Hey guys! I'll be hitting launch day with between 4 and 6 other players and wanted to ask some quick advice. I highly doubt any of us will make it to 50+ (we all own businesses and can afford little time off unless we've put in a good 12+ hour day) so I'm looking for advice that will pertain to the first 3-6 months of the server. Right now we were going to go Paladin/Cleric with myself boxing 1 character on another computer. I was thinking of adding in an Enchanter (for tradeskills, utility and it's a fun class to me). We will most likely have a rogue/ranger/wizard/druid with varying play times. For certain though we will have a DUO + 1 box. I'm ok not being end game raid compatible but I would like to do something that can be as efficient as possible in PVE for 2-4 hour sessions. The Cleric is a for sure, my two characters are up for debate. All of us will be in Faydwer area. Thank you for any advice!
Druid/Enchanter. Enchanter is going to go well with the cleric. Druid is going to fill in any gaps that are missing during your leveling process. If your friends disappear you can still do pretty much everything with just those two. Shaman/Enc or Cleric/Enc would also be very powerful duos.
Thank you for the response. I was originally leaning towards that Paladin/Cleric/Enchanter route since anyone else joining us would be DPS. I'm pretty good with technical efficiency so I think I could play the enchanter well while being as present as possible on the Paladin.
Unless they radically changed game play since Phinny, I would highly recommend enchanter. Their charmed pet alone is worth it.
Delekan, here is my 2 cents. Pally/Enc/Cleric would be a pretty fun trio and super hard to kill, but early on maximizing DPS is what it's all about I think. Enc/Cleric is in most people's eyes the best duo, but think about what they are missing, no sow, no ports, no snare, etc... I really liked Grelf's idea of the druid with enc/cleric. Talk about a great trio, plus the druid can charm in some places/situations. But if you are looking for a tank, I would suggest SK for classic/kunark. They hold agro much better and it's easier to maintain on the SK. Or a ranger would be fun, still a semi-tank, I know there is one part of the group, but never underestimate tracking/snare/sow that you get for your others as part of the deal. I'm actually asking myself the same question, and have been debating. But I personally feel the more DPS You have the better off it will be. I mained an enc/cleric as part of my core crew on Phinny and the enc pet tanked most of the time, but when it broke, I really liked having a melee there to keep the mobs off me. If not, the cleric had more work to do and usually ended up tanking for a bit too. So keep these things in mind. Also, with guk, chardok, seb (Crypt), and other places, going with undead shad/pal isn't a bad idea. Cleric is very efficient against undead for extra dps too. Plus in kunark, that sweet 15 wis proc hammer that drops in Chardok (No drop) will be available and it's a fun weap for a cleric. You can team a lot of things up with a cleric, but an enc with a healer is just too powerful in classic/kunark. And last thing to think about, enc's are one of the best pull classes too, with lull, mez, root, stun, etc... Build your box wisely and have fun on Agnarr
I did pal chant and grouped with a friend who did chant cleric Spent alot of money on SOW pots and got by just fine for those 2 eras.
Thanks guys! I'm definitely a "play what you want" kind of person with the only restriction that the synergy is there to do some fun risk vs reward style grinding. The downside of not having a druid is apparent but I am banking of both the cleric/paladin being able to tank/dps/heal and the enchanter utility until we hit our late 20's. Being able to manage the stats for long periods of time with as little downtime as possible has always been fun for me. There is also a very good chance that we will be adding a monk/ranger/rogue/wizard to our core 3 at most times so hopefully they get to be the real DPS Loving the answers though. While I played EQ extensively, I was always a good 10-15 levels behind everyone else and always in casual guilds (Rallos Zek/Zek for all 7 years I played) so I was never able to truly dive into the math behind successful groups.
Everything i've read has been geared towards end game 65 raiding. 99% chance I will not get there. I'd like to make it to the 30's with my group and do it in a challenging way. I just wanted to see if there was any other input on the best kind of tag-a-long character to a Paladin/Cleric combo (if the Paladin is truly a viable option in the numbers sense for my goal). I had previously mulled over Paladin/Druid + cleric and Paladin/Bard + cleric. I played an enchanter on the classic server to level 30 and thought it was an exhilarating class so having that as a semi-main sounded good. Thank you to all for your suggestions!
