EZ Server

Heya folks!

Just started playing here, and im trying to put together a nice, solid three box to take me through as much content as possible before I have to toss anything else into the mix.

So far Im sporting a pally with his 3.0, around 30aa's, and maybe 20k plat. While running through the ldons, I managed to snag about 1100 points for him as well.

Currently im building a shaman for some spirit of the panther pleveling to bring whatever I need up to 47 so I can dump them into POFire.

SO! All that said, what are some suggestions for the other two classes, keeping in mind that I have little to no resources at my disposal to get my jumpstart here?

And after those three are sufficiently geared, what should I add as a possible filler for the other two slots?

How do you only have 30AAs and 3.... nm lol.  Only seen two guys in your post unless I'm reading it wrong a Pally and a Shaman, Used a shaman box myself quite a bit early on the epic buff helps immensely while still getting geared up.

ATM, I use War, Pal, Cleric, Monk, Necro, Rogue in my main team and its carried me to t3+ so far.

Two generous late night players (Teikashi & Ereous) gave me a pretty big leg up after watching me struggle along with a bard as a first character here. The result being only 30 aa's with a 3.0 :P

The paladin from what they explained it to me is a wonderful tank/heal base. Ill be using the shaman only as a buffbot to powerlevel the other two in my core progression trio along with the pally.

As for the epic buff, what do the clickies do at each level, and whats the recast on it? (Pain to find without an alla clone)

In my opinion if you are just starting out I would go war, pal, brd. They all offer high benefits in the early game around 3.0. War gets ae augs cheap (drop in pod) pal heals and brd offers massive dps with 3.0 and ds which you can pl 0 to 47 and use war 47 to 70. Brd is one of top dps with maxed augs charm, behind pure dps but not much. That group will allow you to get up through HoH and UC yourself. You would need to add a cleric or another paly to get past that point. From there you could add dps, I would go bst as the pet offers good dps before you get to the point where you can buy / make augs.

Wouldnt a warrior have issues keeping his health up during mass pulls to power my toons from 47-70?

So far Ive actually had a Pal/Sk/Necro setup suggeted to me, as they all lifetap and self/group heal. Ive also heard that beastlords or rangers can replace the necro dps with a pet.

What concerns me is that the melee classes being suggested so far are going to cost me millions in plat to get them auged up, which I definitely dont have at this point.

The warrior with ae augs will be the highest dps tank before you get to the point where you can get the pure dps augs. Also by the time you get the ae augs you will be close to full t2 and can pull most of the front fire area without heals (should have sorc charm 11).

Well I am home now and it is easier to type :).
I currently box 18 char at once, but I started with 6. 2 war, 2 ran, 2 clr. When I got to T1 and spawned Ptah who procs a mean slow I decided to add 2 paly's as their procs cure and heal. today I box, 2 war, 3 pal, 2 mnk, rng, brd, mag, 2 clr, bst, ber, wiz, shm, enc, dru. I just added the Wiz, Bst and Zerker this weekend so cant comment too much but I am a fan of AE. You can plow so much faster, most my char are full t3 some t4, main war is UC RoA100 and full augs.

I dont play a shd but their dps with UC and augs up to V is on par with the paly so why not just add another paly and heal the whole groups vs himself. Same goes for the necro. Necro is good and can solo with a epic 4.0 t2 named (not positive past that) but pets die too fast after than hence why I suggested a bst, his pet is better dps than necro and when you get to the point of adding dps augs will far out dps a necro.

Maybe Xiggie or someone will chime in with more experience but If I were to start over and do just 6 man I would probably do war, pal, pal, brd, bst, ber. You wont kill mcp (epic 4.0) with that group until you are well past it or all UC'd but you could just buy the books :)

Well you want to look at your group and just basically cover all roles. Tank, off tank, healer and dps. There is a soft cap an ac somewhere between qvic and t1 so don't even bother considering that. Some classes can multi role making them an obvious choice for your group. You also need to consider your fun class. What class you enjoy playing. Hopefully you like playing something that will be beneficial to your group.

Tank and off tank can be warrior, paladin or SK. Warrior is good because they end up with more hp and that by itself makes them more valuable as a tank than any other class. Your aoe that comes from your anger V augs makes them very very cheap dps for your group. Another added bonus for warriors is being able to afk tank. While you are micro managing your group your warriors hate IV and V augs will ensure that all the mobs stay on him. The Stonewall they get from the 4.0 and disc is a very nice part of their class as well. Paladins also make great tanks, especially when they are UC'd. Their paladin stonewall that they get from t3 or t4 mobs is absolutely wonderful with a UC. The mana drain that it has is negated by the mana regen you have on your gear and the UC. You basically have a permanent stonewall you are able to keep up. One of the biggest benefits of the Paladin is the multi role. They can tank, and they are wonderful afk healers/curers.  Their proc heals are pretty well regular enough you keep you healed. Sk's are pretty good because of their life-taps. Their life-taps are really really nice. The deal breaker for me though is they lack group benefits.  Personally I recommend a warrior for your main tank and 2 paladins for your off tank.

