Returning after a long hiatus. A buddy of mine has talked me into coming back to EQ. He has a level 86 druid. I am going to 3-box again with an 86 sk and an 85 wizard but I have not decided what to play on my third account. My third account has an 86 cleric but I was thinking either enchanter or shaman would be better. My buddy is not a healer so my 3rd account is the healer or a merc is. I saw a write up that said sk+shaman+wiz was a good 3box. I have been reading through posts and I saw where 3 wizards can fulmigate or something like that. So that means that our 2 mercs would need to be wizards. Therefore I would choose a shaman as main healer plus slow+haste+buffs. However I keep reading about an enchanter or bard is needed for crowd control in the upcoming expansions. We had just started HoT when we left. Is CC still needed with an sk pulling singles? If so, we could have 1 wizard merc with 1 cleric merc and my 3rd box would be an enchanter. I 3-box using IS Boxer and all 3 accounts are All-Access with RoS bought. We do not raid, just do not have the time so our gear will be whatever is group available or bought through HAs probably. So I am curious which way you would go and why: Sk + wiz + shmn + 2 wiz mercs Sk + wiz + ench + healer merc + wiz merc
CC is still very valuable. But you'd be surprised what you can tank when you have a dedicated healer. Why only two mercs? Three accounts, three mercs. sk + wiz + shm + 3 wiz mercs Will handle anything in the game. You have one of each arch-type. Pretty much holy trinity. You have one of each armor type. Very little loot will go to waste. Switch one to a healer merc for the really tough stuff or if you want to slack off. Switch in one melee merc for the accuracy buff, and more melee proc's. SK + wiz + enc + 2 wiz mercs.+ 1 healer merc. More dps. Stuff will simply die. Manna reverb + twincast aura is like a machine gun. Lack of a true healer will limit you somewhat. Old raids don't allow mercs.
Only 2 mercs because my buddy is in the group with a druid. However he is not a healer type. I have always played the healer and puller (cleric & bard) when our other friends played. Only 2 of us still game now. You do bring up a point that I had not thought about, when my friend is not on, I would get more out of sk+shmn+wizard I think than with the ench.
Took a while to understand the “my friend is a Druid” and then saying that you need a healer. I was thinking you already have one! But fair enough he doesn’t want to heal and just wants to focus on dps. I would suggest perhaps there are other classes that might interest your friend more if a pure dps class is more interesting, if he wants big flashy numbers. (That said druids do very well, especially considering they are a priest class nowadays but retain their ability to do dps and other hybrid skills.) Depending on what you want to achieve in the game you can roll with anything versus having to be more smart about your choices. If you want to open up the game for yourself having a tank and a healer will make the majority of eq accessable for you if played well. There are missions and such that could require a well formed team putting out high dps and or having crowd control but that is often solved by not boxing but by grouping up with additional friends to make those events easier. Tank, healer, utility/dps and you are set. Shaman covers most healing situations with ease but the cleric heal output is insanely much higher if you wish to do some more impossible feats and show off. Your initial thoughts with sk and shaman works great then just add what you enjoy. Enc do decent dps even with dot nerfs and can help you control situations more but is only really useful if you put yourself in those situations. Otherwise just having dps like a wizard or such would be absolutely fine. Use a healer merc to help out if you need it otherwise just dps mercs. Your Wizard at higher level can Use Alliance and wiz mercs can help trigger it.
My friend's OCD would not let him change that druid until it is "finished". This is why we are back to EQ so he can finish it. That is ok with me. We will just learn to control adds with good pulls, shaman's VP and the druid's spell version. And if none of that works, we got 2 evacers with instant evac.
Druid has great synergy with int casters like mages and wizards, Shamans less so. If you could optimize your SK for lifetapping and damage mitigation, and convince the druid to top you off with a few heals from time to time, then I would drop the Shaman, because shaman has better synergy with melee classes. The druid can nuke and heal in the same cast... My buddy is a shaman in a 3 x mage, ench, brd group, so there is some synergy with the pets, but a lot is lost. You could then have sk, druid, wiz, BARD, wiz merc, wiz merc. The bard will easily pull his weight just with /melody, and can add decent dps if you want to make the effort. Bard can also improve hp regen and damage mitigation, as well as boost all dps and mana regen, as you of course well know. With this team, you will have very strong mitigation and dps, and you can CC enough to handle progression in say EoK when you get there. You have the flexibility of changing one of the wiz mercs to healer.
I run an SK / Chanter / Mage (healer merc, wiz merc, wiz merc) set up, and I’ve been spoiled with what I can do/where I can go due to the CC/utility of the Enchanter. Plus with his twincast aura and mana reverb aura line, that’s some serious ADPS with my Mages DD, mercs DD, and even with the chanter nerfs, the Chanters spells. But...given that I’m geared up and don’t really need to worry about the CC and single pulls (SKs can easily tank multiple mobs), I wish I had a Shaman. That way I could drop the healer Merc and pick up another Wizard merc (and you’d have 3 total for alliance spell which would obliterate any mob), I’d still get to keep the Slows and decent DPS. Plus you’d have active healer which would be better during Named fights.