Honestly the most efficient two box or duo + box would not involve a tank. It would probably be a charm group featuring Enchanter with Druid, Cleric, or both. That being said, if you really want that Paladin or more traditional group, I would consider Shaman, Enchanter, or Mage. It depends on how Important haste/clarity or shaman buffs are to you. I guess technically a Enchanter is almost always the best because of charm....but mage would be close and a lot less hassel.
If you are going to have your enchanter be part of your box group, I would highly advise you to main him/her. A decent enchanter has to be on the ball at all times, and as maining one on Phinny, there is a huge difference between playing an enchanter where your group will go up about a 1/4th of the time if you go afk, so just be aware that it is a very high maintenance class, and if it is your off-box, you are doing your entire group and yourself a disservice. As an enchanter, you have one of the fastest pulling spells (tash), you can pull with a mez to reduce adds and have one incoming after a given period of time, you have roots, and you have luls, AE stuns, and AE mez at higher levels. You don't contribute dps outside of your charm pet, and it actually makes it a lot safer to not be in camp when your charm does break, since it at least gives you a few seconds heads up (use audio triggers) and it has a much better chance of going onto someone else (you are the worst possible person it can be beating on). As an enchanter I really love pulling, and as long as you know your camp it's pretty easy as long as you don't have to body pull. There are plenty of classes out there that have no problem body pulling (ranger, bard, rogues, monks, any melee dps that doesn't suck basically) and you will want a full group in any given situation, so those are fairly easy to pick up. You will also have to be mezzing adds, slowing adds, hasting people, clarity, etc. Paladin's, and tanks in general, really don't bring a whole lot to the table if you are willing and able to use a charm for tanking. Your enchanter can pull fine in all but a few camps, and other people can pull for you in those. A very good question to ask is.....how comfortable are you with true-boxing? If you are comfortable with basically having side by side screens, playing both at the same time the entire time, a melee/enchanter combo wouldn't be horrible. If you are relatively lazy like myself, it might be significantly easier to box a mage. Here is why I would suggest this. Paladin/cleric/enchanters dps is really going to suck early on, until you get charm at 11. Even at 11, charm breaks constantly. All enchanters will have is their dot, and their self-pet, which they have to get hit in order to use, and dies in 3-5 hits when they get attacked anyway. If getting to 30 is your goal, getting to 11 might be....hard with such slow dps. Mages are a 1-2 button class boxed. /assist main, /pause 10 /pet attack, /cast x, /pause 50, /sit. A mages pet dps will be amazing early on since no one will have decent gear for the first few weeks leveling up, and they get them starting at level 2. They also get malo, which is very helpful for keeping your pet charmed for longer periods during those early levels (it makes a huge difference). If you are trioing (which you never should), the mage pet will pick up and eat the hits on the mob you are on while you get your pet under control. (clerics get root, make your cleric friend work a bit). For the ease of boxing and the sheer amount of dps, I would recommend your 2nd box to be a mage and your main to be an enchanter. If you feel comfortable pulling with an enchanter, it becomes really fun, and if your cleric friend is okay with potentially using his CC as well as comfortable with healing off-tanks (guys in melee range), then it should be a solid group and you shouldn't have any major problems. If you heart is set on paladin, and you want to just bring a box for easy extra added dps, again, I would pick a mage. It's significantly easier. If you really know what you are doing and like a good challenge, go for it though. A solid enchanter turns a group into a godly group.
Epic reply! Thank you sir. I am definitely in love with enchanters and had played one to 30+ on p99. The risk vs reward was a blast. I appreciate all the input you gave. Charm has always terrified me haha. The random duration is not something to be easily toyed with.
The reason why charm is so overpowered now is because your pet can not only do damage, but tank very efficiently. At higher levels and even at lower levels it is very easy to grab hate and hold it from all classes, allowing them to go all out in group content. It also doesn't matter at earlier levels if pets die, so if healers are low on mana you can just keep switching charms so the pulls don't slow down. Charming becomes almost risk free if you have a snare on your pet. I duoed constantly with a druid friend of mine, and we had everything in camp snared/rooted. If the charm breaks, and it will, it will start running after you. When the druid/ranger re-snares and is on the ball, even if it is resisted, your former pet will start walking/running towards the other class versus you. If you have a decent amount of space, you should never get hit, which is incredibly important, because at higher levels in classic and beyond, a fully hasted tank like the golems in the hole can and will kill you in one quad hit. Make friends with solid rangers, druids, and bards. They are classes that can all lock down charm pets that have been broken and trivialize the risks if they know what they are doing. (bard mez get's less over time)
