Question - 6 box optimization for Progression

[Onimal]

I have 6 box group setup of:

Cleric, Sham, Ranger, SK, Zerker, Bard.

Wondering if I should change Cleric out for another melee DPS as we head into TSS and especially Secrets of Faydwere? Will Shaman be enough to heal through group content to getting fully flagged? I've never done this xpac before.

I use Mule Assist for all group content.

 

[Sic]

best group comp in 2024 2025 for progression

lvl 1 baker, @kaen01 afk, 1 school age child from a country you don't speak the language of, @hytiek 's TA's mechanic (which is hytiek lvl 1 mechanic), cashgrab_guy, and @ImGreg 's will to live
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I personally wouldn't use a shaman as solo/main healer until 101+ as their tool kit is lacking, and will struggle in the future until more "modern" toolkit

Since you have all your bases covered, I would drop the shm probably, and get a rogue, bst, or maybe monk (in that order). could always keep the shaman progressed/caught up, or just take the stability and double healer it (i recommend against double healing)

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Here are some times i've replied about this question that is asked all the time.

there are a lot of threads on groups and group makeups. would behoove you to take a look at those - you will likely get some shorter responses with "answering the same question fatigue"

important points:

- play what makes you happy
- don't worry about min maxing until min maxing is more important than fun/happy
- understand your needs/wants will change as your goals change
- the "holy trinity" is alive and well; tank, healer (clr or shm), cc
- healer mercs can help, but they fall pretty shy on actual characters, even just autogranted f2p cleric is way better
- you definitely want the CC/ADPS from a chanter or bard
- you definitely want to get 75/80+% AA before moving on in levels - zooming to 120 and having no matching AAs will hurt you
- ber or rog or ber ber is fine - but you are hurting yourself not having a bard with them


dps mercs have gone up and down in their usage and functionality over time --- personally I only keep a pocket cleric on all my toons for rezzing in a pinch. outside of that, a 1-time krono'd f2p toon is gonna be a better toon --- it might not be "merc fits in my irl budget" for playability of the game, f2p wins.

sk/clr if you're lazy and want ezmode
sk/shm if you want a little more *bite*
war/clr if you want to be able to do a bit of raiding on the war
war/shm if you want to feel like you're struggling now and again

pal/shm if you want to "mix it up"
pal/clr if you want to kill things FUCKING SLOWLY

---------------------
There are a lot of threads on groups and group makeups. would behoove you to take a look at those - you will likely get some shorter responses with "answering the same question fatigue"

important points:

- play what makes you happy
- don't worry about min maxing until min maxing is more important than fun/happy
- understand your needs/wants will change as your goals change
- the "holy trinity" is alive and well; tank, healer (clr or shm), cc
- healer mercs can help, but they fall pretty shy on actual characters, even just autogranted f2p cleric is way better
- you definitely want the CC/ADPS from a chanter or bard
- you definitely want to get 75/80+% AA before moving on in levels - zooming to 120 and having no matching AAs will hurt you
- ber or rog or ber ber is fine - but you are hurting yourself not having a bard with them

 

[Free_Sid]

I would probably drop the shaman for a BST. I switch my shaman out for my BST a lot to up the DPS. I use a War though as the tank.

 

[boxbuddy]

Switch the cleric out for something else.
Shaman slows + Shaman heals + SK taps, you shouldn't run into any issues. Cleric heals are better technically... But you can't beat the 45% damage mitigation that you get from a simple slow. Especially if you have SK epic 2.0, the heals should be more than sufficient.
I'd personally go with a mage so that you can COTH your group to hard to get locations. If you don't want a caster, then a BST would be great for when you eventually get the Dichotomic Fury line.

 

[staring6]

As Sic has repeatedly said on this topic, you should go with the class that makes you feel the happiest, the most excited, and makes you think, “I love THIS class !”
I myself spent a long time obsessing over the "optimal" 6box setup—asking around on various forums, getting advice like “A is the best!” or “With B, all your problems are solved.” And while that all made sense, the feeling inside me of “But I really want to use X” never went away.

My 6box team is SK, ENC, DRU, MAG, SHM, and MNK. I know a lot of people would probably say “Drop DRU and MNK,” but I play them because I like them.

 

[ImGreg]

best group comp in 2024 2025 for progression

lvl 1 baker, @kaen01 afk, 1 school age child from a country you don't speak the language of, @hytiek 's TA's mechanic (which is hytiek lvl 1 mechanic), cashgrab_guy, and @ImGreg 's will to live
-------------

I personally wouldn't use a shaman as solo/main healer until 101+ as their tool kit is lacking, and will struggle in the future until more "modern" toolkit

Since you have all your bases covered, I would drop the shm probably, and get a rogue, bst, or maybe monk (in that order). could always keep the shaman progressed/caught up, or just take the stability and double healer it (i recommend against double healing)

--------------------------------

Here are some times i've replied about this question that is asked all the time.

there are a lot of threads on groups and group makeups. would behoove you to take a look at those - you will likely get some shorter responses with "answering the same question fatigue"

important points:

- play what makes you happy
- don't worry about min maxing until min maxing is more important than fun/happy
- understand your needs/wants will change as your goals change
- the "holy trinity" is alive and well; tank, healer (clr or shm), cc
- healer mercs can help, but they fall pretty shy on actual characters, even just autogranted f2p cleric is way better
- you definitely want the CC/ADPS from a chanter or bard
- you definitely want to get 75/80+% AA before moving on in levels - zooming to 120 and having no matching AAs will hurt you
- ber or rog or ber ber is fine - but you are hurting yourself not having a bard with them


dps mercs have gone up and down in their usage and functionality over time --- personally I only keep a pocket cleric on all my toons for rezzing in a pinch. outside of that, a 1-time krono'd f2p toon is gonna be a better toon --- it might not be "merc fits in my irl budget" for playability of the game, f2p wins.

sk/clr if you're lazy and want ezmode
sk/shm if you want a little more *bite*
war/clr if you want to be able to do a bit of raiding on the war
war/shm if you want to feel like you're struggling now and again

pal/shm if you want to "mix it up"
pal/clr if you want to kill things FUCKING SLOWLY

---------------------
There are a lot of threads on groups and group makeups. would behoove you to take a look at those - you will likely get some shorter responses with "answering the same question fatigue"

important points:

- play what makes you happy
- don't worry about min maxing until min maxing is more important than fun/happy
- understand your needs/wants will change as your goals change
- the "holy trinity" is alive and well; tank, healer (clr or shm), cc
- healer mercs can help, but they fall pretty shy on actual characters, even just autogranted f2p cleric is way better
- you definitely want the CC/ADPS from a chanter or bard
- you definitely want to get 75/80+% AA before moving on in levels - zooming to 120 and having no matching AAs will hurt you
- ber or rog or ber ber is fine - but you are hurting yourself not having a bard with them

SK, Shm, Bard, DPS of choice x3


And my will to live is almost non-existent at this point so i'd probably sub my name out of the group for @RYN227 in his quest for pineapple

 

[jhw668]

All kinds of ways to go. I'm currently having fun with sk / shm / enc / wiz x 3. However sk / shm / brd / bst / monk x 2 is melting stuff for me, but mage x 2 is also good.

As Sic has said, shaman prior to the 100s kind of the suck for main healer. Even more so without gear and aa. I tried an all iksar group of sk / shm / necro x 4 for the lulz. Made it into the 50s before the shaman started to struggle a bit, can't imagine trying to do some of the 70-90 stuff with just them. Was a lot of fun to watch the dots pile on though.

 

[fakename]

i tried to make shm as my only healer work constantly through out every expac on rizlona and the one where i was able to do it but it sucked still was sof with the intervention line. when it worked and did not suck was hot when i got the recourse group heal and i got my first reckless heal. splash works good esp in combo with the recourse group heal but i wouldnt say its required to make them good.

take this with a grain of salt and play what you like / want but you are currently putting all your eggs into a single basket for dps. rng dps is not good and does not get better zerks in sof are good but they will get better. bard dps is not good it does get better as you gain more ranks of improved chants they revamped that so the ranks are spread out now and around rof is when they felt worth using to me on my bards. so youre buffing your zerk with all this adps and if he dies or your automation has a hiccup and he isnt fighting you dont do as well. if you add a bst you are still doing that. personally i would switch rng to mnk or a 2nd ber and then leave your group alone then when you get into hot persona a bst onto the clr. and take it for a spin. hot is when bst dps starts to pick up but it doesnt get really good until eok. if your intent on running only one healer i would slap a bst into your shms spot so you have a reliable slow still and then swap rng to mnk or ber.

if you go with just running 2 healers for awhile i suggest atleast turning some dots on on your shm. your magic dot and poison dot in sof will still do some okish dmg. i believe sod is when they get their first bite nuke depending on your groups kill speed you can just run that instead of a dot. or run all 3.

with that said the most absolutely blender ass group ive ever seen was a guildy who ran sk shm rng brd ber rog in voa. so if you are fighting headshot decap assassinate mobs you will still mow shit down for a long time on your group.

i have a guildy that still runs sk clr shm mnk ber brd and he still does all the group content fine. he one cycles griklor and only does aow like 1min slower then i do. he does velks like 30s slower then i do as well. so when i say bad dps on rng i mean you will kill like a minute slower in some later group missions then a more optimized group.

 

[98bcobra]

Currently I run a War, Shm, Zerker, Zerker, Bard, Clr. Cleric felt really useless in my group for group/mission content. Recently replaced it with a BST currently leveling and AAing. I haven't had any trouble yet solo healing with shaman we are about to hit SoF. Group is very well geared for era and mana isn't an issue on the shaman ever. If I need stronger heals for something I'll swap the cleric back in. Play what you like as you always feel like you need something to make a spot you're in a little easier or better.

For the Shaman vs Clr thing they work very well together. Cleric handle massive damage inc alot better. Like if you pull alot of adds while they are getting locked down. Shaman slows are good and would want to go without slow. Can also get the shaman more focused on DPS the DoTs are really good. When I run them together Cleric handles MT and emergency group heals, Shm focuses on debuffing and group support buffs and heals with Nuke/DoT DPS.

I should add I run CWTN plugins.

 

[wolger]

I have been running war - clr - enc - bst - mag - nec. and I have a blast. They are almost 120

 

[q8reflex]

I have 6 box group setup of:

Cleric, Sham, Ranger, SK, Zerker, Bard.

Wondering if I should change Cleric out for another melee DPS as we head into TSS and especially Secrets of Faydwere? Will Shaman be enough to heal through group content to getting fully flagged? I've never done this xpac before.

I use Mule Assist for all group content.

I'd pick a war instead of sk at any TLP startup.
Cleric for all kinds of healing.
Chanter for my CC and not a bard.
All at startup ofc.

 

[arch]

Like others have said, play what you want.

I Like having both shm, cleric personally, because when I do something dumb and I loose one of them it is not always a wipe scenario.

Im running monk, shaman, warrior, mage, wiz and cleric ... I know it is far from optimal but it is what I want to do to make it fun for me.

My shaman was my main from Kunark to Serpent Spine, when I quit raiding and playing for a very long time. I can not imagine playing EQ without him.
My monk was always my main alt so his place is set, and I enjoy monk pulling as inefficient as it is.
The mage is because of the utility of CotH which has saved my ass so many times I cant even count.
The wiz is in no small part because of Evac.
The war was just because I had better luck with him than my SK.
And the cleric ... do i even need to explain that?