Tid Bits I've learned about soloing to 25

[Reev]

<DIV>Well, I don't think I'm alone in the fact that lfg can be a long time.  So a lot of us may find ourselves soloing and I actually really like solo or duo with my husband.  I choose to solo for many reasons, most of them being rl concerns, but during the times that rl concerns aren't in play, I like to find a group, though finding one that wants a wizard is a difficulty, and sometimes, the time wasted lfg or getting xp debt from a bad group would have been time better spent soloing.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So anyway, I'm not like the best expert on the subject, and I'm not quite that high in lvl yet, and I may be all mislead about some of the info I've given out and would welcome constructive criticism or gentle correction, but I will give the small amount of pointers I've learned while soloing. Mind you the spells are based on what are at my disposal atm (lvl 25), lower lvls may not have them, and higher lvls will prolly have an equivilent higher replacement.  Some of the things may be really obvious, but I thought I'd also help out anyone who has either never played a MMORPG, never played a wizard, or never soloed a wizard.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG>Buffs and Spells:</STRONG></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1.  <U>Food and drink are a soloers best friend.</U>  Spend money on this or become best friends with a provisioner.  Food and drink is also very important while grouping, but totally totally essential for soloing unless you want tons of down time.  Use the best food for your lvl.  If you are in group you may be able to get away with a little less than stellar food, but considering you use the mana/health exchange spell, I would still opt for going with the best food possible.  Remember appropriate lvl food still regens you during combat faster than summoned or no food.  It won't regen as fast as not being in combat, but any small tick up of health and power during a fight is a good thing.  I only stress this because so many people I have met were uninformed about the wonders of food and drink.  With the new patch I think everyone is now enlightened.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2.  <U>Summon shadows is a soloers best friend.</U>  When you finish a close fight and are in a high agro place, as long as they aren't double ups and named most everything will not see past your invisibility and you can med up in safety, so make sure summon shadows is at the very least app3, but higher is better.  You'll prolly never use this while grouping, and if you have a scout handy you will never use it while grouping.  Summon shadows is also good for retrieving those pesky spirit shards we all have a habit of leaving behind in the world.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>3.  <U>Don't forget to use your personal buffs.</U>  I really don't know if accord works or not (the mana regen buff that has a chance of taking effect if the player buffed is hit) to be honest I've never seen a difference in mana regen so I really don't cast it.  However, Burning Radiance is a must have.  In group sometimes the tank runs off so quickly it's difficult to hit him with it every time, and is a definite pain to try to keep up on every dmg dealer in group.  In solo though every single possible additional heat dmg is necessary.  Get in the habit of keeping this up.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>4.  <U>Get Frozen manacles (root) upgraded as soon as possible and for as high as possible if you are serious about soloing</U>.  In a group, rooting very seldom works, but it's essential this spell is as good as it can be while soloing.  Getting good at stun root can sometimes be very beneficial in a group.  If everyone is running and it's a single mob or if it's the boss mob with little guys, stun then root and most likely everyone will flee in safety.  If a tank isn't paying attention to you having agro, stun root is very helpful unless you're in a dungeon where there's no more room to run.  Very seldom does it work for anyone else.  You could try it for a healer, but chances are they are gonna stand right in the same place where the rooted mob can still hit them.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>5.  <U>Freeze (stun) is also essential to have upgraded asap no matter if you are grouping or solo.</U>  Sometimes when the mob is just down a bit and gets to you and all you need is one more blast then hit freeze then blast.  Or if the mob has broken root sooner (which is almost always) then hit stun, then root.  Gives you much higher odds of actually getting the spell off because we all know we don't have hps and any hit is bad.  Eeek we bruise so easily.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>6.  <U>Painful meditation (health/power exchange) would seem as though it were a group situation spell only, but I use this all the time while soloing.</U>  Very seldom do I use it during the fight as I feel getting the mob down fast is very important and I seldom ever run out of mana on a single while solo.  I find though that after a fight if all has gone well, I have far more health than power so I use Painful med to make down time less.  Again, another reason why good FOOD is important as well as good drink.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>7.  <U>As for AoE, it's always been sorta worthless for soloers, now it's just worthless</U>.  I have found doing multiple mobs even green is a great difficulty as a wizard, it's very difficult to crowd control more than one mob, and with just one mob hitting you the chance for interrupt is extremely high, but having more than one, it makes interrupt an annoying presence, so I find that AoE is useless while soloing since it does little dmg overall, and the long cast time gives the mobs more opportunity to interrupt, and actually, it's sorta useless while grouping too.  If you are a serious soloer don't spend a whole lotta money on these unless you have the cash to do it.  I have simply because I did have some money and they were available to upgrade, but I have very seldom used them even in group.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>8.  <U>Ok, I know so many people think static pulse is useless, but...</U>  It's a very low dmg dot, but the reason I think it's handy for soloing is that it reduces the magic mitigation for the duration.  Any resist is a nightmare while soloing.  Having multiple resists could just mean death, so any chance at all to make it so each strike hits IMO is worthwhile, and the cast time is 1 second with recovery 0.5 secs so you can't beat that.  I cast it, if it doesn't stick oh well, but I have found that it does help at the lvl I'm at.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>9.  <U>Freezing Whorl and incinerate (single target dots) do bring down a mob quite quickly.</U>  Remember when you're soloing you want every advantage you could possibly have.  