Coming back to EQ - Going solo

[Nokio]

Hi all,

I haven't played in a while on the server (busy with work and real life stuff...)
Actualy I played when Box of Abu-Kar still droped.

I REALLY want to start playing again but, I don't have much time. It can be as low as 30 minutes a day to maybe a few hours if I am lucky.

I have a 24 mage (not enjoyed him that much)
I have a 16 shaman
I have a 9 bard

I would like to have opinion on what could be a good solution for me? I know people will say play what you like. And i think i will find out what I like as I try stuff. But I would love to have opinion or story on what i could do to be able to play and have fun even though it can be a 30 minute session.

If i can play for a few hours of course i would group for the social and fun part of it. But i guess i would mainly be going solo.

I don't have much plat to buy stuff (200-300pp)
I do have 1 Box of Abu-Kar (what is it worth?) Should I trade it for a few piece of gear or should i keep it?

Thanks in advance all.

[bman8810]

Hi all,

I haven't played in a while on the server (busy with work and real life stuff...)
Actualy I played when Box of Abu-Kar still droped.

I REALLY want to start playing again but, I don't have much time. It can be as low as 30 minutes a day to maybe a few hours if I am lucky.

I have a 24 mage (not enjoyed him that much)
I have a 16 shaman
I have a 9 bard

I would like to have opinion on what could be a good solution for me? I know people will say play what you like. And i think i will find out what I like as I try stuff. But I would love to have opinion or story on what i could do to be able to play and have fun even though it can be a 30 minute session.

If i can play for a few hours of course i would group for the social and fun part of it. But i guess i would mainly be going solo.

I don't have much plat to buy stuff (200-300pp)
I do have 1 Box of Abu-Kar (what is it worth?) Should I trade it for a few piece of gear or should i keep it?

Thanks in advance all.

All three of those characters are viable solo characters. Bards can do a pretty hefty swarm kite in 30 minutes, shamans get much better at soloing at higher levels, and mages are just a great soloing class all through classic. Necromancers are also a great solo class.

Honestly, I play in a similar manner and I play my mage and love it. It isn't intense, but I watch tv at the same time I play.

[falkun]

1 bard pull usually takes me 25-45 minutes, depending on how long I take to gather things up and how often I miss the range on the dot or get resists. Its also quite repetitive and doesn't work well outside of open plains (no dungeon soloing), so there are those restrictions. You may level fast, but you're going to miss out on the dungeon crawl feel.

[Engraverwilliam]

My choice for this playstyle (hardly time to play) is a monk. Getting my mend skilled up then will get fiend death will allow me to crawl some dungeons alone when i get that urge to go inside. I used to live in Dalnir on Live.

[Nokio]

Thx for you quick information!

I would basicaly put the mage away for now as I did not quite like it. I will probably take all his money and xfer it to the char I will end up playing.

As for bard i just read a few thread about aoe kiting. It might be fun to try out. As I understand it start to shine at level 18. Doing that, will I level at a decent speed? I don't mean super fast. I mean will it feel like im going forward even though i only have the time for 1 pull in 25-45 minutes? Is it gear dependant?

As of shaman, i read effectively that it gets better as you level. Starting as low as 16. Can i solo well and feel a progression? Is it gear dependant too?

I'm asking about the gear dependant thing as I don't have any. Where as a mage is only spell dependant (well mostly)

[Huddaan]

You can sell the box for 5k or so.

[baalzy]

Personally, I'd keep the box, having 100% WR is so much more important down the line then having 5k now. (ESPECIALLY if you decide to go for a monk, lets you keep several different weapons handy and take some choice loot back home with you). There are some good camps that will drop bronze/fine steel weapons that will quickly weigh you down, being able to pick up 10 of the heaviest without it affecting your encumbrance is a huge boon and will allow you to farm that much more, paying for itself and then some eventually.

Solo classes don't typically need a lot of gear if you pick a caster. If you didn't like your mage, try a necromancer. They're a lot more involved then a mage(mage casts pet, casts another pet, maybe heals their current pet, then hits with a 5dmg nuke before the mob dies).

