The Hidden Forest

I saw the thread below regarding a returning player's 6-box group, but I didn't want to hijack that thread, so I figured I'd ask for advice on my setup in a new thread. Sorry in advance if that's not preferred.

My characters are only in their 20s, so I don't really mind re-rolling any or all of them. I'm currently running: Nec / Shd / Brd / Enc / Clr / Wiz. I'm debating on whether I should swap any of them out. I already have a couple of side characters that I was leveling as I was getting a feel for playing EQ again (quit back in 2005) and, specifically, THF. I have a Rog, Shm, and Mnk. Like I'd said, though, they're only in their 20s, so it's only a few hours to re-roll a completely different option.

My biggest question is my tank choice. Is a Shadow Knight workable as a tank, or should I re-roll him as a Warrior?

I'm pretty sure the Cleric is an obvious keeper.

I'm also pretty sure the Wizard is an obvious keeper. I'm open to other options, though.

I like the Bard for travel, regen, and ability to boost the other characters. Is he a decent keeper or would something else possibly work better?

The Enchanter is on an account with a Shaman, so they're pretty easily swapped if you think a Shaman would box better. Is there maybe another choice for this slot that I'm not thinking of?

Finally, the Necro is on my main account with multiple other characters. He could be swapped with a Monk or Rogue. Pretty much anything could go here, so feel free to fire any thoughts at me.

Thanks for getting through my giant bit of text, and thanks in advance for any advice.

I actually think you have a great setup. My personal prefernce is mage instead of necro, but I'm biased having played one on Live for so long

You can tank just fine on a SK. It becomes easier once you get your first defensive clicky
item (Kael gloves) but for group mobs/exp leveling, the SK works great.

Cleric +++ good stuff
DPS wise, I actually think the setup you have is good. Necro and wiz are good range dps and with the pet of the necro fire and forget dps for the most part. A bard complements them both very well as well as adds ac to the tank and can pop in some dps themselves.

For that last spot between ench/sham I'd go with ench to up the caster dps even more. Once you hit 70 the visions of power buff + mana inferno + overbearing power debuff will make the wizard and necro happy.

Thanks for the information! Had to imagine that I can still remember synergy after nine years away from the game (off and on, since I did spend some time on P1999 and Live after it went free to play).

From everything I've read, it seems THF is one of the better balanced servers available. That's why I wasn't sure about SK vs War. I quit Live shortly into the Depths of Darkhollow expansion, after playing since late Classic. My old days were full of the "Warriors are the tank, period" thought process. I wasn't sure how differently the two were for tanking ability on THF. I'm also not sure how far into progression I plan to go. I tend to get visions of grandeur and then not fulfill them, lol. Like I said, though, at level 19, I don't mind re-rolling if the Warrior would prove more beneficial.

So Cleric/Necro/Wiz/Bard seem like they're definites.

For the Enchanter, I'm assuming they'd add a little dps over a Shaman from the charmed mobs also. To be honest, though, I don't know how chaotic that is to manage running one character, let alone boxing 6. I never played an Enchanter on live. Also, I assumed mez would prove helpful at some point.

I'm also open to any tips anyone has on boxing on THF. I'd only ever run 3 characters at max on live, and in those situations, the third was basically just limping along for xp. Mainly I ran a Monk/Shaman combo. I remember AA grinding in PoEarthA during PoP. Man that was some good AA xp (ah, nostalgia). However, this whole world of 6-boxing is brand new to me.

For basic boxing questions that I can think of off the top of my head (without delving into 3rd party software questions):

1. Which character do you lead with? Is it best to lead with the tank, the Enchanter, the Cleric, a dps?
2. Are there any specific techniques to boxing that you've found work better than others?
3. Anything else?

Thanks again to anyone who answers!

1. I personally lead with my tank, but that could be a playstyle thing. I like to control everything from him because (as a SHD) he can lifetap to balance a life-spike, reposition, quickly grab adds, and generally "see" the flow of the battle.

2. I use WinEQ2 to run my instances of EQ - it makes it easier on your system and allows you to create hotkeys that switch between instances (ex: ALT+SHIFT+Q if my SHD, ALT+SHIFT+W is Bard, etc.). You can also use ISBoxer to do much of the same, though I'm personally unfamiliar with that program.

3. I would recommend heading over to the 3rd party forum as there are tools that can make boxing-life much easier without "changing" (if you will) the game at all.

Alulien covered it well. Third party forum has the answers you seek

I lead with my tank for the same reason as him.

Alulien, thanks for the information. For the last few years in WoW (is that an evil word around here? lol), I've mained a tank, which I'd never played in EQ. So I assumed the sheer control of running from the tank POV would be preferred. Thanks for the confirmation.

Does WinEQ2 really lower the resources required by the game? I'm currently just running in a standard Windowed mode client. I'm not hurting for system resources (i5 2500k @ 4.6GHz, 8GB DDR3, Radeon 7870 XT), but saving wherever I can is always nice.

I'll check out the third party forum. Thanks!

It has some built in resource saving features. Main methods of resource saving will be lowering graphic options, global load edits (pretty sure there's a post here or in third party about tweaking things)