Hello Norrathians, returning after many many cycles of not being here. wanted to play a Bst barbarian style for the nice wolf companion. but will be boxing ( of course). made the team of bst/shm/mag/mag. I know shm is a little why when I have a bst that can do somewhat of the same thing. well I like the shm heals and slows. plus the adps the shm provides to melee does good also. yes I know people are going to change my line up and say bard or this or that or you need a plate tank blah blah blah. well I've seen a few posts where people have gotten to end game without a plate tank and with just bst/mag pets tanking and done the missions and quests just fine. (at least they say). I'm starting from level 1 since I'm to cheap for a heroic and I'm starting on bristle. might change to FV if I'm feeling froggy. question is as a bst what do I need to look for? gear and augs? ac augs for sure but heroics? dex? agi? I'm literally starting with nothing. it's going to be whatever I can make or find from hunting. like I said. no money. no gear. last time I play I was big into tradeskills. what sells well in baz? need to make enough for spells. Also will group EM items be enough for level 120 or 125? thanks in advance for any tips or help yall can give. i know its going to be a long journey but going to try and get to 120 as fast as i can without stalling myself or burning myself out.
So for gear and augs, you can farm that so long as you stay in current content for your level ranges. So all your money can go into spells if you so choose. But you can also pick and choose spells. You don't use every spell you buy any way And actually, as pet classes, you can even lag behind a little bit so long as you get a decent EM earring for all 3 (not just the beastlord, the increased dps that comes with it for the mages is a boon too). But as a melee toon, Dex is going to be your best friend. You won't need AC so much as you'll have your warder doing all the tanking. Given that, up till level 111, you'll have all your Companions Fortification AAs auto-granted. But as soon as those start to run dry and quit updating, that'll be the very first thing you'll want to upgrade. I did 85-120 just molo/group with only group gear. The group EM's were enough for me I didn't get too crazy with my pulls either though. And I wasn't the main tank in missions...but i bet if i made it to the next pet spell level I could have. Here's a quick list for the lower level Enhanced Minion focus if you want (shouldn't need them at these levels, but just in case ) https://www.eqprogression.com/pet-focus-items-guide/
Thanks for the info Randomized. The EM list helps. might go for a couple easy ones as I level but probably won't go out of my way to farm them when they will be useless in a week or so. So far have hit level 45 today and noticed the lack of snare sucks. luckily with a few pers and a melee merc. Does the pet snare aa work decently or am I going to have to change out the shm for a druid or a mage for a different snaring class? talked to a couple different people and from what they said at higher levels mobs don't run they just summon? I can deal with runners for now but at higher levels last I need is a swarm from pet not being able to snare a mob. I know level 45 in 2 days is slow but I'm also trying to learn the classes and see how to box them efficiently.
So I think you get your first snare AA at level 59. Hobble of Spirits. Procs often and that should help. Another thing you could do is use one of your mages to run an Earth pet which roots the mob. Or an Air pet which can stun a mob Be careful though, rooted mobs will continue to fight back when they would normally run. But it keeps them from moving off
BST-SHM is not an efficient pair. With a beastlord in the group a shaman adds very little. A bard will add much more than a shaman to your group. Or if you insist on having a real healer - a druid will be very beneficial for your mages and somewhat beneficial for your beastlord. Since you do not have a player tank - who those healing classes suppose to heal? Pets are healed very well by their masters and mercs, and the beastlord can emergency heal players damaged with AE/dots when mercs are busy or lazy. A well-played shaman can add measurable dps, but it is a busy class in such role. And so is the beastlord. That duo can do wonders when actively played, but not really an easy-boxing duo. Up to level 70 or so you can hire 2 tank mercs and barely heal them while they pull your group through mobs, just pick up gear and augs as you loot it. No need to worry about anything at that level. Starting from about lvl 70 there will be decent choice of EM earrings for your pet classes and the only character you'll need to focus on is the beastlord - its melee dps is significant and it should be well-geared. All the good group gear for levels 70-106 can be easily and relatively cheaply purchased off various mechants (sometimes for pp, sometimes for expansion currency). EM earrings sold in PoK by merchants near Crescent Reach stone. Look for https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=83971 at your level. And upgrade up when possible. A big upgrade will be at lvl 106 with Conflagrant gear, which is player-made and has all slots covered along with many augs. Once you there - you'll know more to make your own choices.
The level 1-70ish game has been very streamlined. Spend this time to get to know the class/race combos you've chosen and figure out if you like them enough to continue. No big time loss if you don't, at this point. Go through the tutorial for all the recap, updated game mechanics and tons of free gear and money. Then go to Crescent Reach and Follow the Hero's Journey through The Serpent's Spine expansion. This was the last expansion including level 1-75 content and was well designed, and will be the most likely place you find others in that level range to interact or group with. But don't expect to group much pre level 85 or so. Get into an active guild that supports returning and low level players, if for no other reason, than to have access to a guildhall portal and to have players to talk to/ask questions/get advice or help. Lean hard on the in game community for information. Other options include but are not limited to: starting where you want, and going where you want and discovering the wonders and dangers of Norrath on your own. Your pace of progress will depend largely on your own skill and persistence.
If that's what they actually said, they're wrong, in that, they're conflating two different things. 1 - summoning. If the mob summons, that means if you're on the top of their hate list and out of melee range, they will summon you to within melee range. The cycle time on that is about every 6 seconds. 2 - Running when low on HP. Not all mobs do this. For those which do, when they get to about 5% HP, they will flee. If snared, they will just sit there. If rooted, they will not flee (i.e., they'll keep fighting) These are two separate things, and have nothing to do with each other. A mob may both summon, and run at low health. It may do one or the other. Or, it may do neither.
Thanks for the info. I rerolled but added a druid instead of a shm. love shm and great healers but to much overlap. plus I wanted a snare that reliable. also the ports are a plus. I'm to lazy to run through many zones to get to a hunting ground. now I've read that druids are mana hungry so probably wont be healing to much but nukes are on the list. thought about maybe a chanter or rog. but well see how this goes. I just don't trust merc healing yet
bst/shaman works fine. only gets better when you get higher in levels too. both classes having slow and haste is hardly a problem and, as you already said, the shaman adps is really nice for a bst and his warder and also for all the mage pets ( and sham adds another pet ). on some missions though , way late in the game but still, you will need a plate tank if you want to melee with your beast and also. hobble of the spirits works better then casted snare, since is fires over and over and over on a mob.
The mana issue with druids is with the DoTs. The nukes should be no problem, mana-wise. Personally, I use DoTs all the time on my druid, as long as the DoT will run through completion (so, Wrath only on trash, other DoT lines on named). Mana pigs or not, the DPS is awesome, and when low on mana, OOC regen is just fine. Since I box, rest periods don't annoy the rest of the group, because it's just me
