A 2-class group: who would you pick?

[RTM]

I'm high enough level with Bake at the moment (23) to get my Arcane Explosion down to a .3 sec cast time with talents, so last night I went to Redridge to finish up some quests with my wife's priest (21). It was my first time using the ol' Shield + AE trick, and holy cow was it fun to blow through the "bring me 10 worn battleaxes" quest in 20 minutes! I look forward to much fun using this tactic to bring good times and joy to yours truly.

Anyway, this got me to thinking about what other good class combinations exist. I know some of you have done/do this already (GG & Treesh come to mind), but if your playing time consisted mainly of grouping with 1 other person, what 2 classes would you pick and why?

[Mirajj]

Taakal and I have a blast with out Warrior/Priest combo. ;)

[Sabra]

There's nothing like a healer! My Rogue has hooked up with a Priest in LM. His character name is Utencil, btw. Fun player. We just rock through those quests!

Certainly it would be fun to play a self-healing character.

[swirly]

The two that came to mind first for me was warrior/priest. This is a pretty obvious choice though. Bets tank in the game and best healer in the game. It also would be good for when the two people do want to do an instance, they would have the core of a group already and so it would be easier to fill the group in. It just seems like the pairing that would best be able to handle any part of the game. Thats not to say its the most fun though, just the most capable in my mind.

[Pesmerga]

Quark and I were quite awesome with our Priest/Pally combination.

[Treesh]

I vote rogue/druid. Out of all of GG's and my pairings, those two were the most fun and had the easiest time out of all of them getting things done without deaths. The shaman/hunter comes in at a close second for survivability and fun. Warrior and priest were able to handle a lot, but the killing speed was slow. Rogue/druid things went down quick and easy and even in the large chain-fighting that happened in a few places, they still had it easier than Gnolack and Aleri and Mogo and Marn. Great fun.

[Concillian]

Personally I would choose warrior / shaman

1) If you don't want to be frustrated in pickup groups in instances 1 HAS to be a warrior, provided you understand how a warrior functions in terms of holding aggro of multiples.
2) a shaman can heal well enough to be primary healer if they are properly equipped and spec'ed. I've seen shamans primary heal through 40+ instances, though I know they won't reliably get you through 55+ instances.
3) If you are lucky enough to get another healer in an instance groups shamans make damn good off-tanks and you will have NO aggro problems whatsoever. EVER. Which means even if the healer you pick up is spaz-tastic, they will have no problems keeping your group alive because either the warrior or the shaman will have aggro.

My experience in playing a warrior through 40 and playing in lurker groups with my priest is that if there is a good lock on aggro, only mediocre healing is necessary. Healing becomes an easy job and a pickup healer will work just fine.

Any duo will rip through 'solo' content pretty quickly, but IMO the warrior/shaman is best equipped for instances. Warrior/priest is good too, but IMO not quite as versatile. A warrior/priest has no defense vs. an overzealous rogue or mage destroying the group, but a shaman can pretty much out-aggro anyone on single targets, so the warrior/shaman give you total aggro control in terms of a warrior (multiple elites at once) and shaman (best single target aggro magnet). Plus you have the versatility of a healer in the case you can't find one to go with you.

Priest/mage is without a doubt best equipped for solo content with the AoE ability + healing + plenty of drinks, but you will have a lot of problems in instance groups, because neither of you will be able to tank, you will be at the mercy of a pickup player for aggro control, which will often be more miss than hit

[Kevin]

I'm high enough level with Bake at the moment (23) to get my Arcane Explosion down to a .3 sec cast time with talents, so last night I went to Redridge to finish up some quests with my wife's priest (21).  It was my first time using the ol' Shield + AE trick, and holy cow was it fun to blow through the "bring me 10 worn battleaxes" quest in 20 minutes! I look forward to much fun using this tactic to bring good times and joy to yours truly.

Anyway, this got me to thinking about what other good class combinations exist. I know some of you have done/do this already (GG & Treesh come to mind), but if your playing time consisted mainly of grouping with 1 other person, what 2 classes would you pick and why?
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What have I played in a duo?

Rogue/druid is a blast. You have healing, tanking or massive single target DPS if you need it. You can stealth to some objectives if you want, you can both easily go AFK. If you don't have a lot of outside support on of you as a leatherworker can keep your gear up to pretty good standards and an alchemist for the other means you have additional niceities, and you can survive an insane amount of stuff with that combo too. Engineering on the rogue would be a fun option too, more AoE damage, and a chance to bring up the druid who is much more likely to die than the rogue.

