Just started EQ up again. Been long time since played last. Back in day loved my sk. I was thinking doing sk, shaman, necro, bard setup. I could take necro out and put Mage in use Mage pet to off tank adds if needed. With this setup what will be my challenges? Should I consider someone else in my group? Can sk survive higher end content with merc healers? Do I have enough dmg output with this setup?
Lol I have this problem when I am 3 boxing after about an hour - In all seriousness I would only use mage bard and sk then you have fast place to place travel and you are not losing more with the 4th person the only time you would need to group once geared and stuff would be in hard group missions like tower of rot. Or to help others of course. With bard you can just mezz charm or single pull the mobs also so no need to pet tank.
I have duel monitors makes it easier. With set up really only need worry about sk and necro. Other two just for support heals when needed and that and buffs
It's my feeling that shaman aren't strong in a "backup" capacity because just being ready to heal takes so many spell gems. It's powerful healing, but it dominates the spell bar. Their damage spells also take up bunches of spell gems, so there's a problem. Not like druids, who get 5/6 gems for their full dps linup, 5/6 gems for their full heal linup, so they can have both up and swap modes completely every 3.5 seconds. When I have my shaman on, that's the healer. I run another dps merc.
So I be better running Druid instead of shammy? Shaman buffs are better for melee then Druid though so I will miss out on that part yea?
buffs? egads, you don't make/level/AA/gear/flag out a character just to cast a buff on yourself once every 2h
Thanks brohg. Just out of curiosity if you had pick 4 box team who would u pick. Considering 100% free player and want do high end content with the team.
You're going to run into "soft" but pretty serious limits attempting anything describable as high end with a 100% free approach, on a tank. Unless you mean to substitute spending extensive farming time (to then get Kronos) for the paid subscription? The AA limits and "Prestige" gear exclusion will hit pretty hard starting around 85 or so. You can "just play harder" to push the limits, but at some point skill or effort or whatever isn't going to make up for 5/10000 missing AA, 400 unusable aug AC, double that on the actual gear, whatever else I"m not thinking of.
This question was not specifically addressed to me but will provide some insight/feedback. I took a little over a year off from the game retiring my SK/Shaman setup and started anew. Being silver/f2p, I four box on two monitors using just In game macros. I four box a paladin, enchanter, druid, and wizard. With that setup, I am progressing through HOT completing most of the achievements. I have just entered tier three and slowly going forward. With my background and progression revealed, I have found it is doable using a silver/f2p setup but, I think going 100% free you will have to over level content to progress. In order to progress not only my group but my play level, I use AA unlockers to allow me to learn the group. I feel it allows you to spend money relative to your playtime maximizing your monetary investment. It also allows you to enjoy the content with your group developing more skill as a boxer as well as more experience with your classes. As far as suggestions for group makeup, I think you may have some better options. First, the shaman served me well as a two box setup but, I feel the Druid maybe the better choice for two reasons known to me: tracking and ports. There are no words to describe the benefit of tracking and porting to make the best of your time. Second, I played a bard but based off recommedations from the forums swapped to enchanter and have been very happy. I personally like the crowd control and adps for my casters better on the enchanter. Next, a pet tank like a Mage may be better vice the SK due to gearing and AA issues. Finally, the necromancer is a great class but, as far as damage, they generally start off a bit slower taking time to get going. If you get adds in camp, you will need to be organized because unlike wizards a necromancer's damage will run its course before being able to CC. In summary, it can be done but the makeup I would go with would be mage, druid, enchanter, and wizard. I would also use AA unlockers to allow you as a player growth and your group to be able to take on harder tasks. It also allows you to support the game which is a win for all involved. Best regards, Rykard P.S. Just to throw this out there. I think the suggested lineup has pretty good synergy but, this is a game and, it should be about what is fun or interesting to you. If your really like the setup you listed, give it a go and make it work. I am sure it can. You will just have to work out the synergy as you go along.
Thank you very much Rykard for your input. The more input the better for me greatly appreciate it. I have one silver account I guess from when I had account back in the day. I take it that account will always be silver. So i just need work on the other 3 accounts get them at silver right? Do I need pay every month or just once to unlock the things I need. 4 accounts at 15 a month i for sure cant do but if i just need pay once and then im good i can make that happen. I thought about mage I heard there pet can tank pretty well. The ability to port is always nice to have. Back in the day had run every where but with pok made things easier. I been reading up on sk and from what i read to get a good sk will need put money into him for the aa's so maybe sk not best option. I like the mage, druid, wizard combo only thing im iffy on is the enchanter. That always seemed like a challenging character to play.
Yah, the silver account can go all access and will always revert to silver if your all access time runs out. The great thing about silver accounts is you get a higher level merc and 1000 AA cap. Silver accounts are a thing of the past so, unless you have multiple accounts silver, all new ones started will be free to play. Free to play accounts get a lower limit on mercs and a 250 AA cap. There are two ways I have seen or thought about doing the silver/f2p setup. One way is to level your group up to the 85/90 level and go all access on all four accounts. Enable auto grant and receive thousands of AA up to that level. The second way is to buy daybreak cash either through DBG or game cards. Use the DBG cash to buy AA unlockers(250/100 AAs). This will net you 600 AAs or 800 AAs (Walmart game cards give an extra 500 DBG cash) for a one time purchase. Purchase more as needed as you level. I prefer the latter as you still support the game and can learn the abilities as you level rather than receiving a few hundred all at your leveling points. I used to play an SK and do play a paladin now. It is very doable. I think the AA unlockers can make it possible if you like the class. Enchanters are not too bad to learn. The problem that I had initially was learning their pulling tools. As an SK, I was so used to snare/feign death or HA/Instant FD. The enchanter's skill set is a bit different. They have two fade type abilities that work on themselves( stasis/ friendly stasis) but I save those for when things go awry or bad. Their other pulling skills work better as a no fade pull in my opnion. And sometimes, you just pull them all and keep them mezzed . Rykard
so with my one silver account who should be the character on that I am thinking mage for its pet. eventually I will get the other guys up there as well. But for right now who would benefit the most from the extra aa's. I will go mage,druid,wizard,enchanter set up see how it works out.
if eventually going with a true tank class, I would select that one to be the silver account. If going mate pet tanking, I think that I would also choose the Mage account for silver. I, however, have only played the necromancer as far as a pet class up to current level so, I am unsure of how many AAs they require. I would probably solicit mages on their recommendations. I did that for the enchanter and got a lot of really good advice. On another note, I had to go back and level up the enchanter after the others as I initially went with bard. If I had to do it again, I would start all of them at the same time. You can work on your synergy right away and gets rid of the boredom trying to catch the caster classes up. The skill-ups for casting spells are much, much slower than melee abilities. Rykard
