Looking to trio with my husband and a friend on Yelinak starting next week or so, but we've been away from EQ for a looooooong time and we're not quite sure what to choose. We're leaning towards bard, enchanter and shaman (even though I'll have to haul baby Barbarian butt halfway across the world), but we're struggling to figure out if that's a good combo and we're hoping for some advice. I've seen some mentions that shaman/enchanter and shaman/bard both have pretty good synergy, but haven't been able to find much more information than that. I don't think anyone is interested in playing a warrior, rogue or cleric (although I'm willing to roll a cleric if that's absolutely The Most Best Choice). Really the only thing we're looking for is a group that can effectively trio all the way through to cap if that's practical. Any suggestions or thoughts would be helpful!
You need a tank if you are going beyond Luclin. There's a lot of overlap between those three classes. I'd go SK, Shaman, Bard if it were me.
Thanks for the suggestion! If we make it all the way to Luclin I'll probably reroll beastlord because I love them and we'll have to rejig anyway lol. I hear SKs are great, my only worry is that rolling evil might be a bit of a pain and one of us is a newbie to the game.
Paladin Druid Beastlord is a potent combo if you want to have a pure good team. Or you can build round a Mage using a Pet to tank, Bard & Shaman work well with a Mage too or you can swap out the Bard for an Enchanter.
You will want the dps from an enchanter charm pet as you get higher level. Unless you are doing so for nostalgia or RP reasons you should probably make the Shaman either Ogre (frontal stun immunity) or Troll for regen.
We were considering Mage as an alternate for the Enchanter, since that's the new player and Enchanter might be a bit much to start with. I don't think we necessarily need a pure good team, I just don't want the new guy to get slapped into next week by a wandering guard somewhere lol. Yeah I hear Enchanters have crazy good dps, which is why we were thinking about it. That'll be the new player though, so maybe Mage as a fallback if it's too complicated? Barbarian is 100% an aesthetic pick (I'd play a Froglok if I could, but alas). I know Troll or Ogre would be the better choice but I've never been much of a fan of either.
With new mechanics like Origin, the issue with rolling evil isn't nearly as bad. Origin is an AA ability autogranted at level 5 that lets you teleport back to your origin city at your guild, once every 20 minutes. Basically if you need spells or to sell, just origin back. You will still have to make the run back out to where you were but that isn't as bad as both ways. Also, there are good leveling paths in all directions so including a path for the Evils to avoid "Good" cities. Evils are very close to, Befallen, Guk, South Ro, Sol A and B, etc while still having access to Freeport for the Good sided characters. For example you could go DE, Troll or Ogre SK, Troll or Ogre Shaman and Human/Half Elf Bard and you could get together easily. Also traversing around is much easier as well. There are no more 20 minute ship rides between continents, instead there is a translocator that just teleports you to the next zone. I guess my point is that in most cases you can roll what every you want and still not have many issues. I guess the biggest issue would be for someone rolling a Erudite, Barbarian or Human/Half Elf starting in Qeynos and meeting up with say a DE, Troll or Ogre. That is a long run through some very dangerous places when your low leveled and trying to just join up with friends.
Enchanters may charm all the way through PoP (maybe Gates) but come OOW, it's not nearly as common. You'll see the occasional raid-geared enchanter charming, of course.
As Zansobar said, ogre is best for both the shaman and SK, if you go that way. Evil vs. good isn't that big of a deal, especially when you get past classic. Once you reach level 5 you will Origin to sell and buy spells, then gate back. There's not much running through dangerous areas. You'll likely have to navigate Freeport at least once to get to the docks if you decide to use the Translocator there. But using a charm pet up through Luclin and rolling a BL is a good plan. Edit: Should have read Midnitewolf's response first. ;-)
I agree with Skuz, I think a paladin and warrior are both very under rated tanks. I'd probably go Paladin, Druid, Mage myself though.
