Heading back to EQ2 to multi-box - could use some general advice

Greetings. After getting into multi-boxing with WoW with 5 accounts, running my characters through instances up to level 80, I've decided to take a break and go back to EQ2. I played EQ2 a year ago, 2-boxing a couple different teams. I ran into problems with my ISP blocking certain ports that made the game unplayable - but since I was ready to go back to WoW for a while I didn't bother getting it fixed. Now, I've got the itch to go back to EQ2. I've got some general questions that I hope that those of you more experienced with the current state of EQ2 can help me with.

I only got to about level 42 before, with around 50 AAs. I played almost exclusively with combat experience turned off, as I was intent on seeing as much of the world and doing as many quests as possible. I 2-boxed a conjurer and a fury, and a berzerker and warden - both teams worked quite nicely. But I don't have any experience with the game beyond that point. I did put together a decent nest egg, as I ran certain instances over and over again for master drops. I don't recall for sure, but I believe I have a few pp in the bank total and a good number of master spells. I think I have enough to outfit a new team, certainly.

I have two decent machines - including one pretty new machine that I put together last fall. It's a quad-core Intel (6600? - can't recall for sure), 8GB RAM, Vista 64, 10,000 RPM drive, Radeon 4850 video card, etc. From others' posts here, I'm assuming that main machine is capable of running at least 4 characters. My other machine is a dual-core Intel CPU, 4 GB, running 32-bit XP.

I've got two 28" monitors on the main machine, and one 24" on the second machine. As of this morning, I'm still downloading patches to the game, so I haven't even logged in to see how I can position windows, etc.

I'm not even sure if it's necessary to use two machines - but it does seem a like a good idea since I have the second machine right there. My initial thought is that I'd run my main (a tank) and maybe all my damage characters on that main machine. I'd control my healer(s) and buffer on the second machine. I plan to go with Innerspace and the other IS tools available. I used Octopus with WoW - and it seems like it would work as it's simply a software keystroke broadcaster. But I haven't seen anyone mention it in relation to EQ2, and I know EQ2 needs the windows to have focus - so I'm assuming Octopus won't work.

With all that background information in mind, I have some areas where I'd love to get others' advice.

1. Is a fully party of 6 very advantageous before the very highest levels? My initial thought was to go with 6, as I went with 5 in WoW to maximize potential. But EQ2 is a different game, and maybe a full group isn't that important. I know most quests were doable solo or as a duo - but dungeon running was tougher unless I waited until things were almost greyed out. Adding at least a third character would have made a big difference - so maybe a team of 4 would be perfectly fine. That's where I'd like to get some advice.
2. If I do go with a full team, what would be a good mix of classes? I know that EQ2 doesn't benefit from class stacking, so I'd want a diverse group that adds synergies. I just don't know enough about the current state of the game - or about the scout classes in general, as I've never played one - to really know which classes work well together. I've read through the posts here, searched EQFlames, and other places - but haven't found many posts containing advice on multi-boxing class compostion. I did find one on EQFlames, but it was 2 years old.
3. When multi-boxing, do you use heroic opportunities? I did when 2-boxing - but that was with one hand on each character's keyboard. With more than 2 characters, I'm not sure how I could pull off HOs - but I know they're very powerful. I'm just curious if others do HOs, and if so how. I suppose you could map each character's trigger spells to the same key, and cycle through that key - but it seems like casting the wrong spell by another character at the wrong time would mess up the sequence.
4. I've read a litlte bit about the RAF program. Since I have 2 active "veteran" accounts, one of which goes all the way back to the original release, should I refer 2 additional accounts from each of those legacy accounts? Or should I chain all six together - refer C from B, D from C, E from D, and F from E? If I do that, then nothing will be linked to one of my two original accounts - but I only want to create 4 new accounts - not 5. Not sure what the best way is to go about this.

For classes, I'm thinking of the following. I would create a "good" team first - so classes like shadowknights and assassins are off-limits for this first go-round.

