Boxing Partner

[Ferromancer]

Hi all,

I'm new to boxing, am going to try it out (one computer) starting soon. My main is a 68 magician on Test, but I feel like leveling up two guys starting out rather than using the mage to powerlevel one other guy.

I was thinking of boxing a troll shaman and a troll warrior, but wasn't sure. How does playing this combo compare to, say, a warrior and cleric, or a shadowknight/paladin and shaman?

Also, in your experience, is most of the time spent while boxing a healer and a tank used controlling the tank or controlling the hero? Which spends most of its time on "autopilot"?

Thanks,
Ferromancer Steelword, 68 magician of Test Server

[Tempur]

I am slightly biased, but I think at this stage if I were to start over with a duo it would be an iksar SK/Shaman combo. SK brings solid tanking and pulling abilities along with snare and a panther target in its pet. Warriors and paladins will have headaches with pulling and stopping running mobs. I think with SK/Shaman you will be able to deal with a bigger variety of camps based on those two factors alone.

Another interesting combo is bst/druid. The trade off is weaker tanking for higher dps and the druid's lull ability is situational.

As for who is on "autopilot", I tend to work both toons pretty equally when 2-boxing. As you may have guessed, I box SK/shaman. I generally get an aggro spell or two in on the pull, so my initial focus is on the shaman getting the mob slowed and then a HoT and Panther on the tank. Then focus shifts back for any specific positioning, snares, nukes, etc. I would say that everyone develops their own patterns though and I will depend on what you are comfortable with.

[Sam DeathWalker]

1st toon: Warrior
2nd Toon: Cleric
3rd Toon: Shaman (possible Chanter)
4th and 5th Toon: DPS/Utility (Wizard or Mage) and Pulling if you don't want to warrior pull (Bard).
Rest: More DPS (wizard, more wizards, go wizards).

Never get a SK as yur tank ...

[Rigeld]

Originally Posted by Sam DeathWalker

Never get a SK as yur tank ...

O.o

I box SK/Cleric all the time. Sure, its low DPS, but meh. No runners.

[Catamander]

Assuming you will have just these 2 toons and plan to box them as a duo with no one else, I think SK/Shaman is a very solid combo. If you were looking at 3+ toons, I would say War instead of SK, but with just 2, go SK.

Warrior will get you heftier tanking and extend the top end of what you can do, but SK will have some key utility functions that will really help you out. Snare, for starters, is really hard to do without and relying on procs is not a good solution. Some self-buffs, tap heals, and FD will also be nice. DPS is not so great but some of the dots and taps will help compensate. Aggro is very solid and scales well by level without having to always focus weapon choices on hate generation.

Shaman over cleric for a couple reasons. First is slowing. Unless mobs are immune to slow, a shaman with slow + heals will be just as good healing as a cleric without any slows. Second is dps. Shamen put out some decent duoing dps, which will be important. Finally, they have some good solid buffs.

[Yakk]

However, if you are hard-core, a Warrior/Cleric duo will let you get higher.

Pick a cleric of Inny, and you can get a snare-clicky.

For hard content, all you need now is a slower, and you are golden. You have the core of a group that can, using less gear, take on the hardest single-group content in the game.

On the other hand, a Shaman+SK will be able to do medium-hard content without aid easier than the Warrior+Cleric.

[Khabok]

If you do decide on a Troll war and shaman, be sure to make the shaman a worshiper of Innoruk and doing the quest for the snare click neck. That will help a lot at lower levels I would imagine. At higher levels snare isnt as much of a problem anymore, either bandolier a snaring weapon in or using the War AA to make mobs not flee, although that does mean they keep fighting back that last 20% instead of standing their letting you beat on them.

[daw4888]

IMO is generally easier to find a slower to add to your group, then it is a cleric. So my second toon was a cleric, if you have CH, your really dont need slow on most mobs. Also being able to res yourself is a nice bonus to the cleric/war combo. You can always buy a snare weapon until you get high enough level for CoC.

[Jugerrnaut]

War/Cle was my choice and I have been boxing them for over 30 levels (40ish to 75) now. I have the ability with these 2 classes to basically be an instant group just about anywhere I'm flagged to enter. No downtime spent LFG'ing for a few years now.

Bandolier takes care of snares and slows when I need them, relying on a proc can take a few rounds, but you'll adjust your timing based on the mob's health soon enough.

Having cheal and rez far outweighs the utility of other classes IMO. Cle Pacifiy line can ease splitting headaches, there's several snare proc weapons to choose from, and having 50% slow (Truncheon of Doom) was they key weapon for eliminating the need for a slower class.

[Mophios]

i bot War and cleric combo, it is good but i think if i was to start over from scratch i would do the SK and cleric or shaman either would be nice, i would do cleric over shaman cause like people have said slow isn't that big of a deal when boxing and you have weapons that proc some decent slows. and the SK has FD and snare for pulls and runners, i am about to add a druid to my combo for the snares, gates, and extra DPS but if i had a SK i would probly just add a wiz instead of a dru.

[bombayxev]

i'd say a shaman makes for the best tank partner. i've been duoing with a warrior/shaman combo and it works pretty well. however, i think an SK/shaman combo would be the best because of the extra utility the SK brings (snare, FD/split).

