Is Sham/Ranger a good duo class?

[Biopimp]

My buddy and I are looking to start playing EQ again. I started playing pre-kunark and he started a little after kunark. I played a lot of classes but was never able to start a ranger. From my experience with a shaman, it seems like a good fit i.e. slows, heals, haste, snares and a decent melee that should be able to take some hits from a slowed mob and keep aggro. To me, this looks like a better option then sham/monk as you get the snares and outdoor lulls. Does anyone have any first hand knowledge if this combo is as good as it looks on paper?


BTW, these will be our first characters so they will not be twinks.

[VincentVolaju]

Id say the DPS and tanking ability from an untwinked monk would be better then an untwinked ranger, even with his snare and lull. Rangers have it pretty rough as it is, and if you guys are starting from scratch without anything for the ranger, its going to be painful. Id go with a Monk/Sham personally, but if your all for Ranger, then Shaman is a great class to duo with.

[gotrocks]

I think you are going to get burnt out playing a ranger.

They're just not that fun, its hard t o find groups (altho if you an d the shaman are a 'package deal' when grouping it shouldnt be too hard) and your role in raids, while important, is depressing as fuck (eating dt's).

just my 2 cents.

[fadetree]

Yes, its a very good duo.

[Llodd]

Yes, its a very good duo.

+1

[myriverse]

Shaman and anything is good, imo.

But yes, you may get burned out with the Ranger.

[Missingo]

Duo'd with a ranger a good amount on live throughout Kunark and Velious, he was decently geared and with slow +buffs we did quite well. The Ranger able to heal for himself helped with downtime and snare was wonderful. Shaman/Monk is a stronger duo but Ranger/Shaman is not too bad

[Acrux Bcrux]

Its def a good duo combo. I Duod most of my 40s with a shaman in CoM and even duod most of 58 and almost all of 59 with a shaman in KC basement. Im sure there are better combinations but ranger/shaman can hold shit down for sure.

[Oaks the Ranger]

I love that Combo, I boxed those two for years on live and you have all you ever need, snare, heals, dps, dots, slows, haste, insane buffs stat buffs, damage shield, outdoor harmony pulls... plus a pet after level 34...
Yeah some slight issues with the tanking but with slow and an Orge, let the shammy tank !

[Malone88]

Shaman and anything is good, imo.
Agreed here. Not the best duo combo, but you should be fine. Ranger
pulls, tanks, snares. Ranger can tank most slowed mobs well enough.
Ranger can do a decent job of ghetto crowd control as well with snare
and root.

I two-boxed Ranger and Shaman on live to 65 and it worked really well...
and my Ranger was not that decked out in gear.

[Jeffari]

Yes it is a great combo. Rangers are a great duo partner, they are decent dps, they don't tank that well as others have mentioned, but that is fine if you have a shaman with you. I played a ranger on live back when velious was brand new and got it to level 55, and recently started a ranger here, only level 30, but I've been soloing the whole time, there have been a few instances where I'd duo up with another class, shadow knight once, wizard another time. Honestly soloing, rangers have no problem at all, of course you will need to bow kite a mob down to about 70-75% before you go in to fight, start off right away by making class 2 bone hooked arrows. They are really cheap and have an incredible amount of range, what you want to do is in between every arrow that you shoot, keep the mob flame licked always, but right after you shoot an arrow cast your dd, the refresh time for your bow is just long enough to get a dd off on your target. Flame lick also lowers the armor class of the target by a little bit so it will enable you to hit the target a little harder and flame lick and snare are only like 10 mana so there is no reason not to keep those two spells up on your target. Honestly I've soloed 90% of the way to 30 which I know isn't much of an accomplishment but I honestly will get invitations for groups quite a bit but soloing, as long as you have arrows and mana is actually really easy and fun. You should be able to kill 3-5 mobs easily no problem before you have to med. Now I know most of what I have said is in regards to soloing, but all of the above I've mentioned, now if you imagine a shaman in the mix, a melee class's best friend in terms of buffing and debuffing abilities. I guarantee you'll have such a fun and awesome not to mention easy time. Now of course you can roll with the traditional monk and shaman combo, which is an awesome combination as well. But if you really want to play a ranger, shaman and ranger honesty will be a great and awesome combo. Rangers can't tank very well but if you are rolling with a shaman, with his heals and slows, you'll be fine. The ranger is seriously one of the most fun classes to play, just not very needed in groups. Unless your looking for quillmane or brother qwinn. Or Hasten Bootstrudder, and Brother Zephyl, ha then you are everyone's best friend. =) Honestly you won't be disappointed with a ranger. Oh and another plus I forgot to mention. Beginner starting ranger gear is really inexpensive too, Silver Swiftblade, dragon horn ykesha, Swarmcaller, all really good decent weapons and not to expensive.

