Start from scratch .. 3 accounts... 3 Heroic Characters .. Opinions Pls

Enchanter plus two others that work well with enchanter. There are simply events in new content that are built around having a enchanter in the group. They can be pulled off by a bard main but with much higher difficulty. Not having a enchanter is bucking the system and you will pay a price for it.

My main 3 box combo are War/Cleric/Bard with 3 wiz mercs... I got 9 others lvl 100 but I rarely use them unless I do something easier then the impossible for AAs grind or if something requiring some ranged DPS(xorrb1) or something similar... My advice as a 3 boxers is that you need to play your tank as main, cleric as second main and add in what ever you can safely on third. This combo is heavy duty and there is nothing I haven't been able to box but ToR 2 mission. The more you upgrade the tank the more time it buy you to play the third. My main a war but SK/pal might work as good as long as you focus on gearing him first. personally I would not trade my war for any of the 2 but that is just me.

I haven't been able to do higher content by replacing the cleric/tank for a merc or cleric for my shaman or druid by far. You need to be in control over the key class....

This always depends what you are looking for and what are your goals. The primary objective here is that you have fun playing your team.

1. Are you trying to XP fast, or do everything. - There are old raids you can't do without a real healer. Some combinations are more capable, but level more slowly.
2. How capable are you as a boxer? - Some classes like Enchanter and SK become powerful when you focus attention upon them; whereas, you can get a lot out of a Bard or Warrior with minimal effort.
3. Do you tire easily of the same place? - Wizards, Druids, Mages, and Bards help move your group around quickly.
4. A group will want to have tank, healer, DPS, track, snare, slow, crowd control, pulls, ports, and CotH. You can level to 100+ without most of those things, but make sure it's a conscious decision to forego them.
5. A real tank requires, by far, the most investment gear-wise.
6. Consider what mercs you'll be using. A Tank merc is far more viable with crowd control and slow. The 2nd healer merc is far less valuable than the first, and the 3rd is almost worthless.

Qest T got a point there... You cant take raid expedition with merc. I wouldn't know how I would have done Solteris and Beltron without one... a pal could have probably heal that through though

Considering Paladins have soloed Solteris, I dont think it would be a problem

Personally I like the all caster three box like mine (Mage/Ench/Druid) .. a fighter type needs a lot more attention because it has to be positioned constantly (Though not as much as in the days of pet push)

With an all caster group it is easy to set up macros to fire off 5 spells, so it is just a matter of pull, hit macro, alt+tab hit macro, alt+tab hit macro and loot!. Often with my box most things are dead before the 5th spell even fires.

Druids add ports,good manna regen buffs, health regen (hey every little bit helps!) .. good nukes and dots, heals on named, I also find the Druid calm is more reliable than the enchanter one, so in outdoor areas I always use the druid to pull with calm / ensnare. even old spells like Flight of the eagle is handy in making mercs and pets into rockets!

Enchanter adds Haste, Crack, runes, spell guards and a few other buffs, its pet is decent now and Slows/Debuffs/Dots and Nukes are good to have. also mez for those Oops! pulls is very handy.

Mage adds a built in tank and offtank if needed, best damage shield and nukes really well, and when boxing Call of the hero is a big time saver.

For mercs on trash I use war/clr/wiz and an air pet. I like the war merc on trash becuase she is much better at picking up adds and mobs coming into camp then a pet.(especially if I tab to the wrong character!) When fighting a red con named I switch to a second wiz plus earth pet and use my druid at back up healer more then nuker.

With this combo I have yet to run into anything I could not beat... sometimes may take 2 or 3 tries! but once i get a strat down I win

Pally, bard, cleric. Very survivable, and in wipe situations the pally can hit deflection and rezbox the cleric, or the bard can hit deftdance while the cleric rezboxes the pally. Light on dps, but resilient,

My cleric/bard combo can handle basically any situation. Adding a tank to that would mean you could do any of the missions by yourself.

A real cleric can out heal two healer mercs, and out dps a dps merc later on on burns.

Bards are just awesome in any situation. And, easy to maintain in boxing situations if you have to focus on the other toons.

Warrior is highly gear dependent, but probably easier to box than a Paladin or SK. Though you could key bind things for either...

not saying its impossible but event 1 is still timed ... event 2 as banish and event 4 can be rough at time while event 3 is some what stressfull....

I would go Paladin, Bard, Druid. Youll have heals galore, Bard slow + Druid atk debuffs makes many mobs kittens. If mobs dont need druid debuffs, or druid heals even youll have fair dps. Druid ports and bard runspeed so getting anywhere wont be a problem. Add 3 wiz mercs and youll have more then enough dps for normal content.

seeking an update from OP. Want to see how, what your are doing 8p

Anyhow. With the combo three accounts and merc you have tons of options. Without knowing what goals you have and what you will grow into I suggest a matrix of options with the three accounts.

Lets start with three sub groups.
option 1
war bard shaman x3 for mercs whatever you want
Now on option one say you don't like the War.
So try a few different group with the other 2 reminding the same.
Ranger, Mage, Nec etc

option 2
You love your PC tank but ADPS or support is too much and want more direct control on Burn.
war chanter wiz and again x3 merc for whatever you want.

Option 3
You goals changed and want to see some raid scripts on your own. So you really need a mega healer. Good thing flop one of the sub groups for a Clr.

Sorry for not explaining this more in depth. This style of playing options can be painful slow til you invest a lot of time into the depth of multi set ups. But for me that is what the game does for me. Cheapest option for me with the greatest rewards. If real life pops in and offers better I do that of course, sometimes.

So at the basic level of 3 accounts with 3 toons and each account that Nine toons to level and learn. No reason to limit yourself to 9 different toons. (I do this on 6 accounts )
mage mage mage
clr clr clr
mage bard clr
war bard clr
mage bard mage
war sham nec
chanter bard pally
etc a lot sub groups..
I don't use a ranger. I would suggest you do. Atleast try them out. Noted a lot of three box set ups are set to make 1 toon a mega main with high support little effort or attention. More powerful set ups can grind your mind into a mud hole if you are a min max type. Adjust to what you like. Enjoy the game within your style, your way, on your time. Update us I feel like a few of us are looking forward to your post.

self edit missed. one mega main with high support little effort or attention from the other boxes.