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Question - Returning player considering boxing for the first time (1 Viewer)

Kelset

Active member
Joined
Aug 11, 2021
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72¢
Hi all,

I didn't see a FAQ post so please shoot me that way if there is one I missed!

I played back from shortly after launch-velious when I was a kid and recently a few of my friends and I got back into EQ in order to stay connected during the pandemic. I played around with a bunch of different classes starting with a ranger, a Necro, sk, druid, and ended up landing on a monk right before Kunark came out. We all rolled new toons and I started with a shaman and got him to 115 as a gold sub.

Now that I'm back and have the old EQ itch to scratch and as an adult with responsibilities my play times are quite random so I stumbled upon some of your very well done videos on YouTube and decided I might give boxing a try. I had a few questions that are fairly wide ranging.

First I think this one does get asked a lot and I know a big portion of it are preference, but I'm trying to figure out how to build a group that synergizes well using my shaman as the healer. I know I need a tank and I'm torn on SK vs war right now. I'm planning to main drive the tank most likely but I would like at some point to basically play all the classes on and off. I never played a bard very long during my old days but would like to try one so that leaves three spots, I was thinking going more melee centric as I have my shammy 2.0 epic and paired with the bard epic I understand it is a huge melee boost. I never played a zerk or beastlord and was thinking of maybe adding one of each(side bar question is a beastlord a good syngery with shaman because I believe they do also slow but not as well as shaman? Would a ranger fit better?) That leaves my last slot open. Is adding a single caster a good idea for ranged DPS and utility (maybe mage or enc?) or should I stay melee and do something like a monk or rogue, I'm leaning monk because of how much I loved my original one. I know double zerk are quite strong but I think I don't want to double up on classes, but any feedback or insight would be appreciated.

I have an older computer with an older 3.1 ghz i7(4770) and 16gb of ram and a gtx1070 video card, no issues running two accounts on my system now, without turning down any performance, I doubt there will be issues despite the CPU being older. I also have an older maybe 2014 Asus gaming laptop, I don't have the specs handy, but it has a mobile gpu in it, do you think that could cut it if I bring the laptop when I travel for work? Also any tips on keeping any changes synced across two systems on a multibox setup?

I will likely keep my tank and maybe one of the other accounts gold and only sub the rest to get auto grant and then try to grab as many AAs as I can once they are 110-115 range. How does FTP work with the AA cap, specifically can ftp still get the heroic AAs if I unlock progression? If they get regular AAs as a reward from an achievement are those simply lost if you do it while you are FTP? I haven't been able to find a ton of I do on this from some quick Google searches.

Thank you for your time and insight in advance!
 
Hi all,

I didn't see a FAQ post so please shoot me that way if there is one I missed!

I played back from shortly after launch-velious when I was a kid and recently a few of my friends and I got back into EQ in order to stay connected during the pandemic. I played around with a bunch of different classes starting with a ranger, a Necro, sk, druid, and ended up landing on a monk right before Kunark came out. We all rolled new toons and I started with a shaman and got him to 115 as a gold sub.

Now that I'm back and have the old EQ itch to scratch and as an adult with responsibilities my play times are quite random so I stumbled upon some of your very well done videos on YouTube and decided I might give boxing a try. I had a few questions that are fairly wide ranging.

First I think this one does get asked a lot and I know a big portion of it are preference, but I'm trying to figure out how to build a group that synergizes well using my shaman as the healer. I know I need a tank and I'm torn on SK vs war right now. I'm planning to main drive the tank most likely but I would like at some point to basically play all the classes on and off. I never played a bard very long during my old days but would like to try one so that leaves three spots, I was thinking going more melee centric as I have my shammy 2.0 epic and paired with the bard epic I understand it is a huge melee boost. I never played a zerk or beastlord and was thinking of maybe adding one of each(side bar question is a beastlord a good syngery with shaman because I believe they do also slow but not as well as shaman? Would a ranger fit better?) That leaves my last slot open. Is adding a single caster a good idea for ranged DPS and utility (maybe mage or enc?) or should I stay melee and do something like a monk or rogue, I'm leaning monk because of how much I loved my original one. I know double zerk are quite strong but I think I don't want to double up on classes, but any feedback or insight would be appreciated.

