Knowing what you know now about game mechanics, RoF zones etc, what would you consider as the best three box combo? We were talking about this in guild and had some interesting thoughts. I'm thinking that mage or necro would be the center piece from my perspective, but another in guild felt warrior and sk would be the most solid. Interesting to see if what class one plays, determines what they think the best class makeup is.
Mage + Mage + Mage. Absolutely unstoppable and can wtfpwn this expansion's entire group content without even trying.
To be honest, when players ask questions like that, I always tell them to play whatever classes that they enjoy playing. You play to have fun and pigeonholing yourself into playing classes that you dont enjoy just because they synergize each other isnt really fun to do. So in short, play your favorite classes. SK/Monk dont exactly compliment each other. However, they are my favorite two classes in the game and those are the classes that I play.
Gotta have a necro in that mix.. mage necro mage. However, I like just playing my necro and pushing myself to the limit to see what I can/can't do.
Mage - SK - Cleric Mage - Pally - Drood Mage - SK - Drood Mage - Necro - Cleric Mage - Necro - Drood Mage - Shammy - Drood Mage - SK - Shammy Mage - Pally - Shammy Don't play a mage.....but mage pets are tanks to be respected. A real healer (Cleric, Drood, even Shammy) will make things easier. Even with mercs involved. A real tank (SK, Pally) will help with some things...SK is a better puller than a Pally but no group heals. Necro is dps and has a solid pet to tank as well...and can pull well enough... Shammy give you slows...and can DoT and heal if they know what they are doing on healing. Mage - Necro - Drood is probably the best mix since you get ports with the drood and heals and some dots/nukes...even a little CC in some cases if needed. Mage and Necro pets and the dps from both...
I'm not looking to start over. I love my enchanter, just thought it'd be fun to see how people feel based on their class. For me, for instance, the core group would require a chanter. That also means that I would lean very heavily towards caster heavy groups. I don't boost melee as much as I do casters. I was curious if each class felt that way, like an sk might feel a shaman is a must have in his group etc.
If you insist on using 3 different classes then Mage + Necro + Shaman. Shaman would be the most beneficial for buffing (since you will have cleric mercs) and debuffing + more healing.
Ok, if the pre-requisite is having your chanter, then for the other 2 boxes: a) Mage + Mage. They don't really need your chanter but you can tag along and be useful with buffs and CC. b) if you are more Holy Trinity inclined then definitely SK for tank (because SK Epic 2.0; you WILL need it) + caster DPS (may I recommend... MAGE ).
While I agree, don't need to 3 box for RoF group content, the OP is simply looking for different opinions on good 3 box setups. I personally have been using SHD/CLR/SHM or SHD/CLR/NEC, been leaning more towards NEC as I don't like being limited to a merc for well, anything. Shadow Knight gives me superior tanking, on multiple targets if need be, easy pulling, semi decent burst burns if needed, easy eating of any low hp adds stupid enough to spawn. Cleric gives me awesome heals, shining armor, combat resses if needed, any cures I might need. With how mana regen works nowadays w/ yaulp and AA mana restores, cleric can keep healing a very, very VERY long time. Necromancer gives me great damage no matter how long I fight without break, although it can take time to ramp up, but this is negligible if I have him dotting multiple targets, which he can totally do w/ Shadowknight agro + occasional feign. Also Necromancer gives me a backup tank option and emergency ress for the cleric if he goes down first for whatever reason. My merc choices are fabulously uncomplicated, 3 wizard mercs to burn everything down faster usually, one cleric merc possibly for stunning/silencing namers. I like my box setup to never require a merc though, completely self sufficient.