[Cowboyatheart]

I box a war/clr and am quite happy with it. With the current OOC regen the cleric can add ok dps (not as good as a shammy) between marks/nukes/ect.
Their low aggro heals are also nice (HoT, promised renewal) in that if I pull 2 I don't have to worry as much about maintaining aggro on multiple mobs.

I'm thinking about swapping the cleric out for my druid for normal duoing though. (getting lazy, I hate running since I tend to duo for very short periods while waiting for groupmates to log on)

[werdara]

Here's some + and - of a few of your options.

Cleric
+ Best HP buff
+ Most healing power
+ Take hits better than other priests
+ Lull
+ Rez
- no snare
- no slow / hastes
- no invis (but can IVU)
- no SoW line

One solution, mentioned by others is the Regent Symbol of Innoruuk
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=1254

And don't forget Jboots to remedy the SoW line lack

Shaman
+ slows / hastes
+ invis
+ potions for IVU/DS
+ Moderate HP buff
+ SoW line
- Buff the least HP of the 3 priests at most levels (unsure about Dire vs Direfoc + Stam
- Attention sensitive for their DPS, esp if you use canni, be prepared to switch back and forth between toons a lot
- Least mana regen by buffs (i.e. unattended)
- no snares
- no rezzes

Druid
+ Midline HP buffing, goes great with Pallies
+ Snares
+ Ports
+ SoW line
+ Good damage shields
+ ATK and AC debuffs
+ Decent mix of dots/nukes for DPS (fire and forget nukes)
+ Invis
+ Ports / evac
- no slows / hastes
- no IVU
- less healing than a cleric, may be a factor vs some unslowed content (esp mid 50s)


Warrior
+ Highest base HP
+ Highest base mitigation
+ Highest DPS
+ Good unattended aggro (since primarilly swing/proc based)
+ Anti-run AA ability
- Weakest pulling
- No haste (potions / certain clickies fix this)
- No self HP buffs
- No self healing
- No IVU / Invis

Can get clickies /procs for:
Snares (Several snare proc weaps)
Slows (Best slow proc is Truncheon of Doom, 50%, War only)
Symbol line (Orb of the Duskmold, 700 HP symbol)
Shielding (Ornate PoP BP)
Invis (Incarnadine BP, Cobalt Greaves, and a few raid items)

Pally
+ Best self HP buffing (Note pallies have a Shielding/Armor line that doesn't stack with 9/Focus, but does stack with Virtue line)
+ Brells HP buff
+ Rezzes for healer
+ Stun versatility
+ Good self healing / patching / crosshealing cleric by tank
+ Self haste (25% around lvl 40, potions make this a small concern at best)
+ IVU
- Weak DPS / long kills
- no innate slow
- no innate snare
- little splitting ability, but can offroot
- no invis
- attention sensitive aggro

Can get clickies /procs for:
Slows (20% I think is best Pally useable, not worth the time to proc it)
No snare procs
No invis clicks except rare raid drops

Shadowknights
+ Great snares
+ Invis and IVU, but self only
+ Feign Death, great splitting ability
+ Tap tanking for patches or harder content. Later the innate rune proc spell
+ Group mana taps always good
+ Mob debuffs
+ Good AE aggro on multipulls
+ Self DS spells
+/- Midline unattended aggro (dots, aggro over times)
- no innate slows / haste
- Almost no HP buffing ability (there's a shielding click on Blood Ember BP, not aware of any others
- Weak DPS / long kills

Can get clickies /procs for:
Slows (20%ish, same as pallies, not worth it)
Symbol line (Duskmold again)

I'm sure I've missed some stuff, but that's what comes to mind right now. Also remember that many of the -'s can be remedied with potions. Just shaman can make rather than buy.

And here's my opinion on certain combos.

Best DPS
War + Druid or War + Sham (hard to say)

Most HP buffing
Pal + Druid

Most versatility
SK + Sham

Least attention sensitive
War + Cleric

Survivability / Endurance
War + Cleric

[Grayhelm]

War + Shaman because Trolls can't be clerics.

Oh, wrong thread. Sorry.

[Missa]

When I created Missa (WAR), I started a box Druid. Snare and healing were great early on and ports as they came in were big bonus (laziness).

This combo worked very well for me until about lvl 55, where the good xp mobs took a long time to kill and hit hard without being slowed, meaning I lost the DPS from the DRU as she had to concentrate on heals (cant remember what level she got her first 10 sec heal).
I find myself often wishing I had done a shammy instead for the slows and better buffs. However now, with the Truncheon of Doom, I can proc slow, and with Dru heals until slow lands, then dps. While it is slow going, at 65 I can handle most of the mobs in Infected Paw (I usually just stay near the entrance) and the AA XP was good (before the HZ changes). Was also able to box, again very slowly, the murks in WoS (never managed to clear back to the queen before repops tho).

The biggest problem with using the truncheon of doom trying to slow the mobs however, is heal aggro when that first CHeal lands. If you can't get it slowed and bando back to hate weapons, you will spend a good bit of end trying to get the mob off your healer.

I have a friend who boxes a pair of kitties, BER and SHM, but he didn't bring them up together, at 75 and 70 respectively he can box most of the common camps in MPG with no problem for decent AA XP.