Duo + magician in trio advice

[Boffinboy]

Hi All

I used to play EQ until PoP came out, and after UO it was my truly formative MMO experience! I used to have a gnome necro, lots of soloing, and also duoing with my brother - a gnome mage.

My wife now games with me and I was thinking of us both joining and playing P99. My brother has started on the server as a magician, but will likely be a few levels below us as he has less time to play.

I am thinking I would like to be an iksar necro, as I just love the viability of solo necros, or maybe go for an enchanter for a change - was always attracted to the cool things they can do.

I also used to run an iksar monk-shaman duo together with my brother, which worked well but the monk wasn't great solo.

I am wondering if an iksar necro + shaman duo would synergise reasonably well with regen, pets and haste etc.?

I think enchanter would be really cool, but I am not sure how they work in solo + duo setup with the other classes that we're kicking around.

Criteria are:

Classes must work well as duo
Classes should also be able to solo reasonably well
One class should be relatively "simple" to play (my wife has only played GW2, and is not a real MMO vet...)
Magician should be able to join in as well for a decent trio
Duo should ideally not be too niche so as to have trouble grouping (i know necros aren't super-loved group wise)


Sorry for the random thoughts, but thought it would be good to hear what others think too!

[Grombar]

Alot of people will say Ench/ Cleric.

Im going to say SK/Cleric. Yeah yeah, you might take a bit to kill things. On the up side the SK is puller/ tank/ Corpse recovery/ utility DPS for groups. Add the cleric and you really have a good nucleolus of a group and can just add 4 other classes.

SK is more complicated to play, and the cleric is pretty easy and strait foward.

Could swap either toon for any tank/ healer combo, if they are more your play style

[azeth]

ench necro magician combo is pretty elite, but with velious mobs HP the ench would be relied on to charm and use that pet to tank

[Tenlaar]

I'd say enchanter for you and shaman for her. Your charmed pets with her buffing/slowing/healing/eventually pet will make a highly effective duo, a very solid trio with the magician, and you have the basis for a full group by just pulling in a tank and dps/cleric/whatevs.

[Bristlebard]

Yeah, I like the idea of enchanter with her as the sham instead of necro. Shaman CAN be a pretty busy and complicated/important class in a small group... and a chanter with clarity and superior CC can help reduce the load on the shaman's shoulders.

[Tenlaar]

It is true that shaman can get complicated, but the good thing is that it starts off slow and builds up to that. For the first 40+ levels she can be focused on heals/slows/buffs and an occasional DoT/DD, with the enchanter there for CC and a mage around sometimes for the DPS. Also, the canni routine might help keep somebody who doesn't have experience with EQ's slower pace from getting kind of bored.

[Boffinboy]

Thanks guys, really useful advice to mull over. Need to get the game downloaded!

I'm assuming chanter soloing is mostly charm then burn down the charmed mob once first mob is dead? Never played one at all! What do most people choose for spell specialization?

Seems like ench, magician and shaman could work well. Though I do worry I'll miss my old necro fear-kite ways. Now to think about races... what's the easiest shaman to get near chanter?

[Errakus]

Enchanter / Cleric, have her play cleric and the Malo from Mage will help on charm breaks. CH from cleric is extremely efficient.

[maskedmelon]

Thanks guys, really useful advice to mull over. Need to get the game downloaded!

I'm assuming chanter soloing is mostly charm then burn down the charmed mob once first mob is dead? Never played one at all! What do most people choose for spell specialization?

Seems like ench, magician and shaman could work well. Though I do worry I'll miss my old necro fear-kite ways. Now to think about races... what's the easiest shaman to get near chanter?

Troll/Ogre are closer to most, though rolling an erudite it wouldn't be too difficult to get to ever frost since enc get invis at 4. That is probably what I would recommend, because your wife probably is not keen on the ugly races... I know I'm not ^^

[Errakus]

Shaman heals kinda suck till Torpor which is a 100k spell

Chanter soloing, you make your pet fight the other, which you root... You invis yourself when your pet it low then nuke your pet for 100% exp and do the same with the other.

Rinse repeat for solo, with cleric you can buff your pet and cleric can CH. I would not advise having someone play Enchanter as a first character. It is, in my opinion, the most difficult caster in Everquest.

[Boffinboy]

Thanks all. Will mull it over, seems like cleric-chanter could be a good option too, with cleric potentially more straightforward than shaman, though potentially more boring for someone not used to the old EQ ways.... Does have the advantage that we can just roll HE then.

