Choosing your Classes as a Boxer
I've created this guide to hopefully stop people from falling down the same rabbit hole many of us have in the past. It's not immediately obvious how much of an effect the classes you choose have on your ability to box properly. Before I say anything else with this guide I would like to say that this guide in particular is mostly my opinion.
The reason I am expressing the fact that this guide is opinion based is because each time I have brought up this topic of conversation I get one or two boxers crawling out of the wood work that box the classes I say you can't box 'well' together. In particular I am mostly talking about Alt tab boxing/Isboxing multiple melee classes.
I know one or two people that 6 boxed War/Clr/4 Monks on Phinigel during the early days of the server. I realize that in some instances it's possible and able to be done effectively and I will actually explain how this person boxed that on Phinigel later in this guide.
But my argument applies to live servers when melee classes have 5 or more abilities that need to be spammed and kept on cooldown. Hybrids are in this same boat. Additionally, I believe my argument applies to everyone who doesn't want to sit there playing the game at 100% of their capacity 24/7. I mean really, sometimes you just wanna kick back and relax at a camp and not worry about being 'on the ball' with every little action. Just imagine alt tabbing two times a second just spamming one key while also have to reposition your characters every single fight. I can't see that being enjoyable for the majority of players.
Ok, so with all of that out of the way - this page is going to apply to Alt tab boxers, True Box Players and Isboxers.
When you first start boxing in Everquest one of the main things you need to take into consideration is your own abilities as a human. You need to first realize that Alt tabbing and not using Isboxer or MQ2 puts you at a disadvantage. Much like how only using Isboxer puts you at a disadvantage in comparison to MQ2 users when it comes to boxing melee.
Melee classes in Everquest require a TON of ability spamming. If you're playing on a TLP where basically all you need to do is turn on Auto Attack things are a bit different. The person I mentioned at the top of this guide that boxed 6 on Phinigel, 4 of them being Monks was able to do it because Monks were so easy it was basically spam two abilities and auto attack. All he really had to worry about was positioning.
If you're trying to box a melee character it *needs* to be your driver. Meaning it has to be the character you're in control of and that you build your team around. If you try to box TWO melee characters (especially hybrids like Beastlords or Rangers that cast) it's going to take far too much of your attention trying to get each character to do the best DPS.
A character like a Ranger, Berserker, Monk, Beastlord etc all require you to press a button at the very least every 2 seconds. There's no way to 'queue up' abilities like you can do for casters which means you'll need to be tabbing to your melee character constantly throughout the battle. Where as a Mage or Wizard or Druid if you read my Advanced Macros Guide you already know that you can tab to them once a minute and press one button and they'll fire off all their abilities in succession. For these classes you basically can 'queue up' abilities.
Those of you out there who are looking to Alt tab box (as well as Isboxers) need to take this into consideration. You should box less spammy characters and your only melee character should be your tank (or the character driving your team). The reason I say that this only applies to Isboxers and Alt Tab boxers is because players who use MQ2 can have the melee spam abilities & position properly all on their own. Ironically though, this is the very thing the public hates about MQ2 and if people see your characters do this in game you're asking to get trained/harassed.
Therefore this is kind of a general rule to everyone looking to box. Don't box melee. If you're alt tab Boxing - using melee characters is going to be extremely difficult and too challenging to be very rewarding (if we're talking about content after level 100). In order for you to box melee properly you'll have to use MQ2 and if anyone sees you boxing melee using MQ2 you're asking to be persecuted.
For the best play experience while Alt Tab boxing I highly recommend you choose 1 tank, 1 healer and 1 caster (like a mage). I also recommend you try not to go over 3 characters while Alt Tab boxing as it started to really get confusing the more characters you add in past 3.
Those of you out there who are Isboxing I recommend you stick to 1 tank - your driver and 1 (maybe 2) healers. Then choose 3 or 4 casters classes you want to play, Wiz or Mage do NOT do necromancers as they have to cast over a dozen DoTs and setting up that many keybinds would be insanity. If you have a good Isboxer setup using Crowd Control won't be that difficult either since you'll have Key Broadcasting available to you. Whether or not you want to do an Enchanter is up to you.
If you plan on using Kissassist and MQ2 then you can pick whatever classes you want because Kissassist can play them all half way decently.
Extra Info:
I have made a few guides that go into detail about how to play the classes that I am good at in EQ. If you'd like to play some of the same classes as me, by all means:
How to Play a Wizard Class Guide
How to Play a Warrior Class Guide
How to Play a Cleric Class Guide
How to Play an Enchanter Class Guide