After retuning patch, a new team: Turquoise, consisting of 106 Paladin, 105 Mage and 104 Shaman. Goal: EoK T1 gear, notably BP from Dreadlands Wanderer. Successful. Mercs were a healer on reactive, melee DPS on burn and caster DPS on burn. Took some time, but no problems. Was able to handle two un-named at once. Nice new shiny chest piece.
Disagree, mag/mag/mag, just rolled through fine. I played an Enc for 7 years and I wouldn't trade 1 of my mages for cc. Comp. of nec., servants, Defensive aas and the extra pet do just fine. Much simpler to have 3 pets and an assload of damage ( Firebound alliance ) than cc. The kind of cc that's needed beyond 3 earth pets can't be boxed while also aggroing with pets/tanks, and dps'ing, so don't bother. If mob respawn wasn't so short I might feel differently, but it's very short these days.
Hehe ok, point taken, well I should have written a mage pet. However, I found myself in many situations in EoK CCing 7-8 mobs. To be honest, I agree that those situations might have been avoided, but since I am new to playing an enchanter, it is just so much fun to go into impossible situations. I tried the 4-mage group thing, and while highly effective, I prefer the complexity of many different toons for my playing experience. We duo-box now, my buddy added a mage also, so now we actually have two, in a 6 toon duo box. All classes make at least one pet, but most of the time, we are above the nice 10-15 we so covet as mages...
Mag trio is a really interesting combination. I run a melee-focused box group right now and have thought about a mage army just to try it out. In a thread about best way to go from 0 to 110 I theorized that a 4x mage + enc/bard + priest would be amazing. If you're able to cycle your firebound alliance well, I can't think of a capable trio that would out DPS three mages. You'd also be able to cycle through Host of the Elements on the mages and switch to preferring Volley of Many. However, I'm curious what you think about the following . How well does a mag trio handle 4 or more mobs? . How do you handle the mobs that have spell reflect? There's quite a few named in RoS with them and some of the chromodracs reflect spells. . With Firebound Alliance being such an integral part of the trio, how well do you think three mages will fare as the 35k bonus + 2 million fulmination will start to decrease in relative power with future expansions?
From my perspective, the biggest problem was that it was boring when I tried it. Mages fall short when the boss damages the mage disregarding the pet; other than that most things will fall eventually. 5-mob situations would call for some xtar-macros. You can easily generate the tankage with RS, if you get there in time. Synergy would be anoying to get good value out of, 4 mages mean optimum is something like spreading RS pets with 3ish seconds between them, and get all the mages to nuke in between. A lot of hazzle, and risks of lost dps, to get Synergy to work optimally. I would avoid doing anything special, and just to RS -> Many -> Chaotic -> Spear, or RS -> Rain -> Rain -> Many, which would conserve mana and have great dps. A Shaman and a druid would be my choice of 5th and 6th, getting buffing, mutual priest alliance yummies, and druid nuke niceness. Porting and tracking is a must. If you go all air pets you will likely not need to heal more that a HoT, maybe some alliance, because of the stuns, on trash. On nameds add runes... Or maybe ench/dru, lose some healing, but getting mana regen and caster dps. Spell reflect... don’t nuke? Pets and RS pets are not nothing: pet attack, spam RS pets, and watch TV.... :-D I think Alliance comes to 40 dps pr mage, assuming she can fire it once a round.
Fighting EoK T2 and higher: (apologies for not the first trio post) Account 1: Paladin 107, Bard 107, Monk 108, Cleric 95 (could level up) Account 2: Ranger 107, Shaman 108, Rogue 109 Account 3: Mage 108, Warrior 96 (could level up and equip), Heroic Enchanter (not a favorite) Looking for some advice as to which toons to concentrate on from here. The 107-108 have about 13K-15.5K AAs and mostly EoK T1/Conflagrant equipment. I have mixed and matched a lot, fought in LC and FM, brought Rogue to help in Labs and Chardok. They are all enjoyable to play. Probably know Rogue and Monk the best along with Paladin. But at this point, it would likely be best to concentrate on just one trio for equipment, progression and AAs (not raiding). Live server, not FV. TIA.
My opinion of top trios If you want to heal + tank + dps: pal/sha/mag brd/sha/war If you don't want to heal: pal/rng/mag brd/rng/war brd/sha/war is the core of my sixbox team. But if I had to chose three characters to trio with, it'd be brd/ber/war and I'd deal with healer mercs.
