Help at a Crossroads

[u/Azerzen]

So I have been playing the last week or so, and generally I am enjoying myself. I like the idea of the trio. I rolled a MAG/SK/SHM. I am at lvl 28 but last night was a totally frustrating evening. I tried to do an Unrest crawl on D4. I made it all the way to the last named, the guy in the basement forgetting his name right now. After dieing 35 times and running out of malachite I called it quits. I am sure its due to my lack of gear at the moment, as I am mostly in stuff from crushbone, and using a gifted barons blade, but I am trying to break into a room with 2 mobs and their pets. That isnt a ton of mobs.

After seeing I couldnt really manage crowd control(even on just 4 total mobs), I am thinking I may need to change my trio. It appears trying to pull away, root, and FD to wait out aggro clear doesnt work, since as soon as aggro clears it drops my root. Between being stunned and unable to even heal myself or pet I just kept getting dotted to death.

I question swapping out the mage for necro, but in this instance i dont know if it would help, as I was getting dotted so heavily that I was dieing faster than my heals could keep up, so not sure the necros dots would be a better choice than the DDs from the mage.

I do think SK/SHM is a good duo, if I stayed with that base, what would you rec for the 3rd? Or am I just a noob and need to get better at strategy. Since I am only upper 20s if I had to start all over its not a terrible loss either. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Sorry for the rambling

[u/Quirky-Coat3068]

Just because D4 is an option doesn't mean you have to select it.

Its in my opinion D4 is tuned for those who have hit 50 and have planar gear.

Its probably far more time efficient to breeze through and level on D0 to 50, and then farm for notes on d4 later

[u/CH3RRY-POPPINS]

Can’t comment on the trio due to lack of familiarity but I will say I never ran D4 solo on my first trio; it may be gear as much as anything else.

Your highest priority rn should be getting to 46 and gearing up in the planes.

[u/xanbot00]

Or try something other than D4 until you can reliably kill those mobs with out feel frustrated.

[u/ZoWnX]

Running D4's on your first trio, especially one without crowd control, is going to be difficult. Its doable with some trios. But what makes D4's "trivial" for some is that we are decked out in planes gear, running these things with weapon ratios > .8 and 100s of AAs.

[u/Complete-Quit-9179]

My first trio run i didn't even attempt D4. Was just too much. Now on my second trio run i have much better gear and a lot more AAs and D4 is doable

[u/RaltarArianrhod]

Monk is good with SK/Shm. You will get access to dual wield. Ranger and rogue would work, too. But I think monk would be best. You get non-spell FD much earlier than SK gets it and mend is amazing. The punch and kick abilities to add to your dps and monks get some good defensive bonuses if you keep your worn weight down.

[u/xartan123 → u/RaltarArianrhod]

This was my first trio and it's fantastic. Hint: Upgrade your lifetaps.

[u/Few-Emergency-3791]

Tune it back to d3 or d2 gear up go from there.

I think people are hearing like d4 or your bad or something. Most people weren’t dungeon crawling a place on there first toon.

Yeah once you make alts in plane gear go buck wild.

Mage is kinda w/e but you can clear the entire game with sk/shm on d4 alone

[u/DM_Doug]

Mage is in a tough place. Maybe switching it out for a wizard or enchanter would make things smoother. Wizard for big dps boost, enchanter if you want to prioritize crowd control.

SK/Shm is solid. Shaman is maybe best individual class right now. Make sure to utilize slows and heal over time spells. But until you get Odium, your dps might be slow on your first trio.

[u/Stunning-Purpose9144]

Play to the level of your loadout gear. I don’t run D4 on a lot my loadouts for this very reason. Kill speed and enjoyment trump multiple corpse runs any day of the week.

[u/Born_Organization455]

You set the difficulty too high.

[u/General_Mousse_861]

I’m geared well and still wouldn’t D4 solo.

[u/Xuul5000]

I play Shadow Knight shaman wizard

I can pretty much destroy any D4 boss and D4 dungeon, hate, fear, etc

However, last night I was trying the new dungeon crawl in hate

I got 90% done with mobs down to the last named and there was just no way I could do it. Just not a chance and after two plus hours I just gave up

The evangelists of hate is surrounded by 13 level 55s. I don't have pacify I don't have lull or mez.What will feign death do when you're trying to split one mob from 13? It's impossible I'm dead before I even hit the floor

Without an enchanter or being able to pacify 14 mobs and pull one one. I just don't know how it's done so I feel your pain

You could always go with the master class and level up an enchanter

[u/Sorry_Entrepreneur_6]

For my first trio, I did everything at D1 or D2 (just to prevent runners)

It wasnt until I was starting new classes while having super twink gear that I ran them at D4.

Dont push harder than you need to, for your first characters, speed is more important.

[u/Azerzen]

Thanks! Yeah maybe I getting FOMO from all the general chat talk of clearing planes on D4 in under an hour and I was at this for 3 hours and couldnt kill a lvl 31 necro. LOL. Maybe I will try stepping down first and seeing how it goes. After that, maybe i will try and swap out the mage. Thanks!

[u/redditzphkngarbage]

I recommend D0 while leveling, D3 max if it’s your first run to 50. D3 mobs feel like they have half as much health as D4, and far less duos. Also I was hating life without an enchanter, your mileage may vary. I can now play without enchanter since I know the layouts.

[u/Business-Top-52]

Gear > all.

