Aradune 2-Box Original EQ Ranking

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Tucoh, Apr 30, 2020.

  1. a_librarian Augur

    Pretty useful but not necessary in 90% of cases. Your highest rank tash is almost always enough to make a charm manageable pre PoP at least. You can squeeze in extra MR debuffs by carrying a few easy to acquire pieces of equipment to give to your pet. The two I always have on me are Rusty Spiked Shoulderpads and Adamantite Band/Silver Jacinth Wedding Ring.

    The big stand out exception I remember is the velium hunter in velks. Malo was a godsend there because the thing is resistant and absolutely destroys you on charm breaks if you've given it a weapon to backstab from the front.
    BlingBling and Tucoh like this.
  2. SunDrake Augur

    \

    Useful in that if you have a Shaman or Mage you wanna always have it up, but if you are working with two boxes on your own a_librarian is correct that keeping things Tashed will be sufficient if working on your own.
  3. Accipiter Old Timer


    I'd say you don't get many charming enchanters after POP. At least not as your main tank. There are raid-geared enchanters that will charm solo for quite a while after POP but that's a whole other thing. This is based on my own personal experience, plus what I have observed on Phinny.
  4. Pneumothorax Journeyman

    What about shaman nec for big root rot?
  5. Stratka Lorekeeper

    SS+ Tier
    Ench/Cleric - The most broken combination in the game for both grouping and raiding in classic. From a grouping perspective, it stays this way through PoP.

    But... are you interested in raiding past classic? All classes can get to max level fairly easily so picking a combination that you want to raid with is important.
  6. BlingBling Journeyman


    This is very good input. I think Malo can be helpful and in a duo situation, it would be a huge difference for something like that. It's really a min/max thing. The hunter was straight crazy dps with the front BS, and malo helps so much on mobs like that.

    I think the real question is what do you want to do longterm? And CH is really important for healing pets long term.
  7. Auedar Elder

    Necro dots still haven't been revamped, so their dots in comparison with other classes are....underwhelming. Also, since most things die so quickly in the first few expansions for group/duoing, dots are rarely the most mana efficient damage.

    It's definitely doable, and fun, but it's not the *best*. At the same time, playing a game should be about enjoying the classes you play. If you enjoy root/rot, go for it.
  8. Auedar Elder

    I think the thing for me is that realistically you don't NEED to heal pets as an enchanter in the early game. An enchanter can cycle through solid pets as long as they have options, so using invis to break charm, charming something new, and then killing my previous pet makes more sense when duoing. The only time that changes is when there is an NPC that when charmed, deals significantly more damage and it is hard to find. The only other thing that a cleric brings is rez, and if you are snaring your charms/mobs in camp and have any amount of room you don't die that often.

    The amount of times that I needed to keep a specific NPC charmed was dwarfed greatly in comparison to the amount of times I needed to port around for raids/groups/etc. I also enjoy leveling up alts/friends, so having a druid/enchanter to do so makes it easy.
  9. WaitingforMoreEQ WaitingforTBC

    Assuming by Original you meant Classic only

    S++ Tier

    Chanter + Cleric

    S Tier

    Massive Gap

    A Tier

    Shaman + Necro
    Enchanter + Mage

    B Tier
    Any other reasonable combo AKA not Rogue + Ranger ect.
  10. HoodenShuklak Augur

    It's a luxury not a necessity. I always carried afamantite bands for pets and it was trivial to keep mobs charmed then. Even if you don't have that at launch, malo is not going to keep you from doing anything you could not otherwise do.

    Now paying the price gouge prices on the early research spells might be another story...
  11. HoodenShuklak Augur

    You can always charm but after pop it gets nerfed badly for such a long time that its forgotten. Player dps also skyrockets so its nothing like early eq where you have charmed mobs out dpsing full groups and tanking better than raid players.

    So really, if you want to charm it's simply op through pop... but by then it's also easy to reroll and aa has not gotten too crazy yet.
  12. KimchiGoddess Augur

    As someone who has leveled and epiced roughly 8 clerics from 99 until present (and just started a 9th on Mangler) I find them great fun, but my attention span is such that I need to box alongside the cleric.

    The only thing I loathe about playing a cleric is CH chains on raids. I understand that they're needed but they make me want to dig my eyes out with a spork.

    With some decent gear I love pulling as a cleric, on Agnarr I would pull for our GE groups all the time. I also enjoy making people sweat with an extremely well-timed heal :p. I play weekends with an online friend that I met and started playing with in 2005. Can't even make him flinch anymore because he knows he'll be healed unless I am getting my beaten and interrupted.

