Hiya. I'd love to hear peoples opinions on what their ideal group would be? Specifically, if you had five friends you were regularly playing with from level 1 onwards, and the group focus is on grinding experience together (not taking down the biggest named at as low a level as possible or anything). If you could hand pick all six classes, what would you rather have? Would you personally prefer a melee heavy group? Caster heavy group? Any unique playstyle or strange group composition you think works really well for you?
I'm kind of new to the game still, but I'd really like to have a caster-heavy group. I was thinking... Paladin- Possibly the easiest tank to get single target hate (or so I've read). Druid- Can heal, nuke, and snare. Seems like a better choice than cleric or shaman for this group. Also gets mana regen on higher level skin buffs, right? Enchanter- Mana regen, caster buffs, slow, CC, nuking, and pulling 3 Wizards (or Mages)- Great nuking to quickly burn through mobs. Wizards can root or snare if needed. Seems like it would be fun to play together, and if we need a med break, we can chat for a bit since everyone is on the same page.
I've played with the same group of friends since I started last year, and our usual group make up consists of My SK for tanking power (though that's a joke in itself these days) Zerker for Melee DPS (their decapitate = <3 ) Ranger for Range pulls/buffs/token dead guy Necromancer for Caster DPS Wizard for Caster DPS and a Cleric or Cleric Mercenary for the healing power. Mercenary may seem pathetic when it comes to a group of five, but the mercenary's spells alongside all my lifetaps/passive group heal aa's/etc keep us alive well enough.
Paladin cleric bard beast lord wizard and 1 more dps. Basically my fellowship group + a random guildie. With the bard/beast melee or a caster benefits, so we take who ever is lfg.
In general I prefer groups with a lot of diversity and strong utility. I would probably always include cleric and enchanter, then a tracker/snare/CC, a porter, a tank, mage (CoH and pet). One of my favorite groups to go into brand new unexplored content without any spoilers was cleric, mage, warrior, enchanter, ranger, bard. I never ran into a situation that this group couldn't win. All forms of damage, all forms of CC and solid tanking healing. I could see swapping out the Warrior for a knight for sure. But there are lots of functional groups that cover my basic bases.
What the ideal group was would depend on what class one happened to play. Given 6 people starting from scratch, the ideal group would still depend on any who had preferences. As unlikely to happen as it is that 6 people would agree to play whatever I dictated, all log in dependably, and play those classes well - Cleric SK Bard Rogue Berserker maybe Ranger While I wouldn't ignore DPS, I'd want utility like iron clad pulling when needed, tracking, CC, the ability to split into 2-3 player groups and add 3 mercs to each on occasion too. My feeling is the group I listed would seldom need to look for outside help when facing a special situation. I'd be equally happy with - Cleric Warrior Enchanter Druid Wizard Wizard Unless you are swarming you are more limited by the distance of pulls and repop rate than DPS and mana consumption.
Shadow Knight -- or -- Paladin (not enough experience to choose) Druid Enchanter Magician Wizard Magician -- or -- Wizard
I think most experienced players would agree that the group listed above is The Most Ideal Group. It has good pulling, and great healing and DPS - especially burst DPS. While it doesn't have good CC, great DPS can very quickly convert a bad pull into something manageable - the SK tanking multiple mobs, the Beastlord's pet tanking a mob, and DPS reducing the number of mobs in camp rapidly. The first group I listed is similar. Great pulling, healing, and DPS (but less DPS than the above). It's advantage is better pulling (not necessarily needed), CC, headshot/assassinate, and maybe better sustained. The second group I listed is perhaps superior in a congested dungeon crawl - less likely to be overwhelmed and able to get out of Dodge should things go badly (Evac/Succor) while still able to produce high DPS. (I believe that a group relying on spells and abilities will generally out perform one that's highly reliant on gear. For exanple - it's harder to get a great backstabbing weapon than a will do the job/purchased from a vendor Rk. I heal spell or nuke.) The advantage of flexability is flexability . The advantage of greater focus on core capability, like DPS, is superiority in that facet. All of these groups are playable and will perform well in a wide range of content. They just have a different "feel" when played.
I like the idea of any people that like to group, seems like most are happy boxing or what ever these days. but if i was to choose.... Warrior Cleric Shaman Monk Enchanter Magician It may not have the best DPS but over all it would be a group that could basically do anything.
Warrior Druid Enchanter Magician Wizard Cleric It's all about synergy... And the second tank for those missions where just one isn't appropriate. Could swap Wizard for Beastlord or Ranger.
It definitely depends on what you're fighting. Obviously, the holy trilogy should be present (with an extra nod toward crowd control). It's actually a very stupid question. It's like asking: "What's the BEST day ever?" It's conditional. Blue skies, strangers being nice to each other, PUKE.
Trick question. The best day ever is always today. You meta-physical types will get that one. And since I chimed in... Pally Druid Chanter Mage Wizard x2
