Solo class debateFollow

Um and?

Any class CAN solo, but some some classes its prohibitively slow to do so.

BTW - remember that druids can charm solo. A charmed mob in e.g. Vxed has damn good DPS. Druid charm won't last as long as chanter charm due to lack of debuff and AA, BUT druids have snare which adds a considerable safety factor.

Ash

I'd like to see a rog or warrior or zerker solo past 40 =p

good eve, peoples,

Oki, my take on the great 'Solo Class debate'... I have seen many say this and say that about such-and-such class.... giving reasons behind it, and honstly, virtually every class can solo... they would have to, jut to get around.

Now, to solo certain mobs, yes, some classes are better than others. Say casters, a Wizard, Mage, Druid, Beastlord, Shaman, or Enchanter would more than likely do better in *some* cases than say a Warrior, Berserker, Monk, or Rogue.

I personally like those classes that are well rounded. IE, able to slow, cast, snare, send in a pet, heal, DoT, and DD. To my mind the best solo classes are (not in particular order mind you), Necromancers, Druids, Beastlords, Bards, and Shaman.

Just my thoughts.

Good Hunting.

I've soloed as a chanter pretty much my entire life also a fair bit of duos and trios with close friends but mostly solo. Once I had charm down and stun timing, With a speed buff I can pretty much try anything. Summoners, mobs immune to run speed changes, immune to root, immune to mez, immune to slow it's no matter it all can be done. As long as your prepared for death and a lot of them while your learning new strats for mobs.

You just have to charm so much that's it's a natural extension of your abilites. Now I just need to start practicing chaining pets when fighting a mob that'll eat through the first one and try to live through the beat down when charming a new mob. This will be gear depentent and need the right aas again of course. Always fear your pet more then the mob your fighting. I can charm with little to no down time all night and day, but that has been because of the right foci gear and choices I made in aas. I've purposely turned my toon into a soloing machine.

Though like what was said before any class can solo you just have to use what you have to the best of your abilities.

I think EVERYONE should push the limits of their character and solo (or try to). You will get a real feel for what you are lacking, and have better ideas for group strategy when you do group. You will also get a better idea of what you CAN do by yourself so you feel more comfortable handling certain things in the group and not expect or complain about what others may be doing.

True to a point. I know what you're getting at, but I'm going to play a bit of devils advocate anyway... ;)

While the specifics of a zone (mob density, type of mobs, mob behavior, zone geometry, etc) can affect to some degree the effectiveness of any particular class's ability to solo, there most definately is a huge gap between classes that can solo "well" and those that can't. Soloing "well" is defined by me as the ability to gain exp within a reasonable range of what you'd get in a group in an average zone (since you don't always get to pick and choose only the "best" camps in the "best" zones).

The reason this is significant (and the zone particulars generally are not), is that because someone is soloing, that person *alone* gets to choose where he's going to hunt. A soloer may always choose to hunt in the "best" location for his class and level (or choose from a list of "best" spots at the very least). Groups do not always have that choice. If you get an invite to a group, you may choose to accept or not, you often don't have a lot of say about where the group goes. If you want to lead a group to a particular place, you have to get X number of other people to all agree to go wherever you want to take them.

So when comparing soloing classes, you realy *can* compare the "best case" soloing (to a point). After all, if you are a wizard and your best rate of exp gain is by quadding, why on earth would you be hunting in a zone that's difficult to quad in? You'll find the "best" mobs in the "best" part of the "best" zone for quadding, and that's where you'll solo. Same with folks that charm mobs. They'll find the zone with the ideal charmable mobs that also contains really good exp/loot yielding mobs, and that's where they'll hunt.


Having said that though, there really are some classes that fall so far below what anyone would call solong "well", that there's really no comparison. We can talk about how necros are really good at soloing in X zone against Y mobs, and BLs are great against some other mobs, and Shamans against yet another, and bards in another, but when we talk about classes like rogues, monks, warriors, SKs, and paladins, they are sooo far behind the others that it's not even funny.


So, you may very well be correct that it's hard to figure out the "best" soloer, but we most certainly can come up with a group of classes that are at or near that "best" range, and another group that are at or near the "worst" range.

I personally know a paladin that soloed most of her xp and got to 65 (which was her max). I imagine it was VERY difficult to do and took a lot of time, but she did it. She didn't buy pp, although she did have relatives playing who probably gave her some items. Paladin soloing might need to be done near a zoneline though.

As for wizard soloing, yes it can be done if you love your class and learn it well. I can solo dark blues at 52 and I knew a 65 wizard who could solo. I bet Elorian is rather good at it. So far the worst soloing time for a wizard is before you get snare at 29 and in the 40s before you get Paralyzing Earth, when the old root doesn't hold often. Soloing for a wizard or druid though seems to be a risky thing built on the idea that we have good escape abilities because we need them sometimes. Then again, that's why Necros & Monks have FD.
And yes, Sianu has jboots for sow and would be in trouble without them. Which makes it a case of gearing your character rather than their innate abilities... Lol

I would never claim that Wizards are the best soloers. We can quite satisfyingly kill fast, often faster than the mob is killing us, one of our strengths. As my bf plays a 59 druid, I know that dots 'root & rot' are slower but far less likely to break root. A wizard would doubtless find this boring. My argument is the oft-repeated one: find a character you love. Eventually, you can do almost anything. And whether you can, or you can't, Sony will have changed it by the time you get them to level 65-70...

Excellent posts by both Gbaji and Dot.

As a 52 paladin, I can attest - our ability to solo undead is highly touted, but widely over-estimated. I would say that past level 50, whether I can solo *at all* in a given camp is far more of a factor then whether there are undead there. Up to level 50, yes, we can solo undead VERY effectively. I stayed at Gunthak long after most leave, because the rate of killing was so fast.

However, I strongly agree with what Dot said. Every class should solo. Whenever I go somewhere with a group, I will always come back solo, if only to confirm that I'll get my butt kicked. The skills that one learns by soloing augment the skills one learns from grouping. Especially for paladins, as we are so often called upon to off tank. It makes a difference when one knows exactly how long he can survive in a situation where he is basically expected to "solo" while still in a group. Plus, soloing really helps me train up all my melee skills.

Paladin is a great class, but seriously, it shouldn't even be considered in a discussion of the best solo classes. I don't think we're the worst, but we're pretty far down the list.

Edited to maintain subject verb agreement - doh.



Edited, Sat Apr 23 13:09:09 2005 by BellamDreamguard

pffft necros just like thinking they are more than a battery for slacker clerics >_>

Well first who cares. Second, why play a MMO, to solo?...Isn't the point of online games, to play with other people? That's what I thought anyways.

Ignoring the more provacative parts of his post, I do think his point is valid... of course, anyone who wants to solo, more power to them! They're paying for their account and how they use it is entirely up to them.

However, I personally have never enjoyed soloing (I play a Bst so I could solo if I wanted to). To me, if I were going to solo I'd play a single player game and save myself $13 a month. It's the social aspect of EQ that most appeals to me. Achievements garnered in-game are all the more sweet when shared with a group of friends. I love it when my groupmates are saying "grats" before I even finish typing "ding". ;)

Add to that the fact the I can explore areas, kill mobs, and obtain loot in a group that I could never think about doing solo, and about the only time you ever find me killing stuff alone is when I'm farming my tradeskill items.

As for my thoughts on the OP's question... I think Kajolus is absolutely correct in mentioned criteria. Certain classes definitely solo much better than others, but the "best" solo class changes from scenario to scenario...