I'm thinking of duoing my way up, for the times when I can't group. 2 chars plus two mercs. Can you tell me how OK would these duos work? The only thing I know is that, if I box a tank, it will have to be an SK, otherwise a pet class, or are tank mercs viable to top level now, even if I have to box a healer? SK + Bard SK + Ranger SK + BST SK + Druid SK + Rogue BST + Monk BST + Rogue BST + Druid Nec + Nec Nec + Mag Nec + Druid Nec + Bard If tank mercs are viable: Monk + Sham Ranger + Shaman Rogue + Shaman Thanks!
IMNSHO, just about everything is fixed with a couple of mercs. Tank merc + Healer merc and you are good to go. Only question is how fast they will level which is a good question if that is what you are into. It may be a long road for some character types. For instance a Ranger doesn't get good until they have Head Shot, Finishing Blow, and a few other AAs at ~level 60. Magician starts off really strong, but undergoes a transition from level 65 where their pet is something like level 53 to when they hit 66 and their pet is level 65ish??? Jump of 12 or so levels in pet power for a single level increase in player level anyway. Paid subscription or F2P? If it is F2P then by design the mercs will peter out at level 50ish or so. They still work for things like healing and resurection if things go south, they just aren't as strong by a long shot. You either have to go paid or group to get past level 85ish anyway, once again by design. Thing is, there is a lot of game there 1-50 so I wouldn't let that put me off from playing from the game. Personally I am fond of Magicians aside from the aforementioned weakness prior to level 66. There pets are a good compromise between being tankie and damage dealing. Ditto for Rangers in that that are OK up to Head Shot and become great thereafter. I've run SKs before and they are OK on a couple of levels. I really like their ability to tank, heal themselves, and snare fleeing MOBs. Somewhat restricted in travel if you want to experience any of the older game. They are KOS in areas where Rangers, Druids, good Clerics, et al like to haunt. I've run Bards too, but I've never liked it. Powerful characters that are a must have if you want to level quickly. Their over haste songs are just great. If you have a summoned pet with the proper AAs, the Bard songs will land on the pet too! Some people just run the Bard in the backgroud maybe singing a song or two. Running them right to take advantage of their crowd control, debuffs, bag of tricks takes a lot of effort. Same problem with SK you'll find with Necros. Isn't a problem in the modern game, you just can't spend a lot of time in about half the original zones. Druid is my go to character 1-50. They are not-so-hot-so above 50. They are the amoung the best killers early, but slow killers mostly using DOTs. If you want to group, typically MOBs will be dropping ever minute or so. Makes the Druid's DOTs teats on a bull. They aren't as good of buffers and healers compared to Shaman and Clerics so slow leveling. SK + Rogue is kind of weak in that not a lot of healing there. Not much better with a Bard. Needs mercs. Nec + Nec is another weakie. Great offense but not a lot of defense. Limited on zones in that their strongest play is fear kiting. Probably one of the fastest leveling if you don't mind mercs though. Huge DOTs and the kiting thing. Shaman works with everything. You didn't mention it, but Enchanter too. Druid works with anything. Magician works with anything. Bards work mostly with larger groups where their songs land on everything and everybody. FWIW, mostly playing Rizlona the last 2 years and my favorite combo at the moment is my Ranger and Magician. Level locked at 70 right now so it will change as time goes on. Other combinations, I have 16 characters spread over two accounts there, work fine. Just the Ranger and Magician with pet fill all that is good with buffs and sustained damage dealing. I do run two Magicians at once for really tough content vs the grind.
