My name is Skratching and I am luclin/pop enthusiast that never got the chance to play on the official EQMac server while it was live. Some of you may know me as Itching on the P99 server as a shaman who has played off and on since it has launched. Before playing on P99 I was a resident on the Terris Thule server from the end of Luclin until GoD era where I played as Trueknight a dwarf paladin as my main. I am thinking of rolling a three box here so that I am not always reliant on others to form a group. I am thinking of utilizing hybrids since those were always the classes that I loved most. Currently I am thinking of paladin, beastlord, and a healer like a Druid who would also act as an emergency transporter. One of my old friends is also thinking of rolling here with a two box, any ideas what would mesh well with my proposed team? Also sorry for the sucky typing in on travel forced to use my cell phone.
First of all, welcome! As far as finding a good group composition, it's a little tricky figuring out good characters your friend could play that wouldn't overlap with what you already have while still giving him some level of autonomy. You're missing serious crowd control, so the obvious choices are enchanter and bard. You're also missing damage output, which lends itself to pure casters (specifically wiz, necro, mage) and melee DPS classes (monk, rogue, ranger). The last piece would be a pulling class, which means a bard, monk, necro, or SK would help. Not a lot of that really makes for a good duo'ing party for your friend. But here's a little breakdown: -Bards are a class not conducive for boxing, in my opinion. They're a very different class to everything else in EQ and they require very attentive play. But they cover a lot of the stuff you're missing. A bard would pair well with wiz, necro, and mage. This would cover crowd control, damage, and pulling. At higher levels your party would be awesome, but it'd be a challenge getting to that point. Shaman is a potential option for bard pairing, as well, but pure casters would provide more damage output. -Enchanters are amazing in group and small crew settings. Not a lot of the other classes mentioned above really pair that well with them, though. There's a distinct lack of healing in your friend's duo'ing group if he goes Enchanter+Necro or Enchanter+Monk. It can also be real rough starting out with either of those pairings. Money for spells is a real issue for Ench+Necro and survivability is a challenge for Ench+Monk. -If you're not too worried about crowd control and a little overlap, Monk+Shaman would be a great duo'ing partner for your friend and would compliment your group pretty nicely. If you don't mind overlap, Ench+Druid is the crowd favorite combo your friend could play. If variety is more you and your friend's cup of tea, Bard+Wiz/Necro/Mage/Shaman, Ench+Necro, or Monk+Shaman would be my recommendations.
I totally did not see the bigger picture of me screwing over my friend there. Hmmm any suggestions on changing my group line up a little bit? I would prefer to have one to two hybrid classes because of the way the play.
It really depends on your playstyle. On Live I two-boxed a Mage/Shaman for almost a decade before I added a 3rd box and traded the Shaman for a Bard/Cleric (gogo /melody - which doesn't exist in our client). Something like that could work for your friend, if that fits his/her style. It lacks finesse in pulling/CC and has no snare (Earth pet roots and Air pet stuns, however), but if you know your limits, you can still pull off quite a lot with Slow, Shaman buffs, and eventually HoTs. The other option mentioned, Monk/Shaman also has great synergy and would really only lack snare, which would be covered when the two of you grouped together. There is no real perfect scenario, in my mind. No matter which route you and your friend choose, you're going to have a little overlap when you're together and some handicaps when you're not, but at the end of the day, when you're grouped together, you'll have a strong group.
I don't think you're really screwing your friend over. Bard+X, Ench+Dru/Nec, and Monk+Shaman are really fun to play in spite of their challenges. It really depends on how experienced they are and what they'd like to play. If you want to mix up your group a little bit here's what I'm seeing: -Paladin for tank means you can have pretty much whatever you want for your second and third characters. Paladins are pretty decent at staying up right if played with a little nuance. When you add a second hybrid (BL/Rng), that means more heals and an opportunity to share in some of the tanking if things go south. This means you're less reliant on heals from your third character if you want to really push the limits. Not having a priest would mean your second hybrid would be a pseudo-healer and higher level content would be more challenging. -SK for a tank means you'd actually have pulling and tanking covered (freeing up your friend on picking classes a little bit) and you can have really just about anything for your second and third characters, as well. SKs are slightly more healing dependent than Paladins, in my opinion. -BL/Rng for a tank means you are much more reliant on heals. A cleric is practically required for those to tank, but they can do a great job while providing utility. It would free up that third slot for whatever you'd like to run.
