This is another which class should I pick thread, apologies in advance. Right now I have a trio in their early 40's Druid, Enchanter & Mage. It works really well and they are not gear dependent. However especially in dungeon setups charming gets a bit intense and I miss not being able to melee any mobs. So I'm looking into slowly leveling a melee character to replace my mage and have a more traditional setup of healer/melee/cc and occasionally still charm with my enchanter (but most likely not in a dungeon set up). I think warrior, monk and rogue are out, as well as a ranger, since he basically has the same spells as my druid. So that leaves Shadow knight Paladin Bard Beastlord Right now I'm leaning most towards a SK, I love bards, but just not sure how much they will add in a 3box, besides making charming easier with perma mez, but please prove me wrong. Paladin will be nice for their rez as well as stuns but damage output will be worse than a SK I think and when not charming I'll need some DPS. Beastlord I already see a ton of, but probably because it is the best and most OP choice?
Consider the bard the main class in the trio, twist songs, melee, etc, and switch to the druid and chanter for heals/buffs/charm breaks. That's how I play. Without MGB's it can be dicey, with the bard's lack of hit points, and there's a point where you're waiting on the druid to get Superior Heal to do harder hitting mobs. Bards also suck at generating aggro, so you have to be mindful about snares, slows, etc. Damage output from bard is on the low side as well, unless you're charming with bard too. Versatility is extremely strong with this trio though. Pally would be my choice for a tanky class, as their stuns are handy in a charm break, plus backup heals.
Of the classes you mentioned (SK/pal/bard/BL), only BL does enough DPS to keep you from dying of boredom in DRU/ENC/X without charming. So, uh, BL.
Thanks guys, @Mukk I don't really like getting MGB's feels a bit like cheating. Also a bit worried about twisting songs with my high ping (while 3boxing). @Pithy, if you who, from the looks of it have a SK main, wouldn't recommend it it must be bad . I'll look into a beastlord, they seem to have quite some spells that stack with my other classes (and a great mana regen buff at the higher levels). Thanks guys.
SK is very nice to play and good tank. I have BST, SK and WAR at 60 and I can say that plate tanks are better tanks. Warrior is dealing good DPS but you don’t have any way to generate agro at will. That’s where the SK really shines, together with utility like FD and Snares. That being said in a combination with DRU and ENC a BST might still be a good thing to choose. You get good DPS, can hold agro with slow/tainted breath and in charm scenario you can just use pet as extra DPS and let charm pet tank. Also SP is nice for extra mana regen in addition to PotG and Kei. My initial trio is BST, CLR, ENC and I was doing all kinds of content and leveled up to 60 in no time. Today I often use Druid instead especially if I need the snare and Druid heal benefits. But it’s hard till 58…
As Aithne mentioned, druid healing till 58 is going to be rough so hopefully you have people to group with. If you do Bst Enchanter Druid I can pretty much guarantee that un-grouped you're going to have a hell of a time from 50-58. My first trio was pally enchanter druid and I swapped to the pally to a bst mid to high 40s and ended up quitting the enchanter and druid at 50ish because they kept dying to everything.
Ya, I tried a wiz/mag/enc and petered out around level 40 as well, relying mostly on Charms for DPS/tanking, so welcome to the club : ) Bard is gonna hold agro better than a mage pet, but only due to the fact that it's a PC, not a pet, haha. You can successfully tank on a Bard, but your SK and Paladins are gonna be much more rugged. Muuk's advice is solid. Pick a main, and box 2 support classes. If you want to charm, charm, charm, then enchanter's your main, and the bard's a great addition with auto-mez. Some day you can get crazy, and dual charm with druid too. Level up a necro, and you can take enc,dru,nec to Chardok, and tripple Dire Charm. It makes for some hilarious corpse and pet haste item recovery stories : ) Pithy's right about DPS too. I had a war/clr/dru trio that petered out around 55 due to a serious lack of DPS (this was before MGBs were a thing, KEI would have made the druid serviceable).
Thanks guys for all the feedback. Right now I'm fine with the druid's healing capabilities (regen + greater healing). I think I should be ok till level 51 once I get superior healing. If anything I never seem to have downtime so far with this trio . I'm not really pushing it either though in terms of mobs I xp on. Also a hill giant dual wielding and hasted really destroys other slowed hill giants (with the help of the mage pet and nukes) and barely needs any healing. I think I'll just keep my current trio for now and maybe later on swap the mage for a melee when I can really twink him. And that it would be either a brd/sk or bst, but probably leaning most towards a beastlord. p.s. I used to have a cleric instead of a druid until level 30, but really loved the versatility of the druid, don't regret switching at all. Perhaps once they hit 60 and I really need a 100% complete heal I'll PL him.
