Returning Player - 4 Accounts

[Ryjack]

Hello everyone! I am a returning player looking to find an optimal set up for exploring end game content. I will be accompanied with my wife who is planning to play a Doctor & either an Advy , Shade or MA (dual box). I am interesting in playing a Crat plus a yet undecided prof to add to our four person team (dual boxing as well). My very outdated opinions and perspectives are below :

-An Enforcer would be a good secondary prof who can tank while my Crat focuses on mezs and dealing damage/managing pets.
-A Keeper would be a better secondary prof however has less utility outside of just PVE tanking.
-A Soldier would be a good secondary prof however need to manage the timing of specials to squeeze the highest dps.
-Any tanking class would allow the shade to fully maximize DPS.

-An Engie for DD and tradeskilling would be a fantastic benefit for when we reach 220.
-A MP would be good buffs but outside of that, what else would they bring?
-A Trader would be good for buffs but outside of that, what else would they bring?
-The other profs would require too much active management and minimal benefit to consider, but let me know if I am overlooking any advantages.

On a side note, I currently have a 213 Trader from '04 who needs updated gear & research levels. I am assuming leveling with my Crat once they are of similar levels, I will be able to duo and get him what he needs. Is this feasible or are traders really not worth the effort anymore?

Thanks for taking the time to read and thanks in advance for your input!

[Bainzy]

A well played Shade is going to grab aggro from anything but a decently played Enfo, so I'd be tempted to not run Shade - plus they require a load of micromanagement.

Perhaps, Doc, Crat, Sold, Advy would be a better solution.

You've got Doc heals, Advy heals, Sold tanking and Crat debuffing.
Decent DPS across the board.
Little micromanagement required.

If Advy and Doc spam team heals, that'd keep you on the straight and narrow, of your toons, I can't really think of a better set up for a four char low-management team, however I'm not sure of the effect of the recent changes on Adventurers, so you might want a second opinion on that.

[semisentient]

my opinion is that pve content you can manage with any reasonable composition. what becomes really useful are the utilities of profs and ease of play (you don't want a lot of headaches managing ur toons). for instance having a fixer for fgrid, having an mp for anchor and recall, engineer for warping etc.

I would suggest enf, mp, doc, eng

mp and eng are very low management classes, and with the newly buffed healpet and enf heal reactivity, you pretty much don't need to actively heal except on really big boss fights. this cuts down a huge amount of micro. anchor and recall in sl is great for saving time for when a char dies.

enf also GREATLY reduces micro because of mongo area taunt. without it, you can't as easily guarantee aggro on your tank and will have to micro a lot more. with enf you can have the rest of your chars all focus on dps and not have to worry about defense as much really reducing stress and management.

doc will help you tackle bosses and increase your pve potential greatly.

eng brings extremely high dps that doesn't require as much management, and brings a lot of outside of battle utility. you can also go for a fixer in this slot to speed up your team. most of your game time will probably be spent running from mob to mob and area to area.

if you also level up a trader/agent froob to do outside buffs, you will be very self sufficient.

[Ryjack]

I will not be running all 4 accounts myself, just 2 (my wife will be dual boxing the other 2 profs in the team). Just wanted to make sure that was clear.

" I will be accompanied with my wife who is planning to play a Doctor & either an Advy , Shade or MA (dual box). I am interesting in playing a Crat plus a yet undecided prof to add to our four person team (dual boxing as well)."

[semisentient]

also will you always playing this comp with your wife or will you be duoing without the other duo a lot. if the latter you'd want duos that are sort of complementary themselves, where as for the former you can just go for best 4 char comp.

[Ryjack]

Agreed, the Shade & Doc duo works well if she wants to farm a boss for a specific drop. I think a Crat + Trader/Engie works sell as their own duo, great cc + healing if needed. Wanted to get experience opinions as this can't be too uncommon a question.

[semisentient]

crat usually went with keeper. this was the end game duo due to init debuffs and ward = never hit by single mob target. init debuffs were nerfed but it should still be best boss fighting combo.

a lot of those combos are mainly for people who kite hill and then inf mission up their duo to end game directly though, as they are not very fun to actually play through with. if you play through, you will quickly come to want an area taunt so your weaker chars don't die when u get too much aggro or miss the mez or whatever.