So, I've been messing around with this pet focused multibox setup. Magi + Necro + Shaman seems to be a damn good core. Three pets + shaman proc buffs = profit. Also the magi and necro can easily be controlled with a couple of hotkeys. The question is what to add on next? Which class would add the most to this setup? I only really want to add one more. I would like to leave the last two slots open for mercs/players. I am leaning toward Enchanter at the moment. Mainly for the buffs + another pet + easily hotkey'd for combat. Beast, Bard or Wizard would be the other options I suppose. I have my ranger tagging along as my fourth at the moment. Simply for ranger track. Which is handy. He's also very easy to box with /autofire on. He just doesn't do much damage this way. And obviously, he has no pet.. I like the idea of a four box as it gives me flexibility with the two merc slots. Any opinions?
Bard, Hands down. I box the following, Bard, 2 Mages, a Necro and Shammy. Mages almost exclusively use rain so they don’t benefit from the Bard songs when using rain, But the pets, Necro and Shammy do. And Mages do if they are using DD. I also do not cast the Shammy panther line, it takes way to long and I get a better RoI on dots. I run an A5 merc healer, that lets me focus on DPS. Necro and Shammy are my sustained dps. SL Names may last 60 seconds, others a tad longer. Songs and song order, spells and pets change depending on what im doing. Note: If the panther line was a faster cast, like 1 second cast time I would put it in my mix. An AA version would be nice. The Bard is my main and I pull with her, This lets me be more aggressive with my song line up. I do not tank with the Bard, I let the pets do that.
Bard is OK, does most stuff the chanter will accomplish plus superior run speed. But if you want to continue with your "pet theme"... You are heavy into mana and pet damage with your current set up. Enchanter Breeze type spells will be like putting them on steroids. There is nothing quite like not taking the damage in the first place vs. healing damage taken. Unless you are taking on a lot of mobs that can't be mezzed, chanter can cut the damage in half or better. Only down side is a relatively weak pet.
Bard if you want something easy to box, just to AFK melody / pull with. However, if you want to actually increase killing speed by a good margin i'd add a wizard... not a boxed one, using a macro to twist the lowest sustainable nuke but an actual one you'd focus on, rotate cooldown and play properly... heart of fear T4 names will go down in less than a minute with a full burn on the wizzy. Depending on how good you are with the wizard, you may kill fast enough to not have to DoT on the necro and shaman... and 96+, with claw of ashwing-flamewing, wizard can sustain high numbers forever. Teleporting may also come in handy when 4 boxing I'd also advise you to NOT make an enchanter. the pet isn't ''relativly weak'', he's garbage. slows and melee buff are already covered by your shaman ( chanter haste IS better.. but not by that much). High level shamans hardly run out of mana, necro from 40+ hardly run out of mana ( does crack even stack with the lich line of spell?) and the mage... meh, half of his damage comes from the pet anyway. if you have trouble with multiple mob ( a shaman + one Healing merc should be able to heal a mage earth pet trough 3 or 4 mob), bard remains the best pullers... wizard got a couple trick to pull stuff, kite some, or simply burn hem down in 2 nukes.
Absolutely. I have both an enchanter and a bard, and I have come to leaving the enchanter out of the group (becoming just a buff bot although used to be my main char). It's not that I dislike the enchanter, but the bard's ability to increase pet output is huge. All I have to do is forget to restart the attack songs and I can clearly see the dps has dropped significantly. The enchanter is great at many things, still my favorite char to play solo or with one box. But for a pet group the bard wins.
As others have said - bard for combat purposes, hands down, and you do get a bit of tracking utility along with it. Remember to position your overhaste Aura or Echo in such a way that any Swarm Pets can benefit from it too. 25% haste on a Magician's gargoyle is significant. If you're nimble enough with your boxing, you can further boost the gargoyle's DPS by making a hotkey for the shaman to do "/target Magicianname`s pet" as soon as it spawns and then cast a fast-cast-time single target haste buff on it (I like Alacrity, which reduces down to 2 sec with Quick Buff). The effectiveness of doing this gets better as the Magician gets some Extended Swarm AA and general pet DPS AA.
Enchanter gets my vote. I'm sure bard is super duper awesome too but I've not played one before and I box my mage-chanter all the time and LOVE it.
Another vote for bard here, although a second magician is also an excellent choice. The mage's major weaknesses are pulling/CC, a niche the bard can fill extremely well. You also have a lot less gear competition (up until the recent all/all stuff) by adding a bard vs. another cloth class. I'd actually consider dropping the shaman and adding some more DPS since you can use a merc to fill the healing role for group content.
Bard seems to be the overwhelming choice. I have a 77 bard. I just need to xfer him off my magi' account. I didn't realize bard added so much more than chanter. I rarely get to group with either one. Thanx for the advice.
Pets and no merc. War March Suffering Spry Arcane Hymn Chorus Echo of Va'kar For DPS with Merc healer. Aria of Va'kar Potency Fire dot Poison dot Aria of Va'kar Potency Fire dot Poison dot Aria of Va'kar Potency Suffering Disease dot Echo of Salara
