Sk/dru/mage/?

Discussion in 'The Newbie Zone' started by JustWannaPlay, Apr 9, 2018.

  1. JustWannaPlay New Member

    After talking to a friend of mine about boosting a 3 box to 85, he has decided to join me and is boosting his druid to 85. So our group will be his druid and I will 3 box sk/mage/?. We will use cleric merc and wizard merc. No raiding just doing group quests and 2.0 epics if we can. Hopefully can level up to find other players to join our group.

    SK will be the puller between FD & CoTh so I do not need enchanter or bard for that. I probably need a slow/haste caster so either shaman or enchanter? I am not going to charm. If we get an add, either shaman VP or ench mez works. Crack is always good but I have access to KEI anytime I want. Shaman has wonderful melee buffs for sk & pets.

    Other? Do not want to run 2 melees.
    Sk/dru/mage/ench
    SK/dru/mage/shmn
    Sk/dru/mage/wiz
    Sk/dru/mage/mage

    What are your thoughts on Sk/dru/mage/?.
  2. moogs Augur

    My vote will always be with the enchanter. You have a selection of auras (two concurrent), excellent nukes, a pretty strong pet - don't let people trash talk Shiny Bob, he sometimes tanks for me in EOK - the best crowd control and mem blur, excellent pulling tools, group runes for physical and spell damage (great for nasty fights), useful dots, the ability to enchant items for tradeskills, haste, slow, and tash/cripple debuffs...
  3. Vaeeldar Augur

    Ench without a doubt out of what you have listed. The only other possible woudl be bard but I'd still go ench at this point.

    I run a couple 5box setups but i love my sk, ench, wiz, mage, wiz team. If I need more healing (rare) I run sk, cleric, wiz, mage and either wiz/bard on the final.

    You can't beat enchanters at this point for that group setup and their DPS is strong these days.
  4. IblisTheMage Augur

    Enchanter, hands down.

    On top of that, consider convincing your friend to add a /melody bard. DPS mercs take xp and are really bad, a melody bard (a bard that does not attack, but just sings his melody standing still, on follow, coth’ed, etc) is such a nice boost to a group. Keep him F2P if that works better for you, just sub him for a month when he hits level 100for AA autogrant. A bard carries his weight with adps, but adds mana regen on fop of that, which reduces down time, which is the best boost you can get :)

    Some people will argue against both a bard and an enchanter, I think they are great together in a box team, and the mana inflow will boos your mana hungry group’s kill rate immensly. Also, the bard will boost your SK melee. Of course if bard and enchanter where both mains, the overlap in group roles would become more relevant. Oh, and the bard produces a lot of swarm pets, that will help boost your mage (see video below for how I set it up in IS Boxer for myself).

    That way, the only merc you need is the cleric, leaving the druid free to do killy things :)



    Quatr likes this.
  5. Rhaage Augur

    Ench or Bard...

    Both bring good benefit to the group and have similar functions, although the bard is technically another melee character.

    I can't speak for others but it's been my experience that ench's do better at saving a bad encounter and bards do better at making a good encounter even better.
  6. Raltar Augur

    Bard. Bard is always the answer if you don't have one. You'll get slows, mezzes, haste and the best puller. Plus selos. Bards are great.
  7. fransisco Augur

    For the CC, chanters are superior.
    Bards require full attention to mez and such (And it only lasts a couple ticks).

    As well, bard songs (haste and mana regen) won't always be active (if bard is out pulling, or hasn't gotten that far in melody yet).

    As well, enchanter will by far boost the dps of any caster more than a bard will an SK (assuming group gear). Plus the enchanter gives the best haste buff in the game (and with ancient cloak of flames you are only 8%? off of max overhaste anyways).
  8. Gnomeland Augur


    Only options there that make sense for a four characters group.

    For multiple mages, you want 3, not 2, to take advantage of alliance. 2 is too few.

    For the second option, that could work but in practice you will want more DPS, or else kills will be too slow and you won't be able to hit DPS checks.

    Mage + wizard doesn't make much sense on the surface, but since you are running two mercenaries, you can in fact take advantage of wizard alliance with two wizard mercenaries. Still, in this case you wouldn't want the mage, you would want two wizards or a wizard and an enchanter. Even so, at the minimum there are benefits to running a wizard with a mage, so it's not too bad.

    The best option is, of course, mage + enchanter. The reason is not that you need help pulling, it's that there are many missions in this game where YOU CANNOT SPLIT THE MONSTERS, NO MATTER WHAT. In these missions, you need an enchanter.

    Enchanters also offer enough ADPS and personal DPS that they should be able to make up for a second DPS class. So you get the best of both. Also, you shouldn't assume that you won't ever charm. Enchanters at higher levels have a powerful single use charm that does not break and which lasts for like 6 minutes. Even a person who doesn't want to deal with charm, will use charm under those circumstances.