3- 2boxers Coming back to game

[Xillik]

Hey guys!, I quit playing not to long after DPB was opened. I had a 70 beastlord but I sadly, and pathetically left the game for WoW (hooray this is a flame free forum). My friend had a 65 monk also, and my girlfriend has never played the game but experienced endgame wow. In any event, we are all going to start playing EQ again but were doing a fresh reroll. Hopefully this will be viable as each person only has 2 characters to control.

Me:
Paladin / SK (Prefer Paladin Playstyle) Tank
Shaman ( Off heals / slows / buffs / yada yada )

Friend:
Monk (pulling )
Undecided

Girlfriend:
Cleric (heals buffs blah blah blah )
Undecided

What would be 2 classes that would complement this combo, and as I remember the game being, racial are all cosmetic has this changed?

and Nearing level 65+ Gearing a Tank became difficult without loads of PP or raid gear, has this changed?

We are not looking for our group to be the OMG OP 6 man raid force but we do want to clear content like Nest, Maybe DPB Trash 
and other such content of that level

[Khauruk]

The basic gearing up up to lvl 70 is very easy/cheap nowadays (once you get past the hump of no-req-lvl gear).

One question that leaps out at me is how much will you be playing together vs. separate?  If all together, no biggie...if separate, you'll be aided by having three viable duos.  Assuming some separate time...

Tank/Shm - great combo.  An SK has little to offer you if you have the monk around, unless you're going to be duoing regularly.
Puller/?? - hmm, maybe necro or wiz.  You either need a healer, or kiter imo.  Without raid gear, druid is kinda insufficient for monk tank.  The casters would give you one dead weight toon when duoing, but both solo supremely well, so you'll still get worthwhile xp.  Either are a great addition to the group.
Cleric/?? - I'd say probably mage.  Duos well, gives you CoH, good dps.

[Xillik]

Well, me and the girlfriend will be playing together alot, but the friend might be lacking at times

Was thinking of doing Warrior (best mitigation + Benefit from Enchanter )  and maybe a necro to pull with and dot and such. I know necro's arn't exactly the greatest boxing char but they are fun. Need a puller is the only thing I see, or I'll be limited to mobs that are mezzable which will keep me out of nest and other such areas.

She was thinking of doing Cleric (Obvious Heals) and Enchanter (Slow and Haste, Wax Paper Pet and Decent Nukes..... oh yeah and crack)

Ive been looking at this elaborate gear that everyone keeps talking about, looks like serious business. How expensive / Difficult is it to obtain, and the way I remember the only ways to make cash were Metallic Drake Scales / Crystals / Rathe Mtns. / Whoring ports / Gnome Bolts. This has changed?

I remember pre LdoN Warriors had a rough time getting geared without a bulging wallet or access to raid content. This has changed also?

Thank you for your input.

[Khauruk]

From what I can see, making cash is now very difficult at lower levels (from saleable drops anyways), though I'm not sure - I've always sucked at making money.  If you're guilded, you can probably manage to get a free set of the elaborate stuff for all your toons.  It's very common.

Enchanter - Decent nukes?  Heh...awful nukes.  For a 4-box w/ puller, War/Shm/Clr/Bard probably.  Necro could do okay there also, though slow splits.  Or SK/Shm/Clr/Mage is supreme (Sk + CoH = leet pull skills, though not the fastest).

[Xillik]

there any well known macro's or a site that contains any, ive never really boxed before, well I have, but not in a situation where the box had to do anything. The Wurmeater still crazy op for warriors till about 30?

I was always horrible at money making also, my BL's wallet never grew above say 4k. So with these box combinations I should (when appropriately AA/Geared) be able to chill in the nest and RSS and crank out the AAs.

Still an EXP penalty for evil races?

I feel like i just started playing again  :|

When 70 was the cap i tried to have 200 AAs by the time I hit 70, that still a reasonable number or are more required?

DoN Cultural Armor Still a viable option?

Also, what expansion / degree of difficulty is the Katta Merchant armor? I assumed raid required, sony never let us have Anguish degree armor without executing our social lives.

Thank you again Khauruk

[Volo]

Still an EXP penalty for evil races?

Nope.

When 70 was the cap i tried to have 200 AAs by the time I hit 70, that still a reasonable number or are more required?

Depends largely on the class and what's available, I'd say. My shaman honestly holds his own in all the content I've done with ~150.

DoN Cultural Armor Still a viable option?

If you can get the augs and whatnot, yes, but imo the gear from BB and LGuk are more cost effective.

Also, what expansion / degree of difficulty is the Katta Merchant armor? I assumed raid required, sony never let us have Anguish degree armor without executing our social lives.

I want to say Buried Sea, but I'm not 100% on that; I was still on break when it was released.
The orux can be had fairly easily in a single group, and you can solo the faction required turning greenhouse tasks.

[Xillik]

Well now ive come across another issues, were only going to start with only 2 accounts, so were starting 2 boxing. I know this is the beastlords den but, you are the most knowledgeable group around. I think were going to start with SK Shaman and then add in a cleric and Wiz / Mag later on.

Thought's

[Karilis]

I lament your choice as a shadowknight, they've got a long road to power, unless you already have the epic 1.5 or 2.0  but if you think Anguish would kill your social life, you probably don't have a 2.0... takes about a good 2 hour to 6 hour raid, depending on how small of a force, to hit up any pair of nameds that spawn an orb of discordant energy or whatever it's called that usually either spawns the last fight for a 2.0, or is the turn in for the 2.0  .  It -can- be single grouped, but those people are usually walking around with 20000+ hitpoints on their unbuffed clerics(I may be exaggerating a little) but they often have max shielding and avoidance, and almost maxed AAs.