I've had many times when a mob breaks root to die at my feet because of the dot.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG>So now for a little technique.</STRONG></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I start off obviously with root, hit it with the three dots leaving static pulse for last incase they break root earlier.  If I don't have time to get it off it's not a biggie.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I then hit with breath of tyrant first.  You'd think why not BoF?  The reason being is that in my experience BoF breaks root almost instantly, very seldom do mobs stick after being hit with BoF, but there's a little bit higher chance it will stick and get in dmg with breath of tyrant.  I also have found that if a fight lasts for longer than 12 seconds to use BoF again, then it was a pretty bad fight, or it was a really super risky mob.  Now if it's an orange mob, sometimes I will open with BoF even before the roots and the dots to get dmg in right away and then stun and root. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>After that I chain cast switching between Breath of Tyrant and Blaze.  Those two still being my highest dmg...though I havne't looked at ice spike in a while, but was a bit wimpy last time I used it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If all goes super well, then the mob is dead in the place you rooted it, but that happens maybe one out of 15 or so fights I'd say.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Most likely you need to reroot so of course it takes stun then root then back away and blast blast, pretty simple stuff.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG>Multiples:</STRONG></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Sometimes you'll find you're working on one mob and another agros you.  You can handle two at the same time, it just takes a lot of room to back up so make sure you don't back up in a high agro area to worse danger.  Quickly assess your health and your power and if you're good to go, root one, run the other fairly far away and root it, do all the above as appropriate.  Now, I've found that if you root the first and back away at an appropriate distance then after the first breaks root it will not come after you.  If you stay within the same distance as it then it will agro you after it breaks and this is either a good thing or bad thing depending on your health and power.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG>Stun Root Stun Root always:</STRONG></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Don't gamble with your health.  There are times the mob is down to a point that if you got one more blast off you could just tank it and blast it instead of going through the whole root and back up thing.  Sometimes it gets really old and redundant, but don't get lazy about it.  We are so frail, and I will guarantee that fizzle and interrupt will happen like three times in a row in which time your health is in the red when it started in the yellow.  Unless if it's a sure thing, such as one good stun (which does dmg) and the dots are going, is the only time I'd tank it personally, otherwise even if it looks like a pretty sure thing with one good blast think about the time it will take you to run back to get your shard and work of 3% xp debt as opposed to taking the time to just root it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG>Skill ups:</STRONG></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Let some greys beat you up for a while, it increases your defensive skills.  Beat up some greys with your little stick for a while it will skill up parry and dodge (or whatever it's called in this game).  You will see your avatar dodge when it does that crazy little break dancing graphic.  We don't have huge muscles to flex, but make them as strong as possible.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Keep your swimming skill up to lvl too, you never know when you have to run and hit water.  Mobs will always catch you in water if you aren't fast enough.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG>Agility items aren't a bad idea:</STRONG></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Don't overlook agility.  To be honest, I'm not that concerned with int armor as a soloer.  Between Painful med and the self and group buffs and good drink, I have never dumped my whole power bar unless it was fighting multiples.  So things like agility while it seems silly for a wizard and would be for a grouping wizard, is pretty beneficial as a soloing wizard as it increases dodge (or whatever it's called in this game).  It seems as though agility should theorhetically improve how many times you are interrupted, but I have not seen this to be the case.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG>Tanking it:</STRONG></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I have found if you are taking a chance and tanking a mob, that the interrupts decrease a small margin if you are actually fighting with your little stick.  The little stick will have little to no dmg on the mob, but being in combat mode will actually help you block and/or parry.  Again, a good reason to pick a fight with greys from time to time.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG>RUN RUN RUN:</STRONG></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If all goes terribly wrong, don't forget to break encounter and run.  I know this seems obvious, but I've seen many people ingame run and never do they actually break encounter.  I think maybe some of it is it seems rather silly "So and So Yells for Help from your left."  "You Yell for Help" bleh who wants to appear that wimpy?  Screaming like a little girl.  However, you aren't actually calling for help, if someone wants to help, sure, let them if you're running it's no loss to you.  But you're breaking encounter so that your good food and drink will regen you at the regular non combat rate and you can stand more hits and sprint longer making it so you can run from most every fight.  Don't forget if you hit water, you have your skill up so you won't be slowed down too much.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG>KK that's all for now:</STRONG></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Hope it helps someone, most wizards on this board seem to group a lot so there wasn't a lot of info specifically for soloers.  I was also under the impression that soloing was over with post 20 from threads I read when I was scoping out wizards, but so far I have not seen it, it's been and seems to be still viable for me, but we will see what 27-30 range brings.  I think soloing I lvl faster than spending time lfg, getting group all situated and together, figuring out what everyone wants to fight, and then most likely having a wipe out.  If people find this useful, I would be happy to make small updates as I lvl, but if not, that's cool too, just hoped to help someone is all <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[TiitanTa]