*It occured to me after typing this you have a mage, just steal his gear for your necro and you should be fine*

I did lvls 1-30 with a full set of cloth armor and did it pretty quick (not a single magic or stat increasing item). Take your 200-300p, use it to buy some cheap hp/mana bracelets and if you can find it some cheap ac/hp rings and and a halfway decent dagger like a dragoon dirk or something to help you with meleeing mobs down until lvl 12 or so. I'd save at least 50p just to ensure you can buy spells and only get the spells you need. I skipped most of the resist spells and things like summon coldstone ect... because you generally don't need them at low levels and get upgrades at higher levels so you end up learning spells that you never cast.

If you have money left over, I also like the 2str/4int earrings & the 7int/7str necklace (carrying loot, believe me, it helps) but I'm not sure if you'd be able to afford that just yet.

[baalzy]

Oh, as to bards. No, all you need for a bard is:

1) Skill
2) A couple of instruments, storebought serve well enough at the beginning.
3) The ability to not care that you're pissing off 5+ people by swarm kiting and keeping 20-40 mobs from repopping for 20-30 minutes.

[Nokio]

Personally, I'd keep the box, having 100% WR is so much more important down the line then having 5k now. (ESPECIALLY if you decide to go for a monk, lets you keep several different weapons handy and take some choice loot back home with you). There are some good camps that will drop bronze/fine steel weapons that will quickly weigh you down, being able to pick up 10 of the heaviest without it affecting your encumbrance is a huge boon and will allow you to farm that much more, paying for itself and then some eventually.

Solo classes don't typically need a lot of gear if you pick a caster. If you didn't like your mage, try a necromancer. They're a lot more involved then a mage(mage casts pet, casts another pet, maybe heals their current pet, then hits with a 5dmg nuke before the mob dies).

*It occured to me after typing this you have a mage, just steal his gear for your necro and you should be fine*

I did lvls 1-30 with a full set of cloth armor and did it pretty quick (not a single magic or stat increasing item). Take your 200-300p, use it to buy some cheap hp/mana bracelets and if you can find it some cheap ac/hp rings and and a halfway decent dagger like a dragoon dirk or something to help you with meleeing mobs down until lvl 12 or so. I'd save at least 50p just to ensure you can buy spells and only get the spells you need. I skipped most of the resist spells and things like summon coldstone ect... because you generally don't need them at low levels and get upgrades at higher levels so you end up learning spells that you never cast.

If you have money left over, I also like the 2str/4int earrings & the 7int/7str necklace (carrying loot, believe me, it helps) but I'm not sure if you'd be able to afford that just yet.

That is indeed a possibility I will take some time to read about necro to see how much different they are. So that I can get a feel early if I will like it. For some reason I would tend to create an iksar necro now that Kunark is out. Evil to the teeth! lol

Thanks for that Info I will consider that.

Keeping the box is indeed something I would want to do. I was a bit curious as if it would have given me the chance to buy some gear to work my way through!

[Nokio]

Oh, as to bards. No, all you need for a bard is:

1) Skill
2) A couple of instruments, storebought serve well enough at the beginning.
3) The ability to not care that you're pissing off 5+ people by swarm kiting and keeping 20-40 mobs from repopping for 20-30 minutes.

Ahah sounds nice!
Can i start doing that at level 9 to get a feel of it?

[Nokio]

My choice for this playstyle (hardly time to play) is a monk. Getting my mend skilled up then will get fiend death will allow me to crawl some dungeons alone when i get that urge to go inside. I used to live in Dalnir on Live.

Im curious, I always though monk were damage dealer and that they cannot solo. I mean on live i never saw Solo monk. It is also true that I played a warrior from classic to luclin so I did not get the chance to wander off without a group often to see that kind of thing lol

[falkun]

For bards:

I started kiting at lvl7. As long as you have selos, you can kite. It just gets much easier at 18.