I have an older computer with an older 3.1 ghz i7(4770) and 16gb of ram and a gtx1070 video card, no issues running two accounts on my system now, without turning down any performance, I doubt there will be issues despite the CPU being older. I also have an older maybe 2014 Asus gaming laptop, I don't have the specs handy, but it has a mobile gpu in it, do you think that could cut it if I bring the laptop when I travel for work? Also any tips on keeping any changes synced across two systems on a multibox setup?

I will likely keep my tank and maybe one of the other accounts gold and only sub the rest to get auto grant and then try to grab as many AAs as I can once they are 110-115 range. How does FTP work with the AA cap, specifically can ftp still get the heroic AAs if I unlock progression? If they get regular AAs as a reward from an achievement are those simply lost if you do it while you are FTP? I haven't been able to find a ton of I do on this from some quick Google searches.

Thank you for your time and insight in advance!
howdy Kelset, welcome back to EQ and welcome to redguides :)

your computer will be alright, you should be able to 6 box on that without much issues.

I would definitely encourage you to keep the tank all-access, so you can utilize type 7 augments, but outside of krono-ing toons to autogrant and then 30 day grind AAs, you can do real well with your boxes being f2p. at 110 you have access to ToV T1 gear which is non-prestige which is pretty awesome.

you want any of these classes their 2.0 sk, shm, bard, clr, rog, zerk

bst and shaman in current game work just fine together - bst is a dps (and provides good adps), shm is a healer (with good utility and adps as well). they don't overlap like you would remember from back in the day.

My main crew is a sk, shm, bard, zerk, zerk, bst - this is a melee oriented group - the bard, bst and shm are all giving everyone else lots of ADPS, the two zerks are mainly "takers" taking up the benefits from the other toons so they can do their best. the sk, bst, and bard are also enjoying the adps from everyone. the bst is just fun, which i enjoy, and with their utility they can keep the group going for ever, plus can have an extra FD if something goes sideways, or can slap on pet taunt if my tank dies etc

I personally start with a tank/heal/CC and then i pair the 3 dps to get the most out of the CC --- usually casters for enchanters and bards for melee --- you can run either for either group, but bards are very strong and bring a lot to the table (for both caster and especially melee groups).

shammies have a little trouble lower/mid lvls being a solo healer - but nicely start to come into their own in the 100s - by 110/115 you're absolutely fine to do all group content as a solo healing shaman, especially with an sk being all SK like.

"synergy" is talked about in 2 ways - actual "synergy" class focus tab lines, where they have an ability/spell which gives the group some benefit - and then just the loose word to mean "pairs well with one another" kind of thing.

@ludwigd put a nice synergy chart > HERE < which shows the class focus ability synergy and how it benefits other classes.

at the end of the day the most important thing is to play what you like - enjoying your team > min/maxing until min maxing is more important to you than enjoying your team (sounds dumb but it is true).
 
Thanks Sic, a bunch of your videos are what got me pumped to try out boxing. Definitely going to be an adventure, but doing things like customizing the ini files to try to adapt to situations sounds really fun to me!

My sham is already 115 and messing around I have a mid 90s bard so I think I will try to PL/catch up the rest of the group to 85 so they can at least get xp grouped with the sham before I go too deep down the rabbit hole of boxing. I have been moloing with my shammy some of the old progression which in itself is a fun challenge, but I'm not that AAed or geared at this time so beyond EoK is either very slow or can go sideways much faster if I'm not careful.

Do you have any feedback about the AA question, specifically can FTP get heroic AAs from doing progression and any achievement AAs are lost if I claim them while he is max ftp AA and I complete one right?

It doesn't look like it from your set up but do you have any experience keeping the files to run MQ2/very finally synced across multiple systems? One of red's videos said the autologin needs to be exported but I should theoretically be able to simply sync the rest of the ini files that handle the config between my desktop and laptop right? Is the VV sub linked to a computer in any way or am I okay if I move back and forth between the laptop and desktop?
 
Thanks Sic, a bunch of your videos are what got me pumped to try out boxing. Definitely going to be an adventure, but doing things like customizing the ini files to try to adapt to situations sounds really fun to me!

My sham is already 115 and messing around I have a mid 90s bard so I think I will try to PL/catch up the rest of the group to 85 so they can at least get xp grouped with the sham before I go too deep down the rabbit hole of boxing. I have been moloing with my shammy some of the old progression which in itself is a fun challenge, but I'm not that AAed or geared at this time so beyond EoK is either very slow or can go sideways much faster if I'm not careful.

