What's the better synergy for a group of sk, zerker, rogue, bard, shm- ranger or beast? We originally added a ranger but are wondering if a beast would help the group more. Or if you think something else would be better let us know! Thanks
Mage for pure convenience of moving around. From your choices though Beastlord will add more adps to your group, but the ranger will add a ranged dps class.
Are you guys boxing? If you're all playing individually your group will be strong enough that the difference between beastlord and ranger won't be that large. Once your SK is geared (group or raid) you'll destroy whatever is put in front of you. Rangers suffer from mana conservation issues, something that your bard can help with but will have to choose what priority mana songs fit in their rotation. Beastlords will provide substantially more ADPS to your melee characters and their pet can provide an offtank in situations that it's needed (hold aggro on a mob that just aggro'd while your SK is unable to pick up, or to split mobs etc). Like Kraken says, rangers provide more ranged DPS than a beastlord, so in situations where you need ranged DPS (which are few in the group game) they will shine.
I'd go with beast among those two, but neither would be my first choice. In terms of efficiency outside of a fixed camp - mage In terms of group capability - pal
Beastlord will add more sustained adps to the group whereas a ranger would add burst damage and also some healing boost through auspice. You have a bard so ranger group wolf haste is pretty much lost. If the ranger is being "boxed" then i would drop it for a beastlord. A boxed beastlord will probably contribute way more than a boxed ranger.
If you are planning on doing the heroic missions you are going to need to plan for what to do when you single healer is ... charmed, mezed, DT'ed, etc. Having something like a mage or bst can make a huge difference in those situations. For normal stuff where its just pull some trash and kill them you'll rip through stuff either way.
Sk self heals Ranger desperate heal line highly underrated, especially since they can be TOT cast in TOV+ level range