Warrior/Priest works well. Hard to kill slow to kill anything. Nice for getting a group around you.

Warlock/Mage is a blast. Voidwalker when used right can keep quite a few mobs occupied through some massive AoE damage. Make the mage an engineer and soulstone them. Survivability for 2 "squishies" without healing is pretty damn high. I would recommend one of them be an alchemist for even more healing than just healthstones. This one is insanely fun.

Warrior/Warrior is interesting (on the RP server they are sisters) and playing aggro bounce is interesting.

Warrior/Shaman is more fun than warrior priest, much better killing speed and the healing is just fine for most of the duo stuff.

Hunter/Shaman was very cool. 3 off tanks and lots of ways to swap aggro around them with good killing power. FD and the shaman self rez for really bad situations is quite helpful as well.

Hunter/Priest was alright, but as I will get to, hybrids are better in duos.

For any duo where you want a healer and you don't really need the bubble for AoE goodness I would recommend a druid over a priest for the higher versatility. The druid being able to go cat form and do 80-90% of the damage a same level rogue can do is a big deal and something a priest can't do without a big mana burn. I think I would recommend a paladin over a priest as well for duo situations. A shaman is also the better option for a duo than a priest. The paladin or druid may be a better choice than a warrior in duo situations as well. In general the hybrid classes are more fun in solo and small group situations and offer more options than your specialists. But since they don't distill down as well they aren't as important or fun in the 5 man situations because they become lacking on some key skills. Just some of my quick musings.

[Tal]

Sharanna (Paladin) and Zaira (Mage) were a fun group. Healing/tanking + massive DPS = fun! :D

[Pesmerga]

Sharanna (Paladin) and Zaira (Mage) were a fun group. Healing/tanking + massive DPS = fun! :D
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Quark and myself tried this combination as well, and you are correct, it is quite fun.

[kershner]

I'm quite surprised that this pairing has not been listed yet, Shaman / Mage.

I have two friends with whom I regularly play WoW. We each have three characters set aside for only this group as follows:

(Myself in caps)

With Friend 1: MAGE, Shaman
With Friend 2: SHAMAN, Mage
With Both: DRUID, Rogue, Warrior

With respect to the Shaman / Mage pairing, you get a solid healer / tank, paired with two high dps characters. What I have found is that often marginal skills like Stoneclaw Totem have become mainstays of the play style. The kill rate is truly absurd, the group is wipe resistent (due to reincarnation and the mage is an engineer). I highly recommend.

As for the triplet group, I'm a priest by nature (Lvl 60 Undead Priest on Stonemaul) and love the healer role. The Druid will be healing spec'd and my only fear is that the lack of non-cooldown ressurection will hurt us as we progress. In an attempt to mitigate that, the Druid and the Rogue have gone engineering for Jumper Cables.

Thoughts? Has anyone else tried any of the above?

-kersh

[Artega]

Warrior combined with any healing class.

Warrior+Priest is the best by far, but Warrior+Druid is extremely potent as well.

Warrior+Pally and Warrior+Shammy isn't quite as evil, but still very effective.

[Bolty]

...if your playing time consisted mainly of grouping with 1 other person, what 2 classes would you pick and why?[right][snapback]83060[/snapback][/right]

Ooh, what a good question. The kind I like to ask in forums and see what responses roll in. You trumped me on this one. :)

Now, you set some restrictions down in your original post, with "if your playing time consisted mainly of grouping with 1 other person." Others in this thread have noted the convenience of picking a combo that makes finding instance groups easier, and that can't be discounted. If you have a warrior and a priest as your combo, you'll have no trouble picking up groups to run instances.

Groups that use the same type of equipment (plate, mail, leather, cloth) should not be together. It's just stupid to compete over all the drops in the game as you progress, so avoid combos like Priest/Mage or Rogue/Druid. They may be effective, but in the end when cool things drop, it SUCKS to have to constantly decide who gets it. This restriction of mine limits a number of effective combos, but I feel that it's worth it to not wind up splitting all your loot in half with your partner!

Also, each duo needs to have some kind of healing ability. Ideally, tank + DPS class would work very well, until Things Go Wrong™ and you get creamed. There must be a fallback solution, and that means that one member of the duo MUST have the ability to heal both members of the party.

Here are some of the best matchups, in my opinion - keeping in mind my above restrictions. I'm going to run through each class at least once and pick what I think makes the best match for it. Keep in mind that my experience with Shamans is ridiculously low, so that's the pick I'm least sure of. Feel free to argue!

