The Spirit Realm

Hi everyone - seems like a great forum you guys have here (been lurking for a few days). Lots of knowledgeable players, especially when it comes to 2-boxing with a Shaman playing a pivotal role.

Some information: my brother and I are planning to start over (old accounts were lost long ago), with each of us 2-boxing. We do not plan on ever joining a raiding guild, sticking solely with 1-group content/targets. Also, single-account setup is not an issue, since we will rarely play without both of us online. Below is our initial proposed setup, but it's not set-in-stone by any means.

Player 1: Shaman / Mage (or other DPS)
Player 2: SK / Cleric

With this setup we have the following utilities: plate tank /slow / rez / FD pulls / snare / tons of buffs / COTH / decent haste / multiple healing sources / multiple pets / good level of DPS

From Google'ing/reading all over the place, it seems that Shaman+SK is the most popular duo so I'd imagine those components would stay the same (although I realize that since this is a "4-box" the available options increases dramatically). It seems that the setup is missing: mez (probably not an issue with root/multiple pet off-tanks available), mana regen (is this an issue nowadays?), and DPS (or is Mage/SK/Shaman DOTS plenty?)

I am completely open to any suggestions. Specifically, is the Mage better replaced by another DPS class? Is the SK better replaced by a Warrior or other tanking-capable DPS class (monk/war/pally)?

Thanks guys - Adam

edit: removed remarks about Enchanter. Added comment about SK vs other tanking class.

Shaman/Mage box is tough as both require a good amount of attention to make them very effective. I think you'll end up focusing on one and botting the other. If that is the case, you might consider Shaman/Wiz as the dps is similar and you get ports/evac.

I'd stick with the SK as you need a puller for that combo. Also, a warrior's superiority in tanking and dps are offset by 1) the SK's snare, snap aggro, etc. and 2) once you get pet affinity, the shaman's panther line on the sk pet makes up a good amount of the lost dps. Monks make decent tanks with outstanding dps, but you need very good gear and lots of AA for them to be as effective.

You could consider replacing the shaman with the chanter for better CC and mana regen. I'm not familiar with enchanters enough to know how that would affect group dps.

The SK should hold aggro with little issue... hit with jolt and a snare and you can almost ignore him except for postitioning... any more attention you can give him will give you better dps but not as much as you can add with the same attention to the shaman. I'd set it up SK/Shaman and Mage/Cleric. Focus mostof the attention on the Mage and the Shaman to maximize dps. Give enough attention to the Sk to keep aggro and enough to the cleric to keep the SK alive. Additionally, either of those combos can duo a lot of different content, in the event that 1 player is absent during a playing session.

If you have access to another cleric for buffs and rezz, you could drop your cleric for another caster dps maybe wizzie, druid, or even another mage.

Actually I think you have it exactly right for your 2x2. The Mage might not be the absolute highest possible DPS class to include but in a pinch the pet can also act as a tank.

A guy I know 4-boxes sk/shm/clr/mage, and has progressed into Crystallos handily w/ it. He still gets a couple toons for when he was camping squires. Granted, he started w/ a some raid gear on the SK, but he has upgraded all of that a few times over. You could probably readily replace the shaman w/ an enchanter, or the mage w/ wiz/necro, but I'd probably stick w/ what it is now. The mage gives you much faster pullability for tricky stuff through CoH, extra mitigation through pet stuns, good dps, offtank, etc; versus more dps and evac or backup corpsedrag/rez. Shaman will enhance the group boxed better than Enc too, I think.

You def. can't go wrong w/ this setup, though w/ how easy it is to level toons nowadays, it's worth trying modifications on the combos (like monk/zerker instead of mage, etc,....)

CC shouldn't really be an issue. If it's a tricky pull of 3+, either have coth ready, or kill off the puller and rez

Strong class choices you have there, and I wouldn't change them. Shammys provide a boost to melee classes, which includes pets. If you sub in a wiz for the mage, you will loose not only a panther target, but also all the pet toys on tap which the mage will provide to the 3 pets.

