I don't think monks using FD to split rather than escape death was intended by Verant, and from a realism perspective it's absolutely asinine (I remember some bard writing about this). However, in my personal opinion it's one of the most interesting parts of what is otherwise a very simple point and click game. There are numerous different techniques and the geometry renders every pull just a bit unique. I think in the end monks being able to split content and spoon feed a raid, or even a group, is just not as interesting for everyone not playing a monk. So it's not surprising that Sony gradually moved away from it. However, FD-as-aggro-dump-only leaves monks extremely under-powered. I do agree with Darchon that they slot much better into a quartet here, but there are still going to be better options most of the time. Apparently this isn't just an EQ problem either: TLDR: I just think anyone considering playing monk here after P99 needs to understand that things are totally different here.
My suggestion is that while the standard cleric/slower/tank trio is probably the strongest general choice for face tanking mobs, having a monk/rogue/bard/whatever as your tank is better for other things. It depends on where you are in your journey as a player, whether you have friends you play with regularly, and whatever your idea of favorite class/tactic is. If you really like monk or warrior you can make it work, but you might end up more dependent on grouping. So depending on how you look at it, that's an upgrade to your trio because it pushes you to progress with a group which is always going to be faster than soloing. I personally don't like grinding by myself and so having an optimal solo group isn't important to me. One thing that wasn't really mentioned.. if you have 2 people with trios grouping up, you can both get all 3 of your guys in group for exp, but someone has to pull, tank, heal, dps, watch for charm breaks, target things and sic the pet. If you're doing all of those things alone, it's a lot of work and slow kills. If you have 2 people it's better. But 3 people can have a 9 person group where each human puts 2 characters into the group for exp and there are 3 other characters for support/buffs/rez/whatever. In this 3 person group setup each person has a much easier job and it's more relaxed. This is a huge boost to making your grind safer/easier. In the early levels, you might not feel good about your trio getting out of sync on levels, but you just need to get over that, you will die more on one that the others, or end up in spots where you can't get all 3 into the group, and hopefully you find it's worth it to get an extra human.
Well I got some input from my 5yr old and it looks like I'm going ogre. I see some of the beastlord spells are increase group hit points do those stack with the shamen group ones? From what I recall beastlords are kind of a sham and monk hybrid right? Any stacking issues with buffs? I'm not super concerned with optimal setups but would a bst and shaman dots be enough y'all think. Solo content I ain't going for trio artist challenges.
Beastlords are a shaman/monk hybrid with a better pet than shamans have. They do get many shaman spells as a result and they get their own lines. One of those lines is the same HP buff as the shaman focus line and one of the lines is a group HP buff with some ATK. The later stacks with the former. However it does not stack with Paladin Brell or Ranger Strength. Beastlord + Shaman + Shadowknight for Ogres would be a solid trio. The beastlord pet is relatively consistent DPS along with beastlord melee. Their spells aren't a primary source of their DPS but they do contribute. Beastlords can offtank quite well at this point in time since they can slow their own target. Their pet can also tank okay pre-PoP. There is definitely some overlap with Beastlord/Shaman but going a large race that is likely unavoidable since you need Shaman as your priest and beastlord is the only DPS option other than I guess barbarian rogue.
My personal take on the team composition question is to pick one class that really excites you and build a duo or trio around it. Whatever your class of choice is, you can find one or two more characters to really make it shine. If I had to pick one box to support a shaman main, I'd pick necro for snare, DPS and FD pulling. If you want the same race for both toons, iksar make great necros and shammies due to their bonus regen. I agree with Raev that low-APM characters tend to be great support boxes, particularly for folks who are new to boxing. Melee classes tend to be high-APM (they need to be constantly repositioned); I'd avoid having two melee in your team when you start out. Most priest and caster boxes can be very effective with just one hotkey: Line 1: /stand Line 2: /pause 10, /assist your_main Line 3: /pause 60, "do thing #1" Line 4: /pause 60, "do thing #2" Line 5: /sit That hotkey will have a box stand, assist your main, pause 1 second (/pause 10), do thing #1, pause 6 seconds (/pause 60), do thing #2, pause another 6 seconds, then sit. Things #1 and #2 could be siccing a pet, nuking, debuffing, healing, etc. The BL Spiritual Strength line of spells stacks with shaman buffs. BLs also get mini stamina buffs and mini focus buffs; these don't stack with the shaman versions, which are better. BLs get an attack buff, Savagery, that stacks with avatar. BLs can also buff mana regen pretty well. Shaman debuffs overwrite BL debuffs across the board. Yep, BL is a shm/mnk hybrid. They have strong pets, slows, hate generation, tanking, and buffs. Shaman may not be the very best duo with a BL -- there's a fair amount of overlap in the two classes' buffs and debuffs -- but it'll definitely work. BL brings the DPS and tanking, shaman brings the slows and heals.
