3-boxing to 6-boxing...need assistance

[shdwdrgn]

I am working on expanding my group setup so I can field a full group but am having a hard time deciding which classes to use. i have looked at pretty much every post in this forum but am still just as confused. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

My current setup:
Berserker
Templar
Coercer

I am currently leaning towards a defiler for a second healer, dirge for the all the normal reasons, but I cannot decide for sure.

I also have no idea about the last slot. Thinking about Brigand, since that would go well with the melee buffs from the dirge and has some nice debuffs also, but has a lot of positional items also (right?). Also thinking about Warlock since that seems to mesh well with the defiler debuffs and has some good AoE to complement the zerker's AoE's. I've heard good things about swashies too though, so I have no idea really.

I am not dead set on any of the three slots so any advice anyone can give would be greatly appreciated. My main goal is to just be able to do instances myself.

Thank you all in advance!

[asgradth]

Dirge
Defiler
Warlock

And with that makeup, you are effectively a RAID Main Tank Group. I run the same 6-box setup, but I have a Guardian instead of a Zerker. With this group, there is literally nothing in the x1 scheme of things that you cannot do. In fact, once you get your epics, t2 shard armor and 150+ AA's, you should be able to take on lvl 80-83 x2 mobs with little trouble.

Yes, DPS is low, but survivability is HUGE. You really have to try hard to fail with this team. Things won't die quickly, but they will die.. and when you walk away from the fight, you'll generally be at full health and 90% power and running off to find other things to kill.

When I 'quit' last month, half the reason was I felt I 'beat' the game with my 6-box team. The only thing I hadn't done is tank a T3 or higher Raid, and honestly, I doubt i could do it with all the movement involved in some of those fights. If you want to 'beat the game' this setup will get you there.

Make sure you spend your AA's on all the skills that make your team(group) better, instead of say... specing your warlock to solo w/ Wards and roots. There are other routes you can take, but they won't be as efficient as the above (just my opinion).

g'luck

[Noxxy]

Have to agree with asg - the 3 chars he's picked will definately give you a good combination

There is maybe one possibly for a slight change and that comes down to you deciding whether you want caster DPS or melee DPS

A simple breakdown of the team asg and yourself have put together:
- warrior + temp & defiler - always a very strong combo - have a look on flames and I think you will find that most warriors choose these two healers for heavy runs
- coer - no brainer for a warrior - some nice hate transfers (tank ('http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Enraging_Demeanor') & target ('http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Peaceful_Link')) + many other benefits
- dirge - again, easy pick - dirge + zerk = pwnage
- lock, caster with nice aoe dmg OR you could grab yourself a rogue - if you've had a look at a few of my teams you prob see I tend to favour the melee whereas asg goes for the casters - BOTH WORK - and a 'lock makes an excellent caster
- for a rogue - lot of warriors like the brig due to dispatch ('http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Dispatched') but personally, I like the swash - lot of AOE and hate reduction/transfer ('http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Swarthy_Disorder') - both do great DPS and both wear chain - and both go very nicely with a dirge in the team...

Welcome to the Dboxing forums!

Please note: I just noticed on the wikia that the names I have linked are prob not up-to-date with the latest GU52 but I am sure you could prob work out which spells I am talking about

Edit: Yes, both rogues work best from behind [especially with AVAST YE!!! - yer baby - taste it!] - BUT - a good tank normally spins the mob anyway so the rest of team doesn't get ripped so really no biggy - as long as they are in melee range they will do the damage - you may have probs slipping in a poke ('http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Eye_Point') - but that comes down to practise and firing it off on inc (when close enough) or when spinning the mob - there is only 1 real attack from hiding ('http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Stealthy_Charge') which can also be fired off on inc (i.e., hide the rogue before pull etc.)

[shdwdrgn]

Thank you both for your information. I think I'm definite going to do a dirge and defiler since you both agree on that and that is what I was thinking also.

I'm still torn with warlock/brig/swash

Let me think out loud for a moment...

At the most basic level I'm not sure if I want melee or caster. I think caster may be easier since there's less worry on positioning and distance from mob. But I like some of the capabilities the brig/swash would bring.
They'd be good combo with the dirge for sure. Brig would have dispatch if I went that route, and the swash would bring the hate transfer, which may or may not be useful with a coercer and dirge already in the group.
Either the brig or the swash would have better survivability due to chain vs the cloth of the warlock.

Is there some glaring item I'm missing that'll make this decision easier or am I just SOL?

Also, I assume the best way to do the RAF with my setup is to do one from each of the currently existing accounts?

[Mooni]

I'm surprised no one from the SK camp has spoken up! Not surprised because it's right or wrong, but because it seemed like they were the preferred tanks (especially for multiboxers) and according to the Level_1-9 crowd.
So while this may be the most idiotic thing anyone ever said: I thought people used SKs more than guardian/berserker types.

Also Shdwdrgn, just as a heads-up: I tried to Refer-a-Friend my last account but something went wrong. I think it may have negated my RAF program when I put in my credit card info during sign-up. Not sure, but you might wanna look around some forums to find out if there's any traps, because it was highly annoying to have "single XP" levelling like that.

