I really want to develop my rogue character as a main and am looking to support this with another class. Ive had a look in search to check previous older threads and the suggestion was shaman and I can see why with the healing and aDPS; however, lacking a decent tank would be a problem in today's content. This leads me to consider a paladin instead. I know gearing would be an issue but having stuns (which helps with repositioning and disc usage on the rogue) group heals and some limited CC seems like it could be quite an effective duo. Does anyone have any experience of this or any other class that really helps to level a rogue? Cheers
My brother is currently duo'ing a shm and rog. From what I can tell from his report on it, its working out quite nicely. One question comes to mind tho, were you planning on using mercs? If so then the easy answer is yes, use a shaman. one toon uses healer merc, other uses tank merc. Pretty well rounded group right there. Later on your sham will get some very nice buffs that will make it very easy on the duo, along with the rogue being able to backstab from the front... Also it will help greatly to get shissar poison in pok to add a ton of dps to your rogue.
Yeah that's what I thought. I'm definitely not adverse to using mercs; however, I have read that the tank merc become a problem after 70+ and would limit what I could do with this combo.
Closer to 80+ really. But thats primarily on a stand point of simply moloing with just you and a tank. If your party consists of Merc: Tank and healer, along with your rogue and shammy then the tank will do just fine for a while. The lingering sloth line of spells on the shaman along with panther will be the bread and butter there. Of course all of it is relative in regards to what youre killing and how you like to do that. I triple box myself on occasion and like to mix it up now and then just to see what works well with eachother. Simply put, shammy works well in every equation. Tank merc will do great if you make it great. IE: with buffage and actually assisting in the dps... I would also recommend utilizing the leadership skills in group as well. Like making your rog "main assist" so you can guide that tank where he needs to go. like pulling aggro off shammy if that occurs. I also will utilize main puller if i want the healer and tank to follow one while I leave the shammy in a safe spot. All about how ya play it.
I'd recommend putting a few pieces of +ac merc gear from cotf on tank merc. They're very easy to get by running a few HA's and using group currency, just don't equip primary and secondary hands on tank merc, still bugged. Then get 8/8 melee defense merc AA's, ideally, as soon as you can. With these (maybe even without), a tank merc can tank TDS mobs 1 at a time, maybe 2 at a time if they are slowed. Not 2 at a time un-slowed though.
You can go a variety of ways w/ a duo, and it depends on your goals. Looking for utility and a dps boost? Bard would be good w/ tank merc and cleric merc. Pulling is awesome, has cures galore, can slow mobs alright, debuffs, and AC songs help the tank merc to a huge extent. Heals, a bit of utility, and dps? Shaman is good. Pulling still won't be great, but they can root off some adds (when possible). They are a better healer and debuffer for your tank merc, and great dps boost for you. They have cures also which are again important. Don't want to use a tank merc? Paladin offers a bit of pulling ability as well, better in concert w/ your traps. They have group cures and heals also which are money, and stun is cash. Magic debuffs and root are good things. SK will make the pulling part much more trivial, and have excellent survivability, but don't have the cures. You provide slows when needed in both cases. Cleric or druid can work if you like those classes and really want ports or something from cleric (stuns and vies or attack debuffs supplement the absence of slow on these two classes).
When my brother and I started back to eq a while ago we did the classic monk/shaman which I consider similar to a rogue/shaman which worked so-so. At first we went with the tank merc, monk, cleric merc and shaman which was pretty good. Than I got off my lazy behind and started solo healing what we were doing which was valley, HA's and such just switching out the dps merc for a cleric for named or really hard hitting mobs. I consider shaman/dps a good combo but than we tried a different combo which was a sk and rogue and we both agreed long long ago, real tank over real healer. With me tanking with my cleric merc he as a rogue uses his dps merc and we steamroll through HA's. Don't need to split, don't need to slow or anything just as long as i properly use my disc, AA's and spells it's no sweat. Shamans/dps is a good synergy but tank/dps is just amazing in my book. I feel that a real tank just makes things much more easier than a real healer in just about every situation we've come across so far. When we played monk/shaman we had to split, the tank merc just couldn't handle more than maybe, maybe 2 mobs let alone the 4 mobs I can tank with just a cleric merc in HA's. As long as you cycle disc, AA's and all I can tank 4 mobs at once in HA's without slow or mez or anything with just 1 cleric merc who doesn't even have any merc gear yet and only has 2 points in stronger heals. Short version, in my opinion real tank trumps real healer.
I loved the bard as a duo, but you had to be careful what you were trying to do with the lack of a backup healer and no real tank other than merc.
Sk/Rogue Healer and DPS mercs >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> tank mercs. With 2 healer mercs and the SKs ability to FD pull, you can do just about anything you can think of that a group of 4 could pull off. All of the other possible combinations of stuff are gravy up until stuff starts eating tank mercs (around 85 and up) I have very recently just done alot of goofing around between tank mercs, and my own SK tank post 85, and it's not even close. You're much better in the long run with your own real tank. Pali is also quite good, but the ability to FD is absolutely huge on a box team for a puller. Between the rogues vanish and the SK FD, you can get out of any bad situation.
I will probably end up boxing my Rogue with an Sk with Shaman on a third account.Haste, buffs, and slows can't be ignored.
OP wants to main a rogue. For a duo, I wouldn't recommend a tank if you want to focus on rogue. As a berserker main, I've had a lot more success 3 boxing shaman/ber/bard than tank/ber/xxx. Tank mercs get the job done with proper support.
If you're gonna play 3, consider war/rog/shm. .. at high levels warriors can set and forget for a lot of content allowing you to focus on the rogue more.
With the melee buff on prog servers at least. Sham is probably really good now. Paladin probably isnt too bad either.
Bard, shaman or tank. I do sk/rog and it's pretty effective with mercs but that's with sk main. As a main rogue I'd lean on bard - they're easy ish to box and their versatility makes up for the rogue's lack thereof.
My friend does rogue chanter box. It helps for multiple targets to mez and slow pluse haste. In tds its nice because he runes the grp pulls and mezzes adds while tank merc is holding 1.there are times when he has to rune the tank merc for healer to catch up.. But all in all rogue/chanter is a good combo as well.
When you say rog/enc, I'm not thinking "tank merc" at all. I'm thinking the enc tanks themselves with runes, or more ideally just stun locks the mobs. They still have backs even when they're just standing there looking dumb
Enchanter is a good choice, but I wouldn't underestimate warriors, especially at higher levels. I like boxing a warrior because their abilities are all basically instant, which helps with reaction time when boxing.
My buddy and I have been playing a monk and rogue together for a while now. It works really well. I can get single pulls all day long, let the tank merc grab the mob then it's dead in seconds between our DPS. There are more than enough level 90+ tanks out there, and most of the time if you can't find a healer a J5 merc with some AA's will suffice. Play what you want, enjoy the game, worry about specifics after.
