Question - Returning to live server...ideal group setup?

[levox]

Does anyone have any thoughts on an ideal group setup? I haven't played on live servers in 5+ years but have played on progression servers. There is only so much to do between 6 month expansion unlocks so I was thinking of making a group on live and experiencing content I've missed.

It seems like war/clr/bard (ench)/wiz x3 is good in the current endgame. My question is how that would fare for leveling from level 1 and also experiencing content that isn't TBM along the way. I also don't have any other chars on live anymore so it would just be me leveling from level 1 with no help. Not really interested in buying a heroic character.

Thanks for any suggestions you guys have.

 

[da Man]

Its a competent group, i use shm , mage in place of wizs, manuverability and slows for a war are gamebreakers for me. Less dmg taken is less healed. Shm has patch heals, slows buffs and later stages cc to some extent.

 

[william12]

pal, wiz, wiz, bard, enc, clr

 

[Rustycat]

This conversation is always going to be a debate because the "ideal" group for one functional avenue is not necessarily as good for another. The most common formats are going to be a Tank (WAR/SK are most popular), Cleric, Enc or Brd for CC, and then 3x Wiz. If you're going for a burn group, this dps is probably uncontested. The fears you will have especially leveling is making sure to constantly invest the groups efforts into the tank gear and cleric the most. If you're tank is half ass'd, by lvl 20, your wiz's will be puddles every time you turn around.

I happen to like one of my groups to play more than the others and it currently is

war/clr/bst/wiz/drd/brd

Good mix of buffage together, ports for everything and all utility abilities like lev and invis at easy access. I'm sure there will be several posts but you need to focus on what you WANT to play more than what others feel is ideal.

 

[hoosierbilly]

What rustycat said...

My main group is warrior/monk/druid/cleric/wizard/rotates

 

[Nydus]

War Cleric Enc Wiz Shaman Rogue 1Min per kill

War Bard Wiz Wiz Wiz Merc Healer ( shaman out of group) 30Sec per kill or less

Always depends on zone choice too.

 

[william12]

people hating on pallys must never of played one They're easily the best group tank in the game.

 

[udgrendel]

My core is SK(tank),Cleric(Heals),Enchanter(CC). I leveled them from level 1 and now level 100. took me about a month. I like the SK because I can FD my way to some hard to reach camps, and rez my group in. I like the combat rez ability of the cleric.

 

[jimbob]

I prefer War, Clr, Enc, Wiz, Wiz, Wiz, though an SK or pally would probably be a better group tank. If you want to go crazy, War, Dru, Enc, Wiz, Wiz, Wiz. Then you have perfect wizard ADPS (IoG, Haze, Black Wolf). Things will melt very fast. I usually balance a little, and use war, enc, clr, dru, wiz, whatever... One Wizard is enough DPS to handle everything I've encountered in the group game. Though with the changes to the AA nukes, DPS is lower, or mana runs out faster (I am making a bard for that last slot in the second set to help with those changes).

 

[Casca]

If you ever think you might split the group in two and afk one group for grind/farm duties while playing the other and you have no plans to actually have 12 accounts (or more than 6), you might want to consider picking a DPS that can also become a tank. I run 14, my tanks are warrior, paladin, ranger and mage (pet). Rangers pretty good DPS in support of my real group, but can also splinter off with a couple other of my DPS toons, run some mercs and farm some of the easier stuff for me while I continue on with my warrior group doing what I want.

 

[Warl0ck45]

just to be sure someone mentioned it...

If you are going to play FTP (Free to Play)... you will find FTP tanks SUCK if you are building from scratch or having to level.

I believe some others may be more qualified on advice on FTP group make ups, but having a few myself just to try settling of some tradeskill farming groups (FTP with max level but no krono/gold membership ever) a good sneeze from 500' away can knock down the FTP sk/war that I have. I had better luck using a mage pet tank and casters (not so gear limited)

 

[Thatguy27]

just to be sure someone mentioned it...

If you are going to play FTP (Free to Play)... you will find FTP tanks SUCK if you are building from scratch or having to level.