[Noxxy]

IMHO shd - it all comes down to your own preferred playstyle

I have played a tank for years in many mmpgs (started way back in UO) - and I have grown to like 'in your face melee' - and that is exactly how I play my team - no matter if they are squishies or healers - EVERYONE melees - I know the melee dmg off say a clothy is not the best but IMHO every bit helps

Locks are definately considered the 'king' of aoe - and like you mentioned, they are basically 'set and forget' - once they are locked on they can just blast away - Asg, could you provide a few comments re the lock and how you find playing it please so we get a balanced view of both sides of the coin?

As for rogues, they really need to be close and in behind to do the damage (but that's just a practise thing)

The way I think about rogues is the same way I think about the rest of the team - just leave everyone on /follow so they are in a blob - range pull some mob and either drag through your team or do a shuffle back then forward, spin - either way the mob will end up between the tank and the 'blob' - all within melee range - this exact techinique works just as well if you /stop the blob (i.e., disconnect the /follow) and body pull to your team

Another thing I like about rogues (and I use all the time) is smuggle - now this can (AND WILL) get your team into trouble (normally at the worst possible time) but it does save a lot of trash clearing if your just after a 'speed run' in a dungeon - I tend to have smuggle on my mouse toggle (logitech G5) - so one quick flick and I can group stealth on the run (the on the run is the important part - i.e., I don't have to keep stopping to cast like some clothies which actually does save a fair amount of time IMHO)

I honestly have had no exp with RAF so can't help you in that area - I do recall a lengthy post on RAF in the past though so a mini-search might turn up some info for you

@ Mooni - the only reason I haven't mentioned the crusader line is simply because shd has a zerk and looks like they are enjoying it - simply, that's the reason why we are all playing (to have a bit of fun) so no good peeing on their parade

[shdwdrgn]

ARG I forgot about smuggle...having group invis is definitely a good thing I think. I have a G5 also, which button do you use on it for smuggle?

And you are right, I do love my zerk, been playing him since pretty much the start of eq2. However, I am aware of the cabilities of SK's also, that is why I think my next group will have an SK as a tank :)

Now that I know that one piece of information that I WAS missing...(group invis)...I'm thinking I'll do brig or swash for this group. Looking at abilities it appears the brig has more single target abilities, plus dispatch which is always good. However the swash has AoE (wow...good AoE with Hurricane) and hate transfer. I'm not sure how useful hate transfer will be with already having a coercer and dirge, but the AoE capability does sound nice....but dispatch can be useful also. I'm leading more towards the swash I think because of the AoE and I like some of their AA lines. Think this is sound reasoning? or am I forgetting about something else?

And for the people in the warlock camp..don't worry, I'll be having a warlock in my other group I'm sure along with the SK :)

I am still in interested in hearing about the lock though.

[Noxxy]

G5 settings:
- I set the mousewheel toggle/tilt to be '[' for left tilt and '] for right
- I also set it to global so ALL games use exactly this same setting (INCREDIBLY powerful in FPS...)

It makes things incredibly fast for me to 'flick' without thinking - for instance with a rogue:
- my rouge smuggle is sitting off on an unused bar with '[' as its key
- I have multiplicity as my virtual mouse
- so all I need to do is zip my mouse off to the left (I have the DPS account to the left of my tank account where the mouse normally resides) - 1 quick left tilt - then a quick flick across the screens to bring the mouse back to the tank
- honestly imho takes mill-seconds (definately seems that way now)

The beauty of the G5 mousewheel tilt and multiplicity is that the cursor has to be on the screen you wish to the tilt key to work on - this way I can set up different commands for each screen
- for instance, I normally run with a pally when going deep - '[' (left tilt) is my litte heal and ']' (right tilt) is the 'common' big one
- this comes in really handy for instance an easy mob you'll come across will be the crawler queen ('http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Plague-ridden_Crawler_Queen') in (Cavern of the afflicated)
- basically, after a few whacks the mob goes underground, but still causes damage to your group so you have to train it around for a bit before it resurfaces
- if your team is taking damage, and moving, the healers can't heal (i.e., not standing still to cast) whereas there's a good chance the pally will already be in the next position for attack - quick flick of the mouse - and even though it's only a mini-heal it's enough to top everyone up before the healers get to stand still and do their jobs

Hurricane is nice - but a shocker when you want to group mezz an encounter...(i.e., keeps hitting mobs = unmezzed mobs running round) - which is something to consider

Normally - when I run sk, it's the brig - pally is always the swash

TBTH, why not try both? I mentioned it in other posts but I think it is worth doing again - just race 1 of each to 20 and see what you see - think you will find that you have 'fanbois' with whole lists of pros'cons for each of the rogues and why theirs is better - so have a quick play and see which you prefer

[shdwdrgn]

Thanks for all the good info. I think I may try them both/all and see. Doesn't that encounter mez block AoE so hurricane wouldn't break it once it is on the mobs?

I have a little bit of time to kill while I decide how I want to do the other accounts. I currently have a troub and mystic on the current accounts that i could transfer to the new accounts and then betray. They are low adventure level so it won't help me there doing it really, but they are both high level crafters so I know I don't want to delete them. My other option is to just create new characters and keep the others for the future when I make another team, but not sure when that'll be so I cannot decide.

