I'd be grateful for advice on the most sensible path for my character options to get moving into some levelling and progression. Whilst I've been levelling over the past couple of weeks I've spent many enjoyable hours with coffee and EQ forums thinking over options but have subsequently realised that many past posts are era-specific and may no longer be relevant due to changes in class balance and merc effectiveness that have occurred since they were written. To avoid wall of text, there is a TLDR at the bottom. Thanks in advance to anyone spending their time to read and / or reply. (I'm on Xegony incidentally - I know this can affect advice e.g. FV gear availability). I apologise if these issues and questions appear in a chaotic manner - I'll try and organise my thoughts a little first. First, these are the conclusions / assumptions I'm operating under: 1. Although it is possible to level by grinding mobs, in current era it is more practical and desirable to do missions and progression(?) 2. To undertake progression a tank class is now almost mandatory as relying on a pet tank or merc tank will prevent a significant proportion of missions and tasks from being completed (?) 3. Solo or molo to max group level is not sensible or practical even if possible (?) These conclusions have led me to accept that, with my extremely erratic and variable playtimes, I'll have to box. At first this was very frustrating and distasteful, as I'd always viewed boxing as the root of all evil in EQ. With extreme reluctance I experimented with, and learned to use ISB (very crudely), and to my surprise found I really enjoyed the challenge of creating the coordination necessary and learning a lot more about the different classes. All good. So no solo / molo to max level - I'm boxing. The second issue influencing class choice is synergy with others. Specifically, I have a good mate that I try to group with once or twice over a weekend (we played together back in 2000 for a few years) but are in different parts of the world in very different time zones so we are each running a box group to level and then merge our main toons to group when we can align playtimes. This influences class choice as some synergy when the groups merge is desirable. His team is warrior / zerk / shaman / bard. Third the toons availabe to me: Account 1: 85 SK (heroic) / 75 Paladin / 65 monk Account 2: 85 Enchanter / 63 Shaman Account 3: 85 Wizard (heroic) / 59 wizard (don't ask...) Account 4: 63 Mage My true love is enchanter. Ideally I would love to main the enchanter. I had visions of running the mage and wizard as the box team alongside the enchanter main, charming on the enchanter, and using the mage pet to tank when there was no charm pet option, supported by a merc healer (or two?). Unfortunately my recent reading suggests this would leave me unable to do quite a bit of content due to the absence of a "proper" healer and a proper tank. The paladin seems like it would be a good option here as it would potentially provide both tanking and healing (maybe backed up by a merc healer). The biggest downside to this for me would be the likelihood that I ended up mainly behind the screen of the paladin, playing that as my main rather than the enchanter? And I would need to really focus on paladin gear and AC augs etc as my groups primary focus when levelling? I read that SKs are an outstanding group tank and SK / enchanter / wizard was going to be my first choice. But for some reason I just can't muster much enthusiasm for the SK. No idea why, but I've learned over the years that if you don't love the class, don't force yourself to play it. Which is why I've not mentioned the shaman. Great class. Used to love it and levelled it back in "old EQ" in Kunark on release, but don't love it now. TLDR 1. On current live server is it practical to try and level a caster only group (and specifically enchanter main box team) through progression and group content without a tank, or do I just suck it up and accept I'll need to run a tank until levelling is done?
Enchanter/mage combo is very powerful, add a wizzy to that for the extra DPS and your golden. Their isn't much that needs a real tank and healer and those 3 plus 2 healer mercs and another dps or 3 healer mercs if healing is lacking. Your friend already plays a tank, so your chanter and DPS classes would complement that very well. Most important thing is to play the class(es) you enjoy, Xegony is proberbly the best server for you, take a look at the largest social guild on there, I'm sure they will welcome you with open arms and offer you lots of advice and group oppertunities. Good luck and have fun.
Few progression quests and missions require a real tank. Many are made easier with a real tank. I think you'll do fine with enchanter, mage, with mage pet tanking. You could add a paladin to heal, dps, and step in to tank when needed. That's how i play mine in a mage-mage-dru-pal 4-box, and it works well. I still prefer mage pet tanking whenever i can.
