Rogue - Best Duo Partner?

[Wenuven]

XP wise, duoing with a druid on my Rogue is the best xp I've ever gotten in EQ (sans bard AE).

Mind you, this tapers off at 50+ and is useless for farming high-end dungeons.

But if you want to get from 1-50 very quickly as a rogue with a duo partner, Druid wins no question. Necro is a close second; lacks some handy utility (sow is a big one), but can add a little extra dps with pet.

[Bodybagger]

Rogue is best partner for a Rogue. Aggro swapping trading backstabs and, using hide to drop agro, engulfing darkness procs+intimidation, poisons, etc. Seriously underated combo. Can also travel through lots of areas together hide/sneaked

waiting for casters to med gets old, chasing mobs sucks.

Monk/Warrior/Pal/SK/Ranger, any melee is better to duo with honestly, at least for leveling purposes to get to 50+ content without relying on groups at all times. When people say duo I assume they mean leveling with a friend mostly.

[brecon]

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

Monk/Warrior/Pal/SK/Ranger, any melee is better to duo with honestly, at least for leveling purposes to get to 50+ content without relying on groups at all times. When people say duo I assume they mean leveling with a friend mostly.

If that's the approach you're taking, then Bard is your man. Aggro/snare kite mana free after min 20s, fear kite mana free, regen song for downtime, selos for speed, group haste and group dots. The Bard could also just AOE kite and the rogue could soak, but there's no fun in that.

[stakha]

I won't believe any bard who says he is enjoying the game if he is aoe kiting. Seems many who level this way (predominately) don't learn how to play their classes either.

[Bodybagger]

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

If that's the approach you're taking, then Bard is your man. Aggro/snare kite mana free after min 20s, fear kite mana free, regen song for downtime, selos for speed, group haste and group dots. The Bard could also just AOE kite and the rogue could soak, but there's no fun in that.

again complements only one class honestly... barely increases bards efficiency having rogue there, and rogue is chasing. that shit sucks. not a fun way to level honestly.

better off with a class that can deal good melee dmg and agro swap with rogue. I've done it countless times with every class combination and rogue-rogue or rogue-monk are probably the most fun. Rogue Sk is good too, and rogue pal/war can be fun enough

Rogue/Rogue is just nuts in practice though... the kill speed is unmatched by any duo sub lvl 40 probably... nevermind if you both had epics [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Macha]

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

again complements only one class honestly... barely increases bards efficiency having rogue there, and rogue is chasing. that shit sucks. not a fun way to level honestly.

Heh, neither is running around in a circle ad nauseam :P
I've AE kited a bard up to 26, it's cool to get such fast xp but it's not necessarily fun. Also you have to worry about over camped zones (Overthere!) and people complaining about you stealing all the mobs, which is a legitimate complaint. It can also be frustrating if you make one tiny mistake, you're dead and lose all the time it took you to pull and run/dot. Ehh, I digress...

My bro has a 46 bard and he's plvled me a few times using snare/fear and it was pretty fast experience and not annoying or difficult either. Bard's snare is really good so I don't have to try very hard to stay within melee range.

I agree though, two Rogues will obviously deal the most *sustained* damage in a duo but I don't see anything working except intimidate/SBDSnare. Without a Fungi and other really nice gear, I'm basically a glass cannon. I don't see how two Rogues could swap aggro and tank a blue mob unless I'm missing something here. It seems they'd both be low hp after 1 or 2 pulls.
I will pick up a SBD and give intimidate/snare a try though [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] once I get the hang of that, I'll look for other Rogues. My guess is that you sneak up to a mob and intimidate such that you don't ever get aggro?

Last thing, my Rogue will hit 41 tonight so if anyone is interested in duo-ing or trio-ing that is also around this level, shoot me a PM! I have 223 unbuffed Str and my epic!

I am really interested in Monk/Sham/Rogue for Solb, CoM, or Lguk!

[brecon]

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

again complements only one class honestly... barely increases bards efficiency having rogue there, and rogue is chasing. that shit sucks. not a fun way to level honestly.

better off with a class that can deal good melee dmg and agro swap with rogue. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Bard can tank, especially with slow and regen song, effectively through the 30s. Somewhere in the 40s is where they fall off, and their slows don't keep up. You also have the option to snare, fear, or aggro kite like a druid, which was the point of this response.

Two rogues are gonna have a heck of a time pulling singles, and they don't mitigate well. This isn't a viable strategy past early-mid 30s unless you are trying to fear kite.

I think the real answer is a shaman that slow tanks, and the rogue just wails on it. I slow-tanked all the way through CoM without a problem and without a fungi, usually with just a rogue or monk duo partner.

[Cecily]

I had forgotten about wolf pack rogue groups. Again, it works best in a trio, but all rogue parties are really fun. I did a three rogue group for oasis orc highway and again at nobles in Sol B, that time with three epic rogues. In both cases the mobs just melted.

You need to arrange yourselves in a triangle formation, in such a way that 2 rogues will always have the back regardless of who has agro. It's good to establish a BS rotation too. Rogue #3 pulls with range, Rogue #1 backstabs, Rogue # 2 backstabs, Rogue #3 backstabs and tanks until Rogue #1's BS refreshes.

The first rotation happens in about a second and takes a huge chunk of the mob's HP with it. After that point it gets a little more chaotic because aggro won't play nice, but 3 rogues is 3 rogues. Makes for a fun group dynamic and I highly suggest you have a rogue threesome at least once.

[Tuljin]

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

I won't believe any bard who says he is enjoying the game if he is aoe kiting. Seems many who level this way (predominately) don't learn how to play their classes either.

Astute observation, my friend! Really hit that nail on the head.

The big bottleneck with a rog/rog duo or even rog/rog/rog is lack of heals. No other class besides Paladin makes a dungeon duo viable Pal/Rog. Paladin is the rarest class on the server, and its definitely tough to find them out in the wild.

The main point of the Pal/Rog duo (past level 30 especially) is the caster mitigation. You can go into dungeons with heady XP and single pull/root split mobs all day, including casters. Monk/Rog requires a healer, and even still without stopping those spells Festering Hags are very nasty.

A big point that people forget to consider is the lower HP pool of caster mobs. Unrest basement, for example, low-mid 30s can be completely raped by Pal/Rog. The Hags drop like nothing, and with spells getting knocked out handily they aren't even much of a threat. Hags can even be soloed by Paladin - with a little bit of butthole clenching from time to time :P

Moving on to late 30s you can hit Mistmoore Castle - which is full of dangerous mobs, however Paladin makes them a joke. And again caster mobs have low HP - with proper CC you are killing mobs very quickly, and the XP bar moves accordingly.

40s you can do Sol B and eventually LGuk, which have their fair share of caster mobs - you are still single pulling and nullifying caster threat.

With Pal/Rog, your third for your trio doesn't have to be a healer. Another DPS in there just means less damage taken when you can already heal yourself just fine.

Melee mobs have higher HP pools, and this is something people are often remiss to consider when talking about downing mobs. Pal/Rog/Rog or Pal/Rog/Monk are both great trios - removing the need for a healer and having the mobs snap agroed the whole time.

If you want to get phat dungeon XP in a duo, Pal/Rog is great. Without the stuns and bash the 30s-40s dungeons are pretty much impossible without a healer.

[koros]

Rogue/Pal isn't too bad in a dungeon, but there's no situations that a rogue/shaman isn't better terms of difficulty of mobs you can take, kill speed, or downtime.