Baby Warlock Seeking Advice: Soloing, Root & Burn, How, When, What, Huh?

[themysterious]

Hoowdy My Peers, I am fairly new to the Warlock profession, I have played a Warlock to 24, rerolled and played again until 25; for more background, I also have a 35 necro, 27 inq, and various tank type alts in their 20s... but the stem of my problem derives from my 5 years as an EQ1 Wizard. Reading through these hallowed forums, it seems that Warlocks are very effective soloers, but I am having immense difficulty. My EQ1 experience tells me to snare, run, and nuke like hell... but I have no snare, and running is futile. My experience as a 35 necro tells me to root, dot, send my pet in, and chain root... well I can root, I can dot, and I can chain root... but I have no pet, so this is a very slow way to solo. From what I have read, the key to soloing is to root and nuke... I tried this, and got beaten to a pulp. It seems to me there is a very, very high chance of root breaking when you nuke the monster, and even at max nuke range, I can't cast root again before the monster reaches me. The most effective method I have been able to derive is to root, dot, root root root root root, redot, root, NUKE... but this is painfully slow. So my peers, what am I doing wrong? Thanks in advanced... <div></div>

[Lord_Xyr]

<div></div><div></div>Two words, Heroic Oportunities. You didn't mention them so I'm assuming you're underestimating them and not using them. Learn to use em while soloing, it'll increase your efficiency big time. Open with root,debuff, then initiate your HO, then nuke, finaly complete the HO with another nuke of the appropriate type. It will trigger an additional nuke that'll do some extra damage that, at your level, will probably do close to 50% of the mobs total HP in dmg (unless your trying to solo double up mobs). <div></div><p><span class="date_text"></span><span class="time_text">Also, when soloing, don't bother with the straight DOT's. Only use the ones that also debuff. Their dmg is pretty pathetic and you can kill most mob's before the DOT finishes its cycles anyway. Use em in groups on the tougher mobs that take a little longer to kill to maximize the efficiency of the mana used for the DOT's. </span></p><p>Message Edited by Lord_Xyrax on <span class=date_text>06-21-2005</span> <span class=time_text>12:57 AM</span>

[themysterious]

Thanks for your advice Lord Xyrax, to be honest I haven't been using HOs much with my warlock, the main reason for this being that when I land the initial nuke to start the chain, root almost always breaks, if I recast root I run the high risk of not finishing the chain in time (especially if it is a lightning chain), if I don't recast root I run the risk of dying, because if the nuke+HO doesn't finish the mob, it will be on top of me, and my fragile body gives in. Its not so bad fighting solo blues, but that is painfully slow... Should I invest a few hours/days running around looking for a rare to upgrade my root? Will that decrease the chance of it breaking when the nuke lands? or do they always break when the nuke lands? <div></div>

[Vanra]