• 1 tank - probably go with a guardian, as with a full party of 6 it seems like DPS can come from other places. But this is one of many areas where I need advice - maybe a more versatile tank would do better. I love monks - I played one in original EQ for years - but I'm not sure they're viable tanks in today's game. And my recollection from a year ago was that berzerkers were better multi-target tanks. I just like the idea of having a tank that buys me the most time - so a guardian is tempting.
• 1 healer - probably a warden. Not sure about this, either. I know I would sometimes run into mana problems with my duos - but with greater DPS I might be able to get by with a single healer. Obviously another option would be 2 healers - perhaps a fury and a warden.
• 3 mages - not really sure what to do here. I thought about the utility of an illusionist, a conjurer with a good DPS pet, and maybe a wizard or a warlock. That would be some good dps - but maybe it's a horrible idea. Again - I'm open to ideas and suggestions.
• 1 scout - If I go with a mage-heavy team, then my damage is caster-based. With that in mind, it sounds like the troubador is the way to go as they buff casters. I think melee-based scouts would be tricky to manage - so I'm thinking a single buffing "bard" type scout makes sense.

With all that in mind, here's one thought for a team of 6.

Tank - guardian

Healer - warden

DPS - conjurer, wizard

Utility - illusionist, troubador

My general strategy would be to charge in with the guardian, and break follow on the other 5. Try to take and hold aggro on the mobs with my tank, picking them off with caster-based DPS. The conjurer pet could add some melee or magic DPS - but given the overall makeup it might make sense to stick with the magic-based fire pet. My healer would hopefully focus almost entirely on the tank - if I pull agro with a caster I'll be in a bit of trouble. The troubador wouldn't likely go into range - he would stay back simply as a buffer/debuffer.

This is already an overly-long post, so I'll end it here. In short, I'm just looking for any bits of wisdom others can offer in regards to multi-boxing EQ2. Anything you can offer is greatly appreciated. I'm getting excited about getting back into the game again. Switching back and forth from time to time is a great way to breath new life into an MMO for me - in a year I'll probably be excited to get back into WoW :)

Quote:

---

I have two decent machines - including one pretty new machine that I put together last fall. It's a quad-core Intel (6600? - can't recall for sure), 8GB RAM, Vista 64, 10,000 RPM drive, Radeon 4850 video card, etc. From others' posts here, I'm assuming that main machine is capable of running at least 4 characters. My other machine is a dual-core Intel CPU, 4 GB, running 32-bit XP.

---

The 8gb one will run 5 with the settings maxed out. The 4gb will struggle to run 3, it will page ALOT in cities.

[quote='Captive',index.php?page=Thread&postID=18888 0#post188880]
Is a fully party of 6 very advantageous before the very highest levels? [/quote]

I personally went with a full party. The dungeons in the 70-80 range are looking much less forgiving than say, SOS. I'm sure that they can be done with less, and the lower level dungeons can certainly be done with less, but I figured may as well run a full party and drop toons that I don't need to than to need toons I don't have.

[quote]If I do go with a full team, what would be a good mix of classes? I know that EQ2 doesn't benefit from class stacking, so I'd want a diverse group that adds synergies. I just don't know enough about the current state of the game - or about the scout classes in general, as I've never played one - to really know which classes work well together. I've read through the posts here, searched EQFlames, and other places - but haven't found many posts containing advice on multi-boxing class compostion. I did find one on EQFlames, but it was 2 years old. [/quote]

First, everything is old in EQ2. Finding new information takes me all damned night half the time. We probably have some of the better information here going into the Wiki. For example, [url='http://www.dual-boxing.com/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Tank_Selection']Noxxy's Tank Comparison[/url] and in random places in the various EQ2 threads. My 70+ team in my sig is working really, really well so far. But it will depend greatly on 1. what you want to do and 2. what classes you like to play. For example, if you want to do a full group for 70-80 dungeons, you'll probably want 2 healers and a mezzer. If you want a caster-heavy group you'll want a troubador in there somewhere for the power regen. If you go with a Guardian for your tank, you can probably hybrid one of your healers to off-heal-off-dps since a guard can take a good beating, but dps'es for crap compared to offensive tanks.

