A question for boxers...

[Jajang]

I'm a former pro-raider turned soloist due to erratic work schedules. As a result, I'm now 6 boxing and I was curious just how far I could expect to get with the content in THF and if anyone has a better group makeup to suggest (and why). My current team is a warrior, cleric, bard, monk, mage and a ranger.

Any insights are appreciated, thank you.

[aabamzen]

I have made it to T6 with a 5/6 box of various chars listed in my sig. Currently I run a 6 box of war, cler, shm, mnk, brd, nec and it seems to work out well.

Honestly, the hardest jump was ToV to ST, although the adds in T6 are making for some interesting fights without a second tank.

[bishbash]

I can clear upto T6, not tried CT and Phara Dar yet. My box is war, war, clr, clr, rgr, rgr. With enc,mage,wiz toons for no reason other than I had a spare pc.

Only reason for 2 tanks is feign death casting mobs suck when boxing. Easier to keep agro off rangers and clerics. I created it purely for fenin T4 encounter, but found it useful to keep around.

I chose not to add shm or bard buffs as boxing 6 sucks and keeping it simple works for me. Both my rangers use donor bows to make the dps a bit better. My war main is around 8kac and is donor, second war is 7kac with no donor items. My wiz/mage/enc I hardly use apart from the odd cast as its too much work. The enc uses donor which in some zones adds a huge dps boost.

I use 4 pcs, with 2 old p4 running 1 cleric each so I dont have to switch windows to heal, each uses 1 monitor. 8 monitors are in my setup, but currently only using 6. Main pc is dual core celeron running main war and 2 ranger. Second pc runs 2nd war and whatever toons I feel like loading up. both machines use dual monitor setup so no alt-tabbing.

I am toying with dropping wiz and gearing up another donor ranger, as its easier to box. Just assist and autofire. I have 2 old laptops I was considering using for shm for buffs and extra healing but thought better about it. I am about fed up of boxing now as its booring, but love seeing how far I can get to solo.

Farcical (Feng Shui)

[Jajang]

Dual warriors, clerics and rangers... interesting group makeup. I noted that neither of you are using SK's. I know warrior DPS is superior but I'm curious as to the gains of DPS when weighed against the survivability of taps, especially with the donator weapon.

I've wondered if I shouldn't drop the warrior for a SK and maybe the monk for a second ranger. Or maybe drop the bard to add an SK? It's sounding like a second tank would be better than what little DPS a bard can do.

[aabamzen]

Bard adds dps and efficiency to the group as a whole, not directly by their DPS alone. With that taken into account, the bard is probably one of the top DPS in the group.

Warrior is low maintenance. You'll come to appreciate that when running 6 chars

[Brontu]

the bards utility isnt in dps (tho i parsed Sello @ 9k dps in a full 3min burn, so its there when u need it) its what it brings to the group as a whole.

honestly the box crew you ahve is more or less similar to what i use - my main 6 crew is:
Warrior/Cleric/Shm/Rogue/Monk/Bard

And at this point can 6 box any content up to DS (and a few events in DS) BUT i have been incredibly overgeared for anything pre-t7/8 content so its hard to do a real comparison to someone trying to solo box through the content.

Id definately say 2 tanks is a nice boost as far as certain fights t5 + go, would be a lot of help on xeg and any fight in Fear (as almost every boss in fear DTs - and u can only rely on DI so much).

The rangers are a great addition to the box crew - but unforunately itemization for them is crap until t7. Best bow you can get is in air and that will hold you over until Koritz in DS (3rd boss) unless u donate - taht said its still a solid, consistent AFk dps so you dont lose TOO Much if u dont donate.

I think tho the class u will find holding you back the most in that crew is the mage - in my experience mages just dont bring much to the table (though based on the test server stuff my guildies have been doing it looks like they are getting a real nice boost come t8) CoH is nice, but can easily be replaced with an orb farming Lady M - their pets are ramp fodder atm, and dps wise its kinda meh. Taking what you have said i would personally keep the monk, and consider dropping the mage for either a wizard/Ranger - keep that bard you will learn to love it. SKs are really really really solid tank classes and while u will certainly lose some dps running one over a warrior - i believe you make up for it in survivability and AE tanking (which if only running 1 warrior can be really tough @ times).

[bishbash]

I had a Donor SK in the guild, but he hasn't been on in weeks. I was ever so impressed with the self-sustaining ability. And the SK was only just starting to be geared upto T5 before he went AFK. The only thing stopping me rolling one is they are more work than a warrior, and I like to box the easy way.

From what I saw, if I was going to have just 1 character, I would pick SK over the warrior as a tank. Really impressive healing from taps. With the defensive clickies available they are a great tank class. I would assume the PAL is just as good with the group heals etc.

As Brontu said Fear is a PITA for DT. Thats where the 2nd tank comes in useful, otherwise I rely on DI from cleric legs from TOV, and one of my toons has the solo auru thats supposed so have a small DI chance also. But the 2nd tank is a just-in-case I die insurance. With defensive state, Tier quest ring, and ring from sleepers, either warrior can pretty much stay defensive for around 25 mins at a push if I dont mind waiting an hour for the clickies to recycle.

