My next group of 6 -- advice appreciated!

[Subdued]

Ok so I've been running Warr/Bard/Cleric/Sham/Mage/Mage and I'm working my way into T6 now. I know things start getting harder, so I'm looking forward to developing another group of 6 over the next few months.

I have an old donor SK already, so I'm going to definitely add that. I also plan to add a druid, enchanter, and bard to the group. That leaves me with two pure DPS to add.

Here's another consideration: I'm going to eventually change the group makeup. I'm thinking it'll probably be group 1 of Warr/SK/Cleric/Druid/Bard/DPS and the 2nd group would be Shaman/Enchanter/Bard/Mage/Mage/DPS for maximum burn. If I went this route, eventually, I'm curious as to what's my best option for the DPS in each group, or if anyone has a strong belief as to why I should move something other than that extra DPS into group 1. I was thinking maybe to move one of the mages since they probably aren't as effective in a burn group as a rogue or wizard would be.

So to summarize: I'm wondering which two DPS to add and whether I should put them both into that 2nd group in a few months when they're ready.

[Xorp]

Add a rogue for dps.. cant go wrong there. Both groups have bard so your covered for overhaste.. even two rogues is fine but if you want to mix it up, zerkers, wizards, necro, or monks work too. Wizards with breastplate are great because theyll do crazy burn with no chance of stealing agro.

[Dred]

Agree on the Rogue. Rogue with donor weapon puts out serious damage. If you add the BP to that their damage output goes way up so I have heard. Berserkers seem fairly popular as well. Wizard if you prefer caster DPS or a Necro for another pet and some pretty nice DoTs.

[Subdued]

Ok, thanks for the advice.

Another question: I definitely feel more comfortable boxing casters than melees. I've noticed there are a few encounters where mobs are melee immune or having ranged damage is very helpful. Are there any encounters here yet that are the opposite? I would hate to limit myself to only having caster DPS and my melee DPS is only coming from pets, tanks, and bards.

Also, if I were to donate for the druid donor at some point (and I would probably only consider donating for the rogues for a weapon and aug at best, I wouldn't donate for 2 BPs or leggings), does that swing the rogue advantage back towards 2 wizards instead since the druid donor has the 30% spell vulnerability?

Thanks again!

[Xorp]

Yes, there are some encounters / bosses that are highly resistant, though I couldn't actually recall or name which ones specifically. I just remember getting resisted on even the "unresistable" spells, like SHM malo.. So it happens, but probably just as rare as zlexak-like encounters are, so I wouldnt worry too much either way about it.

If you prefer boxing casters, that's totally fine. 2 wizards works too, ESPECIALLY if you eventually go for druid donor. I have a druid donor and wizard, and it's pretty nice when you actually see the high hp boss mobs health do a little CHUNK after each nuke ;D

If you want to keep with a pet heavy system, having 1 each of BST / NEC / MAG may also be a choice, as eventually if you are ever able to donor BP them for the uber pets, the buffs they provide each other all synergize very well, and those pets alone (if you can keep them alive VS rampage / enrage / etc) will be all the melee damage you'd need in a 12 man boxing situation. It won't eclipse rogue potential, but it'll "get the job done" in pesky anti-caster situations.

But to directly answer you're DPS question on rogues vs wizards.. Wizards aren't going to be able to beat a rogue if equally geared (donors included).. The rogue breastplate coupled with legs / weps / augs turns any rogue into a blood machine (an agro machine too likely to die, but bloody nonetheless)... I've seen donor'd out rogues quad backstab for 4 million damage (1,000,000 per backstab) ... ready to quad backstab again after that a couple seconds later .. so yah.. nothing will beat them in the end.

[Ydiss]

With moderate donations - excluding chest items - wizards and rogues are comparable. Having a rogue brings more to the table due to being able to sneak past most content and use coh, which makes progressing up to t6 - including a lot of t6 - much faster.

If that doesn't bother you and you don't intend to donate for chest items - something that is sort of an all-or-nothing deal, because a rogue with the chest probably means you need a tank chest too - then a caster heavy group is fine.

[Noren]

I won't comment on which is necessarily better, but there is another angle that hasn't been brought up yet for high dps/high aggro players: FD. There is a Feign Death clicky donor item that can be used very effectively to manage aggro.

[Niixnec]

I think it depends on how much you want to donor / macro your characters.

While a wizard does nice damage without the donor weapon and maybe mana clicky they run out kinda fast but have nice burst damage. Same with any of the melee dps - the more donors you add the more damage they can sustain or even their burst dps (look at a donor ranger to a non-donored rogue, etc.)

If you are not thinking of using donors then Necros are hard to beat I think due to pretty easy to get the T8 rk1 spells including pet. They also don't need a whole lot of maintenance to get decent dps - run your dots then work on another toon come back after a minute - lose out on clickies, etc but overall much less maintenance.

Any of the dps characters it will help to run a macro on to do their abilities / clickies (or hot keys if you prefer but does take away from you playing your healer, tank).

I ran 12 before any macros and I would have probably been better off running 8 or 9 just to keep them working to a higher effiency. As it is now I still like running 4-5 characters without macros so I am busy - writing code to beat code is not my idea of fun even though some events they are almost a necessity.

Another thing to think of once you get your 12 done it is quite easy to get another toon up to at least the same tier pretty easy, especially with some of the tokens that are available.

[Alulien]

Feign Death clicky donor item

What's the recast type and delay on Osiris? Clone doesn't show this info.

[Sian]

Instant cast, Instant recast.