I believe some others may be more qualified on advice on FTP group make ups, but having a few myself just to try settling of some tradeskill farming groups (FTP with max level but no krono/gold membership ever) a good sneeze from 500' away can knock down the FTP sk/war that I have. I had better luck using a mage pet tank and casters (not so gear limited)

I agree with him. if you aren't willinging to pay money/kroon to AA the tank, full ftp pet tank from mage is best. however, a War/SK/Pally, with AAs is leaps and bounds better than pet. All depends what you do. Personally, I krono my ftp accounts for a month and max out or get close to maxing out their AAs till krono runs out. seems to be the most cost efficient route to overall dominance of group game.

- - - Updated - - -

If I may also add, after krono, run mq2aaspend with the option to buy ONLY non autogranted aas, then select autogrant as you run out or run out of gold time(which ever comes first) also recommend if you buy the newest expansion for any of your toons, at least do it for the tank. You group will thank you.

 

[1everdude]

While all you guys are here... Would Mage/Enchanter/Cleric/Wizard/Wizard/Wizard or Paladin/Enchanter/Cleric/Mage/Wizard/Wizard be better for group content up to 105? I'd be playing semi-afk (Running KISS in the background while doing other stuff).

 

[TheFiddler]

My Mage pet is strong and great as a BU tank just in case SHTF. However, Having a Real tank there to be the Main Tank, like your Paly, will go a Lot further for the grp imo. It's well worth it to have the Real tank there.

~TheFiddler~

 

[playj]

For F2P 105 grouping I think this is the ultimate SAFE MQ group: mage,mage, enc,brd,dru,dru

no single char going splat or lagging is going to destroy the whole group, every function healing/CC/tanking/dps/ports/coh/pull is redundant.

Dual druids are awesome with mages, constant Group Black Wolf + BRD is amazing ADPS. Also for trash mobs the druid click DD AA is about 200k in this group.

COTF trash dies in 10-12seconds with this setup. Pet Aegis usually stays on. I assume it would take 30-35 seconds on TDS trash.

For named you have the crucial debuffs and healing.

You could swap out the enchanter for wiz or mage for a bit more DPS, but you lose the redundancy, runes and a bit of mana regen(currently not important because of how overpowered BRDs are at 105 but that is not going to last forever).



If you have a nicely geared Pally then quickest DPS would be PAL,4WIZ,BRD but again that requires a paid subscription and nice gearing for the Pally.

Again the problem with single tank is that a lag spike or mq hiccup could easily destroy the group.

 

[TheFiddler]

I'm out of Red Cents playj, but I really like your thinking on that setup of Mage Mage Enc Brd Drd Drd.
May consider trying this out some day if life allows me the time down the road.

~TheFiddler~

 

[Sum1]

For F2P 105 grouping I think this is the ultimate SAFE MQ group: mage,mage, enc,brd,dru,dru

no single char going splat or lagging is going to destroy the whole group, every function healing/CC/tanking/dps/ports/coh/pull is redundant.

Dual druids are awesome with mages, constant Group Black Wolf + BRD is amazing ADPS. Also for trash mobs the druid click DD AA is about 200k in this group.

COTF trash dies in 10-12seconds with this setup. Pet Aegis usually stays on. I assume it would take 30-35 seconds on TDS trash.

For named you have the crucial debuffs and healing.

You could swap out the enchanter for wiz or mage for a bit more DPS, but you lose the redundancy, runes and a bit of mana regen(currently not important because of how overpowered BRDs are at 105 but that is not going to last forever).



If you have a nicely geared Pally then quickest DPS would be PAL,4WIZ,BRD but again that requires a paid subscription and nice gearing for the Pally.

Again the problem with single tank is that a lag spike or mq hiccup could easily destroy the group.

The weakness of your group is rez (battle rezzing). I know Shaman get a rez that gives exp, but you can't use it while in combat. Also, mages running KA don't like to recast pets if one dies, so in a pinch where both your pets get pwned your only recourse is to hope your chanter mezzes (assuming the druids haven't dotted) while summoning new ones.