Best bet is to just ask away when you come up with something. Someone usually has an answer and if not, it's more theory-crafting for us to play with.

Quote:

---

When multi-boxing, do you use heroic opportunities?

---

I just stick em in my stage1 & stage2 macros, which is my debuffs and main DPS buttons reesepctively. Since my macros are something like 7 spells long each, I've always got HOs started and am usually hitting the proper triggers just with the random spamming. I don't always nail them, but I ceratinly nail them a lot more often than I would if I had to remember to start HOS off a seperate button.

Quote:

---

I've read a litlte bit about the RAF program. Since I have 2 active "veteran" accounts, one of which goes all the way back to the original release, should I refer 2 additional accounts from each of those legacy accounts? Or should I chain all six together - refer C from B, D from C, E from D, and F from E? If I do that, then nothing will be linked to one of my two original accounts - but I only want to create 4 new accounts - not 5. Not sure what the best way is to go about this.

---

I am probably not the best person to answer that. We reffered mostly based on the horses :X

Quote:

---

For classes, I'm thinking of the following. I would create a "good" team first - so classes like shadowknights and assassins are off-limits for this first go-round.

1 tank - probably go with a guardian, as with a full party of 6 it seems like DPS can come from other places. But this is one of many areas where I need advice - maybe a more versatile tank would do better. I love monks - I played one in original EQ for years - but I'm not sure they're viable tanks in today's game. And my recollection from a year ago was that berzerkers were better multi-target tanks. I just like the idea of having a tank that buys me the most time - so a guardian is tempting.

---

Guardian is always a good starter tank. Paladins are supposed to be pretty good as well. My husband never really got into his bruiser and our berzerker team isn't up high enough for me to really judge them. The viability of all tank classes are currently under review, so everything is up for change right now. Of course, we know nothing right now, since they just scrapped everything they were working on and decided to start over.

Quote:

---

1 healer - probably a warden. Not sure about this, either. I know I would sometimes run into mana problems with my duos - but with greater DPS I might be able to let by with a single healer. Obviously another option would be 2 healers - perhaps a fury and a warden.

---

I'm gonna say you really don't want just 1 healer. 2 is the way to go. If you go with a Gaurdian, I'd suggest warden and mystic {since defiler is out of the question}. Mystic's wards will buy time for the warden's hots to tick and together they can dump out some massive healing. When not healing, the Mystic has a ton of debuffs to dish out. If you go with a monk, however, I'd advise against the warden, since thorns and spores would be severly underused on a class that relies on avoiding getting hit.

Quote:

---

3 mages - not really sure what to do here. I thought about the utility of an illusionist, a conjurer with a good DPS pet, and maybe a wizard or a warlock. That would be some good dps - but maybe it's a horrible idea. Again - I'm open to ideas and suggestions.
1 scout - If I go with a mage-heavy team, then my damage is caster-based. With that in mind, it sounds like the troubador is the way to go as they buff casters. I think melee-based scouts would be tricky to manage - so I'm thinking a single buffing "bard" type scout makes sense.

---

You'll probably want to drop a mage for the 2nd healer. I personally went with Illy for Mez and Conj for pets and CC.

For scouts, they come in 2 flavors, DPS and utility. Assassins, Rangers, Brigands and Swashbucklers lean toward the DPS. You'd use them in place of mage DPS if you wanted a more combat DPS group instead of caster DPS.

Troubadors and Dirges are your support classes. If you use a caster DPS group, you want a troubador for power regen, cooldown reductions, mental debuffs, magic debuffs. With a melee heavy group, you want a dirge for defense debuffs, STR & AGI debuffs, phy resists debuffs, attk speed debuffs, hate buffs, STR, AGI and Melee buffs, Phy DPS buffs, Parry buffs, melee Damage procs, and attk speed boosts. Troubs also have a very short, single-target charm, which can come in handy. Dirges have a single target fear instead, which I have not played with yet.

