3-box Question

[Haaj]

Hi guys,

I found this board while looking for some info on 3-boxing.

I currently 2-box a Druid (lvl 84 and main character) and a Mage (lvl 81 with EM4 and a bunch of Pet Defensive AA's). I have been Duoing with a cleric merc in places like Field of Scale and Beza Instances. My mages lvl 81 Air pet (which cons even with my druid due to EM4) has been the tank for me, I sometimes heal with the cleric merc when there is a tough mob.

A friend of mine gave me his EQ account with 4 more months left on its subscription. He has a lvl 50 beast (highest character) but on a different server then I am on. I am thinking about making a character to 3 box with and would like to know what you guys suggest would be a good addition to the current Druid/Mage combo?

[Ughbash]

You have healing due to a druid and mercs, you have snare, and ports also. You have a tank.

You could use a puller, or a slower, or more dps.

For more dps, Wizard.

For slower could go chanter, shaman or bard.

For puller bard.

My thoughts would say either go wizard for max dps, or go with a bard for pulling and slowing.

[Kruzar]

With that setup, I actually lean more towards a shammy or maybe even the beastlord. The reason I throw the BL in there is that he is probably not that far out of range of being able to group with the druid and mage, and could fit very well into this setup. The only drawback is that for a BL you really need to play them as a melee to get the full advantage of the class, and the BL would be your default tank unless you add a tank merc into your mix. The BL does bring fairly good buffs, dps spells, a much stronger pet than shaman, slows, and could be somewhat of a backup tank.

With a Shaman, you get better buffs than a BL, but the pet is not as strong. You would also have to level up from the start to get the toon into your party. Also, with a shaman the gear class is different than the druid for most slots being chain.

[Haaj]

Kruzar, Not only do BL's have a better pet they have a Mana Regen spell as well. Not as good as a chanter's but its something.

[Ughbash]

The reason I did not include a beastlord is if you use the beastlord to melee, the mage pet will no longer tank. Now if you get a lot of AA and very good gear the beastlord mightg serve as a tank. But you would probalby be better just using htge pet to tank.

For that reason I did not suggest a Shadow Knight. Tanks are hard to gear and AA, it is a rather unforgiving position for a player.

[Haaj]

hmmm, thanks Ughbash for that info.... but you mentioned bard, bards Melee, and do thier songs cause enough agro to steal agro from the pet?

Also, since you suggested bard as a puller, and you said why you didn't suggest an SK, what about a monk or necro puller? since they both have FD and looking at other Multibox post some people did suggest a monk, sk, bard, necro as the puller.

[Bigcat Daddy-o]

I'd say if you are intent on keeping those two, I'd go shaman or shaman. Possibly a shaman.

I boxed Shm/Dru/Mag through the start of SOD and it is an amazingly powerful combo. your tanking and healing can be outsourced to mercs, and you will be very strong in every area except pulling was the main weakness I found. I know druid/mage pulling is strong but I think you need a class that can FD to broaden the range of pulls that you can make. With that in mind I would suggest a necro would fit in best. Added pet dmg, can snare/fd/coh pull just about anything, MASSIVE DPS added from Necro. Tough spot recovery (FD on the necro, wait till things clear, pop a merc cleric to res, or use one of those essence thingys)

He mentioned that his BL was on a different server. I thin you could make a lvl 50 BL in about an evening. Maybe 2 at the most, so I wouldn't pay to have that moved.

Also, look through the posts here. That question has been asked in various forms many times. You will get a lot of information on the different combos from a perusal of this forum.

[Haaj]

Bigcat--- Yes i am intent on keeping the Druid/Mage.... for one reason the Druid is my main and for another reason the Mage is sometimes the only Mage on guild raids.

I have mentioned above that i have been looking at other posts though, thanks for the input.

[Bigcat Daddy-o]

Yes you did. Reading > Bigcatt.

The reason I suggest a necro over say a monk is keeping melee out of range so your pet can tank. If you remove that constraint then monk or bard become viable. (e.g. if you tank with a merc as I did for a long time). The best puller hands down, no question is a bard. The end. There are a few circumstances where a monk can make a pull better than a bard (Ugh can fill you in on that) but typically your bard is your king of pulling. Close second is monk. SK can be an amazing puller as can necro, but they will not match a monk or Bard for raw speed pulling/breaking ability. However both the bard and monk are lacking in DPS.

If you want to add a tank it would be an SK without question as the best possihble build to this 3 box you describe,
if you want to keep using your pet to tank, add a necro or shaman.
If you want the best puller available, add bard or monk.

[Haaj]

Since you bring up the Merc tanking, would a Journeyman Merc tank out-tank a mage pet tank?

[Kruzar]

[Bigcat Daddy-o]

I'd say a journeyman 5 merc tank is about the same as a mage pet tank on T4 and higher, except the J5 tank can run a tanking discipline. While using discipline the J5 will be better, but seems about the same to me when disc wears off.

The J4 tank was ... ok... You really need the J5 tank to compare with your mage pet though.

The main difference between mage pet and merc tanks however is, the mage pet is smarter... or can be with your pet discipline focus/hold. The reason I dropped druid and added SK is because of how retarded the merc tank is. They do great against a single target, but if you have an add, prepare for chaos. They will do the stupidest most unreasonable thing possible. Rooted mob off to side? Yah. Merc tank gonna run over, kick him in the nards, then turn his back to it and fight the other one so the add can take full advantage of no mitigation from behind on merc tank...

I have described merc tanks in the past, and stand by it, they are as smart as a rock with a lobotomy.

[Katt]

[Ughbash]

[Veril]

Bards are "hate capped" in how much hate they can generate. There's pretty much no way they can steal aggro from a mage pet by singing their songs.

For multiboxing you reall want things to be simple as well

[Haaj]

Katt thanks for that info. I do like the bards song, and I like your explanation of how low maintenance it is during a fight.

Thanks Ver. I didn't know that was a Cap on bards songs aggro.

[Haaj]

Well a bit of an update.. While I was building my new computer, my roomate asked me if I wanted his account since he is no longer playing, so that means I now have 4 accounts.

I am planning on going with a shaman on the 3rd since I found out that he has a lvl 56 shaman on my server, and since he can group with me already should be easy to lvl him up to be able to get the AA slow sometime soon.

Thanks for the info guys... now if i can decide if i want to use the 4th account or not.

[Mendler]

Necro!

DPS, Snare, rez, pulling and nice pet, group regen and ease of botting.

Make a few hotkeys and drop 3 dots, fd, 3 dots fd stay down. So three key strokes per mob if you don't need him as a puller and couple that with the mage for CoH pulling = $$.

I'm all for simplicity and efficiency.