Changed any for the better (as in solo stuff mainly)Follow

Can a person actually start at lvl one and make it to max (or near max) soloing? I think the last time I played the game was during the expansion with the dragon humans or something like that. Currently a WOW player and want to take a break from it and maybe see Norrath again.

I still have a 65 warrior on there but honestly I would rather just start a new toon (thinking either shaman or Beastlord from sratch of course twink with what little I left on the account.

There are some classes that solo a lot better than others. Necromancer, for example, has always soloed really well.

Beastlords do as well.

As Whitman notes, the introduction of mercs (an NPC that you hire to fight along side you or heal you) have made typically non-solo classes (like your warrior) much easier to play solo.

This one's easy. You don't want to be saddled with other people's issues. Someone else's ornery/colic baby needing constant attention shouldn't have an impact on your playtime (via constant afks). A person who has 30 mins to play but doesn't tell you that until you get deep into a zone 20 mins later, isn't something you have to deal with typically, if you have 3 hours to play. People who refuse to group with certain classes because "that class sucks!" isn't something a soloer has to deal with.

Bottom line, if you want other people around (to profit from via bazaar or to group with on your terms), soloing in online games is ideal. Can't do that in Fallout 3.

Mercs are really useful for soloing (though the tank merc begins to suck post-70, due in large part to the gear/discs available to 71+ tanks). The cleric merc is useful all the way to the cap. You could solo to 85 plus 1k or more AA with the cleric merc (it's been done).

Well its not that I really want to solo 100% of the time. However, at least before, you often times would sit in Plane of Knowledge for hours begging for a group and being able to do nothing except maybe kill greens for old school faction.

So with these Mercs what type of investment do they require to use? I mean are they affordable or just an expensive plat sink for the rich and wealthy?

Mercs are no where near that expensive and are a godsend..... up to level 10 they are free to use.. after that they cost an upfront cost to get.. (EX: my level 65 merc was 1300plat... and up keep now that I am 70 is roughly 35plat every 15minutes that he is active... ).. and this is for him to be active.. if you place the merc in passive mode (highly suggest) when not using.. it will charge once.. then waive the fee from then on... I suggest using this method because you can not unsuspend a merc while aggro'ed... you can however change him from passive to figthing/healing mode during a battle.. and many players will tell you they have died by forgetting to unsupend... Plat is so easy to get anymore that its not hard to keep a merc.... most dungeons above 50 in 15minutes will have creatures drop enough finesteel and plat to pay for the merc in a couple kills, which makes using the smart way to go...