IRL - Group Options @ 115 (1 Viewer)

[capital0]

Hello!

I returned to EQ after not playing since basically 2002, but was really interested in the boxing side as I always had a soft spot for the game. This forum has been incredible and I've had a lot of fun so far, so thanks to all of you!

I've gotten my team to 115 (War, Clr, Bard, Enc, Bst, Ber) just following along the T1 gearing route through the expansions. I'm playing almost entirely self-found for now on the FV server, and starting to get my tank into Snowbound. All accounts are gold for now.

A few questions that I haven't been able to figure out from my own searches yet:

1. Is there a command line to check on the existence of a spawn? I know I can use "/nav spawn ... | paused" to see this in game, but I'm curious if there is an easy way to check if something exists (a spawn, my corpse, etc..) and report it for automation via discord. I've got MQ2Discord setup which is amazing, and I will often use that to manage the group.

2. Is there a way to rotate the pullarc heading with CWTN class plugins after they are set via command line? For example, if I'm using a 180 degree arc and I want to rotate it a few degrees without having to adjust the character and reset it.

3. Having now hit 115, I'm at the end of the auto-grant AA party I think. I'm also almost always broke from buying spells/armor components. I know about MQ2Grind, however I'm curious if there are instances you can spawn and let a hunter group just roam around killing everything for xp and drops (even if they eventually run out of stuff). I'm still learning about HAs and mission instances. I've mostly grinded to 115 so far. I'd like to be both safe, but also respectful, and not hog static camps. I don't play AFK, but I do let EQ run on a laptop with discord giving me prompts for when I need to intervene.

And lastly I'm interested in an opinion on group composition. My current group is getting along just fine, however as the game seems like it about to shift to a slower advancement curve, now seems like a good time to pause and evaluate. My focus so far has been on safe and stable, not pure kill speed. With the 115+ grind it looks like a few other options open up though.

I'm considering three alternatives setups.

1. Dropping the ENC for a Shaman - The ENC is providing all of my CC today, but the BRD could substitute now. Eventually, I could move to a solo Shaman healer setup and drop the cleric. It also provides a second rez which would fix the one showstopper for the group, which is that occasionally the cleric will randomly die for reasons I'm not sure of on an easy pull. It's easy to recover from, but requires a manual intervention. With a shaman it gets handled automatically. Also, maybe I should just buy more emeralds so DI is up.

2. Dropping the ENC for Rog - More DPS is good and Bst, Rog, Ber seems to be very strong.

3. Dropping ENC and CLR and going SHM and ROG - I would heroic 100 the new characters, so it looks like this is the point where the Shaman can handle healing the group. I would grind them up to 115 before moving on. I'm in no rush to get anywhere.

Thanks again to everyone here for the knowledge and advice. Honestly DBG should give you a kick back. I know that the ban hammer is possibly lurking around the corner, but it's been a fun journey.

 

[Sic]

1. Yes you can use ${Spawn[npc stuff]} in an echo, for example.

2. Cwtn questions should be posted in the cwtn section, but you want to /face whatever direction you want and the. Just resetcamp

3. Not many instances respawn, but shei instance does.

Other numbers: I prefer 1 CC, 1 priest setup. Brd/shm is my preferred, but clerics are an easier time

 

[capital0]

1. Yes you can use ${Spawn[npc stuff]} in an echo, for example.

2. Cwtn questions should be posted in the cwtn section, but you want to /face whatever direction you want and the. Just resetcamp

3. Not many instances respawn, but shei instance does.

Other numbers: I prefer 1 CC, 1 priest setup. Brd/shm is my preferred, but clerics are an easier time

Thank you! Those are both good solutions to what I was looking for.

 

[Algar]

Hey my dude,

Option 1 is possible, but maybe just swap the cleric out for that shaman instead? Options 2 and 3 are definitely sound.
You have obviously been doing some homework... BUT! (pause)
What you have now will also work fine. The ENC is very nice for hitting above your weight class (as you are being broke, just getting into snowbound, going self-found, etc).

ALSO:
I really appreciate the hell out of this post because I pretty much went through the same thing and pulled myself up by my bootstraps a couple months back. Keep fighting the good fight and keep us posted!

 

[Psy]

Grats on your progress!!