Just wanted to give an update. I tried leveling a SK (ogre), got to 16 and am now leveling a paladin. I know I should be going with a beastlord, but it just doesn't really appeal to me. I know the dmg output of the paladin is pretty shit, but when I am charming it complements my trio really well. Also a solid rez will be nice to have.
I always found the rezzes at lower levels to be blah anyway. Someone was almost always available to help with rezzes as long as the corpse was somewhere accessible. I never felt like I needed a rez anyway until 50+, which I powerleveled a cleric for that specifically. Being able to summon your corpse from deep in a dungeon was very helpful on my first trio. My first trio was SK/ENC/DRU and it worked really well. Not the best dps, but even without charming, if you nuke on the Druid and Chanter its not bad. I actually rarely charmed leveling up.
I don't think you'll be disappointed with pal/dru/enc. It's a strong and versatile trio. It only gets better in PoP, when pallies get fantastic new heals (group heal, single-target fast heal, HoT that's basically as good as a shaman's) and a 700 HP symbol. Really complements the druid nicely. Pally stuns can also be a great way to handle recharms if you're quick on the draw.
I made it all the way to 60 with hundreds of AA on the mage before I ever rolled a melee. So I would recommend to ditch the enchanter. Sure, charming is great xp, but do you really want to join the hipster charm parade? Nope. Mage + Druid will out-dps most other combos that I know of in most xp group situations. Charmers might outdo you over time, but that comes with its own tradeoffs. Wizards can beat you for a minute or two before they go OOM, or just get bored and wander off. Rangers can beat you while they're in TS once in a while. Everyone else works harder to do less. [edit to add that, ironically, both MAG and DRU _can_ charm certain targets] Both plate tanks and slows are situational abilities that are only necessary for hard content. If you look at the _theory_ of EverQuest (suppose someone was trying to explain gameplay to you over the water cooler), then slowing and plate tanking are critically important. The reality is that mobs in the current era just don't live long enough against the epic pet plus associated nukers for it to matter. I hope PoP brings some justice for Rogues and the like, and I'm sure it will. But right now I def would not ditch a Mage or a Druid. No double people will be along to correct me, but I thought it would be worthwhile to recount my experiences levelling a Mage to max xp on this here server. Started with solo mage, added cleric later, then added druid. Once I reached max xp, I experimented with slowers (my BST Kazzok) and plate tanking (my WAR Sanderson). I raised both a slower and a plate tank to address perceived deficiencies in my trio. I can report back that while I really love my warrior, I don't find him necessary for a viable trio.
Thanks for all the input guys. Regarding SK vs PAL, I'm actually still not sure which one to choose I've got my SK to 16 now and my paladin to 19. I feel like the real usefulness of the paladin will come in charm breaks and rezzes. But as @Mokli mentioned corpse summons are very useful as well. Right now I can handle a mez break without a paladin, but of course mobs don't hit that hard yet and I'm usually not hasting my charmed pet. I do like the idea of some extra damage on the shadow knight vs the paladin as well as the ability to snare (less aggro on my druid). Right now it is close. @prattrs while I agree the mage is fantastic, I just really enjoy the enchanter class and to me while stressful charming and crowd control are fun. The last class I would ditch is my enchanter . p.s. is the instant cast circlet of shadows in takp?
Nope, its the post nerf version. I have an SK as my main and keep one on me to save a spell slot anyway though.
Totally agree with this in the Luclin era. I get annoyed when people slow stuff. Max out DS, train self with wimpy moonlings, profit. This'll change in PoP, though, when mob damage will go way up. Run-of-the-mill trash in mid- to high-end PoP zones will hit harder than many Luclin raid mobs.
Or some people are more like me and are a bit "slow" themselves . My ping is very high and between switching characters trying to recharm it is nice if the other mob(s) are at least slowed if they also come for me. To be fair I think I only died 2 or 3 times while leveling to 40+. Both times were in crystal caverns (once camped in the wrong spot logged back in only to get pounded on by several orcs) and the second time I messed up with pulling the spider queen room while in the back mobs were respawning. Now that I think of it a summon corpse would have been nice then. Ok I might continue with my SK after all (this week at least). I still have a level 30 cleric I'll PL to a 90% rez at some point.
Haha, I laughed at this. It's funny to think of not needing slow or a plate tank because you have an epic mage. I suppose it makes enough sense if you're already 60, but OP is only in the 30s and may be 200 hours of playtime from level 60 or an epic mage or anything like that. OP, for a new or casual-ish player on the server, charms, pets, cleric CH, and slow are king. Lots of people on these forums talk up plate tanks and druids, though they're usually picturing the game at 60 and/or with twink gear on the tank, rather than the long road of leveling from 1. Note that prattrs followed my formula (he had the strongest pet class, then he added a cleric) initially, and only came to the conclusion that plate tanks and slow are luxuries after he was 60. SK + ench + druid will be fine overall, though you will kill slowly without charming. The "just use damage shield and everything dies hitting your uber plate tank a lot" strategy of DPSing won't work since your druid can't CH until 58+, you prefer not to seek out constant MGBs, and your SK isn't wearing ST twink gear. But that said, the combo is certainly a solid, tough one, and with even "light" charming (maybe not hasting or giving weapons), you're sitting pretty. All imho, of course!