For gear: I'm using some hand-me-down MM drums and "a horn". The horn is off a bard guild merchant and the drums I think sell for 100pp-ish in EC, maybe even less. Lute of gypsy princesses (pretty close name), also sells for 100pp-ish (or hand-me-down) and is useful for your L2 chords dot. But honestly, you can pick up some drum/lute/horn from the bard vendor that has a 1.8-2.0 mod (lute and MM drums are like 2.1 mods) and be 90% as effective. As far as armor, you can kite naked if you want to, armor just helps you when you do get hit (which once you get to OT range (20s-30s), if you get hit you're probably going to get stunned and die whether you have full singing steel/lambent or not).

Here is where I have leveled so far. Its not definitive by any means (like there is a good derv camp in WC I didn't mention).
http://www.project1999.org/forums/showpost.php?p=248109&postcount=8

You were also wondering if you would feel progress with the bard: Yes, yes you will. If you think soloing as a necro is the fast-lane to higher levels, then bard AE kiting is like taking a personal helicopter. I challenge any other class to tell me they did 37-39 in 2hrs or less (I did them in 1.5hrs, but the server gods blessed last Sunday night with 25% bonus exp.).

[baalzy]

Im curious, I always though monk were damage dealer and that they cannot solo. I mean on live i never saw Solo monk. It is also true that I played a warrior from classic to luclin so I did not get the chance to wander off without a group often to see that kind of thing lol

They are damage dealers, they deal very high damage and also have good defensive capabilities. They solo typically by finding mobs that they can DPS down faster then the mob can DPS them down. Then using bandages/mend to decrease their downtime and do it again. They won't be as effective at is as any of the other classes mentioned and are much more gear dependent on doing it effectively. Bandaging gets better as you get higher level and the xp range on mobs is larger. Until you hit 51 you wanna find mobs that you can kill reliably while taking less than 50% of your hp (the cap on how high you can bandage so you can bandage up to 50% and then use mend as your oh-shi button).

If you can get a Tstaff and a CoF with a Fungi tunic or robe (until the robe is nerfed) you'd be able to solo incredibly fast due to the tstaffs high damage and stun proc. Taking mobs out swiftly and preventing them from hitting you as much and then regening it fast via equipment regen, bandages, and mend. Throw in a pre-nerf fungi staff for a combined +30 hp/tick to really be swift about recovery.

[Nokio]

For bards:

I started kiting at lvl7. As long as you have selos, you can kite. It just gets much easier at 18.

For gear: I'm using some hand-me-down MM drums and "a horn". The horn is off a bard guild merchant and the drums I think sell for 100pp-ish in EC, maybe even less. Lute of gypsy princesses (pretty close name), also sells for 100pp-ish (or hand-me-down) and is useful for your L2 chords dot. But honestly, you can pick up some drum/lute/horn from the bard vendor that has a 1.8-2.0 mod (lute and MM drums are like 2.1 mods) and be 90% as effective. As far as armor, you can kite naked if you want to, armor just helps you when you do get hit (which once you get to OT range (20s-30s), if you get hit you're probably going to get stunned and die whether you have full singing steel/lambent or not).

Here is where I have leveled so far. Its not definitive by any means (like there is a good derv camp in WC I didn't mention).
http://www.project1999.org/forums/showpost.php?p=248109&postcount=8

You were also wondering if you would feel progress with the bard: Yes, yes you will. If you think soloing as a necro is the fast-lane to higher levels, then bard AE kiting is like taking a personal helicopter. I challenge any other class to tell me they did 37-39 in 2hrs or less (I did them in 1.5hrs, but the server gods blessed last Sunday night with 25% bonus exp.).

I will definitly try that out and see if it is for me !
Thanks on that information. I will go the EC and see if i can get a few instrument otherwise ill get those from vendor !

