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Question - 6 box group composition suggestion / Live (1 Viewer)

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Xeoh35

Level 2
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Nov 29, 2016
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Hello,

I am a returned player from 2002 and playing 6 box since March of 2022. Initially the group composition was WAR/CLR/BRD/DRU/ENCH/MAG. They all reached level 120, and working on AAs now. However due to the composition being... too safe, the lack of DPS becomes obvious after entering ToL content. So I replaced the ench with a Necro, now 117. However this have left me with having trouble slowing the mobs. I am using the brd to slow and necro for undead slow. But for the most part, can´t slow the mob fast enough like I could with ench.

My ultimate goal is to be able to do Heroic Adventures of all expansions (If possible), with my group. Gear wise my warrior ir mostly COV raid gear, but my other members are mostly on ToL Tier 1 piece that can be bought in the bazzar.

The problem I am having is the following. I really like the druid dps, and backup healing. But the mana issue is a problem. Casting the 3 dots depletes her mana quite fast. I am using Brd as a slower. Athough previously used Ench as the main slower. Crowd control was done previously by ench. Fast and efficient, with brd not so much. Usually end up tanking all the pulls I made, so I try to be more careful on pulls.

Since I have a 109 shaman on a different account from the 6 characters mentioned above, I was thinking on replacing with one of my characters, for a dedicated slower, and possible ADPS with the puma line of spells for the pets. Was also considering BST as well but not sure how would that fair. Unfortunately I do not use Kiss assist, so a bst that only melee, cast slow and buff not sure how much will that bring to the table.

Would BST or SHM benefit my current setup with the goal I have? Or should I put the Ench back in replacing one of my characters? Would like to also know the "Why replacing this class with that" to further understand the reason behind it.

Thanks!
 
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Both will work - really any group you have will work - its more about what you want to play


SHM can both be a main healer and slower once you get him the AAs and leveled up
I use BST as slower in my melee group - works just fine

Enc with tash totem aura up will out mezz my bard all day long



You kind of have a mixed bag of toons at the moment -

I have 2 different group set ups
one all casters - 4 mages, 1 enchanter - and healer
one melee - sk,brd,2 rog,bst and clr
 
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If you want to max DPS and downtime, I would suggest building towards a 6 man group that is either caster or melee based. Get the best buffers/debuffers for that group. Safety was a good thing to build for in 2002, but corpse recovery and transport are much less of an issue now even if you have neither of those abilities in your group. Worst case now is you might lose a good camp spot or have to restart a mission.

It also turns out that quickly melting every mob in range makes camp very safe.

Drop Bard first if you are staying caster focused - Brd+Ench in same group is a lot of overlap on debuff/mez/regen. Bard is more help to a melee group (overhaste/weapon delay reduc/atk.) The run speed and AC-boost for war are nice, but if you want DPS you need to give something up.

Drop Druid second if you still want more DPS - They are great swiss army knives, but as you noted they are mana hogs when you go DPS mode. They do add group mana regen, fire/ice debuffs and crit boosts to caster group, but giving up that slot for pure DPS can be a good trade. Since you run a CLR already you should not need backup heals and their hp buff is same line. Druid does pair decent with BST or Sham as backup, but then you are splitting group again between caster or melee buffers.

More mages? - If you are playing manual that is an easy class that ramps up DPS for the group.

Wizard? - Replacement for Druid, maybe? Easy to manually box and better self-mana regen.

Necro - I do not find myself recommending necro for 6-box, particularly once you add KISS. But if you still play manually they are fun and easy. Great DPS on big HP mobs, get your DoTs on and you can ignore them for a few alt-tab cycles, no mana issues and another pet.

BST - Not ideal, but OK. So you get a pet and sham-lite buffs, but this is a melee class that buffs melees. A little boost for your pets/war but not a huge DPS boost. If you just want to try the class, then that is enough but it is not what you are asking for in the post.

Sham - No. This is going back to safety, not DPS. Sham is melee boost and better slow, but the slow from Ench is plenty for War/Clr combo.

Drop CLR and keep DRU - No. I have tried it with a WAR/DRU+caster group and it still wipes. Druid can not output the heals in a bad pull, even with Ench on mez. If you want to manually pull with CoH trickery, maybe. Druid as main healer is this best max-DPS solution for a caster group, but I was not happy with it for long duration play.

Melee group? - So you could go the other way and build for WAR/CLR/BRD + BST/Melee/Melee. Great for when you add more automation, but melee are still hard for manual play.
 
