I've been talking with a buddy about coming back to eq and playing for old times sake. one thing led to another and we are now talking about boxing a full group between us and trying to work our way through the single group content chonologically as best we can. I'm looking for some advice on ideal group makeup and also on how to figure out progression. are there any sites or documents that lay this out or would be good resources for figuring this out? Alla's is the only thing i can think of, but that sounds like a fairly daunting task. we might try to work in whatever raid content we can manage, but single group content is our main focus. we will probably level lock and work on AAs when we reach either max level for an expansion or maybe 5 levels higher and try and complete the content for that era. any suggestions?
Take a tank, healer and the rest dps; with the tank and healer you can do raid content that mercs won't be available for. Personally, I'd go for SK/paladin, plus shaman. Add mages to the mix for easiest fuss-free dps.
I'm thinking SK, Shaman, Wizard, but I'm a little up in the air on the remaining 3 slots. I'm thinking melee dps may be too much trouble to box, but what about something like an enchanter for CC and clarity? or possibly a necro? I know they wouldn't be played to the fullest extent as a boxed toon, but would it be a significant contribution? What if one of us boxed, SK/WIZ/Necro and the other did Shm/Mag/Enc? Think that's too much work or would it be doable? Do you think we would just be better off with SK/Wiz/Mag and Shm/Wiz/Mag? This is a long term project so I would imagine we would get better and better as we went.
Personally i would drop the chanter and add a bard... they are easy mode to box now with melody and bring a lot to the table.
SK / ENC / MAG works very well together and is easily done, mine are in there 60s at the moment. I like it because all 3 have pets and can get mage pet toys, enchanter supplies haste, CC, mana regen, good auras. You loose out on some dps and ports, but you still have decent firepower. Bards are good, but personally i dont like them just sitting there doing melody and with Ench i cast KEI or equiv once and it lasts like 3 hours.
I like the sk/enc/mag combo as well. The sk gives a solid tank. The enc gives crowd control/debuffs. The mage gives dps/backup tank. Also CC and ease of moving around the group.
There's a case for a puller, and bard is probably the best option. One would be necessary for some of the higher group and raid tasks as you approach level cap. Bards are good afk buffers, too. Mage or wizard are easy to box, as is bard. Any kind of melee/hybrid is much harder to box.
I would suggest the following combination: (1) Pal/SK/War, shaman, mage (2) Bard/Ench, Druid/cleric, Wizzy The most important class that must have : Tank, Healer, CC. IMO, the best combination will be : 1st player SK(puller/tank), shaman, mage 2nd player Ench (charm mobs for dps or tank), cleric and wizzy. Or you want a easier life, Bard instead of ench. Just my 2 cp
tanks are gear intensive and often are replaced in group content by mercs. clerics are replaced in a similar manner. Best bet is to get 2 dps and a bard (necro/mage/bard perhaps) so you can do 100% of group content without the farming and AAing that a tank or healer might need.
I think the usual mantra of "play what you enjoy playing most and you'll do fine" applies here, but if you are looking for a group make-up that will easily handle most content I would recommend 4 mages, druid, and bard. You need very little gear for the classes to be highly effective; none of them require 'micromanagement' to be useful/efficient; you have good pulling, tanking, and dps and you don't care much about healing since the tanks are disposable. If all goes to pot, hit the evac!
Thanks for your responses. It's been very helpful. We really aren't concerned about the gear or AA grind because we'll be on voice chat and this our way of hanging out now because we live on opposite ends of the country. If this goes as well as we hope we won't mind grinding our way through and the gear hunt was always more than half the fun anyway. I know we want to use the SK as our tank. I know we want a wizard and mage for dps. I'm a little up in air when it comes to filling in the healer/slower/CC roles. I'm looking at shamans, druids, enchanters, and maybe bards. I'm trying to avoid duplicating too many roles so those slots can be filled by dps. I've been away for so long I don't really know what state these classes are in anymore. How are druids vs. shaman these days? Here's the makeup I'm considering now: Player A: SK\Wizard\Bard- bard is mostly an afk buffer, SK is tank and puller Player B: Druid\Enchanter\Mage- Druid is healer, Enchanter is slower and CC when necessary If CC isn't necessary, slows are and Shaman are still strong enough helaers then I could do Shm/Necro/Mage for Player B. What say you?
