The best class to duo with a paladin?

[Jorvaar]

My RL friend picked up the game and rolled a Dwarf paladin. He doesn't play as often as I do so I'd like to roll a toon to level up with him when he's on. What is your best suggestion for class to duo/group with a paladin and why?

[kjs86z]

Shaman - if you wanna be RP bros go Barb so you're both good races and can run over to the same towns to sell / bank / resupply. Ogre is the end-game min/maxers choice due to FSI and Troll is the best pre-torpor due to racial regen.

Slow is the most efficient "heal" in the game. Melee stat buffs help out pallyman white damage. SoW is nice for when you travel around a bit. Your kill speed will be slow as a duo but it will be safe and steady. When played correctly should be basically zero downtime once you get your full "kit."

Add an enchanter, rogue, necro, bard, or mage for a superb trio.

[nostalgiaquest]

Bard - has haste, slows, regen, mana regen, fear, snare, crowd control, run speed, lull, etc. Lots of fun to play (my favorite class by far) but takes a lot of work to play. Would be lacking dps, but you also have a decent start to a group if you want to pick up a few more folks.

Druid - sow, dots, regen, damage shield, heals, snare. less work than bard. Can charm if animals. Ports are nice too.

Necro - wouldn't be my first choice but could be a lot of fun. nice dots, pet, has some heals and other fun utility spells if used correctly. Would be a good duo vs undead.

Shaman - slows, heals, buffs, dots.

[alsa]

Kinda depends on if you guys are on blue or green. If on green, caster duo will make much more sense as in high end melee gear are both expensive and hard to come by. So if on green shaman, necro even mage would make great duo with a paladin.

On the other hand, if you guys are on blue, then you have access to a ton of cheap melee gear so making duo with rogue or monk could be super fun.

[unleashedd]

enchanter. slow, haste, clarity, cc, and huge dps boost if charming

[kaizersoze]

Go cleric just for the RP of it and strictly go to undead zones.

[Ennewi]

Necromancer, druid, or enchanter. Their ability to charm would compensate for low damage output of the paladin, a class that also happens to be among the best versus charm breaks. Thorn DS from druid would also help improve the paladin's damage output and heals between both classes would be enough for a while. Necromancer has heals as well though, not to mention more spells versus the undead. Tons of crowd control no matter which of the three are chosen.

[Keebz]

Shaman - Slows, SoW, Haste, other buffs, some heals, some DPS
Druid - Ports, SoW, Thorns, other buffs, some heals, some DPS
Ench - Slows, Haste, Clarity, Lots of DPS if charming

If you know what you're doing Enchanter would be a lot of fun. Shaman is probably a good middle of the road with lots of end game potential. Druid is best if you just don't know wtf you're doing. It's just a lot more straight forward than the others.

[DMN]

What is the point of the characte( AKA what do you want this character to enable the two of you to be able to do)r?
Do you plan to mostly/exclusively duo?
What server are you on?
Are you going to be able to twink the characters, and if so to what degree?


Anyone offering advice without knowing these things is wasting there time, and you theirs frankly.

[Ennewi]

What is the point of the characte( AKA what do you want this character to enable the two of you to be able to do)r?
Do you plan to mostly/exclusively duo?
What server are you on?
Are you going to be able to twink the characters, and if so to what degree?


Anyone offering advice without knowing these things is wasting there time, and you theirs frankly.


https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=352430

Hey guys, just starting on green as a trio with a druid and a mage.

https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=360416

I've been debating which class I'd like to dig into on green for a while now and have finally landed on rogue.

It's all right there in the post history. And no mention of twinking.

[Lune]

The correct answer is enchanter, for many reasons. It is an extremely powerful class by itself and can simply 'carry' the noob paladin, but if the paladin is skilled it can also contribute to the duo with agro, heals, stun on charm breaks, etc. Ench adds much-needed DPS. Any duo like shaman/paladin or druid/paladin (where druid can't charm) which relies on the paladin's dps isn't even going to be in the same league as ench/paladin.

