Need help from soloing Warlocks please

[EshamBlm]

<DIV>Hello all. I just came back from a few month break. I have a level 41 Warlock and I mostly solo. I have done the respec, and realigned all of my spells, but I am still having a hard time soloing. I can barely kill 3 level 36 flys in The Feerrott that are green one arrow down solo encounters. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So I am seeking advice for spell setup and technique. Maybe I don't have the right nukes in the hot bar. I would like to continue playing my warlock, but I need some help. Thanks in advance.</DIV>

[hylozoist]

<DIV>You may need to keep mobs rooted now more than before.  Use your paralyzing fear a lot, and use bony grasp on tougher mobs to make sure it's rooted (even though it has a short duration and high power cost, it breaks less and is a good backup if your other root breaks prematurely from hitting it).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Vulian Interference is now your primary stun.  It is very useful, use it especially when root breaks or if your roots are down.  Flashfreeze is your backup, but it has a long cast time.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Look for double down arrow groups, rather than single down mobs, for better/easier exp.  For example, hunting in the feerrott, you should be able to destroy the lizardmen now with great ease.  Null Absolution, then Grievous Blast, and you can Suffocating Cloud the rest once they've started to hit you, or you can easily pick them off with solo spells.  They should go down in 3 hits each, and you can handle double downs hitting you.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Plague Mast]

<DIV>After recently graduating from feerrott and moving on to sinking sands, your statement about a 41 having trouble with lvl 36 solo groups seems suprising.  I am upgraded extremely well, was killing lizardmen (which heal) when they were yellow solo groups.  Currently I can pretty much obliterate any solo mob that is not orange/red (which tend to resist me).  I have also taken to looking for blue heroic groups of 3 or 4 mobs, and can solo those fairly effectively when I need a challenge.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I'd look into your ae spells.  You should have 3.  One is green with a triple lightning bolt and stuns mobs as well, another is green and does very large damage. The third is blue and can get you adds if your not careful.  When solo'ing groups, I start the encounter with the AE/stun and jump right into the high damage one after that.  Then I use my large single targets to thin the herd and maybe another high damage ae.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If the mob is yellow or heroic, I use root.</DIV>

[DarkSyph]

Agreed, I soloed most of my way from 40s to even now, at your level esp in feerrott go for the 2 down groups. AE roots and vulian line to keep mobs in check. Life gets simpler soloing groups once you hit 50 and receive devastation.

[puffmouse2]

<DIV>my 32 is running around enchanted lands right now hunting not group mobs that are yellow single arrow down, and sometimes white or yellow heroics.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>frozen manacles, then heroic wheel with dark distortion and noxious blast, flash freeze and frozen manacles if it starts moving again, and  repeat the heroic wheel till its dead.  If something else adds while doing this run screaming like a little school girl back to the docks.  If I take on a group then it needs to be green one arrow down or its just too much of a mana drain and I have to sit around sipping refreshing iced coffee and boon of the void my way back - which i still havent upgraded yet <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> .  For the sustained grind stick to one on one.</DIV>

[Belash]

I am near your level (37), and do not have a problem.  My advice is to first check the level of your spells.  I have adept 3 or above on all my damage spells.  For groups, I cast our group stifle spell, then our group damage.  Then I do single target damage to burn down one of the flys.  After that I root the other (if needed) and burn it down.  I can kill my level and below with no worry.  It may be more difficult if you have app1 Nil Distortion, app1 Null Absolution, and no Ice Flame.  Make sure those at a minimum are adept 3. <div></div>

[Plague Mast]

<P>I never did get ice flame.  Must I get the expansion to get it?  Or can I just have someone make me the Adept 3?</P> <P>Personally I don't agree with the "stick to single mob encounters to gain xp" theory.  I feel like I can crank through group encounters much faster.  Warlocks are after all supposed to be the kings of AE damage.</P><p>Message Edited by Plague Master on <span class=date_text>11-30-2005</span> <span class=time_text>09:02 AM</span>

[EshamBlm]

Hmmmm, maybe I just need to re-read all the new spells and stuff. I never did have any trouble soloing before the update. Is the list at the top of the page current? Anyone know? Thanks for all the advice :smileyvery-happy:

[puffmouse2]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Plague Master wrote:<BR> <P>I never did get ice flame.  Must I get the expansion to get it?  Or can I just have someone make me the Adept 3?</P> <P>Personally I don't agree with the "stick to single mob encounters to gain xp" theory.  I feel like I can crank through group encounters much faster.  Warlocks are after all supposed to be the kings of AE damage.</P> <P>Message Edited by Plague Master on <SPAN class=date_text>11-30-2005</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>09:02 AM</SPAN><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Since I never figured out how to make the group encounter thing work, i assumed that good warlock AE stuff came in toward the end game.  So far I only have a group stun, group damage, and that AE conglagration thing.  I take out a single down green group and then my power is wiped out and im sitting around losing time.  Maybe upgrading these all the way up will make it work and change my process.

