Iksar SK & Barb Sham Duo
 

Would it be too difficult to for a duo Iksar Shadowknight and Barbarian Shaman to level together?

I would say not to do it. One of my favorite characters is my Iksar SK, but with the 68% XP penalty you will be falling further and further behind the Shaman level wise. Now maybe a Iksar Monk but even they have a 44% penalty.

When Velious comes out after a few months the penalty will drop a bunch, but until then not the best idea. :(

Ignore the XP penalty and enjoy the journey.

If you can get the barbarian to Kunark to level together its totally doable to do 1-60 Kunark if you wanted (SK would buy the shammy's spells in Cabilis etc) ;)

should iksar/iksar IMO

shaman would be much happier if he had regen, dont wait until its too late to realize it

also do it on red99 not blue

It's a decent leveling duo but not a great one. I wouldn't recommend trying it if you're not geared. SK puts out very little DPS and doesn't tank that much better than a monk except for agro management. If you're both patient and ok with watching monks run circles around your SK, you'll be okay. Honestly paladins and SK's should trade reputations with rangers.

As long as you level together all the time, the iksar SK will never fall behind the shaman. That's more realistic for some people than others.

As much as I love iksar shamans (I play one), this is a duo that would really benefit from JBB 45-60, because of the SK's shit dps.

What they said.

Also, this is a game, not a math assignment, and the point of playing games isn't to do everything the most mathematically efficient way possible, it's to have fun. If you're both completely ambivalent about what class to play there are plenty of threads here on what the ideal duo is, but if you actually have classes you want to play then play them! Shadowknight/Shaman is a pretty decent combo; not quite as powerful as Monk/Shaman, but still very viable (and a heck of a lot better than say Wizard/Shaman).

Plus, if you ever want to start forming trios or groups you'll be all set because you'll already have two of the key pieces: the tank and the slower. Just grab a cleric and any DPS classes you can find and you'll be set ... or even if you can't find a cleric, grab almost any class, make the Shaman heal, and you'll have a viable trio.

Too far away from each other. I would do closer like ogre/ogre troll/troll barb/human ogre/troll. For this too work you have to get a druid to port the barb to dreadlands run to kc evac you to ej and bind him at city in FoB. If you pick any of the combos I listed its pretty much 1 to 2 zones away from each other.

SK/SHM really good combo, will have a lot of fun with DoTs and FD splitting mobs deep in dungeons.

Jbb doesnt really get as much play in non solo as people think. Ur keeping buffs up on u teammates and u r pet and slowing/ canni dancing. U cannot jbb and med at same time...

Don't make race decision on 1 item.