[Nokio]

They are damage dealers, they deal very high damage and also have good defensive capabilities. They solo typically by finding mobs that they can DPS down faster then the mob can DPS them down. Then using bandages/mend to decrease their downtime and do it again. They won't be as effective at is as any of the other classes mentioned and are much more gear dependent on doing it effectively. Bandaging gets better as you get higher level and the xp range on mobs is larger. Until you hit 51 you wanna find mobs that you can kill reliably while taking less than 50% of your hp (the cap on how high you can bandage so you can bandage up to 50% and then use mend as your oh-shi button).

If you can get a Tstaff and a CoF with a Fungi tunic or robe (until the robe is nerfed) you'd be able to solo incredibly fast due to the tstaffs high damage and stun proc. Taking mobs out swiftly and preventing them from hitting you as much and then regening it fast via equipment regen, bandages, and mend. Throw in a pre-nerf fungi staff for a combined +30 hp/tick to really be swift about recovery.

Ahah Nice! I remember back in the day seing some pretty nice thing being done with a fungi tunic. Even for shaman and warrior it was a good tunic!
Though I would need a lot of pp to be able to buy those. Monk is still an idea but I would maybe need to wait until i can buy some gear for him.

[baalzy]

Just to clarify, the tunic isn't required it just speeds things up a lot. You just need to have good DPS and a lot of bandages to solo as a monk. So any of the 2handed weapons they have that are near a 1/1 dmg/delay ratio, or a pair of high damage 1hbs with a strong proc (wus quiver staff i think procs a 80dmg nuke with ministun). Then gear yourself out in AC/Hp/Str gear and you're set.

[Nokio]

In that logic, if I create a monk I should go for iksar for the increased hp regen?

Then try to get good weapon. and if i still have pp or as I get more pp buy wu's item.




If anyone has any though on the shaman side I would be interested!!

[Nokio]

Something that im thinking.

If i go bard and aoe kite my way around. Will I end up with probleme melee'ing? I mean it's not like i would practice defense and melee'ing skill that much :p

Or it's kind of easy to just level out later on!

[FatMagic]

Just from my experience of being the in same boat Nokio.. I play a Monk, but only get 30 mins or so to play... and the leveling is dreadfully slow, and I have "decent" gear (two enameled black maces, HP items, AC items, etc). I can only kill a few things, use Mend, and then log off.. it's just super slow. Don't get me wrong I LOVE my Monk, definitely my favorite character to play and level! But a group is far more efficient for a monk, or bothering a 40+ druid/shaman/mag for a buff or two to help you solo.

A necro, bard or mage would serve you better for that short amount of time I would imagine. Just reading this makes me want to start up a mage because I haven't leveled barely at all on my Monk (i'm like level 16)... ah well.

[baalzy]

Something that im thinking.

If i go bard and aoe kite my way around. Will I end up with probleme melee'ing? I mean it's not like i would practice defense and melee'ing skill that much :p

Or it's kind of easy to just level out later on!

I imagine you could keep them up by just doing a couple regular melee fights every few levels.

Maybe once you finish swarming in one zone and a lot of the mobs are light blue, pull out a sword/mace & melee a couple of them down. Your skills will raise up pretty quickly (no real need to max them, just keep them up within 10-20 of skill cap). Then you can move on afterwards.

[Ledzepp02]

Going Solo

http://i474.photobucket.com/albums/rr107/Ledzepp_wow/RidinSolo.jpg

[machin576]

Bards can up melee pretty quickly after 26, I think, when they get their fear song. You just fear/snare the mob with haste twisted in and watch the skills go up. Keeping defense high is a whole other story.

[Engraverwilliam]

Im curious, I always though monk were damage dealer and that they cannot solo. I mean on live i never saw Solo monk. It is also true that I played a warrior from classic to luclin so I did not get the chance to wander off without a group often to see that kind of thing lol

It's way risky but done carefully it is a great way to play casually. Using FD to split spawns and such, fighting things within inches of your life, balancing using mend for a heal during a fight and using it to cut downtime having mend fail during a fight and having to FD when you are so close to the kill and having to give it up and try again. Working your way deeper and deeper into a dungeon then having FD fail and FDing your way back to your corpse. good times! good times!

