Vengeance

Hey everyone,

I've been having a rough few days in game.  Seems the gods have decided to curse me with bad luck, everytime I try to solo I get my butt handed to me.   At least now I'm back to the beginning of level 38..so I can't lose anymore right?  

anyway, the point of this post was to gather feedback on the different classes and your playing styles.  

What do you solo most often? Orange, yellows, blues?

Do you prefer to solo indoors or outdoors?  Aggressive or neutral monsters?

Or do you just do trades when you can't get a group?

I'm having a serious problem with those resists still, which is a big part of the problem.  The other being that my pet cant hit the broadside of a barn, which is fine if you can send him in first, but not so fine if you are pulling from a crowd of aggro monsters with little space/time.  

As for me, I generally solo orange/yellows, depending on the area.  I had no problems soloing multiple yellows in my younger years, now I'm hard pressed to face off against a single even con.   Just my experiences!

Malison Re S'rin
38 Cabalist and holding

w/ my armsbiotch, I've had to be careful about soloing oranges.  The only oranges I have a prayer against are those that have a penalty vs. my armor while also granting me a bonus w/ slash weapons.  Otherwise, it's yellows and blues for me.  While the drops/loot often seemed better indoors, you're more likely to run into issues w/ people camping your favorite spots.

That's just my take, but since I'm not a caster it may not help much.

With my 44 armsman I can usually solo oranges but my down time is unacceptable so I try to avoid it.

Yellows are no issue really.  On quite a few occasions I've made thru a fight with a yellow without a single mark.

Blue...POC...If I can find a camp of blues that gives me a good camp bonus and/or a group bonus I'll sit with them for a bit.

What I've heard is that the Orange/Red cons become more difficult for Pet type classes as you get older.  But that's 3rd person so I don't know if it is right or not.

I'd stick with Blues/Greens for a bit to get that bar moving if not slowly.

After 46 it no longer made sense to even try soloing, in my experience. There were places in my career where, due to different factors, i had to be careful with blues. Yellows were out of reach until I got my top chants. I can solo most oranges now, but the xp/time payoff is not worth it.

Xenow is full matter. He said once he got focus shield for his pet it was very easy to chainpull oranges. Til then, it might be easier to find groups as much as possible or stick to blue/green.

Since you are a cabalist, ill give you tips as a fellow mage. Its all about strategy, and i would guess you have about the same spells i do, so i will tell you what i do. I usually solo oranges and yellows (whatever pops dies, but since your pet should be blue to you, you might want to stick with yellows) I usually find targets that are nuetral to me, ie. dartmoor ponies. In those cases i will start out with the pet attacking. If the target is aggressive, you may want to pull it with a debuff to start out. Once pet gets aggro, i cast strength debuff (if i havnt pulled with it already) and then dex debuff. Then i wait another hit just to make sure my pet has complete aggro. Then i cast the DOT. Now i can sit down if i want to, but if i want to prevent down time, I will just nuke the heck out of it. If i nuke it too much and get aggro, i will do a quickcast and then cast amnesia. If by anycase it fails to affect the target, i run = (, but usually it doesn't resist, and if the pet attacks before the DOT hits, then the aggro will go back onto the pet. Another thing you may want to invest in is putting your realm skill points in mystic crystal lore. This will cut down downtime a lot, especially for you because you can heal your pet if necessary.

Great ideas, some of which i already use frequently.  I would like to hear some more views on how each of the classes perform solo.  The main reason I tend to solo now is that I'm only on for about 30 minutes, and would lke to accomplish something while I'm online.

so how does exp translate?  from what i've seen 1 orange = 2 yellows = 3 to 4 blues (depending on bonuses) = 8 or so greens.  

Strangely , the downtime for an orange and a yellow is comparable. This is because the pet absorbs most of the dmg, and i can do the pet summon/unsummon trick to regain mana quickly.

Xenow may do well because of his dmg shield, i admit it helps, but as i mentioned earlier, its not much use if you have to pull the monsters to you and then pray the pet can get aggro before the 3rd or 4th (killing) blow on the poor mage.

I was presented with a great idea though...send my pet in with dmg shield up to a group of 4 blue cons.  Let them all take enough dmg to focus on the pet.  Then cast my AoE dot.  Recast dmg shield, or a heal then a dmg shield.  Orange level Exp for relatively small risk.  
I'll have to try it later today.