For CWTN you can also set your min level to pull to a high level and then select your arc before beginning. While not as much help on the fly, it does help if you are setting up and you're in a tighter place where you want to drill down more where you pull before actually pulling. When you get it where you want, drop the pull min level

Not sure if you plan to raid in your end game but if so, the clr/shm combo may come in handy so option 2 would be viable. If not, any of your options sould work well IMO. Options 1 and 3 will do well with your warrior as a tank. I would almost suggest you keep the clr up to par with your SHM if you're truly are not in a hurry. Assuming they would be on separate accounts, you might like the ability to swap out later. Since your clr is on par with the rest of your crew, it would not take much to swap them out and have both =)

 

[capital0]

Grats on your progress!!

For CWTN you can also set your min level to pull to a high level and then select your arc before beginning. While not as much help on the fly, it does help if you are setting up and you're in a tighter place where you want to drill down more where you pull before actually pulling. When you get it where you want, drop the pull min level

Not sure if you plan to raid in your end game but if so, the clr/shm combo may come in handy so option 2 would be viable. If not, any of your options sould work well IMO. Options 1 and 3 will do well with your warrior as a tank. I would almost suggest you keep the clr up to par with your SHM if you're truly are not in a hurry. Assuming they would be on separate accounts, you might like the ability to swap out later. Since your clr is on par with the rest of your crew, it would not take much to swap them out and have both =)

Psy, that's genius. Super obvious fix once you said it, but that's exactly the problem. Thank you!

I'm following the advice to keep every character on their own account, so I think what you are suggesting makes a lot of sense. I'm probably going to let the CLR go FTP, and pull it along with the group. I can do that with the ENC as well, and an MNK that I also got up to 100 before swapping to the BER. Going to wind up with all of the CWTN plugins before too long at this rate .

 

[zarroth]

you used to be able to send tells to spawns, which was used to see if named were up. Haven't tried in a long while, so dunno if that's current.

I would just stick with your current group. It's not difficult to get to the point where trash drops in under 20 seconds, and once you do, you'll run out of spawn anyway so more DPS doesn't matter at that point, despite what the max/min types will tell you :P Your current group is also future proof, so whatever the game throws at you in the future, you won't be chasing "class of the year", like a lot of people seem to do.

Personally, I prefer using the cleric over the sham, simply for combat res and not having to go through the hassle of the monster missions for the res stick, which suck to do. Monster missions were always a bad idea. Raiding is a different matter, but for the group game, you just don't need optimal configurations for DPS so might as well over-kill on the heal side. Also, with ever shrinking expansions, don't need the ports for druid/wiz for a very long time now. Evac is minimally useful if you have a bard.

Edit: for a final note, I have recently shifted my experience bar to be 90% AA, 10% exp and will leave it there forever at this point. For the last few years, leveling up has been mostly via quests anyway and although it really doesn't take long to grind a level out manually, despite what the whining over on the official forums say to the contrary (OMG 11 hours a level, I'm going to die!!!). This is something I'm doing for my alt group now starting in Rain of Fear expansion and it's going extremely well. Just food for thought, everyone is different in their tolerances.

 

[capital0]

Edit: for a final note, I have recently shifted my experience bar to be 90% AA, 10% exp and will leave it there forever at this point. For the last few years, leveling up has been mostly via quests anyway and although it really doesn't take long to grind a level out manually, despite what the whining over on the official forums say to the contrary (OMG 11 hours a level, I'm going to die!!!). This is something I'm doing for my alt group now starting in Rain of Fear expansion and it's going extremely well. Just food for thought, everyone is different in their tolerances.

Since hitting hitting 75 or so when Defiant gear started to run out of steam and I shifted to gearing up with Paragon armor, I've mostly been focused on trying to ladder up my tank's gear. My experience has been that I'm usually through the level range well before I can get the gear. Things can get dicey at the next tier, so I just hang out there a bit longer to fill in the missing spots/augs.

I've been charting out a path through the named and just checking them off until I have what I want, then heading to the next, etc... and honestly after 110 the levels just kind of ticked by without really paying attention. I think it would be different if I had full sets of gear just waiting for me and tons of plat. That approach has meant that I've never really had any problems going up a tier (SoD -> HoT -> VoA -> RoF -> EoK) even skipping from EoK T2 to ToV T1. I'm writing about my path here partly just to capture the experience of someone who recently has done this all from scratch for the next person searching for it. I knew how to get to 60 using Classic/Kunark zones, but after that this was all new.

