Most solid duo for Kunark and Velious

[Skope]

The guy gloating about mages being amazing has clearly never played a mage in kunark or velious, and most certainly didn't read the forums back on live. They were littered with people complaining about utility, DPS, and the overall fun-factor that quickly disappeared after classic for the much beloved class. I saw my friend play it for years and played his mage myself and can't help but to agree. It really does turn completely one-dimensional and the fun factor is leeched from the class.

Kunark and Velious bring us summoning mobs, and many of them are casters. Not a big deal right? Well, it is, because these tend to be the mobs that drop the great loot we all know and love. The only class that can solo these efficiently (or solo them at all really) is the shaman. This brings you the single rule to shaman solo/duos: If it can be slowed, it will die. Of course we're talking about duo here, so any sort of DPS (whether melee or DoT/DD) helps. Shammies aren't known for the speed at which they can drop a mob, but rather how efficiently and where/what that mob is. And this "WOW" factor that you see for mages in classic is really diminished during kunark/velious, and quickly replaced by shaman, bards, enchanters, and to a smaller extent necros as well.

If you're looking for efficiency and utility, with some speed leveling and killing involved i'd go druid/necro. Their DoTs don't bump heads and the druid snare/root/regen and necro DoTs/fear can quickly kill multiple mobs very, very quickly without taking too much time or mana.

Honestly, there's a lot of combinations out there that are very viable, it's just a matter of what you're looking for and how it is that you play them. One of my worries is that too many people will make shammies without a true love for the class and not quite know how to use them. I've seen way too many shamans with pearl kedge totems sitting in solb groups as the secondary healer. It just pisses me off...

[Hiragawa]

Skope has some great points. I think the only reason I didn't suggest Druid/Necro duos and the like is because I love duoing in tight dungeons and stuff. It just has that... Tabletop feel to it :P

I've always loved Swarm Kiting on my Bard, or Quad Kiting on my Druid (Or just kiting those giant red mobs on my necro) but that's always my "I don't want to be bothered today I'm gonna go solo!" thing.

Shaman are beastly, and I'll once again echo the 'If it can be slowed, it will die'.

Tsk Tsk... All this advocacy from me for Shaman, and there one of the few classes I can't stand playing. :P

[nalkin]

Skope, I am curious, was this with or without the epic pet? I heard mages were really bad without the epic pet, but once they had the epic pet they were one of the top DPS again. I never played a mage past level 12 in classic myself, nor did I play much kunark or velious.

[Taluvill]

ENC/DRU would definitely be my vote, but much harder to do. Very high risk High reward, the druid/chanter have to be good.

They can do MUCH more than anything else listed here, but are higher risk because the combo involves more skill. I dont know what your skill level is, but best combo is Dru/Enc. Hard to pull off tho

If it can be rooted/snared or mezzed it can be killed.

[Reiker]

JBBs suck.

Let's give a class with infinite mana and able to do a lot in a short amount of time a long cast low damage mana free clicky.

They're decent for powerleveling < 60 though.

[Skope]

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

Skope, I am curious, was this with or without the epic pet? I heard mages were really bad without the epic pet, but once they had the epic pet they were one of the top DPS again. I never played a mage past level 12 in classic myself, nor did I play much kunark or velious.

The epic pet was fantastic, unfortunately though it was also one of the hardest epics to acquire. It really is a fantastic and game-changing epic, but until that point it's pretty much earth pet all the way for solo, and air/water for groupage. Kunark and velious mobs hit harder and have more HP, so when chaining pets means you don't DD and makes you kill a bit slower and thus less effectively. The nukes take somewhat of a nosedive for a mage because of the great nukes that wizzies finally get in kunark/velious, not to mention the lure line. My gripe with the mage isn't that they're not great soloers. They are, and very much so. The issue i have is that it gets very boring and one-dimensional.

and JBB is awesome. Sick pet, malo, slow and root>Dot. click the JBB while waiting to reapply roots/dots.

[Phallax]

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

JBBs suck.

Let's give a class with infinite mana and able to do a lot in a short amount of time a long cast low damage mana free clicky.

They're decent for powerleveling < 60 though.

JBB is redonkulous. Someone doesnt know the power of a manaless nuke, the 8 sec cast is basically 8 secs of slight mana regen, and come velious with FT is another thing. A shaman, in theory, is going to be slow+torpor tanking thus neglecting chain cani. So the JBB click is $$. Trust me Ive played shaman since live classic all the way thru Omens, i love the class, pick shaman in any game that offers it because of thier versatility.

[azxten]

I would go SK/Shaman.. my current duo is Bard/Mage though.

[Olorin]

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

so Skope you are compareing a mage to a rogue/monk in a raid setting compared to what the topic was about DUOING. Mage and shammy are redick together. duel pets, slow, rods, torpor blah blah etc... but on this server the way charm is crazy OP. i would go 2 necros...druid/chanter.

Just remember though, with the exception of dictate, the max level that an enchanter will be able to charm is 53. They can go to 51 now so its VERY good, but 53 when max level is 60 isnt so great.

[Tumelin]

I played a necromancer and started shortly after Velious came out. While I don't know if this would be the best duo, I used to duo with a mage friend and we did quite well together. I don't remember many things that gave us trouble or that we couldn't handle. I also used to duo with an enchanter and that worked for us pretty well too.