[Belash]

<span><blockquote><hr>Plague Master wrote: <p>I never did get ice flame.  Must I get the expansion to get it?  Or can I just have someone make me the Adept 3?</p> <p>Personally I don't agree with the "stick to single mob encounters to gain xp" theory.  I feel like I can crank through group encounters much faster.  Warlocks are after all supposed to be the kings of AE damage.</p><p>Message Edited by Plague Master on <span class="date_text">11-30-2005</span> <span class="time_text">09:02 AM</span></p><hr></blockquote>As far as Ice Flame goes, I know it came into existence with the Bloodlines Chronicles.  I have this expansion, so I am not sure if you need it to buy the sage books, but the sage books, both the regular for apprentice spells and the advanced for adepts are available in the normal tradeskill society.  It is called </span>Sage's Study of Ancient K'lorn Magic and Advanced Sage's Study of Ancient K'lorn Magic.  Just need a 35+ sage to make you the spell. I usually prefer encounters with 4+ MOBs.  They usually go down fairly fast with my AOE and I do single target while I wait for the AOE to repop.  It is not 100% safe, but the experience/time seems greater to me. <div></div>

[Shipwreck_GPA]

<P>I find that, while I may die occasionally, my net XP gain offsets it totally. Only my Necro alt solo's easier or safer. And he can't touch my Warlock's efficiency or speed on group mobs.</P> <P>I started with my best AoE big nuke, follow with the small nuke/stun, and then Bony Grasp and back up a bit. Single root any resists, which are few. One more round will usually finish off any group encounter of blue or lower, especially with VV or VVV mobs. Once you get Devastation, blue groups get even easier. I DO get hit sometimes, and sometimes I get killed, but overall I mow through mobs so fast I don't really mind.</P> <P>With good drink and judicious use of my Conversion spell, I have few power problems, except in long fights.</P>

[DarkSyph]

<DIV>If possible I would always look for group encounters. Better exp, faster kills. Even pre-devastation it's easy to take out a grp encounter as many have said. Damage > Stun > Root > Fury. But as time goes by...I find soloing the 3 up cyclops is much better exp and all in all more fun...just don't pull a caster. </DIV>

[Plague Mast]

<DIV>We've been discussing the level of mobs we take on, but when we do this, we must pay attention to the amount of spell upgrading and equipment upgrading we've done.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I'm pretty much upgraded completely, so assuming the same amount of skill (I'm being generous here LOL) I'm going to be able to solo at least a level or two higher than someone that is in average gear and has all adept 1's (or worse).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Warlocks should be able to kill even level solo group mobs fairly easy though, especially if they are not casters.</DIV>

[Junaru]

At L32 I find soloing group green single arrow down mobs to be fast, efficent and great exp. Must better then single target solo mobs. The gnolls near the second teleporter in TS are great for this. I can normally burn them down before they get to me.One key thing is always start out the fight with your longest cast time spell. While AoR stun/Nuke is nice to start mobs will be unstunned before your big nuke lands. It's best to Nuke > Stun >Nuke > Nuke > DeadAt L32 I melt down the gnolls using Warlock 20 Negative Absolution (Nuke) Master IIWarlock 22 Putrid Cloud (Nuke/Stun) Adept ISorcerer 14 Conflagaration(Nuke) Master IIThis normally drops them all or only leaves on or two to DD down.<div></div>

[EshamBlm]

Things are looking much better now. I just had to get used to the changes. I have mostly adept 1 and app4 spells. Nil distortion is adept 3. I have very good gear......just had to adjust for the change. Thanks for all the tips :smileyvery-happy:

[silentpsycho]

<blockquote><hr>Plague Master wrote: <P>I never did get ice flame.  Must I get the expansion to get it?  Or can I just have someone make me the Adept 3?</P> <P>Personally I don't agree with the "stick to single mob encounters to gain xp" theory.  I feel like I can crank through group encounters much faster.  Warlocks are after all supposed to be the kings of AE damage.</P><p>Message Edited by Plague Master on <span class=date_text>11-30-2005</span> <span class=time_text>09:02 AM</span><hr></blockquote>I don't see any way to do this and survive in the low to mid 30's. We have no encounter/AOE root, and we drop pretty fast when multiple mobs whack on us. At least I do. And I have ok equipment and some decent spell upgrades. I just don't have the firepower now to burn down encounters or even single mobs (I'm hunting primarily the solo Orcs in Zek just outside the fort) efficiently. Yeah, I can root, HO, nuke nuke dot dot down most of the single Orcs in Zek, but after 2 or 3 of these I'm OOM. This is a far cry from chain killing what are now ^^^ heroics in TS back in my 20's. I spent most of my 20's killing Mighty Griffons and Giants in TS, and now in my 30's with the same mobs as very low greens I have a heck of a time just killing one.Forgive me for feeling gimped and frustrated, but this just isn't the same class any more, and it's especially evident when I try to solo.

