Wayfarers of Veeshan

Folks, an opinion is sought, if you will. Please consider the following question:

If you had to play a 2-player party, what two classes would you choose, considering a partnership that could last from 1st level to 80th level?

(As an example, if one of your characters is Monk due to their Feign Death ability, would this still be a valid answer knowing they don't get that ability til 16th level?)

Here are the best 2-class combos that I can think of, but I'd love to hear other ideas. Don't have to use the format I've used, but I found it useful for comparison sake.

Necromancer / Druid
Movement : 5 out of 5: Druid gets SoW and ports eventually; Necro gets Necro-summon.
Healing : 4 out of 5 : Druid heals slightly worse than Cleric. Eventually Necro gets Rez.
Melee : 2 out of 5 : Necro Pet isn't bad, can be buffed. Druid can do a little fighting.
Crowd Ctl : 3 out of 5 : Druid early, Necro later get root and also slow. Necro gets undead mez, and both get fear.
DPS : 4 out of 5 : Both do DOTs which are very effective provided you can stay alive

Paladin / Bard
Movement : 2 out of 5 : Until the Bard gets speed song, you're running and porting everywhere
Healing : 3 out of 5 : Paladin heals like a mini-cleric, gets Rez and eventually Bard gets heal song
Melee : 5 out of 5 : Paladin as primary, but Bard backs up
Crowd Ctl : 4 out of 5 : Bard mezzes eventually (lvl 15)
DPS : 3 out of 5 : Neither is a huge damage dealer

Shadowknight / Shadowknight
Movement : 1 out of 5 : Nobody moves special here
Healing : 3 out of 5 : Both self heal eventually
Melee : 5 out of 5 : Between both SKs and both pets, lots of whacking going on
Crowd Ctl : 2 out of 5 : Two pets serve as a buffer for "run away" time, while both eventually get undead mez
DPS : 4 out of 5 : Melee, DoTS, pets and 2 Harm touches seem pretty good


Ok, these are just some ideas. What would YOUR favorite 2-class combo be?

Drex

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Drexxell , 71st GNecrOMancEr -- Wielder of ()
Druul , 60th Troll Shaman () + Wielder of and
Driss, 51st Dwarf Priestess of Brell Serilis
Dralia, 36th Erudite Enchantress

Cleric/ Warrior. Now a days you can use magus, pok books, guild porter to get about anywhere. Cleric can buff and heal the war, but dps would be low. CC would be hard too so you would have to carefully choose your fights. Hmm, maybe they wouldn't be a great pair.

ShadowKnight/Shaman
Movement: Shamans get SoW fairly early
Healing: Shamans slow so less healing is needed, and add HoTs and spot heals to SK Lifetaps.
Melee/DPS: a little weak here, but SKs are good tanks and will eventually kill anything. Harm touch is huge, but until level 59+ has over 1 hour wait to reuse.
Crowd Control: Shamans Root, and in an emergency SK can FD while Shaman gates.

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Master Artisan Kahmon Feelthenoize
- Fabled 100 Shadow Knight of Cestus Dei Atherius
- Master(300) Jeweler, Chef, Potter, Brewer, Blacksmith, Tailor, Fletcher, Researcher
Vektor - 95 Ranger, Scout Extraordinaire
Kahzbot - 97 Enchanter, Master Spell Researcher & Tinkerer
Kroger - 98 Rogue, Poison Maker, Tome Researcher, and Illusion Collector
Shazbon - 96 Shaman, Master Alchemist
Vendding - 94 Magician

Wizard / Druid
Movement : 5 out of 5 :Sow,evacs, every port.
Healing : 2/4 out of 5 :Druid at low levels really drew the short straw. stack on some levels and the get a lot stronger.
Melee : 0 out of 5 : Neither melee for any effect.
Crowd Ctl : 2 out of 5 : Both get root.
DPS : 5 out of 5 : Nothing beats a good wizard in DPS, period. Druids aren't slouchers either.

Bards get Selos at 5th.
Anything, ability wise, below level 20 and I'd consider it negligible. You will be able to rocket to 20+ fairly quickly.

Tutorial to 10th(ish)
Hot Zones from there on out ...

I notice a Beastlord is left out of the mix.

I've mostly grouped the last 10 levels, but up to level 70 I would say that both beast/druid and necro/druid duos are very effective. They might be equally effective to level 80, but I don't have the experience to make that claim.

i vote sk \shammy for all that kah said pluss some exp with that combo at lower lvls

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Snowcap lvl 85 High Elf Wiz / 102 park circle , Elm woods

Snowdark lvl 90 Dark Elf SK / 103 park circle , Elm woods

The necro/druid combination is awesome. Can make that claim from personal experience with Raegun and I. Kiting with these two is truly unbelievable. The necro's dps with dots and the pet banging on the mob from behind coupled with the druid's wide range of abilities make them a very capable duo. If you pick your zones to avoid summoning mobs you can rake in the exp with these two all the way up to 80. People often forget that druids can calm/pacify pretty much anything in outdoor zones...so with this combo pulling should never be a problem. Charm/kiting in outdoor zones is an option.

The necro/shaman duo is even more unbelievable from a straight dps standpoint. Just ask Raegun/Fantasibarbie. You do lose some overall versatility with travel and the like, but by picking and choosing targets you can negate most of that.

