As the title says - I'm tossed up when trying to determine what to box with my Warrior - I have an 85 Druid, 80 Enchanter and 86 bard. I've tried all of them and each one offers its own benefits. Currently with them being in the mid / low eighty's; I know I am not seeing what the combination is fully capable of and am stuck pondering what the end result may be with any of those combos. Would anyone perhaps be able to share some experience with these combos?
I've played a warrior for a long time now as my main and have boxxed a slew of other classes with him throughout the years. Before mercs came out the preferred pairing I played with was a friends druid I would box. Track, Snare, healing and evac/porting all in one made that duo pretty good in all areas, and still are the selling points for today pretty much. After mercs came out I started to box a guildmates bard from time to time, and after learning the bard class I fell in love. Bards are the most versatile class in EQ and if you know what you are doing, makes everything so easy. Bards are tricksome too and can pull off some neat pulls or get you past obsticles that you otherwise would not be able to. These days I have 3 accounts and box my warrior druid and bard and think it is one of the best combinations to have. If you are just going to 2 box I would go with the warrior/bard. I did pretty much all of CoTF missions and tasks with my bard/warrior before I made my druid with the free heroic toon. With those three I have been able to do every missions/task and all of plane of war missions.. Except ToR 2 Stupid beguilers! Seeing as that you already box the bard and or druid with your warrior I imagine you know all this and all of the selling points that each of those classes brings to the warrior. With mercs, I would value a Bard over the druid with the warrior.
If you want what i think the *ideal* combo is, it'd be to roll a Shaman and PL him real quick. Hands down. From much trial and error, I can't think of a better way to go. Pulling is a non issue in today's game. You have the flexibility to heal and run two dps mercs, keep a cleric out and focus on cc/slows/dots/debuffs, or relax back, slow and spotheal/cure with needed. Even in the event of multiple mobs and you don't want to tank them all, you have multiple knockback roots and Warlord's Grasp to drag them in individually. This combo is effective, but also allows the versatility of different playstyles to fit your mood. If you're really set on one of those three classes, Bard is likely going to be the best to run with. I don't have to tell you that the warrior doesn't require much attention when tanking. The bard offers some invaluable tools and they're quite fun.
Everything in game besides Raiding can be done with a Druid and War combo add mercs if extra Healing or DPS is needed and you will be golden.
When I have the luxury to do so (and that is pretty common), I box a dps class with the warrior (I'm passingly competent, what I'd characterize as good though there are much better in the world, with either wizard or necromancer) and let a healer merc cover the tank's maintenance. Boxing shm and going 2*castermerc for damage, however, tends to be more stable & broadly capable. It's just slower than boxing your own dps. I've been working on integrating some damage casting socials on the shm to close the gap, but whether or not it'll get there I don't know.
Thank you all for the input, I have not heard much on the enchanter side though. With some neat tricks - insane CC, decent DPS (charmed pet and non charmed), slows, superior haste, crack, Runes for enchanter and tank, Insane pulling capabilities ( on par if not arguably better than Bards ) the only thing holding me back on the enchanter is the lack of porting / easy travel that the bard or druid or wizard offer. An enchanter with Aura's up, crack going and runes w/ slow and pulls. Can kinda chill with a healer and a dps merc doing the grunt work. But IDK, that just kinda why I was thinking enchanter.
Replace the warrior with enchanter, box a wizard if you want to do that then. An autofollowed Enchanter for just twincast aura is legit shameful as heck. And runes are stupid amounts of aggro, with war+enchanter setup you are running with 2 tanks fighting for aggro. (this is for level 100, things are probably different lower levels) The 4 people that actually play enchanter in this game will mostly agree that is an amazing setup for precisely the reasons you listed with the added bonus that you can tank with enchanter too.
use your cleric merc for heals. you will need dps. It would be a toss up between the bard for song and a melee merc or the chanter for slow with the melee merc. until they up druid dps theres no use for her unless its for ports and hard up buffs. If i were you id get a zerker box or rogue box to go along with your warrior.
Wiz mercs on burn will out dps boxed dps classes for most people (need to keep up with short/medium duration activated abilities). Unless you're going to actively play the dps, go for shaman or druid for heals + utility and 2x wiz merc. For most group content clerics are overkill for a warrior. Crowd control is also not needed if you're tanking with a warrior. Bard is intriguing if you want to do some crazy stuff, but for the 95% of the time you're just trying to get something done, the lack of either dps or healing will drag you down. I've boxed my enchanter with my warrior and the combo doesn't allow you to maximize what the enchanter can do (haste isn't necessary for a war as their dps sucks, cc and pulling is not needed as war can tank multiple mobs without sweating, slow is not needed for 99% of group content, wiz mercs will out dps an enc, war's mitigation negates the need for runes in group content).
War, shm, and dru with 2 wiz mercs and a clr merc works until you need to mez on a mission which does happen in places and then your stuck.
Shaman by far imo...I've been boxing my shaman Israi, with Myth since PoP. Granted Myth is end game raid geared and the shaman is RoF t3+/misc CoTF raid gear, I can box just about anything I want with the exception of RoT 2 group mission rolling Myth, Israi and 2 wiz mercs on burn.