Pet tanks are viable. Merc tanks are not. Plate tanks (war, pal or shd) are all superior by a lot if you're doing difficult content. Tuco's random butt-grab ranking list based on your post: S Rank: shd/shm shd/brd shd/nec A Rank: shd/bst shd/mag shd/dru B Rank: shd/enc shd/ber mag/enc mag/brd nec/nec nec/brd nec/mag
Thanks a lot. It's paid subscription on Live. I never played EQ back in the day, so the nostalgia holds no meaning for me I've already played the game before but never boxed properly and, from what I've seen, tank mercs don't work 100+ and I can get to 80 or so in a few days, so the low levels are not something that bothers me. I will go back once I can kill them all! Everybody seems to be recommending shaman but I am not interested in them - I really don't like healing and, when boxing, I will die many, many times.
Thanks for your reply! (I can't help but read Tucows!). Well, tank mercs are off, so it's a matter of getting the right duos. From what you're saying, I think that I am going to try shd/bard. If it goes really badly (I expect so, I always kill my bards!), I will try shd/shm, even though I don't like healers. Shd/nec sounds great but I was planning on having a caster duo (mag/nec or nec/nec) for when I am lazy, so I think that I will pass on that. Thanks again!
Just a guess, but lots of people like what a Shaman brings to the table with the slows they have. Much of the same functionality can be had with Enchanters or Bards. Down side would be less healing, but since you are a paid customer, your Cleric Mercs will take care of that just fine. 80 in a few days would mean a lot of play time/day. I haven't been playing on the regular servers much since TLP became a thing, but it usually took me longer even with veteran benefits like fast experience using "lesson of the devoted" perk. Best of luck, have fun.
shaman is so much more than (** just a healing toon ** ). but many don't play their shm a full potential .
My merc tank tanks pretty much everything for me. It's problem is that it doesn't use abilities. It tanks Bloodfalls just fine. It tanks named in most expansion just fine. It did get slaughter in TBL but so did just about everyone else. Even though I have a cleric, I still used 1 cleric merc in bloodfalls and against named. One little mistake and it was a wipe, and I am an ENC, but they can go down extremely fast to multiples. So, tank mercs are viable for a majority of content, they are about on par with a mage pet for tanking, but they don't use defensives (at least properly) so they can drop fast. They are also dumb. They only get aggro by switching and running to targets, so they can be a pain. A real plate tank will vastly outperform a warrior merc. However, I myself do not feel that the performance of my raid ear mage pet in tanking was significantly superior to my maxed out tank merc, except which the mage pet defensive AA, which I could activate when I needed it. Perhaps the mage pet was a better tank than my warrior merc, but since the warrior merc was automatic, I let it do the job, and it did it just fine (when I pulled singles). Btw, neither get a passive slow belt, which is a big advantage for a real plate tank. With that said, the best merc is the cleric merc, and I am working towards replacing my cleric with a SK, which is why I have been speaking past tense. A SK with a cleric merc can practically solo most content. A cleric with a tank merc can not. Keeping up with a cleric and a tank merc is definitely less efficient. A plate tank will take you further than any other combination, unless of course you don't want to play one. You will not go as far with a character you don't enjoy as you will with one you do.
3-box and have one of them as a mage. CoH is wonderful for a boxer. 3-box gets you campfires so you can move quickly and you get a 6-man group if all of them have mercs. 3-boxing is also great because you have a full group but can always drop a merc to pickup players. Mage is also a very easy class to box. It takes a lot to reach its potential, but it takes a lot less to get more performance than a whole lot of other options. One thing I want to say about Tucoh, and this is not in anyway a negative, Tucoh boxes for the challenge of boxing. He is a skilled and capable boxer, but he boxes to challenge his ability to box. I on the other hand am fine not boxing, box to support my single main character, and want the setup that requires the absolute minimal input to other characters even if it costs me some performance. We are in some ways polar opposites when it comes to boxing. There's nothing wrong with how Tucoh plays or how I play, but I think it is important to recognize your personal goal. Support a single main character, box for the challenge of boxing, have the most optimal performance group, etc. Which you choose can make a big difference on class selection. Example of this being that I am switching my CLR for a SK, which despite being a more optimal group for growing my ENC, it will shift my focus from my ENC to the SK, which is a HUGE negative.
