Monk + Shaman + ?

[curtischoy]

Hallo

I finally convinced some old friends to play P99 and they want to do a shaman and a monk cuz that is what they played on live.

I will be making up the third spot and I wanted some opinions on what class you think I should play. I am open to any class at all. The shaman and monk are both iksars so a good aligned race/class would be nice.

Our goals are to exp and be able to do some loot camps. We want to mostly camp our gear and not buy it. We do not need to become millionaires. We do not want to exp the fastest route or do the best possible min/max. We want to enjoy the game and take our time leveling.

We will be starting from scratch, I will not be taking any of my existing funds/characters/items to help us at all. Starting with starting weps and guild tunics.

In all this I assume that travel will not be a big issue b/c Dial A Port is pretty darn handy and we should be able to come up with port cash really quickly. Most likely will take the third character to kunark to exp in the zones there so that it will be easier for the monk to train. But depending on what I pick, I'll have to run him back. /shrug

I really don't mind playing any class so all suggestions are welcome.

[Raev]

Necromancer or Enchanter are the natural choices there, but Monk/Shaman is so flexible that you could really add almost anything and get away with it.

[Swish]

The synergy with a necro is very good - could go all lizard? :D

Give the 3 characters themed names and get reported daily for 3-boxing.

Cappcom, Essenkay, Nammco ?

[Bboboo]

Enchanter

[curtischoy]

Give the 3 characters themed names and get reported daily for 3-boxing.

Cappcom, Essenkay, Nammco ?

Athos, Porthos, Aramis?

Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato?

Necro or chanter, eh? That makes me think ranger would be perfect. (Not a joke)
Necro would be a cool choice tho, could go all lizard.

[Vexenu]

Paladin. Gives you a real tank so the Monk can stack STR for max DPS and not worry as much about AC/HP. Also have extra heals to save the Shaman mana. At 45+ you also can use the DW Helm and Bracer, the former of which can heal for 700 hp per minute mana free (syngergizes very well with Shaman's canni while the Monk is pulling) and the latter which, in conjunction with your lvl 30 stun and shield bash, allows you to stun lock caster mobs and interrupt 100% of their spells, which is a huge deal when you start getting into higher end dungeons. Paladin also has the Lull/Calm line and Root, both of which are also hugely useful when doing dungeons, allowing you to help the Monk with pulling and the Shaman with CCing. Your DPS is not amazing, but with a 30/40 Baton of Faith (<100pp) and Shaman buffs + haste you'll contribute more than you'd think.

So yeah, I'd say Paladin complements the Monk/Shaman duo very nicely.

[Swish]

Replace that paladin with a SK, fear kite... don't take any damage <3

Maybe a regen from the shaman to deal with the odd hit if fear breaks a bit sooner than the SK expects.

[kaev]

Athos, Porthos, Aramis?

Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato?

Necro or chanter, eh? That makes me think ranger would be perfect. (Not a joke)
Necro would be a cool choice tho, could go all lizard.

Necro and chanter are both such powerful classes, in that trio maybe prefer the necro to higher-risk chanter tactics since you'd have no rezzer. But...

As a tank, a ranger has fantastic agro at very low mana cost, decent straight-up melee dps, and weak ac/hp. A shaman wants the first, magnifies the second beautifully, and mitigates the third better than any other class in the game. That would be a pretty good trio, amazing for outdoor hunting and solid indoors. And on those occasions when it all comes tumbling down and you forgot to recharge your WC caps, the shaman gates out and runs back while the monk flop-drags the ranger's corpse. ;)

[kaev]

Replace that paladin with a SK, fear kite... don't take any damage <3

Maybe a regen from the shaman to deal with the odd hit if fear breaks a bit sooner than the SK expects.

Chasing mobs around has got to be the most annoying and least fun way there is to play EQ. yuck

[Swish]

Imagine a mob slowly fleeing north, if you hit it from the south you're going to hate it.

If you hit it from SE/SW with a bit of strafe you'll have a much better time.

At 34 you'd have 2-3 pets as well keeping things ticking.

Maybe I just don't like paladins very much :)

[Baler]

I'd say Enchanter. Crowd control, charm, clarity, illusions(lol)
Necro is also a very good option. Snare, Pet, Dots.

[Waedawen]

Necro or chanter, eh? That makes me think ranger would be perfect. (Not a joke)

Thing is, you're not even a little bit wrong, and some people will probably tell you otherwise.

Enchanter is probably the 'strongest' choice, but behind that you might want to get a Wizard as your third. The addition of hard stuns for caster mobs (can stun with Enchanter too) and strong burst DPS for toughies would open up a lot of options. And you'd be able to hop skip around the world looking for the choicest camps.

[Cecily]

Would choose rogue, personally. DPS tank + DPS + support. It's a solid group.

[Oleris]

enchanter 40+ for pet dps. necro could be decent choice if monk isn't twinked. Rogue better choice if all are twinked.

[Bboboo]

Enchanter/Rogue/Ranger for nonstop pulls tbh

[Ezalor]

how about a bard?

[Orochi]

Iksar Necro. Necro can help with heals to take pressure off shaman, fear kite w/monk, charm in undead zones, and send pet in on mobs when not charming. Not to mention FD, rez (eventually), and being overall super mana efficient with regen+lich.

[burkemi5]

For the love of all that is holy, do not make another melee class, especially not a tank, and especially not a pally. Pallies are horrible. For maximum ass kicking, make a necro or chanter. Necro, Shaman, Monk, all iksar FTW.