[moklianne]

http://i474.photobucket.com/albums/rr107/Ledzepp_wow/RidinSolo.jpg

heh, Shia LaBeouf would be more fitting though

[Curmudgen]

One bane for monk solo....caster mobs. They CAN be done, but it brings a whole new level of uncertainty to the table. In that way it has a tendency to limit where you can go somewhat.

[FatMagic]

One bane for monk solo....caster mobs. They CAN be done, but it brings a whole new level of uncertainty to the table. In that way it has a tendency to limit where you can go somewhat.

Unfortunately true :(
I still love playing my monk, really fun - but somewhat hard to solo in the early levels without some gear. Probably is better later on when FD is available (I don't have it yet) and more reliable (not that it's 100% by any stretch of the imagination).

[nalkin]

As for bard i just read a few thread about aoe kiting. It might be fun to try out. As I understand it start to shine at level 18. Doing that, will I level at a decent speed? I don't mean super fast. I mean will it feel like im going forward even though i only have the time for 1 pull in 25-45 minutes? Is it gear dependant?


The only problem with AE kiting is that it is extremely boring to do over an over. The xp is great but it gets so boring so fast and you think, "oh I have to do this ~x number of times till im level 50." And then its like are you really going to sit there running in circles for 2 days of your life...

[falkun]

The only problem with AE kiting is that it is extremely boring to do over an over. The xp is great but it gets so boring so fast and you think, "oh I have to do this ~x number of times till im level 50." And then its like are you really going to sit there running in circles for 2 days of your life...

As mentioned tho, there are other ways you can solo as a bard, just the AE kiting is by far the fastest. Other ways include:

Fear dot kiting
Fear melee kiting (to get those skill ups)
snare dot kiting
Charm kiting (not swarming, swarming, to my knowledge, doesn't work on this server) This one is difficult as after the first charm breaks, your re-charmed pet probably will not get aggro back from you.

Mostly, when soloing as a bard, its preferable to use instruments and your songs as opposed to weapons. Our melee is mediocre at best.

[Nokio]

So yesterday I gave a try to AE kiting with my level 7 bard. So far i found it fun and new. Of course you might be right. On the long run it might get boring.

When i have those long session of gameplay ill just get into a group. When play time is short AE kiting it is.

Ill try to see if i can buy a few gear from what little i have.

And i guess i will keep my box for now instead of trading it for gear.

[Doors]

Play a bard. AE kiting is hands down fastest way to level. Single target kiting is done somewhat successfully at lower levels but is too time consuming to be really worth it.

Once you hit 46? Or maybe 45 single target kiting is pretty effective. Think you get fear/charm around 25-27 so you can then fearkite etc.

[Nokio]

Hello again all!

So yesterday i gave a try to AE kite with my level 7 bard. And it work and it's fun. I did it outside Kelethin at a bandit camp. I might end up going to CB until level 8 though as it's long without the double damage from a Lute.

There is 1 question I have

When i do the AE kiting i go into a 3rd person view as i find that it helps.
I tryed to move my camera (wow style to no success)

But i know it can be done as seen in this video. If someone can help me out!
By that i mean going into 3rd person and not having the camera move as you do your circle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS_ag6U1Z6U

Thanks in advance!

[Kika Maslyaka]

there are different camera angles - pressing F9 will cycle you through about 5 different positions - try it out.

and yeah, WoW all way rotating camera indeed superior... But their UI sucks =)

[Nokio]

Thanks for that quick reply :D their UI indeed sucks. I remember changing the default UI hardcore when i played.

Anyway thx for the tips!

Going to try that out tonight !!!!

[falkun]

I usually F9 twice to get to "stuck behind the character" view. Then i use delete and insert to zoom in/out. I use alt+right click (I think, I'm not at EQ atm) to move the camera height-wise. Finally, I typically alt+page up/down (again, I think) to tilt the camera up a bit until it feels right. Hope these help