3 boxing

[Krugerr]

Hey all. Just started 3 boxing, but im unsure about what i should really have as third box.

Currently

Ranger (t5warrior)
Rogue (t3Cleric)

So that basically allows me to handle alot of stuff. I wanted to put a zerker in the mix, but 3 chain classes might become tight on the drops. I personally am not a big fan of casters, but someone recommended SK, Mage or Shm.

Any ideas be cool, im in the process of leveling a SK, but im not entirely sure if i want him or not

 

[PeteSampras]

All things considered, and supposing you play each as well as possible.. perfect 3 box for most situations will probably always be tank + crowd control/damage mitigation + healer. With mercs this changes the dynamics a bit. I'd go with an enchanter or bard as 3rd if you can always have mercs. Rogue/ranger would benefit more from bard than enc. Mez is huge, having a quick puller is huge. Also you would get haste and a bunch of other utility perks. A real tank would also be a lot better than merc.

Your problem with 2 chain classes already is that if you do anything that doesn't allow mercs, it is going to hose you. Adding a druid/cleric doesn't realy make sense. Adding a sham means you have 3 chain classes now. Tough call.

If i had to do that set up. It would be enc or bard as my third with another cleric merc. Because you don't want that merc tank to die.

 

[Krugerr]

i had thought about bards, but ive tried lots of times to play one, and i cant get it, i know i could just automate it, but i prefer to know a class before i bot it.

must be a beginners guide to bards somewhere

 

[fraggyfrank]

PM me/post any questions you have Krugerr, I box a beastlord/bard (and sometimes magician/wizard with them) and I highly recommend it. I haven't ever played a ranger since Gates of Discord, though, so maybe you really don't need the pulling. Amaaaazing utility though.

Really the only gripe I have about my bard (I should note that my beastlord is my main) is that I feel like now that he is 85 with 1500 AA, there isn't much progression to be done for him. I mean, does bard DPS ever really get that good even with great weapons? They can't tank / use much mana so gear is of questionable progression past a certain point too. Other than that, though, I love my bard and definetly notice a major difference when I don't log him on.

 

[JimJohnson]

You could go
shaman + tank merc(give you back up tank) + beneficial buffs, and shamans can do decent dps themself.
Mage this would give a really good boost to dps would even help mitigate damage done to a degree with air pet in some cases.

 

[mjtizzle21]

ench imo can charm kill for leet dps an CC makes everything easy

 

[Public]

I would go with shaman. From the buffs to debuffs + merc you could handle anything where you would need CC.

 

[Nooch]

Shaman or Enchanter

I would go with either a Shaman or an Enchanter. There is upsides and downsides on both though.

Shaman is good because you will get buffs/debuffs/DPS. But unfortunately your crowd control will be based primarily on "slow" and Shaman AA VP. If you get a bunch of tough mobs, you can kiss your ass goodbye.

Enchanter is good because you can get buffs/debuffs/crowd control. But you will be slacking somewhat on the DPS compared to having the shaman.

So pretty much your choosing DPS or crowd control. By the base of your group, rogue/ranger should be decent DPS as it is. Do you need more? This depends on what your plan on doing for your 3 box. It's up to you.

 

[Alexandra]

Shaman is my vote, only because of the buffs, slows and extra heals. Our shaman helps our little bot crew out tremendously.

 

[skillz_01]

Really depends mate. How well is your Ranger geared. The ranger I hang with can tank every group named in the game...so needing a tank isnt neccessary. As for the third...you may want to consider using a beastlord. It lacks the healing ability of a shaman, but you have 2 mercs now so you realy don't need more healing. Being a leather class it would also make it a lot easier to gear than a berserker like you state.

Not to mention pets are the bees knees for running mobs!

 

[mjtizzle21]

ench can charm if necessary for dps which is not hard while 3boxing + you have a snarer to make it easy. i have both shaman and a ench in 7box crew, only reason i like sham is for extra heals but you can always add another cleric merc if needed. 2 cleric mercs can heal pretty much any group named w/ a t5 tank and decent dps. but from playing a shaman for last few years then finally trying a ench in the box crew, ench is much better for higher end if you dont have harmo arrow puller. but you do ! so either is fine really just if you want more dps definantly ench for charm if your not gonna charm then go sham.