Hey EQ1 Wizard buddy, I wrote this up for another thread a while ago, but never managed to use it. Maybe you can find some help here. Most of what will be here will probably seem elementary to you, being a former Wizard. Root and nuke is still our primary bread and butter. Hopefully someone will get some use out of it. You're not doing anything wrong, hehe. Don't worry. " Ahh, yes. The soloing warlock. It can be a glorious thing, but it's not without it's pitfalls. I'm sure that you've noticed by now that a solo fight involving a warlock can either be you wiping the floor with the enemy or a total trainwreck. Roots can be a harsh mistress to depend on. As a solo warlock (this is my solo character, I think I've only been in three of four groups up until 46, soloed the whole way) I can probably lay out a few of my tactics that could help out. <u><b>Single solo encounters</b></u>: I can hardly remember a time when anything short of an orange scout mob has caused serious problems for me. The idea here is probably what you've been going with, so it's probably not new information. I would always start at maximum possible casting range and at your level (25 ish) lead with Dark Distortion. While the mob barrels toward you, have Frozen Manacles casting. If it reaches you and you still get the root off, you're golden. If it interrupts, try getting it off one more time. If you do it's okay, even if you're still in the yellow. You still have Plan B (I'll get to Plan B in a moment). Once the mob is rooted back away again as far as casting will allow. Pop the HO key (some people don't use HO's when rooting, I usually do though) and Dark Distortion. If you get Arcane Fury and it's still rooted, Ice Spike it through. If you get Arcane Storm, I usually let it pass. At this point, Plan B may be necessary. Plan B uses my very very favorite spell of all time: Freeze. If it's running towards you, Freeze it and immediately hit Frozen Manacles. Back away, and repeat the Dark Distortion HO cycle. There aren't a lot of solo mobs that will withstand this by now. In most cases, taking solo mobs has always been utter destruction for me, a few times the pesky scout mobs can get all up in your business, and that can be a problem though. Remember to pick your targets. Healers and magic users drop fast and are good foes to choose. <u> <b>Multiple Mob (v) solo encounters</b></u>: These are very tempting targets. They offer a nice exp bonus and can sometimes be worth it. This is where the soloing game gets a little tricky. You have to know what you're going after first. Say you're going after a group of three down arrows. One is a priest, the other a fighter and the other the mage. I always kill the mage type first. Mostly because it has the lowest HP and will probably drop on the pull. Then you only have 2 mobs to deal with:smileywink:. I find that the mage usually dies before the priest can heal it, so just kill it first and go after the priest. By the time you kill the mage, they will probably both be on you. Start Frozen Manacles on the fighter type after he uses a Combat Art like Crushing blow (usually early on) so he's less likely to interrupt. This isn't a big deal because it's usually the first thing they use anyway. Get a root off on the fighter, back up a bit, and chain nuke the priest down, saving Freeze for a heal he starts to fire off. If he doesn't and you kill him with Freeze still up, use it on the Fighter. Use root tactics (as in Single Solo mob) with the fighter type. Having a solo encounter with less diversity in it is a little tougher. An all fighter group of three or four, for example is tricky.  I would usually end up rooting one, backing up and running a bit waiting for Frozen Manacles to refresh, and then try and get one off on another target. Now you have two rooted with one about to break. Take out one of your roaming targets, just nuke it to the ground. The prime directive here is to reduce the number of targets you have as soon as you can. 3 targets are MUCH easier to keep in line than 4. Essentially what you have to time is a straight line of mobs, one always beating on you, two always rooted and one running towards you because it was far away when the root broke. It's doable, but it takes practice and confidence. Remember to know your enemy, and some mob types and encounters are more rewarding exp-wise than others. If a multi mob solo encounter is too hard, move on to a different one. I could never pull this one off with any consistency on things higher than blues, for soloing purposes I would typically go with diversley classed - yellow / white encounters with 2-3 mobs. These were always my preferred targets, and still are. <u><b>Herioc Soloing</b></u>: Here are my viewpoints on Herioc soloing. <b>^^</b> - Doable, with patience. I never tried it at this level, I found other things to be better experience. I would only go after heroic mobs if I needed it for a quest or something. It becomes easy with patience when you get Nil Distortion at 37. I was able to solo things well out of my reach (that I will not discuss) using only Frozen Manacles, the very mana efficent Nil Distortion and the occassional Flashfreeze. Basically the strat here will be to Frozen Manacles, debuff with Curse of ______ (No dot, long lasting) wait a second or two, and drop Dark Distortion. Just cycle through Dark Distortion, Frozen manacles when it breaks and comes after you. I found this to be pretty fail safe, but not worth the time for experience. Much easier than whats next though, because you only have one mob to focus on. Just don't let it hit you, hehe <b> Two ^ mobs</b> - Not even close to being worth it, and for the most point, very very difficult. I've only done it a couple of times before Bony Grasp, with patience. If you can root one, you usually aren't able to kill the first one by the time the root wears off. Even with Bony Grasp, a green two ^ fight can be treacherous. Sometimes they just don't die fast enough, and having one ^ on you can lead to some serious damage.  Was always a risky fight for me. If I needed them for a quest, I would give one of them everything I had, try to get one down, break the encounter, run and come back for it treating it like a ^^ Heroic mob. <b> 5+ grouped Heroic Mobs</b> - Out of the question until Bony Grasp. Simply too ridiculously difficult to be worth it, or just not possible. Some other solo tips: - It's a given to keep your big nukes at Adept 3. It's the only weapon we have, so make it the best it can be. - I recommend investing in an imbued robe. The little rare heal can be a life saver and can provide the tick of confidence needed to finish a fight or run. - Look for gear with things like agility and health, as well as power. A super high power number doesn't matter much when soloing, it does when grouping though. When I die, I die with 50% power or more, usually. All that power is wasted.  Plus health can be a good thing. - Use stuns frequently when in trouble. Tongue Twist is also a good alternative if the Freeze timer isn't up yet. - Upgrades to roots don't seem to extent the actual root, only the damage component. I'm using App IV Frozen Manacles right now, and it still works great. Your soloing days will come, and you will eventually pity your enemies because you beat them up so badly. This is at level 37 with Nil Distortion and at 40 with Bony Grasp. Once these days arrive, you will begin to wonder why you ever tried soloing with any other class :smileyhappy: Until then, it can be frustrating, you will die, as I died, many times. You will probably die more than other classes. However, you will eventually kill things at breakneck speed and love every minute of it. Practice, practice, practice. Been grouping for 3 levels? Take some time off to solo. I'm at the point now with my Warlock that I'm hesitant to group with anyone but friends because my group tactics are rusty. Maintain a balance, and you should be a happy camper. Have fun! (This is important)"<div></div>

