Boxing Partner

[Accelerator]

I box several, however, for a 2 box I suggest Tank (Up to U) and shammy. I currently 2 box Vald with great success and working into AG. Key is Mana on the shammy. Got to have enough for dot's, panther, resists and tank heals all in 1 encounter. A warrior yields some good disc's and survivability, however, it's a tank decision!
Add's are the SK "plus". Pally is something I have considered.

[Kudedor]

You've already received some great advice, but allow me to chime in.

Any of the plate tanks will do. The two knights give you more tools and flexibility, the warrior gives you more potential. FD alone might be the biggest difference maker, as it will let you single out mobs to kill that you would never get with the warrior. All the same, I wouldn't trade my warrior for an SK. When I need something pulled I have friends with me to pull or I get help (Or I kill a friend's druid a half-dozen times and get the mob out!)

A druid or cleric will be easiest at lower levels. At 60+ it will get harder with those combos unless you are overgeared. To me, this is a major factor in the decision. I think that the casual tank will be more powerful with the shaman than the other two priests simply because he won't have the massive mitigation to tank unslowed mobs in areas where he needs to hunt for upgrades.

A druid brings a DS that adds up fast on unslowed mobs, a decent buff, an escape route, transportation, snare, decent DPS, some pulling, and tracking. Tracking is underrated these days but I find it immensely powerful. At 68 the druid can get Reptile, which is an incredible tool. At 70 they can non-xp res. It is pretty easy to non-xp res five or six times before worrying about getting the xp back.

A cleric brings lots of HP/AC, res, some pulling, massive healing, scalability for when you do tougher things with help, and the best foundation for building groups. Clerics actually do decent melee DPS and get a major boon from VoV at 71.

A shaman brings the highest DPS while healing, great group healing tools at higher levels, an AA root at 65 that is good for some CC, super mana regen, lots of buffs, and slow. The combination of canni, slow, HoTs, and blast heals is more powerful than CH on a lot of xp content and even a lot of named. Shaman also do the most to boost melee DPS. At 70 shaman can non-xp res. The nature of shaman healing also favors high-ac tanks, where limiting incoming damage has a huge synergistic effect. With a warrior, the innate mitigation advantage helps, SKs have lifetaps and innate lifetap AAs that stack wonderfully with HoTs, and paladins can help spot heal themselves. To me, all those traits stack with shaman HoT- focused healing better than druid or cleric healing.

Personally I recommend a shaman + whatever tank floats your boat. Speaking from experience, once you have your tank in the best groupable gear and augs you can do some amazing stuff with that combo.

Also, I have found it easier to find a competent cleric to help when needed than to find a shaman that can do what I expect of him. I think shaman has a much larger range in potential based off of skill, so if you learn the class and can get the most from it, you will be able to go further with a pick-up healer than you would with your own druid/cleric and a less skilled pick-up shaman.

So can you tell I am biased? =D

These magelo's are a little out of date, but here are my primary two toons.

http://eq.magelo.com/profile/562686
http://eq.magelo.com/profile/766076

The warrior has a couple of raid items, but they are not much different from their group counterparts.

[daw4888]

ok Kuded i didnt want to quote your whole post... but

Clerics get DS, and reverse ds, which adds up nicely on alot of mobs.

It has always been easier to find a frnd with a slow spell, then it is to find a cleric to add to your group. And a competent cleric is really hard to find these days. Most clerics fall in love with the gd fast casting heal spells that spend a fuggload of mana, when they should just be useing ch in "most" all group envirotments. This leads to more downtime. All you have to do when you group a sham is say "keep me panthered, and keep mobs slowed" and they become a compentant sham.

[Kinadam]

Dwarf cleric + Dwarf warrior = win.

But in all seriousness, with Haste potions, reverse DD, VoV, and the zek hammer my combo pumps out some serious dps. If an area is so hard that it warrents a slow or fd puller, then I just bring a group. Forming groups with a cleric and warrior is so mind boggling trivial, yeah druzzil's lfg pool kind of blows but I just do /who all 75 puller or /who all 75 slower, and send random tells. You're always bound to find people who are too lazy to put up lfg.

Also the ease factor of boxxing a cleric should be considered, especially once you get divine arbitration, and an epic 1.5. I have tried boxxing shamans before and they're just too much of a headache, watching for resists, dealing with aggroe on pull while trying to keep aggroe with warrior is not what I'm looking for out of EQ.

As for boxxing a tank other than warrior, this is the warrior website, off with the heads of the heretics.

[Kudedor]

That's just the problem I see, really. Most shaman are only good for panther and slow. I don't see that as competent for a boxed shaman, much less a main. When I have my shaman in the group, instead, he can main heal, group heal, cure if needed, DPS like crazy, debuff, and generally wreak havoc. Too many shaman out there don't even have/use sloth, or know to use VP for off-rooting. It's a pretty complex class if you want to get the most from it.

IMO a good shaman really never stops casting. Heck, my shaman is even clicking items or AAs in between casts most of the time, it seems. They have an incredible range of action and can go oom many times in a fight and recover.

A cleric has a lot to do to, and there is certainly a range of skill levels out there, but in circumstances where I actually NEED a cleric, the cleric is primarily going to be healing me. On any content where the cleric isn't pressed to heal me, the shaman could probably take his place. Simply keeping me up is a lot simpler than what I expect from the shaman, who can spot heal to help, anyway. Perhaps for duoing it comes down to what class you are best at.

