I think it's a bit higher APM than you might think. Being the slower/healer means Shaman will need to canni often. You can set up some hot keys to help, but it's still a pretty time consuming class. Given that SK can do a lot with a couple macros once positioned, and wizard can be a simple nuke bot, you'll probably spend a lot of your time on the shaman. That said, it's a good trio and can do a lot with the SK feign death pulling.
What trio would you recommend that includes a wizard? How viable is mage/mage/mage in PoP without a healer or slow?
That was a short term perspective, imo as new player, get mages or bst going, make some cash then decide.. Plenty of time to exp, besides too few people sees the benefits of a pure box.. I started as 3 wizards
Tell us what you want to do and what class you 'must' have if any and then we can narrow it down for you.
I'll say what I say on every one of these threads. I first went with Mage cleric ench. Boring doing all casters. But I have found the ench and cleric fun, crucial, and powerful. Switched to a ranger and had fun with him so went with that. Seems like your leaning toward wiz because maybe you think that's fun? Well if your leaning toward something else because you think that sounds fun then do it, try it, if you don't like it switch it up and PL with the other classes that your liking and have already lvl'd.
Yeah, classes that give a lotta bang for yer APM buck are basically clerics, druids, nukers and pet classes. Of the pet classes, mage is the laziest - just DS and mash an assist/pet attack/nuke hotkey once in a while. BL and necro are higher APM due to melee positioning and twisting DoTs. One-hit-wonder bards are zero APM and can be quite effective. Any wiz/X/Y trio built out of the blocks mentioned above should be pretty lazy and strong. If you're mainly interested in the wiz I'd probably include bard for the mana regen and run speed. Ports + selos ftw.
I sympathize with this, but I also think it's kind of a short-term thing. Velious is a melee expansion. Casters get a lot more powerful in Luclin and again in PoP. I mained an enchanter on AK. It was many things, but never boring.
REC/D. Ranger Enchanter Cleric/Druid. Ranger is non-negotiable, it's a character flaw of mine (Pun!). Wanted to use druid for the gtfo factor, but cleric outheals and outbuffs by a mile. So now I'm stuck levelling both the cleric and druid more or less in tandem. For heading in to parts unknown deep in, I like to bring the druid. For Named mobs, known areas and grinding, the clerix. Either set works but in mid-40's its getting tough for the druid to keep up heals.
I did a lot with Wiz / Necro / Cleric on AK. Your wiz will do some tanking here and there in non-POP content, but that's half the fun. For ease you may want to consider wiz, cleric, SK/War. It won't be too draining and will give you a spectrum of choices if you want to play just one toon sometimes.
Considering that we already have focus items and the PoP resist system, do you really think casters will get hugely stronger in Luclin and Planes of Power? I guess charm will be even better, but enchanters can already charm in TOV and Kael. IMHO, pure melee are already very situational. You need warriors to MT, rogues for raid DPS, and Monks for raid pulling (barely, with SKs) and for random dungeon crawling it feels like hybrids and pure casters are already usually better. This is really the right idea, IMO. With boxing you can PL really quickly and easily.
Focus effects are largely an afterthought at this point. To get a full compliment of focuses (Mana Pres, Spell Haste, Improved Damage/Heals) it's a very narrow set of gear choices, all from raid targets. Some from raid targets only 1-2 guilds kill. Getting a full set of focuses, is much more reasonable/doable in PoP. To a lesser extent Luclin, but it requires a VT Key. Same with FT. Ive got 8 FT at this point, I think the cap for Druids in this era is 12 FT but that eats up 3 important slots for focus effects and wastes an Emerald Tear so it's not worth it. Clerics can actually hit 15 FT in era if you try really hard. Casters can get close but it all requires Tunare offhand/earring, Vulak Robe, KT Boots, etc. These aren't items readily available to most people. Come Luclin FT gets tossed onto many more items and hitting the 15 FT cap is a lot more doable, extending mana longer. Add on top of this AAs, particularly Spell Casting Mastery, a flat 10% mana preservation line that stacks with everything. Mana extends further. Plus all casters getting Spell Casting Fury for increased DMG Nukes, Quick Damage for the nukers to be able to fire off more Nukes quickly, Mental Clarity for extra 3 FT. Etc. The AAs end up balancing out casters even more. By the time PoP is out Wizard top short parses with Rogues behind them then probably Rangers/Monks/Magicians/Necromancers/Beastlords. They each have their pros and cons. But for now, pure Melee crush casters in Velious raid scenarios. Warriors are of course always situational with knights ruling all trash clears and group content, as they should be. Monks/Rogues are superior DPS for raids compared to any caster currently excluding a Chanter with a charmed pet, which of course carries its own risks.
The horse also helps a great deal. PoP - while by far my favorite expansion! - also features some questionable raid design choices that hugely favor burst DPS and ranged DPS over melee DPS in most of the important fights.
Repentance for the awful decisions made in Classic-Velious. Like PoSky where everything is damn near immune to normal spells, or belly caster nonsense. Melee got to ride on top for the first three expansions. They get brought back down to normal people level for the next two.
Thanks everyone for the feedback. A lot of good suggestions. I have a few follow up questions: What class would be the best to add to mage/mage or mage/wiz? If building a trio around a sk, what classes would be preferred when factoring in a balance between lazy/low APM and strength of tackling content? How would you build a trio around a wiz assuming you'll have KEI? The main objective is still lazy/low APM play style while not being completely gimped during PoP. Thanks, all.
I'm also open to the idea of forming a trio around a bst. How are they in PoP and how would you build the trio? Never got a chance to play one.
I would start with bst/cleric and add a mage or wizard for dps as bst/cleric cover most bases. They do very well in pop.
Just go balls to the wall 3 wizards. Kill light blue mobs before they get to you. And with 3 wizards you have enough stuns to cycle, so you can even solo everything below level 55.. But should really not be that hard