Troubs and Dirges can also DPS and debuff all over the place. I alternate between using my troub as ranged and melee DPS, depending wholly on how long I'll be engaged with said mob. For questing, things die fast, so I let him ranged DPS. In dungeons, I scoot him up with my husband's tank to stabby-stabby while I nuke away. Melee DPS is incredibly easy in EQ2 compared to WoW with the bungie-cord follow and will be easier once the new patch goes in. So much so, that I may try and talk my other half into a melee DPS group for the next round.

Shutting up and going to play now. :D

Quote:

---

Is a fully party of 6 very advantageous before the very highest levels?

---

• The only real advantage to having a full group, pre-endgame is for the pure overkill factor - pull rooms and walk away with the loot (BUT that does not mean you 'know' your character classes as brains are not required).
• To 'really' enjoy the game (i.e., at a slower pace and having to think about what you are doing, proper pulling, rip and aggro management, how/what/where/when to buff, how to use CAs, HOs, etc.) then I would whole-heartedly suggest only going with 3 characters - tank, healer, DPS - assuming you give it an honest shot, you WILL know a fair amount about how to play your choosen classes plus how to play EQ2.

Quote:

---

...and maybe a full group isn't that important.

---

• A full group is extremely important at the end-game for speed and improved ability to successfully clear dungeons
• Can 3 chars do most of the end game dungeons (RoK) - most certainly yes
• Can 3 chars do most of the end game dungeons (TSO) - most certainly no

Quote:

---

...so maybe a team of 4 would be perfectly fine. That's where I'd like to get some advice.

---

• A group of 4 is, IMHO, the hardest group to pick. But I would suggest MT, MH, DPS1, DPS2/CC. DPS1 for you, as looking over your spiel suggests you prefer casters, would be a mage or a warlock. DPS2/CC would be an illusionist as you wish to go 'good'.
• Why not go with MT, MH, OH, DPS? Healing over-kill for a small group. You will not realise the extra benefit of having a 4th char as it is healing focused (i.e., you may still kill too slowly due to poor DPS)
• Why not go with a bard instead of DPS1, DPS2/CC? Again, looking at your spiel, you appear to favour casters. Casters are squishy. I know that if I had a group of four I would perhaps be pulling more mobs than I could handle (as I feel I 'should' be able to handle 'uber' amounts). If I did happen to pull too many mobs, toss a CC, pick'n'choose the appropriate mob (healer first or lowest con whatever the situation) and go from there at a pace of your choosing (due to the CC).
• Are you sure you won't put a bard in the group of 4? Positive. Bards are excellent to have in a group - but given your stated preferences, for a group of 4, a CC may provide you with more options.

Quote:

---

If I do go with a full team, what would be a good mix of classes? I know that EQ2 doesn't benefit from class stacking, so I'd want a diverse group that adds synergies.

---

• I always run with the following group composition - 1 Tank, 2 Healers, 3 DPS (where DPS inc. utility and CC)
• To break this suggested group composition down further;
  
  • Tank is always a heavy (plate) tank
  • MH is always a shaman - wards, I win
  • OH can be any other type of healer (if you want extra healing Templar, more DPS fury/melee spec warden, etc., depends on what you are doing)
  • DPS1 - as opposed to yourself, no matter the MMPG I always go melee, so I would slot in a rogue here - you may prefer a mage instead
    
    • A note on melee classes - do not create a predator class for multi-boxing purposes. Too many attacks from stealth and a variety of positions.
  • DPS2/Utility - bard, which in your case would be the troubador
  • DPS3/CC - in your case the illusionist

Quote:

---

When multi-boxing, do you use heroic opportunities?

---

• All the time - 'free' damage / buffs
• Two ways to use;
  
  • For a particular class (say a rogue), place the starter and the required spell all in the same macro - 1 press and the HO goes off
  • Across classes (the way I use it), associate the the HO symbols with key presses. For example, I know if the HO is flashing the chalice to progress I hit num-pad 3 which is a mini-heal.
  • Just takes a little practise and time

Quote:

---

I would create a "good" team first - so classes like shadowknights and assassins...