Like others have said, an important consideration is: Do you know how to play enchanter well? Because the ench in this combo has a lot of responsibility. Slow combined with clarity allows the paladin's sustain to keep himself alive in most content.

Druid followed by shaman are also good but in a much more limited way due to aforementioned dps limitations.

[Gustoo]

You could do a lot of different stuff.

Paladin + Mage would be pretty fun. The mage has the pet that can do all of the hard work, but the paladin can do all of the pulling and CC and keep the mage alive and provide some buffs.

Really you just don't want to duo with a cleric, since the paladin spells are all duplicated in the cleric but with a better version.

[Keebz]

You could do a lot of different stuff.

Paladin + Mage would be pretty fun.

That would be pretty neat, and I kinda wanna try this now. However, it probably requires the paladin to do most of the heavy lifting (CC, heals, pulling, etc.), which might be a tall order for a noob.

[Jibartik]

Kinda wish druids got an outdoor slow or maybe an animal only slow.

[Gozuk]

Shaman. Ever tried to melee without haste? It's rough

[Tunabros]

shaman

[Jibartik]

Yeah it frustrates me that shaman is such a clear choice because the druid just is such a similar class IMO to shaman, only in the 4rth quarter it loses its power because it has nothing to duo with a melee with in like a traditional duo setup. At that phase its all about traveling Norrath for them and doing quests which is cool in a narrative sense I guess but still, I'd like to see them be a bit more viable with a melee some how.

[Keebz]

I wonder if with PAL/DRU you're better off just animal charming on the druid at high levels while the pally baby sits. So theoretically you could level the standard tank/spank way then switch to advanced tactics once you're high enough and get the hang of things. There's extra depth and synergy there with this combo potentially.

[goldlush]

druid cleric or shaman

[Izmael]

Enchanter is probably the best.

It takes away the constant need for medding from the paladin.

Of course, the enchanter won't be able to let a pet tank as the paladin will draw aggro, but the paly could just play as a cleric that can help the enc with CC/heals and occasionally finish mobs/pets off.

Both classes can root, calm and stun which makes the duo pretty powerful.

In many situations it will probably be better to have the enc solo mobs with the paladin standing by and helping with spells. It will also take away the burden of breaking charm / nuke for full exp.

Sounds like a fun duo!

[Zipity]

What is the best duo partner for (insert class here) Almost always = Skilled Enchanter. The most OP class by far.

[Danth]

My RL friend picked up the game and rolled a Dwarf paladin. He doesn't play as often as I do so I'd like to roll a toon to level up with him when he's on. What is your best suggestion for class to duo/group with a paladin and why?

Make a Druid (if you don't already have one) if you think your buddy is likely to quit before reaching the highest levels. It's a perfectly adequate duo partner through mid levels and once said buddy quits that'll leave you with a useful utility character. Cleric is second place for this purpose in the event you already have a Druid and don't have a Cleric. Cleric/Paladin doesn't set any speeds records but it forms a nice basis for building larger groups if you like doing that. Either of these duos starts to weaken noticeably past about 50 or so once slow starts becoming much more important.

Enchanter or Shaman will give you the most power if you expect to stick it out long enough to do tougher stuff at level 60. Enchanter is cheaper to equip although the duo with the Shaman will feel better at middle levels due to the Paladin not gaining some of its most important spells until rather late.

Most any other duo can be made to work at varying levels of effectiveness if you really want to play some specific class.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Zipity: Often true, certainly true with a Paladin, but on my Shadow Knight I never found a means of effectively duo'ing with an Enchanter, at least not where both of us wouldn't have rather had a different class as a partner. Those two classes don't have much synergy.

Danth

[pokishi]

I agree with other posters to play a class that will allow your friend not to do majority of the work, where he can ease into the class and game.
My thought:
Shaman - most logical and best fit. Reasons are obvious.

