3 Box Group w/o a real Tank.

Discussion in 'The Newbie Zone' started by X_Rayted, Feb 21, 2017.

  1. X_Rayted New Member

    Would a Box group that doesnt have a real Tank still work? Been thinking about something like Beastlord, Druid, Mage which doesnt really have a Tank or way to pull singles/CC. Dont consider a Mage pet a real Tank since they get nerfed every other month. Would BL, Druid, Enchanter be better so at least I have a way to deal with adds. What are some good 3-Box Groups that dont use a real tank?
  2. Rhaage Augur

    My current understanding is that mage pets are still the strongest of the pet classes, so the Mage becomes the tank.

    for CC you really only have 2 options, Bard or Chanter, it's been my experience that bards will help a killing group kill faster whereas chanters can more easily save a bad pull. In your case I would recommend chanter. Their mez is slightly longer and are easier to box and they have a strong slow which helps the pet.

    for healer, you have 3 options, Druid, Shaman and Cleric. If you are on TLP I might give the edge to the cleric as they are the most focused on healing. If you are on live, a druid makes a fair choice and you can pack along a cleric merc for backup.
  3. Gundolin Augur

    I have had pretty good success with a Mage/BL combo pet tanking and cleric healing. But the duo pets tank pretty well, pulls of >3 you will probably want to use some root crowd control. But keeping it to 3 and under isn't that hard.
  4. NameAlreadyInUse #CactusGate

    The recent changes (buffs) to mercs allow them to play the game without you. At this point, I think all class choices are probably viable and the choice comes down to how quickly/easily you want to progress. If you choose to forgo using a real tank, you are already deciding to take a slower path.
  5. Exmortis_MT Elder

    I play on Lockjaw so adjust accordingly.

    I have a now 60 level trio: Ranger/Cleric/Chanter.

    This has turned out to be a tremendous trio for XP and quest grouping.
    Ranger: Provides a decent tank, but offers great DPS you wont find from SK/PAL/WAR. On top of that it comes with good buffing, track, and utility. If you Tradeskill Tae Ew Chain is the bomb.
    Cleric: Hands down best focused healer, and has Rez. On top of that the AC/HP buffs are a real boon for the ranger. If you focus on undead dungeons? Oh yeah has an amazing DoT line.
    Enchanter: The best CC in game, as well as haste/slow/mana regen. Charm adds amazing DPS, and once you get DC? Well its like having a 4th PC DPS class. With Cleric buffs it can off tank when you need it too. Now almost fully kitted out with DE chainmail Cultural.

    Took some time to get it all down right, but Outdoors ranger pulls like a dream, in dungeons I switch between chanter/ranger depending on situation. I am unsure if live makes a difference, been so long my knowledge is completely outdated.
  6. Tatanka Joe Schmo

    The biggest issue in your question is "work". It's highly subjective, and you'll get widely varying responses.

    Having said that, I box DRU, MAG, ENC, and it works for quite a lot, and pretty well. I use a tank merc, a wizzy, and a healer. Druid is backup healer, when needed, and Mage pet picks up the mob if the tank goes down.

    I haven't done anything in EoK (don't have it), and practically nothing in TBM (was ~94 when TBM came out, grinded to 105, and then got sucked into the Artisan's quest, which wasted a lot of time, and then burned me out. Just returned this week after a 3 month break). Most progression quests and HAs seem to go pretty well, some are a bit of trouble, but I usually find a way to make it through.

    It's not the ultimate class makeup for a three box, and I'm not anywhere near the best boxer (my reflexes sucked when I was young, and I ain't young no more ;) , but I have the classes I do due to just what I had handy as the years went by. Took me 15 years to get them to max level, LOL, so I'm not starting over.

    TL;DR - Yes, a three box with a merc (or pet) tank will "work", for many, but not all values of "work"

    Tat
    moogs likes this.
  7. Tatanka Joe Schmo

    Maybe level restrictions on LJ apply, but druid and shaman also can rez, though at 90%. 96% is still purely for clerics.

    To put that in perspective, when you die, you usually lose about 10% of a level, so a 90% rez gives back 9 of that 10%. So the difference between a 90% and a 96% rez is .6% of a level. In today's game, that's not really that many kills. Especially if you're in a hot zone, or on a Lesson (or both, LOL).

    Tat
  8. moogs Augur

    Reading this was like looking in a funhouse mirror.
  9. moogs Augur

    I don't have a high enough level shaman, but druids have a 96% rez AA which can be used out of combat. This is less of an issue since any class can give a 96% rez with tokens from the Loyalty merchant in POK.
  10. Tatanka Joe Schmo

    Yeah, forgot about the AA rez. Didn't know about the loyalty option.
  11. moogs Augur

  12. X_Rayted New Member

    might drop the BL and go with Mage, Druid, Enchanter. Also really thinking about adding a 4th, which would be a Wizard. That seems like the best option given my current setup, but don't know if I wanna spend $60 a month.

