Two-Box for Limited Playtime w/Donator Wep

[Subdued]

Hi guys. Longtime EQ player who's played around on THF before. My playtime is very limited though, probably 2-3 hours per week tops. I'm looking for an efficient two-box that can take me into a few tiers of content eventually with a donator weapon and maybe the legs and/or shield.

I was going to do paladin/cleric with a rogue bot, but should I consider SK/cleric with a rogue bot? I was leaning away a bit from SK and Warrior because I've played them on the live servers. I just don't want to move away from them if they're much better suited to my limited, efficient playstyle I hope to have.

Also, if I played Pally or SK, which donator weapons are best? It's hard to tell which of the two are better without having experienced the early tier raids.

Thanks!

[lpdfan]

I can give my perspective on this...
First, at two or three hours per week of playing time, you will have many options of what to do while in THF regardless of what classes you choose.

In my opinion, you began with a correct choice if your desire is to get as advanced by yourself as possible - a tank class with a couple donor items. And, you listed the best items. As to which one, that is a matter of opinion, and I have seen no evidence that one will allow quicker or easier progression than the others. In fact, there are players who use an SK as their box army tank, others a warrior, and at least one that uses a Pally, who can solo box through tier 8.

As for the second character, you will get a lot of disagreement, however. Boxing a cleric and botting a rogue will work, but may be a bit of a grind due to such low dps. If your goal is to defeat as many tiers as possible by yourself, time be damned, then boxing a healer is a good choice. You may, however, choose to box a dps'er and just rely on the self healing of a pally tank or sk lifetaps. You may find your ceiling a little lower doing this, but it may allow you to actually accomplish something in your limited time. For example, a (partially) donored sk, cleric, and rogue bot should be ABLE to clear T3 (sleepers), but good luck doing it in the two hour window you have to play in.

If you choose a dps'er for the second character, mages, necros, and wizards are probably the most popular choices as you can manage very nice dps without having to purchase donor gear.

Hope this helps

[Nilbus]

Also, if I played Pally or SK, which donator weapons are best? It's hard to tell which of the two are better without having experienced the early tier raids.

While I won't say it as a 100% certainty, my experience with a SK and the donor v1 was insanely good. The regen from the click effect + the damage it does to the mob made it very easy to kill up to around t3 (like lpdfan said). I played the SK and a mage with a cleric bot, who honestly, didn't do much except be there to quick easy cure debuffs from sleeper and other nameds in ST.

[Beatboxin]

I've played all 3 tank class's top end personally prefer the pally for the group heal's and cures and with a pally IMO a shaman would be a decent enough healer plus you'll get good buff's and debuff's.

As for donors both cleric and shaman 1.0 are nice pending on what way you go there and if you go with a pally weapon 2.0 is far better then 1.0 and would go with legs after that it's just preference.

As for a bot Rog bot with decent gear/weapons can do awesome so your on the right track there.

Shoot me a tell in game if you ever have questions about anything I posted or just in game things

[Stickybuds]

I can agree with both Nilbus and beatboxin but here is how I would determine which way to go. Considering donor weapons on the pally or sk.

Sk is the greatest for lower tiers. While the shm can increase the SK's magic and melee dps, and even complement his donor 1.0 lifetap with his donor 1.0 WoA regen. Giving you crazy regen that will negate most mobs dmg till around T3. After that both of these regens cannot compete with the amount of dmg named mobs are going to do in a single combat round. At this point you will need direct heals to compete with the incoming spike dmg and the cleric heals and group healing power will combat this a lot better than a shm. (Shm/druids cannot group heal save for a clicky item from a T8 raid boss)

Now the pally may not shine as well as the SK in lower tiers due to the SKs crazy weapon lifetap. But his T8 heals (which you can buy the rank I version from players) are very powerful. The Pally can also group heal, and pretty well at that) This will allow the pally to use a shm healer instead of a cleric, even past T3.

In either case you will want a rogue bot. Having a shm over cleric will also help the rogue bots dps a lot. Since you won;t be boxing anymore than 2, you would greatly benefit over using a shm healer vs cleric healer.

In any case, you can go far and have fun using any combo of Sk/pally and shm/cleric. But i would consider this info.
Basically do you want to...

Crazy regen but mediocre heals, high dps - sk/shm
Good heals, good dps - Sk/cleric
Great heals, decent dps - Pally/shm
Super heals never die, low dps - Pally/cleric

Hope this helps =)

Regards,
Sticky

[Firenze]

if I was starting over with 2 chars , I would do SK / Shm with both donors weapons.
2,5k regen + Chaotic regeneration = 5k regen per tick , it gives you plenty of time to focus on others stuff like slow , buffing etc.

This duo is the most easy to do and will take your far in the tiers

[lpdfan]

if I was starting over with 2 chars , I would do SK / Shm with both donors weapons.
2,5k regen + Chaotic regeneration = 5k regen per tick , it gives you plenty of time to focus on others stuff like slow , buffing etc.

This duo is the most easy to do and will take your far in the tiers

+1

[Subdued]

Thanks for all the feedback, guys. I think I'm going to give SK/Shaman a shot even though I've done it on live servers before. At the end of the day, it's more about content than it is about the classes anyway (especially tanks). I think you can basically summarize the flavors of EQ as: tank/melee DPS/ranged DPS/bard/healers. If I look at it that way, the difference between an SK and a pally becomes minimal and the difference between healers is the same.

So if I get the SK donator weapon, it's V1 and the shaman is V2? Or am I mistaken?

[Sian]

nope, both v1 version The v2 of shaman is a slow stick whereas the v1 is a huge regen. That's why, combined with the huge regen of the Sk v1, you will rock.

[Stickybuds]

I think you will find some nice differences from the classes on live and here. Although they all still preform the same roles THF has lots of cool custom spells for each class.