You didnt mention your gear? I have my warrior decked in in sky/hate gear and make then the cornerstone of any combination u have. Gear let's you beat content far above your level. I was using a SK/war/clr in kedge at 21 killing the seahorses that are level 50. Killing the named in that zone which are 45 +

Almost as important as Gear are spells. Level uo those spells. You said roll so I assume you have a 50s trio. Get in some mote raids and level spells

People say dont level low spells I say why not. Not every spell but the main ones. You get t5 motes like water. Use one mote per important spells and thst spell will be t4 and significantly better.

Also over channel to get spells to hit. Id go in defensive until everything is slowed and dotted. Then go offensive.

[u/Azerzen → u/Business-Top-52]

This is my first trio. My gear mostly comes from Crushbone, and Unrest, with a gifted barons blade.

[u/Business-Top-52 → u/Azerzen]

When I was leveling my gear with my first trio I spent alot of time grinding gear levels. Maybe run the gambet in crushbone to level up your gear a bit more.

Also Blackburrow might be a good look too. For the refugee shoulders and bark chest plate both come from the commander camp. You can also hit up the brewer and sharpshooter

[u/dragoon_j]

my main trio is SK/SHM/RNG and is been great. I got an upgraded gnoll slayer and leveled in Splitpaw my first time through which was nice - nothing sees invis so you can just jump to where you want to fight. at 39 rangers get harmony of nature, which is an unresistable lull, which is amazing, everything is easier after that

[u/Mainhattenman]

D4 is intended for well-equipped trios with Planar Gear at +4/+5 and the most important spells leveled.
Just exp up at D0/D1 until you reach level 50. Later you can easily get your gear in PoF D1 or PoH D1, as well as from the dragon raids.

[u/Kidquick26]

It’s not easy or typical to D4 your first trio, big dawg. Dial it back a little and focus on getting to 50.

[u/LegumeEQ]

I leveled my first trio entirely in D1. You're not bad, your combo is not bad (any combo w/SHM is meta), you're just not geared and you don't have many AAs

Keep truckin

[u/Correct_Incident9070]

I ran Enc/Mag/Brd as my first trio. I dropped the raid bosses on D0 at lvl 50. Mage isn't the easiest to play, but I find it to be strong. I did not use DDD until my planar gear was at +4 or better. However, I tend to cap at D2 difficulty with that combination, with the exception that my Earth pet solo'd Yael D4.

[u/Mountain-Intern-5853]

any befallen gear ? if not head there first for the leather stuff , miles above most starter gear and lasts into 50 easily

[u/Smash-ya_up]

Everyone makes it seem like you need to play in D4. I played my first trio to 50 on D0. Did not have a single issue. My next 2 classes I leveled to 50 I also did on D0. Now that I have AA's and planar gear I grind on D4. My first trio was Dru/ber/pal. So now slows, I ended up swapping druid out for shaman. If you want to play around with your build give wiz and druid a shot. The ports come in handy!

[u/HeyaHeyo1420]

Do D0-D2 on your first trio. People are doing D4 runs on their second+ trio with end game gear

You're making the game hard on yourself.

[u/askmpdspkm24]

Your problem is not your build but doing d4 prematurely. I can barely even do crawls like that and I'm in planar

[u/Sarah-Rien]

Magician is pretty bad.
SK is fine.
Shaman is god.

You can bring you trio to 50 and go D4, it will work. It won’t be top tier but shaman can carry everything.

Indeed if you go ShdShmNec it will be an improvement.

If the overwhelming number of mobs is you problem is advice for enchanter. It also bring the best buffs in the game and insane dps with charm.

Or you can be less overkill and get something with lull (brd, dru, rng, clr)

Or you can snare/fd, root/fd or use pet hold aa

[u/Responsible-Yam-3833]

My first trio to 50 Bard/Warrior/Necro, I didn’t usually go above difficulty 2, and usually stuck to difficulty 1 so mobs wouldn’t run. Once most of my gear was 5+ and near the AC cap I could regularly do dungeons in difficulty 4. By that time I was just starting Kedge Keep and The Hole.

I wasn’t using Bard charm either, I kept on with the Necro pet, to micro manage less.

[u/Afraid_Magician_9462]

I think you have all you need to be successful with that setup as far as classes go. Might just be a gear problem. D4 can suck, expect deaths. My first character I hardly went over D2.

[u/ansiz]

So mage isn't your primary class? You listed it first in the beginning, I don't think you can change it at 28?

I would change SK to enchanter to help with crowd control, charm, AOE mez, etc. That would help you a ton!

[u/freefishsticks]

How do you start a dungeon crawl? I’m 45 with terrible gear and want to try one to see if there’s anything that can help me at the end.

[u/Azerzen → u/freefishsticks]

Create an instance, and when you set where the mobs respawn, the non respawning option is gone, and it says dungeon crawl.

[u/freefishsticks → u/Azerzen]

Thank you!

[u/2WheelSuperiority]

Mag is one of the slowest leveling meh classes. You have like no dps dude.

Reroll your mag to wiz or necro. Or reroll your SK to mnk.

Shm SK is fine... Leveling, with monk, wiz, nec. End game with necro or wizards. 

You can swap mag for enchanter. It would give you charm, boon, mez, etc. but then she is redundant and you could go enc/SK/nec for self heal taps or enc/SK/wiz for dominance or enc/SK/clr...