---

• As per above, predators (assassins) are very difficult to multi-box
• Am I stating that from experience, Yes, I do have several assassins, but I can honestly say, I have to be like a monkey sitting on a bag of chisels to get them to parse high DPS due to positionals and stealthed attacks

Quote:

---

1 tank - probably go with a guardian, as with a full party of 6 it seems like DPS can come from other places.

---

• Excellent choice, as would be a Paladin

Quote:

---

1 healer....another option would be 2 healers - perhaps a fury and a warden.

---

• 1 healer - No, many deaths await you in the end game and HoTs, no matter how frantically spammed, will not cut the cake in a multi-boxing team venturing into TSO
• ...fury and a warden - No, too much overlap - both druids. You would be far better off teaming a shaman with either one.

Quote:

---

3 mages - not really sure what to do here.

---

• As per above, if you create a 6-man team, you will want to go deep TSO. You will need the extra healing. Lose a mage.

Quote:

---

1 scout - If I go with a mage-heavy team, then my damage is caster-based. With that in mind, it sounds like the troubador is the way to go...

---

• Yes, good choice

Quote:

---

I think melee-based scouts would be tricky to manage

---

• No, quite the opposite in fact

Quote:

---

With all that in mind, here's one thought for a team of 6.

---

• MT - Guardian - yep
• OH - warden - yep
• MH - ?
• DPS1 - Conjurer OR wizard
• DPS2/Utility - Troubador - yep
• DPS3/CC - Illusionist - yep

Quote:

---

My general strategy would be...

---

• If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion, even with a caster group, get the MT to pull the target back within melee range of your team. It all helps.

Quote:

---

My healer would hopefully focus almost entirely on the tank - if I pull agro with a caster I'll be in a bit of trouble.

---

• Not at all due to your healer casting via implied target.
• Healer will not be using /target MT. It will be using /assist MT.
• /target MT, the healer is 'locked' onto the MT. All heals will go to the MT even though the healer will still attack the MTs target.
• /assist MT, the healer is free to heal whichever group member the mob, which the MT has targetted, is currently attacking
• But what if an add comes along and takes a bite out of my non-tanking class? - group heal / instas, by which time your MT will have regathered the aggro (via AOE or changing targets)

Quote:

---

The troubador wouldn't likely go into range - he would stay back simply as a buffer/debuffer.

---

• Pure shame - you'd be surprised how much DPS you are giving up

Quote:

---

I'm getting excited about getting back into the game again.

---

• Then I wish you a sincere - Welcome Back!

How ironic that I found this thread just days after I started multi-boxing in EQ2 again (my friend and I are each 3-boxing together -- I used to dual-box on occasion, but my guild on WoW always drew me away from EQ2, which is no longer an issue). We did a lot of research via the official forums before creating a group about a week ago, and allow me to reaffirm what the others have already related to you, OP, in terms of group composition.

My friend and I ended up with the following group (we're "good" aligned, so keep that in mind):

Tank: Guardian (Due to previous experience, I chose the Guardian, but I'm curious to see what direction the next patch will take in relation to the tanking classes. Either way, I think that you can't go wrong with this class.)

Main healer: Templar (We chose this due to its reactive heals, which complement the Guardian class. Well, that and the fact that this is THE class my friend wanted to play, heh.)

Off-healer: Warden

DPS 1: Wizard

DPS 2/utility: Troubadour

DPS3/mezzer: Illusionist (We had originally chosen a Warlock, but after reading some more, I ended up re-rolling an Illusionist instead. )

We intend to complete as much of TSO's content as possible, and I'm fairly certain that we have an effective group combination on our hands, with each class complementing the others to an extent, which is what we were aiming for in the end. I'm really excited to be jumping on the EQ2 bandwagon again myself; it's been years since I played this game, and it seems to be a good time to go back as I've noticed an increase of articles/guides/newcomers related to EQ2 on this website recently, which makes multi-boxing more enjoyable in my case.