Druid - this could really be fun. Heals, CC, DS, ports if you both get that far and charm in a allowable zone can make an enjoyable duo.

Enchanter - will be great with your buddy acting as heals. Mana regen will keep him up to keep up with healing. Rest of kit is self explanatory.

Bard - DPS will be an issue but can work if you want to put in the work. Downtime wouldn't be bad and allows you to do pulling if he will not like it.

Cleric - if the roleplay aspect appeals to him then role one and hit up undead zones. That aspect of the game may appeal to him to keep going even more.

Mage - DPS will not be the issue. It's going to be the downtime but could be fun.

Necro - another roleplay duo that can be pretty good. Again, hit up undead zones for maximum efficiency. This one can allow for a bit on chain pulling until you need to med.

[kjs86z]

People saying enchanter are being kinda silly for this specific situation.

The guy is brand new to the game and he wants to play a tank. He's not going to enjoy just sitting there watching the enchanter do all the work (assuming OP can even play an enchanter to near full efficiency...if he can't it'll just be a lesson in futility).

Shaman is the clear choice for bringing a noob into the game that wants to play a paladin. Sure, duo xp will be slow....but the experience of learning the class and how its "meant" to be played will be most efficient with a shaman. If they stick to just-barely-blue con mobs they'll be fine.

All they have to do is find a rogue, necro, bard, enchanter, or a mage and they'll have a much more potent trio. Grouping with different people / classes (social, learning how other classes are played, etc) is the best way to experience EQ on the first go anyway.

[Baler]

Paladin + Shaman duo is quite fun and can actually be very powerful in dungeons.

Paladins can calm/lul to pull singles & then proceeds to face tank with a oh shit button (lay on hands) just in case something goes wrong.
Shaman buffs the paladin, slows the mob and tosses an occasional dot.

It's a pretty sweet duo, even for a pre-torpor shaman.

[Jorvaar]

Thanks for all the suggestions everybody. I should have initially mentioned that we're playing on Green for those who were asking. My existing toons are a mage and rogue so I won't want to play either of those classes in this duo situation (unless my Pally friend catches one of them).

Seems like Druid/Shaman/Enchanter are suggested the most. Out of those options I'd leaning more toward Shaman (or perhaps druid) but I worry about DPS. I assume a druid would be a little better from a DPS perspective? Can anybody speak to that?

Honestly I'm just not really interested in an enchanter. I love them in a group but not sure I'd want to play one.

[Izmael]

I missed where the OP said he was new. I take back what I said about the enchanter. Shaman becomes the obvious choice.

Dps should be allright. Paly melee + shaman dots + shaman pet, should be decent, especially considering you can slow mobs and killing them really fast becomes less of a concern.

[Raev]

In the abstract, it's definitely Enchanter. Paladin and Enchanter have tremendous synergy: the Enchanter's charmed pet counters the Paladin's low DPS, Clarity lets the paladin cast more than 1 spell every 5 minutes, the Paladin's HP buffs, stuns, and LoH keep the Enchanter alive on charm breaks, and Flash of Light means that the Enchanter can tash/slow at will. PAL/ENC as a duo is pretty mediocre, but it's a fantastic group core as long as you can find a priest with a pulse.

Because the classes are designed to be incomplete, there really aren't that many great general purpose duos in EQ. Most of them are built around either a Shaman (the one stop shop for buffs, heals, and slow, as long as you don't mind a lot of canni dancing) or a charming Enchanter and his babysitter. On the other hand, full groups tend to be a little overpowered. Maybe on Green with the lower level of gear they aren't as bad, but usually I find the most interesting part of a full group is the camp dispute in OOC because there just weren't enough NPCs around. So 3-4 players is my optimum group size, and as long as you don't play another tank class (or, god forbid, Wizard) you can pick just about anything and build towards a solid trio or quartet.

