Looking to 3 Box since that actually means you have a full group with Mercs but cant decide on what classes to roll. I have an odd goal of finishing out the Hunter achievements so need something that will be able to handle higher tier group zones without too much trouble.
i always like SHD/SHM/WIZ or MAG/DRU/ENC if you have spry fingers or MAG/MAG/MAG because i mean come on
I do mage/enchanter/druid. Can wreck through most things except end-game with pet tank but you need a solid EM earring.
The only thing I would recommend strongly, is a player run tank, and not a Merc. That said, class choice is more about personal preference than anything else. Some people prefer their tank of choice to be SK's, others prefer Paladins, but it matters little as they both tank well in a group situation. Similarly, some people use a Druid to snare, others an SK, others a Bard, Ranger or Necro. Again, it really doesn't matter as long as snare is covered by one (or more) of your boxes. As a result, instead of thinking about classes, just make sure your basics are covered, and those are: The ability to single pull reliably (always easier to pull well than have a CC class forced to clear up with 4+ inc and having your other 4 boxes standing doing nothing because your hands are full with your CC class) A good plate-wearing tank of your choice Snare capable class Slow/Haste capable class Enough DPS for you not to fall asleep. Enough healing to keep group alive. Secondary functions which are nice to have, but not vital: Ports Damage Shields Ability to stun casters (nothing more frustrating than mobs casting Gate or CH) Personally, my trio is PAL, SHM, MAG with a Roguemerc and Healermerc plus leave the last spot for a 2nd healer merc sitting in the pocket for those tough boss fights.
First and foremost, never, ever should anyone count on a tank merc. I 100% agree that having a player tank would make things a lot easier, it's just that I do not enjoy playing melee classes. I suspect others feel the same. For that reason, I'm very pro-mage pet tank. If, like me, you also don't enjoy healing (I'm sorry, I just want to nuke stuff!), you could roll a wizard instead of a druid. My playstyle is such that I have three healer mercs going with my 3-box setup and only very rarely use druid heals in emergencies and under protest. With a wizard you could burn stuff down faster and maybe not have to worry about heals--I'm not sure, I haven't tried it. The druid is fun to play and having the healing utility--even if I don't utilize it properly--is a nice option.
Sorry, ignorance on my part. I don't know what level is needed for the Hunter Achievement. I will say at higher levels a Magician Pet will tank as well as a Merc. If you have at least one gold account, that would mean somewhere around level 80 or 90. For all their foibles the one thing a Magician really does right is have a functional pet. CoH is nails too. As other have said, a PC tank would probably be a good idea. Lot's of good options but currently SK seem to be preferred. Versatile character that can do it all from some low level healing, snares, fear, nice tool kit. Third character I have trouble with because of running low on slots. I hate traveling with a box setup so I would go Wizard or Druid. That isn't the whole story though because you lack crowd control you would get with something like an Enchanter. Druid gets some Harmony type spells and a few weak deduff or two but nothing like an Enchanter. There are just some situations where you will need to break camps or split pulls. Druid limit you to outdoor zones. Still flip flop on what characters bring to the table because Druid also has tracking which you may need. You could drop the Magician since the SK could do the tanking, but then you are working w/o a safety net. Things go south really fast with only one tank. Things go bad with a bad pull no matter what else is right. Evacuates become really important so I tend to go Druid for the utility in a group. At higher levels in a group, Druids duplicate a lot of functions already there that can be done better by the other characters. For example Magicians have the best harm shields so a Druid's barb/thorn type spells won't stick. I find mine doing DPS type work with DOTs and spells. Druid DOTs hardly compare to a Necromancer and their burns are laughable compared to a Wizard. Druid charm, slows, and in door performance is severely crippled compared to an Enchanter. Still Druids are about the second most versatile character type behind a Bard.
Personally, I find Magician one of the easiest and best classes to 3-box due to its 2-click per mob hotkey playstyle. (One hotkey for "inc", another for "nuke") In my trio, I have never used the Mage pet for tanking. If fighting casters or need some damage mitigation, I use Air for the stuns. All other times I use water for backstabs. Also, do not under-estimate Malo on your non-slower class. Also, many times with an SK tank (without a Mage), many people realise they have no way of interrupting caster spells. A Gate or CH can really ruin your day sometimes, so something to bear in mind.