Also, OP, make sure to check out the articles that have recently been added to the Dual-Boxing.com wiki as there are now some very useful EQ2 guides available.

Thanks for all the excellent advice. That's one of the things I love about this site. I am really excited to start playing again. I'm still waiting for the patcher to finish downloading files - it's taking an awfully long time, but is making progress. I suspect by the time I get home from work tonight, I'll be able to log in and play. Based on the comments here, I've thought about some tweak to my proposed group.

Tank - thinking about a berzerker or a guardian. If I do run 2 healers, then perhaps the greater DPS output of a berzerker will be necessary, and the lesser defensive capabilities would be compensated by having 2 dedicated healers. Also, if berzerkers are stil better at AOE agro, then that might make large pulls simpler than having to continually switch targets with a guardian. I won't likely be using a ton of AOE damage, however, so maybe this won't matter a huge amount. Still, healing is in effect AOE damage - so having AOE agro control is going to be critical.

Healers - a mystic and either a warden or a templar. I'm leaning toward a templar now, since it's always felt to me that the regen healing of druids is inherently inefficient. You regen whether you're at full health or not - whereas a mystic's wards and a templar's reactive heals only activate when necessary. Ironically, both of the duos I ran before featured a druid - a warden teamed with a berzerker and a fury teamed with a conjurer.

If I go with a fury, it will likely be because I went with a guardian tank - as at that point I'll have sacrificed a lot of DPS for survivability. If I go berzerker, it seems like a mystic and a templar would be a good healing combo - but I'm certainly still open to suggestions.

DPS / Utility - 3 spots to go. One will be a conjurer - I just like the DPS potential of a conjurer, and have played one up to level 42 as part of one of my duos. Another will be an illusionist - I think the comments regarding crowd control are well-said. I have never played a mezzer-type class before, but the utility they offer seems to be pretty significant. The last spot will likely be a troubadour, to keep the mana (oops - I mean power) flowing. But I'm still kicking around the idea of a dirge - since it sounds like physical DPS is a lot easier to manage that in WoW, where positioning is absolutely critical.

The choice between troubadour and dirge almost seems to come down to whether I go with a guardian or a berzerker, and whether my conjurer uses a physical DPS pet (water?) or caster DPS pet (fire). I'll have one dedicated caster DPS - the conjurer - but could have the remaining majority of my damage coming from my tank, the conjurer's pet, and a largely auto-attacking bard. My original plan - for 3 mage DPS classes - doesn't sound like the best idea. GIven that, a dirge might be a better option than a troubadour.

One thing I can't recall is whether caster types stop mana (oops - I mean power) regen if they're auto-attacking. In other words, is there a 5-second rule in EQ2? If not, then it makes all sorts of sense to do what little extra damage I can with my support characters by turning on auto-attack and whacking away. But if I cripple my power regen by doing so, then obviously it's not worth it.

I think I've forgotten how Heroic Opportunities work. My hazy memory seemed to recall that when it was a particular "turn" on the wheel for, say, a healing spell, any other spell or ability by any other character would disrupt the chain. But it doesn't sound like that's the case. As long as a qualifying heal is cast within the time allowed, it doesn't matter if another class casts a spell at that same time. If that is in fact the case, then HOs seem more doable.

Here are a couple teams I'm thinking of. The first has more caster-based DPS, while the second would seem to feature more physical DPS.

• Guardian
• Mystic
• Fury
• Conjurer - fire pet
• Illusionist
• Troubadour

• Berzerker
• Mystic
• Templar
• Conjurer - water pet
• Illusionist
• Dirge

As far as machines go, I think I'll try to run my main - the tank - and the three DPS/Utility classes on my main machine. I'll try to run the 2 healers on my secondary machine. On my main machine, I'll go with my tank on one screen and try to split the three others on the second screen. On the secondary machine, I'll just split the two healers on that single monitor. Hopefully Innerspace is as easy to set up as it sounds.

