Coming back after a long absence, I really want to focus on playing/maining a Beastlord. With Bards being a solid box class and meshing well with Beastlords, I wanted to find a good third class to help push through as much content as possible. It wasn't clear to me if the best choice would be picking up a tank (and having the BST offtank) or a healer (and having the BST main tank). If i went the tank route, which tank would work best with the Beastlord/Bard combo? If I went the healer route, is Druid considered the best to pair with the Beastlord these days? Other than running a second Beastlord, is there any other third class I should consider? Thanks!
You've pretty much nailed it. If you want to do old raids, you would need to rely on the Beastlord for heals for the whole trio. If your concern is more group oriented then a tank will serve you far better. Porque no los dos? You should consider a Paladin since they can perform both roles. Or even a Shadowknight since they can self heal well enough for many old raids.
Mage would be a another solid option. Huge DPS increase that gets good gains from the bard and provides an extra tank-pet. Also they're low-impact as a box which lets you focus on the beast more.
Mage. This way if you all have mercs, the bard will definitely help with the proc songs between the mercs, melees and pets all shredding up mobs. Also if you need an offtank, the mage pet will do well.
Mage is an interesting idea....along with the beastlord and pet will that be enough tankage for group content 1-115? Will I need to run two healer mercs with that combo and which dps merc should I run...with BST and BRD ADPS would it be the rogue mercs?
For the 1-115 bit, it wont matter what you choose as a 3rd box until 50+ because of gear improvements and availability on live servers you will breeze through things and if you decide to use a tank merc and it will regen enough so that it can tank 4-5 mobs 5 levels higher than it. After 50, your BST pet can tank well enough, but there were some trouble spots for me in the 75-90ish range, where the BST pet was harder to keep up as the only tank, at that point the mage Earth pet would have a much easier time tanking. As a bonus, if you choose a mage as a third box, the mage pet gear will significantly help your BST pet through the 80-95ish range. At 95ish+ the BST pet is great as a tank, with pet buffs and your own buff line and you can keep it up without spending too much of the fight healing it. I have on occasion had to use 2 healing mercenaries to keep myself up in my 3 box group, but this is more because I was focusing on dps and was being lazy about healing myself and my pet. Hope this helps some and enjoy the journey!
Cleric, either a bst or a bard will tank a lot better than they will heal, your most glaring lack is heals.
I second this. Cleric will push enough healing and mitigation boosts for your beast pet tank to be viable in a wider range of content. Playing a tank, especially a knight, will take much of your focus off your beast lord.
If I added a Druid or Cleric as a fourth box, would it be effective enough as only a silver account or would i have to gold account the healer. Also, could i get away with silver accounting the bard? I was hoping to only subscribe on two (Beastlord and Tank or Mage) possibly three characters max. Thanks!
As a silver healer the cleric will be far better than the druid, you will want to make sure to go all access for one month at 105 for autogrant aa. Honestly even at gold I don't see the druid being a good option as the sole healer for a group that relies on pet tanking. The druid healing tool set just isn't deep enough.
i main a beastlord, my wife mains a druid, together we can do anything, a bard will only improve on that with either pulling, or mezzing for some more cc. Dont forget a druid gets the harmony line to make pulling a lot easier in outdoor zones. Lately we did all the progression in TDS with just the 2 of us, a healer merc and a dps merc ( the pet tanks, he's such a good tank now). Granted, we're both fully raid geared, but still. Dont underestimate the druid, both in dps and in healing.
I got a Paladin as main and my wife has a BST, we use a bard as toon, with J5 merc we are kinda solid team. Our merc'es is 2 melee and one healer. I'm working on a mage right now, but its nice weather outside and we are on an EQ-break right now, but we'll be back in the autumn. My mage will help the BST warder to tank. Go mage, great pet and can do quite good dps if you spam magic =P
Yes, and cleric gets pacify, which works everywhere and they get mem blur. The fact that you have to have a healer merc out, even with full raid gear says everything that needs to be said about druid healing on a pet tank. Druids are a great class (I have a 110 druid in my group), however their healing toolkit is too shallow to be the main healer for a group that relies on pet tanking. Drop your healer merc, you will see what I mean.
the druid dpses most of the time, she only casts reptile normally. i alone can keep my pet up if we want to, but we're a bit lazy.
Mage or Paladin. Mage will be easier to box and provide more dps. CoTH and pet gear help a lot. Paladin will provide heals and a long term project that can eventually tank. Paladin can play as 2H dps and healer while beast pet tanks if u want..
If I were to bite the bullet and add a fourth box, would it be better of with BST/BRD/MAG/Druid or Cleric and then back that up with a Rogue and Cleric Merc or BST/BRD/MAG/PAL and back that up with a Cleric Merc and Rogue Merc? I had been thinking the Druid Port and Snare might be useful utility to go with COTH with the Mage, but it's been a long time since I've played and I wasn't sure how useful porting and snare is in the live game these days. Would there be a better four box option to go with the BST and BRD?
good thread on this: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/beastlord-duo.258704/ If you're looking to improve your group's power, a plate tank is your best option. Plate tanks are head and shoulders above pets and tank mercs. However this would pull the focus away from your beastlord. Between the tanks it's hard to say which is best. Paladins provide a healing role in your group and the current expansion is filled with undead. Shadowknights are all around the best group tanks and will probably continue to be into the future. Warrior's DPS is massively amplified by bst/bard ADPS and will be able to tank with much less effort. Failing that, you have a few good options. I'm liking druid, shaman, mage and enchanter. All can help with damage, survivability and CC in their own way.