Warrior/Priest: I mean, duh. Main tank and main healer. Practically invincible and awesome for eventual instancing if Warrior is protection spec'ed and Priest is discipline/holy spec'ed, but kills slow. Better if Warrior is arms/fury spec'ed and Priest is shadow spec'ed while outdoors and PvP, if you want to get things done quicker.

Rogue/Priest: OMFGWTFBBQ. Things die. Fast. And zero downtime. The Rogue in that combo will have more fun than a barrel of monkeys, since the only thing that tends to slow a Rogue down is a lack of healing. Priest might get a little bored watching things die before they can even cast Smite. This is based on experience of being a Priest in some Rogue/Priest duos, after which the Rogue whispers me for days begging to do it again. :)

(Alliance) Hunter/Paladin: The Paladin lets the Hunter concentrate solely on dishing out obscene damage and off-tanking single targets with a pet, while healing can be provided when Things Go Wrong.™ The Hunter's excellent pulling skills complement the Paladin's complete lack of ranged attack.

(Horde) Hunter/Priest: go shadow spec'ed with the Priest and obliterate things faster than they can hurt the semi-tanking pet significantly. If things get dicey, healing can be provided.

(Alliance) Warlock/Paladin: lets the Warlock handle the damage and crowd control while the Paladin tanks and heals. Voidwalker can be used in dangerous/large pulls, otherwise Imp/Succubus for damage.

(Horde) Warlock/Shaman: an odd combo to be sure, but the idea of having the general-of-an-army crowd control and damage abilities of a Warlock coupled with the totems and versatility of a Shaman seems scary effective to me. Shamans can be decent tanks when necessary to supplement a Voidwalker, and can heal.

Druid/Mage: while Druids work well with just about any class - that's what makes them fun to play - I'm avoiding combos with other leatherwearers. Thus, Druids match well with Warriors, Warlocks, and Mages - but I'm picking Mage. The Druid's bearform can tank for the Mage, while providing healing when necessary and watching the Mage just flatten everything in sight. Plus, free drinks! :)

-Bolty

[redinter]

I reached 60 with my Warlock mainly duoing with Maggellann's priest. It was a very good combination, pretty wipe secure with soulstone/ressurection. The good soloing power of the warlock was very good complemented by healing and at higher levels Curse of Shadows helped to increase the damage the priest can do. Being an alchemist helped too, as first toons, money was scarce and the potions were good help for tight situations.
Now doing a warlock/druid combo, this works out pretty good too, as a druid adds versatility and with soulstone/rebirth also a bit of wipe secure.

[Roland]

Couple things.

Groups that use the same type of equipment (plate, mail, leather, cloth) should not be together.  It's just stupid to compete over all the drops in the game as you progress, so avoid combos like Priest/Mage or Rogue/Druid.  They may be effective, but in the end when cool things drop, it SUCKS to have to constantly decide who gets it.  This restriction of mine limits a number of effective combos, but I feel that it's worth it to not wind up splitting all your loot in half with your partner!

Odd that you would pick probably the ONE combination where same-armor classes CAN work together. Had you said Rogue / Hunter, I would have agreed, or even more Hunter / Druid, but Rogue / Druid would seem the perfect matchup. Leatherworking supplies two things: Agi/Str/Sta, or Int/Spi/Sta. Druids, generally, and especially in this combo, will favor the Int/Spi/Sta items over Agi/Str because they'll be more focused on casting. Their inherent shapeshifting abilities allow them to Tank / DPS if need be without massive reliance on damage-boosting stats. The Rogue, having NO mana at all and rarely if ever wanting to swap Spirit for more Agi or Sta, will focus solely on items that add to their damage and life. Agi, Sta, and Str are their number one priority, which only a heavily-SHapeshifting specced Druid would ever want (which is rare, and goes against the role the Druid is meant to fill in this pairing).

So, IMHO, Rogue / Druid would be not only an incredible combo (as has been said), but one WITHOUT worries of splitting the loot. What's more, a Rogue with Leatherworking (such as myself) can make plenty of Druid-oriented Leather, while a Druid with Alchemy can make some potions that will help out both characters, and especially help relieve the Druid's need to heal the Rogue (due to potions) and allow him to focus on damaging spells, if need be.

(Horde) Hunter/Priest: go shadow spec'ed with the Priest and obliterate things faster than they can hurt the semi-tanking pet significantly.  If things get dicey, healing can be provided.

Why only Horde? Hunters and Priests are available to both factions.

