Live box trio - SK/Shaman/?

Discussion in 'The Newbie Zone' started by Daimos5, Aug 26, 2020.

  1. Daimos5 Journeyman

    I'm moving back to live from TLP's, as I really don't think I want to compete for spawns and deal with the nonsense I keep running into on TLP's. Need just an hour or 2 a couple times a week to play without stress.

    I want to make an SK/Shaman duo, as this is a duo I've played in the past and really like. The question lies in what to make as the 3rd. I don't use any boxing software and run 2 accounts on 2 monitors on my main comp with a laptop running 3rd account. Laptop has a separate keypad and multiplicity, so relatively easy to control/macro.

    I've read a bunch online and have come down to 2 options, Bard or Mage. I've played a mage on live up to 105ish and like the CotH ability with grouping, but the versatility of the bard sounds like fun.

    I know the bard can pull aggro, but with an SK tanking on my main monitor, I assume that it won't be too terrible.

    Any input would be appreciated.
  2. Eviara Journeyman

    I would definitely suggest bard to round out the trio. I've been playing druid/sk/bard on Ragefire and I adore it. It covers so much ground, and if I need more dps or healing, I can always chuck in mercs to compensate while still having plenty of versatility and support. I think if I weren't so attached to playing a druid, sham/sk/bard would be about as perfect a trio as I can imagine.

    I actually played a mage instead of bard for a long time until I replaced her with my bard around OoW, and I never looked back -- it has been one of the best decisions I've made on this server. She's only gotten more and more awesome and complementary. I know you're talking about live and not TLP, but based off my general understanding of live content, I still think sham/sk/bard would be siiiick.
    code-zero likes this.
  3. Daimos5 Journeyman

    And from a monitor setup/time spent I'm guessing main focus is tank, second is bard and third is shaman (or druid in your case)?
  4. Eviara Journeyman

    I tend to focus on my tank and flit to the other two characters to hit hotkeys or specific spells as needed, which isn't the most practical set-up, but it's how I do. I have two monitors but tend to have all 3 EQs on one since I don't generally need to see all 3 chars' perspectives at once.
  5. Funky Augur



    bard.
  6. Chopin.Xegony Augur

    Bard.

    If you are looking for another option other than Bard (Which is the best option IMO) a Magician would be good they are powerful characters that can be played much more easily than a Bard. An Enchanter would give you a 'near bard' experience without having to worry about meleeing and would provide a puller and crowd controller. Chanters can be needy like Bards are though

    My recommendation
    Bard
    Mage
    Chanter

    In that order.
  7. Dragnet Sleuth Elder

    I like the mage option for this trio. Extra DPS, easy to control, and they can toss on DS on the tank.
  8. Flatchy Court Jester

    Well I go wizard because I got a mage buddy already and the ports are handy and his dps is very easy to box.
  9. Tucoh Augur

    Bard.

    Bard aggro from songs is a risk, but if you pull with the sk and don't try splitting mobs with FD it's not that bad.
  10. Vumad Cape Wearer

    Bard for power. Mage for ease of play. Whichever matters to you more is your answer.
  11. Tornat Augur

    that's super tough , I box 5 sk , shaman , bard , wiz , mage . it would be really hard to choose between the 2 if i had to drop one . #1 thing at lest for me I will never ever ever ever box with out coth again.
  12. Daimos5 Journeyman

    I ended up going bard and i'm up to level 72 as of last night. Mostly stuck to outdoor zones with bard and shaman on follow on the SK (shaman on mount so always sitting/medding). Easy to get the bard pointed at whatever mob I'm fighting by just running past it a tiny bit to keep it in melee range. Have 2 melee and 1 healer mercs.

    So far really liking bard and haven't missed CoTH yet. Having Selo's song of travel (run speed/invis/levi) combined with background windows of EQ with no fps limitation has worked extremely well for travel.

    The ADPS of the bard is very nice. Running around with overcapped stats, procs, haste at 230% makes the mercs do pretty serious dps, let alone my SK and bard.

    Using fade and some of the pulling tricks that I read somewhere have allowed me to do a bunch of crazyness, like pull a named from the middle of a bunch of mobs without pulling a train. Otherwise just using lull to split has been super powerful and MUCH faster than FD pulling.

    This trio allowed has allowed me to kill nameds 10 levels above me in Dragonscale hills without any real trouble and I doubt that mage spells would have landed.
    code-zero likes this.
  13. Varedis New Member

    So a common and very strong trio since the beginning of time is SK/berserker/shm... Only problem is SK and berserker may potentially require a lot of inputs in todays live to truly optimize. Bard would be nice given that the SK is decked out enough to do enough damage to where youre not falling asleep during every kill, but any melee dps class goes good with shm/SK. Basically if you want to 3 box with a caster dps go enchanter, melee dps go shaman.
  14. Jokskilove Palzerker

    I mostly play pally/bard/shaman - it's been my goto team since I was around level 70 (when that was the level cap). With the new dot songs in ToV and maxed Improved Chants aa, bard does a lot of dps from songs alone. The melee from bard is so weak that I rarely bother these days - the chants and the beneficial songs is enough. I could probably kill slightly faster, but I'm lazy these days. So on regular trash, the only thing the bard has to do is to assist, and the melody will handle the rest. Sprinkle in the occasional epic and some burn aa's, and you're good to go.
    *edit* for convenience, the combined invis/invis vs undead that bards get at higher levels is a Gift from Brell!
  15. Kerpin New Member

    I agree with the Bard option. As a bonus, all the bard songs will stack with any buff the shaman would put the SK. With the /melody macro, you can have 4 songs play continuously without much manual intervention from your part.