Considering a return to EQ. Keep doing it, but always get tired of trying to play catchup.
My old box setup was a monk / shaman (though the monk was much better than shaman). Was 80 + ~600-700 AAs, iirc on monk, ~75 and ~100 AAs on shaman (been like 6 months since I played, unsure). Both were in Gnollish Leather/Chain for the most part, monk having a few pieces of gear from SoD.
As I said before, I got tired of trying to play catchup. Even on test server, I could only solo so fast, and that was rather slow, so I kind of burned myself off the idea of the monk/shaman duo. Figure if I go back, I'll set them to the side, perhaps hop on now and then to do something, but make them "alts".
Going through the list of classes I like is rather short. Mage / Ranger come out on top. Has the benefit (as far as I can tell) of being able to quickly grind out levels/AAs, and perhaps get gear.
However, don't have cash atm to do it, so I'd like to get some info before I start. I play on test server, so exp is even faster, but no reason to waste my time and money if it won't work, yes?
Questions:
1) I know monk/shaman is a decent duo because monk combines a nice DPS/tanking setup while shamans can heal/slow. I never liked shamans, so I usually just let my merc heal and used the shaman for buffs/slow. Will a ranger set up to tank be able to do it quite as well? Assuming yes, due to higher AC/ better aggro tools. But I haven't played a ranger in years.
2) Mercs. If I do this. Should I dual cleric merc, or just tank/cleric for extra tanking ability?
3) Gear? I had issues on monk/shaman as they both were rather far behind in gear, couldn't take on anything that would give an upgrade. Will it be easier with mage in group? Again, memory is foggy, but I seem to recall mages being very good at soloing/moloing gear.
Other than this, any other general pros/cons anyone can think of? Really interested in getting back into EQ (bouncing between WoW and EQ2 has gotten boring. Neither have got the feel of EQ), but I don't want to waste my time and money if I'm going to find out "It isn't going to work"
Thanks.