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Thanks for the replies. I use ISBoxer as my tool to multibox. So basically if I want to stay caster focused the best change would be: WAR/CLR/ENC/MAG x 3, of if I want to keep necro MAG x 2. Since I would like to keep snare for pulling purposes like Coth pull, it would be either keeping the NEC or the DRU. But I guess making another MAG would be the best solution for DPS increase. Yes currently my mage is very close on DPS with my war who is raid geared when dual wielding. So I can imagine adding another one would be a huge increase in dps.

I will first try replacing my brd with Ench and see. Once I am done leveling the necro will create another Mag and see how it goes. Thanks a lot for the replies, I did not see that shaman were more beneficial toward melee. Thought the puma line of spells and pet army could lead to some dps increase. Same goes with bard. The warrior may lose some dps but the DPS gain for another mage could probably be much greater over all.
 
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@Xeoh35 Does your druids spell level and item effect match up? As for your current problem are you using mage aoe debuff before bard uses aoe mez or aoe slow? I think your going to be told to ditch the necro and i'll say try a monk. The holy 3 are 1tank 1 healer 1 crowd control. the rest depends on strategies and having fun. Tell us how you play and use your group. I can say your dps needs to be on point, because a lot of content seems require timely responses or things go south. If you bring back enc try bst instead of bard.
Beastlord Hybrid Monk/Shaman. I'm told he has the best single target mana regen.
/alt actNameLevelCostRecastEffects
3817Focused Paragon of Spirits (42)120 ToL35 / 62584s T39Cast: Focused Paragon of Spirit XXXI
Focused Paragon of Spirit XXXI, when activated, shares your natural attunement with your target, restoring 925 mana, then increasing health regeneration by 9200 points, mana regeneration by 1700 points, and endurance regeneration by 1225 points for 36 seconds.

 
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Thanks for the reply. Right now, what I am doing is trying to create a group that can farm ToL HA. I guess mostly Shei alone. Currently with the group I had WAR/CLR/BRD/ENC/DRU/MAG I could not defeat the ToV HA of Seeking the Sorceror due to lack of DPS, basically could not burn the first boss fast enough and got overwhelmed with adds. So I started finding options and though, how about a necro. They are good dps, specially towards mobs with high HP. But this was when I did not have grinded AAs. So since then I have been trying to modify my group. It took me roughly 5 month to get all characters to 120. (initial group). I would like to start named camping as well but thought first I should get my team ready before doing it. Could be wrong, and I simply should start doing this right now. Many of my characters does not have augs slotted in their gear, which it could be another hole I need to fill. Also have not done much content clearing of past expansions. I did clear CoTF expansion and got the AAs. But everything after this expansion till ToV I still need to complete to gain those extra AA focus.

The druid has mostly ToL tier 1 gear. Meaning Full Waxed gear, some drops from TAs like Shei, and others are from CoV gear. I do have the focus augumentation of ToL. AA wise the druid has about 37k so far. Just finished the primal nuke focus and all 3 dot focus.

Mnk will be a hard one since I have tried boxing a Rogue and did not turn out well. Way too many discs to look over and too many abilities. I believe monk has equal if not more abilities and discs to rotate to do good damage. Since I would like to focus on caster side, prefer not to mix another melee unless it can result a good sinnergy like BST with the mana regen is very tempting. However if fights gets shorter, the mana issue may resolve as well.

For instance when I was doing the ToL Mercenary in ME or UP, the mob took about 60 seconds to die. Sometimes up to 120 seconds depending on the mob. It takes about 5minutes to kill a named.

How I play on my current setup? If the pull is easy I pull with warrior. If not with bard. Debuff with both mage and druid, followed by a brd slow or necro slow if its undead, send pet and dot the mob. The rest of the fight is mage and druid nuking, I try to move the bard but most of the time she stays singing with the casters, rotating abilities and clicking epic 2.0. On encounters that has mechanic which for me the most mechanic heavy HA I have done is the AoW HA in EW. The ducking, prioritizing adds, not over damaging the boss etc. I have cleared Seeking the Sorceror HA as well, using brd to do the add mechanic. Rooting SOME adds with the druid. Now I only completed this event once... so can´t say if I can repeat the process. How are my character after each pull? On trivial mobs such as Restless Assault Cave grinding, druid will not dot. Necro does... what she can, which mostly is summoning pets and casting quick dots. Mage and warrior does most of the work. On ToL content, usually I have to dot with the druid or else the fight will prolong by quite a lot. Which means druid will almost always start to depleat mana, followed by the mage who is constant nuking and summoning pets, and lastly the necro.