Do you have any feedback about the AA question, specifically can FTP get heroic AAs from doing progression and any achievement AAs are lost if I claim them while he is max ftp AA and I complete one right?

It doesn't look like it from your set up but do you have any experience keeping the files to run MQ2/very finally synced across multiple systems? One of red's videos said the autologin needs to be exported but I should theoretically be able to simply sync the rest of the ini files that handle the config between my desktop and laptop right? Is the VV sub linked to a computer in any way or am I okay if I move back and forth between the laptop and desktop?
by heroic AAs you mean like Hero's fortification and hero's resolution etc? those are tied to achievements/quests and not tied to your AA count - so as far as i know, yes you can continue to earn them, and no you will not lose them

you can run Very Vanilla on multiple computers - I absolutely would advise against trying to keep auto-sync'd ini files and such - as some things read/write frequently and you can and will have performance issues if it auto syncs after any change.
 
Thanks Sic, I'm ideally going to have a know swap point from desktop to laptop, so not doing a live sync but a planned okay I'm traveling for work this week and will backup my settings to my laptop then when I'm back home from laptop to dewktop
 
Hi all,

I didn't see a FAQ post so please shoot me that way if there is one I missed!

I played back from shortly after launch-velious when I was a kid and recently a few of my friends and I got back into EQ in order to stay connected during the pandemic. I played around with a bunch of different classes starting with a ranger, a Necro, sk, druid, and ended up landing on a monk right before Kunark came out. We all rolled new toons and I started with a shaman and got him to 115 as a gold sub.

Now that I'm back and have the old EQ itch to scratch and as an adult with responsibilities my play times are quite random so I stumbled upon some of your very well done videos on YouTube and decided I might give boxing a try. I had a few questions that are fairly wide ranging.

First I think this one does get asked a lot and I know a big portion of it are preference, but I'm trying to figure out how to build a group that synergizes well using my shaman as the healer. I know I need a tank and I'm torn on SK vs war right now. I'm planning to main drive the tank most likely but I would like at some point to basically play all the classes on and off. I never played a bard very long during my old days but would like to try one so that leaves three spots, I was thinking going more melee centric as I have my shammy 2.0 epic and paired with the bard epic I understand it is a huge melee boost. I never played a zerk or beastlord and was thinking of maybe adding one of each(side bar question is a beastlord a good syngery with shaman because I believe they do also slow but not as well as shaman? Would a ranger fit better?) That leaves my last slot open. Is adding a single caster a good idea for ranged DPS and utility (maybe mage or enc?) or should I stay melee and do something like a monk or rogue, I'm leaning monk because of how much I loved my original one. I know double zerk are quite strong but I think I don't want to double up on classes, but any feedback or insight would be appreciated.

I have an older computer with an older 3.1 ghz i7(4770) and 16gb of ram and a gtx1070 video card, no issues running two accounts on my system now, without turning down any performance, I doubt there will be issues despite the CPU being older. I also have an older maybe 2014 Asus gaming laptop, I don't have the specs handy, but it has a mobile gpu in it, do you think that could cut it if I bring the laptop when I travel for work? Also any tips on keeping any changes synced across two systems on a multibox setup?

I will likely keep my tank and maybe one of the other accounts gold and only sub the rest to get auto grant and then try to grab as many AAs as I can once they are 110-115 range. How does FTP work with the AA cap, specifically can ftp still get the heroic AAs if I unlock progression? If they get regular AAs as a reward from an achievement are those simply lost if you do it while you are FTP? I haven't been able to find a ton of I do on this from some quick Google searches.

Thank you for your time and insight in advance!
Agree 100% w/ Sic's thoughts. I'd say go Tank (sub), Mage, Mage, Bard, Enchanter, Sham or Cleric if the other 5 won't be subbed permanently. Definetely pop a krono on each and max their aa's, do Enc/Cleric First, then the casters. Buy or Farm a Shivery Earring from ToV GD Thos for the mages...and I strongly recommend CWTN Cleric/Enchanter plugs-ins for quality of play.

Route two would be 2x rangers
 
Agree 100% w/ Sic's thoughts. I'd say go Tank (sub), Mage, Mage, Bard, Enchanter, Sham or Cleric if the other 5 won't be subbed permanently. Definetely pop a krono on each and max their aa's, do Enc/Cleric First, then the casters. Buy or Farm a Shivery Earring from ToV GD Thos for the mages...and I strongly recommend CWTN Cleric/Enchanter plugs-ins for quality of play.