[themysterious]

Thanks Vanrael, that is a very well written guide and backs up the earlier suggestion to use HOs; guess I better start using them. Also the concept of pulling with Dark Distortion is a concept that wouldn't have occured to me, I will definately give it a try. Just a few questions, some about your guide, others more general: - Pulling with dark distortion: in your experience does frozen manacles land before the mob reaches you? I have never tried pulling with a nuke, and I understand the ranges are different on many spells, but in my experience, after the mob is rooted, I have to be at a range where if root breaks the monster will reach me before I can recast root. Does dark distortion have a bigger range than most spells, or does it just work because you <u>know</u> you have to root, and have it in the que? - What does stiffle do? I know tounge twist stuns the monster, but what does the stiffle component do? Is it important? - Your guide, and most of what I read, is reliant on using the same spells for levels, and levels, and levels... will the changes comming with DoF severly nerf us? Or should I stop worring, enjoy myself, and trust Sony? <div></div>

[Vanra]

Thanks themysteriousne, here are some of my thoughts on your questions:  - I almost always pull with my biggest nuke at max range. Not only because I believe DD has a longer casting range, but it helps to maximize damage. Some prefer to pull with a debuff, others start with the root. I will often pull with the biggest nuke and immediately que up Frozen Manacles. That way once my root is off, the refresh timer on DD is usually back up again. Root usually lands for me just as the mob reaches me and maybe gets off a hit. It's typical for it to hit me once before root lands, I immediately backpedal if I can get it off. If it's lucky enough to interrupt me, I will just hit FM again and hope it doesn't interrupt. If it doesn't, I usually either run and try again, or freeze it and root. The freeze-root always works assuming it doesn't get resisted. - Stifle is very important. It's a quasi-stun, pretty much. It keep the mobs from using Combat Arts or spells for the duration of the stifle. Think of it as silence, if you ever played any of the Final Fantasy games. It can't use abilities, but it can use normal attacks. - This is the biggest guff that I have with the warlock class, honestly. We are very reliant on a few key spells. We don't have much variety in them either. Quite a few of our spells are broken, but the ones that do work work <i>very</i> well.  There are only about 8-9 different spells that I consider vital to the outcome of a battle. (Bony Grasp, Frozen Manacles, Nil Distortion, Bellengere's Sapping Salvo, Heneva's Viral Blast, Ice Flame, Ice Spike (I know, sorcerer spell, I still use it - a lot) and Flashfreeze.) As you can see, it's all nukes/roots at my level. We're really one trick-ponies: the perfect example of a glass cannon. We do damage, we do it in a straightforward  way and we do it well.  And honestly, with the spells ahead of me, soloing can only get easier. That's the thing about my leveling as a warlock, it only got easier as I leveled up. - I don't know what to expect with DoF. I think the 50+ changes will only go uphill. I mean, what are they going to do, make our level 60 nuke do less damage than our 50? I only forsee things getting better before they get worse for us. Right now I think we are in a good spot in normal (non-raid considered) DPS, so I'm hoping other classes get improved to balance things rather than nerfing warlocks. I'm not going to complain if someone overtakes us on the DPS ladder, as long as we're still good <span>:smileyhappy: I don't see them making any terribly drastic changes to the Pre-T5 crowd with it either, so I'm hoping it' all works out. No worries here. </span> I say roll with it. I might get flamed for this, but I do trust Sony to get things right (eventually, hehe). I'm not one to jump onto the %$#^ SONY!! bandwagon. I'm very satisfied with this class. I've played 6 other classes to 25+ and this has been the most fun for me if you like being a finger waggler. Just have fun with it <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> <div></div>

