New to EQ2 - 3 Box set up SK, Fury, and ??? Questions about class mechanics

[Tomanator]

<p>Hi there SK community. I have been playing EQ since the begining, and have just got tired of it. I bought EQ2 3 years ago, and played it for 2 months but it didn't snag me in.</p><p>Two night ago, I read an article on how awesome EQ2 is now since it was redisigned and I decided to boot up EQ2 again and try playing it. And well lets just say I am addicted to it. I have since cancelled my 4 EQ accoutns. I read the boards for countless hours and have decided that the best 2 box setup is a Fury and a SK. i decided to go with a 3rd box but I am wondering what class would compliment the Fury/Sk setup I have already started. </p><p>Since EQ2 is extremely diferent then EQ1, I can not determine what class would benefit my setup. In EQ1 I had a BST/PAL/CLERIC set up, I could then Slow, Buff, Tank, and DPS almost anything at a fast rate. I just lacked the pulling ability really. But in EQ2 I dont know what would benefit me the most, as far as I can tell, slowers dont play a critical role in EQ2, or do they? What would compliment me the best in terms of DPS, and in terms of straight domination. I have thought a Warlock/Wizard for their pure destruction and DPS, or Necro for their DOTs, what would help me pull, maybe a Troubador (Bard in EQ was great to pull, slow in short term, help with resists, crowd control, use of Selos line of speed buffs, etc...). </p><p>I just don't know what class would benefit me the most, and I still don't understand the game class mechanics enough to determine what is the diference between the diferent classes yet. Like whats the diference between the shaman class, or the nuke class of Warlock and Wizard other then one being Poison/Disease, and the other being Fire/ice specialist.  Whats the diference between the 2 enchaner classes, and would one benefit my set up in terms of Slows, Haste, minor DPS, and CC.</p><p>Should have I picked a Cleric class instead of the Fury for healing, and then went with a Wizard for the thrird class. Therefore I can still get the benefits of a huge DPS boost, better healing, and bigger HP buffs. Then i would still get the benefit of have having a teleporting class. I really dont even know what bufs stack yet. In EQ a druid HP buff was useless in most situations unless combined with the cleric symbol buff, which was very situational and really not ever asked for unless on a raid. </p><p>Again I have no clue what I am talking about in terms of game mechanics of EQ2. It may be extremely dificult to 3 box, where in EQ1 it was extremely easy. So another question to ask is, what class can I macro in as a 3rd box that i dont have to constantly have to babysit and watch for oportunities and the such in battle. </p><p>Any of your suggestions would be greatly apreaciated. Thanks.</p>

[blackdragon44]

<p>I would go look at the other class forums and see what you think of them. Many classes have one or 2 specific differences between the way the classes are designed. For instances, warlock and mages. Mages use fire and ice type spells where warlocks use disease/poison based (note, the same type of spells SKs use). Mages are the king of single mob dps, where they can bring the huge, single target nukes into play. Now, not to say that warlocks cant do some nice single mob dps, but wizards will outdps them on single mobs. Warlocks shine in group encounters, when they can bring their veriety of pioson based aoe attacks against a group of mobs. </p><p> As for bards, i dont know if i would really choose a bard. They are a good group set up, but if your going to be faming instances, your most likely going to have the fury healing most of the time. So your going to have to rely on the other 2 classes to dps the most. with a bard, your going to be wasting most of their "dps" buffs because you dont have a pure dps class in the group. </p><p> Personally i would go with a warlock. The SKs aoe tanking abilities (they receive alot of aoe style attacks/aura/poisons) will mesh with the warlocks aoeing ability quite nicely, and sense both of your spells are poison/disease base, you both will buff each others attacks. You will have sow from the fury, and ports from both the wizard and the fury. For pulling its really not that hard anymore, learn to body pull, and youll do fine. </p>

[Norrsken]

I would go with a warlock. 2 AE strong classes, heh, even a 3rd in the fury.

[Hugsnkissums]

<p>Well, I can't say how easy 3 boxing is but if it's worse then 2 boxing you're going to have a heck of a time trying to find a clas you can play 33% of the time and not notice the fact you're going back and forth between all three. I'd wouldn't recommend any scout class to fill the last position. They have too many positional attacks and you'd be doing the class a serious injustice to just bot it like that. In my experience, scouts need too much attention on screen in order to really do what they're designed to do. </p><p> I group with an illusionist and warden regularly and I absolutely love what we can do together. For the amount of attention you need, it's hard to beat them as a team. Illusionists just beef your overall magic and melee damage and warden heals are enough to keep you alive through almost anything...save overly amounts of spike damage that you might find in say Emerald Halls or places like that. A fury does have some decent heals but they're more designed to do damage and heal. I have yet to get my SK fully geared out so I can't say what I'm missing out on, but for what I do with those two, I can't say I'd need anyone else in the group other then a warding class.    </p>

[Tomanator]

<p>Would a slower / haster benefit a SK as a third box. Since my only experience to draw from is EQ1, is there a Shamy class that has HP buffs that stack with a clerics buffs, and a Shamy can haste and slow at the same time..etc?</p><p>And since I went and read the other class boards for the last 2 hours, I am wondering if a Zerker and Fury combo would be best. Especially in end game. Everythign I read tends to say that for dual boxing a SK/Fury combo is best, unitl you try to raid in a guild. Once the SK reaches the end game raids the SK utility ends, and it is often tough to find room in raids or guilds. </p><p>What I am afraid of is the EQ1 effect: When Kunark was released it changed the game mechanics for the plate and chain class. Chain classes could no longer tank or off tank to save their lives. Thus in EQ2, as expansions progress and class mechanics are expanded upon we will see a huge damage mitigation diference between the pure tank classes of zerker / guardian compared to that of pally / SK.  </p>