[Spitty]

If the ranger enjoys playing a ranger, it's a great combo. There's a bunch of fun things you can do with snare, dots and archery.

[Biopimp]

Thank you everyone for your input. Would a Druid/Shaman or Necro/Shaman be better to start? They both seem like they would complement each other very well. Do necro pets still tank as well as i remember?

[Sadres]

Druid/Shaman would probably be agonizingly low DPS. Necro/Shaman would work pretty well.

[Spitty]

Nec/shm is great. I usually tank though, not sure how well the pets hold up to tanking versus an actual player.

Dru/shm is agonizingly slow. You're better off splitting up, soloing and meeting up for coffee later.

[NegaStoat]

I rolled a ranger, got a cheap swiftblade, progressed to the late teens, and came to the conclusion that the character is best shelved until Velious which will drop the 40% hybrid exp penalty and grant the character more spells. Panic Animal is the big one here. I really wish things were different, but that's the conclusion I kept coming back to.

[Dragonmist]

Yea its a great combo to play...Hardest part is learning how to play a ranger well,and leveling up but since you have a companion wont be too bad at all.

People flame rangers now but when Velious opens its a game changer, DPS increase all melee get ST proc weps,They get new Bows,and gear that helps out as well.

Rangers if played well do not suck they do get a lot of crap though early on,I played a ranger on both the last two SOE Live Timelocked Progression Servers Classic-PoP 1st,and Classic-DoDH on Vulak I never hardly ever ate DT's. If you play a ranger in classic make sure to Quest your Spell http://wiki.project1999.org/Call_of_Flame_Quest one last thing be sure to have fun and play what you like...

[SCB]

I rolled a ranger, got a cheap swiftblade, progressed to the late teens, and came to the conclusion that the character is best shelved until Velious which will drop the 40% hybrid exp penalty and grant the character more spells. Panic Animal is the big one here. I really wish things were different, but that's the conclusion I kept coming back to.

I've got a moderately-geared ranger into the 30s now, solo and group, and I'm loving every minute. I've practically shelved my main for it. IMO you either really enjoy the class or you don't like it much past the teens, similar to other hyrbrids. SK/PAL I could just never get into, and bards always hurt my hands, so I never got into them. Rangers? In love at 9.

I think rangers get more of a bad rep here than they deserve, especially pre-endgame, and especially with how cheap/easy to get ranger gear is. That said, it's definitely not a class for everyone. Takes a specific kind of wish list to want druid utility on a melee class.

[Dragonmist]

Druid/Warrior=Ranger class or was Sony's EQ's idea...

[SwordNboard]

Druid + rogue more like it

[webrunner5]

A Ranger does just as much DPS as a Warrior till Disks. Granted they can't "Tank" as well but with slows and haste form a Shaman they do damn well till low 50's. Snare is a Huge advantage. A lot less heals needed. And Harmony is unresistable. And with the Druid Tracking nerf they are more needed now than ever.

I say go for it. Their gear is cheap also. They are not bad solo either. There is only 4 tank classes in EQ. A Ranger sure as hell can solo better than a Warrior. SK, Pally, Ranger all have 40% XP penalty or more on them. Hell a Iksar Monk has a 44% penalty. People seem to forget all about that.

Play what you enjoy. There is a big lack of tanks on here. Rangers get lots of neat spells high end and Bow Kiting can be a lot of fun. Sort of like Cat and Mouse.

[thugcruncher]

harmony is better for pulling than fd since the nerf too

[Coolname]

find a better duo, this sounds painful twinked, more so x10 untwinked

[Bantam 1]

Dunno why anyone would burn out playing a ranger... but as the other guy mentioned they are closer to a druid/rogue combo in practice.

[Mandalore93]

Duo would work fine. Especially if Shammy went troll to grab the CT disciple symbol and just fear kited animals. Although not sure what Trolls start out at to the Heretics.

Druid/rogue would probably be a more efficient option that still brings most of the uses that a ranger/shaman would.