[anshar]

<P>Just thought I would throw my two cents in.</P> <P>What spells you open with are critical in your success. You have few options for saving your tail when something goes wrong, and it WILL go wrong. So plan on it every time.</P> <P>Here is a common way I pulled a single mob at your level:</P> <P>1 Largest Nuke (DD)  from max range.</P> <P>2 As they move in, use your stun, Freeze. Freeze is a fast cast, you can almost always get it to land before the mob arrives.</P> <P>3 As Freeze is casting, cue up Frozen Manacles. If you time this right, not only will you have done a considerable amount of damage between your three spells, but the mob will not make it to you.</P> <P>4 Now, back up. Debuff with one of your non-dot debuffs. When you have debuffed, your Frozen Manacles should be close to ready to recast.</P> <P>5 Back up just a bit more (to max Nuke Range) start a HO, and nuke again.</P> <P>6  At this point, you need to do some quick math. After practicing, you will know about how much damage your nukes will do. If one more nuke will get the mob close to death, then go ahead and nuke with Ice Spike. You will get your nuke and HO off, and the beast will die. If not, your tactic depends on whether root breaks or not. If root breaks, and Freeze is up, go ahead and return to step 2. If Freeze is not up go to step 3. If root does NOT break, return to step 1.</P> <P>I hope this helps</P> <P> </P> <P>Anshar</P>

[RandomPlay]

<P>What worked for me at those levels (currently 45):</P> <UL> <LI>Pull solo green to orange from max range with a DOT/debuff (Freezing Whorl for now, but Steal Breath at 27)</LI> <LI>Hit with a short-cast stun (Freeze, and eventually Flashfreeze)</LI> <LI>Root with Frozen Manacles</LI> <LI>Back up to max range</LI> <LI>Start HO</LI> <LI>Nuke</LI> <LI>Nuke to finish HO</LI> <LI>If still alive (yellow and orange mostly), reroot, start another HO, Nuke, and Nuke to finish</LI></UL> <P>If on any of these steps the root breaks:<BR>- if one more nuke will kill it, nuke<BR>- if two or more casts will be needed, reroot with FM, back up, and then pick up where you left off</P> <P>An alternative is to not stun on every pull, just save your stun for those times when roots break and your FM timer isn't up again yet.</P> <P>Many users report that FM breaks more with DOTs than nukes, but I haven't seen a difference personally.</P> <P>Happy Nuking,<BR>RP</P> <P> </P>

[Crono1321]