[Noxxy]

Funny - always thought the same thing re mezz too but each time one of the mobs gets bumped out of mez it will be the swash with hurricane running /shrug

Re transferring - 2 x transfers = 100USD - honestly don't know what you American guys pay per month but we pay 15AUD per accnt
- 50USD (per char) works out to be about 4 months of playtime for me - so really, you could easily get a char from 0 - 80 and get your 200aa in that time without the extra expenditure

Totally understand re the trades (as they are a humungous pain in the @ss) - maybe just park your trade guys off to the side for a later date and start up some new guys - you'll have plenty of char slots to burn

[shdwdrgn]

Hmm, this does put a kink in the swash idea. The brig may be a little easier to manage since they are mainly single target. Even with the hurricane issue and mez you still think the swash is better than the brig?

Cost per month is the same, just in USD.

I was considering waiting for the automated through the station marketplace to be setup which would cut the price in half, but that would still be pretty expensive. I think you are right, I'll just park em. and start new characters.

Also just thought of something else I forgot about...Warlocks get the portals. Which can be handy, but with the guild hall portals I'm not sure how useful. So far with the three I have I haven't really missed not having portals...

Edit: Just got done playing a brigand for a bit, lvl 9 so far..pretty fun so far definitely like it. But still have to try the other 2 hehe.

Edit 2: Also, what do you recommend for races? I'm thinking dark elf for defiler and dirge, but not sure about the defiler...Thinking Sarnak cause of a couple of the traits they get.

[Noxxy]

TBTH - I do run both rogues and I like both - It's just I have run the swash for longest so I tend to favour it more - as you've got the zerk + dirge IMHO I'd prob grab the brig as then you can better benefit from dispatch - be a nice whackfest

Portals are nice in the end game so that def would be a big positive to the warlock side as it saves so much travel time - personally, I just put up with boats and bells and plan out the shortest route before I even move

[shdwdrgn]

I was leaning towards the brig for this group also for the very same reason.

As for the portals, I haven't had one in group yet so I'm use to running around, plus the guild I'm in has the majority of portal's/bells I'd need in it and with the 15 minute recast of the CoGH it should do everything I need.

Since I know what I want now, I am currently working on getting my controls setup to be the most efficient. Currently I don't think they are all that great but they have worked so far. i'm pretty sure I'll need something better when I get into doing 6.

My current setup is such that my zerk is controlled normally, either through the 1 through = keys or the mouse. I control the other two with the use of the number pad. Here's how it looks, all on the numberpad:
0 = Assist
1 = Single target spells from Temp and Coercer
2 = AoE from Temp and coercer
3 = Debuffs from temp and coercer
4 = Single target small heal (temp)
5 = Single target reactive (temp)
6 = Group Reactive (temp)
7 = Single Target Large Heal (temp)
8 = Temp's single target ward that heals
9 = Group heal (temp)
Enter: Coercer's Peace of Mind

For 1 through 3, and I have macro in each of the characters that has all of the appropriate type of spells in it. The ones with the longest cast are at the top. This seems to work well if I keep spamming it to keep them casting. I also have each of the templar's heals set to cancel any current spell being cast so that the heal will start immediately.

I'm sure there has got to be a better way to do this, but I've gone through the wiki and forum posts and haven't really found anything. The wiki is where I got the idea to do the longest recast spells first on the macros and that does seem to work well.

I'm afraid that when I start adding in more characters I won't be able to use them all to their fullest. Spamming spells is great for a spellcaster, but for the dirge and brig I should allow time for the autoattacks also.

I know this is a HUGE question since there is so much you can/could do, but I'm totally lost as to how best to do this.

Thanks again!

Edit: After reading about some of the changes coming in the next expansion I wonder if I need to rethink any setups. Probably too early to tell, but some of the changes do sound promising...

[asgradth]

Shdwdrgn: Pick one and run with it. The core makeup of the team enables you to really never fail, the DPS toon is truthfully 'your call'. I can come up with valid arguments for either toon, and either will serve you just fine. I prefer Caster since i'm more of a 'Lazy' 6-boxer and prefer not to have to worry about position unless i 'have' to.

Hate X-fer: wizards, warlocks, swashes and brigands all have hate transfer, so don't worry about that. And yes, you still need it because Drige/Coercer bring LESS Hate to the table, but you still need to Generate Hate for the Tank, this is where your dps toon comes in. It will feed hate to the Tank, making it near impossible for anyone to steal Aggro once the tank gets it.

As for account setup... Spread out the RAFs or you'll find one account/toon gains xp way too fast and you'll have to disable all xp to let the others catchup, thereby wasting the RAF. Do one RAF for each existing account (3+3 i belive).

Smuggle/Group_Invis (swash) vs. Teleports (lock): Do you want to move around a dungeon quickly, picking off only the named... or do you want to move around the world faster and trudge through all the trash? If I had to do everything over again, I might could go Swash, but only for group invis. I'm running an Illy in my new 6-box team and i'm abusing Group Invis to every degree. There's nothing like clearing 6 named in Varsoon before the 1st one can repop!! I programmed a alt-mouse4 click to be group invis. Use a key that's easy to hit, and then force a modifier like alt/ctrl/shift, so you don't accidentally hit it and un-invis at an inopportune time.