I agree that clerics can do more DPS that I didn't mention. I don't know of an actual DS that they can cast on others, but the DS that hurts the mob when it attacks and the one that adds to attacks on the mob it definitely add some DPS, while MoK type marks add some healing and kill the mobs own DS. However, I still don't clerics really shine for duo unless the warrior is raid-geared/over-geared.

[Mendler]

war + cleric enough said

[Sam DeathWalker]

Ya forgot about VoV ... lol.

Look don't think about just today. Don't go short term and sacrifice long term. Sure you think NOW 2 toons is enough, but no matter how many you have NOW you will want more later!

You start with a tank and healer, and the best at those is Warrior/Cleric. What class is the Main Tank for top guilds - Warrior duh. What classes are the main healers for top guilds Cleric - duh. Ok so there is no other choice for your first two. Then you need slowing - well again who is the main slower for the top guilds - Shaman.

Its just as clear as clear can be. Start with Warrior/Cleric as your base and work from there.

There is no question that splitting is extremely important, but like now in the zone I am in I just wait for the mobs to path out of range of each other and pull with warrior (I sit to regen endurence while waiting). I could do perfect splits with ranger/mage combo (3 X faster then FD splitting) but why bother, just as easy to wait for the mobs to move ...

[Yakk]

Because time is a finite resource.

[dethvegi1]

When I played,

It was always

War / Cleric or SK / Cleric.

If my SK was geared / aa like my war, he would have been used all of the time in a casual setting. They just have so much utility it's not even funny. Unless you are thinking of getting into raiding, I wouldn't give my war up for anything. I loved being the front line on every encounter.

A Shaman in my opinion, is a better box partner then a cleric. They also seem like more work. I liked the fact I could just cast a few spells on the cleric. Reverse DS, HoT, and Promised Renewal and called it good. If i wasn't feeling lazy I would melee with them and just window back to the tank.

Either choice is a great option though. Cleric just fit my box style better.

If I actually started over again, I'd do an SK / Shm as a 2 box. You can do some pretty nice things with those 2.

[Dukimin]

I box a 75 warrior, a 75 ranger and one of the following: 75 cleric or 68 shaman. In tough content I struggle with the Shaman but not with the cleric.

Withe the cleric in group, the ranger snares and slows with epic 1.0. The warrior does warrior-like stuff. With careful positioning, there is not much attention that the warrior needs, but the ranger needs attention since he does a lot of different things - the pull, snare, nukes, clickies, aggro management, and disc or aa activations.

The attention requirement of the cleric is much, much lower than the shaman. Between Promised Renewal and CH, a cleric these days can be a one-toon CH rotation. PR is a short cast, CH a long one, so it is easy to Hotbutton the chain and still have time for HoT's, fast heals, or DD spells. I can hot button a HOT/RDSon the pull, and can either melee or nuke when my attention permits.

I agree that if attention is not an issue (as would tend to be the case with a two box) then the Shaman has a lot of attraction. It is simple to hotbutton a pull sequence (safe for me since the ranger owns aggro on the pull between snare and Summer's Dew). Then it just a question of figuring out if I should dot first, panther second, or vice versa, and getting down to business.

However, if attention is an issue, the Shaman has huge overhead.

1. I need to watch resists, and perhaps throw PD or Malo on.
2. I need to watch the warrior's health
3. I need to watch my pet's health
4. I need to heal which ever needs it
5. I need to launch appropriate DoTs
6. I need to watch recasts on the shorter DoTs (5 - 7 ticks for the high dps dots is a pita), and recast when timely
7. I need to watch aggro, since I desire to keep the mob away from me.
8. I need to cast and recast jaguar/panther
9. Without a ranger, i would need to do cc: on overpulls.
10. I need to canni

When boxing, attention is the scarce resource. KISS is the name of the game.

[Kragnimus]

If I ever started over again I'd do an all froggy team hehe.

Can be any of the 3 tanks, cleric,shaman, and can throw in necros or wizzy for dps. Would probably run a Pal/cleric/shm/necro/necro/wiz. Between all the healing aa's from pally hand of piety to cleric divine arb and shaman ancestral guard line you'd only need to throw CH every now and then unless doing the hard group content. Necros are massive dps with pets and dot's as well as wracks for mana and throw in the wizzy for ports. The fact it can all be frogs would just be stellar. Saw a guy doin something similar on the rathe once was sweet looking he used all gnomes though and used a chanter vice shaman. He even had there names rhyming.

[Tempur]

just as easy to wait for the mobs to move

That only works in places where they move!

[Sam DeathWalker]

Ya of course a lot of times they don't move, then the ranger snare with mage coh is a perfect splitter.

Ya KISS is for sure in boxing, thats why all my guys are pure classes. If you can't do what you want with your toon (cept the warrior) in a single 5 line social its kinda not so good. Rangers is low overhead if they use bow, but dps is not good ...

[Elfwarrior]

War and Cleric

Thats what I use, healing potential is there, and greater tanking ability than the other two tanks. I like palys and sks though too, a cleric with them would be good as well. Nothing matches the healing power of the cleric. Mobs dont run away on me either with a war, call of the challenge works wonders. Duo'n in ashengate isnt hard, just gotta be careful.