    When people aren't really taking much damage, or we are uber buffed/a twink is tanking I'll turn into a wizard and nuke, sometimes also melee - gotta work those skills up, get that bash going.

    Also enjoy undead soloing as a cleric, I always roll DE - that snare neck is great, plus they are the master race (sorry Iksar ;)). I didn't get that necklace on Agnarr for whatever reason, but I think I recall reading that the quest was somehow broken, don't know how true that is.

    Playing a cleric as a second box and just healing I could see how people would find that boring, but then again it's a second box and they're pulling more into their main box. I love playing a cleric as a main and having a second box just to have more to do. Otherwise I'm alt tabbing and surfing reddit/the forums while health bars are visible lower down on my screen ;p
  13. KimchiGoddess Augur

    But I'm assuming the CC utility of an enchanter goes beyond PoP? I didn't play an enchanter until R99 and then on Agnarr, so I don't have much experience with that class beyond PoP. I actually love the CC aspect of the class more than the charming aspect.
  14. Lateryn Augur

    As others have said chanter + cleric cannot be beat. Make a DE cleric to get snare clicky. CH is just too good for pets compared to spamming sup heal.
  15. modsiw Augur

    I’ve done both enc/dru and enc/clr.

    CH is good, but if I’m xping I’m either in an AE group or I’m rotating pets. Breaking charm, blur, and recharm is a quick cheap pet heal if you want to keep the pet. If you’re killing a named / big mob, the druid has enough mana to heal through it. You’re not going to survive a charm break against a big mob, so the fights must be fast. The cleric heals simply aren’t that necessary.

    In AE groups, druids have some pbae DPS, but clerics are hands down the best pullers due to DA and plate. Clerics also have pbae damage.

    Most importantly: you, will, die. And you will die often. It’s unavoidable. The pets are high DPS and chanters are squishy. AE groups are high risk and high reward. Rez is key. If you think wizards are glass cannons, play a chanter.
    Bullsnooze and Tucoh like this.
  16. Tucoh Augur

    Thanks for all the feedback, it's really clear that enc/cle and enc/dru are SS Rank, but what about the other combinations? There's gotta be some decent synergies for the different classes and if someone was rolling a bard or a rogue, there has to be a few good duos they could make.
  17. Lumiens Augur

    I may play a rogue again, but I do that with the realization going into it that I won't even be able to do as much damage as a mage pet alone (not even including the mage casting). Classes are tuned for Live so there is some large imbalances and power curves that happen over the course TLPs that you aren't going to be used to from playing on Live.
  18. WaitingforMoreEQ WaitingforTBC

    Cleric heals are absolutely necessary and saying otherwise is just ignorant. You simply can't do things like Fire Giants, Chardok King/Queen or Charm "A_Velium_Hunter" in Velks if you have Druid/Sham over the Cleric.
  19. TheTone Elder


    You can definitely bounce around charm pets - and usually have to when you are pairing an ENCH with a DRU.

    On the other hand, it's easier to keep a pet so you don't have to keep buffing and giving it -MR items and a wep, and you also can keep a max-level pet charmed. I ran into this exact issue with my ENC / DRU duo in Chardok where I found myself nearly 1/2 the time only having L51 pets available to charm and they didn't fare too well against L53 mobs, or namers.

    Druid has so much other fun abilities that I agree, they are hard to pass up as a box. But it terms of raw power, ENC / CLR is impossible to beat.
    Ronzark likes this.
  20. TheTone Elder


    Charm pets are literally worth 3 regular monks or 2 epic monks in DPS and worth about 4 warriors in tankiness, at least when you get into the 50-60 game. L53 charm pets in Chardok will quad for 218 and have something like 15k hp. Their OP'ness just cannot be overstated.

    As for bards - they are largely dependent on charm pets for their DPS...otherwise they have virtually none. They don't work well in a duo because their benefit increases with the number of people in a group.

    Rogues are good DPS once they get their epic - but also don't fare well in a duo because they can't tank very well. Additionally, if they are tanking, their DPS is reduced because no backstab.

    For non-charm groups, SK/SHM, MNK/SHM, or MAG/SHM are probably the best combos out their with respect to being able to complete the most content. Even still - you'll be killing at 1/3 the speed of a single charm pet most likely.
    Tucoh likes this.