And yes, Encounter Mezz is only broken when you direct target the mob and cast a single-target spell on it. I regularly start an encounter fight with an AOE Mezz, then follow up with AOE Nukes/Dots. Whatever isn't mezzed dies, the rest of the single target takedowns are cheeze. AOE Spells Can Not break Mezz, Period. It's a game Mechanic that I found hard to grasp after spending 6 years in EQ1 :cursing: . Hurricane, OTOH, does do weird things with Mezz. There are multiple posts on the official forums on this issue, read up on them for more info.

A few more notes...

You will never be happy with your team and it's setup. Never. Accept it. Even with my 'perfect' 6-man MT Group, a group that trounces any PUG and most normal Guild Groups, I wanted More (which is why i'm starting my 3rd team). Until your entire team is level 50 or so, you really won't know all that it can do. Your team at level 30 will play Completely Different once they hit level 50 or get another 21 AAs. Furthermore, until a Toon is level 30, it won't play any different than it's opposite (guard/zerker, warlock/wizard, dirge/troub, etc...), simply because the class specific spells don't really fire up until the late 20's and early 30's and do not finish firing until the high 50s, low 60s.

Shdwdrgn: You will never play your team to it's fullest. Don't even try. And don't worry! Even if you're only playing your chars at 60-70% efficiency, you're still going to play better than most PUGS. Adding to that, all your toons will be fully configured for Group play. Your Healers won't be spec'd for DPS. Your DPS won't be spec'd for Soloing. Your Tank won't be spec'd for Soloing. Your team will be 'optimally' configured, so they'll already be more efficient than most Solo'ers who run PUGs.

And here's the kicker... Once in awhile i'll drop a group member and bring in a Guild PC who needs an update in Chelsith or something... time and again, I hear that I run a kick ass team that is 'more better' than any other group the guild buddy has been in... And the problem with that is, from that point on, they keep asking me, "Hey man, can you run me through Voes really quick", and it's like... dude, I chose to 6-box so i wouldn't have to group with you! But I do it anyways, cause I know how they feel. Don't worry about being efficient, your setup alone is already more efficient than most PUGs, and that's before you start playing!

As for keys and spells. First and Foremost: Healing. Figure out how you're going to heal your team. Only focus on the major Heals and Wards/Reactives. Don't worry too much about the 'oh krap' 5min recharge heals, I rarely rarely rarely have to use them (in fact, I can't remember a single time they saved me). Once you have your heal keys down, slowly work in the rest of your keys.

I think you're over-thinking this, just a bit. You can create a macro button that has 'all' the heals in it. Each time you push that macro button, it will activate the next available spell (it's order is a bit off, watch it as you execute the macro to learn the pattern). Therefore, in theory, you can setup hot-keys like this:
1: Single Target Heals from both Healers
2: Single Target Wards/Reactives from both Healers
3: Aoe Heals
4: Aoe Wards/Reactives

In my case, I combined 3 & 4, more for ease of use than anything else. Believe you me, with a single target ward, single target reactive and the group wards/reactives... if all those are up at the beginning of a fight, healing will not be a problem. Especially since you're running a mentored Zerker. I honestly doubt you'll have to worry about healing until you get into a dungeon.

The best way to setup your box is to do what works for you. As i've said before, I've spent over a year tweaking my setup and i'm still tweaking it everynight. I've wiped all 10 hotbars and set them up from scratch multiple times across multiple toons. I've gone through 2 keyboards and three mice. I've almost completely re-mapped all the keys on my keyboard so that I can't even type text anymore... Almost every key does a special hotbar or button. It will never be perfect, but it will always be good enough.

The best advice I can give is to just do it. Just start boxing. Don't worry that you're not using all of your skills, use only the ones you need. Don't worry that your defiler or templar isn't doing DPS, they're just there to heal and debuff. Don't worry that your Dirge isn't meleeing, his dps won't matter too much until end game anyways.

Once your team is around level 28-30, take them into Varsoon's. I betcha you'll find your current setup isn't working and you'll have to start over again (that's what I did!). And then, when you hit level 80 and start doing Shard Runs, you'll not understand how you got this far into the game with such a messed up setup and you'll have to start all over again, again! (got the t-shirt on that one too). And finally, once you start raiding... yeah, you know where I'm going :)

Don't worry about what you're going to do later. Worry about what spells and Abilities you have right now and configure your group to use them as you go. Then, when you hit the next level, do it again... and again... It's alot easier to deal with if you only plan for what you have access too... Cause who knows, in 2mos time you may trash your team and start over again, again, again ! :)

g'luck and keep us posted on your achievements!

And Noxxy, to answer your question on the Wizard's DPS... She is a tad ahead of my Conjy in terms of flat out DPS... but i'm not seeing any weirdness. On the single up arrow mobs and below, stuff just dies too fast for her dps to really count... but against the triple ups and x2 roaming named mobs, she shines.

