Mage+Ranger?

[Arkendar]

Lurking around old EQ sites reminded me of this place, and I figured this would be a good place to ask, so here we go!

Longtime off and on player of EQ (started in Kunark, to be exact). Played a monk for the longest time (Considering all the times I've "quit", at least).
Ended up throwing a shaman box with him as everyone advised that as being "the best". Ended up playing that a bit, until last august I hit 80 +600-700 AA range on monk and 75 + 100 ish AAs on shaman. Problem was, I hate the shaman. I just don't like the class. The only thing I ever did on him was cast the lassitude line and then go afk while I soloed on the monk.

Tired of having to play catchup as well (Only so fast a monk can solo xp for 2 people, especially when gear/AAs are so far behind).
So, I thought about my other favorite classes, for a possible return. Very short list. I liked warriors to a point. But my first chars were warriors. I liked beastlords. But..If I play a leather "martial" class again, I'll just stick to my monk.
Necro was fun til I had to kite (got one to 65 a while back).
Leaving Rangers (What would have been my main if I hadn't like monk. I literally rolled a monk/ranger together, went with which one I liked more at the time)
And mages (My original character, actually. Back in Kunark. Always loved them, made a few of them over the years, but never ended up going anywhere with em.)

Now, I got used to 2boxing for the convenience. I didn't have to find people to pick up an instance, I had mercs. And considering I spent alot of time in older zones, this was useful. Dunno that I could single box again.
So, I'm curious. Would a ranger/mage duo be advisable?
Would the ranger be a sufficient tank, once geared? If not, could I just use a merc tank? I'm big on soloing, so I'd like to know just how far I could take this duo.

What mercs to use, spinning off of the above? 1 tank 1 cleric? 2 clerics? If 2 clerics, how do you manage that? Keep one cleric passive til other is OOM, or let both go?

I figure with ranger being able to headshot farm (is this still viable?) I'd be able to catch up AAs at a decent pace, even if I was a little behind on gear.

Will this duo be able to do anything before I have gear? Will be slow in obtaining, likely. I play on the Test server.
Have the 80 monk on what would be the ranger account, so I suppose he could farm a few things here and there, but I'd prefer to flip mains as seamlessly as I can. More I play the monk, the more I'm likely to want to play him more than the new duo.

Thanks.

[Zatpus]

Ranger Headshot is on the way to be nerved soon. As far as I know its just the matter of getting code done. So headshot-farming will soon be off.

At the current state, its likely that only plate-tanks can outtank the mage air-pet, once all pet-AAs and a decent pet-focus-Item is gained.
This is valid as long as mobs arrive single and no meele is close by.

With that in mind, Ranger is maybe not the best second char in a duo with Mage. For max efficiency for xp-gain likely a necro would be a good second, or another Mage.

If you like a new expericence, you may want to try a Bard. Already the lvl 70 aura bumps up the meele-damage of Pet and RS-pet by 30%.
The Bards slow is not right at the shamans slow, but the lvl 64 "requiem of time" is not that far from it.

While growing up (lvl 65+), as long as the tankmerc can survive, I would go with tankmerc + healermerc. Once you reach the gear/AAs/and lvl to go to Underfoot you may switch to 2 healermercs. At this point you want to keep the second char away from the mob, if you don't go for a real tank here.

With bard you will have:
A complete new expericence, as the bard differs very much from any other class.
One of the best and fastest single puller. Sufficent CC to handle even some unavoidable adds in camp.
A strong flexible support for your mage in form of auras and songs, which enhance the mages in all fields: pets/swarms aswell as nukes.
Recently also some nice burst dps to get a named down. He now can dump all his mana in short time for decent dps, there is just no way to regain it apart from OOC regen. But when an ungly named needs to be killed, who cares the necessity to have a 3.5 minute brake after, important to get it done

A bard can easily be played lazy-mode when no puller is needed: Aura up and /melody AEslow/snare, warmarch + 2 other songs (manaregen + nuke-enhancer maybe) and set on autofollow. In that mode, he already offers alot of his power and you still just play the mage like you would play him solo. To play the bard at his max, he want the big share of the attention. In that case the mage can do alot of his stuff with just a couple of hotbuttons.

