What to do...

[Zorthaz]

Hello all,
 I am trying to decide which is the better partner for my 65 Bst.  I have a choice between a 51 Druid or a 65 Paladin (My old main).  These is no doubt my pally can out heal the druid hands down.  This will continue to be the case until the druid hits 58.  The druid is pretty much in wisdom gear, so when things go south, he goes down fast.  The paladin is in bazaar gear and only has 8 AA with 2 saved.  With 27pct haste and a 45/40 piercer he averages about 60-70 dps.  He is like a second pet that can heal me.  He is also another 6K+ hps I can throw at a mob.  Melee positioning is always a pain.  Grinding out 7 more levels on the druid is so much more of the same where as the paladin will be getting AA and some new abilities or enhancing existing abilities.  I don't want to start a maximum efficiency discussion.  I realize that when the druid hits 65 he will be able to provide better healing and add in much more damage than the pally.  It is hard to set aside the paladin since I started  playing him before Kunark.  I really can't justify going to a three box.  I know I am rambling, but I would really like to hear what you all have to say.  

Thanks!

[Hereki]

I'd go with the druid, for one reason only: snare.

Either can work, of course, so you won't get very far without looking into the min-max comparisions.

In your situation, I'd take the druid into an easy camp, sit him down and rake in the levels.  There's no reason he can't get a level every session or two.  I have done the same in Nurga with a low druid, which worked out pretty good for the both of us.  All he does is snare the mobs, and tosses in a heal every half hour or so.  He throws in a dot or a nuke when I remember.

I equipped the druid with ornate boots for MP IV (when he was high enough), a ceramic hammer, and coldain military wristguard.

[Rumtum Tugger]

I did the same thing with my druid, I found a camp of low dark blues to the beast and pull two at a time.  Slow sick pet, slow second switch / dot with beast to maintain agro then rain us with the druid and then snare the higher HP mob.  Did a lot of killing in nurga like that.  Druid got high enough to complete heal and then off to nadox and torigrin.  Of course you can go to umbral plains and kill elysians via agro kiting if you are worried about your health and get decent gear for the druid.  Once packed in armor go wherever you want.  I like pallys, don't get me wrong, but to two box them removes the point of them.  No stunning is more damage for the tank, then they are a gimp warrior with ok healing.

[Mindlet]

I am pretty sure, not 100% though, that they change elysians to summon now.

[Taiglin]

Not the disturbed ones. Took Taig and my Druid there just recently - Taig 57, Dru 56. It just wasn't efficient to tank. What I ended up doing was getting initial argo with the Dru, root, snare, stack DoTs to build damage and argo, and then send in the pet once root wore off. Burn through a few pets when they built up too much argo and nuke a few times with the Bst all while he just stands on a hill. Druid finishes with ~45-50% mana after kiting. Killed 7 blue to even cons but was slow. Will probably come back when Druid hits 58 but with limited play time he can just sit in the same gear he has basically had since his 20s (poor guy).

Sorry to derail.

[Dakat]

OK, for the last poster.  Yeah I can see you doing Elysians for the druid armor they have.  However at your level, these guys are not worth the time for exp.  The disturbed remains have 20k hp and at level 54 or so, your dps just does not cut it, even with a 53 druid helping you dot.  I'd avoid this zone altogether.

Poster before that, only the Elder elysians summon.  The regular ones do not.  When I took my druid, long long time ago, over there to get her armor, I would make my pet. Suspend 2 it. Invis myself. Run out and get range agro from them. Mobs in the area do not see thru invis, but the skeletons do. So keeping invis up will allow you to pull a elysian without pulling something else even if it was standing next to each other.


For the original poster.  You can level the druid rather quickly. Just knowing where to hunt and how to hunt.  The Paladin is a good character, but if they are not tanking, their pretty useless.  To get the druid up in level kill mobs that are green to the beast. As example, if you went inside Karnor's Castle, almost every mob in the front are green to the Beast, but blue to the druid.  The druid will get a lot of exp but you will not. That's ok, you want the druid to get the most exp as they can.  You killing greens will give the druid all the exp plus give them a group exp bonus as well. Making it that much quicker.  If you went to PoP route, Id recommend doing the first prison in PoJ. Or the zone out in PoI or even the Crawlers in PoD. Crawlers will offer the most exp, since they are level 56 and 57 so in 1 session, your druid could ding 53 real fast.  The crawlers hit for 300s so you yourself should be fine.  They also have a real low resist to spells. I took my 51 mage over there and was able to land my nukes for the full amount. So your druid should not have any problems either. Be sure to snare, cause the do flee at low life.

[Hereki]

As Dakat says, armor dropping disturbed elysian remains do not summon - not that a beastlord cares about this.  However, the original poster has a 65 beastlord.  At 65 I could tank one or two these quite happily with a low 50s druid healing.  So do that, it's faster than aggro kiting.

You killing greens will give the druid all the exp

That isn't how it works.

The higher group members still get a split of the exp.  This is easy to test, as the druid will get less exp every time than if he were to solo one of them.  In a group exp is split in rough proportion to the relative level of each of the members, then a grouping bonus added.  You ALWAYS get less exp from any kill than you would if you soloed it yourself; the gain is from the kill rate of a group.

Killing greens may still be a good way to get experience, so don't discount it.  It it just that the mechanism for dividing experience doesn't work the way described.  As there is also a cap on the max experience gained from a mob (certainly until you reach 55, and probably after), killing mobs that are red to the druid is never efficient.  Kill mobs that are white or high dark blue to the lower member - you also get significantly more exp from a high dark blue than from a low dark blue; but very little more from a yellow than an even con, and often no more for a red than a yellow.

[Chakkorisi]

In the long run, the druid is the best bet.  Trust me . . . 65 BST / 65 DRU 2-box is amazing.  I am finding I can do some pretty incredible things.

Level the druid . . . you will not be disappointed.

Chakk

[Hereki]

It might also be an idea to grind AAs for the druid while you can easily kill even mobs, get the usual rs3/regen3/SCM3, and then get DC.  If you can't spare the attention to maintain a normally charmed pet, getting a DC pet from level 59 can make things a lot easier.

[Zorthaz]

I have been grouping with the druid and working the ZO/ZI in PoI.  The druid gets pretty good exp and I get some AA.  Right now the druid has a MP2 focus item and IH2 focus item and has the healing water spell.  I have a hot key to have the druid spam 4 heals and then sit down.  This works fine for most mobs, but from time to time I have I get to catch a train or I get bold and pull the two tin men off the ramp.  Skippy (scaled wolf pet) can tank any mob once it is slowed, but almost every train there includes an Archaic (sp?) model which is unslowable.  Also healing the bst with unaggroed mobs in the area = dead druid.  Because of this, my druid has learned how to loot his corpse faster than I can make a new pet.

Thanks for everyone's input!