As for who handles which account, remember that mages can also be considered low maintenance: /pet attack, /cast rain, /cast nuke. Sure, with any character, the more time you spend on them, the more dps you will crank out, but mages can do quite decently between a few alt-tabs. The one who will be busiest would be the shammy, as if you want to maintain panther and dots, you will be casting almost non-stop... I suppose if you want to crank sk dps as well, he will be casting.

But anyway, sounds like a fun combo. GL with it

Muk

Thanks everyone. You guys rock!

Late to the party as usual, but it's Friday, and my brain isn't ready to work yet.

Just for another perspective, I'm going to throw out why I like the same person playing shm/clr (I did this for awhile back when I was on Xev). Healing is the obvious benefit, you're going to have a lot better efficiency and efficacy with the same brain behind these guys. CH not quite going to land in time? Pop a hot or spam heal with the shaman. Someone going down fast? Spam heal with both, twice the bang for your buck. No more overhealing from both healers thinking the same thing at the same time, no more wasted hots from the shaman, or the cleric using hots when the shaman could be saving them the mana.

Cleric is very low-maintenance, and I'd even toss her up in melee once we had the camp nailed down to get a little extra kick out of panther.

Next gain is that both of you aren't stuck watching the red bars. The non-healer can focus more on the environment; I think there's a lot to be said for that.

Big love for shm & mage synergy tho. That's one of the most underappreciated combos in the game. I think your group is going to have an absolute hoot.

One other thing that I would point out is that class balance changes all the time. At the moment, a Mage can do decent DPS and tank/off-tank with limited gear/AAs due to beefed up pets and spell availability. This hasn't always been the case and may not be the case in future expansions. Similarly, knight/monk tankability and single group gear availability have changed over time and will likely change a few more times before the last server is shut down. As long as you keep this in mind and are prepared to adapt when the power balance changes again, you will be fine. If not, you will be forever haunted by "If only I had picked the uber-class du jour" doubts and regrets.

Scalia has a very valid point, but you can always avoid hybrids and such and go for the root classes. If you choose cleric (primary healer, and will always be the best healer unless soe has a brain fart), warrior (primary tank), wizard (primary dpser), and then for your fourth you could go bard to compliment the entire group and do slows or enchanter or shaman. (bard would be very powerful in that combo, but could easily loose their pulling desireability in a future expansion)

I box a 76sk 76 shammy and a 76cleric all the time and your group will work out awesome. The only 2 things I would say to change are the mage for 1 and have the SK bot the cleric.
I would change the mage to a wizzard to get ports because you are going to get sick of paying for port potions for the SK.
Second the person who boxes the SK should box the cleric so they can time promised renewal better.

Sounds like a very good combo to me; however - and this is my personal quirks here - I'd consider a bard instead of the mage. You'll loose some in the DPS department, but the bard will be a great support class for all of these guys; and if played main while boxing the shammy, can be handy for trickier pulls and CC and maybe even the occasional offtanking...
It might require some more work for this combo to work out - but I think it could be well worth it, if played properly.

Anyways - just a suggestion

I currently box a Pal, Sham, and Mage and it's been going great. Definitely spend most of the time on Sham and Mage, which gives some great DPS, though Mage is very easy to fire off a nuke and bounce back and fire off another nuke. With it's pet it also guarantees that you will be doing some DPS even if you can't focus.

My main was a Pal and being a fan I'll always say a Pal over an SK (most of the time), though an SK does make a lot of sense, especially with the Cleric in there.

Personally, I would go with your cleric + tank (preferrably SK), and then go with the Shaman + Zerker. Thats good pulling, tanking, healing, and dps. If you get 2.0 for all your toons, you're set.

Edit:
Your shaman doesnt need to lose dps for doing major healing as that's what the cleric's for. Shaman can lay on the dots, and hit the melee with the buffs, and panther/cougar which will be used greatly by the SK and zerker. If SK's pulling and can't get up from FD to tank something, the zerker can always be used as a back up tank while SK is FD pulling.