Mage and Bard is maybe not the fastest combo to grow up, but likely one of the strongest, when it comes to the point to down the ugly named.

With the new defiant gear, both can gear easily in bazaar until they reach max level.

When you grow the duo from 1, start with 2 tankmercs unless atleast lvl 61, maybe upto 65, if you want to grow up fast. At low levels they regen as fast as they get damage unless you don't train them with too much mobs at once.

[Falino-Luclin]

As someone who boxes a mage and bard I'm going to have to give a thumbs up to the bard/mage suggestion.

With a bard, you get a puller, mezzer, slows, and a solid DPS booster from songs and auras. If the bard is equipped well enough, he can tank some stuff and contribute melee DPS also. He will tank significantly worse than your pet, but it can be worth it sometimes for the extra DPS if it's stuff he's capable of tanking.

With a mage/bard combo I was able to handle any named in SoD comfortably with a cleric merc except that stupid guy in Korafax that mem blurs and shadow steps. Full T5 group armor and a decent number of AAs was sufficient to allow the bard to tank most stuff in SoD also. Obviously bards can't taunt well at all but your pet will still keep the mobs off you provided you stay out of melee range.

[Daiou]

Mage/Bard is a good duo but the Mage/Ranger is also. I play with a ranger alot. The combo of HA and CoTH singles are garantied. On the harder mobs he'll hang back and range DPS. With 2 healer mercs and my pet heals on named we can take on most T6 UF named and we are testing T7 now. (Void F pet focus so T7 named will be iffy)

[Merlaina]

I've had times when ranger guildies were LFG and wanted to join me when I was pretty much soloing, and all they get to do is sit there and autofire their bow. They can't tank nearly as well as our pets, which only leaves ranged attacks as an option. They can be helpful for rooting adds and basic crowd control, but definitely not my first choice as a box.

[Sillaen]

Mage/rng is not a bad combo. Gear is the determining factor if the ranger will tank or not and even if the pet tanks, you'll have solid ranged dps from rng. Also once the rng hits 85, there's absolutely nothing that a mge/rng combo can't pull. My 1st char was a rng (I still play him some outside of raids). I started playing mage during Kunark when I was waiting for my friends to catch up to me in level and fell in love with mages from that point.

I have tanked regular mobs up to Korascian Warrens with my lvl 82 rng with just a single cleric healing and he's far from being well geared. He doesn't even have a single piece of SoD armor. He's still in that gnollish chain nonsense from when they revamped some of the old zones for a couple of months.

I'm sure with good gear and a decent set of AAs, a ranger will tank just fine in most of SoD and some of UF. As a matter of fact, back when SoD was released, our regular group tank for everything was in fact a ranger. He has some decent gear and a bit of AC augs, but he tanked all of SoD just fine.

[Dadani]

My wife has a bard that I two box with quite a bit. Hard to find a class that adds so much over a broad spectrum.

We have several characters at level 85, hands down I would take her bard as a box any day. I box a chanter to level her up, but I still prefer the bard.

A bard, or any class can't be perfect for every mob or zone, but they cover the basis better then any other class.

Bard offers so much offense and emergency defense if needed. I have seen my wife lock down 4 mobs before with mezzes.

Cacophony, Quicktime, Fierce Eye, Aura's, defensive songs, offensive songs......

Bard is not any harder to box then any other character, in fact I say easier but i am biased as I have been boxing my wife's bard for 6 years.

And I am a little spoiled to getting places at bard speed.

[Arkendar]

Might have to try out the bard as well. Never really been a fan of them (though I like bardspeed), but if they are that good of a benefit, I could give it a shot.
As far as starting from 1, will be copying to test from the 51 server to make things faster (Too lazy to care about the first bit)

Will be a while before I start off, as being broke sucks.

