A good duo... Zerker and Illusionist?

[Magn3tar]

I will be posting this on the Illusionist forum as well. My girlfriend and I just started playing together and she is running a Illusionist and I am a Zerker.. will this be a good group? So far it seems that her rooting things and casting i'd be best able to use long-distance ranger dps with a bow rather than my lame bow I have right now.Well I won't get into to much depth I just want to make sure her and I arn't running into a trap later in our levels thus wasting all of the time we spent on our duo.Anyone know if there is a known "perfect" duo that can take white heroics ?<div></div>

[nekocat]

2 neco maybe able to  take it<div></div>

[SunT]

<div></div><p>I think you iwll be disappointed.</p><p>Zerk does best DPS aoe and that breaks your CC abilities.</p><p>Neither can heal.</p><p>So you will be limited to what you can burn down before the Zerk runs out of HP.</p><p>Pally/Illusionist is a good duo.  Pally can heal himself.</p><p>Illusionist and any other caster is pretty good, best being a Conj.</p><p>I am just exploring an Illusionist and a Defiler.  I will let you know.  My theory on Illusionist/Healer is a Healer is very hard to kill.  But their DPS sux and they run out of power on big mobs before they die.  So if I add the regen, DPS and stifle the specials and the Defiler slows the mele and crushes the stats of the mob we should do well.  The issue will be aggro.  Not sure that the defiler can maintain aggro.  Maybe a buffed pet can tank a heroic, we will see.</p>

[Pra]

I think zerk/illusionist isn't going to really shine until 28 when you start getting prismatics.  Pretty much any melee class who gets a multipe hits per target is going to be your bread and butter damage delivery at 28.  So far I have been happiest with Brigands/Bruisers, as they do 1 attack that deals multiple hits causing prismatic to go off extra times.  Other melee classes do this also, I probably just haven't had as much opporunity to play with them <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  Illusionists are really lame damage until 28, then they get much better.  All though if your going for just pure damage, warlock/wizzy probably be better.  Hard to deny the utility of the illusionist though!<div></div>

[Impetus]

SunTsu laid out the downsides well, I'll post some upsides.Once you get to about 50 - you'll be getting some more powerful AE abilities around there and your girlfriend will be getting color shower at 50. Then she'll have two different encounter AE DOT spells (one is a stifle, one is an interrupt), along with an AE stun. Then with your very very good AE abilities, plus her prismatic line of spells proccing off your AEs, you should be able to mow through grouped encounters. Single ^^^ will be more difficult, but if you two rotate her stuns with yours, and keep her pet up for a few more, that should work okay.One issue will be how mezzes can be broken by some of your abilities. I'm sure you know by now about some of your stances and buffs that proc AEs. If you go into a situation where you are going to be using mezzes, you'll want to make sure you know which of those stances and buffs can and cannot be used safely. (I'd like to give you a list, but it's been a little while since I've played my berserker.)In short, not the best combination (maybe one of the worst), but there are plusses. I think it goes to show that even some of the craziest duos have some upsides.Edit: obviously if you're just looking to make the best combo, this isn't it. Maybe zerker/conjuror or zerker/warlock would be better, if you wanted to continue the AE theme. Zerker/Fury would be a good tank/healer that can both AE.For Illusionists, the best partners I can think of would be bruiser/monk, paladin, conjuror/necro, wizard, ranger. Possibly brigand.There are lots of duos that can take white heroics, you may want to peruse the main forums for more info on that, seems like there are always some posts up about the topic with lots of people chiming in.<p>Message Edited by Impetus on <span class="date_text">01-25-2006</span><span class="time_text">12:31 PM</span></p>

[Magn3tar]

<div>Thanks so much for all of the input yall. I'm going to start a wizard today and try that duo. Wizard/Illusionist. Should be fun... were not strictly dualing I mean I'll be inviting more and such so when were just runnin around killing single mobs it seems we could mow 'em pretty quickly.</div><div> </div><div>Seems she'll be needing some very good root spells, and i'll just DPS the heck outta whatever comes at me.</div>

[Magn3tar]

<div>On second thought I think a Ranger sounds more fun. a little bit better mitigation there and I've never ran a Rogue before.</div>

