Planning to ride a TLP to Live for once

[madimp]

Once I know whether or not Frostreaver will be Truebox or not (looking likely that it just might be Truebox) I'll either be waiting for that, or rolling onto Oakwynd and catching up to House of Thule. Given that understanding, my preferred six-box for most eras of EQ consist of SK/Healer/Enc/Mag/Nec/Bst. But I'd like knowledge of those who have played expansions past Underfoot as to the long-term viability of this setup, but most importantly:

Is a Shaman healer worth going with before the level cap gets above 65? I like a lot of what Shammy provides, but I dislike playing them - but I'm willing to knuckle down and go for it, if they can keep a group alive well enough going through things like PoP, Underfoot, and whatnot. On the other hand, I really do enjoy a Cleric's more passive healing playstyle with the occasional stun, nuke, hammer pet.

I've been screwing around on Test with an SK/Clr/Enc/Mag/Mag/Nec setup and an SK/Clr/Enc/Mag/Nec/Bst setup and I like both, but I know the limitations of the Bst before they get access to their swarm DPS spells and melee-boosting AAs and discs, and I know the overlap between Shm and Bst rapidly dies off after PoP. I also know that a Beastlord never gets disease slows, which I'm pretty sure only matters for a few encounters before 80ish, and that I'd probably be better off having the Enc slow most of the time at higher levels?

I've also done War tanks before but they're just so boring to play at the levels I've done raid tanking at. I understand they eventually get a bit more involved, but that'd add another layer of learning as I go, whereas I'm pretty comfortable with SK.

Overall I'm pretty blind to the game post-Underfoot, so I really just want to know of the long-term viability of my favorite caster group setup and whether or not Shaman over Cleric provides enough oomph to move out of my comfort zone by having a Shammy healer before the levels I've seen bandied about (90, 100) where they become really good healers. As a side note, I do a lot of manual six-boxing but also use KA for tank/heals and MA for everything else, but lately I've also been using RGMercs to get to level 30ish so I have something worth writing into KA/MA.

Mostly I want to do this on a TLP so I can ride to Live and get all the knowledge along the way rather than trying to play a perpetual game of catch-up with Live; my Test crews have basically just fallen into "Do CotF HAs for gear" with no further knowledge I've been able to glean from the methods of progression.

Thanks in advance for any knowledge/advice you can drop on me.

 

[Sic]

Once I know whether or not Frostreaver will be Truebox or not (looking likely that it just might be Truebox) I'll either be waiting for that, or rolling onto Oakwynd and catching up to House of Thule. Given that understanding, my preferred six-box for most eras of EQ consist of SK/Healer/Enc/Mag/Nec/Bst. But I'd like knowledge of those who have played expansions past Underfoot as to the long-term viability of this setup, but most importantly:

Is a Shaman healer worth going with before the level cap gets above 65? I like a lot of what Shammy provides, but I dislike playing them - but I'm willing to knuckle down and go for it, if they can keep a group alive well enough going through things like PoP, Underfoot, and whatnot. On the other hand, I really do enjoy a Cleric's more passive healing playstyle with the occasional stun, nuke, hammer pet.

I've been screwing around on Test with an SK/Clr/Enc/Mag/Mag/Nec setup and an SK/Clr/Enc/Mag/Nec/Bst setup and I like both, but I know the limitations of the Bst before they get access to their swarm DPS spells and melee-boosting AAs and discs, and I know the overlap between Shm and Bst rapidly dies off after PoP. I also know that a Beastlord never gets disease slows, which I'm pretty sure only matters for a few encounters before 80ish, and that I'd probably be better off having the Enc slow most of the time at higher levels?

I've also done War tanks before but they're just so boring to play at the levels I've done raid tanking at. I understand they eventually get a bit more involved, but that'd add another layer of learning as I go, whereas I'm pretty comfortable with SK.

Overall I'm pretty blind to the game post-Underfoot, so I really just want to know of the long-term viability of my favorite caster group setup and whether or not Shaman over Cleric provides enough oomph to move out of my comfort zone by having a Shammy healer before the levels I've seen bandied about (90, 100) where they become really good healers. As a side note, I do a lot of manual six-boxing but also use KA for tank/heals and MA for everything else, but lately I've also been using RGMercs to get to level 30ish so I have something worth writing into KA/MA.

Mostly I want to do this on a TLP so I can ride to Live and get all the knowledge along the way rather than trying to play a perpetual game of catch-up with Live; my Test crews have basically just fallen into "Do CotF HAs for gear" with no further knowledge I've been able to glean from the methods of progression.

Thanks in advance for any knowledge/advice you can drop on me.

there are a lot of threads on this - have you looked at the dozens of other discussions about it? you'll end up getting some "repeat fatigue" where you get a pretty short answer because the same folks have repeated the same thing so many times - often to crickets or resistance

shm can often have a pretty hard time in the 60s until 99/101+ due to their toolkit and their "role" during those times.

