My 3 Box Team - Need advice

[Rhajah]

Okay - I've been 3 and 4 boxing for years now, but it's time make a change, and I just need some feedback.  I currently have 4 accounts on Firiona Vie (1 character per account) - a 70 SK (my main), 65 Cleric, 64 Shaman, and 64 Beastlord (my main alt).  I've 4 boxed them for a long time, and other than the stress and effort in 4-boxing, the team works just great.  However, it's recently occured to me that the Shaman may be expendable.  Thus, I'm seriously considering cancelling the shaman's account entirely and simply 3-boxing and/or possibly replacing him with a different class.   Since my Beastlord has a reasonable slow (and will get the 65 one soon), has much better DPS, and since frankly - I enjoy playing the Beastlord more, I just have the suspicion that he might be able to fill the shaman's shoes reasonably well.  Yes, my main concern is the resists on slows.  However, unless I'm mistaken, I've heard BSTs are soon to be getting a slow with a built-in resist debuff (or something of that nature).  In addition, although the shaman is a tad easier to box, the Beastlord really isn't much harder for me.  I've gotten used to it.  I'm also actually interested in levelling & gearing up my Beastlord (I love soloing with him too) whereas I have absolutely no interest in levelling my shaman.

I've considered just replacing the shaman with my beastlord, as I said, or possibly replacing him with a druid - since I figured he'd add better heals, teleports, etc.  Plus, I just like druids.  It would also give me the Druid/BST combo for casual 2 boxing, when I don't feel like working with the entire gang.  I dunno though - I'm not sure it'd be worth adding another $13 a month for it. 

Last night I took my SK, Cleric, and BST to RCoD and did the Bowlord Rorn camp.  I did fine.  All slows except for 1 stuck the first time and they were all partial slows (just like with the shaman).  The only real noticeable difference was the amount of healing the cleric did, which I expected.  Instead of remaining at 85% to 90% mana at the end of a fight, she'd be at 70 to 75%...again, no big deal.  With paragon or my mana taps, sometimes she'd be higher.  I've mainly noticed that if I replace the shaman with my BST, that so far, I'll have to be careful about building agro first before slow, or maybe even kite the mob a tad on incoming before it's slowed - or even perhaps just toss a Heal over Time to the SK on incoming. 

In any case, I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks.

Rhajah

[jabby]

yeah ive also been 4 boxing on FV, and thinking about scaling down to a three box. It really seems like sometimes the 4th box just adds more work, and if its not a pure dps class, it actually slows down exp gains for me.

Back to your point, I also agree beasties are more fun and generally bring more to a box than a shaman. And yeah, the spell changes on Lcuy show at least beastlords getting a new slow at lvl 65 i think, with a (40) resist mod.

Starting off with a cleric / beastlord you can add all sorts of crap and get a good three or four box.

SK, Cleric, Beastie sounds pretty cool. Im trying out Beastie, Cleric Rogue atm well see how bad the pet push is. I think the push may come mostly from pet procs, so may have to run without them.

What has been your experience running both the SK and beastie? do you melee with beastlord also, do you pull with SK, how much of a problem if any is pet push for you?

[Fin Beast]

The Shammy is better at everything but DPS than the beast....yet the beast is over all good enough to gimp buffs and slowes as needed. With your crew the ports/burst dps/tracking/DS dps of a druid would be a huge pluss in my eyes, and easyer to box.

I 3box Beast/cleric/wizzy and have thought about replacing the wizzy for a druid so I can track.

[Hinthi]

You might consider dropping the BL and going with a mage or wizard.  Easy (non-melee) DPS.

[Bulge]

In mY 5-box of BL, Necro, Mage, Cleric and Druid, I find the Druid pretty  much the most valuable. Port, Track, DS, Good Heals, Regens for my Necro, excellent Mana/HP buff and good nukes: it's almost too much too mention. Oh wait, Snare! Roots. Not even mentioning stuff like Flight of Eagles which makes travel a breeze or Wolf Illusion that gives so much attack. A Druid is an incredable class in any boxed team.

I think I could exchange any of the other toons for another on a one-for-one basis however if I would have to exchange the Druid I would need at least two others to make up for utility. 

I have been thinking about starting an entire new team, just for fun: I always end up adding the Druid in the end no matter what I start with. So here's my latest ideal 6-box: Paladin, Druid, chanter, 3 Wizards. :D

Good tanking, adequate healing(Druid on Healing-mode after class-change), the utility of the Druid, CC, Tash and Slow in the Chanter and off course his KEI to fuel the Demolition Trio of Wizards. ;)  Maybe replace the Chanter with a Bard? Not sure how good Bard-slow is.

And no pet-push which gets tiresome sometimes with my group.

[bham]

The new Beastlord slow with resist mod looks like it will be a level 70 spell. No one knows how it will be acquired yet, it may be added as the 4th glowing rune spell, so dont count on getting it any time soon.

I would recommend replacing the shaman with a mage, to keep mala, or a wizard, if you want ports. A druid is also a decent choice. Depends what you really want out of your 4th box.

Edit: spelling