I've found a semi-decent way of keeping a mob in perpetual stun/root lock with my team (sk, illy, warden, conjy, wizard, troub)... so much so that I aoe rooted/aoe_nuked Mibble Toad and a few other named mobs in varsoon without ever having to use my SK. I know this won't hold up in RoK dungeons, but it's definately fun to aoe root/nuke orange named mobs :thumbsup:

[shdwdrgn]

Thanks for the LONG post asgradth. It helped me a LOT. I tend to over-think things trying to get the best when I could just do it and tweak as necessary.

I think I will make use of the smuggle/group invis a lot more than I would ports. I have been surviving without them so far so why not a little longer heh. I tend to be more on the lazy side so the warlock would be nice for that, but I want the group invis so I'll a scout a try..what's the worst that happens? I don't like it and remake the char? hehe

I'll give that healing macro a try. It sounds like a good idea to have the one macro do a round robin (as it were) of the different spells.

Thank you all for the help, and rest assured that I will keep you up to date and will try to help others along the way.

I have a couple of questions about the RAF. I wasn't able to find this information anywhere. How long do the perks last for? Such as the 3x bonus? I'm assuming the mount is permanent. Any other cool information they don't list about it? Is it possible to RAF twice on one account and get both of the mounts?

Thanks again!

[Captive]

I think my "temporary" RAF bonuses ran out recently. I can no longer "go to" a linked account. But my mounts are still available, so it appears those are not temporary perks. I haven't tried to claim a second mount on the same character, but I believe there are 2 available per account.

[Frosty]

Bah.. stupid home projects, I miss everything!



I'm from the SK camp.... and I friggen LOVE em. They can not take hits like a Guardian though, but the AoE aggro, and increased DPS make up for it.
Add in my Defiler and Warlock...and everything things drops FAST... I'm sure I could get a little more DPS out of this group if I dropped one of the healers, but I like the survivability of my group.



My playstyle is probably a little different than everyone else... I almost refuse to use any crowd control. My theory is that dead mobs can't hurt you. :thumbup:

[asgradth]

My playstyle is probably a little different than everyone else... I almost refuse to use any crowd control. My theory is that dead mobs can't hurt you. :thumbup:Frosty, your theory is Valid. At level 50, with my 'dps' team from above, mobs die so fast, that the only mobs I really need to heal on are Yellow ^^^ and higher. Anything else just DIES. And SK isn't a bad tank at all. Now that mine has 78 AAs and legendary/fabled gear from all the Everfrost/Lavastorm quests, he's holding aggro and taking shots ALMOST on par w/ my lvl 80 mentored Guardian (almost). And that extra Evac + Harm Touch just makes life even more fun.

An np, Shdwdrgn... Yeah, i'm long-winded at times... you should see my technical write-ups for failures I find while at work (i'm a cpu/chipset/video tester)... Even the engineers complain I give them too much info :p. So how's the team coming along? What level/AA's/Interesting things have you done/tried/accomplished?

[Redbeard]

edit: made my own post and it wont let me delete this, ugh

[Redbeard]

edit: made my own post and it wont let me delete, ugh.

[shdwdrgn]

An np, Shdwdrgn... Yeah, i'm long-winded at times... you should see my technical write-ups for failures I find while at work (i'm a cpu/chipset/video tester)... Even the engineers complain I give them too much info :p. So how's the team coming along? What level/AA's/Interesting things have you done/tried/accomplished?I actually thought it was well done and had a lot of good information so I don't think it was too much info.

My team is going well.

I decided to do a brigand because I wanted it to be a dark elf and figured I could switch to swashie if wanted. There have been a few pains along the way. I started them when they did the bonus xp weekend so that got them levelling fast heh. As of yesterday when I logged off my new toons were levels 71 with around 50 AA. i've been focusing on levelling and not AA. I've noticed that AA is actually easy to get at 80 now, especially with the bonus from the RAF. My oroginal 3 toons have each gone from around 140AA to 168AA or so since I started the new guys just from the xp while mentoring the lowbie (you may lose xp when mentoring, but you gain much more from the RAF bonus) so I figure it'll be easy to get more AA later. I've been mainly just going through the dungeon/instance timeline from eq2.wikia.com and moving up the list. My main goal has been to get them high enough to start doing the solo shard quest (which I know can be obtained at 74, possibly lower) because I know that will be good AA and xp for them also and then can go back and do quests, or whatever i want.

It has been a pain also trying to make sure the brigand is always behind the mobs for most of his attacks. What I ended up doing was adding a step to my follow macro that just broadcasts a step back to all the other characters so I can easily and quickly take them off and then I just have to move the mobs around correctly. I haven't yet figured out how to do stealth attacks though, so i know i'm missing a lot of capability. If you have any advice here that would be awesome.

As for my commands, I have it setup really simply. My dirge and swashie have all of their regular attacks (that aren't stealth/ranged) in one macro within eq2 and I just have repeatadely hit the key to hit that. I know its not the best setup but it works so far. I know I could do better but am at a loss as to how to setup the broadcasting to make this work. I would love to have some tips or examples to help me out with this :)

As for fighting as a team, it has definitely been a learning experience. I haven't had many problems for the most part but things are definitely getting interesting at these higher levels. I just completed Estate of Unrest yesterday while the toons were 70 and dinging 71 during it, so the mobs were all yellow. Had a couple of issues but mainly because I'm still getting the hang of everything. I was able to successfully complete the zone though.