I personally would take a cleric for rez. You dont need bard and ench. Only modification I would make : Player A : SK, Wizzy, Cleric or shaman. Ench + druid is a strong combination. Wizzy is easy for 3rd box. You need 2 healer for some progression task or some stupid named that is AE heavy. Sk and ench will have to be main for player A and B imo. Just my 2 cp. Thank you Edit: CC is definately required
Tank and healer are required for raid zones; you can get by without for group only content, although mercs struggle in some level ranges and tasks. You can get by with one mage (although preferably two) for tanking, provided that you have no melee classes or mercs. Some tasks require CC, some tasks require two healers - although shaman and merc are good enough for this. Warrior and cleric are typically overkill and single task classes. You can use a merc for rezzes (although not in a raid zone, but shaman/druid/paladin/necro can all handle this). The reason to go shaman is for buffs that a healer merc can't provide; the reason to go bard is that they are easy to box, easy to pull with, and provide a range of songs that can't be substituted with potions. For progression, look at Raspers site and EQ Resource - see links in sig.
Eventhough cleric is generally overkill for most situation. But its always nice to have that safety margin when you are boxing. I agreed that set up might not have the fastest kill rate, but it has the best chance to tackle all the group content, including getting epic 2 pieces from raid zone. If ench charm pet or bard as a main for 2nd player, I dare to say the difference in DPS is only marginally lower than pure DPS setup in group content, considering that most of the toons are botted. Just my 2 cp. Thank you
When you get to the point of wanting AA, you can check www.eqaasearch.org and look up specific categories for each of your classes, to see what's available and when. (Can search by expansion, level to earn and a few other things as well). p.s. while I don't think it necessarily would work with your setup, clerics can be used to pull as well. Can PM me for links to the external cleric site where I've got more info.
Tanks: SK/Pal/War Healers: Sham/Druid/Cleric CC: Bard/Enc DPS: rog/wiz/mage/ber/rng/bst/nec TBH boxing a full group seems unnecessary to me. With Mercs you can have a pretty decent tank/healer/dps in your pocket. Personally I'd grab a tank, a healer, a CC, and if you and your buddy want to box grab a dps then fill in the last 2 spots with mercs. With you both 3 boxing you're attention is going to be further divided. Out of the box a t5 merc is actually better than a player until properly AA'd/geared. Every class has their strengths. While some talk trash on encs, even as a bard I love having them in group as it makes pulling and add control trivial and I can focus on the other aspects easily. If I had to make an ideal combo, personally I'd say pally/Sham/bard/ranger with 2 rogue dps mercs. Have a tank merc and a healer merc on the other 2 chars for harder mobs or situations where switching it up might be beneficial.
This is a really good point. I've been 3 boxing a little bit on my own to try it out and see how I like it, and so far I've been feeling like 2 boxing with a couple of mercs might be more enjoyable. I'm going to stick with it for a couple of weeks to see how I feel with a little more practice, but there is definitely a chance that we could drop down to 2 boxing.
Yeah if you're going to 3 box I'd suggest either useing 2 comps or looking into something like [Unmentioned 3rd Party Software]. Tabbing between 3 can be a hassle and at least for me I'm more efficient using 2 than 3 because of how much the tabbing hinders me with 3.
I four box on one screen and never tab. .. I just leave the task bar up and click on the account I want to be the "active" one. In fact I rarely touch the keyboard I have the Hotbars and extended target window located on the UI just above where the task bar tabs are and have lots of macro's loaded for each character.. I just have to move my mouse a couple of CM and click on everything I need. I usualy can have all pets in and macro's running by the time the mobs health hits 95%. and I do not use any 3rd party programs either. I prefer to keep the keyboard free for chatting with my friends!
for group content i run bard/cleric/shaman and merc wise tank/wiz/wiz. on named i swap a wiz merc for a healer. I tried boxing a war/cleric/shaman, but trying to keep up with button mashing on war and cleric became a chore with the spike damage from VOA named. If you are looking at end game and 2 of you are going to box, i would have 1 of you run a tank as main box and the other person run a healer as the main box. I think this would give you a better edge. Just my 2 cp