[Tarkadal]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>Magn3tar wrote:<div>Thanks so much for all of the input yall. I'm going to start a wizard today and try that duo. Wizard/Illusionist. Should be fun... were not strictly dualing I mean I'll be inviting more and such so when were just runnin around killing single mobs it seems we could mow 'em pretty quickly.</div><div> </div><div>Seems she'll be needing some very good root spells, and i'll just DPS the heck outta whatever comes at me.</div><hr></blockquote><p>Good Luck. That should be a really good duo, I had no problems paired taking out white giants in TS when paired with a wizard after LU13.</p><p>A Wizard's biggest limiter to levelling is power, Illusionist breeze does a good job of counteracting that. The illusionist pet should be great for this kind of duo too, especially since it roots all the time...</p>

[Xalibur]

<div></div><p>wiz / illu works good, i do that often with a friend, we can kill everything that is reasonable <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />. and with illusionists pet(s) you have some sort of 2nd hand tank ready. even if it only takes a few hits <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>

[zit]

<div></div><p>ranger or wiz, both should give a pretty good combo with a chanter.</p><p>good luck.</p>

[Tinnaley]

<div></div><div>I have a 60 illusionist and my husband plays a 60 berserker. While we are able to duo, its not always the greatest pairing.  A lot of his abilities counter mine leaving us both scrambling to try different methods. Once you get a system down, it can be productive for a while. However, we get frustrated a lot and generally end up getting a full group going, or splitting off into our own groups.</div><div>It can be done, just not always very effective. Good luck to you both : o )</div><div> </div><div> </div><div><strong><font face="Comic Sans MS" color="#ff00ff">Lady Tinnaley</font></strong></div><div><strong><font face="Comic Sans MS" color="#ff00ff"></font></strong> </div><div><strong><font face="Comic Sans MS" color="#ff00ff"><Fortitude> Kithicor Server</font></strong></div><div><strong><font face="Comic Sans MS" color="#ff00ff"></font></strong> </div><div><strong><font face="Comic Sans MS" color="#ff00ff">60 Illusionist / 60 Jeweler</font></strong></div><div><strong><font face="Comic Sans MS" color="#ff00ff"></font></strong> </div><div><strong><font face="Comic Sans MS" color="#ff00ff"><a href="http://www.fortitude-guild.com/" target="_blank">www.fortitude-guild.com</a></font></strong></div><div><strong><font face="Comic Sans MS" color="#ff00ff"></font></strong> </div>

[tawek]

<div></div><div>Lots of good advice above.  As always, it depends what you want.</div><div> </div><div>Some duos will never want to do anything but duo.  Others will duo part of the time, but like to add the odd friend in now and then, and when doing a quest that involves killing a really tough named, want to recruit a full group.</div><div> </div><div>If the latter is you, you may like to consider the following:</div><div> </div><div>To form a group you have 3 requirements:  A tank (to taunt damage off the others), and healer to keep tank alive, and dps, to kill the mob.  Generally, dps is fairly easy to get.  Many tanks, and the two druid healers, can switch to produce okay dps, and both scouts and mages are designed to help the party's dps output.  But only 4 classes are decent healers, and only 4 classes are really designed to tank (though in some situations certain scouts can do it okish).</div><div><em><strong>[EDIT: I can't believe I made that typo.  Shows you should always double-check what you write.  As Pinski correctly says below, there are 6 priests and 6 tanks]</strong></em></div><div> </div><div>Most groups that fail to form or break up, do so for lack of a tank or healer.  You'll often see a group advertising something like: "Group of 5 needs healer for CT".</div><div> </div><div>If you have either a healer or a tank in your duo, it'll really help you create your group.  If you have neither, you'll find it harder.</div><div> </div><div>In my opinion, most classes can be fun to duo with an illusionist.  We are such a flexible class, we can fit in with many styles of play.  And if it's not the most efficient, the challenge can make it more fun.</div><div> </div><div>But struggling to pull a group together is frustrating, and not fun.</div><p>Message Edited by tawek21 on <span class="date_text">01-30-2006</span><span class="time_text">09:14 AM</span></p>

[MrDiz]

Well personally I love zerkers. Time it right with prismatics and wow can u do some serious harm out there <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> But for pure DUOin? Well you will have no trouble duoing blue heroics. In fact as an illusionist you can solo blue and white heroics IF you get everything perfect. So in theory some good tactics having a zerker there should make it easier.However another thought for you is do you both like the idea of those classes? If you do I suggest you run with them good or bad. Plus you have a good base to start groups. Any healer will be glad to join a group with a tank and crack, not to mention the fact that zerk/illusionist dps is real nice comboed.

