SoloingFollow

Necro - only choice. No other answer.

Actually any pet class can solo pretty well ....as can a druid in kiting .;)


Lorneye Stormborn of Prexus

Actually from 1 to 75, though I 'gimped' my Cleric from 71 to 75 with my Bard pulling 99% of the weight.

exactly

I would like to say that all classes can solo to lvl 50...

now at the lvl 50+ is when the game does it's real 1st break in classes...

that is when each class's weakness and str come to light.. the 1st time... the classes break 2 or 3 times in the game and then come back together somewhat later on...

please note I have played EQ for almost 5 years now... and I have 1 of every class to at least lvl 65.. this means nothing really... i dont know everything not saying that.. i'm just saying this from my own exp

here are the playing styles of each class...

if you like to Blow crap up.. with one or 2 really big nukes.. then your a mage.. mages can solo.. and are pretty good at it... but they are more of a group toon to Bring the Final blow to any more.. pet is really good when buffed and can hold his own against any mob that is with is reasonable close to the same lvl... the only real str of a mage is his pet... with out his pet a mage cant do anything.. really the pet is a large part of the class.,.. it is the mage;s greatest str and his greatest weakness.. mages kill things with nukes 1 or 2 BIG KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMS

if you are more of the solo type player.. you are a necro... necro I think..i know.. are one of the most powerful classes in the game... they lvl really fast. can can split almost any mob and are really good farmers.. and unlike the mage,. the necro pet is no more than a long term mutli mob dot... a speed bump if you will... but at higher lvls the necro pet can out tank or tie mage pets.. I have seen it done.. and for those of you that done think so.. find a lvl 75 mage.. and a lvl 75 necro.. no pet toys.. no buffs let them go at it.. the necro let wins about 60% of the time. anyway... when things go bad.. the necro has this great ability called... FD.. that no other solo class gets. this is what i think breaks the necro away from all others.. and makes it the best solo class imo only...necros kill things with what is called ( root rot ) you root pull the mob away from spawn point root him and dot him and sit and watch... or they snare and run away dot and kit.....necros can solo mobs that are 10 + lvls above them as long as they are snareable.. necros = very very very very high DPS imo the necro dps is the highest in game... BAR NONE

and yes mage's and wiz I mean more so than you... in a raid.. do a parse.. necros will be at the top of the list. if not on top of the list.. the longer the fight the more DPS a necro does.. mages and wiz dps = to the amount of mana they have.. as I said 2 or 3 good nukes and wait for mana..

beast... well.. I have one lvl 64... he is but all that great at soloing lvl 65 to 70 lvl mobs.. bst biggist str is the pet.. the pet makes up for alot on bst.. bst pets proc a stun that helps keep hate off the beast lord while he slows and heals his pet or handles whatever else came with his pull... the thing about bst is they have some really nice buffs and they can Slow most mobs so they can handle them.. they can heal ... and they are very good dps

at very high ends monks can solo... I have a monk with 11k hp.. and he can solo.. alittle, depends on the zone and the mobs...i dont think monks should be thought of as solo'rs

shammys... shammys are really good solo'ers as well.. depends on gear.. the lower lvl cannie spells suck imo so again this is a class heave dependant on mana.. they have the BEST slows in game and can dot the hell out of mobs.. heal and have a pet...to help keep mob off the player.. pull with slow.. send pet root dot get away... shammys shine more so in groups IMO

chantys... chantys can solo as well... I do alot of charm xping with my chanter, with a GOOD charmed pet a chanter can pretty much own a zone..but again this is a class like the mage without a pet they are dead as a door nail..chanters IMO are better in the group settings

SK.. these are necro/ tanks want to be's.. and to about lvl 54 they solo really really well... snare fear tanking for sk's and they can get xp while LFG.. the biggest problem with SK's is they are a plate classes that never really will have more than 1900 AC without raid lvl gear.. which sucks. my lvl 66 sk has spell mission gear / POF gear and god gear.. he is alittle over 10k hp.. and 1900 ac.. he can tank in wos as long as the mobs is slowed and the healer is on point... the great thing about SK's is they can give or take hate at any time they want, now if your a raiding SK... you will be the best dang tank in the game... as long as your not head to head with raid lvl mobs say in COA or such... but you will lead the way.. 90% of the mobs are going to be on you like hair on a bear... but its ok.. your ac will be 3k+ you will be the man.. sk after the midlvl game are group toons mostly...

this pretty much covers it...

mostly as in all classes in EQ it really depends on your playing style and what you plan on doing later in the game...

the true solo'ers are .. mages / Necros / chanters to a point..

this doesnt mean that others cant... just means the others are not as good as the above are

