The Spirit Realm

Hey folks, thinking about returning to EQ. I enjoy grouping, but I'll also have plenty of solo time. In that solo time I like to not just solo for levels/AA, but also just to challenge myself by seeing what the biggest thing I can take down solo.

What class can take down the biggest mobs without cheating? I don't consider kiting to be cheating. I know back in the day that shamans could take out some impressive opponents because of Slow. How about today? How about soloing in close quarter areas like dungeons? I imagine the best is either necromancer or shaman, but who knows with how these games develope.

Your input is much appreciated.

With nothing to back it up with my first guess would be a Monk with the correct gear.

Edit**

Or maybe a Necro...

So do Shamans not really even rate in this category anymore? If not I'd assume it's due to slow mitigation.

If necros are the kings of soloing trophy mobs, what sorts of things can they handle that shamans cannot? What, if anything, can shamans handle that necros cannot?

SK would be my guess.

depends on what kind of soloing you mean (for drops, for exp, for killablity) sk can probally solo the toughest hitters, necros can solo the things that dont summon best, monks can do just general trash in an area the fastest. also with the introduction of mercs, it depends on if you mean soloing, or soloing with a merc. shaman in general arent as good soloer's anymore due to the fact that it takes so long for you to load on full dots, as well as if its a heavy damage fight, the healing yourself and because your healing, you cant dps. shaman can still solo pretty well, an endgame geared shaman can still solo tier5 named, but id say a monk, sk or ranger would be your best bet if you plan on just soloing with or w/o a merc. past that though, shaman are still incredibly desirable in groups, compared to most otherclasses which can easily be interchanged. druids/shaman heal just as well as eachother now, and clerics while still better, have had the gap closed. then the slows+dps support make us desirable so if you want to do both solo and group, shaman is an excellent choice.

The kind of sploing I mean is killing the single biggest targets by yourself... IE, killing a dragon or 'boss mob'. I know nobody can solo level appropriate major mobs, but what about lower level content bosses and such?

I could care less about soloing trash other than as necessary to break a camp. I want to be able to farm interesting utility loot from old content with as little help as possible, since it will often be hard to rally others to do it just so I can get some fun clicky.

Raid geared clerics probably these days. SK's are up there also but after that everybody else is a step down.

I think without a doubt clerics with top end raid gear are the best big mob/trophy soloers these days.

Reading your thread... I think you are looking for an answer with a particular target in mind. Some of the old raid targets can be taken down solo now by a wide variety of classes, and even more so if mercs are allowed in that particular zone. (Soloing with a merc) Some targets just can't be solo'd due to just how the script is setup.

I think for help of discussion.. if there is a place you are looking for possibly going out and soloing or attempting... clue us in a little bit to see if anyone has even attempted it... Just from the few cryptic clues that you have dropped in your messages it sounds like you are looking to go solo Tacvi or maybe some obscure LDoN raid. Both of which I think you will have a hard time doing truly solo....

Ok, I'll try to give more details.

I'm coming back to play with an old group of friends on Test Server. It's always low population, which means plenty of untouched area and few groups unless you bring your own. While I'll have friends to group with occassionally, we'll usually have a plan that doesn't include camping things I want on a whim.

I'd love a class that can go pick up fun items from the old tiers solo. Most of this will simply be mob camps that probably aren't hard for anyone to break and camp, but some of tehm might be pretty tough. I honestly can't point at any particular thing in recent content because I stopped playing just before PoP and lots of things have been added since then. I'm sure I'll find a reason to want some of those items and I don't want to have to bug friends to go do old content with me. In fact, I'll want to do some of it simply to see it since I missed so much while I was away. In short, I want to be able to freely explore dangerous areas, and conquer it if necessary.

I realize most raid level stuff won't be soloable no matter what, but I'd like to choose the character that has the most chance of soloing what can be soloed.

P.S.- My version of solo is not having to drag other human beings along with me, but I will NOT be multi-boxing (I'm only subscribing one account and probably wouldn't "borrow" a friend's for this unless it's really tempting and necessary). I'll use whatever buffs/mercs I can otherwise.

It may not be raid mobs, but a skilled enchanter can do some amazing shit nowadays....simply mind-boggling stuff.

the answer is shadowknight. clerics dont have the dps to solo some of the higher content. shadowknights w/ a merc can now solo a few PoR events, such as porthio/sverag named, with raid gear. if your talking about not gear dependant, then mage is the best soloer, due to pet can tank, and mage can sit back and heal pet.

Mage ftw

For low-playtime it is Mage. Once growed up, they are not very gear-dependent and their pets are capable to keep the mobs off of them. You just need the best pet-focus you can get hold on, the rest will come by. Add in a healer merc and a mage can do a lot of fun stuff. Mage can also do a lot of stuff without merc, which will shorten the time needed to grow up.

If you plan do invest the time, the shadowknight is able to do more. He needs a lot of gear andalso AAs. But then he can get to places a Mage may never reach solo thanks to his Fd. And once enought AAs grabbed, his tanking ability is impressive combined with all the tap-stuff he can singlepull almost any mob and survive the encounter like noone else soloing. Best is, now with mercs, when stuff drops he can't use he can corpse-summon any friend to loot, his merc will take care for the rezz

Warrior mercs don't seem to be on par with healer mercs. So as it is now playing the tanking part and let the healer merc do his job should bring you further than playing the priest and get a tank-merc.

The question was about a new char for grouping and soloing. Reading the question, a max-raid-geared Cleric may be out of scope.

Beastlords have been able to do some crazy kills too.

Here is a link to the Beastlord solo kill post: http://forums.beastlords.org/index.php/ ... 726.0.html

A few recent top kills have been Rikkuken the Defender and PoTime Tallon Zek.

One of the big keys to a SK soloing stuff is the 2.0 click. They can solo stuff without it, but not nearly as well.

Ok alot of good comments in here, and just thought i'd throw in my 2cp....

First off I'd have to say for my pick for what you are trying to accomplish, as others have said would be a Shadowknight. The clear defining factor as to why I say SK is that even though the Cleric would have an easier time surviving most of the old raid encounters, the SK will be able to get to them the quickest, and deal with the mobs solo more than likely, while with a cleric clearing through trash is going to be a nightmare.

Two scenarios to demonstrate, lets just say you wanted to do Temple of Veeshan and both toons are KOS to the denizens there.

Cleric zones in, has to begeins clearing the annoying as all hell trash mobs just to get to the wing they want. This is going to take time, buffs (yay dispellers), and make it quite a long and obnoxious trip.

SK zones in, and trains to where he wants to go, Feign Deaths, clears agro then begins killing what he's there to kill. If he's bringing friends along, he can drag/call their corpse to where he wants to go, and if able to in the zone pop out his merc and rez said friend.

So while the cleric/mage might have an easier time either clearing the trash, or soloing said raid mob, the SK avoids the clear, and still with lifetaps, ac, clicks and AAs will be able to do almost as well as said cleric on the same mob, with a bit lower survivability (though you can always FD which in and of itself is quite key in surviving i'd say).

Just my 2 cents in as straight forward fashion as i can manage while at work, any questions feel free to ask

- Crom