<DIV>Nice post!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>You did not mention quests.  Quest experience is 30% of my experience and is easier in some critical ways for soloers.  When you are in a group, you usually spend a great deal of time working on someone else's quest.  Solo, you can go for exactly the MOB you need.  There are many quests that can be completed solo, although not nearly as many as you can in a group.  Plan your day around quests and you not only can make more experience, but also get a greater sense of achievement.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>With 230 quests completed getting to level 25, I have to say I love this game.  Heading home to play it right now :smileyhappy:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Good hunting to you.</DIV>

[HairyDustBall]

I used a simular combat method for a while but I found this one works best (usualy kill oranges only taking 1 hit):Stand at the max distance you can from the mob and cast freezing whorl, incinerate, freeze, frozen mancales, run to a max distance from the mob and lauch a bof then cycle between breath and the new level 20 trait DD.The advantage is I found that casting the dots often broke root, This way you get both dots on without wasting a root the freeze will give you enough time to cast the root and then backing off a good distance will do several things for you. first off you have dots damageing the mobs so you arnt wasting time just moving, second You will probalby break root from your DD so time on your root doesn't matter, third giving yourself a good distance makes the mob have to run to you adding more time that you have to reroot or get that last dd off, Finaly the level 20 DD has a movement debuff. Launch BOF first the roots are on doing damage while you take that lengthy cast time. If the BOF breaks root most oranges can only take 3 more lower level DDs you get 1 for free as it runs (sugest the level 20 trait for the movment debuff), the other 2 you should be able to get off while the mob is hitting you. This only happens 30% of time most of the time I kill the mobe before it ever reaches me. The 1 hit comes in on the freeze usualy you will get hit right before it goes off.This method cannot be used in a dungeon or tight space however it is great for places like Nek and TS.

