[Troxx]

Originally Posted by Lojik [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

OP asked for best melee solo class, which implies he wants to solo via melee combat. Bard is awful at melee combat, and will solo well only when avoiding melee combat. My best guesses as to why they're in the melee subsection? They dual wield, wear plate, and don't fit in the other subsections.

And at the end of my response in my first reply, I gave him the answer he was looking for. It's monk.

I'm aware he didn't want to play a bard. For any others following/learning from this conversation, the answer is bard.

My order:

-Bard (excluding aoe dotting, in which case there is absolutely no competition). Yes they melee. Yes their melee sucks comparatively after level 20. Even if they still melee (and toss the random dot), they can fear anything for no mana, haste themselves for no mana, snare anything for no mana, heal themselves for no mana, and dot crap for no mana. They end the fight ready to pull the next. Even if they put out 50-60% of the melee damage (lower levels), they make up for it in the long run with having .... no down time! Once they get to higher levels and their melee falls even further behind, they have a full complement of targeted dots that do consistently marginal/good damage to make up for it. If the content is hard, you punch, dot, snare, and fear. The monk wins by kill speed, the bard finishes each fight 100%hp/mana and ready to pull again. If you consider that other melee classes (rangers plinking with bow and dotting) effectively solo by avoiding combat at times and then also consider what a bard can do by avoiding combat, bard wins as they can effectively count 2 mobs damage vs each other as their own while also counting the damage they do via dots. With this method of solo, monk dps is well below effective bard dps. Bards also require very minimal gearing, even going the non-swarm route. You can get by with banded, some hp rings, and starter instruments and run circles (literally and figuratively) around a monk with comparable gear investment.

Like I said, at level 60 I clock in at 62-65 sustained dps while face tanking things, slowing it 35%, and healing myself the equivalent of nearly 3 fungis. All of this can be done/sustained at the same time with the exception of regen which will drop for 1 tick (18 seconds up, refreshed at 24 seconds), without letting a dot fall off and miss a tick. What the bard lacks at 60 (dps wise) compared to the monk at 60 can be made up for in sustainability. Comparing my personal experiences is difficult as my monk is only 57 and the bard is 60, but the bard kills consistently faster factoring in down time. The monk is epic/fungi and has a well rounded (though not bleeding edge in most slots) set of gear. Most bards on this server are terrible and most people's experiences with them are limited to getting trained by them while they swarm or minimally contribute to groups with regen song and lackluster CC. They're insanely versatile and they can solo in a lot more ways than people give them credit for.

-Monks have good dps. Monks can split anything they want to pull single and have an 'oh shit' out via FD. Monks have mend. Monks have killer defensive prowess. Monks can bind wound more significantly and at lower levels. Give them some twink gear and they really ... really shine. Monks have a neat trick where in the right area, with their back against a wall, they can bind wound mid-combat while missing out on only a bit of their dps potential. Using this method, as long as your bandages hold out, you can effectively give yourself close to 60hp a tick in "regen" after you break the 200 bind wound cap in your 50s. Using this method, a well geared 50+ monk can sustain a pretty stout kill rate and really cut down on their downtime. Unfortunately ... eventually you run out of bandages and have to go buy more.

-Rangers can fear kite animals efficiently. To solo other monsters that give meaningful xp, they generally have to root/dot/bow at some point unless outrageously twinked for the content they are hunting. They have fairly significant downtime (though less if they focus on animals exclusively).

-Shadowknights can always fear kite, but their dps is low, only really regain meaningful hp by tapping, and that snare/fear mana adds up when your dps is that low and must be meditated back. They have an 'oh shit' out via FD if it hits the fan. They have fairly significant downtime regardless of where they hunt.

-Paladin dps is the worst. They are alright at hunting undead and are capable (albeit very slow/inefficient) at hunting non-undead targets. They can, however, solo.

-Warriors have big hit point pulls and moderate dps. If really twinked they will solo alright up to a point, but even then they fall behind. Outside of bind wound they have no meaningful way of decreasing their downtime.

-Rogue. Outside of landing a lucky intimidate, they have low hitpoints, not so great mitigation, and can't capitalize on the one thing that gives them great dps (backstab). They're undeniably the worst solo 'melee' class.

But yes I understand, the OP doesn't want to bard and that's ok. The answer for him is therefore the monk.

Originally Posted by DMN [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

try actually reading the OP instead of making more pointless posts and wasint peoples time with your laziness and lack of game knowledge.

It has noting to do with their ability to specifically solo, which isn't a fraction of what Sk's are capable of.

You've proven yourself both an idiot and a troll. In no alternate universe is SK even a contender for the best solo "melee" class (even counting their hybrid abilities) during classic everquest. They do bad dps under all circumstances. They can fear kite, and they can tap, but they depend heavily on mana to do both things and cannot maintain any sort of relevant kill ratio over time to be considered *good* at it. In the time a sk can fear kite a single mob down (not counting sitting down to med after), a comparably geared monk will have killed two, binded his hp back up to *ready* and started on a 3rd or 4th. Once the sk has meditated up the mana needed to repeat the process, the monk is even further ahead and their lead is growing.