[shimonuh]

Maybe I just don't like paladins very much :)

Paladins suck anyway

[shimonuh]

Would choose rogue, personally. DPS tank + DPS + support. It's a solid group.

How would the monk hold agro?

Procs are rng based. Rogue evade isn't 100% reliable.

[khanable]

How would the monk hold agro?

Procs are rng based. Rogue evade isn't 100% reliable.

root

[Cecily]

Easily.

[kaev]

root

Sadly, this begs the question: if the shaman is rooting all the mobs anyway, why is he bothering to share the xp & loot with the other two?

EQ class design sucks donkey balls. The game is fun in spite of the bad choices the designers made, not because of them.

[Arkanjil]

Bard....simple choice.

[Cecily]

Monk tanks feel similar to warrior tanks. They hold agro with dps instead of procs though. The rogue deals with it the same way they would with a warrior, wait a little bit before going full dps. If the the delay before engaging is unreasonably long for the monk to maintain a lock, root everything. It's pretty simple. 50+ epic monks hold agro off of 50+ epic rogues as easily, if not better than warriors. Gear disparity at earlier levels might cause more of an issue, but epic / SoS + epic should work fine 1-60.

[Cecily]

Sadly, this begs the question: if the shaman is rooting all the mobs anyway, why is he bothering to share the xp & loot with the other two?

Because a root and slow is cheaper than root dot dot dot root dot dot? ... dot

[iruinedyourday]

Sadly, this begs the question: if the shaman is rooting all the mobs anyway, why is he bothering to share the xp & loot with the other two?

EQ class design sucks donkey balls. The game is fun in spite of the bad choices the designers made, not because of them.

naw even if a sham was just root rotting and had a monk who was too under geared to tank, if they were pulling mobs as 1's and 2's and adding them to the rot rotation, that'd be great!

[Clark]

Enchanter or Cleric.

[tizznyres]

Definitely Enchanter, gives you a top quality trio group through all Kunark content. Monk can pull and deal solid DPS, Shaman handles slows, heals, and adds some DoT / JBB DPS, and Enchanter handles calming, charming, and mezzing adds when needed. Only thing the group will lack is a rezzer, but with good play you'll rarely die.

Enchanter / Sham are the two most important classes in terms of buffing a melee character for DPS, and Enchanter and Shaman are capable of regaining mana much, much faster than most other casters, especially if the Enchanter is able to / confident in keeping a caster mob mezz-locked. This isn't possible in all locations, but pretty much anywhere in Karnor's Castle, and most places in Sebilis it can be done. Of course most of this pertains to level 50+, but I'm assuming you are looking at the end-game as much as the early game.

Necro or Cleric are also decent alternatives. With Necro you'll lose significant DPS from a potential Enchanter pet, but you also won't have to worry about charm breaks. You'll also lose Clarity, the better Hastes, Crowd control, and the ability to calm to most places. On the upside, Necro offers emergency rezzing at a cost + feign death, and some neat abilities such as mana battering. Cleric you'll lose a huge amount of DPS, all of the potential Enchanter buffs, but retain the ability to calm down to more desirable camps. Clerics of course offer fantastic HP / Armor buffs which will make things generally more safe, assuming you don't need crowd control. Clerics also offer great rezzing, and if you are hunting in an Undead heavy area, such as Howling Stones or Crypt in Sebilis, you will gain pretty decent mana-efficient nukes. Keep in mind though, more often than not, if things go wrong while trio-ing in most late-game camps, the Cleric often won't have an opportunity to escape aggro and Rez your group anyway.

All-in-all, for me it's a no brainer to go for Enchanter here. It's hard to describe just how powerful an Enchanter can be in group content through most of Kunark, and if they can keep a decent pet charmed with dual wielding + haste, it will offer ridiculous DPS. I'd mention Bard, but in terms of trio-ing more difficult content they are just a second-rate Enchanter.

[Kutsumo]

Monk tanks feel similar to warrior tanks. They hold agro with dps instead of procs though. The rogue deals with it the same way they would with a warrior, wait a little bit before going full dps. If the the delay before engaging is unreasonably long for the monk to maintain a lock, root everything. It's pretty simple. 50+ epic monks hold agro off of 50+ epic rogues as easily, if not better than warriors. Gear disparity at earlier levels might cause more of an issue, but epic / SoS + epic should work fine 1-60.

+1, haven't had any issues with monk tanks on my rogue. Just the usual warrior tank play style works.

[GinnasP99]

necromancer

[Lune]

lawyer

[Feanoir]

Obviously a bit biased, but a paladin would add fun and utility to the dup and would be a great addition. Patch heals, awesome snap aggro so you can slow away with abandon on the shaman, and like posted above, the monk could go all out with str for dps and not have as much worry about migitation when looting. Paladins match heals during the high middle levels with the shaman, and are great for the oh shit moments that tend to happen with new adventurers in dungeons.

[Cecily]

lawyer

Lol right?

[curtischoy]

Love all the posts. Decided to go with a necro because I have already played a ranger and an enchanter and I thought that this would be really fun/good trio.

[burkemi5]

Love all the posts. Decided to go with a necro because I have already played a ranger and an enchanter and I thought that this would be really fun/good trio.

You made by far the best choice. I trioed a necro, monk, and shaman in CoM last week and it was great. Nice work.