Trio Advice | Phinigel

Hello,

I'm looking for advice on the best fit to complete a group of three... My partners are already set on the Bard and Cleric.

My selection is limited to either a Monk, Necromancer, or Magician.

With regard to the available classes listed - which class would you choose and why?

Specifically with consideration for *fun factor*, *group synergy*, *solo/molo power*, and *class scaling/power through the coming expansions*(that's a long one ).

THANKS!

of the 3, i guess necro? none of those 3 options are particularly synergistic with the other 2.

you could make any of em work, but i dont see any being particularly better or worse. especially if yer cleric is open to being more than just a healbot.

id rank it necro, monk, mage. but again, not alot of difference in any of em. necro is easily the best soloer since you mentioned that.

Before the nerfs, mage. After the nerfs, monk. You need to be a tank/DPS class, and monk fits both rolls nicely. You have CC and heals, so between the three, monk is really the only option if it's going to be just the three of you. Without a real slow, the mage pet will now have trouble tanking. If your buddy is dead set on a bard, cool, but you would be better served with an enchanter, who can haste better, provide mana regen, and do a better job of crowd control. He also has haste, which ups the monks DPS. It also makes him a cloth class, which gives you one plate, one leather and one cloth, which is nice when going after gear. The only benefit to a bard this early is run speed and they are needed on raids. If you aren't raiding, ditch the bard.

Sweet. Thanks for the feedback.

My buddies are in fact, or appear to be, set on their class choices...

I'm surprised about how low the Magician has ranked, though. I imagine the the Magician pet being a GREAT tank, as complimented with the Cleric's heals(CH especially). Assuming the Bard is proficient enough to single pull via lulls, I'm not understanding how/why a Monk would perform better as a Tank/DPS/Puller in this group.

Necromancer's definitely take the solo/molo cake(AGREE), yet not offering a strong/linear benefit to the group.

So, to narrow this down... Magician's fall off? Can't tank as well as a monk? Will not even provide competetive DPS?

THANKS!

With the pet nerfs the pets cant really tank anything, as soon as u get an add it'll die, just dps.
So yeah, of those 3, prolly monk.
Though the mages nuke as welll as anyone through to the late 40s.

Mage pet received a small boost last patch. Yes mage can provide good DPS. The pet still hit for alot and the nukes are good.
I played brd / CLR combo pretty much all my eq life. The only thing u miss is DPS and the mage will provide that.

A good geared bard can tank. Bards in my guild tanked quarm back in the day.

Just don't expect the mage pet to tank anymore

Edit: IMO all 3 are good choices. Monk probably be the best but all 3 will work nicely

Interesting.Very.Interesting.

Interesting.

I think I've settled on the Monk! It's just a difficult decision, especially from the low level perspective, when Magicians nuke for 45~ damage via bolts, and their pets can tank and hit for a cool 16 points of damage with the Rusty Scythe.

I'm guessing you all have a broader understanding of how Monks evolve as expansions start to release... Just hoping we are talking about Monks that are NOT UBER RAID GEARED, here...

THANKS!

To be honest it really depends what type of role you want to fill in your group. Yeah, a bard can tank, and can easily hold hate up until late levels, but at the same time they need decent gear to tank early on. So, if you have the $$ to twink a bard up, they can be incredibly solid pullers/tanks.

Monk DPS untwinked is incredibly powerful on the TLP servers, and easily the best melee dps, which requires no gear investment in order to do well. Overall, very solid DPS, they are not horrible tanks, and are solid at pulling if that is what you are into.

Mage- The pet can't tank. Don't expect it to since they nerfed the crap out of the pet. If you are okay with that, they are solid DPS, with very little utility early on.

Necro- You can never go wrong with a necro. The pet sucks, but then you have a charm that works on undead, as well as DD undead nukes, and most of the best zones you can level in have undead (unrest, lower guk, etc). You can root/rot with the cleric, and you can snare/fear stuff in open zones. Necro has dps, but it requires the stacking of dots in order to get the full effect. You also get additional CC with the Necro mez. Utility wise, necro has everyone beat hands down.

So, more so, what ROLE do you expect/enjoy playing? Is your bard friend comfortable tanking? That question right there really is the main question you should be asking. And if he is comfortable tanking, does he have the money or desire to obtain the gear to do so?

With bard+cleric as required spots you are really in a tough pickle. Both those classes need 2-3 other people to shine, so until you start talking a 4/5/6 person group you wont be too successful IMO.

I would plan on grouping with random people till you make more friends or join a guild. So take any class you want to play

Personally I would go with a tank, I hear there are few and far between on Phinny that way you can basically grab anyone LFG with preference to DPS. Cleric really needs a tank to be successful. Yes they can solo on undead but... why?

To give you a bit of perspective on pets as tanks, let me share two experiences.