[The Mighty Sto]

Let me throw in my recipe.Stand max distance, BOF, freeze, manacle, whorl, BOF. BOT if they're still kicking.I can kill solo no arrow mobs with this up through orange. I have yet to be able to take a group that could give xp. Has anyone killed a group of three greens?

[TiitanTa]

<BLOCKQUOTE> <P> <HR> The Mighty Stock wrote:</P> <P>Has anyone killed a group of three greens?</P> <P> <HR> </P></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>I can kill SOLO oranges, and single GROUP mobs that are double up greens on rare instances.  But most of the time GROUP encounters with multiple mobs are going to eat me for lunch.  I did a GROUP encounter solo with two mobs by rooting and DOTting each in turn.  Got hammered rooting the first one and nearly died each time, but it can be done.  It will make for sweaty palms for sure.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>But three green GROUP mobs, not much margin for success.  Love to hear if someone has done it much.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I have DOTted solo MOBs and ran in around a bit until the DOT did it's work.  Lizards in Antonica are slow enough to run from and of course when the root breaks it is easy to <EM>discover </EM>DOT kiting.  Has anyone tried DOT kiting with any success?</DIV>

[Lorelai_Seabree]

Havent had any luck with dot kiting, the higher you get in lvls the worse it gets since your dots damage doesnt scale up as much as the mobs health.You may have better luck with it below lvl 20 though :/

[TiitanTa]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Lorelai_Seabreeze wrote:<BR>Havent had any luck with dot kiting, the higher you get in lvls the worse it gets since your dots damage doesnt scale up as much as the mobs health.<BR>You may have better luck with it below lvl 20 though :/<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>I'm having a great time at 25.  I hear so much about the decreasing returns on leveling, that it almost makes me want to turn off experience.  Maybe I'll stay 25 forever [ another fantasy in RL brought to life in EQ2 ]</P>

[Lorelai_Seabree]

If you take your time and explore alot of the quests and visit new places you should be fine.Let the power gamers find all the problems so they get fixed long before you get there <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />I have to slow my leveling so the guild catches up to me.Being the highest lvl in a guild has its disadvantages.Try doing guild writs that require groups when no group wants to kill those particular mobs :/

[Generic123]

