The best class to duo with a paladin?

[Zipity]

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

[Danth]

Originally Posted by Jorvaar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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.

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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

[Zipity]

Originally Posted by Danth [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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.

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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]

Originally Posted by Zipity [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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.

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Originally Posted by Danth [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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

Originally Posted by Raev [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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]

Originally Posted by Danth

Great minds think alike, eh?

Yep.

Originally Posted by Danth

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.

[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.