs are non prestige as well .. and there are a few others out there ..

    2. I agree with this .. SK 2.0 is a necessity ..

    3. cant use autogrant while being silver .. being heroic he will have access to those initial AA's from the heroic upgrade , but unless he subs he wont be able to autogrant .. Key here is to lvl up as fast as you can and then sub once your over lvl 100 and hit autogrant .. if your going to keep your tank sub'd then yes autogrant is the way to go ..

    4. I agree .. although even if i have a healer in group, when im boxing i usually always have a merc for backup .. my reaction time isnt the best and for that rare instance a roamer comes and starts hitting one of your box'd toons merc can usually save them as long as they can take a hit or 2..
  7. kn7cker New Member

    If I get rid of cleric do I lose the upgrade or can I upgrade another character to level 85? Who would you replace cleric with? Will healer merc J5 be enough for the group if doing high level dungeons? I could J5 merc healer and 2 wizzy mercs to complete setup if replace cleric with shaman. Shaman dont go well with wizzy though. Maybe enchanter to keep wizzy and the two merc wizzy going non stop.
  8. TheTone Elder


    1. Excellent - I didn't know this! I will need to do these for my boxes.
    3. I mostly meant for him to be autogranting for the 1-month he has them all subbed (assuming he bought a 1-month sub and free heroic).
    4. I hear you on this - love having a backup cleric merc


    I'm 99% sure you can re-heroic the cleric into something else at no penalty - this might expire May 12th when the anniversary stuff ends, but not sure.

    Personally, a J5 healer merc is OK for most content so long as you are really good about cleaning up aggro and whatnot and blocking many of their "Promised" line of heals and HoT's. I find the healer merc can't quite deal with AoE's very well...he tends to AoE heal, then single heal, then AoE heal and it's not enough.

    I would replace the cleric with a Mage - they are super easy to box and CoTH is likely the most useful boxing spell out there. Also, their synergy AA will jive very well with all the wizards.
    Zamiam likes this.
  9. Zamiam Augur

    with an SK as your main and assuming he is subbed all the time so has access to all the augs and gear he will need healer J5 merc should be doable for about 80 to 85% of most content .. there will be a few group missions or some partisans that will require a real healer ..

    Like TheTone said above in most content from CoTF and above but mainly EoK and higher the named have some nasty AE's and some missions actually have environment AE's .. yes TBL Trials im talking about ya just to name a few ..

    Clerics are Awesome .. However in the group game and if your going to be boxing you need toons 1. that will compliment your main and 2. a toon that can fill multiple shoes so to speak .. for example Healer mercs can already give you the main cleric HP/AC buff .. druid gives you heals (true they are no where near as good as clerics or shamans ) they have snare, Tracking, Heals, Ports ..

    then there are shamans prolly imho 2nd best healers in the game and can solo heal most if not all things group wise if have right gear and aa's .. shamans have a pet which isnt bad at higher lvls .. some CC abilities .. and they can dish out some nice dps if not having to main heal .. plus shamans have the best buffs aside from clerics .. slow and haste and sow ..

    if it were me .. I would replace wizzy with mage and replace cleric with shaman.. I know you will loose ports , but you can get to almost anywhere by utilizing guild hall , PoK stones or Camp fires .. mage has DS backup pet tank and if for some reason healer merc dies SK, mage and shaman can survive . even if shaman bites it sk and mage can still live .. mage can heal his pet and sk can Lifetap ..or SK can FD and just rez the mage and shaman :p
  10. kn7cker New Member

    I've seen few mention shaman. What about bst as viable option instead of shaman? Sk, mage, bst? Bst is Jack of all trade type character can heal, buff, second best pet I read, good dps.
  11. Zamiam Augur

    bst is a good option I play a bst , however having multiple melee in a boxing group is difficult .. but if you can pull off 2 melee's in the same box'd group takes not only skill in boxing but you really have to know the classes .. also no matter what whenever you box multiples you loose a fraction of what those classes can do ..depending on ones skill level at those classes and boxing will determine how big of a fraction loss it is ..

    where is a pure caster group with only 1 main melee , you still loose a fraction of their potential but easier to handle and dont have to worry about toon placement and all the combat abilities and aa's discs yada yada ..

    casters you have 1 or 2 main hotkeys you alt tab hit it and forget it mostly .. then can focus on the tank
    Tucoh likes this.
  12. Tucoh Augur

    In addition to this, relying on cleric mercs puts something of an upper limit on your box team's potential where there will just be certain encounters and situations your mercs fail at, typically large amounts of AE damage and any kind of movement.

    Shamans are also in a great state right now where they provide so much healing and buffing capability that they're hard to skip.
    Zamiam likes this.
  13. Thoxsel Djess' Pet Warrior

    Agree with Tucoh, you'd likely want a shaman instead if you want to push the limits on what you can do yourself. If you just want to casually do some grinding here and there on nothing too difficult you will do fine with the beastlord instead.

    Of course your mileage may vary depending on your proficiency on boxing multiple characters too, which is something to consider - like Zamian mentioned. And there is always the option to fill out the merc slots with players in order to do that "harder" content.

    Welcome back to the game by the way OP.
  14. Ultrazen Augur

    A shaman will greatly improve your SK, all a cleric will do is heal it. Wiz as a 3rd box is fine, as it's super easy to macro, but so is a mage.

    I've run a lot of combos with an SK, shaman/mage is pretty tough to beat. CotH is really nice to have on a box team. To that end, you could think about SK/Druid/Mage which gives you some things most people don't take into account. Druid debuffs, especially when you're running a mage are no joke. Druid for me, is easily the go to 2nd box spot, they just bring so much to the table. They heal well enough to supplement a cleric merc, can DPS pretty well, and bring some really useful travel and debuff options. I personally would take a druid over a wiz any day of the week, and by a huge margin. The damage that your druid would add to your mage, will make up for the extra damage a wiz would do on its own, and you get a healer to boot.

    The thing about shaman is, there are very few mobs that you need to slow in the higher game, that will actually be able to be slowed. The druid attack and resist debuffs work on almost everything.

    Sk/Shaman/Wiz is just fine, you'll be able to do most things with that box, and it's one of the better combos in the game, Sk/Druid/Mage just brings some quality of life things that are really nice on a box team. Druid and Mage are also both dead easy to macro, so you'll spend 95% of your time piloting the SK which is what you want. Adding anything else that you have to micro manage to that team will be a pain in the butt. Trying to run a tank yourself, and also run something like BL that needs a *lot* of attention and positioning to deal with is a really tiring nightmare after a while.
  15. ArtremasEQ Augur

    IMO I'd go a Mage over Wizard. Mages are in a great place right now, and often out DPS's wizzy. Esp in group game with pets. Plus its a decent off tank if needed, and grp COTH is to die for...

    SK Mage, Sham is a very good combo and easy to box. Then add Merc Cleric, and other DPS.
    For hard stuff, you can always pop 2 Merc clerics.