New Pally question [Archive] - EQ2 Forum Archive @ EQ2Wire

Tangogulf

04-05-2010, 12:08 AM

Hi all;Although I purchased my Eq 2 account on opening day, I have played it very little. A friend of mine and I have resubbed and are going to attempt to duo through the content. I have read that the SK and Pally would be the best choice for seeing better content with a duo. Frankly, because I'm so new, I really dont have a clue why that might be. What I do know, is that I have levelled my Berserker (and Pally) to level 10 and enjoy both very much. A few questions:<ol><li>Although I enjoy the berserker, I really would like to see as much content (including group stuff) with the duo as possible. Is a berserker/mystic duo a good choice? Is the pally a better choice?</li><li>Given that I will be tanking and providing some dps in this duo, what AA spec would be best. I think survivability might be the highest priority here? (Note its ok if we kill slow, I'm in no hurry)</li></ol>I think my greatest concern is that I'm going to start something (the berserker) that will not be viable for our duo. As I recall, the last time we left the game is because our duo (I cannot remember the classes involved) was not very viable. Hoping to skip that mistake this time around.Thanks in advance for any and all help.Also posting a similar thread in the Berserker forum

Mortac

04-05-2010, 02:08 PM

I might be able to give you some answers. I am in a similar situation since I duo a lot with a friend of mine. In fact, we pretty much duo everything we come across, including a few raid x2 mobs. I have played a shadowknight, paladin and defiler until lvl 50-60. The defiler was played mainly while healing a berserker, but also a shadowknight for a while.First up, both the shadowknight and paladin are excellent choices for a duo. I'd say they're capable of pretty much the same things, so which one you choose shouldn't really matter. I can say though that the shadowknight has higher DPS and requires less use of mana, but the paladin is a little more group friendly with targettable heals.As for pally vs berserker. Well, I have never played a berserker myself, but I've healed one in a duo on my defiler, and for a while also healed a shadowknight. I have to say that it was a little easier grouping with the shadowknight, partly because while I had a ward up, if he was damaged, he could heal those amounts up while protected from further damage through the ward. It felt more mana efficient overall compared to playing with the berserker and it allowed my defiler to spend more time on debuffs and DPSing. HOWEVER, the difference was pretty minimal and as long as you have one healer and one tank, you can handle pretty much anything. Play what you feel like playing the most, as it really won't matter that much.I do want to mention though; I'm currently playing a paladin and duoing with an illusionist. This works tremendously well. In fact, we don't need a healer. Why? Mainly because he's got awesome crowd control through his messes. This allows us to pick out one mob at a time, while he also provides me with plenty of mana. We can do some pretty amazing things.To conclude, I would say that as long as your friend is set on playing a healer, you can play as any tank you want. With the lack of a proper DPS class, however, perhaps a team of a shadowknight/berserker and an inquisitor would be better, motivated by the fact that berserkers and shadowknights put out more DPS than a paladin and that inquisitors do the most DPS of the healers if you go for the battle cleric AA. In my humble opinion, I think both shadowknights and paladins have more stuff to pull over a bersker when the [Removed for Content] hits the fan, and are also a greater relief to the healer in a duo.As for AAs; select a class and I'll be happy to help you out.

Tangogulf

04-05-2010, 02:40 PM

Mortac thanks for the reply.The same post on the berserker forums also basically told me to go crusader. The one thing that I can say is that I'm not liking the apparent lack of dps being put out by the pally at level 10 anyway. In regard to the SK, this is what most of the forums would say. SK are the way to go. However, I do recall that freeport was somewhat of a slum way back when i played before. I didnt like the look of it...personal preference. Time for me to roll a SK and check out the newer content to see what that is like.If I choose to roll a SK, how hard is it for me to get to my friend? He is currently in the Faydark, would our grouping start at around 20 with the Crushbone instance. Just curious if I'm going to have a hard time getting to him should he be good and I be evil?Thanks again

Mortac

04-06-2010, 07:16 AM

Getting to him isn't going to be difficult at all. If you do go evil, I suggest you make Neriak your home city. Both the starting zone and the city are MUCH nicer than Freeport imo. I hate Freeport too. If you want to meet up with your friend, the simplest way of doing it is this:If you're in Freeport: Go to the bells at the docks in East Freeport, select to go to Antonica. One there, select to travel to Nektulos Forest. Your friend can meet you here, or you can travel further from there to i.e. Thundering Steppes or Butcherblock. One option is also to meet at the Sinking Sands. Also in East Freeport by the docks, but over at the broker instead. Go past the broker towards the ocean. There you'll see a flying carpet on the ground. Click it and it'll take you to the Sinking Sands.If you're in Neriak: You can find the bells and flying carpet in the southwest part of the zone out on the small docks.If you're in Qeynos: Qeynos Harbor has all the bells and the carpet out at the docks (carpet is a little bit further in). He can use the bells to travel to Antonica. From there, he can travel to Thundering Steppes. Either meet there or he uses another bell to go to Nektulos Forest.Now, the thing about the flying carpet and the Sinking Sands is this: Once you arrive there, if you go down to the small tent on the left you will find another flying carpet. If you RIGHT CLICK it (left clicking will bring you to Mai'Dul) it will give you a few options such as traveling to Butcherblock (for around lvl 20s) or to return to one of your home cities.As for good and evil; You guys might have a better time if you're able to walk around in the same cities. I think both good and evil can select Timorous Deep as starting zone (depending on race -- perhaps only neutral races?). The city there is also supposedly alignment neutral (but I hate it almost as much as Kelethin -- it's hard to find your way around the platforms and also give bad famerates). The Neriak starting zone is the most fun one by far though (personal opinion). If you guys wanna group up early on, then meeting up in Timorous Deep around lvl 10 might be a good thing to do.Regarding class choice: Playing a mystic and pally, yes you will be quite short on DPS. I think a shadowknight and inquisitor (with battle cleric AA) would be a more viable combo, however, while paladin DPS is worse than a shadowknight's, if you pick up the right AAs you can still do pretty good dps. Put one point in a couple of the AAs that give you an extra attack and it'll make quite a difference. Just remember that you can only put 50 AA points in the crusader tree until you reach lvl 60 so you might want to plan ahead if you want to be able to grab the special abilities that require 22 points in a tree (48 points total to get 2 of the endline special abilities).In the end though, don't overdo the thought of a combo having to be too perfect. You guys must still choose classes that you enjoy to play, or the whole thing will fall apart before you even begin. No matter which tank and healer you choose, you will still be able to pull a lot off.