New questions, then. One of the reasons I liked the ranger was the idea of track. I have a habit of running into older zones to take out old named for fun, and it was always a pain to have to run to spawnpoints and find the mob wasn't up as a monk.
How well do bards track? As I recall, they have track, just at a much lower level? Is it sufficient to find named around?

And how well do mages handle the AE farming situations? My only memories of my mage are farming the snake ledge in blackburrow, so I honestly do not remember this. Another habit of mine is to go into low end zones and pull the entire zone for laughs/faction. Basically, would the mage be ab le to survive a full pull of something like the frogs in Old Seb, once leveled/geared? Assuming yes, but still, more info the better.

To go off the above one, how many mobs can the pet tank, normally? Between holding aggro/staying alive, on xp mobs? Just singles? or 2-3?

Edit: Throwing in another thought.
Would the best combo be two "DPS" classes, using cleric mercs and the pet to tank, or would it be having an actual tank, using pet as offtank, and using 2 clerics? Do enjoy melee characters, so I'd like to have some reason to melee from time to time. If nothing else, though, I have the monk to hop on if I want. So no big deal about it, just curious.

And as far as the bard goes. Do bard songs hit pets?
Thanks again for the help. Making me want to play even more.

[Sillaen]

New questions, then. One of the reasons I liked the ranger was the idea of track. I have a habit of running into older zones to take out old named for fun, and it was always a pain to have to run to spawnpoints and find the mob wasn't up as a monk.
How well do bards track? As I recall, they have track, just at a much lower level? Is it sufficient to find named around?

Guess that depends on the size of the zone. Rngs still top the list IIRC.

And how well do mages handle the AE farming situations? My only memories of my mage are farming the snake ledge in blackburrow, so I honestly do not remember this. Another habit of mine is to go into low end zones and pull the entire zone for laughs/faction. Basically, would the mage be ab le to survive a full pull of something like the frogs in Old Seb, once leveled/geared? Assuming yes, but still, more info the better.

Yes. Aside from rngs, mages may be the most efficient and best farming class in the game. At the higher levels, mages get Beam spells that just absolutely levels countless amounts of mobs. Just have to practice with it and get your arc right. It's a frontal arc spell.

To go off the above one, how many mobs can the pet tank, normally? Between holding aggro/staying alive, on xp mobs? Just singles? or 2-3?

Again, depends on where you go. In the higher lvl SoD zones, my pet can hang easily with 2 or more normal trash mobs as long as healing is available. In other paces, like Katta where I burn lesson, my pet can tank upwards 15 elemental type mobs with just me healing him.

Edit: Throwing in another thought.
Would the best combo be two "DPS" classes, using cleric mercs and the pet to tank, or would it be having an actual tank, using pet as offtank, and using 2 clerics? Do enjoy melee characters, so I'd like to have some reason to melee from time to time. If nothing else, though, I have the monk to hop on if I want. So no big deal about it, just curious.

If you're looking at straight dps and survival you can't go wrong with 2 mages with 2 cleric mercs.

And as far as the bard goes. Do bard songs hit pets?

Yes. You will have to get the pet affinity AA (12 AAs IIRC), but once you do all groups buffs, bard songs etc... will hit your pet.

[Arkendar]

Thanks again!
Think I'm going to give the mage/bard a shot. Going back through what I do remember, I recalled a friend pulling off some nice things a couple of years ago with that combo. Plus I've always been a runspeed / illusion item addict, so..Why not?

My big problem with bards has always been that I could never stand to play them past like lvl 10 (Rarely twinked them very well) so, while the concept was interesting, I never got to put it to use. (Plus I was a monk. Obligatory fist shaking at bards goes here.)
Starting at 51, it'll be alot to absorb in a short time, but I'd rather start them both at 51 and testcopy over, than have to PL my way up through the ranks again. Not like I'm really learning anything when I'm getting PLed.

Now if only I possessed the ability to summon money..