Considering returning...Follow

It's been said before and I'll say it again - Shadowknight + Inquisitor can duo the game. It's almost unfair, honestly.

SK + Defiler is really fun too, if not as efficient.

Thanks for the tip on SK/Inquisitor. I've been doing some research, and SK definitely sounds like fun. I was considering a Necro, but I think I'd prefer to do the fighting, rather than a pet.

What about a Fury instead of Inquisitor? That'd give me some extra utility (ports, invis, etc), can it keep up healing an SK?

As for the 1000pp..I assume my original characters are still there. I'd like to avoid dumping the money on my new characters - takes the fun out of things...though I can see popping for backpacks right off the bat, and an occassional spell/skill upgrade. ;)

Yep, using two computers and two accounts, and playing both characters at the same time in the same group. :)

Inquisitors tend to work well with an SK for a few reasons. Primarily they are the healer most conducive to the SK being able to maintain proper hate generation. SK's build hate through taunts and attacks and spells like everyone else, but in addition they also generate a lot of hate by being hit. They have buffs that cause damage to an enemy and auto-taunt whenever that enemy hits them. Many healers use wards and preventative spells which prevent the hits outright, making it a little more difficult for the SK to maintain aggro. Inquisitors, on the other hand, don't prevent hits/damage, but rather use direct heals to restore lost health or apply buffs that cause instant heals when the tank is hit by an enemy. This compliments the SK tank methodology very effectively. Additionally, Inquisitors can debuff all resistances of an enemy which helps the damage of the SK out, further allowing for solid hate and quicker kills (a lot of SK damage is spell-based).

Another school of thought for a complimentary SK healer is the Defiler. I personally run a defiler alt and can tell you that they are quite fun when they get rolling. They do have some direct heals and their Maelstrom line is crazy good in the right situations. Unfortunately defilers are a preventative healer. They use a lot of wards to prevent hits in the first place which, while fine for most tanks, can sometimes be an issue with an SK if the SK is being run by a bad player. They also use slows to decrease the speed with which the enemy attacks, further lowering the potential for the SK to get hit. That said, you can possibly kill faster/more efficiently in this group because the SK actually compliments the defiler from a combat standpoint quite well. The defiler is very big on poison and disease-based spells and has a huge array of damage-over-time spells and damage spells to that effect. The SK's big primary taunt is also a huge disease debuffer against the enemy which makes the damage potential of the defiler greater.

As for a fury, I'll be honest here and tell you that I don't have a ton of experience playing one, so everything I will say here is from grouping with them or from second-hand knowledge. Furies are good. They probably have the highest damage potential of any other priest out the gate (At the high end of the game I'd say they are second to a battle-specc'd Inquisitor). They use direct heals and heals-over-time which is good for an SK, and they also have damage shields which cause pain to the enemy whenever they strike you. That's all well and good, but the direct synergies between an fury and an SK end there. That's not to say that a fury isn't a great choice to duo with. You can't really go wrong with out choice to be quite honest. The SK is probably the most complete soloer from the fighter archetype in the game, so any healer you choose can only enhance that efficiency. Just know that an SK/Fury combo will probably feel more like you are playing two separate, independent combatants engaging the same enemy whereas an SK/Inq or SK/Def will feel more like a single cohesive unit because of the interaction and wide array of complimentary abilities shared between those classes.

What it really comes down to is your style and your comfort level. More important than any sort of min/max number-crunching "best" duo is picking a pair that you think you'll have the most fun with. Check out their descriptions. Do a little reading and see which you seem to have an affinity for and roll with it.

If you have any questions let me know.

actually, you could take any Evil race except for Sarnak (dark elf, arasai, troll, ogre, or ratonga) and start them in Neriak. just an FYI.