Hi all, I've decided to go with WAR / SHAM / RNG / BRD, but have one heroic character on another account. What class should I add to round it out? Was thinking maybe WIZ or MAG for the macroable dps and either ports or COTH. Feels like MAG pet would benefit most from the sham and bard melee buffs. Note: - BRD will be for pulling (if even necessary) and then a melody bot - Plan on spending most time micromanaging the RNG after the WAR has aggro. - I'll be alt-tabbing. - Would add a cleric merc as necessary
I find alt+tabbing to significantly impact how much fun I have playing with more than 2 characters on a computer. If you're not using some assistive software to hit buttons on non-active screens, I'm'a recommend, based on what I enjoy, not adding another character to your main crew. IF you think you can manage another character and still enjoy them all, I recommend picking something with group Invis to Undead. A wizard or magician like you mentioned would cover it, as would a Paladin. Any would be powerful teammates
Alt tabbing past 3 accounts is kind of pointless. Even with the Bard just going /melody, you'll need to spend a bit on the warrior on to get/maintain aggro. During that time, the shaman and ranger are going to just be sitting there. At most, the ranger will just be /autofire most of the time. Takes away from micromanaging the Ranger. Let's look at this for a second though. Bard pulls, gets to group Switch to Warrior and get Aggro Switch back to bard for /melody Switch to Ranger to auto fire Switch to Shaman for macro to Malo, Slow, DoT, 1 DD Switch back to Ranger to Micromanage Switch back to Warrior to maintain aggro Rangers are amazing when it comes to ascending the aggro meter or just straight up taking it. To not be doing so would be holding back, in which case he's better off with autofire. You'll be dancing back and forth between ranger and warrior. Adding another box toon to that would just complicate it or make it almost worthless. Mob would be at 40% health before you got a chance to get to that last box toon to fire off a macro. On my SK / Enc / Mag / Healer merc / Wiz Merc / Rogue Merc group I'll Tash with the Enchanter for pull, switch to SK and get Aggro with 2-3 DoTs, switch to Enc and slow and Macro for 2 DoTs, 3 DDs, then swap to Mage, send pet in and hit macro to fire off 5 DDs.l, then swap back to the SK to maintain everything and pull another mob (assuming I did what I needed to with the Enchanter before the pull to allow this). Half the time the Mage and/or Enchanter doesn't get their last DD off or they're fighting to get the last 5% with their last spell All this is alt tabbing. I couldn't imagine throwing another toon in there But if you want to add another one. Wizard would be your best bet. Easiest way to add extra dps with a single button. Easy to set up a burn button before casting away as well. Just my 2cp worth
To answer the actual question: WIZ or MAG doe snot matter too much - it boils down to whether you prefer the ports (inter-zone-moves) over the call of heroes (intra-zone moving greatly sped up) or not. But as Trelin says: I would think twice about adding another character in the first place - IF you are talking one machine. I too am boxing and i too am using ALT+TAB. I found that on one machine, 3accounts is the max i can handle with any degree of "efficiency". I USED to have another machine to run two more accounts on, and that worked quite well back then. In my "daily life" i am often running 3accounts and even then am limiting myself to just two quite often, setting one to puller and leaving him just in "get XP range", so i can use the 3rd account's merc without having to bother about the 3rd char.
i gave up on BRD, completely. BRDs play AE songs, so any incoming (on pulls of multiples) splats them. I've seen/experienced this with basically any guildie that uses bards in that way. Totally NOT "great for that". Of course there are ways to avoid that, and some love bards. I find i am not loving the class, i rather have my 2nd SHM or SHD sit out there and get some AAs. But yes, for some people bards are great as basically an afk melody-bot.
I box monk, war, mag, bard, zerker. I use wineq for the ability to go to one screen with one button click (f1 monk, f2 bard, f3 war, etc). Then, I bind all my "assist" keys to 7 (personal pref), and follow keys to 8. I arrange all melee in a semi circle, then pull, generally with warrior (only pull with monk when need to split, but generally can take all mobs at once). Then, it's as simple as this: F1, 7, f2, 7, f3, 7, f4, 7, f5 tank - make sure have agro and mob is positioned correctly for all auto attacks. For named, it's the 9 key as they have built in macros for burning. Mag "7" key is basically pet attack, and does 3 nukes. third nuke hits 1/2 the time, rest of the time mob is dead. Bard "7" key is auto attack, the melody with slow, haste, heal/mana regen (overhaste is an aura). He constantly casts that melody. the 7 keys have a built in alt activate aa's per class for the "spammable" aa's. Not a full spam, but can generally fire off once a mob. When I pull multiple mobs, I just use the AE agro from tank. So, to add to your group, i'd add wizard or mag. I like mag because boxing gets confusing at times and I find myself "freezing" a lot when someone does. When war dies, I go to the mag and play him as you can cast a lot of pets and end up saving a full wipe 90% of the time. mag is nice to set up a camp with group lev / invis / coh. but, getting anywhere sucks with no port. Travel is a lot better then it used to be, but it still sucks for multiple accounts.