<DIV> <P><FONT face=Century color=#ffffff size=2>Here is what I do solo with my level 23 wizard. <SPAN> </SPAN>I normally hunt skeletons near RoV.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face=Century color=#ffffff size=2>I lead off with chilling wind since it has a relatively long cast time.<SPAN>  </SPAN>Then I follow with freezing whorl.<SPAN>  </SPAN>(both adept 3 <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> )</FONT></P> <P><FONT color=#ffffff><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century>As I finish freezing whorl the mob will likely hit me, but my armor is current so one hit isn’t a problem, and the ideal time for it is just after I cast freezing whorl since it guarantees I don’t get interrupted on my next spell.<SPAN>  </SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></P> <P><FONT color=#ffffff><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century>Next I cast incinerate, followed by freeze.<SPAN>  </SPAN>Sometime I get hit again before freeze but again with current armor it is not a major setback.<SPAN>  </SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></P> <P><FONT face=Century color=#ffffff size=2>Freeze gives me enough time to cast my root then back off to a safe distance.</FONT></P> <P><FONT color=#ffffff><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century>At this point I can relax and regroup while the DoT does its work.<SPAN>  </SPAN>I don’t wait to long though because I want to get the next step done before the damage mitigation debuffs ware off.<SPAN>  </SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></P> <P><FONT color=#ffffff><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century>After I relax and let a few DoT ticks go by I bring up the HO wheel and start it using BoF.<SPAN>  </SPAN>(Also adept 3 and with the damage mitigation debuffs in place it does better then 350 points of damage. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> )<SPAN>  </SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></P> <P><FONT face=Century color=#ffffff size=2>This will likely break the root, but hopefully it doesn’t matter.<SPAN>  </SPAN>With any luck I get the common result for the HO, because I can trigger this with my skeleton master strike for another 200 damage + 100 more for the HO and kill the skeleton before it gets to attack again.<SPAN>  </SPAN>Add that to the 200 - 250 damage from the DoT’s the 70 or so from freeze equals one dead skeleton.</FONT></P> <P><FONT color=#ffffff><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century>I find I can consistently take down orange skeletons and sometimes even reds though I avoid the latter since if everything doesn’t play out perfectly they and I will have downtime even if I’m successful.<SPAN>  </SPAN>Against the orange ones I can recover even if the root doesn’t take or I get a fizzle at bad time, and don’t incur much if any downtime when things go well. <SPAN> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></P> <P><FONT color=#ffffff><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century>Finally keep I keep my kitty out as much as possible.<SPAN>  </SPAN>I have not yet run into a case where my kitty did not distract mobs long enough for me to escape when I call for help and run.<SPAN>  </SPAN>Unlike regular fights where he only gets involved on rare occasions it seems when you call for help and are running from an aggroed mob he seems to get involved almost every time.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P></DIV>

[TiitanTa]

<BLOCKQUOTE> <P> <HR> </P> <P>Generic123 wrote:<FONT color=#ffffff><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century></FONT></FONT></FONT></P> <P><FONT color=#ffffff><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century>Finally keep I keep my kitty out as much as possible.<SPAN>  </SPAN>I have not yet run into a case where my kitty did not distract mobs long enough for me to escape when I call for help and run.<SPAN>  </SPAN>Unlike regular fights where he only gets involved on rare occasions it seems when you call for help and are running from an aggroed mob he seems to get involved almost every time.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P> <P> <HR> </P></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>ok, NOW you have my undivided attention.  Are you saying your kitty has an interaction of some kind with the MOBs?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Mine has failed at any time to do anything related to the MOBs.  Something that actually made it useful would be a revalation to me and I suspect many others.</DIV>

[HairyDustBall]

<blockquote><hr>TiitanTank wrote:<BLOCKQUOTE><P><HR></p><P>Generic123 wrote:<FONT color=#ffffff><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century></font></font></font></p><P><FONT color=#ffffff><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century>Finally keep I keep my kitty out as much as possible.<SPAN> </span>I have not yet run into a case where my kitty did not distract mobs long enough for me to escape when I call for help and run.<SPAN> </span>Unlike regular fights where he only gets involved on rare occasions it seems when you call for help and are running from an aggroed mob he seems to get involved almost every time.</font></font></font></p><P><HR></p></blockquote><DIV>ok, NOW you have my undivided attention. Are you saying your kitty has an interaction of some kind with the MOBs?</div><DIV> </div><DIV>Mine has failed at any time to do anything related to the MOBs. Something that actually made it useful would be a revalation to me and I suspect many others.</div><hr></blockquote>Yes cats randomly take agro and tank. No they don't have to be hit with an AE it just happens 1-50 battles or so. I have been in a group seen a mob just peal off the tank go running past me and attack the cat for no reason many times.

[Lorelai_Seabree]

Ive seen grouped mobs when pulled go directly for the cat.Heard of some instances where someone left the cat at the entrance to TS and when the group pulled the mobs looked like they fled. But what happened was they went after the cat.