My main box is chanter/druid/mage. This is convenience central with evac/ports/tracking/CotH/summoned goodies/all the nice buffs on demand. Chanter running tank merc full AA top gear, actually darn good. Before RoS I could do nealy all EoK stuff. Some tougher names I just had mage turn pet taunt and split damage with merc. Druid running healer merc, and mage running a caster. I have another box team on same accounts, SK/chanter/ranger, currently lvl 90. Gotta say I am having a blast with this set. The idea is to get them to 110 so I can mix and match as needed. SK is definitely handling things better than merc tank. When doing HAs with my first team in 90s, I pretty much gave up on names in them, cause they would chew up the merc real fast. Only really could do names after 100. The second team with SK tanking, I was able to beat all the names I came across so far. It is a far more involved style of play, however.
Im stuck between 2 different setups with 2 different servers. 1) SK, Mage, Druid. This will be on FV since I will constantly need to make sure my Tank has the best possible gear every 5 levels. Also being able to buy a bunch of AC augs is pretty nice 2) Mage, Druid, Enchanter. Proly on either BB or Xegony. Since Pet will be tanking Im not forced to stick to FV in order to stay uber geared out.
I think Sk/Mage/Bard would work well. ShadowKnight can tank and single pull 99% of content. Mage has great DPS plus CoH. Bard has even better pulling plus lots of easy passive ADPS
And for that matter... if you need an enchanter with the mage for multiples, would a wizard be better than a Druid for the third? Then you could pop wiz Mercs for alliance. You lose track though.
Arlien, I find it situational as far as power/utility goes. By design, nothing beats an Enchanter for crowd control. They can pretty much pacify so you only get get single pulls, can Mez when things go bad, I've seen them do stuff like Charm to increase the odds in your groups favor, a well run Enchanter is so good to have it is mind boggling. But with both a Druid and Wizard, you get a 'do over' with the evacs. The AA evacs get you out in maybe half a second??? With a Wizard crowd control takes form of 'This MOB is causing trouble so I'll light them up!' Dead is better then Mez. Problem comes when they run OOM. Druid, if it is an outdoor single pull can pretty much take down any MOB that doesn't summon single handed. It is slow going compared to a group and most people define power one of two ways: The ability to solo content or the speed you level. It isn't always the same thing or both. I think it has a lot to do with a person's personality. I see 5 or 6 red & yellow MOBs coming over the hill I don't need to wait and see what is going to happen, I know! I punch out before they even get there. On the other hand, someone that runs an Enchanter would probably just say to themselves "I got this" and start mezing and charming the MOBs. Enchanter is just to involved for me personally. I enjoy them in groups but I don't think I have ever leveled one above the 70s.
Ran Mage/Dru/Chanter or Mage/Dru/Bard for years. Finally gave up and created a heroic Knight on the Bard/Chanter account. Took a couple months to gear and aug him but the difference was huge. You still wont get through some of end game content if you insist on only boxing but the having the Knight made a good bit of the tougher group stuff, trivial.
Bash interrupts I run SK & Druid as my primary boxes, and then I throw in other toons. I've boxed up to six, but my current favorite is 4-boxing (adding in a wizzy and beastlord). I am able to put out some crazy DPS with my druid. And at end game, I'm able to keep my SK healed while doing that DPS at the same time - no mercs necessary. Between the SK's self-healing and the Druid's remote heals, it's pretty awesome to kill mobs without ever needing to change target off the mob to cast a heal on the tank. This video shows my SK & Druid 2-boxing without mercs (DPS parses in the description). I wouldn't expect to do this with new toons, but it helps to show what's possible. Anything else you add to the group (mercs or toons for heals and dps) is just bonus.
If your goal is doing hunter, you'll want: 1. A tracker to keep tabs on mobs since you'll be spending a lot of time keeping an eye on mob spawns. 2. A plate tank to handle awkward mobs with adds or high damage. If you don't have a plate tank, you'll want an enchanter to CC awkward mobs. 3. A way to split / pull mobs cleanly. 4. Enough damage to keep multiple mob camps clear. 5. A mix of melee / ranged damage to handle mobs that have awkward abilities. My recommendation would be the same as Iblis: sk/brd/mag. This gives you the above and allows you to be less reliant on your healer mercs. Other good combinations would be: mag/enc/dru
m^3: higher theoretical damage mag/enc/dru: higher survivability, more utility, more consistency I would say mag/enc/dru is more powerful, by pure virtue of being able to take on a much larger variety of combat situations. I recently leveled a 4mag/enc/cle group from level 1 and went the first 70 levels purposefully avoiding CC in order to get maximum usage out of having four tanks with. It was fun taking on groups of mobs, but once I felt comfortable with it and wanted to branch out to using CC I didn't look back. Using an enchanter's CC to keep everything on lock down while you single-target destroy everything is beautiful compared to trying to manage groups of mobs with pet tanks.