Most of the advice being given here applies more at Level 40+. It sounds like your friend will never make it there, so I'd pick a class that is strong 1-20 without a lot of gear, and that set includes neither Shaman nor Enchanter. I think in your situation I'd go Druid. PAL/DRU is a fairly terrible duo, but at least you can putz around at the zone in while LFG. Druid is weak (though not as bad as people think) at higher levels, but at least you can port around to escape the crowding.

[Keebz]

Seems like Druid/Shaman/Enchanter are suggested the most. Out of those options I'd leaning more toward Shaman (or perhaps druid) but I worry about DPS. I assume a druid would be a little better from a DPS perspective? Can anybody speak to that?

Honestly I'm just not really interested in an enchanter. I love them in a group but not sure I'd want to play one.


Shaman is an awesome choice. I would not worry about DPS relative to Druids. Do it!

[Nexii]

Anything healer (cleric/dru/sham) or CC (bard/ench) really. DPS are the easiest to find to complete your group. And you can duo mobs at a slower rate with any of those 5 classes if you have to.

[Snortles Chortles]

Druids, because on all levels except physical you are a wolf!

barks

[Baler]

Slow is one of the most overpowered spells in the game.

Enchanter can't heal.

[Tunabros]

shaman
everything is balls awesome with shaman

[unleashedd]

shaman slow and heals does make it great from min/max survivability perspective, but the dps will be lacking compared to enc. im wondering if a rogue and paladin would gel enough to be able to duo beyond lets say lvl40...

[Zipity]

Make a Druid (if you don't already have one) if you think your buddy is likely to quit before reaching the highest levels. It's a perfectly adequate duo partner through mid levels and once said buddy quits that'll leave you with a useful utility character. Cleric is second place for this purpose in the event you already have a Druid and don't have a Cleric. Cleric/Paladin doesn't set any speeds records but it forms a nice basis for building larger groups if you like doing that. Either of these duos starts to weaken noticeably past about 50 or so once slow starts becoming much more important.

Enchanter or Shaman will give you the most power if you expect to stick it out long enough to do tougher stuff at level 60. Enchanter is cheaper to equip although the duo with the Shaman will feel better at middle levels due to the Paladin not gaining some of its most important spells until rather late.

Most any other duo can be made to work at varying levels of effectiveness if you really want to play some specific class.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Zipity: Often true, certainly true with a Paladin, but on my Shadow Knight I never found a means of effectively duo'ing with an Enchanter, at least not where both of us wouldn't have rather had a different class as a partner. Those two classes don't have much synergy.

Danth

Charm rogue pet and fear kite with mana buff, enchanter can provide the fears and beserker str so you take no dmg on the pulls. Adds can just be mezzed.

[Danth]

Charm rogue pet and fear kite with mana buff, enchanter can provide the fears and beserker str so you take no dmg on the pulls. Adds can just be mezzed.

It's an interesting thought exercise; I've thought about it a fair amount. The rare occasions I've been duo with an enchanter on my shadow knight were mostly in velketor/broodmaster area so needless to say we didn't fear stuff. That being said if fear-kiting is the primary goal I don't see why the enchanter wouldn't prefer a necromancer instead. For my own part I regard the shaman as a much preferable partner. Anything can be made to work to some extent but some classes go together about as well as the proverbial square peg and round hole.

Speaking of velketor's: a couple buddies I knew, one had an enchanter and another had both a cleric and a paladin. They preferred the pal/ench pair for doing velk's over the cler/ench pair. The Paladin made charm breaks less dangerous and between slow and clarity could self-heal while tanking and hence losing complete heal on pets didn't matter overmuch. Though insofar as I recall that specific zone was the only place they liked using the paladin more than the cleric in their duo.

-----------------------------------------------------

Make a Druid (if you don't already have one) if you think your buddy is likely to quit before reaching the highest levels.

It sounds like your friend will never make it there, so I'd pick a class that is strong 1-20 without a lot of gear, and that set includes neither Shaman nor Enchanter. I think in your situation I'd go Druid.

Great minds think alike, eh?

Danth

[Raev]

Great minds think alike, eh?

Yep.