So the idea is that on ToL content I need either a DPS increase to reduce the fighting time, or get a better mana regen. WIth the loss of the chanter the regen the team has is the druid skin, self regen buff and brd. With the re-introduction of the enchanter, and adding another mage possibly makes the fights last less, which means less spells needed to be casted etc. Have to also be careful on fights like Shei which needs at least a rooter or mezzer for the event.

It turned out to be a very long winded explanation but hope I manage to make you get an idea of how things goes.
 
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I have noted this a couple times throughout this forum; for me, I eventually went to a melee heavy build for the mobility (the ability to move AND still cast/dps/etc)... but I have run two different setups... pal shm brd ench wiz mag (fully caster, bard just for the utility), was successful, but just had to stop too much to cast and whatnot when fights sometimes require a lot of movement... as melee, I love sk shm brd pal zerk BL so far... I might consider going with pal shm brd zerk BL mag/rog (haven't full decided that yet)...

but otherwise, I just try to enjoy the variety of characters the game offers, the buffs, the styles, etc... I think I have more fun experimenting, than I do anything else!

Good luck with your trialing! It'll keep you busy! :)
 
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Since you are essentially playing manually, I suggest WAR/CLR/ENC/MAG/MAG/Necro. I enjoy my necro and their DPS is pretty amazing once you get the requisite AA's. For example, Defiler's Synergy grants a 40% increase to damage dealt by critical direct damage and DOT's. This synergy will proc each time you cast Proclamation for Blood line of spells which would go well with Mages. Regarding mana, don't lose sight of the necro mana taps that will help significantly. Mind Atrophy steals 4355 mana instantly and restores 1462 mana each tick for 24 seconds. Use the Cremate Bone line of spells to turn a "live" mob to undead for a short period of time. Then use the Necro slow spell or Scent of Thule AA to debuff/slow them. I also use my Necro to mezz and reposition adds via their mezz spells and Pestilent Paralysis.

My current group is PAL/SHM/BRD/ROG/RANGER/Necro. If the mob is a humanoid, it will get deleted very quickly from the ROG/RANGER assassinate/headshot but if it is not, the necro will out DPS them a majority of the time. I play on the Test Server which means MQ2 is not always available, so I have learned to play manually as well.
 
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I've said this a few times before, but it stays true. A traditional setup or "holy trinity' setup is the only way to go. However, I feel that only applies to the heroic group content. Why? Cause some of them missions hit like trucks, and you move all over.

But, if you plan to camp names for augs ect. You are setup! I'd suggest driving the necro, and have everyone else setup to assist you. Why? You can chain pull or root mobs off to have them lined up for exp. Plus, you can maximize the potential of the dots.

Just my two cents, but play what you enjoy. Adjustments will be made will all content as it changes. It's why I've been working on a caster and melee setup. Just in case I need to change up my group.

Best of luck and happy hunting
 
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I am partial to casters so I am running SK, Enc, Clr, Mag x2, Bst.

You have your core covered with the War, Clr/Shm, Enc/Brd. From what I have seen, the current school of thought would be for a melee focus: War, Brd, Shm, Bst and then your choice of Rog, Zerker, Mnk, Rng.
For caster focus: War, Enc, Clr, Bst, and then Mag, Nec, Dru.

Once you cover Tank, Healer, CC, add the dps you will enjoy playing and looking at for a few years. As always, have fun. If fun is five mages and a beast lord, go for it. If fun is 6 clerics, go for it. Even if you are f2p, you are making an investment - your time. The return on investment is enjoyment, so decide what you enjoy and set the goals accordingly.

Sorry I rambled at the end.

Be well. Happy gaming.
 
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Elbrin said:
you are making an investment - your time. The return on investment is enjoyment
Click to expand...
I am constantly telling people we ALL pay to play, whether that is with your time and/or money... :) and beyond those basic elements, most people make more $$$ than they have time, which is often why they "pay $$$ to play"... as an adult with kids, life gets crazy busy, period! :)
 
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Xeoh35 said:
Hello,

I am a returned player from 2002 and playing 6 box since March of 2022. Initially the group composition was WAR/CLR/BRD/DRU/ENCH/MAG. They all reached level 120, and working on AAs now. However due to the composition being... too safe, the lack of DPS becomes obvious after entering ToL content. So I replaced the ench with a Necro, now 117. However this have left me with having trouble slowing the mobs. I am using the brd to slow and necro for undead slow. But for the most part, can´t slow the mob fast enough like I could with ench.