And here's another idea for you: Hunter / Warlock. Hunter takes Engineering, Warlock takes Alchemy, and voila! They both have pets (the Warlock multiple, for dealing with multiple situations), they both can do massive damage from range, and the Hunter can tank alongside his pet if need be. And, if the Warlock happens to die, Jumper Cables from the Hunter (or even by the Warlock, who generally favors Stamina anyway) can res him no problem.

Just one more combination to think about, and one that I think could be VERY fun. :)

[Lissa]

I'm high enough level with Bake at the moment (23) to get my Arcane Explosion down to a .3 sec cast time with talents, so last night I went to Redridge to finish up some quests with my wife's priest (21).  It was my first time using the ol' Shield + AE trick, and holy cow was it fun to blow through the "bring me 10 worn battleaxes" quest in 20 minutes! I look forward to much fun using this tactic to bring good times and joy to yours truly.

Anyway, this got me to thinking about what other good class combinations exist. I know some of you have done/do this already (GG & Treesh come to mind), but if your playing time consisted mainly of grouping with 1 other person, what 2 classes would you pick and why?
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Believe it or not, you're set for one of the best combos around. Once your wife has Improved PW:S, you two are in for some heavy mass distruction, especially as soon as you reach Improve AE. The combination of a PW:S on a 15 second timer with Instant AE means you can gather up like 5 or 6 mobs, AE and when the PW:S drops, cast another PW:S. In no time you will be both completing quests and leveling up quick. Priest + AoE caster (Warlock or Mage) tears things up with Imp PW:S.

[falconesse]

I'm high enough level with Bake at the moment (23) to get my Arcane Explosion down to a .3 sec cast time with talents, so last night I went to Redridge to finish up some quests with my wife's priest (21).  It was my first time using the ol' Shield + AE trick, and holy cow was it fun to blow through the "bring me 10 worn battleaxes" quest in 20 minutes! I look forward to much fun using this tactic to bring good times and joy to yours truly.
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I have to agree with the mage/priest combo. One night, running around on Feathermoon, I got a random whisper from a priest: "Hi, would you like to try some AoE with me?" I wasn't doing anything crazy, so I said okay.

We rode up to the murlocs on the northern shores of Dustwallow and that girl got on her kodo, rounded up a village-full of murlocs, and came riding at me. I frost nova'd and then just stood there, firing off instant arcane explosions till they died while she kept me healed. It was horrifying to have a swarm of, oh 20 or 30 angry murlocs coming at me, but oh, so satisfying to hear their death cries. I'll try to post the screenshots I got later.

[Metrocube]

Gold farmers use the hunter/priest combo, so I'm inclined to believe that is probably one of the more efficient duos for killing mobs.

[Treesh]

Couple things.
Odd that you would pick probably the ONE combination where same-armor classes CAN work together. Had you said Rogue / Hunter, I would have agreed, or even more Hunter / Druid, but Rogue / Druid would seem the perfect matchup. Leatherworking supplies two things: Agi/Str/Sta, or Int/Spi/Sta. Druids, generally, and especially in this combo, will favor the Int/Spi/Sta items over Agi/Str because they'll be more focused on casting. Their inherent shapeshifting abilities allow them to Tank / DPS if need be without massive reliance on damage-boosting stats. The Rogue, having NO mana at all and rarely if ever wanting to swap Spirit for more Agi or Sta, will focus solely on items that add to their damage and life. Agi, Sta, and Str are their number one priority, which only a heavily-SHapeshifting specced Druid would ever want (which is rare, and goes against the role the Druid is meant to fill in this pairing).

So, IMHO, Rogue / Druid would be not only an incredible combo (as has been said), but one WITHOUT worries of splitting the loot. What's more, a Rogue with Leatherworking (such as myself) can make plenty of Druid-oriented Leather, while a Druid with Alchemy can make some potions that will help out both characters, and especially help relieve the Druid's need to heal the Rogue (due to potions) and allow him to focus on damaging spells, if need be.
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There are very few times when both Taranna and Eth were drooling over the exact same piece of equipment. The only time there was a conflict was when GG was looking at something for his feral gear set and even then, it was easily resolved since usually there was spirit or more strength than agility so it goes to the person who uses strength more - the druid.

I disagree completely with shapeshifting going "against the role the druid is meant to fill in this pairing". The druid's "role" is to be fluid and do whatever the situation calls for, not just being a heal bot. That means the druid shifts from cat, to caster, to bear whenever and wherever needed. The feral gear is just as important as the caster gear when paired with a rogue. GG only rarely stays in caster form because things go quicker and safer if he goes cat for DPS on weak critters or bear for tank for those hard hitters and if we need crowd control outside, caster form. The bear can tank much better than the rogue can and the rogue can help ease health concerns by liberal use of stuns. If your druid isn't changing and adapting to the situations around you, you'll get killed more often than not. Use the wide range of options available to the druid and it will be an absolute blast for both the rogue and the druid.