My plan right now based on advice from these forums is to just start maxing AAs each level while gearing up, and not being in too big a rush to make everything harder. Lot's of credit to Sic who I saw suggesting it was a game of inches as approaching it as more of a marathon than a sprint has definitely made it more fun (for me at least...).

All that to say, I think I understand where you are coming from. Thanks for the thoughts on the group. That also makes sense to me, especially given that I doubt I will be anywhere close to min/max groups by the time the next expansion comes out.

 

[capital0]

While researching the Shaman, I did see the suggestion here to add cleric mercs to the rest of the team so that you can swap them in to do a quick rez if things go sideways. That has already been super helpful, so I'm glad I asked even for that!

 

[razorh]

My main question here is what is your end goal and where is the 'fun' component in this for you? No wrong answer but depending on what your answer is can have a big impact on answers to your questions. Are you mainly enjoying figuring out how to automate things with no real attachment to any of the characters or are you playing one of them and using the rest as support? If you are focusing on a given class for fun, then group makeup is more focused. If you mainly looking for a min/maxed group and don't really care about any class then that changes things too.

 

[capital0]

My main question here is what is your end goal and where is the 'fun' component in this for you? No wrong answer but depending on what your answer is can have a big impact on answers to your questions. Are you mainly enjoying figuring out how to automate things with no real attachment to any of the characters or are you playing one of them and using the rest as support? If you are focusing on a given class for fun, then group makeup is more focused. If you mainly looking for a min/maxed group and don't really care about any class then that changes things too.

Unexpectedly, I guess the warrior has become the main, but I think that's just because I've been driving everything from the tank. I would say that the fun in it for me so far has been working through the progression, seeing everything I missed out on, and sorting out the automation, more so than attachment to any one character. Even the warrior is more an attachment to the marketplace bags than the actual character if I'm being honest...

I don't currently expect to get into multi-group stuff. That might change in the future, but it's definitely not a focus for now, although eventually having one of each class could be a thing.

 

[razorh]

So, a couple of thoughts here and I am no expert so there are probably a lot of other opinions and options.

You mentioned doing a heroic character. Personally, I've never done a heroic character because it's super easy to level up to 100 (used to be 110 but they nerfed the ToV missions) with the right classes. A high level warrior (with fishing pole and shield) and a high level Druid can take just about any class to ~80 in a few hours. Warrior can mass pull and do 0 damage, PL character then does 1 dmg to all pulled mobs, and druid can DS the warrior which kills them all and all xp goes to the PL'ee. going from 1-30 or so can be done extremely quickly. Druid gives you healing/regen, DS, and gates to get around. Throwing a ranger DS in is even better. I think currently at max level you get around 12k? 13k? worth of DS from druid/ranger. This starts to slow down around 80. Having a decently equipped SK at lvl 110 who can group with lvl 80's to take the warrior's place at this point and swarm kite can make the 80-100 portion quite a bit easier. I only mention this because if you're thinking about trying out different classes/class combos having a good team to level up quickly is something that it's good to get in place early on.

On group makeup... again, I am NO expert I have a really good standard group that I play that I've been playing for a LONG time and is definitely not the most efficient but I'm kind of attached to them and there's not much I can't do normally. I've seen a lot of people build groups around SK's (from bot groups I've run into especially). Having an SK on your 'tank' account might be something worth thinking about. They can be a lot of fun and offer a lot of options you don't get with a warrior... but it's very hard to beat a good Warrior/Cleric as far as survivability goes.

As far as your current group goes, it looks very solid. Personally, I would have gone rogue vs. berzerker but that is partially personal bias. A well geared/aa'd rogue can put out a massive amount of dmg and they give you the ability to go pretty much anywhere you want unhindered. They also have the option of doing a no kill task (ToL in vex thal) every 30 mins for AA.

You can't really beat an enchanter for CC but with your group make up, it's not really necessary. swapping out the enchanter for a shaman for buffs/heals/backup rez might not be a bad idea at all.