My ultimate goal is to be able to do Heroic Adventures of all expansions (If possible), with my group. Gear wise my warrior ir mostly COV raid gear, but my other members are mostly on ToL Tier 1 piece that can be bought in the bazzar.

The problem I am having is the following. I really like the druid dps, and backup healing. But the mana issue is a problem. Casting the 3 dots depletes her mana quite fast. I am using Brd as a slower. Athough previously used Ench as the main slower. Crowd control was done previously by ench. Fast and efficient, with brd not so much. Usually end up tanking all the pulls I made, so I try to be more careful on pulls.

Since I have a 109 shaman on a different account from the 6 characters mentioned above, I was thinking on replacing with one of my characters, for a dedicated slower, and possible ADPS with the puma line of spells for the pets. Was also considering BST as well but not sure how would that fair. Unfortunately I do not use Kiss assist, so a bst that only melee, cast slow and buff not sure how much will that bring to the table.

Would BST or SHM benefit my current setup with the goal I have? Or should I put the Ench back in replacing one of my characters? Would like to also know the "Why replacing this class with that" to further understand the reason behind it.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Or just get a slow proc belt...just sayin'...
 
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Personally I would go Warrior, Enchanter, Shm and 3 caster DPS. Mages would be optimal in the caster DPS spots (adps from both enc and from shm for pet) but any caster DPS would work. From my personal experience Druid cant keep up main healing efficiently & DPS unless tank is raid geared and cleric is a waste of a slot for GROUP game. Shammy has a great balance of heals and DPS and can easily kick out 2-300k sustained DPS whilst being primary healer.
 
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(when i get new computer) SK/CLR/BRD/MAGx3. firebound (does every wave from many and rain count) swarm, many(max), chaotic, rain

@Armyboxer99 I have seen Warrior, Enchanter, Shm and wiz/mage/mage fight named with abilities like silence mez stun and crazy sounding debuffs. How do you deal with that stuff? I would love to see guides on war, sham and enc.
 
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Thank you for all the replies. I have started working on my 2nd mage and will test it out with WAR/CLR/ENC/MAG/MAG/NEC or DRU. Since WAR is already at max AA, I can try varying the group once my mag and nec gets its proper AA and keep playing around with the composition.

I was glad to have leveled the ENC and DRU for PLing purposes. Makes leveling go much smoother, at least till around 110.
 
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When I started off, I was tab clicking (2-box, and then 4-box). I went with a caster based group because I figured it would be so much easier to manage not having to deal with melee positioning.

When I jumped to a 6-box, I started using VV. I wrote all my own MQ2 MAC/Lua scripts (i.e., no CWTN, KA, RGMercs) to control my 6-box, all triggered by social clicks from my Paladin.
I am currently PAL, ENC, CLR, MAGx2, DRU

This group works very well for me. 3 controllable pets + Paladin give me adequate melee. 3 DPS (Enchanter and Cleric can DPS). Huge amounts of utility with Druid instead of maybe a BST? I hate wasting time being dead. EVAC is great. Thought about a WIZ to replace DRU or a MAG, but I think I would miss all the stuff a Druid beings to the group. I don't feel like I am really missing anything major.

A year into Rizlona, I am WAY less worried about getting banned for using tools like CWTN or KA. Thinking about taking the dive. My group is 72 and there are SO many more things to deal with that I didn't have to worry about 0-60
May even start a melee group. Maybe I will CWTN/KA the Paladin and drive the Enchanter?
 
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Xeoh35 said:
Hello,

I am a returned player from 2002 and playing 6 box since March of 2022. Initially the group composition was WAR/CLR/BRD/DRU/ENCH/MAG. They all reached level 120, and working on AAs now. However due to the composition being... too safe, the lack of DPS becomes obvious after entering ToL content. So I replaced the ench with a Necro, now 117. However this have left me with having trouble slowing the mobs. I am using the brd to slow and necro for undead slow. But for the most part, can´t slow the mob fast enough like I could with ench.

My ultimate goal is to be able to do Heroic Adventures of all expansions (If possible), with my group. Gear wise my warrior ir mostly COV raid gear, but my other members are mostly on ToL Tier 1 piece that can be bought in the bazzar.