I might go against my son's wishes for the fat man's and go with my original Iksar shm/nec, I could just add in bst to that mix
I don't think you'd be disappointed with a shaman main and necro box. My college roomy and I played that duo back in the day; it rocked. There's not much casual EQ content it can't handle. It can aggro kite, fear kite, root rot, pet tank or tank on the shammy once you get some gear. You could even charm some pretty badass undead pets when you're in the mood for higher risk and reward. And yep, an iksar BL would make a nice addition to that team. You might find yourself focusing more on the BL than the shammy, though. If keeping your attention mostly on the shaman is important to you, you might consider adding a second necro someday. It'd be easier than a BL -- lower APM, no new stuff to learn, reuse all the same hotkeys -- and would stack well with the other necro. Doubling your DPS never hurts!
Is proximity agro not a thing here? How can a BL pet tank with a BL in range, won't the mob always target a player character regardless of threat?
i honestly have been tanking a lot on my shaman lately and hes just velious armor quest geared, slow does wonders
Mobs will target players in range, even if pets have more hate. The BL pet would only tank if the BL stopped meleeing and backed out of range.
Clerics tank fairly well too! Just need to believe in yourself. I've even gotten to tank a few things like the AC burrower and Cursed with no real issues.
well I got it up and running but for some weird reason they keyboard is acting up. trying to set my movement keys to wasd was rough and when i use the keys i keep spinning in a circle. then i tried to type something in the alliance chat and it just went iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii or something to that effect. maybe its the free the mouse thing?
Try this update, https://www.takproject.net/forums/index.php?threads/free-the-mouse-v3-5.15208/page-3#post-88791 and Read the thread before it if you want. Note also that if you ever SWITCH windows WHILE holding down a button, that button will stay pressed until you switch back.
I'll try that thanks, also found out that when I hold right click to move the mouse around it barely jerks left or right once or twice and then stops. mouse scroll isn't working either
Mouse Scroll wheel will never work to get you from 1st person to 3rd person. If you stick with it, you will get used to it. If you really need 3rd person, F9 twice will get you to the view generally best for all around 3rd person looking. But generally speaking I spend most of my time on this server in first person.
oh no i mean look isn't working in first person, also mouse scroll isn't working for menus and such, also when hitting F9 a few times the mouse look again doesn't work, it just shifts a few times then stops.
posted in tech forum, hopefully i can get that fixed.. such a bummer i was looking forward to playing here
Anyone can tank anything as long as you can't be 1 rounded and you can hold aggro. You just need an awesome cleric team to keep a tight rot.
I figured out the problem I had swapped the d8input.dll steps from the linux installation guide on the wiki. Repasting the dll into win system32 folder fixed the problem. I got to say there are some stark differences compared to the client p99 uses it will take some getting used to. the scroll out 3rd person thing doesn't bother me (cause I didn't used it) but things like no hotkeys for opening and closing all your bags at once. Or no tell windows. Or the vendor window being nothing like p99 where you can sort by price or quantity. The only camera features I used were the "user defined" and "first person" which I would bind to F and G so I could switch from 1st to a kind of 3rd person view similar to hitting F9 a couple times. Will take a while but I'll get used to it.
I swear a post mentions druids being better healers cause of the 75% heal, if the wiki is correct don't shamans get this as well? https://www.takproject.net/allaclone/spell.php?id=2435 Or is that PoP era?
The shaman 'CH' does around 1000 less than the druid. 1950, where the druid does 2925 without AAs. Situationally druids can be better healers. But it's very situational. These are PoP era spells, but they went in right before PoP launch so they are sold on Luclin vendors.