What works well is chanter, pally/sk and some dps. What gets overlooked a lot is if the tank can draw serious Argo, the wizard Mercs will burn the crap out of stuff. Add on top of that mana ret aura, you are looking at 2 wiz Mercs pulling 13 k sustained dps each. Chanter gives you great crowd control so things rarely out of hand. For your dps 3rd, look for wiz/Mage/ranger, basically a class that gains a lot of dps from spells, makes mana ret more effective. The Mage/ Mage/Mage seems intriguing, but I feel a nerf coming down the pipe,
Mage is powerful vs. a large amount of content, in fact mages and necros perhaps have the largest amount of content they are strong against in the group game. There is no universal class though that is super powerful against the *entire group game* In fact to be honest I wish i had had a player tank class (knight or warrior) with me for chapterhouse mission 2, pets are weaker for that than a real tank. I also wish I had a necro because evantil 2 is AWFUL without a necro (at least in group gear) That being said, I don't think mage x3 is a good 3 box combo simply because there are situations where that would be very limiting. I'd say an ideal combo would be: mage / mage / bard mage/ necro /bard mage / necro /chanter mage/ mage/ chanter any of those combos would be quite effective in the group game. A non boxed chanter can be quite powerful in my experience, I however only box a bard. I love playing with non boxed chanters but as a boxer I only box bard. The most overall effective combo of the ones i listed from a boxer perspective is probably the mage/ necro / bard one, but any of those will perform great.
Don't forget too that part of the fun in everquest is the difference in the characters and what each can bring to the table. And being able to play that character well. Back to what Kelefane said, play what you find interesting, but I would warn against 2 mages, you instantly lower your diversity by 1/3 and will prolly end up slightly bored, ESP if our other character is a necro
I ran with an Ench/Dru/Pal 3-box setup and I have to say, if you are mainly focusing on CC (Ench), you cannot adequately play the Pally to warrant using it in that setup- I mean, maybe you can but I found it incredibly difficult and I've been boxing for quite a while. Honestly, for BOXING purposes, a merc tank is best for an Enchanter due to the quick snap aggro for charm breaks, etc. If you must have an Enchanter, I'd say plan two spots will always be a merc tank and healer- then the rest could be DPS casters of your liking. If you're quick and careful you could use the mage pet as your tank but honestly, it becomes so tedious to do for general stuff I don't think it is worth it. The mage pet is a good backup plan for named, etc. though so that is nice. For a setup without an Ench- I have no clue (but you probably knew that already Silku ). I'd say that any class that is not part of the trinity will make a good box team provided you have the utility, healing, and DPS.
Personally I've found very little I can't get done with war + clr. Note this is as a raid geared war where I can tank things group geared can't unslowed. I also have a social net I can call on when I can't handle something alone.
Given the current state of the game, any 3 classes can make an acceptable group. That being said some observations. Tanks require the most work to outperform merc tanks. If you do not have the desire or time to AA and gear your tank, stick to a merc tank. I would be very interested to know how many AA a RoF group T2 Warrior requires to be equivalent to a merc tank. Caster dps is much easier to box than melee dps, and in general require fewer AA and less gear to perform effectively. Bards are amazing additions to any box group, given how little attention they require to perform basic functions and how much they add with minimal gear and AA.
I don't play this combo but I was thinking Mage, beastlord, bard would work well together. The combo I've used for years is sk, shaman, necro. I have been fooling with swapping in A bard and berserker.
Not reading these because your going to get 900 replies. I can only give you my personal observation and preference. Mage ( pet + Dps ) + Cleric merc Necro ( pet + dps ) + Dps merc Bard ( Associated dps ) + dps / cleric merc With above combination... Every expansion is laughable, plus it is very easy to gear up this combination.
Playing a mage myself and I usually grp with necro/cleric and sometimes /wiz/bard combo (not based on efficiency but friends choice 10 years ago). Raid geared (so good pet focus). Necro is best when soloing (due to all the extra abilities like mez/FD/root/slow/infinite mana). In a small grp necro/mage become pretty close, if you get a high dps grp the mage becomes better than necro because of more burst capacity. Mages need more mana though which can slow down if you have an high dps grp/not geared very well. Most combo's do well though these days, add an appropriate merc (wiz merc/healer) and use the utility of the class to the fullest should get you far. Think most sensible combo's flew through the RoF grp content pretty easy btw.