The problem I am having is the following. I really like the druid dps, and backup healing. But the mana issue is a problem. Casting the 3 dots depletes her mana quite fast. I am using Brd as a slower. Athough previously used Ench as the main slower. Crowd control was done previously by ench. Fast and efficient, with brd not so much. Usually end up tanking all the pulls I made, so I try to be more careful on pulls.

Since I have a 109 shaman on a different account from the 6 characters mentioned above, I was thinking on replacing with one of my characters, for a dedicated slower, and possible ADPS with the puma line of spells for the pets. Was also considering BST as well but not sure how would that fair. Unfortunately I do not use Kiss assist, so a bst that only melee, cast slow and buff not sure how much will that bring to the table.

Would BST or SHM benefit my current setup with the goal I have? Or should I put the Ench back in replacing one of my characters? Would like to also know the "Why replacing this class with that" to further understand the reason behind it.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Send the cleric, druid, and the enchanter to the guild hall to cast their buffs - alternatively run the cleric out of group using xtar heals.
Keep the tank, bard, and mage. Add shaman. Add another mage x2
 
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Xeoh35 said:
Hello,

I am a returned player from 2002 and playing 6 box since March of 2022. Initially the group composition was WAR/CLR/BRD/DRU/ENCH/MAG. They all reached level 120, and working on AAs now. However due to the composition being... too safe, the lack of DPS becomes obvious after entering ToL content. So I replaced the ench with a Necro, now 117. However this have left me with having trouble slowing the mobs. I am using the brd to slow and necro for undead slow. But for the most part, can´t slow the mob fast enough like I could with ench.

My ultimate goal is to be able to do Heroic Adventures of all expansions (If possible), with my group. Gear wise my warrior ir mostly COV raid gear, but my other members are mostly on ToL Tier 1 piece that can be bought in the bazzar.

The problem I am having is the following. I really like the druid dps, and backup healing. But the mana issue is a problem. Casting the 3 dots depletes her mana quite fast. I am using Brd as a slower. Athough previously used Ench as the main slower. Crowd control was done previously by ench. Fast and efficient, with brd not so much. Usually end up tanking all the pulls I made, so I try to be more careful on pulls.

Since I have a 109 shaman on a different account from the 6 characters mentioned above, I was thinking on replacing with one of my characters, for a dedicated slower, and possible ADPS with the puma line of spells for the pets. Was also considering BST as well but not sure how would that fair. Unfortunately I do not use Kiss assist, so a bst that only melee, cast slow and buff not sure how much will that bring to the table.

Would BST or SHM benefit my current setup with the goal I have? Or should I put the Ench back in replacing one of my characters? Would like to also know the "Why replacing this class with that" to further understand the reason behind it.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
It looks like this post was necro'd from a couple months ago so not sure if you are still looking for input. To be honest your group composition should be fine to manage the missions you are trying to accomplish. If there was one piece of that group that looks out of place I would say it is having a Bard and an Enchanter. If you want to have more constant DPS for grinding along with burns I would suggest a Ranger in lieu of the bard as headshot will chew through trash and they can still pull in great burns. Auspice of the Hunter from the Ranger matches well with the Enchanter and Druid ADPS to maximize Druid and Magician burns.

Mana on the ranger and druid is hard to manage but with a Magician there for mod rods you can keep them going, also the Cleric has this to throw at whoever is the biggest mana hog:

Veturika's Perseverance (7)		120 ToL35 / 20720m T41Cast: Veturika's Perseverance VII
Veturika's Perseverance VII, when activated, channels the indomitable perseverance of Veturika, instantly healing you for 90000 health and restoring 90000 mana.

I would focus on your spell lineup and matching ADPS for your burns. Make sure you are hitting Chromatic Haze on the Enchanter when the Druid has Natures Sweltering Wrath on the mob for maximum damage.

I always point people to the caster ADPS Guide written by Sancus on Xegony https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eTfXdF3SUr3QlC-nsKZSHib5QjcIkgeyif1BfUKbzv4/edit it is the way to maximize your caster damage.

Also make sure you have all your appropriate Focus AA's completed, check your spell lineups to make sure you are doing the most damage. There is some good guides out there for Enchanter and Druid on https://rexaraven.com/ the guides there are well researched and show the ideal setups to max DPS.

I don't play a Mage but Sancus who wrote the guide above likely has guides that show the best spell lineups as well.

9 times out of 10 it isn't the group that is the reason for not being able to do missions, it's gearing, AA, spell lineups, correct use of ADPS, etc. Even with the Bard in the group as is you should be able to chew through content.
 
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