Though your paladins take care of your heals I also think it is a good idea to have a good old fashioned cleric in your group. To be sure, shamans and druids can not even begin to compare in the heals dept with clerics. A lot of people leave out the cleric. While you can get pretty far without a cleric you will eventually need it.

So far with my recommendations you have a war/pal/pal/cleric. For the last 2 members your dps comes in. I am not overly fond of pets in my main group. If the mob gets turned or gets off a lucky ramp your pet is toast. However, I did have a pet class in my group for good cheap dps until I rounded out my melee dps classes. I went with mage, but I created mine before bst had their pets and before necros pets were made so resilient. The bst is very very superior in the way of dps. The pet does more dps than any other pet and the bst himself does dps comparable with other melee dps. The pets do tend to be a bit fragile though. Mage dps, well honestly the only benefit to making your pet class a mage is that they can coth. They do get some pretty nice nukes in t3/4 though that make them pretty damn good dps as well. The necro does the least amount of dps. Your dots, even with a uc can not even start to compare with the bst and mage pc dps. However because of the necro pet taps they are the most resilient pets. I personally would chose bst if you plan to make a pet class a permanent part of your group and necro if you plan to eventually swap the pet class out for a melee.

For melee dps you have bards, monks, rogues and zerkers. Full V augs, 4.0 and uc'd they are all going to be between 60 and 78k dps sustained, single target. Zerkers get an aoe proc on their 4.0+ so they would prolly out do other classes in the right conditions. Rogues can bs for a mil or so if they get lucky. That only happens if they get a max triple so basically you are looking at once every 5th tuesay in february. Bards are a solid 65k. The ds that they offer is nominal unless you are pl'ing, nearly every class is at the minimum delay (10) by the time they have their 3.0 and t2 bp and their proc songs are not effected by UC. If you like the bard though, 65k dps is nothing to be ashamed of at all. Monks do 78k dps consistently. My monks are usually my last classes to die, they are very resilient.

Xiggie prettty much covers it.  Nice post, Xig.

This Sir is incorrect. There proc songs are affected by a UC. A melee class with out a UC crits for 200... A melee class with a UC Crits for 800. This may seem like a low number but it does add up.

What is this bard you speak of? ???

I personally box 5 enchanters and a druid /nod

damn I thought I was the only one running 5Enc 1 Druid...

SHHH!!!

Don't be tellin everyone our leet secrets!

Then that is a recent change because it wasn't for a long time. Need to reparse my toons with and without bard songs sometime soon.

Xiggie is a RL bard btw

I know I have to mute him in vent some times.. He keeps singing Nsync and Backstreet boys.

It's always "BYE BYE BYE" The sad thing is it sounds like he is dancing also  :-\

I'm pretty sure he is shuffling..

As much as I like my SK, if you are only going to play 3 boxes I think you would be best served by a team of PAL / WAR / CLR for all the reasons Xiggie denoted, as well as the higher survivability of all 3 individually and collectively.  I would raise them in that order also.. pally, warrior, cleric.

My personal experience has been that it was *probably* faster to raise my main first, then the alts.  I say probably because I only have a gut level feeling and the knowledge that each succeeding toon took significantly less time to make and gear than the subsequent ones and because I have not tried raising 3 toons at once.

Skeezy Ratty Troll

Alrighty, so Im slowly building my team at the moment. So far, Im using a pally (3.0, qvic geared), and the rogue is now at the same level. With the dual 3.0's the rogue in now rockin, hes backstabbing for 17k ish. Ive managed to solve my aggro issues with the jolt spell after being flamed in ooc for not knowing.

The third box, for now, is an open slot. With as quickly as the pallys health bounces up and down while hes tanking qvic and upwards, I dont believe the cleric is a good idea, as I never know when his hp will refill from weapon procs to full. It sounds like it would almost be a waste of mana. So for right now, slot three is a toss up between Monk, bst, or ranger. Im skirting tossing in a second pally at the moment, as Im wanting survivable dps more than anything (i.e., no glass cannons).

