Hey all, I have been 2 boxing on Agnarr recently and my wife is wanting to join, which will give us a team of 3. She has decided to play Druid, so I am trying to decide on 2 classes that complement that well. She is fairly new to EQ, so I'm trying to come up with a trio that will take most of the pressure off her and allow her to learn the game easier. My only restriction is no ENC/SHM, since I already have those on the server. I was thinking for my main I would tank with pally, but I'm having trouble deciding on the 3rd character. Here are some options I thought might work: PAL/BST/DRU -- BST brings slows, haste, a pet and can throw in heals. However, not sure how easy it would be to box two melee. I've also heard BST isn't great in the POP era. PAL/BRD/DRU -- bard brings a ton of utility and CC and can be a melody bot. I feel like this trio might not have much dps though PAL/MAG/DRU -- Mage brings tons of dps, but no CC or slow I'm also open to subbing the pally out for any other melee if another trio would work better!
I'd got enchanter or bard with that combination. Go with something that can keep mana up for your PAL/DRU
Bard is by far the easiest option and it brings a little of all the things you need. Bst is moderate effort I would say and with AAs and the good pet focus they are decent. DPS is going to be an issue situationally either way.. though you can always opt to fight either UD for the slays or anywhere the Dru can charm. You will want to encourage the druid to play as much of a dps role as possible for best results IMO not matter which 3rd you add.. Bard can be very helpful on charm break to make that more viable/less stressful on a newer player too
First: glad you're on Agnarr!! It's the best server BST/Bard/Druid is a very powerful combo. I'd recommend that. Druid, SK, bard also. Druid, ench, any tank also. If you ever plan on doing old world raid content though, enchanter will be pretty useless. Enchanters are really only powerful for group or solo content.
I recommend building Boxing teams around the Tank/Slower/Healer meta unless you are fairly experienced and know the class synergies across the game. PAL/BST/DRU PAL/BRD/DRU PAL/ENC/DRU I'd say pick whichever is most fun for you, they all have strengths & weaknesses which you can capitalise upon.
Me personally will go SK/Cleric SK can single pull due to FD clerics heals and buffs are well superior to druids and shamans. Also both classes have undead nukes I believe ....then fill the other with a chanter or shaman ..maybe a BST that can have some shaman spells and extra pet for dps just dont taunt with pets..depends on your taste for classes ..I rather solo slow with a necro or druid LOL ..Solitude ..nice classic eq music and beer ...while watching Netflix LOL Agnarr is the best relaxing music station LOL..just turn off combat music lol ...
First, druid is a perfect choice for your wife to learn the game. As she grows confidence she can start charming and crowd controlling and making the most of that druid. I was playing a trio self boxed of paladin/druid/beastlord on Agnarr. At 55 it really started to come into its own, but doesn't get really good until 60. The druid heals are fine, but the beastlord feels like a weak addition until 60 with the better slow, haste, regen, etc. For the long term though, that is a great third to add to this set to essentially give it everything except mez. If you plan to add others to your groups often, bard is probably the easier choice to box. You can either pull with the bard and tank on paladin, or have the bard running melody as you solo play the paladin. Its an exceptional box choice, but it would be really light on dps as a trio unless your druid is charming hasted pets. If you yourself don't mind charming, enchanter would make the ultimate trio for a pop locked server. Enchanter charm with paladin and druid support is so clutch. Druid can also charm since it isnt you three boxing. If you planned to drop paladin, I would go beastlord + bard. Beast/druid/bard is a really good trio if you add some others or get some raid gear.
If you have to main a tank I would recommend SK for feign death when a pull goes bad (even though you have druid to succor/evac when this happpens, running back to camp spot sucks especially when you are deep in an instance). You are going to want DPS. I personally run a Mnk/Dru/Enc. I have boxed War/Dru/Enc in the past and the DPS output was terrible (and trying to charm on chanter to bring the DPS up, with charm breaks it was very hard to maintain mana on the druid). I eventually decided to tank with monk to bring in additional DPS and discovered that when you are playing solo it is very easy to keep aggro on the monk if everyone assists on 1 target at a time. With that being said, if you are set on playing a tank class, the SK's feign death is incredibly important to prevent a succor/evac. You also said that you didnt want to play a chanter, which would be my recommendation with SK/Dru, so I would recommend Sk/Bard/Dru for various reasons. Without an enchanter you can can still buy haste potions off the bazaar as well as clarity and spiritual dominion to make up for not having the classes to boost your druids mana regen, if you can afford it. Hopefully this helps a little on your decision making (Edit) Also while boxing an additional melee class, create macros, have the melee on auto follow with assist macros and use your main (tank) to position the mobs AND the melee thats on auto follow to strike the mobs with "/assist tanknamehere". With practice its not that bad.
I do pal enc Dru on Vaniki right now. It is very solid. You have enough tools to lock mobs down. As pacify is limited on Vaniki I just pull with pal and lock Mez mobs with enc. It's so nice to have hard CC compared to bard Mez. Meeting 2+ mobs with bard box is a kind of a chore. Dru will snare any runner. DPS is decent with a charmed pet enc is a busy box though so be prepared