Anyway, Shadowknights have been taking it in the pants for a long time, Epic 2.0 was a huge boon/bone, but it's still unattainable for a lot of us (I can't even start the 1.5 because I can't spend time 'camping' a rare spawn, in an area that would kill my level 68 SK if I tried to solo, the murkglider breeder is just going to have to wait until my beastlord hits 80 and drags a healer and puller along to take it out for my shadowknight.)  If you think you won't be able to obtain the Shadowknight 2.0, I say if you've already got one, reroll as a warrior, so that you're levelling up at the same pace as your other boxes/alts, and stay at 51, 55, 59, to grind aas each time you reach those levels (You'll be fighting evens yellows and reds at those levels, getting awesome AA experience.  Don't let any one person outlevel the others, grind AA while they're away, because you'll be affecting their aa gain rate if you're a level or three higher.)

Plus: Warrior boxing difficulty is nil, Shadowknights don't get boxed, they're a main, if you're not putting 90% of your energy into using all the abilities a shadowknight has, and repositioning constantly, you're not taking full advantage of the class.  90% of a warriors abilities are: Hold aggro, as long as he's doing that, you don't even have to look at his screen (and a base line melee dps higher than a hybrid whose screen you're not looking at, I might add, along with higher mitigation.) so you can be playing the shaman box, and getting efficiency out of the shaman, because they're another class that have so many tools, you shouldn't just relegate them to a bot/box that you don't look at.


Best boxes/bots: Mage, Warrior, Monk(sorta), Wizard. Bard(sorta)
Second Best/bots: Monk, Druid, Necromancer(sorta), Rogue, Berserker, Enchanter(sorta), Cleric, Ranger(Sorta, autofire if you have archery mastery), Bard (Sorta)
Third Best: Necromancer, Enchanter, Shaman, Shadowknight, Paladin, Beastlord, Melee Ranger, Well played Bard.

Do you see what I'm intending to mean?  The classes that need the least alt+tabs to click an ability, where you can perhaps just fire one long casting spell per mob(While clicking the pet attack hotkey at the same time), being the best, and those that need constant attention to positioning, spell gem popups, cannibalization to maintain mana, have short duration useful abilities (mez being 9 tics on most 'good' mezzes up to 65.) are listed as "third best" in other words "worst classes to box if you might forget/don't have experience boxing" especially if you don't have the energy to maintain alt tabbing every 7 seconds to hit backstab, kick, this aa that aa or the other aa ability, or your cheap fast cast hybrid nuke...

I've done triple and quad boxing, it's draining, and I get bored after 40 minutes.

I've done six boxing between two computers, it's draining, I don't do it, the thought of having to do that again to complete monster missions or just to do anything makes me cringe.

I've done dual boxing on one computer, I often neglect the abilities of my dual box druid, but I can keep it running all night, without getting burnt out.  If I wanted to be more efficient, I would set up some hotkeys that do more things, but basically I've got one hotkey that assists my beastlord, send the pet in, and casts a nuke, and one hotkey that sends the Druid C heal at my beastlord.  Other than that, I only use my druid's abilities either in really big (for me) named/raid fights, or when I am totally confident that I can take my eyes off of Karkik without losing a lot of efficiency, or dieing while the other Everquest window pops up.  When I have nights where I need max efficiency with both characters, I don't sleep well when I'm done with Everquest, I'm wired, I'm burnt out, I feel like my brain has been through a wringer.


These are just my suggestions, maybe you'll be a lot better boxer than I am, and maybe you won't get burnt out as easy when you're trying to do things in the zones that you mentioned.  I've never hunted in either one of them, I know of shadowknights who brag about soloing in them for AAs, but they have not only 2.0s, but raid level Breastplate clickies from nearly every expansions' tiered armor, as well as carrying around haste potions and healing potions.

[nedoirah]

I personally 3-box. I have a bst (main) cleric (also lvl 80) and a mage (lvl 73). The mage was a recent addition and has no aa atm. He's just there for some added dps and coth. I take my small group to loping plains every day that I'm on except for when I get the chance to get other groups or raiding with my guild. I found a nice little camp where I can pull singles (all the mobs are stationary) all day long and get a fairly steady flow of exp. Kill rate is about 6 db con mobs every 7-10 mins. On my desktop comp I play my bst and cleric and on my laptop I have my mage. The set up is easy with hotkeys and easy pulls. What surprised me is the good fit that mages and bsts are for each other. IMO it's underrated. I'm a casual player and not really into playing for the high end stuff or raids. This combo works well for me when I just want to kill stuff.

[ramelorm]

good rule of thumb when i make group or box is:
1. Tank
2. healer
3. slower
4. DPS
5. DPS
6. DPS

[AbyssalMage]

Would say SK/Shammy is best combo if your going casual.  War/Cleric also is a good combo.  And yes, both boxes are played to death.  Mitigation between War and Pally/SK isn't that great once equipment filters down.  But the first few weeks/months of an expansion are hard on SK/Pallies usually.  So it's worth noting.

As far as what boxes well with monks, the monks I know usually box cleric/shammy if they box anything at all.  Usually gear, AA's, clickies, OoC regen, and Potions's allow them to solo decently with out help.

I think you should go BST/Cleric or BST/Druid.....BST tank well until you get to SoF and mobs having strikethough.  So go BST and never look back  :mrgreen: