A few questions to the vets here.

J

JarL

Dalayan Adventurer
Myself and two friends (zhalimar and vlight so that I can refer to them by name in this post) needed a break from WoW and one mentioned this mod. We're all old school EQlive players with varying amounts of end game experience, but it has been a LONG time since any of us have played the game. We are all planning on 2-boxing characters rounding out a full 6-man group. I've pretty much torn through these forums, the search option, the wiki, and any other sites that were linked in stickies so if I ask a question that is directly answered elsewhere, I apologize in advance. I've done the best that I can over the past two days to answer all of my questions, but I'd like some direct answers to ease my doubts.

Disclaimer: I AM a min/max'er so that is where this thread is directed.

Our group (currently):
Myself - Paladin/Druid
Vlight - Monk/Shm
Zhali - Enc/Rog

1.) Initially I wanted to play a warrior as our tank, but Zhalimar (the most end game experience out of the 3 of us) suggested that paladins were far-and-away better tanks in EQlive before he stopped playing. Does this still hold true? I've read a few paladin complaint threads and most were centered around them not being very desired as MT's in end game content. I don't want to get weeks into my characters just to regret making a paladin so I'm hoping for some good min/max advice here. Paladin or warrior specifically for our group?

2.) Will the shaman and druid suffice for healers or should we replace one with a cleric? From what I've read shamans are still have near limitless mana, but most threads centered around them being primarily buffbots and slowers. I also read that their slow is only slightly better than enc/brd slows so I'm looking for some more min/max advice here. Shaman/druid or Cleric/X, X being shaman or druid. I'm leaning towards the druid simply because of ports and great utility. I've also gotten the impression that clerics are not as "mandatory" on SoD, is that correct or was I reading too far into certain threads?

3.) Any suggestions and/or complaints about the 6 characters? If you could put together your dream party (6 characters) what would it be?

Thanks in advance.
 
I've got almost no experience with SoD but (thinking EQlive)...

Warrior/Wizard
Cleric/Shaman
Enchanter/Necromancer

The above mostly due to ease of botting. Rogues, for instance, are great DPS, but they take a bit of work to damage to their fullest (as do monks), whereas wizzies are easy to bot. Having one of the three concentrating on heals and slows seems to be a good idea as well.
 
In groups, I think paladins are the best tanks for their heals and AE aggro. Warriors are the best RAIDING tanks, however.

I would personally run a druid and shaman, as you get more buffs and group heals (druid)/slows (shaman).

For an experience group only I would do Shaman, Druid, Paladin, Wizard, Bard (slightly biased here), and Rogue. Running a shaman/druid also gives you a good amount of DPS if heals are not needed as much, compared to a cleric whose DPS is lacking.

Again, this is for grouping only. If you want to eventually start raiding, you will definitely need a warrior and a cleric.

*Also, a quick note. Bards are almost always superior to enchanters in groups as they offer crowd control and much better DPS than the enchanter. Enchanters are used primarily as buff bots for exp. groups. There are a few high end exp. zones where enchanters are needed over bards (deeper FR, HHK Basement, deeper Cata), but I believe these few instances don't warrant a use of an enchanter over a bard.
 
Shm/Dru is plenty of heals.

Pallys are not better tanks as far as mitigation goes but they are just awesome for aoe agro and I would rather have a pally for an xp group any day of the week. As far as end game content goes, they are desirable in raids but you only need 1(same for warrior and sk) whereas DPS always stacks.

My ideal would be

Wizard
Wizard
Rogue
SK
Dru
Shm

(but you really need buffbots tbh in late game xp groups...ie wizards gonna suck ass w/ no JB, SK/Rogue gonna be hating life w/ no Empower, everybody <3 Raego and so on)
 
Spiritplx said:
*Also, a quick note. Bards are almost always superior to enchanters in groups as they offer crowd control and much better DPS than the enchanter.
Click to expand...

I agree, but a lot of those pluses are lost when the bard is two-boxed. The best six-man group is not the same as the best six-man group being played by three people.
 
Only having one song pulse (if you are on one computer or something) is still better DPS than an enchanter. You can also have the person playing the bard play the druid where you only have to click for heals and can then concentrate on the other box.
 