Also, do not forget about/discount Overseer for xp. It takes a while to get your agents/quests established but it is account wide so once you have it is a nice boost to xp for any character on said account. Once you have, you can pretty easily get 10-15% normal xp a day which is really nice post 115.

 

[capital0]

So, a couple of thoughts here and I am no expert so there are probably a lot of other opinions and options.

You mentioned doing a heroic character. Personally, I've never done a heroic character because it's super easy to level up to 100 (used to be 110 but they nerfed the ToV missions) with the right classes. A high level warrior (with fishing pole and shield) and a high level Druid can take just about any class to ~80 in a few hours. Warrior can mass pull and do 0 damage, PL character then does 1 dmg to all pulled mobs, and druid can DS the warrior which kills them all and all xp goes to the PL'ee. going from 1-30 or so can be done extremely quickly. Druid gives you healing/regen, DS, and gates to get around. Throwing a ranger DS in is even better. I think currently at max level you get around 12k? 13k? worth of DS from druid/ranger. This starts to slow down around 80. Having a decently equipped SK at lvl 110 who can group with lvl 80's to take the warrior's place at this point and swarm kite can make the 80-100 portion quite a bit easier. I only mention this because if you're thinking about trying out different classes/class combos having a good team to level up quickly is something that it's good to get in place early on.

On group makeup... again, I am NO expert I have a really good standard group that I play that I've been playing for a LONG time and is definitely not the most efficient but I'm kind of attached to them and there's not much I can't do normally. I've seen a lot of people build groups around SK's (from bot groups I've run into especially). Having an SK on your 'tank' account might be something worth thinking about. They can be a lot of fun and offer a lot of options you don't get with a warrior... but it's very hard to beat a good Warrior/Cleric as far as survivability goes.

As far as your current group goes, it looks very solid. Personally, I would have gone rogue vs. berzerker but that is partially personal bias. A well geared/aa'd rogue can put out a massive amount of dmg and they give you the ability to go pretty much anywhere you want unhindered. They also have the option of doing a no kill task (ToL in vex thal) every 30 mins for AA.

You can't really beat an enchanter for CC but with your group make up, it's not really necessary. swapping out the enchanter for a shaman for buffs/heals/backup rez might not be a bad idea at all.

Also, do not forget about/discount Overseer for xp. It takes a while to get your agents/quests established but it is account wide so once you have it is a nice boost to xp for any character on said account. Once you have, you can pretty easily get 10-15% normal xp a day which is really nice post 115.

Thanks for the thoughts. I do not have a druid currently, but I have thought about leveling one just for the reasons you mentioned. Once I get the crew to endgame, that will probably be the first alt just to make other classes easier. I like the idea of having one of each to swap in.

Also appreciate the advice on Overseer. I setup the Overseer Lua a week or two ago, which was super easy, and I just let that roll along. I've noticed my team is progressing faster than the kills per hour would suggest, so it must be the added overseer xp kicking in! To anyone who has been ignoring Overseer, the Lua basically just takes care of it for you.

 

[zarroth]

aye, the class you drive on tends to become your main. I have no interest in learning to tank, so I refuse to drive on a tank. I much prefer the classes that affect the flow of events, so Bard, Enchanter, Ranger and the rest vary quite a bit and I just can't make myself play them regularly. I have little interest in DOT classes in general. I do use a bst in my group, but after you start dropping mobs fast enough, mana becomes an issue due entirely to dots. Necro doesn't live up to it's potential either when mobs drop under 20 seconds. Shm/Dru will do much more DPS than a cleric, but like I said above, it's super easy to get to that 20 second mark and then their added damage no longer matters in the group game. I use a warrior/cleric/bst with my bard these days as the core with mage and enc rounding out the group. Once in a while, I will swap out the cleric for a paladin and pop in a druid over the enchanter. When I do that, the DPS rises noticeably, but then I have too much downtime since the mob density/respawn combo isn't enough to counter it. I drive from the bard most of the time.

But yah, it depends entirely on your focus. I wouldn't worry about alts at all, unless there is just some skill your current group is missing that bugs you. Ports used to be super useful, now they're barely marginal and have been since ROS (level 110) imo, so that will change over time as the expansions continue to shrink. Updates to the monk are really good though, and I've been toying with it quite a bit. They're worth looking at these days imo.