Hi all, just looking for some opinions about my box setup. My main is and always will be my ranger and I am looking to build 2 other chars to fill out a group that can handle current-tier group content easily. 1. Ranger - Will almost always be current expansion raid geared with a high AA count and near perfect augs, can usually tank group content pretty easily so considering using this as the tank. Also makes a solid puller and tracking for easy named assassinations - no brainer here. 2. Shaman - Already have my shammy box at 80 and the buffs/heals/slows have a lot of synergy with the ranger, so this will probably be #2 unless you can convince me otherwise. 3. This is where I'm looking for opinions. I've already got a monk at lvl 85 with 2k+ AAs, decently geared that may get some extra raid gear from time to time and I'd like to use him. However DPS on monk takes some micromanagement, and just being melee makes positioning a bit of a pain as well. Another option would be a SK to tank instead of the ranger, but I'm feeling he'd need some pretty great gear/AAs to compete. Wizard or Necro for easy box DPS and minimal reliance on gear. So what do you guys think, Ranger+Sham+Monk with a healer + rogue merc?
Too much micro management for DPS. If you box a monk, your going to lose DPS on your main, for substandard DPS on an alternate character that will be lower gear, have you considered a Bard?
I 4 box now, and like you...my ranger will always be my main. I agree wholeheartedly about having shaman as second. I use a cleric and enchanter as my 3rd and 4th. The cleric was originally my wife's, otherwise I might have done something different there. Back to the main point though. You may try an enchanter. Between their DoTs and stuns, and if you can figure out mezzing. Then you will have it made. Not to mention the fact that you will never haver to go searching for that long lost clarity again.
I'd almost say mage. Anything the ranger can't tank the mage pet can (without having to farm ac augs etc as you would with the sk). Then the ranger could do ranged dps on the mobs he can't tank, and get up in front to tank when he can. With the rangers pulling abilities, added with CoH, virulant paralysis, and Companion of Necessity/Drape, cover tracks etc.. you'd be able to do most content I'm sure.
Thanks for the replies, all. So I can see we're all in agreement that the monk would be too much micromanagement with too little reward. And opinion wise we have: Mage: 2 Necro: 1 Enchanter: 1 Bard: 1 Bards have always seemed pretty cool. I like the idea of how much bard songs would help with tanking and DPS output as well as mana for the whole team and tremendous pulling ability. I've also been itching to play another cloth caster too, though, it's been 9+ years since I've made one. My understanding is that mage/necro are cake-easy to box and you can play them effectively with just 3-4 macros.
IMO necro takes a lot more micro management than the mage. A button to malo, nuke nuke nuke is much easier than a few buttons to dot, feign to avoid aggro, etc etc. But the necro has more utility. All in how much effort you want to put into the character. If your main focus is on the ranger, I would think the mage would be much easier.
1st hotkey: /assist puller, /pet attack, /AA-Malo, /nuke /nuke 2nd hotkey: /nuke, /nuke, /nuke, /nuke, /nuke ..put appropriate pausing in the beginning of each line, and Mages are a 2-button DPS machine for botting. =P
mage , shaman , ranger would rock hard...i am playing with my friend ranger with his necro as alt. ranger pulling , combining with coh is so easy.. and you can cast shaman aa spirith of cheetah run speed right before your pulls to help a lot , when you run much faster than mobs and you can also snare what you want and coh to clear agro is $$$. agro many mobs, snare all them one after the other and near camp you coh. and the mobs are all near camp and don't move due to the snare and when one mobs is nearly dead you bring the other one near ect.
This sounds pretty darn nice! I'll definitely go with the mage, then. Last time I played a mage, I bought all his gear from bargain bags @ the EC tunnel torches.
I would consider changing the mage to a wizard if you plan on tanking with the ranger. Shaman is great, with the slows, heals, cc (vp and ps), buffs etc. A wizard is the same easy hotkey nuke cycles plus the ports are very nice running that many characters. I don't solely box, but when I'm chain cycling boring pillars missions and I can't get others interested I use a monk, sham, wiz and it's perfect.
Another question about boxing - I have been seeing some info about permanent 300% bonuses from the recruit a friend program. As I understand it, this bonus is no longer attainable which is a major bummer because it would be a *gigantic* boon to my new box account. Any word on it coming back out or methods to get a hold of one of these accounts?
I use a ranger/shaman/mage combo most of the time. As discussed above, with harmo/HA/CoH/snare/fluster/bluster, there's nothing I can't split/pull. Only downside is that the mage doesn't have an escape ability. I use two hotbuttons on mage: 1) assist, send pet, malo; 2) nuke/nuke/nuke/nuke. I have a few other hotbuttons for burns and swarm pets, but overall it's a pretty simple class to box. I use a tank merc, a rogue merc, and a cleric merc. With shammy spot healing, it's enough to do whatever I want. I've considered using two wiz mercs and then pet tank, but I'm not sure I can make up the loss in DPS with ranger only bowing. Other combinations I've used are shm/nec/mage and shm/sk/mage. All work, but it takes slightly different strats for each.
I use Cleric/Necro/Wizard.... Only reason I use the cleric is because my main is a cleric... I use 2 merc healers and 1 merc tank so that I dont actually have to do anything on my actual cleric and I can focus on doing damage with my wizard/necro... I use 2 computers so I keep necro/cleric on one and wizard on the other atm.. depending on the camp/mobs im killing I will swap one cleric merc out for a wiz or rogue merc... If I was not a cleric I would probly either add a chanter/bard... But for your current set up I would think Bard would be nice.. can add dps to your group and give ya mana regen/crowd control and be a good puller for hard to pull camps... seems like the best utility class to add to your group.
humm, mage pet (with decent pet focus tank better than ranger ) and you are using a tank merc who also weaker than the pet.? i would use instead,one merc healer and 2 dps mercs (casters ) . and use shm to dps as well with pet tanking.......... i am so glad i don't have to use a tank merc (except on nameds who got a " pull to them ae effect ).
That may be. I started my mage when my ranger/shammy were both 90/3k or so. Now my mage is 90/2k with EM8, so probably has decent pet. Problems with pet tanking: 1) I lose DPS from ranger as I can't get within melee range. 2) changing targets is bit more tricky, as is cc'ing in general. 3) if pet goes down, who knows what will happen... 4) pet is on box and so whatever management it takes, takes attention away from main (ranger) Problems with ranger tanking: 1) I can't scoot and pull to keep one in camp, so slower over all kill rate. 2) unless I burn, I can't out agro rogue merc (on burn) and sometime wiz merc (on burn), whereas tank merc locks agro hard. With a tank merc, my pets and rogue merc move to back arc automatically, my ranger can attack from behind as well increasing DPS, and damage intake appears to be consistent/easy to deal with. The only downsides with tank merc is that switching targets is a pain, AOE agro is a pain, and I can't control his discs. Maybe I'll test copy to see how big of a difference my melee versus bow really is and whether pet tanking with an additional DPS merc can make up the difference.
I use the exact setup as blacksun, but my ranger has 3 Mercs to switch between based on the situation. The great part about having a tank merc is that he s a tank with AI. Sure the Mage pet can tank, but when the hits the fan, heal with shaman and burn trueshot. Mage pet could not keep Argo on 3 mobs. I love the Mage for Coh and back up tank. Your third member to you group should either be a warrior (straight forward tanking) or a caster dps, macro him to he'll and don't ave to worry about attack range. My 2 cents