 

[madimp]

there are a lot of threads on this - have you looked at the dozens of other discussions about it? you'll end up getting some "repeat fatigue" where you get a pretty short answer because the same folks have repeated the same thing so many times - often to crickets

I have, yes. But many of those threads are from before the turn of the decade. I thought I’d try for advice from the perspective of the current game which has undergone more than a few changes since.

 

[Smartiez]

Once I know whether or not Frostreaver will be Truebox or not (looking likely that it just might be Truebox) I'll either be waiting for that, or rolling onto Oakwynd and catching up to House of Thule. Given that understanding, my preferred six-box for most eras of EQ consist of SK/Healer/Enc/Mag/Nec/Bst. But I'd like knowledge of those who have played expansions past Underfoot as to the long-term viability of this setup, but most importantly:

Is a Shaman healer worth going with before the level cap gets above 65? I like a lot of what Shammy provides, but I dislike playing them - but I'm willing to knuckle down and go for it, if they can keep a group alive well enough going through things like PoP, Underfoot, and whatnot. On the other hand, I really do enjoy a Cleric's more passive healing playstyle with the occasional stun, nuke, hammer pet.

I've been screwing around on Test with an SK/Clr/Enc/Mag/Mag/Nec setup and an SK/Clr/Enc/Mag/Nec/Bst setup and I like both, but I know the limitations of the Bst before they get access to their swarm DPS spells and melee-boosting AAs and discs, and I know the overlap between Shm and Bst rapidly dies off after PoP. I also know that a Beastlord never gets disease slows, which I'm pretty sure only matters for a few encounters before 80ish, and that I'd probably be better off having the Enc slow most of the time at higher levels?

I've also done War tanks before but they're just so boring to play at the levels I've done raid tanking at. I understand they eventually get a bit more involved, but that'd add another layer of learning as I go, whereas I'm pretty comfortable with SK.

Overall I'm pretty blind to the game post-Underfoot, so I really just want to know of the long-term viability of my favorite caster group setup and whether or not Shaman over Cleric provides enough oomph to move out of my comfort zone by having a Shammy healer before the levels I've seen bandied about (90, 100) where they become really good healers. As a side note, I do a lot of manual six-boxing but also use KA for tank/heals and MA for everything else, but lately I've also been using RGMercs to get to level 30ish so I have something worth writing into KA/MA.

Mostly I want to do this on a TLP so I can ride to Live and get all the knowledge along the way rather than trying to play a perpetual game of catch-up with Live; my Test crews have basically just fallen into "Do CotF HAs for gear" with no further knowledge I've been able to glean from the methods of progression.

Thanks in advance for any knowledge/advice you can drop on me.

I sent you a DM - I'm just a year away from hitting live on a TLP

 

[midian99]

Once I know whether or not Frostreaver will be Truebox or not (looking likely that it just might be Truebox) I'll either be waiting for that, or rolling onto Oakwynd and catching up to House of Thule. Given that understanding, my preferred six-box for most eras of EQ consist of SK/Healer/Enc/Mag/Nec/Bst. But I'd like knowledge of those who have played expansions past Underfoot as to the long-term viability of this setup, but most importantly:

Is a Shaman healer worth going with before the level cap gets above 65? I like a lot of what Shammy provides, but I dislike playing them - but I'm willing to knuckle down and go for it, if they can keep a group alive well enough going through things like PoP, Underfoot, and whatnot. On the other hand, I really do enjoy a Cleric's more passive healing playstyle with the occasional stun, nuke, hammer pet.

I've been screwing around on Test with an SK/Clr/Enc/Mag/Mag/Nec setup and an SK/Clr/Enc/Mag/Nec/Bst setup and I like both, but I know the limitations of the Bst before they get access to their swarm DPS spells and melee-boosting AAs and discs, and I know the overlap between Shm and Bst rapidly dies off after PoP. I also know that a Beastlord never gets disease slows, which I'm pretty sure only matters for a few encounters before 80ish, and that I'd probably be better off having the Enc slow most of the time at higher levels?

I've also done War tanks before but they're just so boring to play at the levels I've done raid tanking at. I understand they eventually get a bit more involved, but that'd add another layer of learning as I go, whereas I'm pretty comfortable with SK.

Overall I'm pretty blind to the game post-Underfoot, so I really just want to know of the long-term viability of my favorite caster group setup and whether or not Shaman over Cleric provides enough oomph to move out of my comfort zone by having a Shammy healer before the levels I've seen bandied about (90, 100) where they become really good healers. As a side note, I do a lot of manual six-boxing but also use KA for tank/heals and MA for everything else, but lately I've also been using RGMercs to get to level 30ish so I have something worth writing into KA/MA.

Mostly I want to do this on a TLP so I can ride to Live and get all the knowledge along the way rather than trying to play a perpetual game of catch-up with Live; my Test crews have basically just fallen into "Do CotF HAs for gear" with no further knowledge I've been able to glean from the methods of progression.

Thanks in advance for any knowledge/advice you can drop on me.

You could always slot into Teek - it's a very healthy server still. TBS is almost out.