Route two would be 2x rangers
Also I just want d to say that I you because the level of engagement from this community is so impressive, I missed EQ man, this is what made the game great!

Thanks, I'm thinking of going melee focused instead of caster focused, at least for this group. I do plan to Krono them all once they are 115 to get as many AA as I can, unfortunately I suspect it won't be as many as I want simple because I can't play that much but still be better than nothing!

Out of curiosity why do you suggest the caster heavy route? Just more efficient in your experience for time/gear/AA invested and their ability to do content?

After thinking about it I think I will go sk, shaman, bard, ranger, zerk, and beast. At some point might try to rotate some out but I want to try the two "new" classes and I want to give the first class I ever rolled (ranger) a shot since the game is so different compared to what it was when I played him

I also never said what I wanted to do with my box group, I'd like to be able to do progression up as high as I can just to see all the expacs I missed, will most likely start with EoK and Ross as Kunark is such an awesome setting, then likely farming some ToV for a while to get a baseline of power set up and then push the limits and see what I can do. I expect this will keep me busy for quite some time
 
I do plan to Krono them all once they are 115 to get as many AA as I can, unfortunately I suspect it won't be as many as I want simple because I can't play that much but still be better than nothing!

Timing is every thing in this game. I would not wait until level 115 - that would be a waste of needed AA. Plus auto grant only goes to level 105/EOK (?) don't remember if this changed with COV or not. So waiting until level 115 wastes 10 levels that you do not get any auto grant on.

If you earn AA normally without auto grant then you get a built in bonus up to 4000 AA So you can work on those before Auto Grant. I would use those for any of these:

Excluded AA from auto-grant:
  • Mastery of Alchemy, Baking, Blacksmithing, Brewing, Fletching, Fletching/Bowyer, Jewel Craft (Enchanter), Jewel Craft (Non-Enchanter), Poison Making (rogue only), Pottery, Tailoring, Tinkering (gnome only).
  • Arcane Tongues
  • Spell Casting Subtlety
  • Weapon Stances



Then hope that they throw out a bonus exp weekend - maybe soon? And hopefully your characters are around level 85 by then. That is a good time to Krono them and turn on Auto Grant. Each character will get all AA (except tradeskill) for the level they are at. Which is well over 3000

Then you turn your AA slider to 100% and go to town with all that bonus exp going on. Also do Overseer quests and collectables which will earn even more AA.

You will get a ton of AA which will be way more than you want!

When you go back to Silver you will keep all those AA
 
Thanks Red, that is a good point power starts to drop off quickly from 106-110, snowbound helps at 110 but not getting thousands of free AA per lvl is sorely missed lol. Or at least that is how it felt with my shammy when I leveled him. I wonder if the next expacs will up the lvl cap and if autogrant will go up also?
 
Hi Team,

I've been considering playing EQ and using MQ2. MQ2 is very new to me. I stumbled upon it when looking up how to two box more efficiently on Almar's Guide.

I'm not sure if I'll be doing a full group. Instead I'm probably much more interested in playing 1 premium account and 2 F2P accounts.

I've noted from a few Youtube videos / forums that the general idea is that you focus on your Tank (Play that one actively), and build around that (Healer / DPS / CC).

I'm not really a huge fan of playing a Tank.

My question:

Can MQ2 be used to basically turn my Tank into A Merc? I figured I'd actively play some class (Maybe Monk, Bard, Ranger or Zerker - not sure yet).
  • My 2nd Playable class would be a Druid or Cleric, which I hope MQ2 will drive.
  • My 3rd class would be a Tank, which I hope MQ2 will drive. Perhaps SK or Warrior.
  • I figure I'd round out the group with Rogue / Rogue / Wizard (Wizard being the J1) Mercs.
I probably won't raid or do end game content unless I'm not Boxing (grouping). I'm mostly interested in the leveling process and learning the character.

However, is MQ2 capable of turning my SK into a viable "Merc?"

Also, I have a pretty dinky laptop with no dedicated graphics. I know I can 2 box on this laptop, but mot sure to what extent I can do anything much beyond 3.

Also, say I have a Druid healer. Does the MQ2 have the capability of switching between damage and healing as a Druid? Lots of newbie questions!!! Thank you.
 
you can certainly drive from any toon that you want, some folks definitely do.

trying to do more of the more complicated or intricate things like missions or such can definitely prove to be more challenging driving from not-the-tank
 
Hi Team,

I've been considering playing EQ and using MQ2. MQ2 is very new to me. I stumbled upon it when looking up how to two box more efficiently on Almar's Guide.

