Hello, I am thinking of 6-boxing on the next box-friendly server. I wanted to get some opinions on non-charm 6-box setups that are melee-centric. Additionally, I wouldn’t mind running 2 tanks for returning during Luclin/PoP to try to complete some epics. With that in mind, Cleric/Bard are two necessary classes. Here are some class combinations I’ve thought of: Tank: Warrior or SK Healer: Cleric Utility: Bard, Shaman DPS: Monk, Ranger, SK, Mage I am leaning heavily toward SK as the main tank. I’ve played a Warrior tank before, and gaining aggro was always annoying in the group game. Plus, with a SK, I have snare. However, not having defensive disc. would be a pain for old raid targets or hard named pulls. I could get the 2 tanks - I was thinking perhaps a SK/Cleric/Shaman/Bard/SK/Mage combo - the mage would bring some utility, and with 4 pets in the group (and cleric/shaman buffs so they live longer than 5 seconds), the mage’s item summons could maximize that damage potential. However, in old raids, it may be an issue having a lot DPS tied up on pets that can blown up by AOEs. Then again, with Warrior, I could swing something like War/Cleric/Bard/Shaman/Monk/Monk and have a power DPS group. I can swap one of the monks for a Ranger for snare/+ATK buffs for the melees. I don’t know! I appreciate feedback and discussion. Thank you for reading.
I run clr/bard/warrior/berserker/monk/shaman. If I didn't have a soft spot for warriors SK would be a smarter choice than warrior. Berserker could be a rogue up until god for free loot and transferable chain starter gear. The group comp works well enough but it's got some weird corners I haven't worked out. The cleric is kind of wasted in general exp grind content, and it's hard to really make them feel useful until they get the better DS/reverse options so maybe building it with a procing weapon and pet spells as more dps or pretending to be a wizard, but melee and pets saves the mana for emergencies. You'll be too busy to easy advantage of the serious things a bard can provide so he's mostly there to keep mana bars full and 25% overhaste and utility like group invis, eb, etc. Ideally your raid geared character (if you have one) is the tank, or the shaman/melee dps. Raid geared tank can just carry any content with shm+cleric. Alternatively the shaman or melee dps becomes a great offtank while your main tank is picking up adds to keep them off the aggro magnets (bard/cleric). I just ran the trial of destruction in MPG and my damage breakdown was 45% BER (epic 2.0+raid geared) 25% MNK (anguish weapon, half tutorial gear half tacvi), 17% warrior (sword and board, probably 6 months too early for it to be the right choice), 8% bard (haven't started melee dps AAs yet) 4% shaman pet. A lot of it comes down to what you want to do. If you want to try soloing very difficult content this is a strong combo that's hard to beat. If your goal is just efficiency in grinding and farming you could do way better just dropping the tank for a well geared monk or shaman. 3xmonks, ranger, shaman, +bonus melee dps slot (Berserker if you run late enough) will just blender through content and if a group named dies before your weapon shield even wears off who cares how hard it hits?
If you want to try and 6 box the tougher raid mobs early Its pretty set what tank you need Tank Warrior healer Cleric Utility bard and shaman DPS monk and ranger Get your bottles of clarity for mana regen. Haste should be fine between shaman haste and bard haste.
Warrior/Paladin Monk Monk Monk Monk Druid (ports+ heals) As someone who has made and tested many group combinations now on Rizlona through classic and Kunark. Monks are stupid broken until PoP unfortunately, they do 5x the dps of most toons (not exaggerating). Wizards and Rogues can do respectable damage as well but about 25% behind monks still. Mages and Necros can do rogue/wiz level dps on certain fights. Rangers are useless. (I parse 100% of the time, so this is based off raid and group parses over the last several months, I have literally thousands I'm basing this off of) This group comp will shred most content, maybe swap in a chanter for one of the monks, especially if your down to charm! It's a sad state of affairs but, it is what it is
While I agree that monk dps is stupid powerful, the advantage of a ranger is that, with SoL, you can archery your way for zero effort and zero chance of aggro.
What are your goals? How long do you plan to play, which expansions? My suggestions are based on someone who wants to play for a long time, not just the first few expansions. By far, the most important aspect of your group if you plan to play long term will be your dps. Having a high dps group will save you literally hundreds or thousands of hours over the long run compared to a low dps group. Everything you do will be faster and easier. DPS is king. Second most important is your ability to kill difficult content. But with a solid six box setup, there is no group content you'll have any problem with. You don't need two tanks and two healers to handle anything. It's just a waste of slots that could go to dps. If you want to maximize dps, go either melee heavy (no int casters) with shaman or bard, or caster heavy (no melee dps) with enc hanter. You want to ideally have more than 1 or 2 dps classes in group. Shaman+cleric is nice to have for the melee heavy group some of the time, but most of the time you can drop the cleric for a second dps, especially once you get to the point where shaman can rez. My ideal group looks like: Tank (War or SK), Shaman, Bard, Monk, Rogue, Monk. Later on, Monk or rogue can swap for a berserker. Have a cleric on the 6th account that you can bring in at times when you might need more healing or rezzes early on. For caster, Sk Clr Enc Mag Mag Wiz, or Mag Wiz Wiz. Later on you can swap clr for dru for more adps. You mentioned snare. If you have a shaman, go troll innoruuk for snare clicky and that eliminates the need for a ranger. Bard can also snare. I also like to level an enchanter alt on the bard account, to bring in for clarity and haste periodically once you get to Kunark. Charm is ridiculously overpowered for the 1-60 grind.
