Interesting thoughts. I should have listed my current group; it may have shed some light on what I’m looking for. My current team is a Guardian, Warden, Mystic, Troubadour, Conjuror, and Illusionist. It’s probably not the ideal setup, but I’m really enjoying it. I’m currently level 68/69, with about 135 AAs.

Once I get tired of this group (level 80, 200 AAs, epics (mythicals will be out of reach), maybe some shard armor, etc.) I want to start a different group. I’ve been thinking about this lately, just as a fun train of thought. Since my current team is good, I thought I’d try a Freeport-based team just so I can experience the zones and quests on that side of the fence.

I was thinking I’d like to try 6 characters I haven’t already played. That’s tougher than I expected it to be, because it seems that the kind of group I enjoy really lends itself to the illusionist / troubadour pairing. I’m totally with you on that combo; I was just looking at possible Freeport-based equivalents.

I honestly don’t know much about the classes I haven’t already played. I know plate-based clerics are all about reactive heals, chain-based clerics use wards, and leather-wearing healers use heals-over-time. I know dirges are better with melee classes, while troubadours enhance casters. Just generalities, basically – nothing really detailed or based on experience.

I understand your point on dual-healers; most of the time I don’t require that much healing, but when I go after epic targets it’s often a necessity. I hope eventually to be able to do shard runs, so that double-healer setup seemed necessary. From everything I’ve read, TSO dungeons are a lot tougher, and that’s supposedly where dual-healers allows for a little greater margin for error.

I really like the idea of the SK tank (I also want to play a monk tank at some point, even though it seems people don’t often use them as tanks). So starting with a shadowknight tank, I thought I’d try a defiler / inquisitor combo for healing. I’m not sold on either of those – I just thought they would be a fun change of pace. I’m not opposed to a fury – that would bump up my DPS significantly. I just want to make sure that I can keep up with healing a tank that’s not as hardy as the guardian. It sounds as though the fury’s healing is probably the weakest of the 6 healer options – but again that may not actually be true.

I am not sure what coercers bring to the table, but I figure they must be relatively analogous to illusionists. Most people suggest that a full group of six always include an enchanter – either a coercer or an illusionist. So I figured I would include the coercer.

I love bards, and figured I’d try a dirge as I’ve already played a troubadour. I realize the SK is partly melee and partly magic, so it’s maybe not a perfect fit. Because dirges are more melee based, I figured I’d round out the sixth spot with a melee dps class – which I know NOTHING about. It looks like assassins are largely positional (and I never use stealth-based attacks with my troubadour so I’d be foolish to anticipate using them with the assassin). So I’m left with the brigand, possibly a bruiser, or maybe the swashbuckler (although I didn’t think swashbucklers could be based in Freeport).

So that’s how I ended up with the idea of this group:

Shadowknight
Inquisitor
Defiler (possibly fury here)
Dirge
Coercer
Brigand / bruiser / swashbuckler

With only one “pure” melee character in there, I have to consider the option of swapping it out for a warlock and then swapping the dirge for a troubadour. I’d still have a group with only one character I’ve already played, and it might be a stronger group:

Shadowknight
Inquisitor
Defiler (possibly fury here)
Troubadour
Coercer
Warlock

One last note; it’s clear that I need to learn more about what classes are allowable under good or evil. I thought coercers were evil only, and that you couldn’t even group one with a good class like a paladin. From your post below, that’s clearly not correct.

I guess this is a big part of the fun of the game, especially with multi-boxing - trying to figure out optimal groupings, and learning how characters support and synergize with each other. Please keep the comments coming; I enjoy these boards (I got started here when I was 5-boxing WoW, but have put that game on hiatus).