Anything can be made to work to some extent but some classes go together about as well as the proverbial square peg and round hole.

I wonder if the locked progression on these servers derails what would normally be simple social decisions. On Live, individual pixels would be relatively rapidly replaced by new expansions, which would also constantly break, err change class balance. And with AAs more XP was always useful. On P99, if I go to say farm, say, the Puppet camp I'm going to get 50% more loot in a duo than a trio. XP is worthless so there is no meaning in killing anything other than the puppets, the blue flower lasts forever, and the rules are fixed so once I find the optimum strategy and necessary classes I can just roll with it for months. It feels like on Live the edge would go to the people who just make friends with good players rather than sperging out over min/max strategy. Of course I say this as someone who has mostly done the latter and found it interesting.

[pickled_heretic]

Buffing up a charmed mob and letting it chainsaw mobs while CHing is just about as fast of kills as letting two mobs kill each other and getting the exp for both. And ironically, the latter is safer, since if you buff a charmed mob to the point where it does as much dmg as two mobs beating on each other, it can do the same to you. The only advantage to #1 is that it is brain dead easy to pull off when everything goes right. Paladins can't do #1 but they do a better job at assisting #2 since they can melee the last 5% HP, as opposed to nuking which is expensive for the enchanter or a cleric. The paladin can heal an enchanter about as well as a cleric can since CH is useless, and they have emergency agro and tanking tools as well.

Played an enc to 60 and a paladin to mid 40s on blue, I can't think of a better duo choice for paladin than enchanter. The enchanter might have better choices for a duo partner but paladin is still top 3.

[Zuranthium]

im wondering if a rogue and paladin would gel enough to be able to duo beyond lets say lvl40...

Paladin and Rogue would be a solid duo for a couple of friends who aren't trying to do anything super serious: the Paladin can tank and has downtime heals, along with Root and Lull for breaking camps and some crowd control, while the Rogue does DPS and can safely fetch corpses if something goes wrong, heh.

[Foxplay]

Shaman

Especially at end-game with Torpor

While they benefit far more with a Monk / Warrior, or Rogue with shaman Tanking (higher dps). Basically any Melee + Torpor shaman can get a lot done

Even before Torpor Shaman + Monk or Tank is just very good

[Jorvaar]

Ended up rolling with a druid. I have no idea if we will get to end game but the two classes seem to work well together. Plus it will be nice to have an easy method of exploring and making some extra plat when needed. Thanks for all the suggestions.

[BarnabusCollins]

You're gonna need heals. Without C druid mana regen is horribad. Shaman is best to duo with paladin. Or necro, then you wont need heals.

[Bondrake]

Ya with a druid it's going to be slow but if that doesn't bother you then you should have fun.

[Vdaria]

The nice thing is though when the druid is of a level when clarity really matters, you'll be able to port to WC and swap clarity for sow.

[Snaggles]

A Druid is less efficient at healing with a tank duo but that team can grind almost anywhere. Ports, evac, snare. Harmony outdoors, lull indoors. Tracking.

Efficiency wise you can Snare-fear animals for the pally to swack, charm and have him watch your back, or aggro kite with snare and flame lick.

A classic tank n spank method isn’t as good with a Druid especially with mobs that could use a slow but you can still easily grind to max level if you pick your targets wisely.

[Crede]

The only way this duo will wreck is sticking to animal zones. Druid can keep a charmed pet and regen on pally, and fear kiting animals will be useful. At 45 pally can easily self heal after fights with Deepwater helm while the druid focuses mostly on the pet who when hasted will probably do 3x the pallies dps or more. Should be fun at 50+, can spend a lot of time in kedge/chardok charming sharks/dogs.

[Zuranthium]

These are new characters ya'll, they will be fine for many levels just doing tank-and-spank and not using Charm if they don't want to. The damage shield Druid has is very good/efficient DPS and they can add DoT's on top of that. I would have the Paladin in this duo focus on being the healer and let the Druid spend all their mana on offense (except for keeping regen up). That method could be fine all the way until Level 60 actually; just focus on fighting low blue con mobs. I would personally want to be fighting in places where I could Charm as a Druid, but if the duo just wants to experience another area together, it's workable.

