Another Duo recommendation thread!

[kentaris]

Hello all,

My buddy and I have started back EQ after quitting live about 2004 or so..

We have narrowed down what each of us want to play to a few races/classes. I thought I would get opinions on which would be the best duo. Our main goal is to have fun and level without too much downtime. I am married with kids so my play time is limited to 2-3 hour sessions after the kids are in bed.

Player 1 (Me) will be playing one of the following:
Half-Elf Bard (I had a bard on live at about 56th level.)
Troll Shaman
Hafling Druid

Player 2 will be one of the following:
Iksar Necro
Wood elf Bard
Dark elf Enchanter
Halfling Druid

We are new to the server so don't have money for twinking.

Thanks for any suggestions... I would appreciate theories on what type of hunting we would do... (charming,, root rotting, etc.)

[Lhancelot]

Originally Posted by kentaris [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Hello all,

My buddy and I have started back EQ after quitting live about 2004 or so..

We have narrowed down what each of us want to play to a few races/classes. I thought I would get opinions on which would be the best duo. Our main goal is to have fun and level without too much downtime. I am married with kids so my play time is limited to 2-3 hour sessions after the kids are in bed.

Player 1 (Me) will be playing one of the following:
Half-Elf Bard (I had a bard on live at about 56th level.)
Troll Shaman
Hafling Druid

Player 2 will be one of the following:
Iksar Necro
Wood elf Bard
Dark elf Enchanter
Halfling Druid

We are new to the server so don't have money for twinking.

Thanks for any suggestions... I would appreciate theories on what type of hunting we would do... (charming,, root rotting, etc.)

Troll Shaman for you, Iksar Necro for him. Slows from shaman will make you able to duo anything and with necro dps will kill nicely. Necro can summon corpses, rez, FD if the shit hits the fan, etc.

OR...

Troll Shaman you and Enchanter him. Pretty much same as above, only even more powerful with the CC enchanter gets but no summon corpses etc. Enchanter with charms can do anything, with shaman heals and slows/offtank when needed, would work great.

***Too bad neither of you want to do cleric. A cleric with enchanter is simply unstoppable tbh.

****Good thing about enchanter is it's very powerful spells mean you do not need huge twink gears to do well. Can really be nearly naked, and enchanter will do great, just will die a lot due to lack of hps and dumb people breaking mezzes when in groups.

[Endorra]

So easy. You play shaman, he plays enc.

Welcome to the (arguably) strongest duo in the game. Tag team your way around nektulos/ec tunnel early on for the buffs from higher levels. Once you've gotten him up to charming level, you can basically pick your spots. You guys pool your money for spells and cheap CHA gear to power his charm up, and proceed to wipe the floor with pretty much all content up to 60.

[Taiku]

Necro + shaman is one of my favorite duos.

Getting a regeneration spell to counteract necro lich makes grouping much more relaxing, allows necro to throw heals out to counteract the shaman canni, slows are huge, HP buffs in case your necro charm breaks. Shamans are pretty tanky which gives you a bit more time to react and CC with roots / necro mez if things go bad. Just feels really safe.

Edit: But the "best" from your options is probably enchanter + shaman, probably only bested by enchanter + cleric, though I am a fan of necromancer!

[Vexenu]

You: Halfling Druid
Him: Dark Elf Enchanter

They both start within two zones of each other, require very little gear to level, and the two classes synergize incredibly well. Dru/Ench is one of the best leveling duos in the game. Double charm outdoors for massive DPS, Clarity, mez, haste, slow, fear, snare, heals, ports, nukes, DoTs, regen...you've got everything.

Shaman/Ench is also a good duo, but is only better at level 60 vs. high end targets. Dru/Ench wipes the floor with them 1-59 for leveling speed and is overall the much friendlier choice for new players (mostly due to ports and the fact you can adequately gear/spell a Druid for 1/10th the cost of a Shaman or less).

[Qtip]

Shm and ench and no other combo comes close.

[Topgunben]

If you want to have the time of your life and have zero down time, roll monk necro. I know monk isn't on your list, but being able to wipe aggro for the both of you will be invaluable. A monk necro duo will be able to go into the depths of dungeons most other duos wouldn't even consider.

[Baler]

Top three duos on p99. These are proven time and time again. People will argue about their order and positioning but this is how it is..

#1 - Cleric + Enchanter - Strongest duo in the game. Complete Heal is just so strong especially combined with a charmed monster pet. Cleric has an invulnerability spell and a cheat death spell. Enchanter's clarity will keep the cleric nice on mana. Enchanter also has rune(damage absorb) spells for the duo.

#2 - Shaman + Echanter - Similar to the first one but replace complete heal with torpor and more buffing spells. These two have a lot of overlapping spells but that is most certainly not a bad thing. Where they don't overlap is what makes these two shine together so well.

#3 - Shaman + Monk - Arguably one of the strongest duos these two classes play off each other superbly and allow them to tackle very challenging content. Monk's feign death combined with shaman buffage is some serious melee killing power.

I'm not asking I am telling. These are the three strongest duos in terms of min/max meta.

---
However if you're not planning on being a duo god taking down the biggest baddest targets. Play what ever you think is fun! Seriously there is no reason to be unhappy in the long run.

From your list.
I'll give another +1 for troll shaman + iksar necro though don't expect to feel unique as you traverse the world. These two are very popular classes. at ~lvl 12 you both can do very well in kurns tower. be sure to bring necessary shaman spells with you before you leave the swamp. Necro and Shaman can feed each other life/mana.

I strongly encourage one of you to level a druid so you can port your duo around. One person logs on druid to port and the other logs on char 1 gets ported, logs off, logs on char 2 and gets ported. It's extremely useful, Or if one of the characters needs to go turn in a quest or just needs a ride before the other player goes afk. Having an alt druid in a friendship is super, super helpful.

Ignore Lhancelot

[Shodo]

Really any combination of those classes (including 2 druids or 2 bards) will let you keep the grind moving steadily with little downtime, so if that's all you're worried about then don't sweat it. But if you would like to also be able to tackle some nice cash camps later on (very helpful for new players) I'd go with shm/enc or shm/nec as recommended above.

[Barlu]

As most have already said already Shaman and Enchanter would be by far the strongest combo. With that being said I found an untwinked Shaman to be a bit underwhelming at low levels. They are also the most expensive class in the game to gear up at 60.

Two classes that are very cheap to gear up and still would be effective would be the Enchanter and Druid duo. Charisma Gear is very cheap and easy to come by for the Chanter. I've done this duo a good amount of time and found it very effective at lower levels but will become less powerful as you get 40+.

Also your play time schedules and wanting to group with your buddy sounds a lot like what I try to do. Having the Druid being able to port is huge when you only have a short period of time to play. If something is camped you can just port out and go somewhere else and you both don't have to keep your toons parked in the same spot.