My farming group is going to be SK, Cle, Enc, Wiz, Wiz, Wiz -- or -- SK, Sham, Brd, Wiz, Wiz, Wiz.

I could see an argument for replacing my shaman in group 2 with a druid (and I seriously considered that.... still may).

 

[Warl0ck45]

Not sure how well KA uses it, but you can set up call of the wild as a battle res to get toons there, then XP res later. Something I have been making sure to set up on my druid/shaman as I was working a full toon group with no cleric.

Just to toss it out there, I have noticed my enchanters pet is pretty beefy compared to what they used to be. They still do not hold a candle to mage pets... but they are not the speedbumps of yesteryear either. Heck, used a SK pet to off tank before, and at 105 my Sk's pet reads as a level 95 ranger. /boggle (as in the mag,mag,enc group has 3 potential tanks, with of course the bard, if things are sinking)

Also for informational purposes, you may find it more "cost effective" to level FTP toons as much as possible before turning their account gold. Give you more AAing time before the account runs out. Short of setting up an AFk group to run for a few weeks, you will be hard pressed to squeeze in all the defensive + aggro holding AAs, let alone the class defining or "neat shit" AA.

That is of course if you plan to work up a FTP toon via going gold for a month or so. If you plan to stay FTP, I am very serious, your melee toons just wont stand up to greens/greys. The mobs are built for melee's to have a metric asston of defensive stuff your toon just wont have.

Sorry to stress that overly much. Ran into myself plus have some friends who got frustrated after spending weeks on a toon that they were more or less worthless with out spending money on, where as a caster toon (while very gimpy compared to a gold account) was able to hold it's own (is more or less a mercenary you can control, slightly less defensive, but more offensive)

 

[dannuic]

Feeding off the FTP discussion, I usually get up to about 60 or so, burn a krono, then autogrant all the way until I can't autogrant anymore. I usually have enough time left on my krono to finish up the essential AA's, then level up to max level as a FTP and burn another krono to finish up my AA's. If you do that, you can't use mercs during the FTP sessions, but it seems to work out pretty well.

 

[playj]

Druids do get a 96% out of combat rez AA Rejuvenation of Spirit, plus above mentioned Call of the Wild for the battle rez.

The idea behind my setup is that it is quite resilient to lag spikes while keeping decent DPS and being able to do pretty much everything groupwise while on F2P.

There are higher DPS setups just that my setup is safer.

It goes without saying that you will have to burn a Krono/sub for a month to grab AAs + auto-grant. After that though you are not missing much as a caster on F2P.

 

[hoosierbilly]

just to be sure someone mentioned it...

If you are going to play FTP (Free to Play)... you will find FTP tanks SUCK if you are building from scratch or having to level.

I believe some others may be more qualified on advice on FTP group make ups, but having a few myself just to try settling of some tradeskill farming groups (FTP with max level but no krono/gold membership ever) a good sneeze from 500' away can knock down the FTP sk/war that I have. I had better luck using a mage pet tank and casters (not so gear limited)

One krono to get AA autogrant will make tremendous difference.

 

[nicesandwiches]

So zerkers are just redundant for group set ups now with afk?


Ian

 

[Hanlons Razor]

I ended up with Sk / Mnk / Clr / Wiz / Brd / Sham. Mostly because the monk is my main raiding char and I built the rest of the group around him. The SK and Bard together make an amazing DS PLing setup that can DS PL right up to 75+.

 

[Meistro]

I would guess that many of us have at least one account set aside specifically for a trader. And as you all know, a trader must be gold. When starting new toons, (if you aren'tin a hurry for them) I usually create my account, create a generic toon, give him a krono ( or pay for a month or two of gold), create the character class, race, start city I want. And then use that account as a trader till I build up enough DBC to buy a heroic toon. Then level said toon to max lvl, pop 1 more krono, and max AA's. Rinse, repeat...
Takes a bit longer to build an army, but is an easy way to get the toons you want, with ok gear for farming ( till you can get them better).

I have also leveled them up (as a group) to lvl 100 (usually mostly afk in some corner somewhere), did the krono and max AA'S...but gear can be a slight issue if you haven't been stocking up ahead of time.