I've dabbled with boxing for years now. My main is a Beastlord. I usually 2box a bard. I love most everything aside from melee positioning 2 characters. Occasionally, I 3box a wizard. Recently bought TBM for the 3rd account so I'm going to 3box more now. I have been reading boxing threads that suggest MAG/ENCH/DRU composition as the best synergy group with a healer merc and/or caster mercs. I'm not dropping the BST but I'm not married to BRD or WIZ. Does ENCH/DRU benefit BST enough to switch from BRD/WIZ? Since BST benefit from BRD melee songs so heavily should it be BST/BRD/DRU? Or does BST spells/DRU spells/caster mercs benefit enough from the ENCH to just do BST/DRU/ENCH?
I do not know how well Druids do at dmg/heals but beastlords are very focus heavy, i would prob go with bst/bard/cleric, better heals for your pet and self, since got bard for pulling/CC/buffs, cleric would be able to heal quite well. Back in the day years ago, i main a beastlord with box cleric and it worked very well for my self, cant say for others.
In a 3 boxing situation, ench/druid will go extremely well with any Melee, Hybrid, Caster DPS or Tank class. That being said if you already a bard and a wizard leveled up there really is no reason to switch classes As that group would be able to handle anything just fine.
I do already have a druid leveled to 98 on the 3rd account. I just don't use it until now. Is BST BRD DRU better than BST BRD WIZ? I like the extra healing. Is there a big dps difference? or does the druid debuffs and caster mercs negate the dps change of WIZ to DRU?
Depends on how you are playing your Beastlord. You can definitely eliminate tank and healer mercs if you wanted. If your focus on the bst is dps then you definitely want to keep the bard. That said, I wouldn't base your group comp around a tank merc. They are pretty much useless past tier 1 in TDS and your pet is far superior tank wise. I'd recommend shaman over druid for better group synergy if you are retaining the bard, etc. There are a lot of different ways to accomplish the same thing, just depends on how YOU want to do it.
I want to tank with the Beastlord and pet. I think I decided on using druid at this point for healing ports tracking buffs and debuffs. I hear you can use skin to plant and black wolf to buff your mercs nukes like crazy. It may help the BST dps too. Enchanter brings better CC and twincast, which probably helps mercs right? is that better than what a bard brings?
Bard is hands down superior for a beastlord. Especially if you are going for max dps and using dots, you will need bard dichot for mana on the bst. Druid is "ok" because they help the hybrid spell aspect of bsts, but really doesn't compare to shaman epic, dichot(roar of the lion)/puma, and the rest of their buffs. Bards can track. Porting is less desirable in tds/tbm as most of the zones you have to make decent runs to anyways, and selo's will ease the pain if you have to make longer runs. Don't get hung up on mercs. They are nice to fill out spots for some extra dps, but garbage in the long run. Go for maximizing your playable chars. Once they are AA'd and decently geared even a bard will demolish a wiz merc on a parse. But again, all opinion. You can do stuff however you want and be successful despite what I or anyone else will tell you.
I used to bind close to gribble for HAs. If TBM makes group port to bind not as viable somehow, then yeah I could switch to a non port class.
At this point I'm convinced to run BST BRD and a priest class/ WIZ or MAG. Also I'm concerned with BST and SHM buff overlap. What are your thoughts?
There hasn't been overlap since like PoP. Focus is the only one these days and bst focus is better than shm focus at 105 anyways. Beasts simply can't do the rest of the buffs you get from shm unity or their utility buffs like the slow proc. It's something that shouldn't be a concern at all for current content.
You make a compelling case for SHM. Am I going to be hitting dichotomy on SHM ASAP or saving it for emergency? Should I run a healer merc? caster or melee mercs?
Shaman dichot replaces the puma line, you keep it up 100% of the time in combat. Up to you and your laziness as far as mercs. Wiz mercs typically outperform the rog merc, but with shaman, bard, and beast buffs the rog mercs will pull ahead. I've run into the occasional melee pathing issue when I've used them, so it really depends on the terrain as far as which will ultimately be better.
They are awesome for melees If you were running a mage over a beast, the druid would be a better choice for that slot, but beasts benefit way, way more from shaman than they do druid. And it's all about buffing that beastlord to godliness
How much attention does it take to box a cleric as the only healer? is this really doable with such a focus heavy BST?