I'm not sure if I'll be doing a full group. Instead I'm probably much more interested in playing 1 premium account and 2 F2P accounts.

I've noted from a few Youtube videos / forums that the general idea is that you focus on your Tank (Play that one actively), and build around that (Healer / DPS / CC).

I'm not really a huge fan of playing a Tank.

My question:

Can MQ2 be used to basically turn my Tank into A Merc? I figured I'd actively play some class (Maybe Monk, Bard, Ranger or Zerker - not sure yet).
  • My 2nd Playable class would be a Druid or Cleric, which I hope MQ2 will drive.
  • My 3rd class would be a Tank, which I hope MQ2 will drive. Perhaps SK or Warrior.
  • I figure I'd round out the group with Rogue / Rogue / Wizard (Wizard being the J1) Mercs.
I probably won't raid or do end game content unless I'm not Boxing (grouping). I'm mostly interested in the leveling process and learning the character.

However, is MQ2 capable of turning my SK into a viable "Merc?"

Also, I have a pretty dinky laptop with no dedicated graphics. I know I can 2 box on this laptop, but mot sure to what extent I can do anything much beyond 3.

Also, say I have a Druid healer. Does the MQ2 have the capability of switching between damage and healing as a Druid? Lots of newbie questions!!! Thank you.
Plenty of plugins macros and everything in-between to make your tank basically a Merc with a few commands. But, it does help to learn a bit. Check out Test server and see some of the CWTN plugins. They take a lot of the guess work out of it. Druid doesn't exist, so you'll have to use something like KissAssist to do that. But you can toggle what you want them to focus on whether that's healing or damage.

As for your dinky laptop, EQ is a very old game. You'd be surprised at how many instances even an old PC can handle. However, there are add-ons to lessen the load. Check out mq2eqwire.

Welcome back!
 
Hi Team,

I've been considering playing EQ and using MQ2. MQ2 is very new to me. I stumbled upon it when looking up how to two box more efficiently on Almar's Guide.

I'm not sure if I'll be doing a full group. Instead I'm probably much more interested in playing 1 premium account and 2 F2P accounts.

I've noted from a few Youtube videos / forums that the general idea is that you focus on your Tank (Play that one actively), and build around that (Healer / DPS / CC).

I'm not really a huge fan of playing a Tank.

My question:

Can MQ2 be used to basically turn my Tank into A Merc? I figured I'd actively play some class (Maybe Monk, Bard, Ranger or Zerker - not sure yet).
  • My 2nd Playable class would be a Druid or Cleric, which I hope MQ2 will drive.
  • My 3rd class would be a Tank, which I hope MQ2 will drive. Perhaps SK or Warrior.
  • I figure I'd round out the group with Rogue / Rogue / Wizard (Wizard being the J1) Mercs.
I probably won't raid or do end game content unless I'm not Boxing (grouping). I'm mostly interested in the leveling process and learning the character.

However, is MQ2 capable of turning my SK into a viable "Merc?"

Also, I have a pretty dinky laptop with no dedicated graphics. I know I can 2 box on this laptop, but mot sure to what extent I can do anything much beyond 3.

Also, say I have a Druid healer. Does the MQ2 have the capability of switching between damage and healing as a Druid? Lots of newbie questions!!! Thank you.
Start with the Trio
Tank/CC/Heals
for months i piloted from my bard. even today i have all 6 toons setup with a "pilot" set of hotbars so i can pilot from any one of the ones i ahve logged in.

i would def recommend Tank for the gold account, then do either a shm or cleric (shm brings ALOT, specially if you do the epic) and a bard, thats just my preference, i do have enchanters but a bard brings sooo much to the group(having mained a bard in raid and group for years was easy)

i def would say pickup the mq2war mq2eskay if you do warrior or shadowknight as your tank, if you do paly (for the time) you would need to either rgmerc/KA/MA it
 
After going thru OOW and tons of other expansions back in the day with cleric tanks and enchanter tanks I would say use what ever you want to tank with. When the game was winding down back then warriors were hard to find. So that's how we adapted

I use my Ranger still as a tank. I do not like warriors

But, the back up group is important if you go that route

Berzerkers are fun.
 
Question - Returning player considering boxing for the first time

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