I am looking forward to getting them up a few more levels and starting some of the shard instances too. This definitely brings a whole new "fun" factor to the game.

Edit: Also, how do you handle quests? I find it a pain to have to switch to each to pickup the quest. Which is one of the main reasons why I haven't done quests yet. This is especially painful since I've completed most quests on my three main so its only the new three that need it which means I have to keep an eye on them to see what quests they can pickup or where they are in them.

[sonicspectre]

Just started a RAF team with SK, Defiler, Warlock (adv/quest exp locked at 14) using IS/ISBoxer. I'm new to EQ2 and boxing. The only other MMO I've played was EQ; I played a raiding bard on and off from release until mid 2006. I've been doing alot of research here re: group composition and macros for the past month or so, so thanks to all the contributors. I'm loving EQ2 and 3-boxing so far and am already thinking about running a full group after I build my new machine, though I'll probably raise the trio I have now to 80 before adding another 3. I may be asking alot, but I want a low management/high damage group with good survivability. I've been reading alot about the various classes, but I have virtually 0 experience, so I wanted to get feedback on my current thoughts about what I might add:

+ 1 out of:

Templar
Fury
Inquisitor

leaning Templar.
Reactives seem better than HOT; templar buffs seem better than priest DPS for a full group. Would Fury be worth considering for the DPS gain?

+ 2 out of:
Troubador
Dirge
Illusionist
Coercer
Wizard


leaning Illusionist/Troubador.
I'm assuming the SK can get by without the
superior (?) aggro management afforded by the Coercer/Dirge. Is this correct? Also wondering if Ill/Troub overlap to an extent that I can replace one of them with a wizard. And whether the Dirge's disease synergy, (along with healing buff and aforemenioned aggro control) with my current trio is a big enough deal to take dirge over troub despite all the casters.

Now that I think about it more, a bard is probably going to be a non-negotiable team member since that's what I would play if later on I end up deciding I don't want to multibox (plus they seem pretty awesome in this game).

[asgradth]

Shdwdrgn: Good news! I'm about the opposite of you, my team is lvl 55 and they all have 90+ AA... I find the AA is easier to get from Named Kills while leveling, as opposed to going back and mentoring down. I guess since I already have an uber lvl 80 team, I have much more patience for the non-end-game. Congrats on Unrest. Being able to 6-box Unrest (especially the last 'fight') is an impressive feat. The first time I pulled it off, I had to go smoke a cigarette to calm down, heh. Everytime you run through Unrest, gather all the shineys, they sell for 1pp to 10pp on Oasis (or they did a few mos ago). Also, some toons need Unrest for their Epics, so be sure to let ppl know you can drag them through Unrest (or other zones) for a small 'fee'... muhahahaha.

Instead of having the toons 'backup' to stop them from following, just create a macro key with the command "/stopf", hit it and everyone will stop following. I do this regularly: drag my team near a corner, have them /stopfollow, then pull mobs to the corner. As for getting stealth attacks in, Good Luck. If you figure out an easier way, please let us know. This is why I rolled an all-caster team :thumbup: .

Collection Quests... I'm going through Lesser Faydark right now, none of the 6 toons i'm dragging have ever done Lesser Faye... Two of the early quests are Single Spawn Collections (first 12, then 15). How do I do it? One click at a time. Yeah, it's frikkin annoying. The first time you drag a 6-box team up to lvl 80, collection quests suck. The 2nd time you do it, they're annoying. The 3rd time you do it, you just don't care anymore because AA xp is AA xp and it aint comin easier any other way.

There are some tricks you can do on some collection quests like having the MT target the quest item, then all your toons "/assist MT", then you have one of your Macro buttons contain all the Harvesting skills (collect, gather, mine, fish, etc). I'd say about 25% of the time, you can do a collect quest with /assist and the Harvest Macro... but in the end, I've really just given up and gone the 1-click route times 6. Patience is really all you need... sortuv, heh.

Before you skip any quests (like collections), read up on the quest timeline in Wikia and make sure you're not missing out on a 10 quest chain (like Lesser Faye)... The AA XP is good, the Cash is good (x6) and to get to 200AA, you're probably going to have to do the quest at some point anyways, so you might as well do it now. That's my thinking on it.

As for Questing in general, when 3 toons completed the quests but 3 haven't... That is just, yeah, painfull. Whenever I bring up a new team, I generally run with a new tank for the first 30-50 levels, mainly so i don't have to keep switching to a 'new' toon and checking out his quests. It's much easier when the MT is the 'newbie'... I feel your pain, and you're doing it as best as can be done.

Sonicspectre: Templar & Defiler, together in the same team, is about the best heal setup any tank could ask for, so you're spot on there. The other two are up to you, honestly. I'm running a Troubadour & Illusionist with my SK Warden Conjuror Wizard and I absolutely LOVE it. When i'm not AOEing everything in sight, having four or five mezzes to work with really changes ... well, everything. You NEED a bard, either bard will work, but you need a bard for a good 6-box:
Troubadour: Compliment Casters. Their songs are more caster based and therefore all your casting classes will benefit from a Trouby.
Dirge: Compliment Melee and are required in the MT Raid Group. I love the extra aggro control the Dirge brings to the table. When I run my Guardian, I run him w/ my Dirge, no questions asked.

