I returned to the game not long ago, Ive messed around a little on Oakwynd but settled for FV for now and currently sitting at lvl 56. I finished my 1.0 epic this morning and moved to a leveling spot but the kill time is slow so considering adding a box with a dps merc attached to it. I want to touch the box as little as possible so I'm thinking bard. How will bst/bard with cleric/dps mercs handle things as I progress higher up? Mercs is the addition to eq that I havent experienced at my current level before and its made leveling so far very easy, even if it has been slow after i switched to a cleric instead of the tank merc.
Bard is not the best second box beside pulling as it does lack DPS, which is what you seek. It does also need melee location placement and you would still want a better tank than the BST or a merc. You can select between those classes: Ranger (1st or 2nd box): Snare, CC and pulling is covered (Harmony, Root). Does not require much attention as a bow ranger. Does tank better than BST and merc. Shadow Knight (1st box): Worse puller than the ranger but much more tanky. Would be your most active box, the BST does not require that much attention. Does lack good CC but can snare and fear. Necromancer (1st or 2nd box): Best DPS but does tank worse than the SHD, but better than RNG/BST. Only root, snare and fear as CC for live mobs. Can mez and charm undeads. Can be a mana pump for the mana hungry BST. Can pull a little bit better than the SHD because of root.
Replacing BST as main is not an option and I don't need it to be optimal for maximum dps. I was thinking bard as an option with /melody and a dps merc with it for the simplicity of it. I do appreciate the input and suggestions.
In a similar circumstance myself. Will be playing again on live, starting from scratch 2 boxing, and contemplating on what to play as a main and what to box. BST is a main contender. I am far from expert especially in later expansions, but here's my thoughts and mere humble opinions. I played BST a bit on live, and some on a TLP awhile back. The BST lacks snare, CC, and pulling. -Bard - Bard brings Haste, Pulls, CC, mana song, and a variety of effects. They seem to be easy to box with /melody, but the downside is they may not bring much DPS themselves as a box and not a main. but they do get travel, invis and other very nice things. -Druid- Snare, heals, buffs, damage shield, dots, travel. I have never played a druid myself, and I hear they have mana issues, but that's just entirely me musing. But they do have evac and other tools, stronger healing and the like. -Mage- Apparently Mage is a strong box contender for nearly anyone, as its a matter of /assist, pet attack and nuke, make pet toys for both mage and bst pets and so on. You wouldn't have a puller though, and limited CC (i have heard Call of Heroes can act as CC, but I am unfamiliar how that works) and no snare until later. -Necro- I was a necro main on live back during omens. They have snare, and had great dots, feign death and so on. A necro would speed things up, but has no direct way to help the BST directly. But they do have snare and act as puller which is what my BST seem to need the most. -Ranger- They can snare and act as puller, and do get autoshoot later on. I have never played one myself but I heard good things. Headshot might make humanoid enemies go faster, but I am not certain how good that is later on. Personally if I decide to go BST main, I would go Bard box. Again, just my thoughts going off game experience from long ago. Mercs do open up a lot of options, so one can focus on what they enjoy or what is easy to box instead of fastest DPS and the like.
Does depend on where you do put the focus on but you already wrote that it is the lack of DPS. A melody bard is the most passive box but not very efficient. You would still have to activate it for snare and pulling often. If you don't mind pulling, a bow ranger or a necro would be the better choices. /autofire and hotbutton macros would be your best friends and you can even add a snare into the macro(s). If you really want to add a rogue merc, you can go with the bard for the ADPS, but basically all you do need is a healer merc. Mercs do cost exp which does eat up the ADPS effect but you might be able to obtain more loot/cash with a DPS merc.
