BST + Bard - Do I really need a 3rd?

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by hein, Jun 23, 2022.

  1. hein Augur

    Ok, so my BST is 105, decently geared but not OP, gold account, J5 healer merc.
    My Bard is 104, gear is pretty pathetic atm, silver account, free dps merc.

    I' m currently doing Brothers Island, handling fairly well, (not killing named mobs) and exp is ok but not lighting fast as I don't kill lighting fast.

    The question... Can i reasonably continue to level with this duo, especially if I go gold on bard and add some better gear? If so, how long should I stay on Brothers Island where would I go from there? I would love to get into some of the Kunark, such as doing FM on my own, as well as eventually Velious. I would hate to have to lug around a Mage for more easy dps, but I suppose you have to do what you have to do. I'm a casual player, mostly weekend, occasionally an hour at night.
  2. Ozon Augur

    You could go pretty far with your duo, add in a second cleric merc if absolutely needed or dps merc. At least into EW/GD from ToV, it wouldn't be fast but not a huge change for you either.

    How long you stay on Brothers Island is kind of up to you. I might suggest doing the missions for progression then moving on if you haven't. Then Lcea, Burning Woods etc. I'm not a huge fan of the storyline, but I find it gives you a good guage as to difficulty, and the AA, rewards are a nice bonus. All that in chunks that are easy to do in 1-2 hour bites.
  3. hein Augur

    At what level do you think I could take the DUO into Lcea, burnning woods etc.. and start the progression? Assuming I go gold on both Bst and Bard, with 2 cleric mercs?
  4. Joules_Bianchi A certain gnome

    You don't "need" a third character <but> a third gives you options.

    Fellowships
    Group mission requests
    A porter with exodus prevents wipes and keeps you in zone and teleport Bind directly to camp with full buffs is mint.
  5. Burdi Augur

    You need a tank a healer and a crowd controller to do something meaningful.
    Paladin may be a good tank with a bard.
  6. Alnitak Augur

    A mage would be a big boost to your group. MAG and BST have a good synergy: pet gear for the warder, group DS (which will become massive past lvl 110 along with major boost to bard dps), mage's pet aura, which boosts warder's dps, BST+Bard melee aDPS do affect mage't pet, and some more.
    As for progression - just do TDS progression, do not just stay at Brothers Island. TDS Tier 3 zones are full of lvl 105-108 mobs, which will give you nicer experience and progression rewards are valuable.
    For comparison: TDS trash mobs have around 1 million HP at levels 105-108, TBM (The Broken Mirror) trash mobs have around 2 million HP at levels 105-108, EoK trash has around 3-4 million HP at levels 105-110. FM in particular has a huge advantage to high-dps groups due to a very short respawn timer, that's why people love to grind sarnak and goblin camps - lots and lots of easy mobs with a fast respawn. If you are not in a high-dps group than FM experience is not that good - sarnaks do not give a special experience, while levels are lower than even TDS trash, which has a third of sarnaks' HP.
    I did TDS progression with my main beastlord while leveling 105-, totally doable with the warder tanking. BRD and MAG do not have to be gold accounts at those levels, there is no massive advantage for them yet.
    Hobitses and I_Love_My_Bandwidth like this.
  7. hein Augur

    Which of these Tier 3 zones would you recommend I grind in?
  8. Alnitak Augur


    Arx Mentis is not good for a grind - the mobs in there are actually lower levels and weaker, about 104-105. Somehow they've made the last zone an easy zone. 3 other zones are about equal in difficulty, and you will do all 3 if you do progression. Degmar opens up first and is quite nice and fun zone.
  9. Ozon Augur

    Honestly I'd try right now and see how it goes. IMO the best part of EQ is the freedom, yes its probable you will get spanked by a named in Lcea, but the trash you should be fine. Giants might be a bit of an issue, in general giant mobs are undercons.
  10. Marton Augur

    Overall, your duo will do well.