There are encounters where you will wish you had a warrior. However, for 90% of what you do the SK will be better. Later on SKs get defensive-like discs that mitigate pretty well. Here's how I would do it: SK Shaman & Enchanter Monk & Other DPS (mine is a rogue) Mage & Wizard Bard Cleric (or other DPS if you go with shaman as healer) I list two classes in some cases because if you play a lot you will have time and they provide specializations when you need it. Shaman/Enchanter, for example: The shaman can do CC just fine most of the time, especially once you get Virulent Paralysis. But for some encounters you need the enchanter (unrootable but mezzable adds, for example). I realize this isn't the melee-focused group you asked for but it's a good one. As Machen said, it depends on how long you plan on playing. As an aside, once you get mercs and fellowships a lot of options open up. With a rogue, merc, and fellowship campfires there's nowhere you can't go. The rogue can drag a couple of corpses, pop a cleric merc, then plop down a campfire once the dragged toons are rezzed.
Thanks everyone for replies. To specify, this would be for Classic - PoP, hopefully at least a few expansions after. This would also be for group content + trying raid content (as a 6-man) in picks - so probably older raid content. Unfortunately I don’t have time for raiding or a guild anymore, so that would be out. Another option would be to start playing on Riz-perhaps when Luclin drops. An interesting 6-box I thought of would be something like this: SK Cleric Bard Beastlord Magician Magician (or Enchanter?)
I 6 box a lot in this era and do a ton of old raids by myself. You want your best (main) char to be your tank then have a bard a cleric and 3 melee dps monks are the most op. Rogues and rangers do well enough though. The reason you should NOT use any caster dps is motm disproportionately effects them to near uselessness on older content.
Why 6 box on an online mmo? Surely the whole point is playing with others? If you want to play on your own, why not just spin up your own private server? It's much cheaper Cue flames....
It is about Effective boxing.... A warrior tank is the easiest tank to tank with... as a box Cleric is the easiest healer to heal with ...as a box Mages/Monks/wizards are some of the easiest DPS...as a box Bard is the easiest support... as a box So you pick one more involved class to main... then build the boxes as the easiest classes
I would suggest that the answer depends on whether or not you are planning on using "enhancement software": With macaroni-quest-dos your best bet is WAR / CLR / BRD / MNK x 3. Having warrior discs and CH to do older content raid mobs is key. Might want to sub out a MNK for a SHM if you think you need a slower. Can sub out BRD too if you'd like, but the songs are just so helpful, imo. Drop the CLR for a SHM if you just want to do group content. With eye-ess-boxer it's a little trickier to run a melee group, but if you're at Tucoh-level skill, you can use the group above. If not, WAR / CLR / BRD / MAG x 3 is probably your best bet. Realistically, you can take that MAG x 3 and replace it with whatever your heart desires that is "ranged" DPS. Rangers, wizards, hell, even druids work pretty decently. Different combos are better based on what you're trying to kill. With alt-tabbing or individual computers, you'll almost certainly want to run a caster-heavy box team.
If your server is Rizlona, you're playing until Planes of Power, and you're wanting efficiency? I would recommend, Paladin (Tank + Cleric rolled into one). Monk Monk Monk Bard (Regen, Haste, CC, and only gets better) Druid (ports+ heals) 4 Monks < 3 Monks + Bard... Especially later on when Bards get overhaste etc. If you aren't boxing a Bard you are doing it wrong.
Boxing melee is so much easier than boxing casters when using only in-game abilities and macros... Anyone who says different probably doesn't know what they're doing.
It depends on how far you take it on a given server. My monk has 4 hotkeys full of discs and AAs, etc. It's no better than a caster, really. Early on? Sure. Much easier.
I'm going to disagree with you - it really depends on your setup and server ruleset. On a True-box server, if you're boxing a melee composition you have to know how to swing position NPCs to be effective while mobile. If you're static camping you have to drop the mob in a way where your characters are in range of the hit box. That said, come Luclin Rangers kind of negate this need if you use them correctly (AM/EQ) make them like melee wizards lol. With casters, you do not need to worry about their position at all. They just need to be in range and within line of sight. A melee composition between Classic and PoP won't have the same burst potential as a full caster group either and you may be contested easily by DoT classes.
As Machen says, DPS. How you get to it becomes slightly less important IMHO. If you want to use magic tossers, add some mana pumps like Enchanter, Bard, or Shaman w/potions. Ditto if you want to make a bunch of sluggo's, except haste harm shields. Ditto if you don't want to spend all your time buying equipment for your tanks, slows and use buffs. I joke about it a bit, weakest group would be 6 Clerics because of low DPS. Thing is, I've actually been in groups and run smaller teams with a lot of healers. It isn't min/maxed, but a group of Clerics in full plate with some mana pump and harm shields can actually do well. PIA to get all the buffs & potions so I wouldn't want to do it for a living. Just root, Smite, type stuff and you can handle leveling and a lot of content. I like running Rangers and I do waste some time getting them the best era available bow, weapons, have them hasted & mana pumped, cast spells like crazy to keep up. Just a personal choice, I know they are sub optimal for quite a few expansions.
I said ... as a box. If you are boxing a tank.. warrior is the easiest tank box... if you are maining the tank... Paladin and SK are better options