Go with a bard. Always go with a bard. If you have some other boxed toon - replace it with a bard. Bards are awesome passive boxes. The best! And when you have time - make a mage. Either as an alt on your bard's account, or a third account. Beastlords and mages do wonderfully together. A beastlords boosts mage's pet and a mage boosts beastlord's warder. Great inter-class synergy. And the bard will boost those 2 onto the whole new level. Just a foreshadowing (you cant see it from your level 56 prospective yet, but you shall): beastlords have the same buffs as shamans (shaman's epic and extra buff is counterbalanced by beastlord's Ferocity and Growl short-duration buffs, so it's a wash), and the principal difference is that shamans do more damage with dots, although overall dps is much lower than beastlords', meanwhile shaman's heals are a game-changer for tanks. Although, if your tank is the warder then the beastlord can heal it really well, but not much else in terms of healing. So, if you have the beastlord, then you do not need shaman buffs for your group, as it is a shaman-monk hybrid and brings the equivalent buffs. Meanwhile, the bard makes all the difference for the group - its own dps is quite sizeable, comes from both melee and really, really powerful dots and group adps. Bard is not true dps class, it is a hybrid, so it can't compete for top dps spot. But in a group of raiders grinding current expansion trash for experience (i.e. steady grind, no critical encounters) a bard ends up comparable a warior, meanwhile the whole group gets 25-30 % dps boost from bard's presence. I run a tankless group lead by the beastlord. In the whole EQ I have troubles doing 4 missions total (from previous expansions, btw, not the current one) due to specific mission mechanics which make my group struggle to contain the adds. Tanking by warder is fine, crowd-control is more difficult. So, everything else a beastlord can and do handle well. And I never play without a bard, bards are awesome!
Bard's are a solid choice especially for a passive dps boost through chants, and the fact war march/overhaste/aura's/regen apply to warder too so win/win. The only downside is you're relying on merc and bst heals to keep you going. You could also consider a druid for buffs/snares/heals/damage shields/ports and since you're both leather classes may be able to share some gear since you're on FV.
The reason I picked Beastlord is because its the class I played last, to level 70 I think but it's been a while so could have been 65 only. I read that they get better at 85ish so I'm looking forward to that. Also very helpful info, nice to get other peoples opinions - especially when its a different take. Cant get enough information! I doubt I will ever 3 box but will keep the mage info close to heart. Might make one if only to provide some summoned gear for the warden Leveling to 50 has been very, very easy so I don't see an issue with leveling a few support classes on a second account in the future. Will need to focus on the beastlord first tho, have plans to get him properly PoP flagged even tho it's no longer needed in most cases. Small goals right now but in a game this massive, you need a plan.
as someone who mains a bst a bard is great. yes with a dps and healer merc if you pet tank you have to heal you pet some. but I would suggest going with 2 alts. bard for one. ranger for the other. both would be min time spent on them. both would be a 1 key macro. bard just target and do melody. ranger macro could be setup to cast snare autofire and a dot or dd. that would also give you 3 mercs and you could do 2 healers and if you can get 1 toon that can have 2 mercs to switch between could do dps and tank and switch as needed.
You will end up using another class as your primary box anyway as you won't have much to do with your BST. /attack on /pet attack /cast slow /cast DoT And every 3 minutes you can cast a short duration atk buff.
Actually they are a good class for boxing (2nd, 3rd, etc,) or the traditional multiplayer group, but else they can be boring. The class is meant to be simple I think and that is ok.
I don't find them boring at all, good thing not everyone likes to play the same thing. Made my bard today, the apprentice merc sucks so will def have to pay 2 subs, will give it a whirl for one month and see if its worth it or nah. It's been fun leveling it so far despite the sub par merc. /melody is very useful and I took a different leveling approach without the op merc and its been hella fun.
Assuming on live, the best combo's will be BST / BST BST / BRD BST / ENC can work I suppose. Lots of options here, just about anything will work. Depends if you will be using 3rd party software and if prefer to be active on the BST or main another character. From an early TLP perspective: BST / DRU. Not sure how anything else goes on TLP, as that is the only combo I've tried. I'd swap the druid for bard personally, once merc's are available.
It sounds like you are playing a different game, or haven't played a BST past 60. BST are crazy busy. Or, you play your BST like a MAG.
There is no question...bard. You can do anything in the game with bst/bard, except some group missions, all the way to lvl 120. You can sacrifice some of the adps and go heavy on dps songs which will speed things along for you. You will not regret the bard.
I'm on live and want a passive boost with full focus or near full focus on my BST which is why I considered bard. I scoured Youtube for videos and a lot of boxers have their bard in a corner just buffing which is what I was looking for. I dont want to switch Windows too often, if I had a second pc it would be a different matter I think. I really appreciate everyones input, it's been very informative and helpful.
Having mained a bst at one point I would say bard or mage are first choice with ranger as 3rd. If you raid or buy raid gear since you're on FV the gear will help you tank for your box group. If not, just pet tank. Also, don't get discouraged but bst dps doesnt really kick in til around lvl 95 I think iirc.
I do not raid nor do I plan to at this point and with how the economy is on FV, raid gear will be far away for a long time. Other than paying for a sub or two I do not spend real money on ingame things so it will take quite some time to get wealthy I think. Pet will probably have to be the tank for the forseeable future.
