Team selection help

[Captive2]

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).

[Sazed]

Good/evil toons can group togther, there is no issues there.

Evil/neutral toons are- SK,Bruiser,Zerker, Guard, Assassin, Brig, Troub, Dirge, Coercer, Necro, Wizard, Warlock, Inquis, Defiler, Fury.

If you do decide to go with a fury I would pair him with the defiler over the inquis. Can group ward then use the druids heals to catch up. You would be pairing the best single target healer in the game with one of the better group healers in the game. But you have a similar setup now so maybe you wanted to try another path.

I melee with my tank and dirge, any more then that for me would be too much and would lower the effectiveness of my other toons. That is the main reason I go with a caster heavy group, I seldom melee at all on my troub.

Your SK will get an end line ability in his EoF AA tree called Reaver or Reaving, it adds a lifetap effect to all your spells. Add that and the group and single target taps the SKs already get and they can heal themselves some to help lessen the load on your healer. SK also get a ton of "save" spells that will make you imune or far less able to be damaged for 10-15 seconds. Most of these are AA abilities, I know there are 3 that I can think of without looking it up. At 80 they also get bloodletter which is very useful and brings the number of saves up to 4.

TSO missions are not bad at all, you should try running them with your current setup. You cant get the shard missions until lvl 75 but you can run the zones anytime past lvl 50 for XP, AA and loot. I would start with the everfrost zones and see how you do. The real key to doing TSO zones is to have your tank geared as good as possible.

You are correct with everything you said about the way each healer does his heals. At 80 templars get a ward in addition to their two reactives, im not sure if an inquis does or not.