I keep toying with having a bard just singing songs, but that would mean another toon to gear up, and i'm trying to move away from boxing to being more sociable.

The mage is really rubbish to box. 1k DS is nice to have for when multiple mobs spawn on boss fights, or for pwrlvling new toons, but thats about it. Pet dies so fast its silly. Even with focus & fear toys it just likes to die. Theyre probably a lot better when not being boxed, but for a boxer a lot of hard work I found.

ENC charmed pets at least have tons of hps to stay alive with, and generally out-damage my rangers or get close. But apart from debuff, haste, clarity and rune, I dont use em much apart from sticking in a pet. Again probably because I box and cant click that many things. But I only use em because I use donor clicky, so charm dosent wear off. Again a non boxed ENC would be a lot better.

WIZ is nice for some big hitting DPS, but again boxing makes it harder to keep it up. I tend to click the 2.0 and do the odd nuke and thats about it. Another hard one to maximise boxing with.

I tend to park all my toons and pull mobs to them. Once it gets too far I will move em along to the next spot. In Fear I clear all the trash and I only ever move them to 4 places. Allways fun pulling Terror half way accross the zone while hoping the DT dosent kill me.

When I first tried Emperor Ssra, I ended up making 5 rangers with LDON bows, 2 clerics, 1 war and only just managed to win as I was just in Kael armour. As I geared up better I started dropping rangers as their DPS got better.

For any main tank in your box group, just stick all you can into your AC. If possible farm for LDON armour, as it is generally better ac than T5 with the right augs and will be a huge boost to boxing. At around 1k LDON points per item (400 for armour, 600 for Aug) its not too hard to fully kit out your main tank with 5-6kac before you ever venture into T1. Otherwise try and get rots from fire for the crafted armour. Costs around 10k per piece in the gem u need to buy.

You only need to consider kitting your rangers once you start hitting mobs that AE. Other than that stick a bow & arrow on em and let em range mobs down with whatever gear you can stick on em.

Having 2 clerics is wonderful, but I would still manage to box if I replaced one with a shaman. I just like to keep things simple, and both clerics have similar gear and spell setup. Also shamans have way too many buffs to vast, and I never played one so I took the easy route. Also group heals and 2.0 make group healing a breeze on the nasty AE mobs.

I would defo start with less melle and more ranged until you get used to boxing. Rangers make it easy this way. Problem with all the other melle like rogue/monk etc etc is they get up close, and need to control agro which is hard in the middle of a boss battle when just 1 round might kill your monk.

I have pretty much solo boxed upto where I am now, and the biggest problem I have now is clearing a zone quick enough so that I can try the boss (VP/Fear) as my playtime is limited with kids/wife.

Good luck, and dont forget to take your medication if you box.

[Jajang]

Thank you all for the input. I'll be dropping the mage for a second tank, most likely for an SK that I'll make the main and have the lesser maintenance warrior as the DPS/off tank. Also considering dropping the monk for a second ranger so I have less melee DPS and more range. My current ranger has the donator bow and I'd get a second one.

[Firenze]

I will post my personnal experience.

I'am not an evil boxer, but since my guild is really active these day I do box some stuff, up to vp. ( first DS attempt boxing yesterday, got the mob to 20 % and gone LD damn it ! )

I usually 4 box + a rogue bot.

Set up is , Warrior , Druid, Cleric and monk + rogue bot.
One advice I can give you is gear up your dps bot as you would gear up a real char, my rogue bot has t7 gear and is elite dps concidering it's a micromanagement free char.

When my shitty comp isn't exploding, I add a bard to that set up witch boost the whole group dps. Bard 2.0 + Druid 2.0 = pretty cool spell dmg for proccs and druids dots/nuke.


if you really wanna progress alone and box stuff , I do really suggest you get 2 healers. Cleric + shm or druid. Shaman add a lot of dps the group with panter and godly conv when druid gives some dps with the 2.0 click , resist debuff and some utilities like ports, dmg shield etc.


I picked up druid instead of shm because my characters were procc oriented dps , but that choice was made before the procc nerf 2months ago. I used to parse over 26k dps for my monk alone on Phara Dar.. good old days! now you can divide that by 3.

About the choice betwin war and knights.

War = you go the easy way , just engage , build some aggro and don't touch your tank until the end
SK are good tank as everyone in this thread just mentioned it, but you need to watch it to keep taps/ clickies on
Paladin are tanking gods once you get DS earring , witch IMOH should be nerfed. ( soloing hard LDON for exemple via chain clicking this earring is retarded)

one of the best boxing combo I have seen so far is : Pal , ranger , ranger, cleric , shm.


now it's up to you, but keep in mind that in some zone you gonna need a puller and sometimes an offtank.

Edit : also , if your plaining on getting donator weap to your char, shm donor = 1k5 regen + SK donor 1k5 tap regen + chaotic elixir 3K = 6k heal regen . add a bard donor and you get 6k5 regen per tick


Firenze

[TGressus]

Wizards are the coolest.