Hello all, My group is currently made up of me and a friend each dual boxing. We have a 87-89 Bard, Druid, Wizard and tank/dps mercs. We are currently grinding levels on normal mobs and nameds in Feerrott. We are looking for suggestions on a 4th class (player character not merc) to round out our group that would let us eventually do HoT/VoA/RoF group content. Thanks in advance.
Enchanter. Will help the Wizard (and wiz mercs) with dps greatly. Will help all other caster chars/mercs with mana. Will slow/cripple named. Will provide excellent CC.
I agree that Enchanter would be the perfect addition, but I'd go with tank and healer mercs and let the Druid nuke and just spot heal. Depends on the Druid though. After that, I'd want a Paladin and a player Cleric or a Monk if the Druid likes healing. Actually, you should probably just look for someone you get along well with rather than worry about getting the flavor of the month class.
They will only have space for 2 mercs in group. Tank + healer, the default choice. They won't need any others anyway. Wizard with enchanter and bard support will be all the dps that group ever needs. On easy mobs they can switch the healer merc for a wiz one and have the druid heal.
I'd suggest a live tank. Once you reach tougher content, many many folks have problems with tank mercs.
I agree. I see soooo many non-raiders struggle in current content due to the lack of pure grouping tanks being around these days. The only tanks that I see around anymore, are raiders. Its for a reason though. The tank classes arent exactly easy to raise up purely through the group game. Its a rough road for sure. I mean, dont get me wrong, I do see some non-raider tanks around, but they are a rare breed these days. There needs to be more of them.
Enchanter to the rescue again! There are several group named that can flatten a lv 100 tank merc (AoW, Krondal, Xi Dyn) with 2 healers. For them I switch the tank merc for the 3rd healer, and my group geared Enchanter has absolutely zero problems tanking them with runes. It can't be sustained for very long because of mana issues, but perfect to kill an occassional hard hitter named.
Why are people suggesting the redundancy of an enchanter when their group already has a bard? Don't get me wrong, I prefer my enchanter to my bard but I made them on the same account because they fill the same role and grouping them together would be a waste. The fourth spot should go to a tank (SK or Pally) or another dps or the best of both worlds and do a necro or mage to get a [backup] pet tank as well. Wizards might be the kings of burn in RoF but the Necro's ability to infinitely sustain high levels of dps has proven pretty valuable in a lot of these RoF missions where the amount of total damage you have to do is massive.
The Bard is the redundant one in this scenario. An Enchanter is worth 10 Bards to a caster group such as this.
Both the bard and the enchanter are good. Bard can pull and has great tank, healer and dps support songs and discs (and epic!). And don't underestimate Selo - once you get used to moving at bard speed, there is no going back. Enchanter is simply invaluable for a caster-based group. Bard is not as essential, but they already have a Bard. Adding an Enchanter will benefit that group the most. Believe me, there is nothing redundant about having an Enchanter AND a Bard in the same group. I 3-box WIZ + ENC + BRD. They stack wonderfully. It's a caster dps paradise!
I completely agree but they didn't ask which character to remove from their group. I'm assuming you run with cleric/tank/caster mercs but have to take out a second healer sometimes? Meaning you're left with top quality dps and an enchanter and bard. If that bard were say a druid, you would never have to use two cleric mercs and would always have the added caster merc's dps + druid's adps and dps. Enchanter is freed up to not run mana reiterate aura. You lose selos and bard's superior single pulling but that isn't important anymore with the return of PBAE mez (especially boxing). I feel like your group's power would increase not stacking the enchanter and bard. The question is, does adding an enchanter to this person's group, thus marginalizing the bard, add more than letting the bard work at full potential and adding a whole other dps class? I guess props to whichever of them is playing the druid if they're going to main heal the whole way through but if they eventually use a healer merc, they lose the dps merc and it means their dps is coming from wizard, druid, bard, enchanter compared to wizard, druid, bard, some other real dps class (wizard, necro, mage). I say all this while having a box crew consisting of a wizard, druid, enchanter (and rogue but he's more sentimental at this point). Enchanters are great. You can all unruffle your feathers now.