If you want the ability to hunt anywhere you want and cover the widest range of possibilities I really like the paladin/druid combination. You can get pretty much anywhere. You have a very good mix of buffs between the two. Dps isn't off the charts, but it's pretty good when you factor in the combination of paladin tanking/stunning with damage shield on, and the druid stacking dots and sitting back to throw a few heals. Aggro controll is pretty easy with the combination of stuns that the paladin has. You cover both invis and invis undead so you can work your way into a lot of different areas. Healing is covered. You have the "oh crap" factor covered with the paladins LoH ability and druid evac. With druid DS, ds adds from gear, and self clickie my paladin gets around 112 DS. I can throw in fernspikes from druid in between other spells and get an additional 500 (1000 when you get a wild fernspike) for 36 seconds at a time. The dps from that really adds up when mobs are double, triple, and quad hitting.

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Fenhoff 85 Halfling Druid
Rhiodan 85 High Elven Paladin

Agre with Kahmon on Shadowknigt /Shaman
Shaman gets sow esrliest of all classes. andthey y can be effective as healers just dont get the big heals clerics do. get slow to help SK be more effective. plus they can haste the SK also have some decent buffs

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Rhennium Chlorride (56 Epic Shaman) 202
Darcasterr (77 Arch Mage) holder of the10th Coldain ring andon her way tolevel 78
Rheniium64 epic Zerker former DragonHunter) with epic 1.0 (currently working towards Epic 1.5hopefully soon holder of the 10th Coldain ring)

Nytjade if needed [ actually belongs to Nytrix ](inactive account)( Darhen (56 enight 55 Warrior
Darkrezz 5362 Cleric
Doc rhenn 74 Cleric
Rhenyt 24 monk
Rhenn66 Wizard
Fendelyn 51-warrior

mage/ shaman..mage, pet good tank, fair damage spells..shaman ,pet, heals, slow and great buffs...

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Ranger of Luclin

While Necro/Druid can level fast, they can never take down any named (summoning) mobs. Makes things kinda boring, in my mind.
I would also agree that ignore <20, those levels go by so fast nowadays. Even in Crescent Reach its fast.

SK/Shaman is a great choice, although dps is low its usually pretty easy to pick up DPS in a group. Great pulling here too.
Mage/Shaman is also a great choice, mage pets are excellent tanks in the higher levels. Pulling is less, but still some good options with root + CoH.

An interesting twist would be to consider - what would be the best 2 considering the new expansion "Mercenary" feature? Sounds like at least a tank and a healer will be available (DPS classes they are working on, but no idea if that means in time for launch or later). Maybe Mage/Enchanter - enchanter stuns are pretty nice.

Really, the best two are going to come down to what you enjoy to play. The most uber combination will be weak if you don't enjoy the classes.

By the way Drex... just a couple comments about your ratings.

I would give Necro/Druid about a 3.5 on the DPS scale. Necros are excellent, Druids about middling (*sigh*).
Paladin/Bard - no better than a 1.5 on most content, and a 2.5 on undead. (Bards shine in a full group)
SK/SK - about a 2 or 2.5 I would say.

Wizzy/Wizzy would probably be the 5 DPS combo, but like Necro/Druid there is no killing of summoning namers. Necro/Necro and Mage/Mage pretty close too, 4.5 or 5's for those combos. And for comparison, I would put Mage/Shammy at 3.5 (maybe 4 when highly geared, and can chain Rancorous Servant).

For movement, having gate classes really helps. Porting classes are nice, but really, with Guild Hall and PoK its not so hard to get anywhere - but getting home quick is sure nice.

Yeah, you are the expert Razox. I have to bow to your superior condescension skills.

Devs have openly stated they have balanced Druid DPS against Mage nuke DPS, and if you parse that is pretty accurate. The disparity lies in, at this point nuking is only 25% of a mage's DPS. Rancorous Servant is about 50%, pet 25%, and nuking 25%.

My team now can take down any tier 2 basepop mob in 18-24 seconds. Add about 6-12 seconds on average for any named mob (they dont really take much longer due to using clickies/AA's to increase dps). My Mages average about 1500dps for these fights, and go as high as 3000dps with good crits. There is no combination of druid spells that can possibly match this, and I have tried. I parse alot. Your first dot cast will only tick 3 times, even with foci + crits a druid is hard pressed to pass the 600dps mark for that short period.

Necros shine at long fights, because they can stack their bad boy dots on and keep em running, and they have exceptional mana regen from lich, AND they have some nice pets adding constant mana-free DPS. Their DoT's are MUCH better as well - compare Reaver's Pyre Rk.2 at 1284 damage per tick (base) to Druid Sunsear Rk2 at 661 damage per tick, for instance. The necro can deliver ALOT more damage per tick, no doubt. A necro will always do about 2 to 2.5 times the DPS of a druid, and the parses always show that.

In an ideal situation, a druid can add some DPS using the insta-cast Fernspike spell, but that has some limitations: There must be a tank, so it doesn't work while kiting; you lose some time efficiency by switching targets from mob to tank; its pretty tough mana-wise spell; it doesn't stack, so multiple druids in a group/raid cannot stack it; and parsing is tedious since the damage isn't automatically assigned to the Druid. The theoretical max DPS of Fernspike Rk2 is over 360dps, but in real world it never gets above 300dps, and usually alot lower than that due to cast/recast timings.

Just a few facts, not as good as your 2c, but I always find facts more valuable than conjecture.