Duo: who should a barbarian bring along?

[Victor_1]

I also vote for bard, melee capable, trap capable(if you build for it), can use song, displacement, and haste makes bard strong buddy of barb.

Check out Diva's guide for reference.
You should be able to find build which suits you well

Also as others already noted, you and your friend can always get hireling to take care of healing.
It takes sometime to keep them alive, but once you get used to it, they could be useful than player controlled cleric/FvS.

[elujin]

Depends on your skills as a player.

Clr/Fvs may be "easier" as you can just rely on your sp pool and take it slow..

But bards are always faster as they greatly increase damage delt, while greatly reducing whats taken with displacement.

Sure a bard at the low lvl may not have much burst healing, but even the rather cheap CSW wands youll find in house p are more then enough healing lvl1-15.. After which you should have plenty of UMD for heal scrolls.

And if your barb friend is at all skilled enough to move around a bit during combat to wait for some heals, youll be fine.

And make your bard a warchanter. It doesn't make any sense to be a spellsinger when you have no one else in the party who can cast spells to benefit off your spell songs. The minor increase to sp won't have any real impact, while the major increase to damage output and defense of a warchanter will.

I'd personally always pick a bard over a clr/fvs. Hell these days i'd take a good arcane over one since I can self heal well enough.. But it all depends on how well your barb can do to avoid damage and stay alive with a bit slower healing.

i am reluctend to challenge who has been around as long as you but in a short man party a virt will be better + 2 dmg for 2 people isn't the same benifit as +2 for a whole raid. while virt cc songs and healing song will help out more in normal questing

[Anthios888]

My vote would be

1. Pure warchanter h-orc bard with some healing spec and two handed proficiency
2. H-orc or h-elf 18 barbarian/2 rogue, either 2hf or 2wf

Ah the memories =)

Good to level up, and better yet at endgame.

The faster you kill them, the less damage they do.

Scrolls and spot heals cover anything you could want if you are religious about haste, gh, displace, and stoneskin.

[Anthios888]

i am reluctend to challenge who has been around as long as you but in a short man party a virt will be better + 2 dmg for 2 people isn't the same benifit as +2 for a whole raid. while virt cc songs and healing song will help out more in normal questing

I think the sad fact of DDO is that if you've got dungeon scaling, there are few encounters a good bard and barbarian could not clear in the time that it takes a fascinate to go off =)

[elujin]

I think the sad fact of DDO is that if you've got dungeon scaling, there are few encounters a good bard and barbarian could not clear in the time that it takes a fascinate to go off =)

the dance song is almost instand

[sephiroth1084]

i am reluctend to challenge who has been around as long as you

Never be reluctant to challenge anyone. At worst, you challenge someone with more (accurate) knowledge/experience and they are forced to explain in greater detail or provide examples, which benefits you and everyone else more, and maybe you end up looking silly.

At best, the person challenged discovers that they were mistaken about something and they learned from the experience.

I pride myself on having pretty good knowledge of DDO, and in providing useful and helpful information to people, but I'm more than happy to be challenged, sometimes I'm wrong. I have been, and I make an effort to acknowledge when I've been proven incorrect on something.

Those people who refuse to make that acknowledgment, or who feel that their knowledge is unassailable are doing themselves and everyone else a disservice. I say, "Fire away!" but do so in a constructive and intelligent manner.

In this case you did just that, so +1 to you.

[JollySwagMan]

Whether Bard or Cleric, have you considered going Halfling for your support toon? The Heroic Companion buff (5 1 minute uses per rest) really shines in a duo scenario

http://ddowiki.com/page/Halfling_Hero%27s_Companion

[Daunth]

Thanks everyone, things are quite clearer now.

I'll try a spellsinger, to have more mana to heal and a higher DC on CC spells. Virtuoso seems nice as well, but looks more CC focused while I must be heavy on heals (I don't know how sustainable song works anyway). Also consider that it's a 1st life toon with no equip, so raising the blue bar without spellsinger isn't that easy.
I don't think warchanter would be a good idea, because since I already have to spend points in Int to keep the disable and search skills capped, I can't put enough points both in charisma for mana and in strenght for melee. So I prefer to focus on casting, raising charisma, intellingence and constitution. Moreover, the ironskin chant doesn't stack with the barbarian DR, both inherent and boost, so it would be a waste

[Mr.Tripod]

My friend and I have been 2-manning many quests together up to lvl 18. He's a rogue assasin with UMD. He hits me with recon scrolls and we always bring 2 healers. I get aggro, and he assasinates 'em. Works well up to a point.

[Gnorbert]

Dragonmarked Halfling Wizard.

Do it.