Thanks, Tucoh. Would you elaborate a little? I see that your optimum trio would be Brd/Ber/War, or Puller-ADPS-CC/DPS/Tank. Why wouldn't that translate for my group as Brd/Rogue/War-Mage or Monk/Shaman/Tank or pet tank? Is a Ber easier to box than the Rogue which needs some attention. Ranger pulling I can do. Just better at it and with more experience using Monk or Bard.
1. I don't know rogues/monks as well as berserkers so I am hesitant to recommend them vs classes I do know. 2. Boxing melee is harder than ranged, so I generally recommend that people use ranged DPS. I like melee DPS primarily because it's fun to stack ADPS and maximize my warrior's DPS.
Tucoh, this is getting interesting. Essentially, there are several possible pairs to attach to a tank/pet as a third: Paladin(108)/Ranger(108) Monk(109)/Shaman(108) Bard(108)/Ranger Bard/Rogue(110) With a 109 Mage or 105 Warrior as tank. Then there is this combination: Cleric(100), Ranger(108) and Mage(109) or Warrior(105) with three dps class mercs. Going forward into EoK t2 and RoS zones, especially after EoK T2 visible armor and then RoS T1 visibles, what grouping makes the most sense? My first thought was that in dugeons, having a Ranger with snaring ability might tilt the decision. However, the DPS of a group Rogue is pretty nice and the monk/shaman is a sweet pair, even though it is a bit dated. Can the shaman heal well enough in a group setting that three DPS mercs will work? Or . . . use the Cleric instead of a healer along with a Tank and ? (Cleric on same account as Monk/Bard/Paladin)
1. Any group with a mage tank will be hamstrung by the pet tank only being able to hold aggro on one mob at a time. Same with a merc tank. 2. DPS mercs are so incredibly outclassed by other characters that you'd be better off DPSing with your shaman and using healer mercs. 3. Snaring isn't a real concern, both because so many classes can do it and because mobs die so quickly that them running away isn't a problem. You probably wouldn't even both snaring on the ranger anyway. 4. I think any of those pairs attached to a tank are fine.
Currently playing two crews: Monk/Shaman/Warrior in K-Labs and Bard/Ranger/Mage in EoK and RoS zones. Rogue now a traveling backstabber for hire. Paladin on hiatus, but not for long. Prefer to drop mercenaries to accommodate players. Gear is a mixture of EoK T1&2 or Conflagrant pieces (Tanks in Conflagrant). One reflection: Ranger in full buffs and a HS zone with Bard singing, Conflagrant Compound Bow and 90% WR quiver is a force. Skybarrage would be nice. I enjoy pulling and splitting mobs, so I didn't go with an enchanter, yet. The Bard/Ranger combination has enough CC for now and the Monk/Shaman/Warrior can handle most pulls. But maybe ... I have an Heroic upgrade to use and a fourth all-access account now. Tucoh, you are so right that the Warrior tank is superior to the earth pet. But I like both.
I must say that I grew tired of not having a real tank in my box. For simple things it was fine with mage pet, but as soon as it goes into dungeons with aggroing etc, I was missing a real tank. (Not boxing currently).
Spot on. For me the change came at K-labs. I love my mage pet and for some things, it's really great. But that plate tank and mitigation . . . gotta have it now.
Looking at the patch notes, are you referring to the headshot change? Blue-con mobs are always so easy that headshot isn't a real consideration for me. I have a ranger that shares an account with my cleric and use him as more of a novelty when I want to maximize DPS and only run with a boxed shaman healer. I've never geared / AA'd the ranger up enough, nor have I used his skills properly, and I don't really make use of his many utilities, but he's always been a bit lackluster and mana hungry. I'd probably be better off replacing him with another berserker.
Somewhat late . . . add an enchanter as a 4th box? Tried it with Bard/Rng/Mage and it was OK, but no plate tank. Chanter used Helix and CC. Bard hummed. Ranger autofired. Controlled Ranger and Mage mostly.
enc/brd/rng/mag is fine but not optimal, the enchanter helps a lot when you don't have a plate tank that can tank whatever comes your way. Replacing the bard or the ranger with a mage would improve the group.
