More Trio Suggestions

Hi everyone, I'm just asking for some opinions about my choices of trios.

I have 4 sets of characters that I'm going to be leveling. I currently have a 44 dru + wiz so they are out of the discussion for now..

My goal is not high level content right now, but simply to be able to level to 50+ and reassess my trios if needed at that point.

Here are my 4 trio combinations, let me know your thoughts on each.

1. PAL + RNG + ENC
This trio has a solid tank which provides moderate HP / AC buffs, moderate healing, and rez capabilities later on. The ranger can provide moderate dps, snares, harmony, thorns, SoW, minor str / agi buff, minor downtime healing. To compensate a bit for the lack of healing power, the enchanter can provide mind buffs to help with mana regen. The enchanter can also provide haste since both other classes are melee. Good CC and some charmed dps if I want because I'll have a decent cleric hp buff + symbol for added hp. Maintenance level = medium

2. SK + SHM + MNK
This trio has a solid tank which provides FD pulls (if not using monk), snares, and fears. The monk can provide pulls with FD and good DPS. The shaman augments the other two with melee buffs, haste, regen, root cc, SoW, and moderate healing. Maintenance level = medium

3. BST + NEC + MAG
The beastlord can tank/DPS a bit until his hp gets low and then let the pets do the rest. He will use his minor heals during downtime to heal up. His slows will be useful as well as his hp + mana regen buffs for the necro and mage, as well as SoW. The necro can provide minor healing capabilities, snares, fears, and DPS. The mage will provide a nice DS and DPS. Maintenance level = low / medium

4. WAR + CLR + BRD
This trio has a solid tank which provides best mitigation / HP and moderate DPS. Cleric provides good HP buffs and great heals. Bard supplements these two by providing various buffs: hp/mana regen, haste, cc, charm, selos, etc. Maintenance level = low/medium

 

I'm not sure options 1 or 3 will provide enough healing. Why not a necro for option 2 instead of monk. Maintaining 2 melee dps can be annoying.

 

My theory for option 1 is if the paladin starts getting low hp, the ranger can take over aggro until the mob dies. They can just bounce aggro as needed during a fight. Heal up after fight and not have too much downtime because of Clarity.

I could switch the monk to group 3 and move the necro to 2, but both groups would still have 2 melees like you mentioned so I don't see how that helps too much. And taking necro out of group 3 leaves them without much CC or snares.

 

I would not recommend Option 1 due to the lack of healer as noted above.

Option 2 I'd suggest swapping the Monk for a caster DPS. Trying to move around 2 melee characters can be tedious and the SK is as good as puller as a Monk. A Magician or Necromancer would provide solid AFK DPS with pets and decent burn DPS with their spells.

Option 3 is a fun combination, but you'd rely on pets to tank most of the time, Beastlord self healing is not great especially if you aren't a raid geared solid AA'd beastlord tanking. You likely need to accept the beastlord will not melee much if at all beyond the very lowest levels due to no healer.

Option 4 is a solid but extremely slow combination. It is a watching paint dry situation while your warrior and bard whittle down mobs with bad weaponry. Once warriors have solid raid weapons their auto attack DPS is not too bad actually but at level 50s without twink gear, it will be slow going. I think the combination is a bit more comfortable with a knight over a warrior. Warriors lack any snap aggro which can be very frustrating in multi-mob situations where the cleric needs to heal earlier into the fight and is likely to pull aggro on the mobs not being actively attacked by the warrior.

 

I think these options are awkward because they either have two melee, or no healers, or in the case of option 1, both. Even with clarity, relying on only downtime heals with option 1 and beastlord heals with option 3 makes for clunky leveling, even at a casual pace.

If your goal is to raise all of those classes to 50+, can I suggest the following trios?

RNG, SHM, NEC - enough heals for casual outside leveling with ranger harmony. This group could tear through all the outdoor zones that you don't do with dungeon groups.
SK, CLR, BRD - slow and steady. Do dungeons and bigger harder monsters.
PAL, ENC, add your DRU - charm group with a solid tank + rez. Dungeons or outdoors works.
MNK, MAG, add any healer
WAR, BST, add any healer

 

Great suggestions you have there, thanks guys!

 

2: Looks like high fun factor & totally practical to me. Only question would be for grouping dynamic if you're going to overlap a lot with other folks; though Monk is always desirable DPS.

That'd be my choice of the lot; the caster heavy ones feel twitchy and fragile, and the melee centric hybrid one just feels like you're gonna have a lot of time recovering from wipes and not kill particularly fast...

Also ... Hijacking, Any thoughts on ENC, CLR RNG or MAG CLR RNG?

I mean, CLR RNG are basically set. I'd normally think ENC would be critical, but Im finding it so easy to get KEI and company at the moment, that the DPS and summons and eventual CoH for MAG seem alluring.

I'm loving the combo of buffs and utility from clr/rng. Just need to consider how I round out for the reality of the server, not just the optimal isolated group.