    For later in game, if you decide to do missions for example, a real tank would help a lot.
  11. Orienn TreeHugger

    I would say definitely a 3rd for a fellowship, those things are great. I wish the limit was increased on how many can join.
  12. Conjuration New Member

    Don't forget the full group exp bonus if you all have mercs out; iirc it's less than if you were all PCs.

    I would also suggest Mage, since a you don't need to spend as much time gearing up for the pet to be effective. (although that's a design change I would make if I could, remove single item pet focus and instead tie it to hCHA and/or other gear stats)
  13. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    BST & BRD I would consider adding:

    MAG - Pet Tank is really strong even without a slower in group and brings plenty of DPS & debuffing plus pet toys on demand.

    SHD - Strong Tank with a great pulling toolset.
    PAL - Strong Tank with Group Healing

    WAR - a weaker group tank than a Knight but the upside is they require less attention than knights do so may suit less adept boxers.

    It is worth adding a 3rd box for campfire access alone, but an extra merc won't hurt either.
  14. Wakeup Journeyman

    You can keep doing what you're doing in later content with just those two. Truth is BST is such a busy choice you're better off doing a duo.

    If you need a 3rd you can go tank but it will likely affect performance of the BST. WAR is the least busy of the 3 choices. It's still going to be hard though. You can use the beast for backup healing if mercs are not keeping up. This might be your most capable BST 3box.

    My choice would be healer. I'd pick CLR if forced. They're overkill for a plate tank, but work very well with a BST tank. Still, there will be content that's beyond the means of boxing for most.

    If you're looking to box 3+ I'd say you want the holy trinity which means for a BST to thrive , they need to be the 4th box. And most people can't 4box effectively with such a busy class. BST will likely be on auto attack duty which is a shame.
    Iribabh likes this.
  15. Vumad Cape Wearer


    I did a most of EoK with a ENC/CLR combo. You do not need to do a 3rd. However, I have since added a mage and it has been great. I can campfire, CoH, have a backup non-merc tank and my mage is minimal work to play. I feel like the low performance of the tank merc and the effort it takes to box a cleric is not paying enough dividends, so I am leveling a SK to replace my CLR. That mean currently I am back to being a box duo and my ENC/MAG is doing just fine in ToV T1, granted, they are both raid geared. I just switch between clr/rog mercs and clr/clr mercs when needed, such as mobs I can't CC or some named.

    So no, you do not need it, but boxing a mage is easy, and the benifits of the DPS, 3rd merc, campfire and CoH would be worth it. Plate tank will out perform a mage for your group but will take more effort since BST/BRD already are going to take a lot of attention. The 3rd you choose, if you choose to, is a personal decision you have to make.

    Might I also suggest, if leveling a 3rd box, consider leveling a FTP Druid/Wiz for your own personal porter.
  16. eqgamer Augur

    3rd allows ability to drop down an empowered fellowship. So nice.
  17. strongbus Augur

    If you add a 3rd it also depends on how you box. currently do you use your bard to just stand back out of the way and melody while you do most of the work on the bst. Or do you bounce back and forth making sure the bard is in melee range and using disc/aa to dps.

    If you bounce back and forth then any of the classes people have said above work great.
    If you just use the bard for melody and want to do most of the work on the bst I would suggest a ranger. can park it near the bard and just tab fast and hit a assist key and just have it auto fire at any mob doing damage with arrows. then going back to bst to do the heavy lifting. and just use a 2nd dps merc or a 2nd healer merc depending on what you are fighting.
  18. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer

    100% go Mage as a third. Once you taste this trio at your current level you won't even look back.
  19. Tucoh Augur

    I have a war tank with my bst box. Warriors are easier to play than a pal / sk and because nearly all their dps is auto attack they gain a massive benefit from bst.

    Another mage or bst is good too, but will limit the lethality of your group when you start to try missions or tough named.
  20. Svann2 The Magnificent

    duo but gold the bard