returning player good duo for a paladin...not a shaman.

My brother and i are planning on coming back to the game. I want to play either a paladin or a necro. My brother isnt found of shamans. We were thinking about a pally rogue combo...any other thoughts of unique combos that work fairly decent. We may end up doing progression limiting ability to get mercs.

We were also considering mage necro. How would you play that duo wirhout a merc healer?

Mage, necro with merc healer can kill anything easily. You have a tank, dps and healer. Plus the necro can pull. Throw a bard in and you have what I consider the perfect trio. I box a necro, mage, bard and then usually one other of my toons(usually a beastlord). Great tanking, best pulling, best sustained dps, best adps. Just be sure to focus on pet aa for the mage and get the best EM focus item you can. Bard and necro can be naked minus some arms lol.

Pallys are a good class, but killing is slow with them and it takes a long time to gear up and get enough aa to tank well. They are the most defensive of the tanks with a big focus on healing/stunning.

The Necro/Mage is somewhat conflicting since the DoTs are wasted if the mage overnukes, but with some strategy adjustment, you can do quite fine kiting with those. Alternatively, especially at the low end and high end (mid levels pets aren't as strong depending on expansion cycle), you can tank with the mage pet and just go to town with their heals.

That said, I'm not sure why you are avoiding mercs, or a merc healer. They are pretty nice and very viable, even cost wise. You can even use them on the freebie accounts. Using mercs would let you two play absolutely any class combination you wanted and the group would be rounded out.

If you are looking for the most powerful duo combo without adding mercs, though, Mage/Necro is probably it on the end high. Right now either can take down pretty much anything solo, so both together would be quite powerful. Only thing I could think of with more duo power, named wise on the high end, might be a necro or mage and an enchanter to manage the pulls and crowds. That said, Necros can still split anyway.

No mercs if we play on fippy
Any thoughts on a good partner for a pally not a shaman.

My friend and I duo a paladin and an enchanter. The problem is there is no healing other than the paladin healing, and we have access to mercs. I've also done paladin and bard, and paladin and cleric. I've got to say if you're not using mercs, you're going to need a healer class. Not sure why the aversion to shaman, but that is the ideal duo of the three. Cleric shines really well too, with their defensive healing procs etc. Druids would be great as well with their synergy, and their damage shields. Druid is probably going to be the best dps wise, unless your going to fight a lot of undead. If you intend to spend a great deal of time on undead, cleric/paladin do a lot of damage there.

It was my understanding fippy does not yet have mercs if we leveled up there. Neither of us seem inclined to play a shaman...if only it could be a boxed on a freeplay we probably would. Well it is seeming like a necro mage may be the better combo. Wonder how a pally wiz would work esp later on when swarming becomes an option.

The lack of healer will be a problem if you are actually trying to tank. Paladin and cleric/shaman/druid are all very viable, but depends on what you are after as far as functionality.

I'd say that you would be better off with a non-directly-tanking duo - basically anything but a tank x2. Necro/mage is good, Druid/necro is fine, mage/wizard is good, etc. Basically anything you want to play is going to be fine. Having at least a necro or mage in there for a pet tank later will help with named, though. Summoning would be a problem otherwise - not for exp, but gearing up.

i play a bard/mage/necro trio, and that can seriously handle anything in the group game, but without mercs, if you are DEAD SET on playing a paladin, and NO shaman, i would say cleric or druid, but maybe take a look at ShadowKnights instead of pally, because if you want to talk swarming, SK is going to blow pally out of the water.. pally is nice having self heals, but SK has some amazing aggro AAs and spells, and also the harm touch is one heck of a burn ability. but to answer your question more directly.. if you dont have a Healer, your dead. Cleric, or Druid, if you dont want Shaman. but i would ask him why he is against the shaman, and maybe talk to a endgame shaman and see how much different it is.. because its not just about buffing anymore. DPS, Crowd Control, Heals, Buffs, you name it.. Shaman Owns

ive been debating adding a sham/SK/cleric 3box to my bard/mage/necro, so i can take on some raid instances, since mercs arent allowed in them to heal me.
gotta have 4 things for a good group.. Tank, Healer, DPS, and Utility (crowd controll, pulling, buffs, etc) but you really only NEED the tank/healer to survive.. everything else can be fluff to make the kills faster and more efficient

if you are ok with necro over pally, then ask your bro if hes cool with a mage... youll own.. trust me. and when mercs become available, youll be dang near invincible

How are rogues dps early on? Think my brother might want to play rogue and we might go paladin rogue.

You pretty much must have a healer (shaman/druid/cleric) if you play on Fippy. The Pally cannot tank and heal himself all the time very efficiently. Sure it might work in the beginning, but it certainly will not later on.

If you are talking mercs... then yeah, Pally / Rogue will be just fine. Between Pacify and the Rogue tricks you can pull quite well as well.

Sk/Mag, or Sk, Shaman or Cleric, Mag. You get a lot of good tricks to add to your "toolbox".

could go with a druid and pally. end up with good hp buffs, heals and extra damage. And having a good damage shield will help make up for not having slow. and ports are a nice thing to have.

How about the next best thing to a shaman then that is still a dps class?

Paladin + Beastlord

Paladin can heal themselves, as long as you stay a bit behind the curve. Beastlord adds slows, haste, dps and shaman style buffs. When you need more healing, pop a merc.

I agree with Paladin + BST. Covers each other's weaknesses - tanking and healing for BST, DPS, mana regen, shm buffs for paladin. Great for duoing old raids, too.

Going mage/necro + paladin is a bad idea because they have no synergy. With groups, you're looking for synergy, not the solo ability of each class.

Do shaman anyway.

monk, hands down

Depends on what you intend to do. Progress through the group game just by yourselves? Progression server for sure? No mercs obviously limits things more.

I'd say cleric if he won't play a shaman. Your dps suffers, but its much easier to find dps than it is to find healers for pick up groups. Later on, the paladin can seriously own undead swarms, and when you hit the point that undead become scarce, you can do the same with the cleric's shining armor line + paladin stun group heal proc.

If you pick a support or dps class for a partner, you're going to end up sitting around waiting for a healer to be available to join you to do many things, for better gear at your level range anyway.