I've had a very good luck with Warrior... Pally would be healing him with procs while War would tank. In PoD you will get some free are Agro/DMG augs that will later allow you to plow through PoD and below quite easily...In fact with a pally healing i would. Warrior also will have higher HP than any other class of same level and will get stonewall, which is indispensable in tougher zones.

So, my 6 team building is pal mnk bst rog zerk wiz

I started with just the pal knowing his solo-ability is phenomenal. Then added BST then MNK then ROG (wanting more dps) and finally zer/wiz at the same time.

Put some extra focus on the PAL for now and your dps bots can be what you want to play.

Get your PAL the 3.0 and he will  (with dps bots) be fine through t2 content. T3+ content gets a bit more complicated and I have not yet figured out how my group will handle quad 80k hits...yet. Buy as many t3/t4 pieces for your PAL as you can. With 150k hps, my pal can tank most of the t3 bosses but it gets a bit scary. 

If you are going to just 3 box for now - of the choices you mentioned - the bst sounds like the best fit. They are a bit of maintenance, but giving the pet a pal/rog epic makes them fun, easy to level, and useful (until you get casters guild & 3.0). That bst pet is scary!

Look up the Banes in game and I can try and help you along.

(Emphasis added)

Don't skirt it, dive in.  The bottom line is your dps=0 during corpse recovery.  A second pally here is a belt to go with the suspenders of your first pally to keep yer arse from showing up in front of the buffbot!  :D

Skeezy Ratty Troll

Ive managed to bump my pally and rogue in gear to full qvic, a few pieces of tacvi, and two t1 pieces on the pal. I started a BST, and he's got his two 3.0s now.

Im thinking that the next two to fold into the pack are pally #2, and a monk for added DPS. Right now, the only thing that gives me trouble in POD are the bosses that summon adds. At that point, I fall over like a wet paper bag with only 23k hp *sadface*.

Amen, Skeezy. Survivability is #1. Another option (In Skeezy's honor) would be a SK to compliment your paladin, as the SK would tank and you'd still get double heal action going on (and in T4 you wouldnt be going for 2x Mithaniel Marr armor and 2x the pally T3/T4 spells. Just a thought).

Necro, Mage, Warrior, Cleric, Paladin x 2

AND with an SK tank, you don't have to worry about dual wielding epics... oh lord, that is going to suck for my monk, beast, and rogue.

I go with WAR/WAR/PAL/CLR/NEC/RNG.  Cant ditch the RNG since I played one on live and love the class.  If im doing a T3 boss I add in a MNK/MAG/SHM/CLR/PAL and bog my pc down really badly.  Even with all those toons I still cant take on the T3 chest mob.   My MT drops pretty quickly.

Drop the Ranger or Nerco for another pally

Really? I would drop the 2nd WAR and swap in the PAL. Necro is nice DPS, no? I'm not up there with my own crew yet but I haven't seen many armies with 2x WAR.

When I am doing t3/t4 as support, typically the MT has 2x PAL in group (minimum, sometimes 3)- haven't needed a cleric for any of the bosses, including MCP (which basically requires MT, OT, designated rezzer, and massive DPS).

War, Pal, Nec, Rng, Mage, Cleric

Been in T5 for a few days and am learning my UC, ROA100, full T4 with 2X 4.0 Warrior should have been a second Paladin.

4.0 pets die alot too so am in the process of raising up said second Paladin with a Rogue and Monk.

If you had a cleric on MCP then you wouldnt need a OT.

For armies without a full t4+ tank having only 175k hps, when MCP or Warlord triples (or quads) at 80k - you are dead before anyone can heal you.

Although, I haven't used a cleric (ever) and don't know their healing capabilities. Seems to me that 2 4.0 PALs with level 20 oracle can heal 32k per swing (combined) and do so with double/triple attacks, etc and that feels more efficient than a single toon casting one spell. Then again - i am talking out my arse 'cause I don't know what a cleric can do.

Clerics cast divine intervention which allows the tank to live rather than be killed and it is on a 1.5 minute cooldown. Also clerics 4.0 procs heals that heal for as much as a pallies. Also im sure you've noticed times where the tank just sits at 30% or what ever for a few rounds and just doesn't get picked up by procs. That is where clerics instant cast gheal comes into play. I just recently killed my first warlord w/ a pally/cleric/mage/necro/monk/shaman and my pally was almost full t3 missing helm/boots as the MT because perma stonewall is stupid good.

On a side note procs only happen once per round so it doesn't matter if something doubles or singles, but pallies do get AA to make them proc more.

small edit about clerics: starting at cleric 3.5 they get a targeted  30 second w/ 1 minute cooldown stonewall.