Druid or enchanter better to run with a paladin on Aradune? Since someone will bring it up, yes I know shaman is probably the “right” answer but I’m not feeling it. Plan is to group often but play time will be erratic so duo when grouping isn’t practical.
Enchanter. It's always enchanter. Keep Pal's stuns ready for charm breaks, use extended targets. Keep mob you're fighting rooted if not beating it with pal, otherwise, just tank it. Easy peasy. Charm aside, plenty of synergy with slow, haste, and mana regen.
Boxing a tank with an enchanter sounds like a huge hassle, especially if you are trying to duo and the paladin is your only source of healing.
Ehh it’s really not that bad, but it will be more effecient to just continually swap charm pets as they get low health, don’t even bother healing them.
We used to call that charm burning, just wear the pet out then break charm and kill it. That's lot of fun and we did that bard/druid in a group.
If you want to spend a lot of the time on the paladin - tanking and such, I would pick a druid for all their utility plus heals. Pretty easy to box with a druid. If you want to play passively on the paladin (not too much fun if you ask me), then I would go Enchanter. You can box pretty easily with a chanter, but if you want to charm, multi-mez etc., you will be playing the enchanter a lot. The paladin won't be much help playing passively. For an enchanter box, you can set up hotkeys for their dots and nukes and quick mezzes so that you don't need constant attention on the Enchanter. Fun and dangerous with lots of action and easy to get into other groups - I'd go Enchanter. Safe, easy with ports and track and if you want to duo almost exclusively, I'd go Druid.
So imagine you have an hour or two to play, and can't find a group; would you rather have a Chanter who can charm, haste, and I don't know, make you some jewelry, or a Druid who can port you all over the place, sow you DS you Heal you...etc etc. For me out of the choices given, Druid hands down.
I've had a druid box for many years. It's a great Hunter pair that can quickly travel, target, and tackle most anything. I find I value a druid's play-time-saving utility more then sheer power (bard, shaman, enchanter, etc.), although a wee bard is going to get his chance later this year.
So do you want to play a paladin or do you want to play an enchanter? If you want to play the paladin go druid. If you duo an enchanter everyone expects you to play the enchanter.
You just reverse charm a lot. Or break charm and mezblur to heal. Healing a charm pet on anything other than a cleric isn't a viable strategy. Pal can heal himself and enc when they take damage. Pal/enc the best duo for Pal out there mostly because enchanters are broken and ruin the game by making it impossible to get anything done without them early in the game. But realistically anything works with Pal other than war/sk. Clr, dru, shm, nec, mag, wiz, enc, mnk, rng, rog, brd. They're all fine.
Shaman if you want the 'best' option. Bard is my go to, because I would never ever play the game while not running Selo's speed. Also, pal + brd gives the ability to group with anyone.
If your goal is raw power then the ENC is the absolute best unless you do not want to charm. I understand some people don't care about the min max, but once youve charmed through POP you don't really not want to use that spell. The druid has some definite utility, but it just won't compare to the raw power of a charmed pet. An ENC and tank really gives you a solid foundation to start a group as well if you're playtime is sporadic. There is some synergy with the pal as well given their heals and CC for charm breaks. Rez is also big in classic.
Paly Enchanter is on my short list of what I am going to run. Enchanter has slow and mana regen, meaning paladin can tank and heal themselves. Palys also make good pullers, so the duo is a great group starter. DPS is paly's main problem, which a charmed pet takes care of. This is also why druid makes a nifty partner for palys.
Better off with Chanter/ Druid Palie/Chanter is an ok combo. It's busy to play, but it's fairly solid. Palie/Chanter/Wiz is actually one of the best 3 boxes in the game, so ...just add DPS and you're good to go. You would seriously be better off with Chanter/Druid though, especially in earlier expansions. Palies are pretty lack luster the first 3 or 4 expansions, and are of course incredibly gear oriented which is a bad choice for a first class on a new server. Chanter/Druid can level to max naked. If you're going to be charming with the chanter, being a tank class is very odd....you'll be pulling agro from the charmed pet, so ..kind of defeating the purpose. The palie doesn't bring enough DPS to make it more valuable than a druid or cleric. Hell, the druid will out damage the Palie. So at that point, what is the palie really bringing to the table? You don't need a tank, as the charmed pet will out tank you buy a mile, even raid geared so....especially while you are leveling in absolutely crap gear, with a really sub par weapon....it's kind of a waste. If you're just dead set on having a palie, chanter is a great combo. Gives you more CC, great mana regen, slows etc. You can certainly level that duo but you are trading snares, ports, evacs, damage shields, run speed buffs, and much faster killing for......hmmm...a Palie.
As mentioned, the enchanter will have the most power, but will require some shenanigans to work, mostly because you don't want the paladin taking damage in this setup. You'll need to regularly switch charm pets as they get low. You'll sadly probably be better off just mostly medding/healing with the pally in this setup and not bothering to melee. Maybe stuns. A druid will work alright, not having slow with a paladin 2 box will make things kind of rough later on. This duo will be fine early, but as fights get longer for the duo and things hit harder....ya. We'll have access to the level 40 crafted potions though, which will give you a lesser form of clarity. Again, you're probably better off not meleeing in this setup later on, and letting the druid focus on damage instead of healing you. Although DS damage does add up. You'd have to play with it both ways. And ya, shaman would be the best duo overall. I'd elaborate but you don't seem interested.
Sounds like the consensus is paladin/enchanter is stronger, but the pally mostly acts like a bad cleric. Druid trades power for versatility and a more active role for the pally. Out of curiosity, how would ranger/enchanter compare? Paladin and ranger are the only class I really haven't ever played. Thinking I'm going to make this a pally run, but could switch.
Ranger/ench is not bad. Snare helps on charm breaks, but on the other hand so does pally stun and LoH. I'd miss the rez I think going ranger over pally, you will die some either way.