The only effective combo I have found with more than 1 DDO character in active combat is the following 4 man party (6 man with hirelings at level 18+):
2 warforged Artificers with pets (these are simultaneously active).
1 warforged Wizard Buffer/Crowd Controller/Charmer;
1 warforged Favored Soul Buffer/Rezzer;
2 hireling panthers (figurine fighters available at level 18+)...
Note that I chose an all Warforged party as now every character is a self healer as both Artificers & wizards can cast the arcane repair & reconstruct spells on warforged & the pets & the Favored Soul can cast Heals...
At the beginning of the quest I apply all the divine, arcane, & artificer buffs to the Artificers & their pets (with extend on for QoL).
Both pets are tank speced with Intimidate;
In general I control just the 2 Warforged Artificers at the same time via toggle broadcast of mouse/keys and via programmed keys with their pets. I run artificer 1 up right behind artificer 2 and when they are essentially right on top of each other facing the same way I then toggle on broadcast and they do essentially the same thing (with a little lag on turns). I have Artificer 2 assist Artificer 1 and they both mow down targets well. It used to be that ranged classes were totally subpar but now with Artificers they are OK.
As I come across general mobs I target the first MOB and sent the pets in (artificer & panther) & all go for the same MOB via assist. In general I keep my pets on active so they will engage anyway if I am close enough and as the first mob goes down they will auto-aquire the next MOB immediately. That being said I am continually over-riding the auto-aquire by telling Arti 2 to assist Arti1's target and both tell both (all 4 of their pets) to attack Artie 1's target (semi-effective focus fire).
If I have time to setup a fight (or know a big fight is coming) I run up the wizard and rage/haste/stoneskin/etc my duo Artificers/pets. Having haste on helps with running the Wiz separately from the Arties. I also use the wizard to disco-ball/charm/dominate/web & after the fight I use the wizard to reapply buffs & heal via reconstruct... Ideally tough fights are opened up with a disco-ball (start casting on Wizard) and then while it is casting I switch over & I send the pets in.
If things go bad & I wipe I run up the Favored Soul to grab the stones and rez the party...
So far things are going much smoother than before I could assist...
More details in my original post:
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=2542I am curious if anyone has been able to come up with a better party composition or strategy... This is the best I have come up with thus far to hopefully result in at least 4 active characters (2 artificers & 2 hireling panthers) + 2 decent pets at a time with all the buffs & some spam of tab targeted wizard disco-ball/web/hypno/charm/dominate as needed (and a rezzer as backup)...
The only downside is that you only have 4 loots of the chests with this method but you can park 2 other characters outside and dismiss the panthers and invite the other 2 in before opening the chests if you want 6 chances at a particular chest drop/loot....