strange duo question

[nndiro]

hi everybody!
so.. i started playing EQ again with 2 friends so we could group...but unfortunatelly, we do not seem to have matching schedules to play anymore. So, with one of them, i decided to start with another toon so we could duo... the problem is, neither one of us wanted to have a proper tank, so we were kind of thinking to make a bard/wiz or bard/necro... and, as there re lots of ppl here with more practical experience, i wanted to know if it will be possible to pull this off, having the bard (me) doing the "tanking" and having my friend nukeing with a wiz or asisting witha necro and its pet.
i'll await your comments. thanks!

oh, btw, this will be my 1st time rolling a bard, so... kind of clueless :P

[Crosswind]

I'd advise Bard/Wizard - they have a lot more synergy than Bard/Necro.

1.) Wizard ports let you get wherever you want.
2.) Wizards and Bards are both excellent AOErs.
3.) You could do some kiting + wizard PBAOE.

-Cross

[nndiro]

thanks for the reply!. now, my main concer would be.. i (the bard) would be taking most of the punches (hope there are not too many of them! lol) at least on the lowwer lvls. is this going to be too much of a hassle?

[koros]

Bard/Nec is far more powerful at higher levels. Main benefit of Bard/Wiz is ports and you can do some speedy AoE kiting/leveling for a while. That said you'll regret it by the time you get to your 50s if you go with wiz over nec and want to duo in dungeons at all.

[nndiro]

also, with the necro we have the pet to assist in the early levels, in which we could not kite anyways, right?

[Tecmos Deception]

Cross is crazy for thinking that bard+wizard has synergy just because of bard AE leveling shenanigans and ports.

Go necro+bard and don't look back. It's an unusual but effective duo, especially if you both really put some effort into learning how those two classes can work together. You have such a variety of abilities between the two classes that you really can do a bunch of different things pretty effectively, whether the bard is tanking with slows and heal songs + necro heals or you're fear kiting while bard chants or the necro is charming and the bard covering with CC during breaks, etc.

[nndiro]

as i said, i still need to "discover" the class in order to complement the necro as well as it would be possible. but that's the beauty of this game, the wide wariety of combinations hat can be done. should i try to get a set of banded for the toon so it can tankthe first lower levels, or should i invest my little plat pool in something else?

[Tenlaar]

I'd definitely go with bard/necro. The wizard may be able to AE during big bard kites, but the necro can also just wait until mobs are getting low and start picking them off one by one and killing any that start to wander, speeding up the kite as well.

Fear kiting will be very effective, and you'll have a lot of ways to do it. You can melee with damage songs and let the necro snare/fear, you can snare/fear so the necro can just use his most efficient DoTs. Because bard fear is AE, if you're in a place with a predictable fear path (like the giant fort in WW), you can snare/fear/AE DoT multible mobs at once.

Like Tecmos said, necro heals are a big bonus as well. They're not incredible, but necro heals + regen song is much better than just regen song. Especially if it's an iksar necro.

Unless you're fighting mobs over level 55, you have two mezzers. Super easy camp breaks.

You're combining one of the best soloing classes with the most versatile class, there are a ton of great options.

[Tenlaar]

As far as gear, the first thing I would get is 5/55 rings. That will run you about 400-500 plat. If you PM me your character name, I'll make you a set of banded for cost.

You can get a Sionachie's Partisan for about the same price as two rings, 9/19 piercing weapon that will last you a long time. Just having that will let you start fear kiting effectively as soon as the necro can cast snare and fear.

[nndiro]

thanks for all the imput everybody!
@tenlaar i dont have much plat, i think all i could invest on would be a set of banded and maybe a weapon below the 75 pp range for starters. i only have a sk and its not a very wealthy one, lol

[Tecmos Deception]

as i said, i still need to "discover" the class in order to complement the necro as well as it would be possible.

I don't see where you said this before in the thread.