[kjs86z]

Played an enc to 60 and a paladin to mid 40s on blue, I can't think of a better duo choice for paladin than enchanter. The enchanter might have better choices for a duo partner but paladin is still top 3.

Classes I'd much rather duo with as an enchanter:

Cleric, Shaman, Necro, Enchanter, Druid

@OP - definitely best off sticking with charming animals on your path to max level...you'll hard carry the duo and the pally will be there mainly to assist you. Straight up tank and spanking with you healing is going to be a lesson in futility unless you add some more people to your groups.

[kaev]

Classes I'd much rather duo with as an enchanter:

Cleric, Shaman, Necro, Enchanter, Druid

@OP - definitely best off sticking with charming animals on your path to max level...you'll hard carry the duo and the pally will be there mainly to assist you. Straight up tank and spanking with you healing is going to be a lesson in futility unless you add some more people to your groups.

Paladin with decent (for level) gear won't over-stretch Druid healing vs. low blues until after level 50. Paladin just needs to focus on AC and then more AC, with enough +STR to not ever be encumbered (Druid +STR buff does not at all hurt.) A Paladin can fairly easily (tho somewhat slowly) solo to 50 with that approach, it'll be far faster partnered with a Druid. If the Druid works out how to use charmed pets effectively it'll be even more effective in appropriate zones.

[Baler]

still shaman

[kjs86z]

still shaman

[Grimstrike]

still shaman

Haste and Slow are OP, no doubt.

[Naethyn]

Necro. Cele heals, pulls, pet backstab dps, charm mob, undead synergies.

[Topgunben]

My RL friend picked up the game and rolled a Dwarf paladin. He doesn't play as often as I do so I'd like to roll a toon to level up with him when he's on. What is your best suggestion for class to duo/group with a paladin and why?

I think you could probably duo with just about any class, but as said by others, Bard will be the most helpful. Sadly Paladin is not really the best duo class, so nearly all your choices will be you carrying him.

A class that can haste, that can also provide mana regen is ideal. Bard can mana and health regen, but youve got to be within range. Shaman can health regen, but can only mana regen themselves. Enchanter can mana regen, but no health regen at all. All 3 can haste, which is badly needed. All 3 can slow, but its a huge aggro generator. Hopefully your buddy can keep aggro.

I think bard is the ideal option because you both can be running and gunning at the same time, whereas a pure caster is going to be needing to med all the time. With health, mana and haste being constantly twisted, Paladin can tank and heal himself as necessary.

[unleashedd]

bard and paladin, just to be able to share some plate gear :) oh the arguments over "upgrades" hehe

[Raev]

Buffing up a charmed mob and letting it chainsaw mobs while CHing is just about as fast of kills as letting two mobs kill each other and getting the exp for both. And ironically, the latter is safer, since if you buff a charmed mob to the point where it does as much dmg as two mobs beating on each other, it can do the same to you. The only advantage to #1 is that it is brain dead easy to pull off when everything goes right. Paladins can't do #1 but they do a better job at assisting #2 since they can melee the last 5% HP, as opposed to nuking which is expensive for the enchanter or a cleric. The paladin can heal an enchanter about as well as a cleric can since CH is useless, and they have emergency agro and tanking tools as well.

This forum needs a like button. Well said.

[DMN]

Highest single target duo would be with Shaman, but with the giant caveat of "only after torpor".
Highest speed killing for exp/multiple target farming potential 1-60, would be enchanter

Ultimately I think the OP the right decision though. Even if the druid never levels past 19 it's nice to have one for errands.

[RevSaber]

Go with wizard! I think that would be a blast. Pally pulls and heals himself, wizard only needs one good spell to mostly kill anything. You get ports and lots of fun clickies.