Soloing Wizards, Post-LU13

[liveja]

<DIV>Hi, everybody. I don't play a Wizard -- my two characters are a Swashbuckler & a Conjuror -- & I'm curious as to how well Wizards, of all levels, solo since LU13.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I ask, because on the Gameplay/Combat & Encounters board, there is a person named "MuscularBeaver", who plays a Wizard & insists that post-LU13, "interesting solo play" has become "next to impossible" for him/her.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Before any of you answer, please keep in mind that I'm ONLY asking about your soloability. As a Swashbuckler, my own soloability is quite high, & as a Conjuror, it's almost brain-dead easy. I have heard, in the past, that Wizards have no real issues soloing, & am wondering why this person is insisting otherwise.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Many thanks, in advance.</DIV>

[OneBadAli]

<P>Wizards own at soloing. </P> <P>As a level 60 wizard, I solo heroic nameds, and heroic instances(vault of dust, sanctorium, etc) every day.</P> <P>He just needs to come up with a good strategy and he will be fine at soloing.</P>

[BlueS]

Some things have changed about soloing. It used to be that there was one main tactic to fighting something that is 'too hard' for your level, root nuke. You root it, you nuke it, when the root breaks, you reroot, take a step back, and nuke some more. If someone thinks sitting there forever waiting for something to die slowly from root rot is 'interesting' then they are nuts. Now however you have to actually do a bit of planning. I personally prefer taking on double to tripple down grouped mobs. They drop more guild status items than single mobs, and often times go down faster. I just blast them as fast as I can with my AOE's. Critter mobs are strongly to be avoided, since as of late their stun/interupt abilities are really tough (I sometimes can get chain-stunned to death by tripple down green groups, pathetic). If taking on a single enemy, rooting still is useful, but you need tactics. DoT's are not a good idea since every tick can break the root. I generally root it, nail it with my biggest nukes, and watch carefully for when it breaks, and then hit it with my stun spell, reroot, and backup. Also if you are high enough level to have two roots (the group root and the single root) you can stack them both on an enemy. It is rare that they BOTH break, so it gives you a bit more room. If you don't have adept spells, then there is no reason to complain at all, because you are an idiot. Adepts are a MUST. Especially your main few nukes, and roots. If fighting a group with a name, root the name, and back away, then nuke the group with AOE spells far enough away not to hit the name. Once the group is taken care of you can deal with the rooted name. Buy good gear. If you plan on soloing then just INT is not enough. You will need agi and mitigation too. If you plan on grouping, that's when you need the massive int. Is soloing harder than it was? I personally don't think so. Is it more dynamic, and require more planning and more situational spell decisions? Oh yeah. You can't macro a battle against heroics or names or epics, you have to pay attention. And if you screw up, you die. But that is another part of being a wizard, we are the first to die. We are always the first to die. Often times in groups we are the first to die too. We spend more time in debt than any other class, but we also kill things faster than many classes. My paladin can actually solo harder things than my wizard, however it takes FOREVER for him to kill anything, since his dps is so lousy. My wizard can rake in xp much faster, and the debt too. Death is part of being a wizard, it's that way in every single game. Our evac spell helps prevent some of it though, although usually I can't get it off quick enough, or get interupted. So if a wizard is having trouble soloing, it's because they are stuck in a frame of mind that is not working. There are plenty of us wizards out here soloing. I gain most of my xp through soloing, and a small part of it through grouping with my wife and best friend. However, I have not grouped with ANYONE else since I was level 32, and I'm level 42 ight now. I have taken on solo mobs, grouped mobs, heroic mobs, epic mobs, named mobs, all on my own. Obviously it's much easier when grouped with my wife and best friend though (ranger and mystic respectively). <div></div>

[NightGod473]

For wizard soloing, basically, if we have a large enough space to run around in, we can eventually solo just about anything that's not orange or higher (too many resist issues to do that consistantly). In close quarters, white solo cons is about as high as you want to go-heroics, even green, are usually deadly if you try to tank/nuke them down, at least in the upper 40s and above. Basically, give me a decent run path and I'll show you some impressive stuff-put me in a dungeon and I'm grouping or I'm leaving. <div></div>

[Zabumt]

