2-Boxing on Coirnav Question

technically, not as well. Mobs fight to the death when rooted, where as with snare, they sometimes turn their back to you and attempt to flee, slowly, until they can't. But you save a lot of mana using snare as opposed to root to control runners.

researching is a bit easier now so the spell issue goes away
shamans do not start to shine until Kunark
go with a cleric+whatever or a monk+whatever if you want to group with people.

This isn't me trying to be rude bud but if you will read the OP it clearly states I am doing this because I will NOT be grouping with others for the majority of the time.

He wants to stay relevant at high level as well. Going with a rogue or warrior early on is a mistake; they are too gear dependent.

Clerics and monks duo well with just about anything in classic.
Monk stays high on damage always and not very gear dependent.
Cleric spells are from vendors and gear is easy to come by since they can wear so many types. Their healing is mandatory for a long time.

Shaman ranger is pretty solid because the utility they both bring arent covered by any other single class. A ranger in banded is a pretty good tank to start out with, and with root they can break alot of camps. Snare keeps wipes to a minimum as well. Snare, flame lick and taunt mean they get agro better than the plate tanks as well for a pretty low mana cost. Track means you always know when your named is up. Lots to like here.

ugh the more I study the combos, the more I am looking elsewhere for combos. Monks just aren't fun to me and the other 3 classes just seem sub par for what I want to do. Maybe I just suck it up and level up a Cleric or Mage to box with my Enchanter I solo with

Mages can level easy naked, so I could finish gearing my Enchanter and just either box a Mage or a Cleric with it and I have a set of mid level gear for a Cleric if I went that route. Chant/Mage seems sick DPS while Chant/Cleric seems to be a super safe way of going about grinding. I do hear you guys when you says Shaman/Melee will be super gear dependent and talking to a friend last night at higher levels I will need GOOD gear if I want my melee to be able to handle hard hitting mobs.

................. why not Mage/Mage? With that much firepower would you even need CC?? You mentioned you wanted something to Box that was low maintenance .......... well not much out there that is less maintenance than a Mage/Mage box. Smarter minds than mine will need to comment on the not having CC with Mage/Mage though.

If you want good xp as a pair you really want to kill at range, melee classes need healing. If you are healing one of your chars is not doing damage. One of the pair will need snare, DPS can be DD, DOT, Bow. I had some pretty good fun with a necro/druid pair.

For more traditional killing your mage/shm pair is one of my fave combos. The mage does need to focus AA on pet defensives once they become available. I've done mage/druid too then later added in a bard. Once mercs become available you have a load of mobility, and some of the instance missions are made very simple with a bard.

I like that idea but again as we both stated .... no CC