[TiitanTa]

<BLOCKQUOTE> <P> <HR> HairyDustBall wrote:</P> <P>Yes cats randomly take agro and tank. No they don't have to be hit with an AE it just happens 1-50 battles or so. I have been in a group seen a mob just peal off the tank go running past me and attack the cat for no reason many times.</P> <P> <HR> </P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>I had my little kitty following me around for a week and he never did anything that I noticed other than preen.  Is this new?  Is it a bug?  Should I give up one of my lesser concentration buffs for the kitty?</P> <P>Well, that does it.  I thought it was hard to keep working BEFORE this!  Now I find my familiar is Felix the Wonder Tank.</P> <P>Anyone else have this work?  [ I am still in denial sorry ]<BR></P>

[Generic123]

<DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> <P><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century color=#ffff99>Yes cats randomly take agro and tank. No they don't have to be hit with an AE it just happens 1-50 battles or so. I have been in a group seen a mob just peal off the tank go running past me and attack the cat for no reason many times.</FONT></FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century><FONT color=#ffffff>The thing is kitty seems to get involved almost every time I run.<SPAN>  </SPAN>In the last 2 levels I’ve had to run 7 or 8 times while soloing and each time I had enough end to get well away and safe of kitty has actively tanked the mob giving me time to get away.<SPAN>  </SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></P> <P><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century><FONT color=#ffffff>It could be specific to the skeletons I’ve been fighting or just luck, but the frequency of kitty getting involved seems to go way up when you call for help and run.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P></DIV> <P>Message Edited by Generic123 on <SPAN class=date_text>01-14-2005</SPAN><SPAN class=time_text>11:02 AM</SPAN></P><p>Message Edited by Generic123 on <span class=date_text>01-14-2005</span> <span class=time_text>11:02 AM</span>

[Reev]

<DIV>Ah nice alternate suggestions as to the technique aspect.  I do have to say I am a bit wimpy as far as what I pick on.  If it's a light orange, meaning it's just barely orange and next lvl it will be yellow, I will pick a fight with it, but mostly I just like killing yellows, will wipe out white and blue if I have to to clear the field.  I like picking on something that is very high con for the thrill factor, but mainly I find it faster xp because of less down time to stick with yellow.</DIV>

[adamflanagan]

<blockquote><hr>Generic123 wrote:<DIV><P><FONT face=Century color=#ffffff size=2>Here is what I do solo with my level 23 wizard. <SPAN> </SPAN>I normally hunt skeletons near RoV.</FONT></P><P><FONT face=Century color=#ffffff size=2>I lead off with chilling wind since it has a relatively long cast time.<SPAN> </SPAN>Then I follow with freezing whorl.<SPAN> </SPAN>(both adept 3 <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> )</FONT></P><P><FONT color=#ffffff><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century>As I finish freezing whorl the mob will likely hit me, but my armor is current so one hit isn’t a problem, and the ideal time for it is just after I cast freezing whorl since it guarantees I don’t get interrupted on my next spell.<SPAN> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></P><P><FONT color=#ffffff><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century>Next I cast incinerate, followed by freeze.<SPAN> </SPAN>Sometime I get hit again before freeze but again with current armor it is not a major setback.<SPAN> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></P><P><FONT face=Century color=#ffffff size=2>Freeze gives me enough time to cast my root then back off to a safe distance.</FONT></P><P><FONT color=#ffffff><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century>At this point I can relax and regroup while the DoT does its work.<SPAN> </SPAN>I don’t wait to long though because I want to get the next step done before the damage mitigation debuffs ware off.<SPAN> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></P><P><FONT color=#ffffff><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century>After I relax and let a few DoT ticks go by I bring up the HO wheel and start it using BoF.<SPAN> </SPAN>(Also adept 3 and with the damage mitigation debuffs in place it does better then 350 points of damage. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> )<SPAN> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></P><P><FONT face=Century color=#ffffff size=2>This will likely break the root, but hopefully it doesn’t matter.<SPAN> </SPAN>With any luck I get the common result for the HO, because I can trigger this with my skeleton master strike for another 200 damage + 100 more for the HO and kill the skeleton before it gets to attack again.<SPAN> </SPAN>Add that to the 200 - 250 damage from the DoT’s the 70 or so from freeze equals one dead skeleton.</FONT></P><P><FONT color=#ffffff><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century>I find I can consistently take down orange skeletons and sometimes even reds though I avoid the latter since if everything doesn’t play out perfectly they and I will have downtime even if I’m successful.<SPAN> </SPAN>Against the orange ones I can recover even if the root doesn’t take or I get a fizzle at bad time, and don’t incur much if any downtime when things go well. <SPAN> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></P><P><FONT color=#ffffff><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century>Finally keep I keep my kitty out as much as possible.<SPAN> </SPAN>I have not yet run into a case where my kitty did not distract mobs long enough for me to escape when I call for help and run.<SPAN> </SPAN>Unlike regular fights where he only gets involved on rare occasions it seems when you call for help and are running from an aggroed mob he seems to get involved almost every time.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P></DIV><hr></blockquote>how much did you pay for your adept IIIs? or if you made them how much has anyone else paid for them? ive been saving to upgrade my spells and i dont want to get ripped off when i do.

