Another Boxing question

[kargren]

Hi,
I currently box a 75sk (3100AC 16kHP unbuffed 600AA) 75 shammy(400AA) 75 Cleric(250AA) and my question is this. How much of an addition would a bard be to this group? I have a baby bard on the clerics account that I am playing with to see if I like the class at all and so far it is ok. Most content up to say 69.3 missions I can heal easily with my sk/shammy combo so the cleric is just efficiancy + hard mob required. So should I add a bard, or replace cleric with a bard for xp groups? Or hell even add a different class that will add some needed DPS but is very easy to box?

[Khauruk]

If you're looking to add dps, I'd go w/ wiz, mage, or necro. Bard'll add some, and some handy pulling/tricks, but won't help w/ rate of xp gain as much as a real dps class imo. And, for dps, casters are easiest way to go. Wiz for raw power + evac, Mage for CoH plus stunning pets/quasi-offtank, Necro for ghetto rez, flop into hard camp dragging corpses, and all the other yumminess they bring.

[Vasei]

I never regretted adding the bard box. For daily play, there's absolutely nothing like having someone with track AND amazing pulling tricks. Much like the shaman, the bard is going to be able to put something into the song lineup to adapt just a little bit better to the situation.

If you want easy though, I'd go with the wiz. Great DPS with zero attention required + evac. Druid gives you exacly the same ease of use trading some dps for track/healing. I thought the bard acct added a ton of fun for me, but since you already have to manage the sk, I think another melee would just be a pain.

[Cromagnon]

Just another option...

But replace the shammy with a beastlord, for increased dps, ease of lvling/AAing (they are solo beasts) and retention of slow + buffs (albeit not as good as the shammy). Find when I swap out my druid for the beastlord on the same account, the beastlord requires very little attention to keep him at max efficiency.

One thing about the bard, would be having to babysit this toon or you aren't going to see much increase to efficiency other than the pulling and songs you can reasonably twist. They require alot of attention in combat, but the pulling really is magnificent. Another thing of note would be this, plate gear is always far more expensive and harder to come by than lets say leather. Good example, on Quellious, you can find leather armor from Blackburrow for dirt cheap, maybe 1/8th of the price that Plate from guk was demanding while that zone was live.

G'luck

[Mukshaak]

Bards can bring a lot to the table, but the main attraction of having one is pulls/cc. As you have pulling power with the SK, wouldn't you be tempted to try a dps class, say a zerker or even a ranger?

Or even better, get a monk, and a you have 3 classes that can FD...

[kargren]

Setting the bard up for melee is easy for me because I have so much practice positioning the mobs so my shammy and cleric can melee. And I like the idea of switching out the shammy for a beastlord except it would lower my dps.My shammy casts group panther on each pull so with 3 PC's and 2 pets all meleeing with panther we do some damn good damage because of the shammy.

A monk would be a good addition because of the FD and high DPS factors but would it add more dps to my group then a bard casting 30% overhaste? On a good night I can average 375DPS on each of my toons. Add a 30% over haste to that and your lookin at at least 300DPS just from the haste alone if bard is doing nothing else. Throw in the mana regen song and my shammy can start to dot as well at each pull so thats another 100dps.

So a monk would have to be doing at least 400DPS to match the bard. Now for a DPS class thats not that hard but how easy is 400DPS for a botted monk going to be? Now that I look back at my post I just have to say one thing. Damn I love the shaman class!!!

[Mukshaak]

Agree on positioning and melee. I never had any problem in surrounding the mob with other boxed melee. I know some in here don't like it, and opt for a caster dps option, but it's really not that bad, specially with all the changes they made to push.

As for the dps figures, my guess is that at 200-400 range all hybrids/dps/casters will be at similar ranges. Peeps have pre-conceptions on classes, so they assume a 75 zerker/rogue dps might blow a 75 ranger/bard out of the water, but until you start stacking those aa's and getting top-group or some basic raid gear, it will not be the case. And as much as itemisation might favour melee these past years, all it takes is for a caster to gain another 5 lvls, go to a vendor, purchase some basic spells, and smash your melee dps...

My shammy, at lvl 75, with 350aa's, and GoD/DoN raid gear, just breaks the 500dps mark, going all out in a root rot. In group, I wouldn't be able to go all out like that if I was doing other things, but I would bring slow and panther to the table. I have a feeling that until you hit a certain level with the 3rd box, the dps will be a bit flat. Then once AA's are in the 500+ range, and you get good weapons, you will start seeing the pure dps (zerker/monks/rogues) really pulling away.

At the end of the day, there's no such thing as a perfect box, and we tend to just keep repeating our personal preferences in this part of the forums. Not that it's a waste of time, as sometimes that gives us an insight about a class that you didn't consider before. But you have the basics of the trio, a tank and a healer. The 3rd is icing on the cake, and I would go with the one that when you look at the character selection screen, you go: "Phwoarrr, now that's hawt!!!11"

[Vasei]

Bards are a freakin hoot. And as much as people make fun of their crappy tracking, when you're learning a zone with selo's + track + fade -- suddenly exploring in EQ isn't an exercise in idiocy. I'd pick the bard for fun value if the group benefits are even close to another class.