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For the high end stuff you want the cleric's buffs and healing power. I started with a monk/shaman combo and originally added a 65 Druid as a 3rd box. Dying on all three toons without a rezzer is a PITA. Also the druid heals and buffs just don't compare. Now made my 3rd box a 65 cleric and it is just a more powerful unit now.

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I have a monk/shm/clr combo at the moment and lack of gate is not an issue. OT hammer and gate potions have you covered. If you wanted a 3rd porting toon to add to Bst/clr I would make a wizard for easy dps.

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I've heard a lot about the Necro/Shm business, but how effective is it in a dungeon. I'm assuming I'm relying 100% on root inside a dungeon. The DoT's I'm sure will be more than efficient, but would I still be using nec/shm pets?

As far as end game, Druid's aren't as versatile for a group that a cleric is just that important for a little grind group? I mean I understand that the bst and it's pet would never need to worry about regen, however dps would really really lack. Wouldn't it?

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Nerada 65 Necro

If you are just worried about grind groups, it really doesn't matter between BST/CLR and BST/DRU. Both will do just fine and you will be able to do Tier 2 or Tier 3 PoP content with just those two classes. You have tank, heals and slows covered so you can pick any other 4 classes to join you for great exp. The monk/shaman provided the same basics when I initially leveled up so it was nice to start your own group at leisure.

Remember, we are capped at 65 on this server with PoP AA's. If you play long enough, you will get to the point where you effectively max out your character exp and AA-wise. At that point, you will be looking for high-end content challenges. With that, the CLR will give you more options than the DRU but it is really your call.

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Oh yeah, at that point however I won't be wanting to box, unless I feel I can effectively do so. I generally don't trust myself to put others at risk. I can also use that druid to PL a cleric, etc etc. I doubt I would be maxing out AA's. I mostly love to just explore and see what I can and can't do. That's what makes it a tough choice.

I see where you're coming from though.

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Nerada 65 Necro

Maybe others have a different opinion, but it seems to me that if you are going to play Shaman/Necro and you're in a dungeon, the Shaman will be tanking. Relying on root isn't necessary, just have the Shaman tank and the Necro FD if he swings agro.

Also, I'd mention that Shaman and Necros are arguably the best soloers in the game. I played a PoP-era Shaman on the PC servers and I loved seeing what kinds of content I could solo with him.

Just food for thought.

I'm coming at this from a slightly different perspective from you. My main is a level 65 BST and I wanted a duo box. I chose a Druid since on paper they have great synergy. Similar to Tarkon, I ended up making a cleric and was very happy I did.

I'll try to outline why I think a Cleric was a better box for me over the Druid. You are planning on leveling them both together, so the following may not apply to you during the leveling process. Just throwing this out there though.

2 major points: BSTs aren't the greatest tanks without AAs. Yes, you can use their pets as tanks (and it's how they solo), but you lose something in the duoing efficiency category in the process. Second point is that Druids aren't the best healers until they hit level 58 and get their ghetto CH.

Soloing, BSTs at most levels let their warders tank (changes once you get some avoidance AAs). The BST may melee for a bit, but usually has to back out for heals (either to themselves or the pet). BSTs can't really tank in a meaningful way until they get some of the avoidance AAs: CA3 at a minimum and some ranks of LR to make things easier. I tanked HoHa with CA3 (may have first tanked it without any avoidance AAs), but I was a healing sponge. I tanked Tier 1 before I got any AAs, but required quite a bit of healing attention. Soloing to 60 was about tanking for a bit, stepping back to heal warder and myself, stepping in again to divert damage off the warder, etc. Balancing incoming damage between myself and the pet while balancing mana between self heals and big heals to the pet. It wasn't until I got CA3/LR2 that I could easily solo some of the "harder" shard mobs in Luclin (i.e. Sanctus when you get an add). LR5 made tanking Luclin/PoP camps "easy," either for the soloable camps or for grouping in PoV. In fact, completing the avoidance line of tanking AAs (CA3/LR5) radically changed how I played my BST. With LR5 you become a real tank for everything aside from raid targets. The mitigation line (CS3/ID5) is of *much* less importance for a BST: it's important but isn't going to be game-changing to the degree the avoidance line is. Without avoidance AAs a BST is going to require a dedicated healer.

Druid heals pre-58 aren't that hot. Part of the "sexiness" of the BST/Druid combo is that the Druid can heal and also DPS with DoTs and nukes. BST tanks without AAs are going to need quite a bit of healing. Pre-58 the Druid may be capable of keeping the BST up, but isn't going to have the time/mana to also go crazy with DPS. Healing is going to be a full-time job and suck up quite a bit of your mana pool and result in downtime while you med.

Where the Druid really starts to shine as a duo partner is at level 58 with real heals, level 59 with Cabbage, and at levels beyond that with better heals and better mana buffs (for both the BST and the Druid). Porting is nice at any level. Evac is nice. But at lower levels the BST isn't the best tank (thus requiring a lot of healing) and the Druid isn't in the position to efficiently provide those heals.

Where the Druid should add something is with CC on adds: being able to root an add should help. Unfortunately the pet AI is often wonky and despite everything you do the pet will only attack the rooted mob. Which means the root didn't actually help you: either you still need to balance pet heals or you have to drop the pet out of combat which is a major DPS loss. The Druid isn't capable of healing the pet (or the BST) in a meaningful way at lower levels (without rapidly going through his mana pool). Kiting an add is nice but very, very hard to do boxing (i.e. next to impossible). If you are at a kiting camp, you need to spend your time on the Druid and throw in the BST pet for added damage. Not sure it's possible to tank a mob on the BST and kite an add at the same time unless the mobs in question are trivial for the level/gear/AAs of the BST/Druid combo.

Clerics on the other hand overcome some of the deficiencies of the Druid. Much better healers at much lower levels. Clerics get CH at level 39 (for either the BST or the pet). For me having my BST already at 65, this was huge. Even at level 55 my Druid was nearly worthless for healing me or my pet. And the nukes/dots weren't really contributing much DPS. But at 39 the Cleric could keep Fris upright against anything reasonable I was fighting or keep my pet alive on adds. Having a rezz available is also pretty nice.

Druid advantages: porting (which saves time), mana buffs at high level, good healing at high level, ability to Kite, evac in emergencies
Cleric advantages: superior healing ability at much lower levels, ability to rezz

Again, I'm coming at this from the perspective of already having a level 65 BST (who is geared and AA'd). Fris can self-buff his health to over 6k (raid buffed he is over 8k). So any heals short of a CH (or high level spot) are minor blips when thinking about the amount of healing compared to the mana cost and casting time of the spell. If your BST is in the 2k health range (about what you should see in the 50s when buffed with self-buffs and either Druid/Cleric HP buffs), Druid heals pre-58 are going to be a sizable percentage of your total health and may work (though the Druid mana pool is going to have a tough time supporting both heals and DPS without significant downtime). For Kunark or below mobs, the incoming damage to a BST when tanking may be balanced by the ability of the Druid (pre-58) to heal. But for me currently the Cleric is much more useful for most of what I am doing. I use my Druid as a taxi and not much more. The trio is very nice. But if I had to choose just two toons for something it would be the BST/Cleric.

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Fris Southpaw
65 Vah Shir Beastlord
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Hail Eris!
All Hail Discordia!