[Generic123]

<DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> <P><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century><FONT color=#ffff99>how much did you pay for your adept IIIs? or if you made them how much has anyone else paid for them? ive been saving to upgrade my spells and i dont want to get ripped off when i do.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P><FONT face=Century color=#ffffff size=2></FONT> </P> <P><FONT face=Century color=#ffffff size=2>I’m also a level 30 jeweler and have a level 31 alchemist alt.<SPAN>  </SPAN>My jewelers income alone is pushing 2 plat at this point so I can afford the rather insane price of the harvests required to make adept 3’s<SPAN>  </SPAN>I did harvest 2 of the rares myself, and honestly this may be a better way to go.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face=Century color=#ffffff size=2>On my server silver/coral which are used for spells leve10 – 19 are running 10+ gold.<SPAN>  </SPAN>Jasper/Palladium for level 20-29 spells are running over 20 Gold, but I have picked up a few at 15 gold.</FONT></P> <P><FONT color=#ffffff><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century>You can also expect to pay another gold or two to get this made into a spell.<SPAN>  </SPAN>Sad situation but unfortunately the market manipulators seem to be getting their way. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></FONT></FONT></FONT></P></DIV>

[adamflanagan]

<blockquote><hr>Generic123 wrote:<DIV><BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr><P><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century><FONT color=#ffff99>how much did you pay for your adept IIIs? or if you made them how much has anyone else paid for them? ive been saving to upgrade my spells and i dont want to get ripped off when i do.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE><P><FONT face=Century color=#ffffff size=2></FONT> </P><P><FONT face=Century color=#ffffff size=2>I’m also a level 30 jeweler and have a level 31 alchemist alt.<SPAN> </SPAN>My jewelers income alone is pushing 2 plat at this point so I can afford the rather insane price of the harvests required to make adept 3’s<SPAN> </SPAN>I did harvest 2 of the rares myself, and honestly this may be a better way to go.</FONT></P><P><FONT face=Century color=#ffffff size=2>On my server silver/coral which are used for spells leve10 – 19 are running 10+ gold.<SPAN> </SPAN>Jasper/Palladium for level 20-29 spells are running over 20 Gold, but I have picked up a few at 15 gold.</FONT></P><P><FONT color=#ffffff><FONT size=2><FONT face=Century>You can also expect to pay another gold or two to get this made into a spell.<SPAN> </SPAN>Sad situation but unfortunately the market manipulators seem to be getting their way. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></FONT></FONT></FONT></P></DIV><hr></blockquote>ok, thanks for the info

[Beth]