<DIV>Nightgod puts it best.  If you're soloing heroics expect to do it outside or at least in a space you've cleared inside that's large enough to allow you to stay out of melee range.  One good stun will kill you unless you're lucky.  I rooted a raptor in SS off of a caster that was heading to PoF today and proceeded to finish off the encounter.  I wasn't even planning on it.  I saw the trouble, rooted the raptor, scanned the horizon for a good run/root/nuke path and went to work.  I had one unlucky resist on root and that raptor got a couple good hits in.  Enough to bring me to less than half health.  I finished it off but not without a decent amount of risk.  A resist or two and you're toast.  Hehe and against ranged mobs?  It can get really dicey then.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I think us Wizards do the best at soloing because we have all the say over what our mobs are doing.  Want to solo that multi-mob heroic encounter but you know there's a ranged mob in the mix?  You can AE root and kill the ranged mobs before they get a few shots or spells off then work on the meleers.  Want to kill that triple heroic that you know only throws around melee?  Find a good root/run path and go to work.  Want to just rampage?  Find alot of solos and have fun.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I never had any experience soloing at 50 before the expansion.  So I can't say whether we do it better at that level now or then.  I can say that I can't imagine another class doing as well as we do solo at this point in time.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[jsi0725]

<P>First off, sorry in advance for the huge pictures. I couldn't find a way to link thumbnails to the much larger picture.</P> <P>I think Wizards solo just fine! These screenshots were taken at 48th, but I did the exact same thing at 47th. My gear is mediocre (only 1 fabled T5 earring). It's definitely not worth the time, but I was just curious if it was possible. Imagine how much easier it gets with Ice Comet! The reason you see my health going down is because of Manastone and the HP -> Power spell we get (Vital Flow?). Casters mob's would rip me a new one if they were triple up, but as long as they're melee they're do-able. One hit and I'd probably have to run though. Don't listen to the Gloom and Doom posts from the naysayers saying that Wizards are bad at soloing!</P> <P>I've pretty much soloed from 20th-50th, but I did spend a lot of time in Harclave so I guess that is cheating.</P> <P> </P> <P><IMG src="http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/5772/eq20000457us.jpg"> </P> <P> </P> <P> </P> <P><IMG src="http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/2153/eq20000464lk.jpg"></P> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><IMG src="http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/1899/eq20000505as.jpg"></DIV>

[liveja]

Thanx, Array!

[IllusiveThoughts]

<P>lol pretty risky canni your health down so low.  one hit from an unseen add or one root resist and poof you die.</P> <P>nice xp gain thou 1% aint bad.</P>

[jsi0725]

<P>I guess that's the concept of Risk vs Reward though. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Wizards are no way overpowered, but as you can see it's pretty simple to solo as a Wizard.</P> <P>I mentioned that I had mediocre gear because with better gear (higher int/higher power pool), my health wouldn't be so low from Manastoning and Vital Flow'ing.</P>

[NightGod473]

Gear definately makes a big difference-I'm only 49 but have been soloing those giants since 48 and never have to canni. 300INT and some good gear, but everything I have is non-twinked vendor bought, except for a nice pair of pants and robe from Drayek. I should mention I've always been good at farming money for my own use, though. Also, get Adept III on your root asap, if you haven't already. I can't believe the difference in makes for me in resists against higher level mobs. <div></div>

[StoneySilen]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> livejazz wrote: <DIV>I ask, because on the Gameplay/Combat & Encounters board, there is a person named "MuscularBeaver", who plays a Wizard & insists that post-LU13, "interesting solo play" has become "next to impossible" for him/her.</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>Well, you quoted it as being<STRONG> "interesting solo play".</STRONG> That is different then being <STRONG>ABLE</STRONG> to solo.  I am able to solo quite well with my 42 wizard.  Is it interesting?  Not really.  Root, debuff, dot, nuke, repeat.</DIV>

[Cuki_]

The only interesting in soloing is when u solo heroic nameds and have a chance to drop master<img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[IllusiveThoughts]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Cuki_55 wrote:<BR>The only interesting in soloing is when u solo heroic nameds and have a chance to drop master<img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>solo named have the same chance at a master.

[IllusiveThoughts]

<BLOCKQUOTE> <P>FYI</P> <P>if all the spawns in the clefts are perma camped and your wizard is lvl 59 and higher, you can solo all the heroic named in the 2nd floor instance, & hidden cashe, & sanctorium.</P> <P>hint for the castors *protoflame*</P></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>