Hi, I have never played a beastlord and was wondering if I should go with a bst and x2 mages and like x2 healer mercs and a dps one. Is this a good plan?
Since beastlord was my main long before I started boxing, he's always been there. My pet (EM29 but EM27 seemed the same) can tank anything (3x tier 2 trash or a T2-named plus an add) all with just one healer merc and sympathetic warder. Can't remember the last time I cast a heal. I box him with a mage and necro and 2x melee merc, 1x healer merc. I like necro because i don't use any 3rd Pty programs. I use 2 monitors and click everything myself so I can click the necro button that casts 5 dots so that he's still doing damage while i'm nuking on the mage. Beastlord synergy is also very nice with the pets and 2 mercs. HOWEVER.... recently I went to 4 box. BST/MAG/NEC/BRD + 1x Healer MErc, 1x Damage merc. I just leave the bard singing his melody in the background so I don't have to click anything on him. It "seems" like the group does way more damage in this configuartion. Also, the bard just stays Free-to-play once levelled / AA capped.
Why the two healers? Ive boxed since before mercs were even a thing. When they went live I have always used a merc healer. I tried two early on thinking it would keep me up better with one set balanced and one set on burn. I have quit using 2 healers pretty fast. Learning which heal spells to block on your tank does wonders for their ability to keep you alive. If you are not going to make a tank and just rely on pets your two mages would be fine. I myself go SK, BST, Shaman, Bard. with healer merc and rogue merc. I like melee dps merc better than caster myself. If you want to try a tank go SK. I pull with it, dott it up and switch to my other characters for the rest of the fight. Leaving you time to click your mage buttons or whatnot.
I played a 3 box with mercs of WAR, MAG, MAG and I struggled with the content I was at. I switched to a 3 box with DRU, BST and MAG (merc tank) and romped through the content so easily it made me think I'd broken something. Beastlords and their pets are very good indeed. I though mage pets were good but I think beastlord pets are better now.
I myself am quite fond of utility so I would do 1 MAG and 1 DRU. Being able to track, port and heal is a worth wild tradeoff of DPS for me. Exodus has been amazing as well. Besides, DRU aDPS on the mage plus DRU DPS might make a net neutral swap. Note I did say the ability to heal but I do not heal with my druid. I use a CLR merc. Knowing I can throw out a group heal, cure or AA priest ability is valuable to me. Pets with proper EM earrings are like mercs, auto ability and come with gear. Plate tanks out perform pet tanks but only after they are geared and using their abilities correctly. Struggling with a War tank is due to a lack of gear or improper use of abilities. It took a very long time before my SHD could out tank my mag pet but now that my SHD is geared and I understand the abilities, the SHD vastly out performs the pets. I will concede that I do use a SHD instead of a WAR and the knights are vastly easier to play in group content because their healing covers the gap caused by lazy mercs.
I have a lot of success with a BST, BRD, and MAG sans current missions. That damn pet thing kills me, but others have had success getting through it. But everything else has been easy.