Enchanter DPS is actually pretty good - and can be amazing in certain circumstances. Also, they can do CC that bards can only dream of (6 targets wru) although if you're puller is worth anything, you won't have to worry about that *most* of the time. (Though treasure maps and *oh crap* pulls may cause you problems. In any case, enchanters can be very fun to play, extremely challenging but also very rewarding. And there are already a lot of bards on Sod :/

In terms of tank: I'd do Paladin or maybe Shadowknight, but remember this is NOT live. In fact, of the three tank classes, Paladins are the weakest tanks - and its a significant difference. However, they also do the best dps, and they are SICK dps against undead. Self and group heals can also make the difference here. And finally, if you get into the raid game, a Paladin will be in more demand than a Warrior or a SK.

Overall, I'd say nice balanced setup and good luck with it =)
 
You can't go very wrong with the setup you mentioned. It's just you don't have a puller and then what Allie says comes into play. SK instead of PAL or MNK instead of ROG then , but I suppose you could live without.
 
Dzillon said:
You can't go very wrong with the setup you mentioned. It's just you don't have a puller and then what Allie says comes into play. SK instead of PAL or MNK instead of ROG then , but I suppose you could live without.
Click to expand...

We've got a monk, Vlight will be playing the monk/shm. Anyway, thanks for all the replies and good advice. It sounds like we will be sticking with what we've got. Thank you for easing my doubts on the paladin and cleric situation. Amazing mod so far, I forgot how enjoyable EQ was. :dance: :dance: :dance:
 
I think that's a very solid group although whoever is playing the rogue/chanter will probably be pretty damn busy. For a 6 man group I think that's one of the best combos you can have. You'll have an insane amount of buffs and dps. You'll have chanter and shaman (and druid at 55) pets also for added dps. Damage shield is covered...3 healers...puller/splitter as well as a mezzer. Lock picker/trap disarmer for treasure maps/dungeons.

I don't see much (non-raid) that group couldn't do to be honest. If you were more concerned about raid situations then you'd look at clerics and/or warriors, but as an exp group I prefer paladins to warriors or SK's. AOE aggro/group heals are great utility to have.
 
Even so, picking a cleric/warrior for "raid situtations" is actually one of the WORST ways to do I'd say. Because unless you're forming your OWN raid guild, chances are you won't be needed :/
 
SK/Druid

Monk/Shaman

Necro/Bard


Each piece is functional for solo play, any two peices can duo play, and nothing is out of range of a single group when all three are together. The TMAPs that you can single group do not require more bash/lockpick than the SK or Bard. Minimal gear overlap. Everyone possesses run speed increase.
 
Id go for warrior. Far superior tank to any paladin of similar gear (even not similar). Easier to 2-box. Lack of mana imo is a benefit not a hinderance esp on mobs that manadrain or silence.

Zhali - Enc/Rog -- this guy might have some trouble. Not the most friendly 2box combo especially if your duoing alone. It depends on which this guy prefers. Also, encs are pretty prawn and will be amazingly so when shared mind aa works 100%.
 
Warrior is A+ if you want to do Cmal aswell cause of the mobs that kill the one that tanks if he has mana.
 
High end enchanter/ rogue works amazingly well actually however I can see it being tough off the bat.
 
Not a vet by any stretch of the imagination, but heres my 2cp:
The lack of corpse runs in SoD has taken away a large part of the importance of clerics/pallies, making druids and shamans a superior healing choice because of the added utility and slightly higher DPS capability.
The addition of treasure chests has made bards and rogues much more valuable for their pick lock, yet also limits the need to one per group.
Pullers and CCers are mutually exclusive here
Because you can't chill in Mansion of Portals like you could in Plane of Knowledge, TPs have gone full circle since the original EQ days. They started out important enough to be worth buying, PoK made them more like a fun but unimpressive option, and now they're back to being incredibly important. Travel times for non-SoW/Selos classes is a pain, and the ability to TP a group from one place to another instead of having to zone 3-4x going through MoP has a direct impact on experience gain.
Start with classes you're familiar with. The nostalgia effect helps keep them amusing, but with the lack of credible info here compared to the days of EQ make that familiarity a very valuable thing for speeding up your learning curve.
AEs are much less important here, and so is AE Tanking. When your AEs are limited to 2-6 targets, you're almost always better off CCing and taking 'em down one by one for mana efficiency.
Finally, this game differs from WoW in that the gear selection is more linear. Especially for monks/beastlords, there's a definite "best" every couple levels instead of different options depending on playstyle, and this makes interesting utility spells/abilities even more important, because your job isn't going to vary much 1-60, if you're doing it well.
 
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