That does make sense, I know this is going totally what I just said but how would SK/Cleric/Ench, Ranger/Cleric/Ench, or ranger/Sk + Cleric + wizard. Also I know this is a really random question and probably not being tracked at all. But if anyone was to take an educated guess would you say it would be another year before Luclin is released?
All those would be grand. Play what you like - the playstyles for each of those combos have different flavors.
Agreed. SK+Cleric+Ench is more traditional. Ranger+Cleric+Ench lends itself to more charming. Ranger/SK+Cleric+Wizard will be able to drop stuff quickly and has that transportation you were looking for. All are great, though. It's worth bearing in mind that autofire didn't exist on AK and does not exist on TAKP. If you plan on playing a ranger (and utilizing their awesome archery based damage in later expansions), you'll have to hit that ranged attack every time it pops.
Ranger lends to charming... In POP or maybe late Luclin. Right now the ranger will be tanking and doing a grand job, as I have been doing since alpha!
Rolled my toons tonight, I made my ranger Skratching, dwarf cleric Barrel Roll, and my gnome enchanter shakedos. I was talking to some people and they went out of my way because I was asking newbie questions to help me out, buff me and toss me a few items to help me get started. I think the community while small, shows the vibrancy that I always loved most about EQ. If anyone wants to group tomorrow my group is level six
Going to be gone overseas the next week or so for work so you won't see me on for a little while. To bad I can't play while I am gone or I so would! Also I want to give a shoutout to Lenas, Simon, Tulivien, Bum, Delvean, Bonquers, and so many more for making myself and my friend Jooster for feeling welcome on this server from minute one. It's great to see that this community still harnesses the true nature of EQ as I remember it. Oh ya and go ranger tanks!
Don't let yourself be forced to think like 3 different classes. I had alot of fun leveling up 3 wizards.. In my opinion if you are new maybe roll 1 beastlord and 2 mages.. You don't really need a tank.. Server lacks people who main Rogue Ranger and wizard. So if you don't mind playing that. I know it's most fun gearing a tank. But server is flooded with tanks. Since everyone started the golden trio tank healer and ccc
Hey everyone! Jooster here! I''m Skratching's friend that has the SK/BL/Dru combo to go with his Rng/Clr/Enc combo. Are you guys saying the SK isn't necessarily needed in my trio and our combined group? We were thinking we'd need a tank for leveling and taking on higher end stuff. Currently I'm thinking the BL will be my main character even though SK is the main of my trio while leveling for obvious reasons. What are all of your thoughts? Oh and as Skratching said... thanks to everyone we've met and who has helped us out getting started Much love, and it's good to be back in Norrath!
Like, super long term when PoP is in action... Yeah, you'll need a tank. Only over geared Rangers/BLs can efficiently tank challenging content after a certain point. But in the short term, you have a cleric and a druid. Either the Ranger or BL can tank with that healing behind them. And they'll be able to tank for pretty much all the groupable content through Luclin and low tier PoP. You won't be pushing boundaries and losing the SK means losing FD (unless you go monk), but Tuluvien's right. You'll enjoy this game more if you play classes you enjoy.
With ranger/enc, once the ranger becomes ineffective as a tank, you can switch to charm tanking + archery.
And bst can tank through pop I could tank golems/fiends in PoV sans heals with a 65% slow and my l33t regen
My Beastlord could tank exp mobs in the EP's with my pocket cleric. I saw overgeared Rangers tank quite well (Ader took on LiS one evening, as I recall!).
To be fair, PoP may have been the pinnacle of all Rangerdom. If arrows hit walled mobs (that bug was dumb), they may be the best PoP DPS class--Wizards won't be getting pant clicky extravaganza (RIP Silk Pants EZ Mode Xegony) and Rogues spend a lot of time throwing daggers or boxing a not-useless class--before factoring in their utility and well-roundedness.
Rangers will be almost entirely unboxable in PoP though as you'll have to sit there mashing the range attack button. A decent trade off I suppose since even a wizard could have a few spells at a time macro'd.
Hi Kithani and welcome to server, I made a ranger on Alkabor, used him mainly to take dt';s, but i assight range button to hot key and long as i held number button for hotkey down he spammed arrows fast as he could go at what was targeted, this was on a mac mini with generic pc keyboard using number pad.
