I have currently two trios going, indicated in my Sig. The main trio is my Team Fear trio. I am contemplating the third trio. Third trio not really will have a theme of sorts like the other two teams but I have thoughts of 2 of the 3 classes and would need input from others of the third. The two I have chosen are Necromancer and Magician. This team unlike my other teams will primarily be outdoors and I will make use of pet-tank or Fear Kite. The third would be one of three; Ranger - Pet Tank Strat would be sink arrows into target. Fear Kite strat would be run behind and smack around, emergency snare and taunt if needed. Bard - Pet Tank Strat either be negated and Bard tank or bard distance songs. Fear Kite Strat would be run behind and smack around, emergency snare/fear if needed. Would also give me opening of some locks. Rogue - Pet Tank Strat would likely not occur, but I suppose I could throw stars or knives from a distance. Fear Kite is the strat I would most likely do with a Rogue, running behind a feared mob with Backstab sounds like fun. Would also give me opening of some locks, and Make Poison skill to round me out on ability to do all tradeskills.
if those are the options you're stuck on i'd go with bard and then maybe a ranger. gonna be hard to attack stuff with your rogue, you'll be taking a lot of damage with little to no heals.
Bard would give you stackable mana regen, crowd control on top of what the necro provides, as well as run speed, lull, slow. Since you already have the three priests, I would go bard. The only other I'd give a thought to is wizard for teleports and just pure distance dps. They can also provide some root/snare help. Stick to pet tanking and fear kiting if you don't have a priest.
Totally go rogue. Necro/mage/rogue fear kite will rock. Highest dps and fastest kill rate by far. If you want to pet tank just root stuff and have the pet closer than the rogue so he can backstab. will get dodgy at higher levels as you wont have a slow or CH for the earth pet but you could likely do it to 50+ no problem. If you eventually want a rogue then necro/rogue/x fear kiting or rogue/pet/heals/slows would totally be the way I'd go. With necro mage rogue you could get away with either strat. Ranger or bard would both work. Mana really shouldn't be an issue with fear kiting (snare, fear, send pet, sit) but bard would bring lots of utility but most likely the slowest kill rate of them all. Ranger will let you track outdoor named far better than the bard and harmony to split camps then basically work the same as the rogue. I'd base the choice on: do you want track? do you want fastest kills? or some other niche utility?
Any will work with some patience but I think bard would work best, my two cents. That being said you also have to remember that this server will ultimately be a planes of power server, so if you're not considering the long run it's easier to decide. Also without heals you will have to consider your tactics. Down the road your ranger will be able to pull in out-door zones and then range dps the mob down but even just considering a simple plane of valor xp grind you'll need to be strictly a kiting group in that sense if you don't have others with you, since your mage pet won't be able to tank them. Before then though you'll be golden. Edit- The rogue fear-kiting in out-door zones sounds like fun, and I love your very unique group build options that don't just have a version of the trifecta. Your dps will be much better that way as well.
I thank you all for the replies! I look forward to other replies as well if anyone else has suggestions. I like challenges, so I try to come up with different boxing combos that provide me with challenge. Team Fear for example is all Cazic-Thule deity and no snare. The challenge is to DD/Root before the mob gets too far and I make use of Slow and double heals to compensate for lack of DPS. Team Blind I made them all "Human" for the no natural enhanced vision (Infravision/Ultravision) and while this time I do have snare, I don't have a tank. For this third group I am trying to aim for a different play-style, thus the whole pet tanking and/or kiting methods. The idea I have here is to have a third that would benefit not only this third group, but also any future groups I join with outside of myself. This third group will be likely 100% outdoors with the exception of some item drop camps for quests (such as epic quests.) In response to the replies. Oiwon, those are the ones I have an interest in playing, but I am open to anything that I do not already have. Ransom, Wizard is a good idea and something for me to consider. I did not anticipate too much need for porting with PoK but you made a good point about the Distance DPS in terms of either pet tank or kiting. Cerebro, I have done duo with Necromancer and Rogue before, it was a lot of fun for me. The downside was when fear broke and the mob would either turn on the Rogue thus Rogue getting smacked around while I switched to necro to re-apply, or it would turn towards the necro and I would be losing out on the Rogue DPS because of the need to switch over to reapply fear. I hope that adding the mage would make this issue less of an actual issue. After going through responses here and my memories of when I duo'd Rogue with Necro before I find that it would be too much work and frustration to work it with a Rogue at this time. Though Rogue is one of my favorite classes I may end up just rolling one up for that reason alone. Being as this will likely need ranged attacks I would say Ranger more, or the newly idea'd Wizard. Bard would be fun, though no real ranged abilities that would work well with a ranged group, however it does seem like it would be a nice class to have if down the line I group with others outside of my boxes characters with the bard. The Added regen from the Bard wouldn't really be much of a need since I tend to AFK often enough as is, I don't need the shorter downtime since I would have that downtime anyways. At this time I have it down to Ranger and thanks to Ransom, Wizard. So any ideas between Ranger and Wizard would be appreciated.
I think you'll find in this era, the Ranger will have similar frustrations to the Rogue. They don't have ranged DPS yet, not until Luclin. However, the Ranger can root park the feared mob and back off while the necro reapplies fear. He can also heal himself in downtime. The bonus of the ranger is outdoor pulling with harmony, tracking for quests and named mobs, and providing a bit more utility with a second root and sow. Wizard is much more straight forward. You get ports (don't underestimate porting directly where you want to in Kunark/Velious. They are much more useful in those expansions), and ranged dps with no worry of feared mobs attacking you immediately on fear break. They also benefit from your AFK breaks as well. If you know you need to AFK, you can straight fear and burn a few mobs before idling for a few minutes. Wizards are the best at unloading a mana bar. Either way it will be a fun trio. Necro + Mage is going to level super fast regardless of your third. If you want a theme, go wizard and have all three be gnomes.
I'm looking towards all expansions, not this era specifically, so the Ranger frustration as the Rogue would only be temporary. I think you convinced me with going with a Wizard though and a Trio of Gnomes. They can be my Team Gnomercy.
Remember there is also no auto-fire. So unless you're running two computers, the Ranger will have to be the main screen to shoot arrows. If you have a second computer to put him on while you two-box the other two, then you're golden in Luclin. I don't think you'll regret the wizard though. You'll just wish you had runspeed
Exactly what I was going to post. This is the main drawback to your ranged Ranger. He will need to essentially be your main for the box.
That was the plan. Send in the pets, and really only use Necro to re-cast Fear/Darkness (and DoTs depending on target), and Magician to do occasional DD DPS while the main focus is on the Ranger. I ended up going with the Gnome Trio with the Wizard. Thanks all for the responses and feedback.