Edited, Nov 13th 2006 at 6:14am PST by bruur

You neglected to mention the Druid

I will have to agree with almost every post here you can Solo with just about every class but need to find one that fits you and your playing style....Me i am a wizard at heart and have gone solo for almost the entire 7 years i have played. Quad kiting is a Great thing for me and keeps me on my toes but as with any class you play you need to get a feel for the soloing when you are a noob and with each lvl you go up you will get new spells and or Wepons to help change your Stratagy up a lil bit. So play a few of the classes that you feel comfortable with and see which on you like the most and go from there

I must agree with Draavin.. my ranger's been soloed all his life. Buidhe is currently 71 with only 143 AAs, but soloing well in The Steppes/Iceclad and exploring pretty much wherever he wants to. (I'm a retiree from two previous guilds and currently an officer in Prophetic Alliance FV.. I group too.)

I've always found it funny that most threads like this begin with no mention of rangers; our existance doesn't occur to non-rangers.. since we're probably not the best at ANY ONE THING, we just don't come to mind.

Rangers do, however, get asked into groups, you bet we do. Whether for DPS, CC, scouting, pulling, kiting, tracking, off-tanking, healing (you'd be surprised) or saving the casters' lives when the tank falls, rangers fill the bilet.

No, we don't have a mystical, magical pet... but we do have very good snares and roots, our DoTs are satisfactory, our DDs deliver good damage, with Innate Camouflage we're awfully hard to detect most places, and we're pretty much self-healing.

Ask yourself just who it is you know who soloes without a pet.

Whereas several other classes can solo well in particular places and under the right circumstances, my vote for the absolute, hands-down best soloist over all of Norrath goes to the very versatile and oft overlooked ranger.

Necromancer.

There is no need to attach "if you know what you are doing", "especially in X situation" to this answer.

Any, and i mean any class can solo with good gear, if you dont have good gear, go with any class that has pets and crowd control.

It also depends on what you are wanting to solo and to what end. Each class has its strengths and weaknesses. The only toons I've soloed with extensively and my experiences with them:

Ranger: My ranger didn't have too much trouble soloing a lot of things, but he had a considerable amount of trouble with summoning named mobs. Gear also had a HUGE effect on his ability to solo. Anything that would require a long time to solo would be much more difficult if it were in an indoor zone (meaning Sow might wear off). For simple AA grinding though... very good return. High melee DPS meaning minimal downtime, plus very nice archery bonuses (double damage on targets standing still, bow crits, etc).

Necro: My necro has been able to solo things at an amazing pace, especially since the medding revamp. She also can solo summoning named mobs on occasion, assuming they don't hit too rediculously hard (a la the TSS named). She can solo for regular experience with almost as good a return as with a group and AA experience with better return then with most groups.

Bard: My bard has soloed some pretty cool things. If the mob can be mezzed and doesn't have a DT, it can probably be soloed by a bard. My bard soloed Nezekezena and Phinny for his 1.0 when he was level 56ish (and no, he wasn't twinked all out). He soloed Grimror Plaguebringer (named ogre mob near the entrance to PoD, level 60) when he was still level 53 or so. Of course he doesn't summon and he's pure melee, but he hits hard as hell and you're guaranteed a ton of rat adds. Bards can solo at a scary pace in the 30-60 range with swarm kiting, but after that... it drops to a crawls pace, wether it be regular experience or AA. You can still do it, it just takes a LOT longer.

It takes skill to solo with any class. Effectiveness as a solo class is usually very subjective or very gear dependent. In general, the most effective soloers are those that never need to get hit (bards, necros, druids, wizards, etc). You also have to be able to put out enough damage to kill your target. If you constantly run out of mana or don't have the patience to chant kite a mob as a bard, then it's all a moot point.

I am often amused by the diffrent test folks come up with, that they believe prove this or that. To me which pet or class is stronger is less important than which class you like to play. But if you want to compair pets or classes, then you should do it in a way that best reflects the actual strength of what is being compaired. What best reflects the actual strengths is dependent on how you play the game. Since we are talking about soloing I would suggest that each pet be set up to its strongest with only what their owner can provide.

So the mage pet should get pet toys and mage buffs, the necro pet no toys but necro buffs. This is because to me soloing is done by logging in where i want to solo and playing for about a hour. No time to run around PoK looking for buffs and so on.

So to me a shaman pet is weeker than a mage pet, but then a shaman pet for the most part fights mobs that have been slowed. So it doesn't need to be as strong, also its owner can tank more than a mage can, so again it doesn't need to be as strong, furthermore it's owner has better buffs. I think this has a lot to do with why some say the BL is over powered their pet is one of the strongest in the game, and the BL has some of the best buffs, debuffs and spells for soloing, and some ability to tank as well.