[puffmouse2]

<P>Tonight I managed to find some upgrades on the markets.  I'm 33 now.  Im using Putrid Cloud adept1 then Steal Breath adept1 then negative absolution app4 and conflagration Adept1.  I cycle these to take on blue double down sprites and deers in enchanted lands.  By the time im done with one group im at 20% mana and 35% health. And after two of these groups I havent gained so much as a percent toward xp yet.  </P> <P>In that same time I can root and kill a white single up, a yellow single down, and a yellow and in the end have 25% mana and 80% health - which is about 25 seconds down time, and i only need to be drinking something, no food needed, this gives me 2% xp each run.  I'm not seeing the group thing happen yet, probably when im in the 40s?</P>

[Shipwreck_GPA]

<P>I never used Conflagration. It always seemed too mana-intensive for me. I stuck to Putrid Cloud and Negative Absolution. You are about to get Grievous Blast and Null Absolution (direct upgrades of these lines) within the next couple of levels, which will make this much easier. Once you make your level 34 Master choice, you might want to consider farming the rare to get your other go-to nuke upgraded to Adept III. It will make a huge difference.</P> <P>One thing I can recommend, because it worked well for me, is to not rely solely on kills for your XP. Quest XP is quite good, and if you can wrap up quests while killing XP mobs, you get twice the benefit. There are a host of quests available in both EL and Zek, and often you can be working 2 or even 3 quests killing the exact same mobs. THAT makes the XP fly much faster than simple grinding.</P>

[Junaru]

Puffmouse2 one of your mail problems there is you picked your master II differently then I did.I'm using negative absolution Master II and conflagration Master II. This makes for a huge difference.Like I said before I can normally dropp green one and two arrow down group mobs with ease. I normally end a fight with 60% power and 80% health.The only problem I have is I kill so fast I sometimes find myself waiting for respawns.<div></div>

[Belash]

<span><blockquote><hr>silentpsycho wrote:<blockquote><hr>Plague Master wrote:<div></div> <div></div> <p>I never did get ice flame.  Must I get the expansion to get it?  Or can I just have someone make me the Adept 3?</p> <p>Personally I don't agree with the "stick to single mob encounters to gain xp" theory.  I feel like I can crank through group encounters much faster.  Warlocks are after all supposed to be the kings of AE damage.</p><p>Message Edited by Plague Master on <span class="date_text">11-30-2005</span> <span class="time_text">09:02 AM</span></p><hr></blockquote>I don't see any way to do this and survive in the low to mid 30's. We have no encounter/AOE root, and we drop pretty fast when multiple mobs whack on us. At least I do. And I have ok equipment and some decent spell upgrades. I just don't have the firepower now to burn down encounters or even single mobs (I'm hunting primarily the solo Orcs in Zek just outside the fort) efficiently. Yeah, I can root, HO, nuke nuke dot dot down most of the single Orcs in Zek, but after 2 or 3 of these I'm OOM. This is a far cry from chain killing what are now ^^^ heroics in TS back in my 20's. I spent most of my 20's killing Mighty Griffons and Giants in TS, and now in my 30's with the same mobs as very low greens I have a heck of a time just killing one.Forgive me for feeling gimped and frustrated, but this just isn't the same class any more, and it's especially evident when I try to solo.<hr></blockquote> I prefer grouped encounters with 1 arrow or more down.  I can tell you what I cast at 37, at lower levels it was the same, just the lower level versions. Grievous Blast (Stun Encounter) Arcane Augur (Start HO) Null Absolution (DD Encounter) Nil Distortion (DD Single Target) or Flashfreeze (DD+Stun Single Target) - Basically finish HO. Nil Distortion if I cast Flashfreeze or Ice Flame if I cast Nil Distortion. If 2+ MoBs are still up, recast Null Absolution. I am not afraid of taking on yellow encounters with down arrows (even and especially the heroic deer in EL).  I would go to EL to kill deer and fairies.  I die sometimes, but it is rare and I am not far from where I died. I opted for Null Absolution (Master II) as my level 34 training spell.  My Grievous Blast is Master I, the rest are Adept 3.  I am not wealthy.  I spent a lot of time to harvest the rares to get my spells to Adept 3.  The Master I spells I own, I bought somewhat discounted (below 50gp).</span><div></div>

