Okay, just came back from a break, forgot what most of my buttons did. Slowly relearning things as I go through some old missions for achievements. Boxing a 92 pally/druid atm. As said, still relearning a lot of things, getting accustomed to EQ. Seems to be going well so far, though. This post will probably be a bit rambling, as I think of how to word everything. Been considering going back to 3boxing, and was wondering what a good third class would be? I remember the classic answer always being add a bard. Pulls and songs to increase mercs and my dps. Would the bard add enough to outweigh a different DPS class? One of my favourite things is to go do older raid content, and knowing I still have the DPS class in group without mercs sounds good. Will admit I'd prefer the class to not take a lot of my attention. Much prefer spending my time on my paladin's screen. So, say, between bard and wizard? Or maybe one of the pet classes? Imagine beastlord would be difficult to manage with extra melee, so necro or mage? Would the bard songs add enough to outweigh just adding in the straight DPS? Bard add enough DPS himself to speed things up when I can't have mercs? Don't remember much about bards, just seem to recall their melee DPS was pretty low and they had a haste song. So, a lot of info there! Now, merc question is simple enough. Is there ever a reason to use a rogue? Any way that they perform better? I tried to do a few fights with both and just rough observations is rogue on burn without haste seems to do as much as wiz on balanced. Wiz on burn blows things up but rips aggro off of me like I'm not even there. See a lot of people saying they keep wiz on burn always. Does it get easier to hold aggro off of them? I can spam my stuns and the aggro just bounces back to the merc after first nuke. I noticed the rogue merc doesn't have the annoying "Stand completely still if anyone is in combat" trait the wiz does, which is a huge bonus imo. I figured out flipping to passive and then back to attack to get it to move, but doing that every time gets very old, very fast. But the damage amounts seem ridiculously weighted to the wiz side. Does it get better? If you've got a bard or something in group, will they start to compare a bit better? Thanks! All answers are appreciated as I try to relearn my way around. Funny that I can remember zone connections like I quit a week ago but I had to spend 30 min going through my AAs to figure out what everything does.
There are times where the bard dps will not be enough. There are times where you will need the ability to mez instead of the extra dps. You will be able to do nearly any content with a bard, albeit slowly if you can't use mercs. You will be able to do nearly any content with a wizard as well. Beastlords require constant attention. If you're not hitting a nuke, you're not doing enough dps to be worth the group spot. Bards or Wizards are a lot easier to get the most efficiency out of. I haven't found a reason to use melee dps mercs yet because the Wiz merc dps blows them away.
welcome back. third box options. bard. mega easy with melody. not much attention if like to powerplay other toon. wizzy. mega easy with hot key setup.. will out do merc. mage. easy once get Ghold. again hot key nukes. shaman. not bad.. learn what works with druid. nice buffs, slows etc.. balance. chanter. feels like too much attention if want use it. killer power when learn the ins and outs. few others are fine. nec ranger maybe a hot key clr. Merc. yea casters dps is stronge for what it is. agro control gets pretty easy with AA work on them. Also few stuns.. with rune proc on sally makes things nice. Merc are style if are 3 boxing imo.. you have the ideal xp gain or auto config so you don't have to think. like this... pally druid random third PC toon.. x3 wizzy merc.. set sally to puller and assist.. that small delay will help with agro. full burn.. hot key heals on druid. things die fast. sub a wizzy for clr merc and you hot key druid dps. Or maybe you don't like tanking on Mondays.. use a tank merc, with a dps and healer merc.. and control things with your sally. Tons of options. Trends of 3 box 3 merc setup to loggin and do whatever you want within you timeframe is great. Flexible. Just be social if you can.. players are better than mercs if they try and being social is nice. plus 1 on shared knowledge.
You can 3 box just about any combo. There are advantages/disadvantages to all the classes. The trio I use the most is Ranger/Shaman/SK. It is a little slower to kill but it's alot of fun. I'm fortunate that I have 3 different computes to box with. I've also played around with Mage/chanter/druid. Lots of firepower with that trio but they are a bit squishy. The mage pet can serve as tank though so you can go with two wizzy mercs and a cleric for extra firepower.
Paladin Druid Wizard is a solid team (since you said you already have a pally/druid and were thinking of adding a wizard) Great healing between the Pally and Druid Attack Debuffs Burn increases (Aura/GBW/Skin to Vines, etc) and Burn DPS
Bard *and* wizard. Keep a wizard on that account sorta-reasonably levelled and geared. Play it enough that you don't entirely suck, and use that for when you need/want it. Use the bard for daily. XP is easy, AAs are now trivial. Make use of this.