Oh, and 3rd toon has to be a gnome ;p

 

Yeah, enchanter/cleric/X is strong for basically any value of X. There's a reason it's the mainstream trio on this server. Ranger is a good option for X as it brings tanking, aggro, DPS, snare, SoW, etc.

Your other trio suggestion, ranger/cleric/mage, is also strong. Going with mage over enchanter, you lose haste/slow/clarity/mez/charm and gain damage shields and non-charm damage. Losing haste will hurt the ranger, but it's not too hard to find a good haste clicky (the best option for a ranger is the 50% haste clicky from Sky, but Eyepatch of Plunder is also decent). Losing slow is really not a big deal, since your DPS will actually increase on unslowed mobs due to the mage's damage shield. As you mentioned, the loss of clarity isn't a big deal if you can find KEI pretty easily.

In my book, then, the trade is mez and charm from the chanter vs. damage shields and non-charm damage from the mage. If you like charming -- which is good damage but risky and not AFK-friendly -- then I think you'll be happy with the chanter. If you prefer a lower-risk, more AFK-friendly playstyle then mage away.

 

Pretty much this. If you just want to two button macro the mage they'll still pour out the damage. If you want to be actively charming (and focusing on the chanter rather than the ranger or cleric) than overall your top DPS and top tanking trio will be the chanter.

Also, the mage brings much more to a group that already has a chanter or shaman, and definitely more to any raid that already has 2+ enchanters.

 

my main trio is rng/clr/enc. love them, can xp anywhere etc. one thing I run into though now a days is some tougher trioable boss mobs are not doable with the ranger tank. If I could go back I might do pal or war with a Druid and enchanter. And then probably PL a cleric. The Druid/enchanter Both DCing is pretty cool too, with not getting the xp penalty.

 

for boss mobs (or just general killing) you can have the charm pet tank and the ranger do archery and throw a few debuffs so that if charm breaks they get summoned and not the squishies. then, if you really need to you can weapon shield while you get the pet back under control.

edit: on the other hand, with a mage you get coth which combined with ranger snare / root can let you do some mob splitting that would otherwise require classes more specialized into pulling.

 

Yeah if it’s between the two just ask yourself which quality of life you want - easy mode, mage; bigger baddies, enchanter.

Remember that in some select, minor ways a Necro can also split the difference between the two.

 

Im no authority, just opinions. Having duo'd past 50 with 2 hybrids, im sure any of these are fine.

1. Probably a really fun trio but relegating heals to your tank will suck (at least youll have mana regen), managing 2 melees while charming and ccing will also suck. I guess the question is, who is your pilot? If its the pal then you have butt dps, if its the enchanter then you are underutilizing your melee.

2. Super solid crew.

3. Any easy pull camps are fine, outdoors and undead are fine. If things hit the fan you are in trouble. Casters die quick, you have no healer, the necro is your best puller, and before /pet hold root breaks are gonna be a nightmare. Id pet tank and root everything. This is probably a more solid box for a server that doesnt share hate with pets. Great crew if you are grouped with any real tank/healer.

4. This crew just lacks dps

 

I thought about this for a solid 15 minutes and I think you have picked your trios perfectly. I'm not sure everyone realized you wanted to have one of each class and making four functional trios with only two priests is tricky!

1. Will work well as long as you play like a solo enchanter: charm two mobs against each other and when they get low move in with the PAL/RNG to finish them off. You can throw a few spells to make charm breaks easier.
2. Will work fine as well; personally I leveled as a pure MNK/SHM and it would have been much easier with a real tank and snare.
3. As long as you let the pets tank this seems solid enough. Necros are very underrated at splits: just cast Screaming Terror, then run back and FD, zero effort as long as there are only 2!
4. I think you'll have to rely on bard charm to kill anything in reasonable time; IIRC Bard charm lasts a full minute here so I don't see why you couldn't handle a permanent pet

It seems like it would make a lot more sense to level one trio first though so you can twink a bit.

 

My original trio was war/clr/dru, with your same goals. I petered out around level 55, with 10/20 weapons on the warrior because it was just extremely slow.

However, *getting* to 50 was an absolute blast! So I think you're on the right track. I think all 4 trios would be fun to level to 50 together. I'll echo the "#1 has low heals", so be sure to always pacify with the Paladin, and get single pulls.
However, the concern about getting into position with 2 melees can be mitigated by having your puller position the mob, so your second melee can just turn on auto attack. I regularly box 3 melee, and there's a knack to positioning mobs. But it can be worth it.

 

Yessir I will definitely change it up post level 50. But I feel like these are survivable enough to make it there without too many problems. I'm fine playing 2 melee in my first group, like you said I can just position it with my puller pretty easily and turn on auto attack on the ranger. I will not be charming with the ench.

I basically tried to make each group have ALMOST everything. Snare, tank, HP buffs, heals, cc, mana regen, haste, etc.

Group 1's lack of healing can be tolerated by bouncing aggro between the pal + rng as necessary and healing up later because I'll have good mana regen with the ench.