Hey guys, I know there are quite a few posts about this but i want to ask about my situation specifically and more currently... I am just now returning to eq with 3 gold accounts and 3 heroic toons. ive been running mage/enchanter/druid but im not totally pleased with the druid as the third. sure, he can heal great but if i try to do much more with him his mana starts dropping at a rate far greater then the chanter or mage. ports are nice to have but GH can get you most places it seems. and im more worried about being equiped to handle TDS than anything else. i dont want to have to swap alts into this team just for certain encounters or fights so I've been asking around in game for experienced players to chime in on my decision as i have never been past lvl 90 so dont really know what I'll need... I play the mage scripted on a laptop next to my pc and the chanter/druid are on my main pc. i pull and cc with chanter and reach over to hit macros to pet tank or DS/nuke accordingly the most common suggestions ive received are: wizzy, cleric, and mage. im really open to playing anything i just want a solid team that can come as close to handling any situation as any team can be. I find my self slowly leaning towards the cleric or staying with the druid as i hear there are situations later in the game where you cannot take mercs. and if you're healing is entirely outsourced(as in the case of the wizard) youre SOL. but again any advice would be great! thanks so much!
If you're using all the abilities and the druid is draining mana it's mostly down to AA & gear, it can get better. If you want a different team member that's cool, but the mana thing doesn't stay a huge-huge problem as you advance the character. I'm pretty surprised you say the druid goes down faster than the mage, actually, since they mostly cast the same spells in combat; with you playing them together, too, they both have the same clarity/timbercore/blackwolf/enc-second-spire/modrods, so maybe something's up with what you're doing differently between them, like you're not expecting enough from the mage Raids are where you can't bring mercs, that's it. Other than raids, there's some mobs they're not real good against, like with AE damage, but there's no restriction.
I'd suggest a SK, Monk, or maybe necro. SK: FD & ench to split even more complex pulls, J5 healer merc should keep up with ench on slow duty. Mage focuses on DPS which is relatively easy to macro in /cast socials Monk: Mage pet becomes tank, mage is more likely to have to both DPS and heal / buff / etc pet which becomes more involved. Monk requires as much attention as SK, could be a very attention hungry box setup but also quite possibly high dps. Necro: 2 pet classes, one becomes tank, one becomes DPS, I'd expect it to be a very attention hungry box setup, at least until you really had the flow of the team ironed out. In short - I'd vote SK
if you want more dps but similar abilities swap out the druid for a wizard. When boxing, moving your crew around can be time consuming and having group ports can really help save time. Also for those "woops" situations evac can save a wipeout and spending the next 15-20 minutes ressing and rebuffing. I am currently redoing my box set as well, and adding a 4th character. I'm still leveling them up but I am already noticing that dropping my 105 Druid and DPS merc and adding a 98 necro and a 94 wizard I'm already killing stuff faster in HA's.
Druid Mana Regen 101 (this is if you want to give the Dru another chance) -Right click an empty spell gem slot: Regen -> Mana -> Mask of the ______ is a long term buff that is one piece of the puzzle. -Always keep Druid Skin on yourself, another piece of the mana regen puzzle. -Excuse me if this is obvious, but I'd rather not leave it out: use your ring or earring clicky, whichever has more mana regen. It's either "Knowledge of the Past ___" or "Soothing Breath ___" -Keep Spirit of the White Wolf or Black Wolf up as much as possible. Their mana regen alone isn't much, but it helps you are active with keeping the above mentioned buffs up (this will be easier once you acquire a Breastplate focus) -Get a Fear Touched Tunic --> Turns into a lvl req 92 Chest piece that extends the duration of White Wolf and Black Wolf. With the proper AA, you can now cycle through your Single Black Wolf / White Wolf and your Group Black Wolf / White Wolf. You will be able to keep them up pretty much 100% of the time. -Hopefully that will get you to level 96, where you get Nurturing Growth (a Call of the Forsaken spell) which greatly aids in the mana management of a growing Druid. Let me know if you have any questions.
I'm curious for someone who plays the Mage.enc.cleric combo to chime in. Those that have suggested it have been the most convicted in their opinion for the superiority of the set up
ive tried a ton of different 3 box combinations. mag mag bard is by far easiest to play and enjoy most. (my opinion) most of the content can be done with 1 heal merc and 2 wiz mercs. offering you insane dps with 2 pet tanks, tracking, selos, cc, pulling and more. for difficult camps or rares you can always sub wiz mercs for more healing.
Trying to avoid the bard as my friend plays one. I wonder how enchanter.mage.mage or shaman.mage.mage compares?
I play Dru/Enc/Mag (at level 92 now), and I run out of mana on the Mage way before the Druid or Enchanter. Not sure why you're running out of mana on the Druid so quickly. For simplicity, I just keep either the mob or my tank targeted, I never swap targets during a fight. I'm losing some DPS from skipping short-term DSs, but it's easier and less frantic. For T3 HoT (where I'm at currently), mobs go down so quick, there's no need to get any crazier. When running a Lesson, usually my chanter will be at ~75% mana, the druid ~45%, and the mage ~20%, at the end of the 30 minutes. This is using mounts, for the (what is becoming not that great) extra mana regen. So far, using J5 tank/healer/caster mercs, the team DPS over a night is averaging about 18,500, with the best fights in the 25K DPS range. Tat
depends on ur set up u like do wants a tank or do u want just a dps group that will stomp though everything with 2 cleric mercs and a war merc in which case u could go rogue shaman bard or u could do monk shaman bard if uwant a dps / tank group cuz monk can tank all the things except for specific named in TDS but even then i think u could do it with a no dmg primary and just slow dps or u could go for a caster group and just box 3 mages or 2 mages and a enchanter or bard or druid basically depends on what type of group u want cleric war enchanter with 3 wiz mercs is also good so ur combo is based off ur play style if uwant a group u dont have to do much in except heal i would do the war combo or if u want a dps group where u focus on 1 or 2 toons do the monk group