If you want to guarantee aggro control, run a Dirge/Coercer. If you want to do great casting damage and have more mezz abilities, run Troub/Illusionist. I tried runnign a Dirge/illusionist and Troub/Coercer and it just didn't feel right... but your mileage may vary.

Based upon my current setup, you are correct. The SK can get away without uber aggro control... Just make sure your Wizard isn't casting Ice Comet II on a mob that the SK doesn't have aggro on yet... yeah, big fail there :S

g'luck

[waterval]

I started out with a conjurer, then i added a warden. After a while i found this forum and completed the team to:

Guardian, Warden, Templar, Wizard, Conjurer, Illusionist. I played like that til lvl 74.

After some reading up ive now traded out the conjurer and the wizard for a troubadour and a shaman. On seperate accounts so now all 6 have the 25% extra runspeed cloak that stacks with anything.Utility and survivability should be ubermax now. I'm just dreading that dps will be to low to do anything. But i can always trade the druid out for the wizard.

[Noxxy]

Whoa there horsey!!!

Did I read right waterval - you're going with 3 healers???

You're going from:
- Guardian, Warden, Templar, Wizard, Conjurer, Illusionist
To:
- Guardian, Warden, Templar, Shammy, Troub, Illusionist

IMHO - Grinding will be so slow even baby jeebus would be crying!


But i can always trade the druid out for the wizard.
- Good idea ;) Whilst a wizzy mightn't be ideal, IMHO it's way better than 3 healers, especially with a guard MT

Just the thought of it and I'm nearly crying on the keyboard myself! /wipes away the tears

[waterval]

Hmm ok so much laughter even has an effect on me, new deal: druid is out wizard is in. but now i worry about grouphealing bein to low and i suck at positioning so all the mobs with aoe arc attacks are murder on my nerves.

Group is now:

Guardian Templar Mystic, Wizard Troubadour Illy.

Still sturdy but now not invincable anymore.

[mesmerise]

i was wondering , with a full melee team, how do you manage knock back effect, i was clearing hall of fate last time with my lv 70 toons and i was curious how hell it would be with a melee team, lot of mob casting knock back and it seems not only frontal and sometimes you can't just hug a corner or a wall.

[shdwdrgn]

i was wondering , with a full melee team, how do you manage knock back effect, i was clearing hall of fate last time with my lv 70 toons and i was curious how hell it would be with a melee team, lot of mob casting knock back and it seems not only frontal and sometimes you can't just hug a corner or a wall.Its can be interesting at times. But the knockback is mainly frontal that i have seen so I just make sure my tank has his back to the wall. In IS I setup a 2 step process for the follow key. The first hit makes all the toons follow, and the 2nd hit makes them take a step back and thus break follow. So my strategy pretty much starts with me finding where I am going to pull to and line up the slaves appropriately, then tell them to stop following. Then I pull and when the mob is in place he will have his back towards me. I try to avoid having the slaves setup in a spot where I have to pull past them just in case the mob does his knockback or another aoe while running past them because that would be bad. If something happens and I need to realign the slaves I tell them to follow again and then get them in position and then tell them to stop following and I can adjust the mob again if needed to make sure his back is towards them.

This setup worked pretty well for me in HoF. As i got higher though I got lazy and just kept them on follow most of the time which worked ok also..not as well for staying out of frontal AoE's and such, but the mobs weren't that hard at that point so it was ok heh.

I also don't necessarily aim to put the slaves behind the mob, I'm ok with somewhat to the side because most of the attacks the brig has can be done from the sides or back. I think only backstab has to be from the back. This means that if it isn't lined up perfectly its usually ok.

I hope this makes sense...if not let me know and I'll try to explain better.

asgradth: I decided you were right and so have started to do quests in fens. Well part of my decision was the fact that one of my toons needs max riliss faction so I would have to do it some point anyways. So I just started with Fens and will move up from there. I can do KP or whatever else later if needed I guess. But yes, my next team I will be doing the quests with. My main reason for not doing it this time was to make use of the xp bonus from the RAf, which also helps with AA at lvl 80, so I figured I could just use that to get the others caught up and I wanted to get my full team up to lvl as fast as possible so I could start doing instances and stuff.

By the way, since you have done most if not all of the high lvl instances do you think you could put them in order from easiest to hardest to box so I can know where to start, etc? or at the very least tell me which ones to stay away from :) I don't want to start one only to realize I can't finish because it is too hard to do when boxing. Any information for the high level instances would definitely be helpful.

