Best DPS class to box with an SK not named a Wizard

[brokenlimit]

2 melee is always going to be fundamentally more work than sk + a caster. I just tend to prefer melee dps vs. caster.

What I typically end up doing is completely based upon whose in the group. I group with a monk often who pushes his aggro more than he should (and is too lazy to FD), so I usually cast 3 or 4 spells before i daggerlunge and go wild on rogue for your average trash. One of the great things about all our SoD aa clickies is that you can spam them in a chain as the mob is incoming and avoid gem refresh timers. Usually I get 2 terrors and challenge put in to ensure I'll hold aggro for the entire mob's health, and then just leave SK mostly and go wild on rogue.

That being said, on the rare occasion that someone does yoink aggro or shit hits the fan, it sucks to have to reposition both toons. Originally rogue was a lot more versatile because SoS was awesome, now it's not so much a big thing, and the directional requirements of the rogue coupled with the extra need to mash tend to not be worth the peace of mind for the other 2 melee dps.

If i chose again I'd go Monk > Bers > Rog.

On the plus side, harm touch + fury/frenzy is like death to anything in 20 seconds heh.

[flatchy]

Id say what is your aversion to wizards. The steering towards monks is understandable since you have one. As someone who 4 boxes and have tried a second Melee toon I say get rid of em and pick a caster. All you are doing is getting a semi second boom out of em. Make it as hassle free as you can. Moving any melee toon around sucks. Especially when you got buttons to mash to get any decent DPS out of em. Pick a caster, make some macros and do what you intended to do , which is kill some mobs and loot crap. Ive ditched two higher end toons now because of ease of the set up issues. Im happy with SK, Chanter, Shammy , and Wizard. So Far.

[Chania]

I use a druid. Mercs made it even better, if the content is easy, druid becomes dps. If it is too hard for just merc healing (rare, but some names hurt) then the druid heals. In any case, I get travel, good DS, buffs/debuffs, Exodus, cures, plant thing, Vinelash.. etc etc. Druids are very underrated, and make a great match with SK's.

[Cupenslug]

This thread just reinforces to me how SOE probably missed the boat a bit with Mercs. Don't get me wrong, I like mercs and use them all the time but what I'd really like is to pay SOE for a second account that I can box FROM my primary account. My computer can handle running EQ in multiple windows and I boxed for a bit but I found the switching windows tedious and I wasn't a fan of running multiple computers either. What I would like to do is hit a hotkey on my main that "remote controls" my box.

Something like I set account 2 to "box mode". Character on account 2 now parses tells from my main and uses them to fire off macros. I'm sure that there are unauthorized software packages out there that will allow you to do this but if SOE built in some native functionality like this, I'd easily be paying them for 2 or more accounts right now instead of 1 and paying pp for mercs. Seems like a pretty easy change that would up the number of accounts being paid for. Maybe not, maybe I'm just too lazy to box.

[Khauruk]

I have seen some general Windows macro utilities that will send the input to a specific program rather than whatever's running in the foreground. I haven't played with them, so I don't know how well they do with different instances of the same program. But, I'm guessing that with WinEQ it would work alright (since you can give each instance a unique name).

[Urgl]

I am 3 boxing necro sk shm.

SK has my attention for aggro issues or when trying to keep several summoning mobs in his front. Also shm needs to toggle through the mobs and slow them. So the dps in the trio should be an easily managable one.

Necro is easily hotbuttoned with 3 buttons to get up from FD, assist, send pet, cast 9 DoTs and FD again. FD is great for a fire-and-forget-dps. if i group, i use only 2 of the buttons. on nameds i additionally use 3rd spire and repeat one or 2 of my buttons. With leadership-see-buff-aa you always see which button is next. When needed, 2 FD'ers make single pulls possible. If the SK dies, necro pet can tank a few. If it gets worse necro can FD and rez.

[Dianye]

A lot of people say encs are a bad dual box. If you are comfortable boxing a melee while charming though, they are a pretty good box. For years, I only had the BL and the ENC. Only when the charm nerf hit did I have to find groups to play both together. I would recommend the enc be on it's own machine though.

The downside is every three or four expansions SoE makes grouppable zones charm immune, sometimes mez immune at the same time.

Maybe an enc box isn't the best or easiest, but I would say it is the most exhilarating if you are charming.

[brokenlimit]

Originally Posted by Dianye

A lot of people say encs are a bad dual box. If you are comfortable boxing a melee while charming though, they are a pretty good box. For years, I only had the BL and the ENC. Only when the charm nerf hit did I have to find groups to play both together. I would recommend the enc be on it's own machine though.

The downside is every three or four expansions SoE makes grouppable zones charm immune, sometimes mez immune at the same time.

Maybe an enc box isn't the best or easiest, but I would say it is the most exhilarating if you are charming.

I enjoy my enchanter box a lot. He has garbage for aa and all SoD group gear, but it's remarkably effective and useful. Docility + our ae hate stuff is an extremely powerful combo, and having recursion aura rk3 up all the time is win.

[Omertax]

I hate caster classes my box crew is SK, (main) Zeker, Bard, Ranger, Shammy and a merc healer and i call it good. i have a necro, cleric, mage all lvl 83+ but i just don't like playing them

[neeker]

I'm curious why you don't want to box a wizard? I play a SK/WIZ box myself & imo its the strongest combo in the game.

Both my toons are 99% group geared ( SK uses MMM weapon, everything else is 100% group stuff ) & I've boxed every group named in SOD.

When tanking 6k hitting named on a group geared SK the name of the game is to kill the NPC before it kills you & nothing does that better than a wizard. With Twincast + 2nd spire + destruction I can put out 400k+ damage in 30 seconds. When named die in under 30 seconds there is a much better chance of your mercs not forgetting to heal you or a bad spike killing you.