Oh , what are your thoughts on AoE disease in RvR?  Would it prove more useful than a matter cabalist's nearsight?  My thoughts are that 50% heals, less str, possible snare (if it ever gets fixed) might be handy for those mass melee's..lord knows echoic could use a good diease cast on her.  Only downside is that i'd lose a lot of my effectiveness as a matter cabalist if i focused on body.

malison

Yeah, for two or three levels now I solo only as a loot-hunting measure, not for xp.  Bar moves slowly, death too strong of a possibility.  I have only ever soloed one orange without using a pet.  Not worth the risk.  Yellows with bad dmg. tradeoffs (they get bonus dmg/I get reduced dmg) can even own me.  Otherwise I group only, and usually with quality Venge folks.

If I'm not grouping, I'll either 1) kill blues/yellows in DF cook room for sapphires 2) Run around the frontier and scout 3) Tailor 4) Alt.  Alt has been the most common choice of late.

Nearsight is the most powerful weapon you have. AE disease is cool for the big melees, but nearsight is a more potent weapon and is incurable.

hehe, scouts being the best grouping class in the world, ive done my fair share of soloing.
(let me start by saying that i gimped myself keeping stealth *way* too high the whole time, and therefor my thrust+sheald way too low)
basically, depending on if i get lucky with the turain, whether or not i get a + or - on damage to the mob, misses and fumbles, and weather or not the anti-kiting code kicks in...i can do up to yellow cons. basically the enimy has to be at about 1/5 life before it gets to me or im toast, cuz i stab like a little girl.

if the respec ever comes im gunna take a lot out of stealth and beef up my thrust a bit, which should make things better, but who knows.

I've played just about every character class up to 10th or so. Here's my ranking for how easy it is to solo with each class, based on what con mobs they can reasonably take vs. downtime.

1. Theurgist
2. Cabalist
3. Armsman
4. Minstrel
5. Wizard
6. Friar
7. Mercenary
8. Cleric (Rejuv-spec, Smite-spec post nerf)
9. Sorcerer
10. Infiltrator
11. Scout
12. Paladin

Feel free to post your opinions of this list, these are just my humble opinion

I thought Friar was far easier than Minstrel pre-level 10.  Post 10 still not too bad, just gotta pick the armor bonus stuff about right.  No pull ability is a pain though.  Sorcs do stink to solo, imho.  Hence I don't have one anymore.  Besides...1.51H!

hehehe, after only 7 levels I agree that theurgs should be at the top of this list.  What a laugh!  The only time I took more than one hit last night was when I pulled a red con caster and a blue con came with him.

I'm not sure about the armsmen being so easy to solo with.  It's nice that  you can get one or two pops in with an x-bow before the mobs get to you, but I manage to lose a fair amount of health if I'm fighting a yellow con, and down time can be pretty bad.  With a fairly well-rounded cleric (atm, specs are something like low 20's smite and rejuv, 11 or 12 enhance) I seem to be able to have less downtime (and insta heals help for the occasional tough/resistant mob) but really have no prayer against an orange mob, at least none that I've fought.  

My infiltrator seems to be the easiest to solo so far. He can take the right oranges with low downtime for cap xp. I've done reds solo with him before.

Moondog the cleric is 17th and specc'd 3 smite (for the mezz, helps with powerlevelling) 11 rejuv and the rest in enhance. He can solo yellows relatively safely.

Big axe had a rough time doing blues in his low 40s before the top chants. Post relic and with top chants he could take low oranges with big downtime.

I can't do oranges PvE, at all, I don't think.  I did one ONCE.  DD damage is horribly reduced vs. oranges.  RvR I can take most non-tank oranges, if I get the jump.  Me vs. Healer is funny--lots of standing around.

for me, my fire wizzy has been the easyest class ive played for soloing. i got him to 18 in like 3 days without doing any kill tasks, then 21 in another couple days of playing. stratagy:

blues: nuke, nuke. dead.
yellow: bolt, nuke, nuke. or bolt, bolt, nuke. dead.
oranges: bolt, bolt, root (if resisted, CC root again), nuke, nuke. dead.

hehe, no thought or skill needed :)

I'll throw in my two cents. As a cabalist (body/spirit/matter, 30/23/11 or so I think), I can -usually- take oranges. I typically pull with nearsight, root, debuff fully, and then send in the pet. Once it gets the mob down a bit, dot/drain/drain/drain/ad nauseum. This seems to be a safe way to solo oranges, though I end up with some downtime (eat the pet to regain mana, but then recast and rebuff the pet. A fully buffed pet seems to make a difference) With yellows, I don't worry about buffing the pet, or debuffing the mob much. I can do oranges this way usually, but every once in awhile, the unbuffed pet can't hit enough to get aggro before the mob's on me. A bunch of blues is no problem, send in the pet, let it get beat upon, heal it some, root any adds that come after me, drain drain drain.