[silentpsycho]

<blockquote><hr>Belash wrote:<span><blockquote><hr>silentpsycho wrote:<blockquote><hr>Plague Master wrote:<div></div> <div></div> <p>I never did get ice flame.  Must I get the expansion to get it?  Or can I just have someone make me the Adept 3?</p> <p>Personally I don't agree with the "stick to single mob encounters to gain xp" theory.  I feel like I can crank through group encounters much faster.  Warlocks are after all supposed to be the kings of AE damage.</p><p>Message Edited by Plague Master on <span class="date_text">11-30-2005</span> <span class="time_text">09:02 AM</span></p><hr></blockquote>I don't see any way to do this and survive in the low to mid 30's. We have no encounter/AOE root, and we drop pretty fast when multiple mobs whack on us. At least I do. And I have ok equipment and some decent spell upgrades. I just don't have the firepower now to burn down encounters or even single mobs (I'm hunting primarily the solo Orcs in Zek just outside the fort) efficiently. Yeah, I can root, HO, nuke nuke dot dot down most of the single Orcs in Zek, but after 2 or 3 of these I'm OOM. This is a far cry from chain killing what are now ^^^ heroics in TS back in my 20's. I spent most of my 20's killing Mighty Griffons and Giants in TS, and now in my 30's with the same mobs as very low greens I have a heck of a time just killing one.Forgive me for feeling gimped and frustrated, but this just isn't the same class any more, and it's especially evident when I try to solo.<hr></blockquote> I prefer grouped encounters with 1 arrow or more down.  I can tell you what I cast at 37, at lower levels it was the same, just the lower level versions. Grievous Blast (Stun Encounter) Arcane Augur (Start HO) Null Absolution (DD Encounter) Nil Distortion (DD Single Target) or Flashfreeze (DD+Stun Single Target) - Basically finish HO. Nil Distortion if I cast Flashfreeze or Ice Flame if I cast Nil Distortion. If 2+ MoBs are still up, recast Null Absolution. I am not afraid of taking on yellow encounters with down arrows (even and especially the heroic deer in EL).  I would go to EL to kill deer and fairies.  I die sometimes, but it is rare and I am not far from where I died. I opted for Null Absolution (Master II) as my level 34 training spell.  My Grievous Blast is Master I, the rest are Adept 3.  I am not wealthy.  I spent a lot of time to harvest the rares to get my spells to Adept 3.  The Master I spells I own, I bought somewhat discounted (below 50gp).</span><div></div><hr></blockquote>You know what? I'm going to cowboy up, spend the cash to upgrade my AOE lines and give the deer in EL a go. I'm close to 34 (Master?) so it sounds like I'm about to get a boost out of this rut anyway.Thanks for the advice!Balthazare - 33 Warlock of OasisDyre - 50 Assasin of Oasis...too many other mid-level alts to list

[silentpsycho]

<P>I hit 34 and got Nil Distortion Master 2 last night when I hit 34.  My problems are solved, and I am loving this class again.</P> <P>In case anyone cares... :smileyhappy:</P> <P> </P> <P>Balthazare 36 Warlock, Oasis</P>

[EshamBlm]

Congrats, I just hit 42 yesterday. I have figured out how to solo again, just took some getting used to the changes.

[puffmouse2]

<DIV>Had enough time to get to 36 and found that with the addition of master II Null Absolution and an upgrade for Suffocating Cloud to Adept 3, I am now dropping the blue and white groups with the better efficiency then if I go after single yellow ups.  I like the bonus interrupts suffocating cloud gives back to the target encounter as it seems to cuts down on the number of times i get interrupted by them. </DIV>

[Ronzul]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> silentpsycho wrote:<BR> <P>I hit 34 and got Nil Distortion Master 2 last night when I hit 34.  My problems are solved, and I am loving this class again.</P> <P>In case anyone cares... :smileyhappy:</P> <P> </P> <P>Balthazare 36 Warlock, Oasis</P> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>I think you mean Absolution.</P> <P>I don't know why anyone would use group root on non-heroic group encounters.  I pull with maelstrom and fire off absolution right away, followed by fury and then greivous blast.  If there's anything left, I might single-nuke a mob that has significantly more hps than the others, or I'll just dial up the next absolution and melee until it goes off.  It gets tight with larger groups of yellows or mobs that stun/interrupt a lot, but I've been using the above formula for 13 levels (34-47) successfully.  My gear is pretty basic - not a stitch of Fabled.<BR></P>