Here is what my group make up will be when I leave The Grounds in the next week or so: 95 Bard 95 J5 Tank Merc 90 Mage 90 J5 Healer Merc 90 Necro 90 Shaman Bard is in lvl 92 RoF gear. All the rest are HoT T2 armored. Where would you recommend I go for xp/grind/loot farming? The Grounds really have been a pleasure to be in. Lots of named mobs that I can easily handle and xp and armor to boot. That being said I've been here a long time and feel it's getting close to time to move on. Thank you for your input.
In terms of progression, while sticking to that expansion. I would recommend going to Morells Castle or Sol Sanctum. If you wish to skip that and head into a different expansion with better loot tables. Valley of Lunaryan or Sarrith. Or Beast Domain take a look at EQ resource under Veil of Alaris for a good map of that zone progression, quests and named to take out for various upgrades to your army. Once you hit 95, I would reccomend Shards Landing
Should easily be able to, and honestly if you hit level 91 on your mage his air pet (if he has a lot of pet defensive aa's) will also be able to take valley mobs with ease. In fact when your mage hits 91 i'd say drop the tank merc, use a 2nd healer merc and tank with your pet. A 91 mage pet will also be able to tank trash mobs in shards landing if you so choose. When you get to level 94 swap it out for an earth pet to tank even more effectively.
Interesting... hadn't thought of just letting the mage pet tank. In the past this has resulted in slower kills because my bard then isn't meleeing.
While it is true you will lose melee dps on the bard, honestly (especially as you get higher in level) boxed bard melee dps will be a very very small amount of your box crews total dps.
Just /melody some support ADPS songs. And focus playing the other toons. I know you will notice a significant DPS boost just by focusing your attention in your other toons
With a mage and necro. I'd drop the tank add a wiz merc sit the bard in a corner playing his caster support songs and win at EQ
I would try the naeya camp in SL, also beetles and snakes are pretty easy. Not sure how the exp compares to Valley though.
drop tank merc. mage pet out performs it. let pet tank, and like said above, adding a wizard merc instead of the tank, will produce more dps than you were doing melee with the war and bard together.. win win. and bards have a lot of stuff they can be doing. not having to focus on melee is nice. my 3box is bard/mage/necro, cler merc, and 2 wiz mercs... and that combo really tears stuff apart. with minimal effort
Okay... switching my priority to getting mage to 91 (28% through 90 now). He is close to maxing all of his pet AA's so will do that with a couple of dailies at 91. Will use 91 Air Pet to tank, bard will become a jukebox in the corner when not pulling with lvl 95 J5 Wiz merc. And will focus doing more dps with my casters. I have noticed that I'm suffering mana issues with the mage though. I never get any form of mana regen (other than the self buffs) because I don't have a chanter in this set up. If I focus more on doing dps with him the mana issues will be even worse. Any thoughts? Sounds like I'll head to Shard's Landing or Beasts Domain initially then on to Valley.
[quote="Zaxamaphone, post: 3018036, member: 403654] Sounds like I'll head to Shard's Landing or Beasts Domain initially then on to Valley.[/quote] Both of those zones are harder than Valley. I can think of no reason to go to Beast's, except perhaps Valley being overcrowded, not only is it harder but the XP would be worse. Personally I would do Valley to 95 at least the XP will be great and really easy, then maybe SL, although even the fact that Valley is easy and a hotzone might make it better.
Just did an experimental group in Valley, 90 mage with EM13 (level 90 air pet), 83 bard, 91 and 90 rangers - fun group. We used 1 healer merc and pet tanked soldier and farmers (and a red con ranger) just fine with bard slow (and max pet defensive AAs/defensive stance). Valley usually isn't very crowded and XP should be steady. If you're having mana issues, some suggestions. Use Fickle Flare and follow with Servant (Gift of Mana) or Spear (Flames of Power). Get the Mod Rod AAs. Use the clicky nuke (summon Glacial Paradox). Max out mana AAs (GoM, MC, EM, SCM). Do LDoN raids for the conjuration and evocation augs. I believe maxing out dex will help with spell casting skill checks, lowering mana consumption. Use Gather Potential (Harvest) spell. Mount. Some of the DSs are a nice damage:mana return but most seem situational.
Have your bard open each fight with a Crescendo song and stand near enough to the mage that the mage will get hit by it when it goes off, include a mana regen song in your main lineup of songs, and carry (and use) Clarity and Spiritualism potions on the mage if you aren't already doing so. Doing all of that should go a long way toward keeping your mana healthy. As others have said, try to cast your Servant when Gift of Mana procs (especially if your Specialization is oriented toward Evocation and not Conjuration).
Thanks guys for the help. I went out to the Valley with my group as an experiment and did really well. The current mage pet (lvl 86 with EM13) can tank the farmers just fine, although occasionally he would go down to a series of spikey crits. In those cases I would just step in and tank the remaining % with my Bard running Shield of Notes and First Spire. I'm using my 94 cleric merc to heal the mage pet and using a 90 wiz merc for dps. I tried it the other way around with 94 wiz and 90 cleric but the 90 cleric couldn't keep up at times. The XP is really flying here so the Mage should be 91 hopefully by the end of today and get the new air pet. As far as mana consumption goes I'm rather embarrassed to admit that I had never been using mod rods or mana potions. Up until this point (lvl 90 nukes) I really never had mana issues so didn't really even think about them. I will add them to the line up and should see improvements. It would be nice to change up my spell line up due to GoM procs, but I'm using lots of macros while cycling through 4 toons.
You could always PL a silver enchanter just for the sake of logging in to buff your party members in need from time to time. With your bard/mage damage shield combos at your level, I imagine it would take little time. I got my shaman to 70 in a day of /played time and I'm a lowbie compared to you as far as PL capabilities go.
