The Spirit Realm

If you could re-roll the "perfect" 3 box (in terms of enough healing, tanking, DPS, etc) without the penalty of leveling up again what would you create? I'm debating about redoing my 3 box on another server (Test perhaps) just to give me something to play around with when I feel like doing something different. What are your suggestions?

if i was going to take a crack at it, i'd go sk sham zerker

Imo, a 3box can never quite meet all the requirements of the ideal box crew. You can get a decent setup with tank/healer/dps, but then you're likely to lack CC and at best have a decent puller. I don't think I could live without having a bard in my box crew for pulls and CC. On the other hand, if you go with tank/healer/bard, you're gonna be lacking some dps.

The solution I came up with was to 4box a ranger to add to my PAL/BRD/SHM(or sometimes CLR) setup

I'd have to go Shaman, Shadow Knight, DPS. Most likely a Berserker, a Ranger or a Magician.

Paladin, Shaman, Wizard.

Paladin Shaman is just awsome, and wizard brings snare, dps, ports and exodus.

Normally when I group with my brother our group works like this.

Me: 2-box Shm & Rogue
Brother: 3-box Pally, Shm, Wizard

With this we have good dps, plenty of healing, pally rez, escape for drags if needed, and evac. If I had another account I would box either my mage or bard.

I'd go SK/Shaman/Wizard or Necro

Ideally, if you are 3 boxxing, you don't want to have to have lots of characters you have to move to be effective. You want two classes that can sit on their steeds and do good DPS or do their jobs like slow, heal, dot, etc. Then you want one class that you have to focus on the most, aside from clicking hotkeys on the other 2.

The SK can pull and tank. The Shaman will do everything a Shaman does and be able to do it all while sitting on his steed, assisting the SK for target and slowing, dotting, healing, etc. The Wizard would give you the DPS you need all with the click of a hotkey. A Necro would do the same but you wouldn't have the ports of a wizard. Both equally good choice though if you ask me.

So two classes that can be run by hotkeys and one to pull, tank, etc. Sk/Shaman/Wizard or Necro FTW!

WTH, every choice has a Cleric or a Druid?

1. SHM
2. PAL/SK
3. NEC/WIZ/MAG

SHM/SK/BER

seriously, I am a lazy 1-900-MixALot. That said, i find a shaman a must have. Also, you aren't doing anything without a tank. I dont' see any way to progress without a tank and healer. The 3rd class is your utility class. Pick a tank and healer first.

I was boxing shaman/druid/pally for a long time. It is lower dps, but really hard to kill.
If you are going the shaman/druid route, take an SK. You loose buffs/rez, but gain utility and DPS.

If you don't want 2 priests, I would do shaman/pally/wizard. I say this because I have a shaman and pally. I am sure shaman/SK/wizard would do just fine, and you could prolly go overboard on the wizard dps if the sk is tanking.

I like warriors for bot tanking, since their agro naturally increases as the fight goes on instead of taking maintenance from spells. Likewise, I have a predeliction for berserker bot dps, since /autoattack does so much of the work for them.

My 3 box is Pally(tank/buffs/rez)--- Shaman(slows/heals/nukes/dots/Pet/buffs that stack with the Pally) ---and Necro(snare/nukes/dots/Pet/FD pulling/backup rez)
With the proper hot keys you can automate practically everything you need for the Shaman and Necro. In outdoor zones the Casters can sit on mounts and they both have good mana regen methods for the zones you cant be on a mount, IMO its just an all around good utility crew.

SHD / SHM / WIZ

Good tanking, good buffing/debuffing, adequate healing and 'lots of DAMAGE'(c) -> short fights with an option to evac.

