After just coming back with OoW release, i'm trying to figure out what my best 4 box group would be for OoW and beyond. I'll be mainly just doing group content. Account 1- 65 War/Pally- Pally is time geared. War is in bazaar gear. Account 2 - 65 Sham/Ench Account 3 - 65 Bard Account 4 - 65 Cleric Account 5 - 65 Bst/Ranger/Mage I'm also willing to level up another char if I don't have that class already. Just want the best 4 box group that will be semi easy to box.
Here are my thoughts. You want heals, slows, transport, rez, snare. Personally, I would do Paladin, druid, bard, mage if only doing four. I think a pally plus a druid is enough healing and you get the two 90% rezes. You get some transport with the druid and you get bard for mana regen and other cool stuff. Plus the bard can be a melody box with /autoattack and you just pull the mob in front of the bard.
for group content War Shaman Bard Beast (honestly any 1 of your dps will work) Beastlord+pet especially with pet affinity is fairly strong dps. you have chanter and bard songs hitting both. Once group puma and song of storms is a thing the damage will be pretty insane. The mage instead of the beast would be pretty strong as well, especially once SoF drops and mages are in their most insane era of eq. Warrior for a similar reason, also your dps would be pretty lacking with the pally, wars start doing pretty gross dps at this stage of the game. Shaman is a shaman, Champ, slows, buffs, puma, etc. Bard best puller in this era of the game and remains so for a while, overhaste, song of storms once DoN hits,
War/bard/cleric/mage is my vote. Keep in mind mangler doesn't allow 3rd party programs. He needs classes that are easy to box. Not paying attention and an add kills a party member? Good thing you have a cleric. Auto follow runs your guy off a cliff? Good thing you have call of hero.
Out of what you have listed I would go with this. Pally Bard Cler Ranger Tank, Heals, slows, mezz, puller, range or melee dps and backup tank, two rezzers in case one dies, pally can even help heal if needed. However you could swap out the cler for the dru and still be fine healing and get some porting but with DoN the next xpac that might not be a big deal to you. Could also swap out the ranger for a wizz and get that too and pick up some dps but you lose the back up tank and they do get harmony for outdoor pulling also.
both beast and ranger take a lot of attention to do some real dps, they are hybrids after all. From what i understand, mage is a lot easier to box and still hit more then decent deeps. other options for your 4th slot ( apart from the tank,sham,bard ) are the other dps casters wizzie or necro imo.
Warriors are better raid tanks, knights are better group tanks. But Paladins do too much push when tanking so it'll be harder to keep other toons in melee range, so unless you're going to level a shadow knight, stick to Paladin + ranged DPS.
Warrior, Bard, Shaman, Berserker. War/Ber become top tier group combo due to ability to burn, starting around lvl 85. If you end up with a 5th slot, mage/necro/bst pet ends up being a superior tank to warriors and knights on new expansion launches.