    Also I want to go back and do a lot of achievements from older expansions as I level. So want to be able to handle the tier 3 and 4 zones while Im still within 5 levels.
  13. moogs Augur

    I do Druid/Enchanter/Magician. It was a little rough for a bit there when tank mercs and pets were getting hit by nerf after nerf, but things are a little better now with last week's patch. Also I've got my mage pet geared better than ever before, so I'm hoping that will make a difference when I start on EOK.
  14. Murphy Elder

    I tried to mage, ench, shaman thing and it worked. It was slow.

    When I decided to roll a class with 2handed wep dps I immediately saw firsthand how slow the old pet tank box group was.

    Now, I go with SK, shaman(or BST), and necro. Group stuff dies a horrible, quick, embarrassingly easy death.
  15. Peechka Journeyman

    Play on test then if $$ is an issue. I would stick with 3 though, with 3 mercs. Get a healer, caster dps, and a tank merc and you will be golden.

    I still recommend a warrior though. You will have an easier time with adding a real tank. They are easy to manage too, basically auto attack other than maybe a boss fight when you want to burn him down and not lose aggro. the dps on a real tank is no slouch either. Then this opens up your merc slots for 2 dps and one healer. Maybe have another healer on reserve on one of your accounts for the boss fights. I know on test I was starting to have problems keeping my tank up against bosses, but it was an equipment problem though. I had basically lv 85-90ish gear on taking on lv 95+ named. But still with 2 healers it was cake and doable.

    I run SK/Ranger/Shaman, and although the shaman is kind of a waste, wish I rolled a chanter or mage instead for the dps, but i always like the shaman so i stuck with it. But I took this trio up to the high 90s on test without issue, even doing t1/t2 named no problem. I rerolled them on FV though when test was going on a month of problems, right now they hit 70 last night.
  16. Outlander Engine Elder

    I tried the enchanter / mage / druid for a bit, and decided I didn't like the enchanter part.
    So now I'm playing a necromancer / mage / druid.

    I've got this little group up to level 65. The mage pet tanks well for what I'm doing. Had a buddy's alt bard join us for a while, and the air pet was able to hold agro for us.
  17. X_Rayted New Member

    I would proly just use the Enchanter for pulling and CC. I know that can be handled by a Bard, which would pull a lot better. However, Im thinking if I run a group like I mentioned with all Casters an Enchanter proly fits in better. 4 Box just opens up many more possibilities. Could drop Wiz for a Necro but I dont see any reason for that unless I just want to be able to FD during a wipe and whip out a cleric merc for rezzes. I just dont like melee classes. I never got one past like level 50 before which is why I wanted to try Beastlord at first.
  18. Dabrixmgp Augur

    Pet should tank just fine. If he has trouble just bring in another Healer merc. I just started a new 4 Box group with Enchanter, Mage, Wizard, and Druid and loving it so far. I use the Enchanter to pull then handle all the CC and Debuffs. None of these classes really require much effort. Im using a Merc tank for now with a Wizard Merc and nothing lives very long or posses a real threat.
  19. Karanthal Augur

    I've been leveling through content using druid/bard/mage (currently lvl 98) combo of and on for a few years without a real tank. Back in the old days where mage pets didn't hold aggro if anyone else was in melee range I used a melee group with a merc tank so i could melee with the bard. I'm definitely seeing better results with a caster focused group though using the mage pet as tank. The merc tanks just dies too fast. Typically I have 2 wiz mercs with 1 healer. The bard adds conciderably to the 4 casters dps with the druid swapping to healing for named kills

    I've managed to kill some tier 1 CoF named with this setup although it needs careful use of pet defensives and both druid and merc healing.
  20. IblisTheMage Augur

    When I play alone, I play with my mained mage, enchanter, bard. Pet AA is maxed out, so it works quite well. On the road there, I had a period where all the enchanter did was to rune the pet during combat, and that got me through until the pet was maxed out, but now the enchanter is back to nuking :).

    For mercs I take a healer, two if I am in a location that is hard-ish. Earlier on I would bring 1-2 caster mercs, but I now prefer the bigger XP cut of having fewer mercs in the group. It all depends on how much DPS my group can do. On gamparse, we can get a bit over 100k dps as a group, over say 40 mobs combined in EOK.

    This gives a game that is both interesting and fun, with a lot of different aspects of the game being relevant, like CCin and pulling.

    My RL buddies play Shaman, Druid, and a boxed mage (so they can play when I am not online). When we play together, our group dps more than doubles, and we melt group content. We range from 13k AA to 17.5k AA.

    If you want to dominate content, take an SK, a warrior, and a bard. You will be pulling without CCing, do a lot of damage with autoattack x2 + /melody. 1-2 healer mercs will keep you alive easily, and there will likely be scenarios where you can do completely without healers. However, you will also miss out on a lot of what makes EQ great, in my opinion, but that is a question of taste. There is also an inherent risk in going with tanks as DPS, because if tank roles are reverted to not being top dps, you could end up with a group that will be lacking in dps.