1 - all 3 subbed. About 2 years ago, created "buffbies" on 3 other F2P accounts I have, to have chars just to cast long-lasting buffs on the accounts I play. 2 - Druid, SK, Mage. When I started boxing ~10 years ago, it was Druid, Enchanter, Mage. Druid, because that's my first, original char. Will never play without that one. The Enchanter was the first other-account alt I ever had, and was primarily for perma-crack, when I quadded with the Druid a lot. And the Mage was because it seemed like a good third box. About 3 years ago, started leveling the SK to replace the chanter, because I just couldn't make much headway without an actual player tank (vs. merc previously), and because I wasn't boxing the chanter very well anyway. My choice of trio is probably far from optimal, but it works well for me. 3 - no idea, but my personal opinion is, it doesn't matter. If you need to step away suddenly, who cares if what you're doing requires 20 apm or 50 apm? It's a moot point. What I WOULD suggest, is to have a druid or wizard in the group, and when that situation comes up, you hit evac, and then invis the group when you finish zoning. Wizards are not in a good place these days, so there's another reason I'm happy with my Druid
Well 3 accounts, so 3 main characters, you really need to decide which is your favorite, you can play the others if they support your main. Sample my druid pulls, to my mage that sends pet to tank, with the addition of mercs, one of them a healer, you can achieve a lot. for group play. Once a year to get any gained AA auto grant can go all access on your secondary char or chars. Also at high levels we are auto granted to about two or three expacs back, so unless you are in current max level, should be good for most efforts. The trick to solo or self group effort is to have a safe camp and pull to it, enough tankage with a merc healer or two, worst case of leaving the comp(s) for family, is that Overseer can get you back the XP of a death. Family has to come first. I never played a bard as a support, usually one or two mages, send pet let mercs heal, and just dot and nuke. Maybe do some test runs on light blues to get the feel for your preferences, and find a friendly guild, most of the large server pops have spots for afk buffing, so if you can leave your main or mains out in that area, often you come back to full buffs.
Ok awesome! I guess I will give live a shot with a three box one last time. I was considering something like pally, dru, mage. Seems like a simple enough box. Tank, buffs / ports/ heals, and mage to help speed it up with good dps / coth. Maybe I just stack all wizard mercs or something since pally dps is so rough i hear. I have played SK so much I don't really care to do that again. I appreciate all of the insight and feedback you guys have provided. The greatest part of EQ really is the community. My last few question. 1. What is overseer? I keep seeing people bring it up but never heard of it before. 2. Most up my play experience is up to gates where slow is absolutely mandatory in a box. Is it the same on live? Would I have to replace the mage or druid for something with a slow?
When your characters are level 85 and higher you can do Overseer. It is a "behind the scene" way of earning exp, mats, etc Go to EQ button then Quests then Overseer There are many write ups about it you can google.
My last question i promise lol. I have a heroic slot. would it be better to boost the druid and borderline PL myself on the pally / mage? or do you think it would be better to just run the trio all from scratch
if you are going to have one toon being all access , imo , it should be your tank, either your mage ( pet ) or your pally.
There is this tricky thing you can do if your going to do a Heroic Character boost. It will override the AA cap limit on free accounts just like "Auto Grant" does if you were to go paid. In other words that is a ton of AA that Heroic boost will save you from slogging thru. Most all of the AA up to level 85. Not sure if it works the same on the level 100 Heroic's cause I don't have any of those. This is super handy for a caster type or if your going to play rotate the sub. That is where one month one of your characters gets paid, they auto grant and you get as much exp as you can during that month. Next month is a different characters. It takes some attention to detail so for example if you always late on your electric bill then this might not be the way to go since you could forget when to rotate Just something to keep in mind when choosing which to Heroic if you did.
Like you, I am a casual player . Much of the advice here has been quite good. However, let me suggest one other option: Test server!! Unlike that of FV that gives only 50% bonus, you get a full 100% bonus for experience on Test , and this is in addition to any other experience such as bonus zones, bonus weekends, potions etc. Also, people on test are amazingly friendly and helpful. Moreover, people can play on test for free without having an active paid subscription. However, with that said,Test has a very different experience. First, There is almost no economy on test. Thus, there is little to buy except for some essential items such as gate potions, Thus, plat has no value. As a result of this, you won't need to buy any Krono like you would on FV and other live servers. It is MUCH cheaper to play on test. In fact, most of the better items sell for a pittance. For example, I just bought a Circlet of Shadows ( pre-nerfed) for 1 PP. Really!! Most items are only 1 PP. When I said things are cheap, I wasn't kidding;. While if you go on FV, as was suggested by a previous poster, there might be a LOT more offerings but prices are atrociously high. It isn't unusual for good items to sell for hundreds of thousands of PP or even millions of PP. Don't let the larger number of items fool you. If the price is sky high, you won't be able to afford it without some real cash investment in Krono for the live servers. this isn't a problem on Test. Secondly, while there are guilds and even raids on Test, the population is lower than that of some live servers such as FV. this will result in making it harder to find a group. Groups are finable but definitely harder than that of a busy live server. Thus, having the much higher experience bonus makes up for this.
1 - Go SK instead of pally. Easier to play, and will give enough mana regen in battle to keep the druid from going OOM all the time. 2 - Go with melee mercs, not wizzy mercs. DPS is much higher. Oh, unless you're talking about lower levels. If so, pull piles, and yes, use wizzy mercs on AE burn