This being said, soloing suxors. Sure, killing an orange solo comes pretty close to the exp cap, but even if I don't have the downtime of buffing the pet, I'm still doing one mob every two minutes or so. This doesn't compare to a group where you're killing 3-4 reds or better in about the same amount of time. With a good group, the downtime is less as well. Chain pulling pygmy goblins for example. Constant stream of exp and safe. The safeness factor is important. I've found that if I'm soloing oranges, I probably will die every once in awhile (mob resists root, pet can't get aggro, etc.) Tough to stay ahead of the curve that way.

Soloing was nice at lower levels though. I have fond memories of getting many a bubble soloing orange salisbury giants. At higher levels though, it's tedious and if you get a run of bad luck, you might not even gain much exp.

 Just my experiances, your milage may vary. Oh yeah, even with the reclaim-pet-mana-trick, Mystic Crystal Lore is pretty sweet for soloing.

Forgot to add: exp penalty also suxors. I get penalized for using an ability of my class? A buggy, underpowered, high-maintenence pet, comparatively speaking? That boggles the mind.

mana back from pet is based on its hp, so if you hp buff it before reclaim it'll give more mana.

You're right about soloing. It is not viable post 45. Things are just too slow.

i soloed most of lv 47 / 48 on blues & greens......wow that was fun

Yes, but that was clearly insane.

Okay, here's my experiences by character class:

Friar: Strangely enough, I rarely solo with Sodom, and I can't remember soloing at all before they increased the Friar spec points/level. Now, I can't take oranges at all, but I can solo yellows with almost no downtime. The end regen chant ensures I end a fight with almost as much end as I started with, and healing spells means I can heal myself to full after every fight. However, with no way to ranged pull, I have to pick my targets very carefully.

Theurgist - My favorite trick was to find a named red-con mob surrounded by friend mobs (Example: at 10th level or so, the named Druid behind WD). Get at max pet range, then dump earth pets on them until you run out of mana. Then run til you reach someplace safe (gaurd tower, etc).  Max xp, plus massive group bonus every kill.

Scout - The joys of soloing blues, spending more on arrows than you're bringing in even if you DO pick up all the crap they drop.

Infil - First 10 levels, I could solo oranges, or two yellow-con mobs at once. Auto-training stealth up to 20th level made my life hard from 10-20, I but I can't complain about the 15 free skill points.

Paladin - Soloing was no problem at least until 20th level: just style til you're out of end then twist chants. After that, I made the mistake of spreading my points around - Choose either sword 'n' board or two-handers at character creation and STICK WITH IT. Now I can't even solo 2 blues at once :(

Minstrel - No problem with yellows so far (12th level). Haven't really practiced charming mobs to use as temporary pets, but I hear that's the way to go past 20th.

Sorcerer - Yuck. Too many damn variables. Before you can pick a spot to hunt, you have to know which mobs nearby are charmable, AND which charmable mobs are best against the mobs you want to hunt. You really have to plan ahead with your skill points - Too little Mind and you won't be able to charm the mob you want, too little Body or Telekinesis and the mobs you hunt will resist every spell you try to cast.  At least the new post-fight mob heal-rate is to your benefit, no more having to find a new pet after every fight.

Nope, stay away from Minstrel pets.  You can't play your mana song, or the charm will break, so you have longer downtimes.  OK, you CAN play your song, but you have to twist like crazy.  Minstrel pets frankly suck.  Sure, you can charm oranges, until they kill you 12 seconds later.  Yellows are better, but again, downtime.

The one exception are the priestesses you can get near Hib PK in Had's, they buff NICE.  Of course, they don't like to follow for some reason, so you have to walk at 0.0001 mph so they don't break charm.  And at level 46, we'd have to walk for 3 hours to get to a mob worth fighting with a pet.  Did I mention you'll be ganked long before you get there?  :)