Out of curiosity whose playing which classes? Does your bard like to run in and melee...or is he more of a constantly out pulling/cc'ing/adpsing kinda toon? Is the person more interested in playing a melee or a caster class? Bottom line...the less you rely on mercs for core functions of your group the better off you are. The easiest thing to get right from mercs is DPS...the hardest is tanking. If you want to play a melee I highly recommend playing a tank. It unlocks more of the potential your bard provides (tank/melee dps songs). I personally really enjoy shadowknights...but they are REALLY aa intensive to get to be good... If you don't want to melee...and your bard sticks back a lot...mages are a good choice. Not only does the mage ease travel with CoH (goes nicely with druid ports), but their pet provides a tank that can at the very least supplement a merc tank, if not overtake it...as long as your bard isn't in melee range. Some people love melee classes...some people hate having to fuss with facing the mob (especially when boxing). Also...it is interesting to know what the 2 2 box crews can do separate from eachother in the event you aren't grouping. A bard/chanter box crew by themselves wouldn't necessarily be that ideal (not saying it couldn't work...just that there are better combinations to go with bard or chanter). That said, a chanter/wizard combination, or chanter/druid combination could be very powerful and fun for when you are apart. ~MrGPAC
facepalm, there is nothing redundant about having a bard and enchanter in a group together his best bet is adding an Enchanter or SK / Pal to his group
First off thanks so much for the responses. It's great to see so many perspectives and the variety of options. In response to the query above, I play the wizard and the bard in the group. With the bard I have been pulling singles to the tank merc, hitting melody, autoattack and then alt tabbing to the wizard. I also have a cleric on another account but we both found that playing 3 clients was a bit too much alt tabbing to be as effective as a merc bot. I do like having the 3 characters for when Darwe is not around since wiz/bard/cle with tank/healer/dps mercs is pretty easy to grind XP with (I just don't touch the cleric unless fighting a named). Darwe has been playing mage and druid. He also has a war, shm, rog and enc. The war is in T8 UF group gear and we found that it was a bit underwhelming compared to the mage pet or tank merc even doing SOD content. Would a SK/PAL be that much better that it would be worth the enormous undertaking of leveling, gearing and AA'ing a new tank? It really seems that tanks have the short end of the stick unless they raid. Obtaining good group gear is somewhat painful unless your tank has the best possible group gear. Catch 22. Regardless, the only characters we are 100% set on are the wizard and druid for nostalgia reasons since they were both started in March of 99 so all this feedback has been wonderful. Thank you
facepalm, Bards can slow (individual targets and AoE). The mage is a great addition partly because of CoTH (as stated earlier), but a mage pet really flies along nicely with bard buffies. At least mine sure do. When the bard is stunned and the songs interrupted (and I am on one of the other boxes), the mage pet output drops noticeably. A tank (like SK mentioned above) is also probably good, although I haven't tried that (on the ToDo list). But, my advice for a group like this is to do an enchanter buff bot on one of the accounts to get a mana fix. It's not like it is hard to get one up in levels. I just am not sure that my group does a lot better when I have the bard and the enchanter at the exclusion of another class. That said, I also like my enchanter more than the bard generally, but the bard is very close behind. But both at once? Doesn't seem important to me, at least the way I play.
So your druid friend is looking for a box to play that will enhance a druid/bard/wizard + mercs group. That's very informative thank you. Question: Does your druid friend like to heal a lot...or is he more of a dps'in druid? As far as tanks go...they are a LOT of work. Moreso than just gear there is a huge aug investment you have to put into them as well...and knights are HUGELY AA intensive to reach their full potential. That said, once the work has been put in, the passive healing knights bring puts them ahead of warriors in group content...and the active healing puts them a fair ways ahead...especially if the person botting them is a healer. I will say this: Druid + any int caster will work very well...especially mages due to the fire debuffs/auras that druids provide. Any int caster added to your group of 4 will be a great addition moving forward...you just have to look at what utility they provide to see what you want the most. Just know if you plan on doing pet tanking (necro/mage) that your bard will take a back seat melee wise (not the end of the world tbh). Druid + Tank will work very well together as well...but tanks are a HUGE undertaking and a long term commitment. To really get the most out of your tank, you are probably going to have them as (crummy) dps characters with a merc tank until ~2k aa's and until you have a full set of AC augs. That said, once its done, I think its totally worth it...you just have to anticipate the pain on the way there. In the end, having a tank added to your current 3some will give you the most powerful consistent end group game experience moving forward in my opinion...but I really really REALLY hate tank mercs...so my opinion is biased. I wouldn't recommend Druid + non tank melee. Its not that they don't work well together, its just that they don't add to each other's skill sets particularly well. Having druid healer + knight tank with 2 dps mercs is going to be better than druid healer + melee dps + tank merc + dps merc...and adding another non tank melee takes away from the options of going with a pet tank down the road, where as adding more ranged dps keeps your options open with your current 4some. Again that is all just my opinion, and completely up for debate...so take it for what its worth. ~MrGPAC
In my opinion, the missing piece of the OP team is tanking. You are not going to be satisfied with the tank merc in the long run. So your choices are to go with a Mage, for the pet who tanks much better than the merc, or take on the project of leveling up a real tank. I 3 box Mage, bard and either shaman or wiz on third acct. The Mage pet is great as a tank, especially with the bard to guarantee mostly single pulls. Whenever I add a live group gear tank to my box team grouping somewhere, it always seems like more drama and risk than when the pet was taking care of things. I am sure well geared and skilled tanks are way better, but I have a lot of respect for how much work it must be to get there as a group tank these days. You lose the bard melee dps when pet tanking, but honestly it isn't that much of a loss compared to what the dps classes and caster mercs can put out. The bard more than earns its keep with pulling, mana regen, mezzing adds, and major adps buffs.