I haven't given much thought yet to races. I really cringe at the idea of having different home cities for some of my team - so I'll probably base everyone out of Qeynos. I know the newer starting areas offer some nicer initial quests - but I'm feeling nostalgic and want to experience the caves, the sewers, Varoon's Lair, Stormhold, and all those areas that came with the original game. One place I'm not real anxious to see again is Thundering Steppes - I got really tired of that place before. I think I just need to make better choices about when to "walk away" from some unfinished quests, and turn on combat experience enough to progress to the next area. I got so bogged down in wanting to finish "everything" in a zone before moving on that I got pretty sick of a particular area.

One other thing I recall was that some heritage quests - Dwarven Workboots come to mind - required gathering skills to complete. I remember getting REALLY sick of gathering on 2 separate characters enough to max my skills to advance to the next area. Doing it on 6 characters just seems like complete masochism. I'll probably stick to gathering on my tank only, and just craft or buy items to replace the quest rewards that require gathering skills. I have a decent stable of crafter alts from my prior playing time, so I can whip up some decent items without too much trouble.

Getting real excited to play. Any other advice or suggestions anyone can offer would be very much appreciated !

Tanks

• TSO can be very brutal with a lot of things going on at the same time (scripts and such). Therefore, the more a class can 'stand on its own' the better

Healers

• whilst a mystic + templar provide some major healing, it has also been suggested on flames that this combination provides minor dps
• from my own experience using this combination, I can confirm that DPS is lowish (of course it depends on how I kit them out too, i.e., dps vs healing)
  
• by giving up a druid, you are giving up portals and in a game this 'huge' you're in for a lot of running

EQ2 doesn't have a '5 second rule' - mana regens during combat, hence why you have an illi (check out the illis spells on the eq2 wikia). You will also find either bard has an in-combat mana regen spell as well.

Way back at release - yes, interrupts of the HO wheel was an annoying factor - all changed now

In regard to choosing your home city, remember that if you use the RAF program you'll have the instant warp (a.k.a. "go-to") option available between linked accounts, which means you can use it to your advantage when choosing which starting area to level in.

For example, I wanted my home city to be Qeynos on all of my characters; however, I wanted to level in Timorous Deep since it offers some of the best armor for new characters, so I created all of my characters on the Isle of Refuge (Qeynos) and left by boat to Qeynos so that I received the "Call of Qeynos" ability, then proceeded to roll a linked new character in TD, grouped the good character with the evil one, and immediately warped to the other character's location via the "go-to" option, which will appear in the party member options sub-menu when you right click on a linked party member's name. Remember that in order to access the "go-to" option, the characters MUST be on linked accounts, but level/alignment doesn't have any impact in this case -- you can warp to any location you wish, just like WoW's "summon friend" option, which will be incredibly useful until you have ports available to you.

Yes, it might take a couple of minutes to warp all of your characters to TD (or wherever you choose), but it's much faster -- not to mention simpler -- than walking, which is something that I probably wouldn't have bothered with otherwise. After you hit 20, you can immediately warp yourself back to Qeynos.

Also, having two veteran accounts involved in the linking process will complicate taking advantage of the bonus xp/go-to features for the reason I stated above. I understand that you might want to claim your veteran rewards on both accounts, but I'm just speaking from personal experience in this case. My friend chose not to link his accounts to mine this time, for example, and I'm finding the lack of a "go-to" option between us to be really irritating. As long as your characters are always grouped with each other, I don't see why you would have an issue, though, since you wouldn't be having to second guess which account is linked to which in that case.

I use Myst + Temp because we have a SK tank. The DPS I personally lose on the healers is compensated for by the SK's damage. If my husband was running a defensive tank, I would probably find it healing overkill to use the two together. Really, the regen healing that druids bring is only half of their aresenal, they have some very, very nice direct and group heals. If you've got a strong defensive tank, 1 main healer and the druid should do nicely.

