I haven't had much time or energy to play lately (don't even have CoTF), but the introduction of Heroic characters got me thinking. How viable would a Monk/Shaman duo be in Heroic Adventures at 85, 90-95 and 100? Assuming the characters are insta-boosted to 85 and that the Monk farms a reasonable set of AC augments, will he be able to tank trash? Named mobs? Or will I need to use a merc tank? And how viable will the merc tank be in Heroic Adventures once the duo gets to 100? Anything else that you would do to make this box more solid? Perhaps add a third character like, oh, I don't know, maybe a Mage for extra DPS, stuns from the air pet and backup tanking? (I know that an all-caster team built around a Mage is more powerful and easier to box, but I'd like to try a Monk again after a very long break.)
If you go mage there is little need to box a monk or shaman, as mages are ridiculously overpowered at all levels. If you want to go monk/sham, I'd consider adding a bard or a chanter (I box both bard/chanter with my main a monk frequently). Mages are for folks that can't play a game without iddqd.
Understood. I have played Mages on and off and I am not a big fan of the way they "feel". That's why I was wondering how viable monk tankage was in Heroic Adventures (85-100) given that my Monk is likely to be in mediocre group gear at best.
I recently started running heroic adventures with a 99 monk/97 shaman duo (finally bought CotF for the second account). The monk has full RoF droppable gear (the level 92 stuff), 30+ AC augs in nearly every slot, and over 6k AA which include all defensives and passive dps maxed for his level. I started out running with the monk as a tank and a healer/wizard merc. He is able to tank regular mobs and get through the instances, but it does require me to pay more attention and occasionally hit mend or toss out a quick heal with the shaman. However, running with a tank + healer merc, I can breeze through without really worrying about anything at the tradeoff of a moderately slower kill rate. As far as named go, I am one out of two for the ones I have tried. The first, a rogue mob in one of the EK adventures, I was unable to kill after trying various strategies and combinations of mercs. The second, an SK (I think) in the Dead Hills was easily handled by my tank merc. He just took awhile to kill as he had a ton of hp.
I would think you will be ok with that duo. I am a 100 monk with CotF group gear and max AA. I Have done MANY of the heroic adventures with just a healer merc in DH, 4th gate, ETWK and bixie. only ran into a handful of them that were beyond my abilities, and those would also be beyond the abilities of a monk/sham duo anyway. As far as the named go, i have killed a few of them, but if i know ahead of time that i need a drop i will bring my Group geared Beast or ranger friend to help. Never had a problem with any of the named i have come across.
