As the title says I'm a returning player and I have read many things about good duos, most of it conflicting, so my question is how well would a ranger/shaman or ranger/cleric duo level and plat farm? Is that a good duo that would work well together to max level, or does ranger not do well in later levels and should I swap it for monk?
Both would be poor. The separation between plate tanks, pets, tank mercs and everyone else starts off pretty modest and then grows to become massive at live EQ. It's to the point where a group without a plate tank / pet has trouble doing much at the end-game unless you're talking about special cases with really well geared/skilled players. My opinion is that the best duo partner for a ranger is a beastlord which provides a tank pet, ADPS and a nice mana resource for the ranger who are very mana starved. Alternatively an SK would be a "good" option but would require gear/AAs to be effective and become the primary character you use and the ranger would just be add-on DPS who runs out of mana constantly while the SK does all the work.
My mistake Dythan, you are correct and I apologise. I am on the pop time locked server agnar. As for overall goals this duo would mainly be for relearning the game and funding other characters later on.
Agnarr means no mercs, so you def need a tank. I think the best 2 options are SK/Shaman, or Bst/cleric. Either of these can get you to 65 easily, and would let you add others as dps (likely most abundant). To hold down any PoP loot camp, you'd need raid gear as a duo, but that is for any combo. But you'll be gtg in luclin and velious.
Ranger/shaman would also work with twinking and pok buffs, just to level. But is is definitely a harder road.
I see. So sk/shaman would be sk tanking with buffs heals and dots from shaman. Sounds like the fights wouldn't drag on too long atleast. Thank you all very much for the help and the information.
All of the above is true, depending on your point of view. I say play the Ranger / Shaman. At lower levels shaman can tank, as can rangers. Both classes do decent dps. With the debuts by the shaman either class will take much less damage. This team could take out Ice Giants in EF, which can be a good plat farm. You can do some splitting using root pull and prevent the mobs from running at low hp with snare. At higher levels the monk would be better at keeping you from having to fight more than one Mob at a time. Also shaman do get pets, not tanking pets but a shaman pet can do some good damage when buffed up. Either team would be challenged in some of the harder dungeons (those most likely to have lots of adds) In the old days when armor was hard to come by farming silk was a big money maker. Hunting spiders would be easy for either team. Hunting trade skill components can be a good way to go in nondungeons which would be the best place to hunt with nonplate tanks. Plate Tanks are needed for high ups mobs, and in my experience if you need a plate tank, you also need a cleric. Most of these posts are about the best way to play, but there are many many different ways to play. Also taking a High Level into a low level zone with good drops for the next class you want to play is a time honored way to Twink....
The question was "is this a good duo", so those posts are just answering the question. It's not a good duo. You can make it work as a duo if you have an emotional attachment to the classes, but you won't be able to do as much as you could if you chose a good duo.
Actually the question was The answer is yes a Ranger/Shaman is a good duo to level up and farm plat. It is also a good duo for most of the outside zones that they will be playing in. A Ranger/ Shaman can work well up to lvl 65.
