7 main criteria + 2 "nice to haves" of course you can do without a few of these and function just fine but this is for a complete list. - 7 main criteria: DPS, Tank, Slow, Heal, Snare, CC, and Pull. - 2 "nice to haves" Track, Mana self sufficiency/regen Only 3 combos had all of the above and surprisingly none of those combos included a Shadow Knight.. 1. Sham/War/Bard - war is tank and dps with sham slowing and healing. bard chain pulls singles and CCs when needed 2. Pal/chant/Druid - Chant pulls Singles and CC's when necessary, pal tanks and heals, druid takes on more of a DPS role with chanter feeding him mana. assumes paladin chanter and druid buffs all stack nicely? 3. Pal/chant/Ranger - same playstyle as above. with same assumption about bufflines stacking. this trio also assumes that with chanter CC and buffs, a paladin can self heal while tanking singles(including named) ranger to dps and help spot heal. Runner up but didnt have track: 4. Sham/SK/Chant - chant plays 3rd focus for just buffs and CC when needed. Sham and SK are primary focus. ****EDIT: Didn't include: 5. Sham/Sk/Bard - didnt include because seemed redundant to have 2 pullers so i figured it was better to go with the warriors superior mitigation/dps/top end potential my goal is to hunt without getting stopped by a tough named i cannot take down. i would like to prepare for eras after POP. can anyone compare the above combos and speak to my assumptions? thank you very much for your time! please only chime in if you can speak directly to the subject. these threads often go off topic. thanks!
On Coirnav, I effectively boxed a lot of content with SK, Bard, and Druid. DPS is a bit light until bards become pretty silly DPS machines with the Bellow AA in TSS. SK for tanking, snaring, and some pulling (snare/FD singling when the bard is OOM from fading, and sometimes it's just easier to single with that method) lifetap procs provide a LOT of healing, and no need to change target to do so. Bard for mana, slows, haste, CC, zoomzoom, DS, more haste, regen, etc. Druid for travel, buffs, heals, regen, mana regen, DS, DoTs, nukes, the occasional charm pet. I can't think of any non-raid nameds I couldn't take down (and even some raid mobs when MotM drops off).
There's a good reason SK/SHM is a staple box combo. Add a primary melee dps (monk/zerk/rog) or a bard if you plan on grouping with other people more often. Chanter falls off the deep end as a useful box post 65 content, the buffs are nice but you will kill faster with an actual DPS class and the CC shouldn't be necessary unless you really suck at pulling. If the SK is raiding and has raid-quality gear then CC becomes even less valuable. SK Harm Touch goes full stupid in GoD+ and for awhile will basically kill any group tier named provided you can survive the duration of it's DoT component so that isn't an issue.
because i figured Sham/War/Bard was stronger due to better mitigation on war. was i wrong!? haha loving the feedback so far! seems like its either gotta be sham/war/bard or sham/sk/bard! unless anyone can present something else viable EDIT:: i also assumed that war dual wield + bard and sham buffs = more dps than SK in same circumstances
Paladin can Symbol and AC. Goes nicely with skin. SK will generally out DPS a warrior. Plus the taps. Taps are a game changer. They do a lot of self healing WHILE doing damage. Shammy is probably the better of the two (shammy and druid) as far as DPS goes and their heal over time is great. Later expansions, with Reptile Skin from a Druid is kinda amazeballs. Plus I like to be able to port myself.
I always preferred WAR for raid tanking but for group I would think SK would be more DPS and as good tanking almost always (only if you had an ohno moment and just had to have defensive?) I would think WAR would be easier in that it's set it and forget it - once you've got agro there's really nothing more to do til the mob is dead where with SK there's more to do to maximize DPS/utility.
Can confirm, warriors big poopoo for damage, SKs are just a force to be reckoned with in group content, the snap aggro alone makes it so the Shm can slow + DoT out of the box without any worries. Yes warriors take less damage overall, but like Iyacc says, if you're not raid tanking it loses most of its appeal. Even in those "OCRAP!" moments, a SK with full Lifetap burn going + Procs etc, is going to come out on top and make the target dead very fast. If you want a very durable trio Pal/Dru/Bst is crazy good, but lacks the DPS of a SK/SHM/+1 combination. your #2 combination also is uh, cringe, I did a Pal/Enc/Dru 3 box years ago and it takes forever to kill stuff unless you can charm, nearly impossible to die though.
Pal/Sham/Necro is reasonably strong post DODH (pyre, venom, sloth p important), high survivability, 3 classes that can rez, strength continues upwards as expansions release its generally the strongest trio that is based around paladin and not SK. Odd it wasn't listed and you listed some cringey Paladin based trios instead? Especially once you get to UF and later content its vastly stronger then a good chunk of the combos you listed. Sk/Shm/necro also pretty bulletproof once you make it to the eras where necros really start fisting DPS. Pull a trash pack, pyre/curse them all and by the time you get pyre rolling on the last mob the first 1 or 2 are dead. Necro is semi difficult to box compared to say Monk or Zerk, Pal/Shm/Mnk is solid B tier paladin based duo tho. Once you get to 75+ single pulling and splitting really isn't that valuable anymore, its just Pull it all, burn it all and carry on, but until you get to that point Pal/Shm has a solid toolkit for CC and so does SK/Shm, I'd skip the warrior based trios unless It was my raid main TBH.
Every time I see a post like this I feel the need to blabber on about generalist vs specialist classes. When you are 2-3 boxing, you want generalist toons that can cover many roles. SK is the best tank for this. Shaman is the best healer for this. Mage adds easy DPS. Druid/Wiz adds easy travel and some easy DPS. Bard adds tons of utility, and the ease of travel with invis song makes a boxer's life much easier. However, most people don't stop at 2 or 3 boxes. They find room on their desk, add a cheap laptop, and add a 4th toon. Then they add a 5th, and not long after they add a 6th. When you are 4+ boxing, you want to focus on specialist toons. This means War tank. Cleric healer. Bard becomes a must have. Sham is required OoW+ once they start to become buff gods. For DPS you want the big boy Monk DPS, and maybe 2 of them. So if you know you want to only 3 box for the rest of your EQ career, and understand you'll be limiting yourself to grinding fairly trivial content (which is fine if your goal is to never be stuck LFG doing nothing), then I say go with SK, Sham, and Mage or Bard. The SK is the most versatile tank (and snare is under-rated in lowish DPS box groups when a runner means disaster). Sham is the most versatile healer. Mage is the easiest "stand in one place and press a single button dps" class in the game, and the uses for CotH are many. If you prefer less DPS and more quality of life tools, then Bard would be better. If you think you'll eventually want to take on content on the cutting edge of what a box group can handle after charm goes away, then you need a War tank and a Cleric healer. Period. Full stop. You will also eventually need a Bard and a Sham. So if that's where you see your boxing efforts heading, start with the War/Cler/Bard cornerstone and build from there. You will kill pretty slowly with that trio, but all the basic needs are covered, and you're set to build a truly powerful 5-6 toon box group from there.