<DIV>Also a 23 wiz soloing at RoV on the orange con skells, I have found that using the dots leads to the mob breaking root a lot more often, so I have switched to starting with bof as it has a longer range, you then have to wait a second as trying to cast root will result in a "To far away" message, cast the root and back up a little, drop the skel mastery followed by bof again, the mob will just about always break at this point, so i use the upgraded cold stun + damage i got as a training option, then re-root, drop bof again, plus maybe bot to finish, this ormally keeps a good distance between me and the mob.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Havnt really looked into the HO's much but after reading the above posts i may do tonight !!!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Last night I was 3.5 hours with lfg tag on, in that time i kept checking to see if i could set off a group, always the same, wizards, rangers & other mage classes all lfg, no tanks, no healers, no assasins, just the lame classes in the game !!!! Self included !!!</DIV>

[TiitanTa]

<BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> BethRo wrote:<BR> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Last night I was 3.5 hours with lfg tag on, in that time i kept checking to see if i could set off a group, always the same, wizards, rangers & other mage classes all lfg, no tanks, no healers, no assasins, just the lame classes in the game !!!! Self included !!!</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>'lame classes'?  Keep in mind the reason there are so many mages out there is that it is such a great class to play.  Don't let anyone tell you that Wizards are not a valuable part of the group dynamic.</P> <P>I was in some of the best groups ever this weekend.  Making outstanding experience and pulling nearly non-stop.  We had two groups during that time, Wizard [me], Mystic, Templar, Guardian, Swashbuckler and Illusionist in one group and the other was Wizard [me], Mystic, Fury, Paladin, Swashbuckler and Assassin.  We are all 24-28 with me in the middle of the range most of the time.  We were fighting double up arrow group MOBs in Thunder Steppes.  Giants, Undead, Gnolls, Centaurs, anything that moved.  In 12 hours of playing, there was many times when folks would go AFK and we would still fight.  But if I went AFK, the time it took to take down a MOB would significantly increase.  It increased enough so that they mentioned it.</P> <P>I did some solo time as well Friday night and found a terrific spot for Wizards of 26-28.  In TS, along the South-Western shoreline there is a cave full of Earth Rumblers.  These are KOS MOBs that wander around a fairly long cave system.  They are almost all the same level (blue to me at 26) and are all SOLO cons!  I was amazed that they existed at all.  They are fairly easy to root rot and there is room in the tunnels to do it.  They all wander around, but the dead ends of some of the tunnels were empty the whole time I was in them.  </P> <P>Cast invisibility and walk around the cave system so you know the way in and out.  Find a dead end and wait to see if it tends to remain empty, or just pull the three MOBs at the door outside.  Cast BoF, then DOTs then root.  For me the root was holding until the DOTs just about wore off again.  Cast BoF before the DOTs expire to get maximum damage from the debuffs.  Then either root again, or DD and melee them down.  I never had ANY problem with them doing any serious damage before they dropped.  They are also slow movers, so you can get away from them pretty easily.</P> <P>In the same area, there are SOLO con 'A large Shore Crab's a requirement for several quests, as well as SOLO Tide Octopi, [Yup, I said SOLO], which are a ton easier than the double up arrow GROUP cons by the TS docks.</P> <P>Dangers in the area are Giants to the East(strangely easy to spot from a distance making avoidance simple), SOLO con Skeletons to the North, GROUP con Gnolls to the South, GROUP con Centaurs to the South, and SOLO con Sirens out in the water to the West.  There is also a Triple up arrow, Group X3 set of MOBs on a spear of land just south of the Earth Rumblers.  It was red to me in a way that just screams doom.  Don't solo that just yet.</P> <P>The Earth Rumblers are KOS, but the crabs are not.  It was not too hard to find a safe spot to pull either.</P> <P>If you suffer an untimely death, you will spawn at a tent to the South of the Centaurs, Gnolls and Rumblers.  The Gnolls did not see through my invisibility.  Some of the Centaurs do.  So do the Sirens.  Take your time making your way back and you should be fine.</P> <P>All in all, this is the best solo hunting I have seen for a Wizzie-paper-tanker.</P> <P>Anyone else have nice spots they are willing to share?</P>