<span><blockquote><hr>anshar wrote:<div></div> <p>Just thought I would throw my two cents in.</p> <p>What spells you open with are critical in your success. You have few options for saving your tail when something goes wrong, and it WILL go wrong. So plan on it every time.</p> <p>Here is a common way I pulled a single mob at your level:</p> <p>1 Largest Nuke (DD)  from max range.</p> <p>2 As they move in, use your stun, Freeze. Freeze is a fast cast, you can almost always get it to land before the mob arrives.</p> <p>3 As Freeze is casting, cue up Frozen Manacles. If you time this right, not only will you have done a considerable amount of damage between your three spells, but the mob will not make it to you.</p> <p>4 Now, back up. Debuff with one of your non-dot debuffs. When you have debuffed, your Frozen Manacles should be close to ready to recast.</p> <p>5 Back up just a bit more (to max Nuke Range) start a HO, and nuke again.</p> <p>6  At this point, you need to do some quick math. After practicing, you will know about how much damage your nukes will do. If one more nuke will get the mob close to death, then go ahead and nuke with Ice Spike. You will get your nuke and HO off, and the beast will die. If not, your tactic depends on whether root breaks or not. If root breaks, and Freeze is up, go ahead and return to step 2. If Freeze is not up go to step 3. If root does NOT break, return to step 1.</p> <p>I hope this helps</p> <p>Anshar</p> <div></div><hr></blockquote> That is A LOT of work for one solo mob (unless I missed something and you are talking about a heroic).  Solo mobs have very low resistances, will not resist much.  Do this Pull with DD spell (direct damage) Cue frozen manacles (most mobs are about 2seconds away from you when you nuke them so this should go off just in time) Nuke slowly and recast FM if its about to break and you can't kill it fast enough Use Freeze if the mob gets to you and then quickly root again with one of your roots. Repeat Much less mana cost per mob and faster killing.</span><div></div>

[themysterious]

Hi guys, thanks for all your adviced. I tried out various combinations last night, and was doing much better. For solo monsters, the idea of [nuke, freeze, root, HO] works really well... for yellows I [nuke, freeze, root, dot, HO]. For groups, the advice about rooting the warrios, and dealing with the others is really usefull, i can kill groups now (: <div></div>

[anshar]

<P>Well...I guess I either fight low level heroics or high level solos mainly. Its also a good thing to be in good habits for later. Learn the patters now, and you won't have to unlearn them later.</P> <P>Anshar</P>

[Dart]

<SPAN class=165123315-24062005><FONT face=Verdana size=2>One other thing another warlock pointed out to me (on these forums) which I found to a huge asset is, that you can actually start to back up at about (90% casting completion) of any spell. This can buy you addition time to stay out of melee range. One thing I am finding when soloing orange or yellow non heroics, is they hit freaking hard when you where silk :p. So any advantage you can get to avoid being hit (staying out of melee range) is a huge plus on our side.</FONT></SPAN>

[themysterious]

<span><blockquote><hr>Darton wrote:<span class="165123315-24062005"><font face="Verdana" size="2">One other thing another warlock pointed out to me (on these forums) which I found to a huge asset is, that you can actually start to back up at about (90% casting completion) of any spell. This can buy you addition time to stay out of melee range. One thing I am finding when soloing orange or yellow non heroics, is they hit freaking hard when you where silk :p. So any advantage you can get to avoid being hit (staying out of melee range) is a huge plus on our side.</font></span> <div></div><hr></blockquote> Yeah this seems to work on most spells, some it didn't though, I couldn't get it to work on freeze for example, but then again it is a quick cast. Also, something I have been using quite a bit, is that if you target monster A, cast root, switch to monster B before root finishes casting, cue freeze... monster A will be rooted, and monster B will be frozen before it can get to you... this is great for fighting groups of two whites.</span><div></div>

[Darkka]

<DIV>It depends situation you are in. If you don't think you can cast fast enough then use FM to stop them while you cast the Dark Distortion. or cast Ice Strike (which for some reason, the FM have less chance of breaking) and then Dark Distortion. FM should be recovered by then, cast again, move back and repeat. :smileywink:</DIV> <DIV>Be careful with Dots and Roots, some Roots dont work if a Dot is active. I learnt that the hard way ~giggle~</DIV> <DIV>So if you think you can cast fast enough go with Dots and Nukes. If you don't, go with Roots and Nukes. and HO for extra damage.</DIV>