[Pins]

<blockquote><hr>tawek21 wrote:<div>ut only 4 classes are decent healers, and only 4 classes are really designed to tank (though in some situations certain scouts can do it okish).</div><hr></blockquote>Uhm, there's 6 healer classes, and 6 fighter classes. All can do their primary job without any issue. Been to Poet's, with a 52 Warden, killed everything in there without any real issue. Also, all 6 tanks can tank just fine as far as I've seen, even raid mobs.

[DBozLizardman]

<font color="#3399ff">Either druid duos well with illusionist, and as mentioned above Paly/illu is a kickass duo. Some of my best adventures have been paired with a paly. Rangers work pretty well too.</font><div></div>

[Os]

<div></div><p>If you want to duo white con heroics, my best duoing success has been a bruiser/necro. Sometimes on ceratin classes of heroics we can even do yellow 3ups. SK/necro works too but not quite as well since they have less dps than bruisers, therefore I think you could still have some success with a zerker/necro combo. Necros have some great utility and diveristy for different encounters, and do equally well in group or duo... and you can heal at higher levels quite well.</p><p>I've done a ranger/illusionist combo before. Its doable but I can't do heroics well with them. Fury/coercer combo can do blue con heroics. THere are lots of possibilities. I wouldn't worry too much if higher up your duo changes in feel, that is very common. Once you learn to duo well, you can usually duo well with any class... at least to the point your alts can catch up to your mains and you can switch up the combos a bit. Illusionist seem to work great in trios, more so than duos, but who knows maybe someone out there has a great strat!</p>

[Antryg Mistrose]

I've been having a lot of fun dual boxing Paladin/Illusionist over the last few days (low 40's).  It's a very useful duo - you can either AoE, (both have reasonable AoE capability), or if that gets too hard on the paladin's health, mezz all but one mob.Even with my limited familarity and macros, ^^^ even con heroics go down quite quickly and safely.(Then again, I mainly play a templar, so I'm not coming from great dps expectations<span>:smileywink:</span>).<div></div>

[Nephretiti]

<div></div><p>Zerker/Illy duo can be VERY rewarding - I know this as I spent most of my 40's and 50's doing it.  The only thing you got to do is learn the play style of your partner and learn the timing.  IMHO, Bloodline Chronicles is a most excellent place for training to do this...</p><p> </p><p>...complete all of the quests there.</p>

[Domini]

<div></div><p>My wife and I started out duoing with a zerker/mystic combo.  We rose to level 48 and grew tired of our inability to bring mobs down quickly enough to get much xp.  Granted we are regular gamers (not power gamers) and have average equipment and spells.</p><p>After that, we made new characters.  Mine was an Illusionist and hers was Conjurer.  Well, to make a long story short - we couldn't be happier with our choice.</p><p>We still have average spells and equipment, but we can easily bring down yellow ^^^, one after the other.  We are in our mid 50s now.</p><p>With just us, we have:</p><p>Power Regen</p><p>Great AoEs</p><p>Crowd Control</p><p>Good Nukes</p><p>Stuns, Stifles</p><p>Power Debuffs</p><p>Pets upon Pets upon Pets (We each have a pet, and she can cast 2 additional, and I can cast 1 additional)</p><p>Tanking</p><p>Healing (She heals her pet with Master 2 spell which was given to her)</p><p> </p><p>That's my 2c</p>

[Manyak]

<div></div>u ever hear how an illusionist is like the peg leg of the [Removed for Content] group? well a conjuror is really like a small group...he can tank (tank pet), heal (pet heal), and then add in some dps too. So if u think about it, a conjuror is like a really [Removed for Content] group, making the illu a perfect match.