[Solarax]

necro no questions about itcan FD and res as well have multiple pet types and at 55 get a spell to charm undead ( doesnt work on all) that can be used to split mobs or even as a second pet.they are dps and with AA in heals its healing augmentation as well .my next choice would be a conj ( i have 70 necro and 70 conj) and then warlock or wizard ( i also have a wizard)

[Beldin_]

<p>Yeah Necro may be nice. A lot of the damage comes from the pet, so you can just send in the pet and do damge even if you don't have too much time to mash keys on that character.</p><p>On the other hand .. i don't know how good you really can handle 3 characters at the same time .. maybe a warden would be better, because spores are free healing, also if its a melee warden you just send him in autoattack at the start with his fast melee-styles and after that you have often the free healing proc if you spec STR-line. However the fury can also spec that. But warden later also gets the protecting grove that you could place before the fight <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Haapy]

I would suggest a dirge. Sure troub might be better  for spells off your Fury and Sk, but dirge adds some tanking buffs that might make you life easier come harder instances and mobs. Also dirge is desease-based class, complementing your SK wonderfully. You do not even have to play dirge much, just kinda auto-follow and you still do very well. I would suggest for tabbing over for some debuffing (macro) and CoB when it is up. Also Dirge (and troub) is a shoe-in for many raid guilds, which is harder (but by no means impossible) to get in as SK.

[TomRidd]

Three boxing isn't that hard. I wouldn't let it effect your class choice too much. Yes, it's much faster paced than eq1, but if you're quick and confident then it's really no problem to get 3 characters moving efficiently. Lately I've been boxing a bruiser, brigand, and defiler / warden. Even with a scout as my dps i don't have too much trouble keeping all their CAs down waiting to be refreshed.As far as your choices, I'd definitely recommend going straight DPS with your 3rd toon. Bards and enchanters are nice, but I don't think they'd add enough dps to be worth the space. You also need to decide how important ports and / or SoW are to you. I'm still wavering in my final choice for a trio to take to 70. It's hard to pick a combo that has enough utility, dps and includes some raid viable classes for when I hit cap. I imagine any tank is going to be a bit difficult to get into a raiding guild. Certainly some more difficult then others, but traditionally it's one of the harder archtypes to get a spot. Is that what you want to raid with? Have you considered raiding on one of the other two classes in your trio? Chances are you will only be getting a raid spot for one, at least to start. Something to consider. There are lots of nice combos out there. SK Warlock Fury or SK Warlock Inquis would both be nice. Personally I'd go with the inquisitor. You could also try a defiler to emphasize the same debuff line. Zerker is also a great trio tank. Zerker, Swashie, Fury is what I'm thinking about trying out next. The thing I love about boxing Swashies and Brigands is getting invis so early in the game. It's amazingly handy for getting through dungeons and tagging named if you are into that sort of thing. Furies get group invis but it's not till lvl 50 or so. The two rogues get it around lvl 12. Another perk of having a rogue is tracking. I'm not sure I want to make another trio without these utilities. They are just too nice to give up. Although I really want to try some other combos. Try some combos out and see what works for you. I did wizards and warlocks as my DPS chars at first. Then later I switched to the brigand. I've also tried all the healers. Much of it is going to be personal preference. Especially when it comes to healing. I use to think druids would be too button intensive to heal, but once I tried warden, I find them probably the easiest to heal with. They are amazing at healing group dmg, which becomes important once you move beyond two boxing. Some people like wards (shaman) and reactives (clerics) for the ease of healing they offer. They are easy to precast before the fighting even starts.Taking a wizard / warlock will allow you to go non-druid and still have ports. Or, go druid and try any dps you want. In the end, ports aren't super important. Getting around is fairly easy. Another thing you can consider is leveling a druid to 25 just to open portals for you. I do it occasionally. You can log druid in, cast a portal and then log him out. The portal stays up for a minute and is often enough to log your other character in and make it through.If you're definitely interested in raiding. Pick a class or two you want to raid with first. You definitely want to pick classes that are interesting to you and fun. Don't completely base it on something you read on the board. If you are going to stay with the characters, you want them to be fun. Pick a class or two that you think you'd like to raid with and build your trio around those. So many trios are viable to level with that it shouldn't be too hard. What server are you on btw? If you happen to be on Permafrost let me know and I can answer any questions you might have about the game. Could also roll some toons with you and show you around.Good luck.

[ratdeath]

I 2-box with a SK and Necro. But I also play alot with a Warden friend so I have my healing and lately also have an Assassin who squeeks with us.Why did I choose the Necro?Well, I like Necromancers!I also wanted something that would be nice to 2-box.I can use scout or mage pet.Necro's do disease damage, which my SK has a debuff for.Necro also provide a group INT buff which is good for my SK.I like Necromancers.I was also thinking of a Dirge but it's easier with the Necro (or any mage I guess) because you really don't have to think to much about how you position the mob while tanking. But I like necromancers so... <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />