Question - Group Optimization

[Ghost]

Hello all! I'm back to EQ and ready to build a sexy FV group to grind out for new expansion. Looking to get some advice on group comps. So currently I'm running :

Pal / Clr / Ench / Dru / Wiz / Bard

I kinda want to bring my mage in but hes on the pally acconut. Meaning I'd have to switch to using either my 105 sk or 104 warrior which is fine i duno whats better pally is just kinda fun to play. I also have an option to add a beast or shaman but with shaman id lose my enchanter and with beast id lose my bard. I have a couple zerkers and rogues n stuff to just figured id come and see what yall suggestion for most optimal group. I will not ever ditch my cleric but anything else is open to the chopping block. I also wouldn't be opposed to leveling something new from heroic if needed but I have basically every class available without having to do that except the few exceptions. Enchanter/shm same acct and wiz/nec/war same acct. Everything else is on its own. I think I was doing SK/Clr/Brd/zerk/zerk/zerk before which was bad as fuck but the issue was my zerkers would constantly steal agro and get instagibbed. I also kinda like doing casters more than melees. Anywho thanks in advance for advice.

 

[MaxD]

If you like casters more than melee and want a mage I'd level a mage on the bards account.

 

[Ghost]

Are rangers just rly op in group content or something? Just grouped with a random ranger for fun in FM and he was averaging 110k dps at 105 where my 105 wiz is averaging 38k dps. He wasn't able to headshot yet once He dinged 106 and got headshot he was averaging 160k+. Is that just rangers or wat? Also is there any way to make Kiss ranger just shoot? If so I'm gona level my ranger right now lol

 

[kaen01]

do
pal / pal / pal / brd / brd / brd

and win at everything.

 

[surfdog21]

Are rangers just rly op in group content or something? Just grouped with a random ranger for fun in FM and he was averaging 110k dps at 105 where my 105 wiz is averaging 38k dps. He wasn't able to headshot yet once He dinged 106 and got headshot he was averaging 160k+. Is that just rangers or wat? Also is there any way to make Kiss ranger just shoot? If so I'm gona level my ranger right now lol

BAHAHAHAHAAA! Its more like the wizard is underpowered! If your Wizard is doing 38k and the ranger is doing 110k you sir are not playing your wizard correctly!

 

[Sum1]

I agree that the wizzy should be doing more, but rangers can hold their own these days (especially with decent weapons). I use chase melee weapons and never bow, and I LOVE my ranger. I include him with my zerk, wiz, sk, cleric, enc group. They do even better with the bard swapped in (for the enc spot).

 

[da Man]

i think the druid and bard are quite redundant in your group. u have ports with the wiz dps with the wiz . then you have not so good dps with the druid, ports and healing. your pally can heal well enough that your cleric wont need the heals from the druid at all. then the bard vs the chanter, more redundancy. either would be good (but 1 only) to have caster dps in it with your group makleup. so pal cle chanter wiz wiz mage would plow thru most things, or a mele group pal cle zerk zerk zerk wiz (ports). just my 2 copper pieces

 

[Ghost]

BAHAHAHAHAAA! Its more like the wizard is underpowered! If your Wizard is doing 38k and the ranger is doing 110k you sir are not playing your wizard correctly!

Ya tbh I just copy and pasted one of the ini from the database so maybe it needs some optimization or something. I also never added any holyshits or anything to any character cause I don't really understand how they work so maybe thats another part of it. I think I'm using Razkles wiz ini cause i know hes always made badass wizard setups so I can't imagine its bad. Maybe my gear needs an upgrade or something I'm not sure.

 

[Ghost]

Ignoring the current classes I already have what would be the most optimal group comp in terms of kill speed/downtime/utility. The only thing I really want to stay away from is a zerker group cause I can't get the dicho thing to do separate for the life of me and I can't stop them from stealing agro and dying lol. I may drop my pally and switch back to war or sk I don't know yet I just wanna start out with whatever is best for speed until I have a group of maxed out toons then I'll start playing with the more "for fun" characters.

 

[eqtrader74]

Pally is still the lowest DPS of the tank classes. Still great on survivability, just will lower your hourly kill rate. If you can stay in undead camps though, Pally does great DPS.

If you want to stick with casters:

• SK/War-Clr-Ench-Wiz-Wiz-Wiz = Opens up use of wiz alliance
• SK/War-Clr-Ench-Wiz-Wiz-Mag = CoH utility movement plus pet is nice back-up tank if MT dies. Group still has good power with group nuke buffs from ench/wiz/mage.
• Subbing in the druid for cleric is actually better DPS & mana regen for group, but my cleric groups can take on much tougher content than druid healer ones.

Right now rangers are great bow DPS, so if you wanted to run the bard instead:

• SK/War-Clr-Brd-Rngx3
• SK/War-Clr-Brd-Rng-Rng-Bst = Beast make nice backup healers plus great end/mana regen. Pet also can tank for a bit if you need to rez maintank.
• Subbing a shaman for cleric adds some nice melee buffs/procs, though it overlaps with Beast.

Zerkers are still a great kill rate group, but yeah they do yank aggro and explode from time to time.

 

[Ghost]

does rogue have any place in top xp/hr groups or is it basically zerker/wiz or nothing

 

[eqtrader74]

I think rogue does, just it has previously been a tougher one to automate via KA. They have a lot of discs & abilities that require conditions or you try to fire things that don't stack well. Zerkers technically do too, but they used to be able to press one disc, mash their DPS hotkeys and win. Very easy to write a basic zerker ini though a finessed one will use conditions to cycle through 2-4 "burn" rotations of their discs.

KA11 has been a nice increase in melee dmg even for zerks/monks due to the improved code and I'd imagine rogues are better too. FV Remnant's 110 rogue from end of last year was parsing 100k+ and that's pre-KA11.

 

[da Man]

not sure why your zerks are taking agro, maybe u need a better weapon something with rune or a heal maybe?

 

[Ghost]

So I’ve been trying to switch group around to create some more flexibility but my issue currently is I’m kinda pidgeonholed into sk tank because both my pally and my warrior are on accts with all my dps toons. With that in mind the group I’m currently testing is
War/clr/ench/bst/mage/rngr
I’m debating dropping the war for my sk not sure if I’d still be able to clear as much content with sk as I could with war but it would open up the options of triple zerker 2 wizards mages yada yada.
So if I do decide to bring out the sk I’m thinking maybe
Sk/clr/brd/zerk or rogue or mage/rng/ either wiz or 2nd zerker

 

[Mongo]

does rogue have any place in top xp/hr groups or is it basically zerker/wiz or nothing

I'm running a rogue using Assassin.mac found on these forums and it's keeping up with my raid geared zerker, using group gear. Burns are not too far off the level i'd expect if I was playing it myself. Incredible sustained damage and just constantly pumps out the damage. If my zerk wasn't raid geared i'd probably run 3x rogue as my DPS. :P

 

[Resurrection]

Can someone explain why bard/chanter in same grp is redundant? I currently run WAR/CLR/ENCH/WIZ WIZ/BRD.

 

[foreverandeternity]

Its because they both can crowd control with mezzes

 

[Mongo]

Can someone explain why bard/chanter in same grp is redundant? I currently run WAR/CLR/ENCH/WIZ WIZ/BRD.

Generally people use Enchanter in a caster group (although certainly bard can be used in caster group) and bards in melee grp. While they bring lots of ADPS to the group, their main use in most box groups is CC. By having both in the group you’re losing a DPS slot.

In my opinion, I’d replace that bard with another Wizard, let the enchanter add adps and mez and gain a load of damage from the extra wizard!

 

[eqtrader74]

A common benchmark is kills/hour and "Tank - Healer - CC - DPSx3" tends to win that criteria. Ench & bard fill the CC roll, but aren't top tier DPS toons themselves. So instead of running both, you'd be better keeping one for CC/support and replacing the other with a pure DPS.

Ench is also better at caster support with spells/abilities that straight boost nukes. Bard helps melee DPS much more than they can boost nukers. So you'd want to pick the one that best fits your DPS setup.

Ench + Bard can work if you're running a setup that needs intense mana regen. Perhaps a mage pet tank group where everybody is a caster and not super efficient.

You can really make any setup work, just some will produce a more reliable kill rate.

 

[Ghost]

I’ve definitely noticed my kills/hr skyrocketed once I brought in my warrior he’s averaging 50-60k dps at 107 and we’re keeping our sarnak camp in fm basically all dead. I think I may try and look for a bit harder camp soon where I can get some better loots.

 

[Sum1]

I’ve definitely noticed my kills/hr skyrocketed once I brought in my warrior he’s averaging 50-60k dps at 107 and we’re keeping our sarnak camp in fm basically all dead. I think I may try and look for a bit harder camp soon where I can get some better loots.

My SK is way over 60k dps. You may need to try some other .ini’s.

 

[Ghost]

My SK is way over 60k dps. You may need to try some other .ini’s.

Really what level? I dunno how much difference aas make but all my guys are sitting around 14k so still missing a fuck ton

 

[Mongo]

Really what level? I dunno how much difference aas make but all my guys are sitting around 14k so still missing a fuck ton

If you’re not already, give dual wield tanking a shot on your warrior. Huge dps increase and not much loss to tanking ability in group content. As for AA, they certainly make a huge difference!

 

[Ghost]

If you’re not already, give dual wield tanking a shot on your warrior. Huge dps increase and not much loss to tanking ability in group content. As for AA, they certainly make a huge difference!

Ya I’m using dual wield now lol I thought 60k~ was good my warrior averages my top dps. My mage and beast can burn at 90-110k but generally sustain around 40-60k. My group is all 108 atm but I haven’t bought spells over 105 yet was waiting until 110 to get everyone spells

 

[Sum1]

Ya I’m using dual wield now lol I thought 60k~ was good my warrior averages my top dps. My mage and beast can burn at 90-110k but generally sustain around 40-60k. My group is all 108 atm but I haven’t bought spells over 105 yet was waiting until 110 to get everyone spells

Your leveling would go faster with updated spells.

My SK had an EoK chase weapon, so that was helpful, but he got a lot of dps from spells. He was over 60k dps at lvl 105, and at 110 he’s at least 100k most of the time. He’s maxed out on AA.

 

[surfdog21]

My Paladin in T2 group gear, all ultra rares, including the EoK chase 2hander is throwing out some sick dps numbers consistently with the ini I am using, I wouldn't drop him myself personally. I would ditch the druid and build a mage. (I would also dump the bard in a trash can somewhere and create an SK too though!) Pally SK will guarantee superior tankabilty through the new expansion-SK goes down tanking your Pally is there, if he goes down, your mage pet's got you! Pally/Cleric battle rez ftw!

 

[Ghost]

So this is my group over 50 mobs. Granted my ranger is the only one whos 110 (rest of group is 108/109 but im amazed that he averages so much higher dps than everyone else. Humanoids ftw Im bout to roll a few more rangers lol