Duo Leveling Class Comps

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Other people might have different opinions but I don't feel like mages are the most optimal character to 2box. About the only thing I can think of is having a disc/holy priest with power infusion on follow to keep you shielded and healed while your mage AE grinds. Which isn't even necessary. Mages already excel at solo farming and AE grinding. Having a second character tagging along is only going to slow you down.

I don't think that "Mages already excel at solo farming" thing is going to apply like people think. In Classic, there were a few spots where grinding was viable, and those were eventually patched (e.g. slimes in Maraudon). I recall the issue with mages was mana, especially when fighting in busy areas; this is classic -- people didn't have nearly infinite mana like they do today. Evocation was on an 8-minute timer, and I don't recall mana stones being all that useful.

[Apatheist]

In Classic, there were a few spots where grinding was viablel.

There are guides available with the best spots for frost grinding in each zone. Anything with large packs of mobs, fast respawns that don't have ranged attacks is fine.

Once you get 50+ with reasonable gear you can AE grind DM:E drop runs, trash in BRD, etc. It's much faster than questing and you can pick up 40g or more per hour depending on luck with blues/epics, recipes, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMeBA0D1LJY

[Skybar]

Other people might have different opinions but I don't feel like mages are the most optimal character to 2box. About the only thing I can think of is having a disc/holy priest with power infusion on follow to keep you shielded and healed while your mage AE grinds. Which isn't even necessary. Mages already excel at solo farming and AE grinding. Having a second character tagging along is only going to slow you down.

I've already stated above but I feel like having one character capable of tanking and another capable of healing is the best duo comp. It makes forming groups for dungeon quests simple and heals make melee classes exponentially stronger. If you absolutely want to play a ranged character rather than melee, priest/warlock or paladin/hunter would be a more optimal choice than mage. Pets can tank any quest elite and warlocks/hunters can grind indefinitely with a healer. You'd even be able to solo DM tribute runs by yourself with a bit of gear.

What is it about 5boxing that put you off that you feel won't be an issue with 2boxing? Once you get your setup streamlined there's honestly not a whole lot of difference between managing 2 characters and managing 5 and the payoff is a lot higher being able to farm dungeons without having to share loot.

Mage+something might not be the most optimal but I really want to play mage though. Healer+tank sounds very nice in theory, and I might try that for an alt-team, but it won't hit the spot for the first round. For AE grinding a priest could help with holy nova, a paladin could hold aggro, warlock/hunter pets could gather the mobs up etc. It wouldn't necessarily make it more efficient, just more safe. On that note I didn't do a single bit of AE grinding 14 years ago with my mage, but that is mostly because I was scared of it

I reckon a mage+healer/tank could get into dungeon groups fairly easy as well. Also with any partner the mage could hit those elites fairly safe too. I see it more as a mage+helper rather than a super optimal duo, but I can't decide which helper would be the best one.

It's not so much about the amount of characters per se, but rather how the game plays and feels. I miss the feeling back in the day when you "were" your character, you felt so connected to it, while exploring the world and doing quests. With 5 I just don't get that, it feels more like a top-down game where you are commanding units rather than playing a character. But I still want to multibox to make life easier for myself, so a dualbox is kind of a middleground I guess.

[Apatheist]

dualbox is kind of a middleground I guess.

That's fair enough. I stopped thinking about characters decades ago since I haven't played a game I can't box since DAoC. I just became addicted to it and you're right, I do view it more like a type of strategy game.

In that case, I'd say a priest is probably your best bet. Power Word: Shield will help with your pulls and holy nova has no threat and will help with healing and DPS. You just have to be careful not to frost nova with your priest on follow behind you or all of the mobs will switch to the only character in melee range.

[Moorea]

What is it about 5boxing that put you off that you feel won't be an issue with 2boxing? Once you get your setup streamlined there's honestly not a whole lot of difference between managing 2 characters and managing 5 and the payoff is a lot higher being able to farm dungeons without having to share loot.

I don't know about OP but my experience 5 boxing has too often 1 of the 5 going wrong (long time to get last drop, stuck in staircases, missing one quest, etc....) much less likely/aggravation in duos

[Ughmahedhurtz]

There are guides available with the best spots for frost grinding in each zone. Anything with large packs of mobs, fast respawns that don't have ranged attacks is fine.

Once you get 50+ with reasonable gear you can AE grind DM:E drop runs, trash in BRD, etc. It's much faster than questing and you can pick up 40g or more per hour depending on luck with blues/epics, recipes, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMeBA0D1LJY

Ya know, I remember those guides. In early vanilla they were extremely viable. I remember in later builds the problem became mobs resisting your slows and roots, and there was a time IIRC in the middle where they had introduced resistance RNG but hadn't yet introduced the spell pushback -- it was still a complete interrupt. There was also a time where Blizzard would not immediately break roots; that was subsequently nerfed. That said, this was back when I was still frequently soloing my frost mage, and I didn't play mages again for quite a while once I switched to multiboxing. I suppose that this would work much better in terms of forgiveness with multiple Blizzards.

Anywho, it'll be interesting to see where the Classic servers fall in terms of those mechanics. I hope we get enough time and accounts in beta to confirm that's still workable. And how they progress through the buffs/nerfs/DR/RNG changes.

[Apatheist]

They're using itemization and talent trees from 1.21 so mages will have access to decent spellpower and hit rating talents right from the start. Will make farming even easier. Tailoring alone gives you access to like 60 frost damage worth of gear you can wear starting from level 20-ish.

I still prefer warlocks personally. Especially for boxing. The only reason I plan on leveling a mage is to get it to 60 for portals and water and then replace it with another warlock.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Tailoring alone gives you access to like 60 frost damage worth of gear you can wear starting from level 20-ish.

Now that is a good point.

[Generalbrock]

I'm trying to figure out the best duo for classic. I always drive from the healer, so I'm trying to decide on a good class to pair with a druid or priest.

Hunter seems like a bad option with the food management and dead zone. Warlocks also don't seem great with all their soul shard stuff.

Assuming CTM is in the game, maybe a warrior or Paladin would work? Or even a rogue?

Any thoughts on a good pairing for these classes?

[Fat Tire]

Assuming CTM is in the game, maybe a warrior or Paladin would work? Or even a rogue?

CTM and IWT are in the beta. No reason they wouldnt make it to launch.