90 Human Bard 89 Troll SK 85 Ogre Warrior. Cleric Merc Cleric Merc DPS Merc I know the race is not really important but thought I'd share I am not doing anything overly challenging yet so it works fine. I like tanks and with a Bard they are pretty deadly.
No epic yet. I think you are right even without epic though. I tend to err on the side of caution but I may trade out for another dps.
I wouldn't call it stupid but it's ineffiecient. What matters most though is whether or not you are having fun.
It's annoying to level up a new character, but you would save more time in the long run by fixing the group now than going through L105 with a poor group makeup. Bard + tank (either) + shaman + 1x cler merc + 2x wiz mercs would be ideal for you. Shaman don't require lots of gear/aa to be useful, and would allow you to drop the 2nd cler merc.
Well, here's the thing. I have a shaman on the same account with my SK so I cannot play them both at the same time. I started the warrior just to have a tank available to box with the shaman. Then I started having fun with the two tanks together. These are the possibilities I have with the characters I have. Mage/Bard/SK Mage/Bard/Shaman Warrior/Bard/SK Warrior/Bard/Shaman I tried the Warrior/Bard/SK with 2 melee DPS and one cleric tonight and it was better. Then went back to Mage/Bard/SK with the 2 melee DPS and one cleric and the fights were really short. Up till yesterday the Mage/Bard/SK was my standard 3box and I like it a lot. But I am having fun trying out weird combos.
Mage/Bard/SK is a solid combo, but I'd swap the melee mercs for wizard mercs under any circumstance, especially with a bard using a spell aDPS melody. Even if you decide to try bard+shaman+war some, I'd still play spell aDPS and use wizard mercs, fyi, simply because wizard mercs are that strong.
Bard spell songs aren't great. Bard + melee mercs is hax; the casters are better in any group lacking a bard.
Hmmm... The Mage / Bard / Shaman with Tank, DPS (melee or caster) and maybe swap between healer and 2nd dps merc?
I used to box brd/mag/nec. But was planning on adding sk/shm/dru (or clr) before all the nerfs made me not want to give them my money anymore. My old 3box was pretty dang good with a cler merc and 2 wizards
Having a player tank is extremely nice so I'd go with one of those combos. Warrior bard shaman or mage bard sk are well balanced and will both do very well at any content.
Nothing dumb about your settup. These days you can mix and match any three class combinations and get things done in EQ easily with mercs. Of course your 3 class settup is not as efficient as other pairings can be. The best 3 box team is Warrior, Bard, Druid
Considering the intelligence of the troll and ogre only being offset by one human and a bunch of mercs....pretty dumb! (just teasing)
I recommend trying War, Sham, Bard + Wiz mercs. I say 3 Wiz mercs because I have yet to see Melee mercs out DPS Caster mercs. But eh, I'm told bards increase their dps equal to or above casters. According to my parses that would be a 4-5k increase.