As an alternative: PAL / DRU / WIZ

same tanking, less buffs, good healing and again 'lots of DAMAGE'(c) -> and two tries at evac

I am returning to EQ as soon as my software gets here. I will be boxing three acounts so this topic caught my eye. I have decided on a SK and Shaman as my first two and it has been interesting to see what all suggestions have been placed up so far. Initially i was thinking Ceric instead of Shaman for rezzes, but I think the guild hall negates that need and besides I have just always wanted to play a Shammy. So that covers my heals, and leaves me needing a tank. Warriors are out because, well I just don't want to play one. So that has left me with SK or Pally. I was leaning towards Pally but for some reason SK is attractive to me. So for all you experienced players out there I would like to hear your thoughts on SK vs Pally please. This leads us to the third spot in my trio which should be DPS since I really am not interested in taking forever to kill one mob. Wizzies are looking promising, but I wonder about Mages. Would it be worthwhile to have a Mage since in later stages I hear panther makes a big difference on pets. Would it be like adding a fourth toon to the mix for DPS or would a Wizzie still out DPS? In this case I would be looking at SK, SK's pet, Shaman, Shaman's pet, Mage, Mage's pet. I am also looking at the lower levels since if I can't make it high enough to get panther well it isn't worth a poop. I also thought maybe I would throw a Necro in for DPS and pet, plus an emergency rez. Then there is the possiblity of adding a fourth toon if my computer can handle it. So thoughts please?

Also, if I am downloading all files from the patcher( gawd this is taking forever) when I stop the patching does it start over from the beginning or does it pick up from where it left off? I am deployed to Qatar so I'm interested to see which happens first -download finish or does my wife get off her butt and actually get my package here in a reasonable time?


Thanks,
Geo

SK/SHM/MAG
No ports but 3 pets (dps with only initial send pet command)
No rez either but guild lobby can do that

Doh

I box Sk/Shm combo, and I have been thinking of adding a 3rd aswell. I have been thinking Wiz or Mag. Both have DPS and both seem to be min. maintence during battle's. The Wiz adds evac/ports awesome dps. The Mag adds DPS/pet (extra tank)/toys.

I like Sk/Shm combo becuase Sk can FD pull, holds great agro, snare, and can semi heal self during fights. Pally would be nice for heals, buffs, and rez. I can't speak much on Pally boxing w/ shm tho. I have 3rd account w/ 56 pally on it. But dps is so low w/ out using spells that I very rarely 3 box them, other then too get tasks.

I have been leaning towards the Mag at this time due too pet, and toys at my fingertips rather then running too baz and paying 45PP per toy.

Yeah, I would suppose that with a four- or five-box combo, almost all your focus gets claimed by the tank and the healer; you'd have minimal attentiveness available for the dps toons.

I would not have guessed that the per-fight limit would be the time it takes to press one key; but apparently so.

My current setup (war,cleric(or necro) and shammy) is great and I wouldnt change it because I dont have the time BUT here is what I might do:

War- seriously there is no better tank and the dps is really quite good. The attention to botting is next to nothing.

Shammy- dps, buffs, healing

bard- added dps, pulling, cc, selo's

This option has the best utility imo but I have never played a bard so I wouldn't know what to do exactly. Another option for sheer simplicity (I tend to gravitate towards that when boxing) would be war,cleric, wizzy. With my war I dont really need slows since you aren't slowing anything more than 45% (and closer to 20%)these days.

This is an interesting question that I'm sure most people have thought of at one time or another. I'm going to put a slight wrinkle into it for the purposes of my post below -

What is the best 3 box if you going to be completely self sufficient (rp freak!)? So if you don't have a cleric, no asking for a HP buff in PoK. If you don't have an enchanter, no KEI. If you don't have a necro, pally, or cleric, no rez. And so on. What would be the best three box for that?

It would be all about balancing needs, in that case. Do you NEED someone to rez, or do you NEED someone to port? Is it worth losing dps for increased utility? Do you choose three very narrow but powerful classes (ie. warrior, cleric, wizard), each one doing what they do very well, or do you choose 3 utility classes that would have more options but perhaps kill slower / be less durable? And how do you rate something like ports (a convenience, but a VERY nice one) vs resurrections (you'll eventually make back the xp anyway, and isn't useful if nothing goes wrong, but do you really want to eat a level worth of deaths on a bad night?).

So what would you want in a typical 3 box? Let's see ...
Pulling. DPS. Healing potential (I include slow / attack debuffs in this). Rez. Ports. Snare. Buffs. CC. Wipe prevention (not having to start from scratch if you die). Stuns. Tracking. Resist debuffs. Utility (invis, etc). Tanking. Mana regen.

