Solo comparison

[MikeXG]

I was having a discussion about this with a few friends and wanted the p99 community's input.

Of the following which is best at soloing to level, soloing to farm, soloing to gear, and soloing those big named targets.

Ranger
SK
Monk

[MikeXG]

Monk, MOnk, MONk, and MONK.

Thank you. And just out of curiosity what would you place at 2 and 3?

[oqrelord]

If I could choose one of those classes fully decked out, I would choose Ranger. Their upward mobility in gear is a lot more unique then just AC/wep ratio.

They get all the fun utilities and can self haste to 91%. They can track to farm any green mobs. They get great run speed. They get a decent slow proc. They get an extra port to faydwer. They get the BFG synergy.

When it comes to soloing big names... any of these classes could do it with enough pots and puppet strings. You might as well be a shm or ench to do that...

For the day to day stuff though, Fully decked Ranger just seems a lot more useful and fun to play.

[MikeXG]

If I could choose one of those classes fully decked out, I would choose Ranger. Their upward mobility in gear is a lot more unique then just AC/wep ratio.

They get all the fun utilities and can self haste to 91%. They can track to farm any green mobs. They get great run speed. They get a decent slow proc. They get an extra port to faydwer. They get the BFG synergy.

When it comes to soloing big names... any of these classes could do it with enough pots and puppet strings. You might as well be a shm or ench to do that...

For the day to day stuff though, Fully decked Ranger just seems a lot more useful and fun to play.

Love your points. I really enjoy the ranger class, despite them "not being great" compared to other classes. They are a fun class that really gives the sense of adventure to the player. I also think that with certain conditions and gear, ranger can bow kite/rot anything given enough time. Not fun or interesting but, might give them an edge in the big name department.

[lctucker2999]

I've enjoyed soloing my SK up to 51 so far but it's been very slow going (mainly because rate of xp is the last thing I care about). I've managed to save up enough to buy a fungi, blood ember BP, and probably a few thousand plat worth of other gear. I've enjoyed the survivability and utility of the class but you've really got to not care about the rate of progression.

I would think a monk, with their ability to do tremendously more dps than a SK would do much better, especially if given fungi+haste+appx 1:1 ratio weapon from the start.

[Erati]

if you wanna farm gear none of those will do it alone

Enchanter so you can pimp out your alts camping and soloing entire game all in EC gear for less than 5k

A monk can solo most named camps in classic but you wont get far in Kunark/Velious alone unless your aiming for lvl 30 low 40ies type of loot

[Lhancelot]

I know of a monk that solos a ton of stuff ofc he has awesome gears and clickies too.

I don't know any warrs, sks, pallies, etc. that do what he does so I would have to go with monk being the best if you have to pick a melee for solo viability and solo accomplishments.

[Ravager]

Ranger simply for tracking. So much time not wasted seeing if nameds are up. Forget about FD, WC cap, Lizard Pot, Soulfire and Reaper work just fine to not die when things go south.

[skarlorn]

Also just the old fashioned run to zone line. Rangers are great soloers and pretty easy to trick out

[Rivera]

out of those 3, from a practical standpoint?

monk and it's not even close.

[Ravager]

What's impractical about ranger? Track at 1, eventual sow. Cheap weapons that let you solo to 50+, harmony, invis, animal fear kiting and nobody expects anything of you in groups. It's the most practical choice.

Monks are constant upkeep in terms of making javs, banking, measuring epeen against other monks, etc.

[oqrelord]

It all depends on gear stages... an epic'ed ranger with a fungi and tiger raptor is not as good as an epic'ed monk with fungi/fbss and black pantherskin - which is basically as far as most people get to before making new alt.

But a ranger dawning a dark cloak, class clickies, and skybow/wushi bow is so much self sufficient win...

Again, its more nuanced gear that makes me go ranger vs monk... Id rather be able to lightning strike a group of mobs with my bow then have 60 ac pants.

[Pokesan]

monk and it's not even close.

[mastersapper]

anything a monk can do an enchanter can do naked

[Jimjam]

Whats the most impressive documented solo by the melee classes?

I believe one monk did Emp Chottal, another did Lord Ragefire.

Not really representative of typical monks, but shows what is possible.

Ranger simply for tracking. So much time not wasted seeing if nameds are up. Forget about FD, WC cap, Lizard Pot, Soulfire and Reaper work just fine to not die when things go south.

With the nerf to FD snares/roots/campouts are a pretty decent way to break into camps solo.

[Utmost]

SK for sure.

[MikeXG]

SK for sure.

First to throw SK down so definitively.

I really enjoy SK, but I have a necro and I just feel like a clunky underpowered necro when I solo as SK. Granted they are tough and have tools and its fun to gear em. But IMO ranger is easier to gear than SK, has more utility except for FD, and does way more dps. So if you are fear kiting ranger will kill faster. Granted rangers can only fear kite animals and SK can do a wide range of Mobs if the terrain is right. But with Velious out there are lots of animals. Ranger feels a lot different than druid and Even though SK and necro are way different, they feel the wrong kind of similar to me.

[Baler]

Solo
Monk > SK > Ranger

Grouped
Monk > SK > Ranger

Raid
Monk > SK > Ranger*

*Weaponshield makes ranger good for ~15 seconds.

[jakerees]

Monks are mediocre at best when you compare them to RL monks like most of the RL monks I have met I can't even imagine being able to punch very well or do a proper flying kick although I suppose they might be able to play dead on par with the games so I dunno but they are always so chaste that I couldn't see myself being a monk on the other hand the shadowknights that I have met in RL are pretty much dead on to what you would find in the game so that is pretty cool that it was able to translate well into the game, although it is difficult as I understand it to harm touch in real life and you can't do it as often but I would probably just play it safe and go with the SK and ultimately you could just duel a monk at some point and see who comes out on top.

[Ikon]

First to throw SK down so definitively.

I really enjoy SK, but I have a necro and I just feel like a clunky underpowered necro when I solo as SK. Granted they are tough and have tools and its fun to gear em. But IMO ranger is easier to gear than SK, has more utility except for FD, and does way more dps. So if you are fear kiting ranger will kill faster. Granted rangers can only fear kite animals and SK can do a wide range of Mobs if the terrain is right. But with Velious out there are lots of animals. Ranger feels a lot different than druid and Even though SK and necro are way different, they feel the wrong kind of similar to me.ti
Ranger can pretty much fear kite anything with a blinding poison proc wep. As long as you can tank it till it procs.

[fadetree]

If there's room to kite, can be snared/rooted, and doesn't summon...a Ranger can kill it.
I would rank:
solo farming: Ranger > Monk > SK
solo exping: Monk > Ranger > SK
group tank: SK > Ranger = Monk
group dps/utility: Ranger > Monk > SK
raid tank: SK > Ranger = Monk
raid dps/Utility: Monk = Ranger > SK

Monk and Ranger is a hard comparison, depending on what you want and what the situation is the can go back and forth on which is 'better'. SK is much clearer. I think in groups Rangers 'stack' a little better than the other two.

[Utmost]

Things I solo for plat, I’m sure there are better/more efficient options:

Velks: Frenzy/CE
DN: Rats*
Seb: NG or D bugs
L Guk: frenzy, am, lord, crown guy.
KC: Cell’s for t staff**

*Cant tackle the lvl 58s or necro ones for the most part
**no I never get ones

You can get to all these camps by yerself too.

I’d like some suggestions for other names to kill