I'm going to have to say that unless you are using physical DPS, you don't want a dirge. If you go Conj, Illy, then you have 1 physical damage to 4 classes that will get direct advantage off troub spells. By the way, the Fire pet will out DPS the Air {physical} pet in any fight longer than a few seconds. With the power regen coming from the Troub, your pet should never run out of power, which is the only point where an Air Pet looks better than the Fire. ;)

But back to the Troub vs Dirge...You will still get buffs a plenty for your tank. STR STM buffs, Attk Speed buffs and Defense buffs are all "always" buffs from my troub. Illy provides single target buffs for the tank of spellshield and attack speed {does stack with the troub} and can also AA into a single-target double attack buff for the tank. With a talented dog on the Mystic you can further boost those attack speed buffs. Mystic also provides single target STR, STM, AGI and HP and PWR buffs for the tank. This doesn't even go into the proc buffs and attacks you get from the different classes. So you will be in buffs up to your eyeballs. Overall, the Dirge will do very, very little for your group. At best he would provide a minor DPS boost by debuffing the target for physical damage. But the Troub will provide boosts for entire group.

Here's a comparison :

[align=center]Troub -------------- Dirge

• Debuffs against all magical and mental resistances ->>>>>>>- Debuffs against physical damage done and disease
• Buffs Focus, Aggression and all casting schools ->>>>>>>>>- Buffs Group Combat Arts
• Additional Damage Via Mental {Proc on Cast} ->>>>>>>- Additional Damage Via Disease {Proc on Melee Attack}

[/align]

We went over races before and I think we all agree, smaller is better, heh. While you may be nostalgic, please do yourself a favor and get the gear from the new zones. It's very nice gear that will hold you out a lot longer than the old stuff, which will be very important because recruit-a-friend makes leveling incredibly fast.

I wouldn't worry too much about location. With RAF, you get a "goto" option in your right-click menu. I'm set up C&D > A E&F > B, A being my main account, B being my husband's account. I run out to where I want to go, my husband runs out there, and I just use the goto to summon the rest after we're done repairing, selling and whatnot. Eventually I may set all my toons to the same location, but no need at this point.

Since this thread is full of very good info, I'll keep this short... I've played every class up to level 40, at least. I've created over 30 different group configurations and tested each group in at least 1 dungeon. After nearly 6 mos of constant testing and adjustment, i've settled on the following team: Guardian, Coercer, Templar, Defiler, Dirge, Warlock. If you replace the Warlock with an Assassin or Warden, you have the perfect MT Group for a Raid. Thankfully, I have a lvl 80 Warden on the same account as my Warlock.

My team is lvl 80 and I've spent the last three weeks farming Crypt of Agony, Karnors Castle, Sebelis, Vault of Eternal Sleep and all the names in Chelsith up to the final mob. I've even teamed up with another 6-boxer and we cleared all the trash out of Hate (x4 mobs) and got some nice fabled gear. My main team is 2 shards away from full suits of T1 Shard Armor. And for the first time last night, I cleared all of Maidens Chamber and the biznitch dropped a regular treasure chest /sigh...

Depending on how you control your other toons, i've learned that this group config's survivability is the highest of any group config i've tested. The DPS may be average... but you really gotta do something stupid to wipe (or just have bad luck) due to the way the Coercer & Dirge move Aggro around.

I love my current 6-box team. I want more DPS... but each toon is integral to the teams success. Maybe it's the way i built AA's or maybe it's my playstyle... All I know is, Guardian Coercer Templar Defiler Dirge Warlock = Pure 6-box Goodness.

Soon, i'll bring up a 2nd Quad Core machine, buy four more monitors and create my pure DPS group on a 2nd set of 6 accounts so I can start solo raiding the new 2x content when it's release: Monk Warden Troubadour Illusionist Wizard Conjuror. Most people tell me to go fury, but in this group config, i don't need more DPS, i need rest-assured good healing.

g'luck out there,
Pang