Which of those two classes would be preferred in a group with mostly Wizards? Also, what healer would go better with an SK in that same group between a Shaman or a Cleric?
Way back when I used to box 5 toons with a similar setup. Now mercs confuse me as you will see in some other threads but here is my 2 coppers worth. If you have the SK to pull then I personally would go with the Enchanter to support the wizards, can CC as needed, little DPS, and provide haste/slows. With the enchanter what I would like vs. the bard for boxing that many toons is you don't have to worry about having say your mana regen go down because he misses a note. The enchanter regen is either up on the wizards or its not. As for Shaman or Cleric for that group if its going to be your only healer with the enchanter and no mercs involved then I would say Cleric. If your going to have a Cleric merc there then personally I would go shaman for the other little things they bring to the table and could still help on healing. Right now I am running a duo since coming back and have a bard with a mage. Its been fun and I am still learning the ways of EQ now but for the most part the basics are the same. What does drive me crazy is if I start to focus on the Mage during a fight and fail to notice the bard got interrupted and his /melody stopped. That is why with it sounding like your going to run 4+ boxes the bard to me would be the harder choice to use effectively. **Discliamer** I am new back, I am reading these forums and asking stuff a lot. So by no means do I claim to be an expert, I am sure some of those will reply for you. But its my 2 coppers and something to consider. ~Jagermiester/Vecmar over on FV
Thanks for the reply, I will go with the Enchanter, I really am not a fan of playing a Bard and would prefer the Enchanter in this case. The only thing I am concerned about is without a Mage or Shaman in the group (and the Malosi line of debuffing spells) will a lot of the Wizards spells be resisted? Would I be better off going for the Shaman over a Cleric for that though or does it not make much a difference?
How many boxes are you planning to run? If you were doing 5 plus 1 healing merc I think you would see a lot of value in the shaman. Also they are easy to box, set a macro key to cast debuffs and maybe toss a dot on the target and send the lil' pet as a mini dot. I am sure you would see some resists without the debuff but can't speak to how bad it might be. I am not at the end game so I can't speak to clerics vs. shaman for healing. I know when I quit originally the shaman and druids were doing pretty good on healing. And what I read now is Clerics complaining about having been replaced in some cases by those other classes or with mercs for non-raids at least. So are you going to be running SK, Enchanter, Wizard, Wizard, Wizard, Shaman/Cleric? Because depending on what your doing for accounts, I am guessing the wizards are on F2P? If not you could always switch one with a Mage and have a cleric if resists is your concern. And you then have the mage pet as a backup tank should the need arise.
Yes, that is the group I was planning on, and the Wizards would be FTP. I guess a Druid would also be a possibility, though I am not sure if their auras stack with an Enchanters.
If I did replace a wizard with a mage, would I be losing a lot of DPS? Or would a Mage be able to put up adequate DPS with minimal attention?
I think adding a mage to that group would round it out very nicely. And then go with the cleric/shaman. I have always enjoyed my mages and they are really easy to box. Send the pet in and cast a couple of spells with a macro key. As for DPS loss wizards are more DPS. Personally in a boxing situation where no class is getting played to its max potential mages get a little closer than it would be if both were played by a single person. Also I know its minimal but at least while going through the lower-mid levels if your pulling larger groups of mobs the damage shield is a nice touch along with the pet if you are needing to get some mana back, at least its not down to just the SK trying to kill stuff. I like to pull as many mobs as I can so I get some good value out of damage shields.
