If you had to have an Enc in your group or a Bard what would be more aDPS? I was thinking the triple attack, overhaste and spell focus of the bard would out weigh Twincast/Mana Reciprocation from Enc.
Bard is a hard to beat choice for bst adps. But right now with chanters spamming chromatic haze it might be close call
Slow at work so was curious now that my bard has 11k aa might make an Enc for crack and testing. Thanks for the feedback.
I would be curious as to your results. A friend and I have been contemplating a Paladin/Enchanter/Wizard/Beastlord team and the one thing that worried me is how much dps the beastlord would be losing by having an enchanter instead of a bard. However, with the Wizard we really wanted to run with an enchanter.
From what I understand the bard is doing very little for my Wizard (outside of mana regen). Which for mana regen I normally just sick a mob here and there and OOC med. Improved familiar line once I get more AA should be better than the bard Aria. If my bard wasn't so well geared it would be an easier switch. Right now running (this week) Bard, Bst, Wiz, Sk. I am getting old and lazy and may sub out the SK with a Mage. The bst can tank trash np, just sometimes namers eat him once his AA/disc down. Seems if I look away for 2 seconds on the SK window the bstlord is tanking and the SK got pushed oor. Which is odd because the bstlord pet AND the bst are fighting from the backside of the mob. With a pet when the bst cannot tank I could range dps with all toons and let the Mage earth/Air pet tank. Plus figure the Mage is doing to be 2x the DPS of the Sk, granted the SK is a very beefy tank!
Mob push is annoying, but as long as you are using the SK's aggro abilities and building significant aggro, the mob should follow the SK around, unless, of course, the beastlord pet is taunting. Whenever possible, it's best to tank mobs in a corner while boxing multiple melee classes.
Turn pet taunt off. Also don't overlook the massive increase too the SK's survival that a bard adds. Aria + reckless renewal = Taps getting +45% damage mod, and 24% increase to heal crit chance + fierce eye/Epic every 3 minutes, Shoots your chance for double crits off life taps up quite a bit. ^^^^ The 24% heal crit chance on Reckless Renewal, IIRC puts an SK at something like 80 - 82% chance to crit heal? It might be abit less (high 70's % wise at the least I would think) And quick time/Fierce eye during your Epic/VOD... And the mana regen to sustain constant chain tapping with 0 necessity for a med break. The mana regen/aria/aura for the beast lord is also quite massive DPS loss. I love enchanters, but with an SK, a bard is THE utility class to have in the group. No other class can possibly increase their DPS/Survivability as much. The net loss of DPS switching from Bard to Chanter with an SK/Bst in group, compared to the gains you make on the wizard with an enchanter will make you wonder why you chose to bring the chanter.
Off the top of my head (at work) Aria, War march, Kaficus' Spiteful Lyric Rk. III, and Chorus Rk III (all 100-96 spells as bard just broke 101. Keep Bard at 101 while other account catch up. I sometimes switch out Chorus for Arcane. When not using bstlord in "dps slot" instead using Necro switch to the magic/fire dot song in place of War March.
Aria, Reckless Renewal, Pulse, War March, Last one depends on other classes in the group Pulse has a 10% increase to incoming heals (+ Same mana regen as Chorus) Reckless renewal has 23% increase to crit heal chance Last slot gets filled with Spiteful or Arcane depending. The good thing about Reckless Renewal is: It gives mercs a chance to crit heal (23%) Which is a huge increase to their mehwhatever Healing prowess. Reckless/Pulse was huge for me when I messed around with my SK, because I cast taps ALOT i had 5 or so loaded almost always (Insidious, Dire, 3 touches), and used them after I terrored for the majority of my aggro. Throwing in the AA AE's and Bites to help build aggro.
Did they finally fix it?(reckless) I thought the heal crit was broken (granted I took a year EQ break)
Yes they fixed it. For about 3 months it gave you 100% chance to crit (I abused the everliving crap out of it then, it was glorious) Then they fixed it (again) so it actually gave the intended % to crit (and i died alittle inside), its still ungodly powerful with a Knight tank. It puts a knight tank at around 82 - 84% chance to crit heal, the last time i bothered to parse it. I haven't tested out the new TDS version, but the ROF/VOA versions worked. That combined with the Epic2.0/Fierce Eye boosting your chance to crit spells (raises the chance to crit some where into the high 60's/low 70s? I think Thats just going off memory it might be a bit higher) Your chance to double crit a Tap becomes a much more frequent thing, because of that. My fellowship was actually very similar to your box set up through COTF (SK or pal, Bst, Bard, Wiz, cleric, Rogue/ranger/magician/monk depending on who wanted to play what that night) The fun part is the synergy between your SK/Bst/Bard is quite strong and the wizard obvi pretty busty on their own.
Just got my RL buddy playing again. He brings his Wizard (only 89 right now) to the group as well. Soon as my Wizard and his get 100+ the group should melt mobs. I tried the song setup and parked the Mage for a night. Taking off pet taunt helped a lot. The Sk is still losing aggro to bstlord if I dont tab over here and their to aggro/tap. However, the pull 3 AE mez is letting me kill faster overall. When I don't slack on Wiz+Bst mobs die in about 25-32 seconds in Bixie/HA missions. Bstlord half slacking broke 85k with just disc+bard a few times so setup is pretty solid. Only two things I miss about my Shaman is the Epic and battle rez on hard fights. Wizard DPS>Shm tho!
The highlighted statement is the crux of your issue. Either of the knights requires constant input, especially if you have a wizard/beastlord going balls to the walls, to maintain aggro. If your not able to maintain that focus, bad stuff will probably happen =/. You could look into [Unmentioned 3rd Party Software] or something? It may help. And yeh Wiz dps>Shaman if you have another healer. overwhelming DPS makes even some of the hardest encounters in this game relatively easy.
I have always old school boxed. I might just move Sk to a third computer so he doesn't lose aggro. It is only money right? Thanks for the feedback. What server are you on?
Yeh i old school box too. I use WinEQ though. Ctrl alt 1 2 3 4 to switch windows. In an average 10 to 15 minute HA I change screens 800 times (Basing this on my cast parses, since i have to hit my multibinds, i don't have any keys with /pauses) I can usually push 100 to 120k DPS sustained with my setup tho.. but god daaaaaamn is it mentally exhausting. If i am at all burnt out from work... I wont even bother boxing lol. And i am on the Bristlebane server.
I am using one 4k monitor on BSt/Sk computer and another 4k screen on second PC for Bard and Wizard. I am using Wineq, I use to have the four boxes (use to 6 box) on one screen. I found I prefer to see what going on at the same time. 4k allows this. Granted the font is TINY. EQ does not scale well for 4k. If I get back into it will be exping buddy Wizard since can just copy my Wizard UI and should be simple to spam both for DPS. Wizard so far is my favorite box dps of all time. ( tried rogue, zerker, nec, mnk etc)
Thank you for the feedback Ravengloome. So far the new bard lineup heal wise makes the Sk stand taller. Also moved Sk to his own PC so no longer lose aggro like a noob.