Edit: I also forgot to mention that when playing in cat form with a rogue, there is next to zero downtime on non-hardhitting critters. If one starts to get hurt in the fight, the other one opens the next fight. There's no need to heal, no downtime.

[Kevin]

Groups that use the same type of equipment (plate, mail, leather, cloth) should not be together.  It's just stupid to compete over all the drops in the game as you progress, so avoid combos like Priest/Mage or Rogue/Druid.  They may be effective, but in the end when cool things drop, it SUCKS to have to constantly decide who gets it.  This restriction of mine limits a number of effective combos, but I feel that it's worth it to not wind up splitting all your loot in half with your partner!
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As roland said there are some things you are missing. Especially with the rogue/druid. Druids generally have 2 sets of gear at least. Feral gear and caster gear. If you really want to get get specialized there is healer gear, caster gear, bear gear, and cat gear. Though you can overlap the caster/healer and the bear/cat with each other pretty much. Even with the feral gear set the druid is generally looking for str/stam/agi. The rogue is generally looking for agi/stam/str in that order. Druids only get attack power bonus from str unlike rogues who get it from agi as well. So agi becomes only good for dodge and crit chance. Some of the crit chance gear will be coveted by both, but for the majority of the time splitting the leather is very good as there are items that are useless to a rogue but very valuable to a druid. And what is good for the feral druid usaually isn't ideal for the rogue.

Similar deal with a hunter and a shaman. There will be some stuff that both want but in general it's one really wants it and the other only sort of wants it.

Paladin and warrior also have different tastes though in that duo the paladin generally won't need much mana so they will, be coveting similar gear much more often.

The cloth wearers can be a lot tougher to split as they all pretty much want int/stam stuff. :)

Agi, Sta, and Str are their number one priority, which only a heavily-SHapeshifting specced Druid would ever want (which is rare, and goes against the role the Druid is meant to fill in this pairing).

I agree with much of the rest but not this. The druid in this combo will be shapeshifting a lot and while going full restoration spec is still probably the best choice for this getting your minor in feral is a very good idea. It is so much better in most cases for the druid to have aggro no matter what form they are in simply because most rogues builds are much more deadly from behind. A smattering of feral talents really helps this. To me if a druid goes balance they need to go very heavy to get much benefit. However there are a lot of very helpful early talents in the feral tree that make a big difference in feral form power. A minor in balance can help a healbot druid some, but in a duo situation where you will use bear, cat and caster sometimes in the same fight feral helps more. A heavy feral with a minor in restoration would be good for a duo. A balance major with a minor in feral or restoration would probably work pretty well too.

Taranna was generally no worse than 80-90% of Etheramwen's DPS in cat form after I started to get my feral talents (I powered to innervate so I'm still filling out my feral side, at times I really wish I would have done more feral earlier). I can do 800 damage ravage (ambush) at L58, I can do 1100 damage ferocious bite (eviserate) as well. We used to do a lot of me pull with starfire, then wrath, then Faerie Fire, then moonfire, then rejuv then tank as caster or go bear form while Treesh pounded the mob from behind. Now that I have improved shred and blood frenzy I'm in cat a lot more. One of us will open with a ravage/ambush the other will then get their ravage/ambush in. Whoever sees a back will get to shred/backstab the other claws/sinister strikes. Then we both try to hit a finisher before the mob is dead. Of course with crits we sometimes don't even see the backstab stage of things. There is no need to heal at all for many many fights. Without my feral minor I would never have a chance to take aggro from Treesh in cat form so she wouldn't get as many backstabs in. Tanking and holding elites is a lot easier as a bear. It takes 20 energy to feint, which isn't much but if the rogue doesn't have to that means a quicker backstab or sinister strike to do more damage. Cheaper mauls help with that a lot.

Anyway, that was more detail than I intended but just something that I wanted to point out. Taranna is so fun with Eth because I get to do everything a druid can do. Sometimes I keep my caster gear on and shift into cat or bear so we can keep going while I get mana back but we are in an area that really needs Treesh to play pseudo tank or me to use roots and hibernates to control the mobs, or just a place where I'll have to pop out to heal myself as a bear a lot (and the rogue stuns make this safer). Much of the time I'm in my feral gear because my healing is way better than what we need. :)