Paladin and BST? or BER?

[Delvean]

I recently came back to the game after several years off, and my paladin is 82 with ~1200aa in mostly T1 HoT gear. In the past, I would 3 box with a shaman and a berserker. However, I am now going to be limited to 2 boxing and the shaman is not an option. My berserker is level 80, but on the same account I've got a level 70 beastlord. They both only have 150ish AA, and their gear is all outdated anyways. The berserker does have epic 2.0 while the beastlord does not.

Which would be my better option going forward? I'm looking at potentially boxing HoT missions at some point. I'm guessing I'd end up using a cleric merc and a dps merc.
Things I am considering:
1) Who would provide the most dps, both by their contribution and any buffs/effects that would increase my paladins. Assume no outside buffs other than what the paladin brings.
2) Who has the best utility? Beastlord I am guessing. Do they still have a viable slow?
3) Which would be easiest to box? I'll be alt-tabbing between the 2 accounts, so having to micro-manage abilities is a negative.

The only time the box account will really be used is when playing by myself, so I am most interested in the character that will best allow me to do harder content.

Delvean

[Ughbash]

[Valdemar]

Yeah, gonna second Ughbash.

BST brings so much more to the table and you've already taken a lot OFF the table with a PAL. Don't get me wrong, PAL is a great class and I don't want to diminish your hard work at achieving level 82 and gear, but they leave a lot of essentials to other classes in exchange for good buffs, superior healing, and stuns. The fact that you'll need a CLR Merc - who will render much of your PAL's gifts obsolete - only adds to the need to some other abilities. The greatest things a BST will add is damage mitigation through slow, some nice buffs, BST mana regen, and some DPS without much boxing effort.

With all due respect, boxing a BER with a PAL would be difficult and depend way too much on healing from your CLR Mercs (you'll need two) and your PAL.

Out of curiosity, why is leveling another class out of the question for you? Why not level a SHM or DRU? If you want to use CLR Mercs for healing, why not level a MAG or WIZ or RNG for easy DPS?

Regards,
Valdemar

[Delvean]

Thanks for the responses.

Time is the reason I won't level another class all over. My play time is limited to 6-8 hours a week, so starting something new would just take too long. I'm not concerned with being the most efficient box group possible. I just want to be able to complete basic HoT content by myself for the times when none of my friends are playing. I haven't seriously played since SoF, so I wasn't sure how much mercs have changed the game for solo boxing.

[Valdemar]

Right, I understand. I'm in the same boat you're in as far as game time and pursuit of content. I don't use Mercs, but that's because we chose to try as much content as possible without them to see how much we can bite off. Kinda corny and old school, but we enjoy it. I think you'll do fine with a PAL, BST combo backed by a CLR and a WAR Merc. Best of luck.

Regards,
Valdemar