 

[Krugerr]

Thanks for the tips guys! After much deliberation at work today, i decided a shm would be great, but a 3rd chain just sucks. I cannot play bards, and decided it would be more trouble than its worth, leaving Chanter and Mage. Chanter for CC and Haste. Mage for DPS, offtank. In the end, the mage won!

Air pet, as JJ said, gives great stun, and they can offtank well too with great Dps.

 

[JimJohnson]

Another aspect you might take into consideration is SHM can do CC, with the AA root line they get. Its not a major factor and I don't think it would out weigh 3 chain class con. It is one you might want to use in evaluating the content you are going to attempt.

 

[imgregrice]

In a pinch mage could do a degree of CC as well with the Memblur pet "Companion of Necessity"

 

[mjtizzle21]

no slower is kinda wack !

 

[Casca]

I am still learning to really use a bard and the only real use I made of one was on the Mayong server where I use the bard to do more then just stand around /melody leaching exp. and actually played him. From that short time, it was a very useful class and not as hard to play in a useful manner as you might think. I never use to bother mezzing anything, but with the bard, I could just have him target the mob and sing a song and that mob will stay mezzed till I am ready with little to no farther input from me. That was before I came to this site and knew anything about MQ2. Bard travel songs are just adictive. Group invis, movement speed increase and levi. Granted, you can do all that with MQ2, but some people might ask questions if they actually see it happening and no bard. I know with my rogue, on a raid, having a bard in my group singing his melee songs, I will out DPS every other rogue in a non-bard group by a very good margin. No doubt that is true for casters as well. Throw in the mana regen and even if all you do is have the bard do /melody for melee/caster and mana songs, he will be a huge increase for your DPS. I was leary of trying the bard as well, but I am thinking my bard account will be occupying my main computer screen once I get him on speed.

Shaman buffs are nice and slows game changing, so I'd agree the shaman will be useful too, a;though the bard can slow and debuff as well and although he doesn't add hitpoint buffs...his melee music is a hell of a DPS increase. In situations like this......I'd make the shaman, start a new account and make a bard as well . 4 accounts, 2 mercs. But then I'd also change the ranger to an SK or warrior.

 

[JimJohnson]

If not mistaken isnt most everything mitigated (slow wise) now adays?

 

[Casca]

Ya, slow might not be as overpowering as it once was, but still very useful. The slow might not be full on slow as it was, but a slowed mob is still alot less healing you gotta worry about unless you got a tank tank that is so well geared that he overpowers the content already. Not sure any level of merc tank will. So probably many situations where the tank will drop dead because two merc healers just couldn't keep up. 3 merc healers probably wouldn't either since they really don't work together too well. But a slowed mob might make it possible.

Was messing around in MM's using chanters to mezz mobs, but started using a shaman and now I just slow if I get too many. Once slowed, those mobs are putting out practically no DPS lol.

 

[DemonH2]

Your slow was thinking about maybe becoming partially successful, and by partially I mean you wasted your mana and slowed it down .0001%. Thx

If you ever wonder why they started butt raping slows, it's because enchanters are the 2nd best slowers. SOE has been known to go out of their way to make the enchanter class extinct.

 

[SiegeTank]

I parse most of my fights and enchanter slow still makes a BIG difference, even when partially mitigated. Fighting nameds in FoS, for example, which I did for a couple of weeks after that expansion first came out, and analyzed many many named fight (probably over 100), I'd have to say chanter slow reduced the damage output by 20-35%, depending on the mob. I dunno if there is a variable component of slow mitigation too. This maybe explains some of the perception that mobs resist most of the effect of a slow debuff.

For example, when my toons were 80 my boxed group couldn't handle the named monk mob without a third healer, and that was with slow landing. If it didn't land the group stood a good chance of wiping, even with a third healer.

Once my toons were 85 and the tank had increased his HP and AC with loots, the fight got easier but whether the mob was slowed or not still made a BIG difference.

If I had a chance to remake my box group, I'd probably go with a bard over an enchanter, especially with the nice bard bot programs now available. Bard's are by far the best puller/splitter in the game and that makes boxing sooooo much easier.