Melee Soloing

[Phased]

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

Actually I believe Iksar monks get the same exp penalty as non big-race Shadow Knights.

Very specific case, but just felt like being pedantic [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

SK 40%, iksar monk 44%

If you're going to make an attempt at being pedantic, be correct!

[Scavrefamn]

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

SK 40%, iksar monk 44%

If you're going to make an attempt at being pedantic, be correct!

Touché

[webrunner5]

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

Monks are alright soloers with good gear. You can solo to 35ish with ease in just a set of Wu's, hp rings, jade mace type weapons and FBSS. If you add some more heavy-duty twinking like a high-end haste item and expensive staff, you could go to 40+ with no trouble. A fungi would let you solo to 60, though it'd probably start to suck after the early 50s.

Shadowknights can fear-kite all the way, and that's guaranteed to be a decent route. Can't match the actual solo classes, but it's a fully viable way to go. Doesn't require that much gear, either; a good weapon and an FBSS will do, you aren't going to be tanking very much. Add solid twinking and it's a strong soloer. Only serious concern is mana since you can't med while fighting and fear is kinda expensive, but this gets better when you can use Blood Ember clickies for your snare and fear, you only have to spend mana on tapping back the little damage you take while re-casting fears. I've soloed a shadowknight to 40 with less than 40k in gear (no regen item) and it didn't feel particularly slow.

Paladins can just barely solo. Their DPS is terrible and they don't have much solo-applicable utility, so it'll be okayish against undead and marginally doable against anything else. Deepwater helm helps some, but that's 46+ so you'll be without it for most of the journey. What they gain from buffs and healing, they lose by doing so little DPS that the fights are too long to be efficient.

Rangers are actually okay soloers. Their heals are small but have almost the same mana efficiency as paladin, druid and shaman heals. That whole line of 'X Healing' spells don't change much except for the size - it only costs 30 more mana to heal the same amount with Healing as you do with Greater Healing. They have a good ratio of DPS to tankability, they have amazing solo utility (snare, root, harmony, tracking, thorns) and have the option of bow/DoT-kiting if they want. Add the 50% slow from Swarmcaller and it starts to look reasonable. It obviously doesn't compare to caster soloing, but I'd call it better than paladin and comparable to a monk without fungi.

Warriors and rogues shouldn't bother without fungi. Maybe you'd get to 30 with an ikky bp, but that's it.

It would be hard for me to add much to your post Noselacri. Good job on the breakdown..

[Slave]

Originally Posted by webrunner5 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

It would be hard for me to add much to your post Noselacri. Good job on the breakdown..

Bards are a different animal altogether. Nobody could really consider them a melee class after a certain (very relatively low) level.

[Kevlar]

Bards can tank if they have the gear. Aggro isn't a problem with some decent proc weapons and chaining dot chants. I think I used epic and a scepter of destruction and could easily tank for xp groups all the way through luclin and planes of power. I would solo tank the giants in Bastion of Thunder for kicks even though I could easily swarm kite the entire bug side of Valor if I really wanted AAs.

[Slave]

No, you're right, it's possible for them to tank on a par with Rangers or so, it just takes wicked gear to not be overwhelmed on damage taken to the point that your Cleric is not keeping up and it becomes a better idea just to use an Earth pet, even.

Holding aggro even without weapons is NOT a problem, I agree.

edit: I also tanked in Bastion of Thunder, but that was with a planar-kitted bard obviously. Ornate plate and what not.

[gnomishfirework]

Swarmcaller doesn't proc until mobs are too tough for a ranger to tank without amazing gear. Also, it doesn't exactly proc like crazy. On my ranger at 65, I had troubles getting it to proc. halfling + raid gear (best in slots for some) meant capped dex higher than you can get in classic

I did have amazing haste though.

Rangers can bow kite (slow) or gear kite in velious.

Rangers are decent. You aren't getting past 40 solo with a melee, though. If you if you had that kind of time, you would just group. I'm just being realistic.

[falkun]

I would not consider a bard a melee character, but nor would I consider them a caster. I use weapons in groups, and almost exclusively instruments in raids and solo. But even when using weapons in groups, I just hit auto attack and stay near the mob, everything else I'm doing I would consider more "caster".

But that's why I love bards, jack of all trades.

[webrunner5]

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

Swarmcaller doesn't proc until mobs are too tough for a ranger to tank without amazing gear. Also, it doesn't exactly proc like crazy. On my ranger at 65, I had troubles getting it to proc. halfling + raid gear (best in slots for some) meant capped dex higher than you can get in classic

Rangers can bow kite (slow) or gear kite in velious.

Rangers are decent. You aren't getting past 40 solo with a melee, though. If you if you had that kind of time, you would just group. I'm just being realistic.

You are right about the Swarmcaller. Does not proc until level 46 which is getting close to the top where a Ranger can Tank. But it is an option. And even without it procing it does good damage without the slow. Some proc weapons are just silly low damage that it is crazy to hope for the proc to use them.

I have never been too much of a fan of proc weapons. You can never depend on them so hard to judge what is going to happen. But damn they ARE tempting lol.

[SirAlvarex]

As a bard pre-50, I find I can tank most groups fairly easy. I just twist AE (or single target) slow + Group Haste + mana regen and I'm good to go. The AE slow pretty much keeps all aggro on me unless I'm grouped with a zealous SK, and since the mobs are hitting now only once every 3ish seconds,i take a lot less damage.

The mana regen helps the cleric not hate me for wasting complete heals on such a low HP Pool [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Mind you, I prefer to not tank. But it seems impossible to do so in a dungeon if I am the slower. The amount of aggro generated per tick is uber high compared to the duration.

=====

On topic though, Bards are only a melee character in that they can dual wield. If you're like me and just like hitting things in melee, then they're a great choice for a melee solo character. You can log on and fear kite a few mobs for 30 minutes, get some XP, then log for awhile.

If you set up your hotbars correctly they aren't that overwhelming to play either. That, and when you DO want to group, groups will love ya!

But if you have about 20k+ to spend, Monks are a great option as has been stated. Especially with a fungi.