[Noxxy]

For AOE rips...the MT always spins the mob

You can either leave the slaves on /follow or like shd suggested, use something like a /stop - both work fine as long as you spin the mob so it is facing away from the slaves - this is the ideal position anyway for the rogues to go to town if you have any

If you still find that your team is taking too much rip damage, I have to ask, have you been working DEF at all? If not, a handy trick is to go into Harclaves, complete the quest to get the buff, grab a whole herd of mushrooms and basically stand there getting ganked - DEF will go up pretty fast - good idea if you go this route to grab the cheapest and nastiest hex doll you can find as well and basically cast it at the same time to cap out your focus (from 20ish to 400 in a few mins at 80)

A simple tactic I use for nasty knockbacks - especially boss encounters:
- Have all your slaves on /follow
- pick a safe/confinded looking corner of the boss room or area you are in
- drive the MT straight into the corner
- get the slavces to step back (I have the slaves movement driven by the arrow keys)
- fine tune the slave position a little to consider the size of the mob (i.e., if the mob is huge, the rouges may actually be underneath the mob as opposed to behind so shuffle them back a bit more, etc)
- MT pulls mob
- runs into the planned corner
- spins to the face mob
- mob runs over and stands between your slaves nicely positioned between so no one but the tank gets the knockback

[shdwdrgn]

If you still find that your team is taking too much rip damage, I have to ask, have you been working DEF at all? If not, a handy trick is to go into Harclaves, complete the quest to get the buff, grab a whole herd of mushrooms and basically stand there getting ganked - DEF will go up pretty fast - good idea if you go this route to grab the cheapest and nastiest hex doll you can find as well and basically cast it at the same time to cap out your focus (from 20ish to 400 in a few mins at 80)

That's a great idea. My slaves have horrid def and focus. That will be a great way to get it up. Thanks!

[Noxxy]

Highly recommended for focus training at 80 and really does take <5?? mins to go from 0 to hero

If you find your not a lvl 80 - the mobs may have some colour so only pull a few at a time - and remember, as it's a solo instance you won't have anyone to heal or bail you out should you get into trouble

TBTH - any good grey dungeon is a good place to work some DEF (but it will be slower than harclaves I have found) - so let's say your lvl 50 - zip in BB and grab a group of grey gnolls, if your doing ok, grab another, etc etc

The beauty of going into a dungeon is you can bring your group and get heals or whatever BUT like I mentioned, it is slower than harclaves PLUS you may look like a bot team as you may have 5 guy basically standing round doing nothing with a whole herd of gnolls having a whack-fest on 1 char

Another point - especially on non-tank chars - go into your home town and buy the lowest level but fastest speed tin? or wood (whatever) item you can (think pierce is a tin spear? or a dagger, you should already have capped sla) - so for instance, a mage would go into town and buy the lvl1ish? wooden maple?? batons??? and a tin dagger - The idea is, if your standing there whacking gnolls or whatever, you might as well work your crush/slash/pierce as well (i.e., autoattack but fast to get the max benefit) - and of course, you don't want to kill the mobs (hence the use of lvl 1 items) as the longer they last the more skill-ups you get

On the point of longer lasting mobs - take off all your dmg shields, and proccing stuff - you do want the grey stuff to last or you'll quickly run out of mobs - and also, if you do need to heal, get 1 healer to do it and just cast the first (lowest) heal you can and leave big spaces as you don't want all the mobs to race off onto the healer until your ready for it

[Noxxy]

Guardian Templar Mystic, Wizard Troubadour Illy. Still sturdy but now not invincable anymore.
IMHO - you now have the ultimate healing duo (some ppl slot in a defiler instead of the mystic, just depends on what you are after spellwise and on what tank you use - you've already got the mystic so no reason to stop using it)

Both healers have group heals/proc/wards if required - but in all honesty - if the MT keep aggro, the need to heal the group will be kept to a minimum

Just to check - you have set all your heals as macros, yes?
- /clearallqueuedabilities
- /cancel_spellcast
- drag whatever healy spell you want into macro

This way you will get a heal when you need it as opposed to putting the heal in a spell que (don't spam the heal key or you'll keep cancelling the cast!)

As a extra confidence booster if your still unsure you can do what I do, I set all my heals up exactly the same - meaning - I hit a key which tells both healers to fire off the small heal, nother key = 2 x big heals, etc etc

The way I think of it is this way - I get both healers to shoot off a small heal, 2 x small heals = something close to 1 x big heal but for a lot less mana at a higher cast speed (most times) - an added bonus is the smaller mana cost is spread over 2 casters meaning both will have plenty in reserve

..and if your still worried on big pulls - IMHO...always....ALWAYS....pre-ward (group ward + group proc pre pull is your friend on big pulls then lay on the single target wards/procs once the tank has aggro)

[Lyssia]

I'm surprised no one from the SK camp has spoken up! Not surprised because it's right or wrong, but because it seemed like they were the preferred tanks (especially for multiboxers) and according to the Level_1-9 crowd.
So while this may be the most idiotic thing anyone ever said: I thought people used SKs more than guardian/berserker types.

Also Shdwdrgn, just as a heads-up: I tried to Refer-a-Friend my last account but something went wrong. I think it may have negated my RAF program when I put in my credit card info during sign-up. Not sure, but you might wanna look around some forums to find out if there's any traps, because it was highly annoying to have "single XP" levelling like that.

I've used the RAF a lot. You HAVE to follow the instructions here (http://help.station.sony.com/cgi-bin/soe.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=20665) exactly as written for it to actually link the accounts.