Hi All, So I have a level 87 Mage and Wizard on the FV server right now that I've been duo boxing. I've finally hit a point where the Merc Tank is having difficulty tanking the content, so I want to start exploring adding a 3rd box account to this duo and was looking for suggestions from people on what you feel would be the best class to add as the 3rd I've been told the Mage pet can handle tanking duties into higher levels, so im undecided on if I should build up a tank class or not. I was debating a Paladin as the 3rd, but if Mage pet can tank then I was looking for other suggestions and thinking outside the box on what would compliment this team the best. Main things I'm looking for out of this trio: 1. Ability to do group content, quests, etc by myself when I can't get a group all the way to max level of 115 2. Looking for something fairly easy to box, but I'm open minded since the Mage/Wiz are easy to play. I figure the DPS is covered with Mage/Wiz and Mercs as needed. I currently use 1 Healer Merc and just started using 1 Melee DPS Merc after I dropped the Tank Merc. Mage Pet has tanked ok so far, but have only really tested it in Toskirakk (zone off the Void) so not a large sample size to make a judgement. Not sure if Healer merc will go the same way as the Tank merc in that it will no longer be effective enough at higher levels. So far its managing to keep my pet and I alive, and I use my Pet heal/shields as needed to help. Some ideas I've had for the 3rd: - Paladin for a reliable tank (might not need with Mage pet tho?) I hear Paladins do garbage damage, but that might not matter with mage/wiz dps and mercs - Bard for mana regen, damage, pulling and travel song - Shaman for slows and extra healing (if Healer Merc wont be enough long term) A buddy of mine suggested I go with another Mage, so would be Mage/Mage/Wiz... not sure if that is viable or if he was joking, but he seemed serious. Also might be boring having 2 mages I'm open to suggestions and appreciate any feedback you can provide!
Second mage will make your 115 goal the fastest IMO. Long term, a knight tank (Pal/SK) will serve you well, but it will be slower and more frustrating while boxing, and they won't be better tanks than mage pets (esp two air pets double stunning, refreshing prism skins, swapping aggro) for a very long time. Bard/Shaman aren't bad choices either. For a few reasons, you might swap out the wizard for a druid before you get too far in. Druids have great mage synergy, movespeed buffs, tracking, healing, rez, buffs. If you want to run quests and various progression, you will be much better served with the druid.
Interesting, never even really thought about a Druid.. are they better at healing late game? Last one I played was on Selos to lvl 65 in PoP. They could heal ok but you needed great gear to pull it off Would be tough to get rid of the Wiz, i enjoy melting things (altho the Mage does better sustained dmg)
The obvious choice in an ENC. The only reason to box a SHM is if you need the heals but you have mercs for that. The mage pet tanks well and with slow will tank much better. Real tanks will out tank a mage pet but after a lot of armor and AA. A mage can invest into a ultrarare pet earring and that is all that is needed to have raid level mage tanking. ENC has beguilers synnergy and a number of burn AA which boosts the mage and wizard. Haste for the pets and debuffs for the mob. ENC animation is a solid offtank with a constant supply of mage weapons. ENC is best CC in the game and among the best puller. You can also dire charm a NPC to tank for you. Druid has little to offer your group except for track and forage. Your mercs are healing. You wizard can port and snare. With a 3rd box you have an extra merc for healing or DPS. Druids can improve caster DPS some but the benefits from Clarity, haste and most importantly slow the druid can't compare in helping your groups compared to ENC, BRD, SHM or BST. BST is a good option. You can slow, spirit for regen, extra melee damage for mobs that are spell immune. BST can FD so good for pulling. BST pet is stout with constant supply of mage weapons. BST sacrifices the caster synnergies but the other night I fought an acron researcher in skyfire with my mage, enc, clr and it's spell immune so it was a very log pet solo'ing it fight. Bard is a good option but will take a lot more input than a ENC. You will mostly be relying on /melody to do the work unless you are just uber at boxing. ENC casts slow once and that is it. Bards melody can fail or break mez etc. ENC is much easier to box in the background. If you decide to go bard then plan on mostly looking at that screen all the time. ENC is a much better choice if you just want to alt tab and cast a mez, or slow or whatever. Really since mage/wizard can multibind so well you would benefit from making the brd/bst/shm/enc your primary focus while in combat and while pulling.
+1 Enchanter. I have never regretted having a well played Enchanter around. Just a suggestion, you may want to try two healer mercs and let your pet tank. If you really twink out the pet with toys, it should be able to hold up. A lot of fights will go => bad pull => healer merc1 draws aggro from healing to much => merc2 keeps healing while merc1 dies. In my experience, mercs don't mind dying. Worse that can happen is the strategy fails and you evac. On Druids, they don't really get a good pacify spell for quests like Gribble until 86 IIRC. After that they are fine as they can DOT and move on to healing and rooting or what have you while the DOT works its magic. The Enchanter doesn't have that speed bump.
Thanks for the great feedback! I have a 65 bard i could transfer from Coirnav, but starting to get sold on the idea of an Enchanter. 3 cloth casters, it would be one squishy trio but with a lot of ability to control fights and do high damage. Bard would require way more concentration to play well and would have to play him as primary. With boxing i like having casters because you dont really have to position them at all like with a melee
A character transfer costs money. I know you know that, but my point is that it probably makes more sense to buy a heroic than it does to pay to transfer a character, especially since you mains are 87. Hit the ground running fully geared and in the same level area. You can get a free heroic right now through may (fact check me) so if that account is FTP just sub it for 1 month and get a heroic enchanter.
When I was on live using mage pets I had one Merc on fast heals and one on balanced I think. I had them set to differently I am on TLP so I forget what you can set them on. Also use frightforged ragesword on pet to help keeping aggro on mage pet As I said before I really liked my Enc/mage/mage. I could set the pets hit the macro key for a few nukes from mage and then get everything slowed and locked down on enc.