If you're looking for the best compliment to a necro, shaman is the easy answer with any of the other casters (including another necro) working relatively well also.

[nndiro]

appreciate it, but i'm really exited to roll a bard. already had a shaman on live, so this will be a "new experience", which is kind of cool to say on a 14 y/o game
my main concern was the..."having to be the tank" on the first levels. i do not know how well the bard can take a punch and i still need toget a hold of the songs and the attack.. so.. i'm looking forward to start, though i must say, i'm a bit scared, lol :P

[Mandalore93]

Necro and bard have a lot more synergy at pretty much all levels. Necros also have area of effect spells when you want to stomp through levels by kiting. Wizards and bards do ok outside of PBAE by mesmerizing and the wizard DDs

[Tenlaar]

A tip for you (and anybody else who might look) about getting money for gear at lower levels - once you are in your mid-upper teens and can AE mez, go to the orcs in Highpass. You'll get decent xp, and there's a good chance you can walk away with both a shralok pack and a brass idol. Do that once and sell them, you have 5/55 rings. Do it one again, you have a partisan. A third time and you have a MM battle drum, a lute of the gypsy princess, and all your songs up to level 30.

[Crosswind]

Well eff, it seems like I'm totally wrong!

-Cross (...c'mon, soooomething has to go well with a wizard. If it's not a class that has boatloads of utility, minus ports, and superlative AOE kiting abilities, wtf is it?)

[Estu]

Bard+wizard is great EXP and you never have to take hits. Pull an entire zone with the bard (later on, with JBoots + Staff of Temperate Flux, the wizard can help too), then have the bard get low HP (this gives an enormous amount of aggro so the wizard doesn't get hit) by self-dotting, then train through the wizard and have the wizard time a PBAE so that it hits the monsters just as they're going by. Do this several times and the monsters will all die. The beauty of this is that you can take down entire zones at once (assuming the monsters are all dark blue) and it's a lot easier on the bard's hand than actual solo bard kiting, and no one ever has to take any hits from monsters. It's incredibly fast EXP. The downside is that bard+wizard don't have a whole lot to do other than that.

Another good (though different and much slower EXP) duo would be druid+rogue or something similar. The druid snares the monster and maintains aggro with nukes/snares/debuffs/dots, the rogue backstabs to his heart's content. Again, no one takes hits. It's also a more casual method of EXPing than the bard+wiz method mentioned above.

Bard+necro obviously have a lot of options and good synergy together. They're both super-versatile classes. An easy way to avoid having to take any damage would be to fear kite. The necro keeps the monster feared and snared while the bard runs after it hitting it and using DoT songs. Again, way slower EXP than bard+wizard, but again, more casual, and you have a lot of options (can head into dungeons, can group well with others, can try different methods of EXP). Someone above mentioned necro AE; I don't know what necros have for PBAE spells but my impression was that their arsenal of AE spells is pretty weak/sparse. I've never seen a necro as a DPSer in an AE group and I've never heard of bard+necro PBAE duos.

[Tenlaar]

Necro's have PBAoEs at 20, 29, and 39. So one could still contribute to big kites through the 40's.

[Tecmos Deception]

Necro's have PBAoEs at 20, 29, and 39. So one could still contribute to big kites through the 40's.

If you were really doing ae kiting with a bard+necro duo, you'd be best off with the necro using low hp aggro (and lich line to stay that way) to kite the mobs while the bard spams AE songs on them with relative impunity.

[Tenlaar]

I agree that would be more efficient, for the most part. I was just point out that they do have about a 20-25ish level range where the necro could help with AEs if that's how they preferred doing it.

[Nytch]

Necro/Druid, just root rot the crap out of everything....plus sports!

The druid can supply the necro with food and water and as well as sell in good aligned cities.

If you are going bard Wiz why not change the Wiz out for a druid, same ports and better buffs, you can still AOE with a druid just not as well, unless you plan on raiding then go Wiz.

[nndiro]

lots of great options, thanks guys!