Prenerf I was routinely farming Hate for armor drops in classic for my 6 toons. There were time where I'd lose my warrior and my Mage pet would tank through a battle rezz with little issue. Pet was rarely CLR buffed, so it basically had the Mage haste buff. It did a splendid job in those situations. Most of these mobs were even or yellows if I recall correctly, so the mobs had a significant advantage compared to the level of a Mage summoned pet.

Tonight I've been working on my alternatives to my wizards, so I've got two necros and a shaman pet. All are buffed with CLR and SHM buffs at all times. Right now they are in their mid 30's at the temple camp in city of mist. Mobs range from even to yellow to reds. There's a plaguebone warlord that I believe is around level 49, so DEEP red to the pets. Twice I lost my SK twink tank (60 CLR is there to heal and buff). When the SK dropped, the warlord turned on the pets and chewed through them in seconds. Literally the pets were dead and he was on the necros. Both times I lost the SK resulted ultimately in a 100% wipe.

Now, this isn't an apples to apples comparison, but I think it sheds light on the scale of the pet nerf. Even pets with buffs 10+ levels over their owners level, they aren't very good tank options. Granted there are a ton of variables in my example, but I think you get the point? Pets as a main tank aren't the great option they used to be.

With that said, I'd be an SK if I were you and save up to rock the hardest hitting 2hs you can afford. My SK with a polished shai'din naginata (38/46) can hit for upwards of 160 dmg a swing and every 5 levels once you hit 40 you're getting a 5% increase on that damage (via innate auto reward AA Changes). With SK CLR BRD just add DPS. Buyer beware on SK epic ideas, there's a nasty bottleneck or two!

Oh, and SK are routinely parsing well on raids - and will continue to do so for some time to come thanks to basically a double magic damage disc. It's about the only class that technically negates the mitigation of the mighty (at least from the spell damage perspective).

Real talk. Nothing in that group really synergizes well. Only way to fix it is add a chanter for the 3rd spot.

Bard songs don't effect pets until AA, making bard largely useless with a mage or necro. Neither the mage or the necro really *need* anything the bard can do. If you were going to add a mage to the group, you'd be much better off with a chanter instead of a bard.

Monk by a mile. A monk with a bard and a cleric can do just about anything up through velious. Monk also has the benefit of not needing any gear to do well. The only problem you're going to have, is that the bard is probably going to end up tanking most of the time. Without taunt, bard songs and slows will most likely hold agro over a monk.

It's an odd combo at best, no matter which way you go, but monk is the least klunky.

What you actually should add to bard/cleric, is an SK. You can do *anything* in the game with that trio.

Are you planning to trio everything you can, or add other people to the group as and when needed? I agree with the poster above, for a bard/cleric+1, I'd mostly recommend SK. You can do most things with that trio, then add more people if you want to.

But out of those 3, I'd pick monk, because monks can tank or dps and the bard will help the monk shine. For a threesome though, a cleric and bard have little utility - they shine in full groups.

Well, I love all the responses - but can't say they made me happy...

In short, what I'm gathering: The classes I listed(Cleric, Bard, + Monk/Necro/Mage) just do NOT function as a TRIO in the most synergistic way... Understanding they could get-er done, just not as well as an alternative.

So, in lieu of forcing something that isn't meant to be.

Is there a known trio composition that excels at farming non-raid dragons? XPing quickly together?

Maybe alternatives to the Cleric/Enchanter/Warrior composition.

You must always have an enchanter in the group, so that's 1 spot gone.

You need a healer, that's either Druid or Cleric (ench has haste + slow, so not shaman)

Then you need a tank class preferably, so you don't rely 100% on ench pet, that's SK really.

You don't need Druid's snare, but the ports and tracking is useful.

So the group is:

1. Enchanter
2. SK
3. Druid / Cleric

Personally I'd go Druid, especially for Phinny because not every class can track here.

There's no synergy in classic maybe for these options, but from Luclin onward bards will be one of the best synergy classes for monk, and just keep getting better as the expansions continue. By the time you hit PoP a monk/bard/cleric trio will do extremely well--bard slow is enough for the monk to tank without taking too much cleric mana, the bard+monk working together can pull/split any camp very quickly, bard overhaste and other songs will significantly boost the monk dps far beyond what an enchanter could do. Enchanters are super powerful in the early game with charm pets, but as things move along the bard becomes a much better companion for melee toons in most situations.

Depending on how long you plan to play for, once we reach the later expansions, bard/necro has a ton of synergy too and is a very powerful duo.

Enchanters can charm pretty much forever, they are always a better choice in groups. Bards are resist bots for raids only.

Best trio is cleric, chanter, necro. There is nothing better.

Great trios:

1. Warrior, druid, bard/chanter
2. SK, druid/shaman, wiz.
3. Sk, shaman, monk
4. Palie, chanter, wiz
5. Druid, mage, chanter