Which are the most important?
1) Pulling. In a three box, you need to minimize mobs in camp. Even two mobs (unless you are vastly overpowered for the content) can overwhelm even the best three boxer.
2) Healing potential. Again, unless you want to always fight in easy content, you're going to need healing potential. You lose when your HP runs out.
3) Tanking. Unless you always fight non-summoning mobs, you're going to need a tank for actual challenging content.

The way I see it, the rest is fluff. You don't NEED a port - you can always run. You don't need wipe prevention - just start again (or don't die in the first place!). You don't need tracking. These are all 'nice to haves', and should definitely be considered, but only after the first three things are taken care of.

DPS is the only real variable here. Yes, the secret to 'winning' EQ is not dying before the mob you're fighting runs out of hit points. But if it takes 6 minutes to kill one mob (two clerics and a paladin?), is that really having the optimum three box? So you do need some dps, but not at the expense of the top 3 items, listed above.

So with that in mind, I present my 'completely self sufficient 3 box'.
1) Paladin
2) Shadowknight
3) Shaman

Paladin = rez + stun (damage mitigation) + backup heals + dps vs. undead + hp / ac buffs + tanking.
Shadowknight = puller + dps + mana regen + tanking + snare.
Shaman = buffs + heals + dps + CC.

While having two tank classes might seem strange, you get the following:
Increased survivability (if one tank drops, the other can step in and perhaps win - in the end, the shaman should always be the last to die, and can always cotw the rezzer back if the pally drops)
Increased healing potential (snare + stun = no mob hitting camp unslowed and 0% chance of the shaman having aggro)
Low to Mid range dps (the paladin would tank and the SK would dps) - This wouldn't be over the top dps, but it wouldn't be rock bottom either.
Mob specific dps (vs. undead obviously)

Anyway, just my thoughts for a unique scenario, as well as a unique 3 box combo.

Interesting idea from a roleplay perspective, but I wonder if you are considering the use of potions and clickies in your equation. In my mind, the potions would be available to the shaman from a role play perspective, so in theory you could almost eliminate a lot of the need for buffs. I know personally that on my rogue, I have the ability to basically self buff up to a Virtue or Conviction level of additional hitpoints with just the clickies and potions that I carry with me. If I keep just this one portion of the game in mind, I would almost rule out having the paladin on the team.

My other thought is that wouldn't there be a huge difference in beliefs from a paladin to shadowknight? (solely from a roleplay perspective) I see the Paladins as the knights of good, and well shadowknights in direct opposition to this. The shaman would more than likely end up being the balancing point, but would the team even work together.

Anyways.. a couple of thoughts.. I was bored at work..

There can be intersection via goals. The shadowknight seeks through "whatever" means what the paladin seeks only via "good" means. The two see their shared goals, and work to get them cooperatively. If illustration is necessary, see what creative effort had to be done so that the Dragons of Norrath raid missions counted for both camps.

I nearly fell out of my chair laughing at the comment on the switching classes comment...sadly though, to an extent they did that in the game with the Shrouds. Its not exactly the same, but some of the same thought was put into it. If you needed class whatever.. have someone shroud to it, and you have that class to fill in...

but back more on topic... I like the rp ideas that have been shared thus far on the SK/Pally issue, and could see them actually working. The bloodline thing seems more plausible for a long run of grouping together, but I could see them joining forces to combat some greater evil per se.

I guess you'd want to go Frog then, as the only race that can be all three classes.

Nope, Ogre sk/shm, Marcy and Fred, with their friend the dwarven paladin affectionately called Lunch.

Shaman + SK + Cleric is pretty interesting. I do agree that SKs have pretty poor dps (unless you have some nice raid gear); the benefit of a pet + panther does sorta add up though (figure about 250-300 dps). And the shaman does put out impressive numbers (if you're casual!). When I played and soloed my shaman, I generally broke about 1200 dps from first tick to last.

How about this for another 'perfect' 3 box ... mage + necro + shaman. Three pet classes means efficient panther usage. Necro would pull (one of the top 4 pullers in the game). Mage pet would tank. The only problem would be all those melee and tank weapons / armour that would be rotting!