[Bodybagger]

Shaman heals are fine... inner fire sitting/dancing med ticks is like a pocket fungi 1-20, and efficient enough with an enchanter slowing, plus with pet tank you are wanting the tank to take lots of damage anyways. Enchanter also provides supreme CC so no real need for tons of healing like with other combos. Between slow and CC, and pets, you're golden on dmg mitigation and healing needs really.

If you love necro play a necro and it'll synergize with shaman great... so much root rot ability, and fear kiting with sham and mage would be fun too, 3 pets wailing on feared mobs

Picking based on velious is stupid, pick based on what you enjoy not end game. All race/classes played every single expansion in the game. Hardly anyone min/maxed, and we all got by just fine. Ignore the nerds.

Troll is best shaman with an easy quest for clinging darkness clicky necklace, and innate regen though, if she'll enjoy playing one. Alternatively, Barbarian get spiritist hammer for an affordable hard hitting melee weapon to joust with between slow and pet tanks, and get free armor drops when rotting if you hang around KC with Jarsath set... iksar can wear too though and still get regen.

Troll>iksar>Barb>Ogre imo... troll gets better armor and regen, iksar regen and quest gear is nice plus innate ac bonus if you care, barb looks awesome and lastly ogre has the super overated frontal stun immunity, which hardly matters with slowed mobs. Also if you have an enchanter and shaman you have not only slowed mobs but stuns... you take a combat round like ever other minute lol, hands down best mitigation in the game!

Sword and board + cleric is boring as fack but if that's all your girl wants to do is play a healbot, it definitely works. It can be fun in full group... but with trio you envisioned, it won't be much fun I reckon

[Malone88]

Seems like ench, magician and shaman could work well. Though I do worry I'll miss my old necro fear-kite ways. Now to think about races... what's the easiest shaman to get near chanter?
Ogre or Troll Shaman close enough to DE Chanter (Neriak).
Chanter + any healer class is excellent.
Mage great addition to chanter/shaman duo.

Good luck!

[Fishbait]

From personal experience, if you want to go a melee/heal class I would definitely say Monk/Shaman would be the way to go, mage with you would be icing on the cake for extra damage. My friend and I duo'd a Monk/Cleric fresh to the server to 35, but that started to take it's toll, not being able to slow mobs later on should not be under estimated. Also became mind numbingly boring.

Will re-iterate to choose a monk if you go the melee route, they are extremely inexpensive to gear, you could get by with only spending 500 platinum on gear for the first 40+ levels and the Shaman takes care of the haste/slow later on.

That said, we ended up rolling a Necro/Mage combo which has been very strong, the issue we eventually ran into is not if we can kill mobs, it's can we find a spot where we can chain pull mobs non-stop efficiently. Post 34 it has been a blur of xp, we have zero down time and constantly have a graveyard of mobs at our spot.

These characters also are extremely inexpensive to gear, we basically did 1-45 each wearing under 1k platinum worth of gear. This combo has a lot of diversity for pet tanking or fear kiting.

Grouping...eh, not the best characters to plug and play into any group situation, but to be honest, it's more hassle and less xp to form or join a group if you have a strong duo/trio.

[Bodybagger]

DE chanter+troll sham = glorious combo imo, and if the mage can join in even better. Could level in uguk form 5-30 quick and easy and even beyond with LGuk, and nice items abound as well. With mage in tow, you'd be a powerhouse trio, and SoW'ed runs to FP for spells aren't bad for casters... plus Uguk one of richest loot whore newb areas in game, easily afford spells for everyone just from troll looting and selling with full inventory of backpacks full of vender fodder. My SK solo did probably 2.5k plat in junk loot to vendors only. DE can also bank in grobb, so can just buy all spells and keep in bank or bags to save on running.

[Bodybagger]

and as for the tag end of fishbaits comment, mage is one of the most efficient constant DPS sources for grouping around, and necro is solid dps and great utility class when played to full effect with ability to charge mana, spot heal, help with CC, etc. They can do almost anything in game... Necro, Bard, and Ench are probably the 3 most versatile classes in game and Ench and Shaman and Bard probably 3 best utility classes unless you count porting

[Boffinboy]

Hmm, so much to think through! Will discuss and then give it a go :) I think I'll try enchanter and then if I am not keen on it go for necro, since it's mostly about the nostalgia!

Now to get the game sorted and request a multi-login for my IP!

[maskedmelon]

Yep, that is what it all comes down to: fun ^^ good luck Boffs!

[Bodybagger]

Be sure you select Red P99 at server select not blue, maximum fun mode and speedy leveling blast for yall.... seriously, the 2-3 of you with 2-3 hours played 4-5 days a week could do lvl 5-30+ in the first week easy =)