Skars

At this point I think I will stick with the Pally/Dirge/Templar trio we are working with.

I am a bit concerned about the slow casting of the heals, but I am sure I/we will be able to get it down. The DPS is not very good either, but I am sure with levels/gear/aa that will become less of an issue.

Thanks again all. I appreciate your input.

Oizen

My old trio... /reminisce...

As far as the heals issue goes, stack your solo and group reactives prior to the pull and macro your ward with your pull tool and you will probably only need to cast one extra set through most encounters as you start to get your rhythm. I found that I ran the dirge as lead toon a lot as the tank was generally easier to box if I was in a good xp grind and wanted to get my mobs dead asap but, completely prefer to play the Paladin when I had to choose just one toon to play as main.

Better DPS will actually come with practice as you learn how to play all of your hotbars and macro debuffs and reactives to minimize any unasskicking related button mashing.

This trio will become a nice little cannonball machine as you get the hang of it.

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As a side thought just for fun....

If you don't mind a poor mortality rate on your DPS until t5...
Pally/Wiz/Wiz/+++Wiz
...real easy high-risk high-paced boxing. The higher quality you get your nukes the less self warding/healing you'll have to do. I actually used to role with a tandem of Wizards and ground out a tier worth of dings at a ridiculously fast pace almost exclusively in SoS with these two. It can be a lot of fun in higher tiers for sure. Not sure how much fun it is in lower tiers but farmers seem to like this set up too.

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Oizen

Oh and after you get a couple dozen AAs life will get a whole lot smoother for all your toons. Last quick spoiler then have fun: fill out the aa melee crits under the STA aa line for your templar asap after level 10. Your Templar heals just fine without aa help but can actually do a nice helping of autoattack damage with the right aa spec and high delay massive damage spread twohanded skull crusher... a commonality with your Paladin actually.

Skars

Right on.

I figured that I would do what I can with gear and aa to maximize melee dps first on the Templar and Dirge since that is what the Templar and Dirge buffs help most.

The real point of the boxing and having my friends help level them is to get to a point I can raid with at least one of them. I thought about going with DPS classes, then realized that on Venekor everyone rolls a DPS class. Many on the Q side seem to play a Ranger, Swash, Sorc, or Druid. I do not see many Bards, Clerics, or Tanks on the Q side. I figured I may have a better shot of a raid spot this way. . . I hope so anyway.

Jamesray

I've had the opportunity to work with a pal, warl,fury,mystic,dirge,conj,bruiser...

My favorite combo is Pally Warlock Fury
Warlock's propagations adds up to 4% to your procs...which is very useful when you've got a lot of proc items such as the OOB healing ring, dreadscale greaves, BP of deflection, etc.

Fury's int buff is great for the entire party and you have the most flexibility in terms of transportation with ports or punts in conjunction with the warlock. The fast healing works well with the pally's wards and the warlocks casting skill buffs benefit the entire party. The pally's healing bonus benefits the fury as well, and if you decide to go the wis line the regen cap increase works great, and the fearless line can increase the base dmg and healing of the entire group. Between the three there is incredible potential for AE damage.

Overall very strong synergy. While the bard would be a nice bonus...I think the loss in DPS wouldn't be a worthwhile tradeoff.

Oizen

Good stuff there Jame. Sounds like a great trio. That was similar to my reasoning behind the Wiz/Fury combo. Between the Fury and Paladin the AoE front would be nice and rocked. I figured Wiz would bring more bang for named farming and has some nice temp buffs but, Warlock certainly does have a few other strengths. Lack of power regen and the other lil things is the only thing that lowered this combo on my list...

...and after giving it some thought, if I had it to do all over again, I think I would have really been happy with Dirge/Fury. I could balance DPS a it better for spells and be less reliant on melee.

Oizen

Good stuff there Jame. Sounds like a great trio. That was similar to my reasoning behind the Wiz/Fury combo. Between the Fury and Paladin the AoE front would be nice and rocked. I figured Wiz would bring more bang for named farming and has some nice temp buffs but, Warlock certainly does have a few other strengths. Lack of power regen and the other lil things is the only thing that lowered this combo on my list...

...and after giving it some thought, if I had it to do all over again, I think I would have really been happy with Dirge/Fury. I could balance DPS a it better for spells and be less reliant on melee. My trio was a in-your-face sort of thing but autofollow sometimes wouldn't get my boxed toons in the correct range for melee and I'd always have to wiggle mobs around. Strong autoattack does make for easier boxing a bunch of hotbars though.