If you solo as a scout type and dual wield, try using a shield instead. Yes, your damage output goes down, but the extra defense might make up for it. My scout *can* take on some things w/ a shield that he can't dual wielding.
Also try poison. There is a poison shop in ... I wanna say S Qeynos. Scholar Alchies (player artisans) can make poison, too, but so far I've only found one to work (caustic something).
Btw you "equip" poison to use it - then "use" it to get a buff cast on you - it lasts a long time. Only for scout classes, and only over lvl 10 I think.
Yes, priests are killer soloers because they can nuke/HO away and toss in the odd heal when needed.
My little mage, who I have not played in a while, could solo some things very well ... then have root fail one time too many and get something on him and die really, really fast. Root-dotting and root-bombing are viable tactics for mages - er, some mage classes and levels. Again, I haven't played this one up high enough to know very well (root-dotting - use the chain spell to open the fight, then use static (the Damage over Time spell - which is much less likely to break root than a nuke - do not DD or nuke - just reapply chains and dot as needed - then nuke at the end to speed things up - u can kill dangerous mobs this way ------ root-bombing = open with root and nuke until root breaks - reRoot and back out of melee range (if u back off too far u will lose exp and loot on hte mob - careful) - resume nuking - rinse and repeat til dead.
Tanks have a harder time soloing but can solo evens, like other posters say. They just take too much of a beating to do better in most cases. Pals, because of wards (damage absorber) can possibly tank better than others.
Upgrade your armor, weapons and spells/abilities to solo tuffer stuff. It makes a huge difference.
Soloing is not a lot of fun in eq2. There is almost no variety to it - almost no challenge. There is almost no "gray zone" - where maybe I can or maybe I can't kill it - you can't vary your tactics enough to make it a challenge to figure out how to take down a tough red. Boo Sony! Heh. My scout is the most "busy" when soloing - mostly because he tries to mix HOing w/ a stun (which opens the wheel) and at that point getting on the critter's flank to get off another attack - then finish the wheel. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. My druid is a powerful soloer, but it's (pre fight - fresh sow, nettleshield) - pull w/ DoT, do HO starter, Smite to get wheel, Chill to finish HO. Over and over - oh, heal myself once maybe - then .... bleh. zzzzzzzzzzzz boring. Sony was a buncha ... why do they insis on "forcing us to play the game a certain way?" I sometimes am in the mood to group - but not always. Sometimes I just wanna be alone in their world. But noooooooo ... well, there is still a chance they may fix this. I don't see how, but disconent on this issue is mounting fast. Soon Sony will wake up to their errors, esp. if there is a mass exodus to WoW. Hint to Sony - go back to making the damn game FUN - and not so tightly controlled!