Thanks both for taking the time to read all of that and replying. I'll go with the enchanter / mage / wizard - it feels right, and it's very reassuring to hear that I won't be shutting myself out of too much content. I do like the idea of using the paladin as a healer for easier content rather than a healer merc, but swapping to tank on it on harder content where a tank is more crucial.
Boxing enables you to do HAs, which are the more enjoyable way of getting xp in 85-105 level range. My primary team is Enc/Dru/Mag, using a merc to tank. Ok in most situations, but in areas requiring more advanced tanking, they are an epic fail (as in, 'Don't run after that unmezzable add that I just punted away, you worthless %$*&$') I also got SK/Enc/Rng alt team, so when they level up a bit more, I can mix and match. For your team, I would consider replacing Wiz with Druid. (If you delete the Wiz it should make the heroic upgrade available again) Druid might not have as much DPS output, but ut provides massive utility. Transportation/evac same as wizard. Buffs: skin series, run speed (Eagle), insta-group-invis, tracking, forage(big one for tradeskills), and a massive arsenal of backup heals. 96% rez if needed. Good ADPS, mob AC/ATK debuffs. While my healer merc us primary heal duty and druid concentrates on DPS, I always can fire off a survival or a luna or a remote if there is a sudden damage spike.
Thanks Scorpio, good food for thought there. My heroic wizard was a "free" heroic back when they were available and I've read that if I delete these I can't replace them with another (unlike a purchased heroic character)? Also, I love the wizard. I might consider levelling up a druid to add to the team if the paladin can't cope with the healing.
In 2014 there was a free heroic given out and that is the one you cannot remake. The other free one given out in 2017 can be remade minus the plat and some other stuff. The 2017 model is the one that "acts" like a purchased one according to dev's. You would receive a warning if you try and delete the 2014 one. Don't forget that any of those paid accounts can run a J5 merc. Many players dis the tank and healer mercs but at level 108 there is no problem with the healer keeping us alive and the tank doing his thing.
All of the old era specific advice will work pretty much the same as it was there. The changes in Mercs tends to be era specific, and the changes in class balance rarely change so much so that they invalidate the older strategies. It is only in the most recent expansion, ToV, that there is really any real need at a practical level to do progression over grinding. It has been faster to level doing Progression since RoF, but the rewards from achievements were not as large and the xp from kill was not as low % wise as they are in ToV, so most people ground out levels before doing progression a lot of the time. Grinding out levels in ToV or earlier content however is going to be a lot slower than in the past. Solo/molo to 110 is completely doable, 115 not so much, but neither is killing mobs in ToV for group geared people solo/molo at 110ish; from a practical standpoint. It is however completely possible for one to grind all the way to 115, it would just take a significant amount of time. You could speed it up by taking task adds when offered in general as well to complete achievements. You also could wait to do the RoF-TBL achievements that give XP until you're in the 111-114 level range. But from your list of characters none of that is currently applicable. Your 3 conclusions are all faulty in one way or another. That said, if you decided you liked boxing that's fine, no need to try and create excuses for why you do it. I have boxes but, 99.99% of the time they are just there to soak up xp and allow me to request missions and other things that require more people to request. As others have said, almost all group content can be done without a real player tank or a player tanking at all. While merc healers and tanks are far from ideal, they can both get by when need. Though the merc healer is more useful. Also if you are 3 boxing you could have 2 merc healers, & a merc caster o melee and do fine.
I think your Ench mag wiz team will be fine. Would a team with a real tank be stronger? Yes. Will you have more fun with a pet tank team? Probably. Plus you have something most people don’t. A friend with a tank for that 5% of content you can’t get through alone.
Thanks to each person who replied. There was value for me in each response. I've now spent several hours trying different combinations (Catspaws thanks for your advice about remaking heroic characters) and am going with an Enchanter / mage / druid trio. Thank you once again.
Now you have a power trio. There is a large amt of synergy in those classes, plus a ton of utility. Druid won't let you down.