I replied specifically because I raised myself solo as a mage on this server, in era, before MUDflation. I know how magicians handle at all phases of the game on this server. Solo, untwinked magicians.
My original trio was Paladin/Druid/Enchanter. It's a great trio. My current trio is similar, Warrior/Druid/Enchanter, and I kinda did that for 2 reasons. First, Blood Guard desperately needed more main tanks for raid content, and I'm familiar with and like warriors. Secondly, at the time I did NOT charm much, almost never at all, so the versatility/support of the paladin stuns, lay hands, patch heals, etc was kind of wasted. So, shortly after hitting 60, I all but retired my paladin and started up a warrior, who was extremely easy to PL with a druid and enchanter. However, it has been AMAZING to have rez (although only 90%), and I'm a baddie sometimes, so I still run my paladin around and rez/buff myself very frequently. Even if you end up not liking the paladin, I see that you've ruled out cleric (at least for now), it'll be handy for you to be able to give yourself a 90% rez and get back to EXPing, which almost always nets a higher XP gain than waiting around or begging for a 96% if there's no cleric immediately available. I also really do miss having pacify on my tank, it makes pulling so nice, where if I accidentally got agro when trying to pacify, I wasn't getting steamrolled quite so fast. Pulling generally happened faster, too. Finally, hybrids are generally a little more active to play vs a warrior, which to some (maybe most) translates as "less boring". I don't think you'll regret having a 60 paladin, I don't regret it, even though I don't hardly "play" him anymore, because I "use" him all the time. I'd imagine you would too, and from the sounds of it, you'd be better about using him to support the enchanter w/charming than I was/am.
That's my hope. I have a well-appointed and much loved WAR and CLR waiting to see some serious damage flung around. And you'd best believe I'm going to _group_ with slowers. BST and WAR are gonna be like that bicephandshakememe.gif come PoP.
I'm in my 40s mind you . But yeah no way I'm giving up my enchanter and its charm/slow and haste. Right now I'm leveling my SK, with the enchanter and druid buffing him. Will probably level him up to 42 (grind some hill giants for cash), before continuing the grind with my trio. Doesn't have uber gear, but should still last me until level 50+ https://www.takproject.net/magelo/character.php?char=Kapo I really like the paladin class as well, but the SK just seems to have a bit of extra damage, and frontal stun immunity of an ogre is something I really missed when playing the paladin. My plan is indeed to just charm with my enchanter, but besides giving the charmed pet weapons, don't haste them and just let the SK tank. No need to root the NPC I'm fighting this way and I only have to worry about the charmed pet in case it breaks. Of course a Paladin would be better, because of the stun, heals and HP buffs, however the dmg output would be lower. Then again I might change my mind again later .
haha ya frontal stuns are for chumps consider charming Ryklo Rykes in Dawnshroud Peaks to shred shred shred rockhoppers from 40-51 ish. flawless hides sell for 250+ plat a pop and Ryklo is a gnomish buzzsaw contraption
Thanks will definitely do that. For now my plan is to level my SK to 30 in upper guk and then hit a couple of spots to get items for my druid epic, after that crystal caverns till 35 (and hopefully get the item for the affliction efficiency bracer). And then just hill giants till 40 so I have some cash.
Haha I didn't even last long grinding hill giants and they actually gave cash. I try to switch up my leveling spot every 2 levels and prefer dungeons. But I'll definitely give the rockhoppers a try, do you think the pp/hour is better than hill giants?
Hopper caves pop every 15ish minutes. If you can kill 'em all, a full clear typically yields 1-3 flawless hides so 250-750p ish. So if you keep Ryklo swinging with two weapons and haste, call it maybe 2k per hour on average. Less if you pull slowly or wipe or whatever. The kicker with hoppers though is you can get fast exp through the 40s/low 50s while you farm.
I don't know if it's actually faster. It probably can be. Obviously the medicine you'll take is the one for you. I like rockhoppers because they give xp and plat at the same time for a wider range of levels. If you're a trainy class (i.e. warrior I guess) you divide the mobs up into three or four pulls and chop them all down as a group. Very efficient and satisfying. If you want to crawl you can walk up and down the tunnels as they pop. I do like giants from time to time when I'm doing something else primarily (working, reading) but the rockhoppers offer a lot more to do behind the keyboard.
Ok cool, I'll definitely give the spot a try once I leveled up my SK (25 now). I do want to be challenged a bit though and that pretty much never happens with the hill giants (except when I double pull the named undercon). Another issue with the giants is that it just takes so much time to pull them to a safe spot.
