Which Duo to Choose?

[timeconsumer]

My buddy I are looking to play together and are analyzing a few duo combinations. We've played solo on the server on and off a little bit over the last year, and we both had experience in Kunark during live. For our solo play we both just did bard aoe kiting. Something endgame viable would be great, I recently vacated another project (diff game) where I was raiding 3 or 4 nights a week.

I know the most obvious answer: "Play what interests you/what you enjoy". But the fact is we really don't know how interesting or enjoyable these combinations are, or if they will get better or worse with time. Hence why I'm looking for insight.

He's interested in doing a shaman, I'm game for just about anything. The one issue is we really don't want anything that's dependent on plat, because we have none.

The most obvious choice is shaman/monk, which is fine, I had a lot of experience as a monk 15 years ago. He's probably going to be an ogre so he would be able to loot for 2 of us. But I don't know how effective a badly geared monk would be.

Option 2 would be enchanter/shaman. I know this has great synergy at 60, but I'm unsure how it scales up till then. Enchanters seem fun, but I'm sure there's a ton of them. At least enchanters aren't gear dependent, not sure about the cost of spells though.

Option 3 would be bard/bard, we already have bards, just use them together. Could be fun. But we'd probably never get into a group together if we wanted to play with others. Probably raid viable, albeit painful.

And I'd consider just about anything else out there if anyone has suggestions. As long as it's viable on a budget and has pretty good leveling speed.

[Roguejm11]

I did a Mage/Druid a long time ago before Kunark was added, the exp seemed amazing. What I hated was both players sitting waiting on mana after a big pull.

Mage/Mage is hilariously fun.

[Grombar]

Have you thought about a shaman/ necro options? Early on the shaman can tank for the necro, Fear kiting w/ 2 pets and duo so no worry about pets stealing exp. and late game you can easy root rot together or charm kill. lots of other options i could see happening w/ that combo too.

[timeconsumer]

Have you thought about a shaman/ necro options? Early on the shaman can tank for the necro, Fear kiting w/ 2 pets and duo so no worry about pets stealing exp. and late game you can easy root rot together or charm kill. lots of other options i could see happening w/ that combo too.

I considered that combo too. I was concerned about endgame viability for the necro though.

[timeconsumer]

I did a Mage/Druid a long time ago before Kunark was added, the exp seemed amazing. What I hated was both players sitting waiting on mana after a big pull.

Mage/Mage is hilariously fun.

Mage/mage could be an option. Druid doesn't sound too enticing.

[Blux]

With a monk does a shaman or cleric make the better partner?

[mr_jon3s]

Enchanter/cleric is great. Can do everything with a charmed pet and a cleric healing it.

But if it was me I would do Shaman/tank. With this combo you can duo alot of stuff and your two thirds of the way to a group just need dps.

[Korain]

With a monk does a shaman or cleric make the better partner?

Shaman, hands down. Clerics have the better heals and defensive/HP buffs, sure, but Shaman will boost what the Monk of capable of far more than a Cleric. Shaman has:

Healing
Slows/Debuffs
Haste
DoTs
Pet (if needed/wanted)

I have, and always will, stand by Monk/Shaman being the best duo in the game. My dad and I managed to duo numerous camps as Monk/Shaman back in the day. We were Human/Barb. Doing Human/Evil race might give you more options/access when it comes to gear dumping and selling/purchasing in general.

[Qelyn]

Blux: Shaman is a much better partner with a monk from what I've read/heard.

[Kileras]

enc/clr is great but it is kinda hard in my opinion as a duo. Don't get me wrong it shines EVENTUALLY, but as a first duo it can be a bit rough because healing is not efficient and charming is difficult until you get into the 22+ zone. Those first big chunks of levels will have to be grouped and you generally feel pretty weak. some even say that charming enc/clr only gets good when you finally get complete heal.

[Renault]

Shaman's strength is slows, buffs, debuffs. If you don't use all three of those, then you're not getting the most out of your duo.

Shaman's main weakness: only CC is roots.

If you are thinking endgame viable duo partners for raiding, then you have a lot of options:
(1) Monk - been discussed. There are a zillion monks on this server.Make leveling easy with good dps and, most important, ability to pull.
(2) Any other melee - SKs can also pull, Paladin can try to lull pull, Bard can lull and mez, Rogues can sneak pull, Halfling warriors can sneak pull.

You can also just choose areas to xp where you don't need to split many. Up until the 40s, shaman can just slow tank, so a rogue could backstab and take them down. Bard is a non-traditional choice but actually rounds out the shaman pretty well, are raid desired, and can tank fine through the 30s and probably 40s.

(3) Any caster but wizard, druid and cleric (unless you want to stick to undead)
Enchanter is the obvious one, with mana regen, charm, mez and lull. The winning duos for endgame are usually considered enchanter/cleric or monk/shaman, so you are just doing things a little differently.

Necro for reasons partly discussed - pulling, charmed pet, mana twitch, high damage dots, etc.

Mage - OP pet, can haste and stat buff, slow target, root adds, dot, etc.

[Issar]

Shaman/SK complement each other nicely. I don't think it's a popular duo here due to xp penalties and not as efficient dps. SK can split pull similar to a monk, but lacks the dps. However, they bring other utilities, such as snare, fear, ivu, aggro snap, and small self heals. Depending on your race, you and your ogre friend will have similar access to cities and merchants. Also, and this is just my opinion, they are not a boring class. I played both a monk and an SK on live and I became bored with the monk playstyle. My SK became the only toon that I played other than my shaman, late into Kunark and through Velious. That's just my opinion though.

[Jitsumo]

I did a Mage/Druid a long time ago before Kunark was added, the exp seemed amazing. What I hated was both players sitting waiting on mana after a big pull.

Mage/Mage is hilariously fun.

I found Mage/Mage to be super easy, but also terribly bland and boring.

[gildor]

I recently fortuned into a duo that has been working great. Met up with an enchanter in oasis on my druid, we have been charm duoing and terrorizing the zone. Xp is flowing like candy, its fantastic.

[unleashedd]

me and my brother are going dru/enc - enc for charm dps obviously, and dru basically as 2nd pet :)

[DevGrousis]

that'll be an interesting duo. Definitely will be a steep learning curve, but you'll both have lots of utility for grouping or soloing on your own too.

Have fun! Update here from time to time and tell us how its going. I'm interested to know your guys techniques.

Cheers,

[Zehrikrom]

If there's one thing I love more than anything, it's a bunch of casters melting faces. I'd suggest Wiz/Enc, Nec/Enc, Mag/Wiz... Enc/Enc would be hilarious and fun, walk into any number of enemies and slowly squash their skulls like grapes. Nec/Enc could work too, pets are neat.