Good duo option with an SK?
 

My buddy rolled an Ogre SK and we plan on duoing or grouping most of the way. Any suggestions?

Ogre or Troll Shaman are pretty much your best choice for the short and long term.

Any shaman ^^

Shaman, 100%.

Wouldn't shaman leave us lacking in the dps department? What about bard or necro? Either of those viable or would shaman win out by a landslide?

Shamans are versatile depending on the situation....can add a nuke or a dot, and still be medding for heals.

Necros can patch heal but you need someone that wants to do that for the whole session as soon as it comes off cooldown. Bard you'd be sitting around with heal song on a lot, they don't add much dps but they are quick pullers.

Ideally you want a shaman and necro, those two together are a power house. Shaman slows mobs, canni's for mana, gives necro regen, malos charm pet for necro....Necro charms for DPS, heals via shadow pact (with slow this is 100% viable), and adds some additional damage via bond of death and maybe an envenom bolt or two. Shaman can heal necro on bad charm resist/break situations.

but for a duo shaman would be better, the downtime would be about the same, but you would get more out of a shaman tbh due to slows.

but to answer your question...yes...you will be severely lacking DPS with SK/shaman but you will be lacking survivability with SK/Necro

Sounds like shaman is the winner then. We can probably make up for our lacking dps by grouping when we are finding it slow. Both classes seem to be pretty desirable in groups. Thanks all!

Stick to the "old world" (not Kunark/Velious) and you'll find most mobs have less HP typically compared with the expansions - should help keep the XP flowing a bit better.

SK/Shaman is basically a slightly weaker version of Monk/Shaman. You lose a good bit of DPS (though the SK can somewhat compensate with pet/dots), a bit of tanking (monks are more efficient per swing with Block, and the SK's higher HP pool won't matter without a cleric), and some some splitting ability. In return you gain rock solid threat for quick slows and a bit of utility here and there like IVU, lifetaps, snare, and fear.

You can absolutely duo SK/Sham all the way to 60, and it won't be super slow, but IMO it's less of a duo and more of an incomplete trio. Enchanter as usual is the best third wheel: with the SK's high threat tash/malo/slow go out very fast, and Clarity means the SK doesn't need downtime. Other DPS classes work too, though. You'd do fine with a mage, rogue, necro, or even a ranger.

I don't really think Bard or Necro are viable duos (though they can certainly be the core of a larger group) unless you are heavily twinked. Your survivability will be really low. That being said, there is nothing wrong with either choice, that's what /w all lfg is for.