How do you solo heroics?

[SonnyA]

<DIV>I've recently turned 47 (48 now actually), and most of my spells are masters, including the level 47 charm. I thought to myself that now is the time to solo heroics as I've heard coercers are able to. So I read many of the fine strategy posts here, but I can't seem to apply it. So I'm wondering if someone could elaborate the technique used.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>What I do. I charm a warlock or wizard mob. I make sure that they have a big nuke early in their attack string. I picked a suitable target for a master of mindbending, a heroic goat (green con ofcourse).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I mez the goat, I debuff the goat, I root the goat, I chronosiphon the goat.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I have my attack/backoff hotkeys in order (Q and E) and I send in my charmed bitterwind pioneer who nukes the goat for approx. 1800 damage. I quickly back him off so the goat won't kill him. I wait and send the pet again. This time he fires a DoT (which sucks when you try to keep a mob rooted).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The goat looks fairly unimpressed and now seems intent on killing my pet instead of me. I catch its attention with a few nukes, redo the root, redo the debuff. Yay, I'm winning..</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>But at some point the root breaks and the goat charges me. But I'm ready for that. I'm the Lucky Luke of stuns, especially with my chronoAA. I fire my stun, but the goat still manages to get close enough to hit me once... For almost HALF my health!! Ouch..</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The goat is now at some 70% and it feels like my pioneer pet is firing the Ball of Fire only once every 30 seconds. Hurry up dammit..</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I go through the same things again. Sometimes the goat resists my stuns and I desperately try to root and back off at the same time (bad idea). The goat chews on me some more, but now it's rooted and hitting my pet. [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn].. in my panic I forgot to call my pet back.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>With most of my bones broken, I'm at 1% health and the pet is at 50%.. I decide to let the goat live, so I /yell, mez the goat and makes a strategic fallback (I run for the hills).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This soloing heroics thing isn't the cakewalk I thought it would be. What am I doing wrong?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Should I not fire my puny Seizure (it's M1)? Should I not take a pet that has a DoT in the attack string, because root will break more often? Didn't I fire my stuns fast enough?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Any help would be appreciated.</DIV>

[tugnut]

From lvl 66 i was Soloing lvl70 3^ heroics in bonemire. pet a corpseflame go find some lvl 69/70 heroics send pet in stun stun stun stiffle/stun and by then mob hopfuly dead.

[Alaeth]

I have to wonder how you're drawing aggro instead of your pet. Control spells do cause a fairly decent amount of hate, but nowhere near enough to overcome a master-charmed mage pet's nukes, especially with Demeanor on your pet. In any case, you do have the right idea: send pet in, stun/daze as long as you can, then back off pet and root or mez until your stun timers are up again. There's really no point in you nuking at all, except for Ego and Sonic (because of the daze and stun on those, not because of the damage). If you're fighting something that isn't stunnable, just throw a root on and attack/back off your pet at max range, mezzing in between the nukes if you want to be especially careful. As long as you have Ad3/M1 root, one DoT from your pet shouldn't be enough to break it consistently.Edit: At your level, you don't have two very useful soloing spells: Psychic Wail/Sonic Boom and Mindbend. Both of those are stuns, which will extend the amount of time your pet can attack per spell cycle as long as the mob isn't immune to stun. You get Psychic Wail at 50 (upgrade at 70) and Mindbend at 52.<p>Message Edited by Alaeth on <span class=date_text>09-18-2006</span> <span class=time_text>09:20 AM</span>

[Raidi Sovin'faile]

Killing with a corpse candle is different than most other tiers.For anything lower level, you'll probably want to pick up a self healing pet (crusader or priest). Some of them can nuke pretty hard, like Furies.Then the tactic is to basically let your pet do all the damage while you debuff resists and keep them stunned and rooted. At level 50, you'll get another stun, that also doubles as your highest damaging spell (although the recast is a bit long). Plinking away with your little nukes or dots will just risk breaking crucial spells like root. Your reactives can be fine for damage, as long as you remember that it could break root earlier and it will be increasing YOUR hate (might be good to put dehate on yourself if you decide to go that route). Amnesia can help with that too.A healing pet (with a proper attack script) will heal itself when getting low on health, so you can risk him to attack for a bit without stuns and use things like ego torrent (daze effect) and stifles. Obviously, once everything is used up, and the pet is taking too hard a beating, back him off and keep the creature rooted or mez'd until your timers are back.By focusing on your crowd control, you can make sure the creature is locked down, and just let the pet do the lion's share of the damage. It's not a foolproof way to kill something, as resists can mean a dead pet (unless you are quick on your toes and remember to back the pet off). I would suggest to turn off the Defend You and Defend Itself commands so it doesn't attack when you don't want it to.Lastly, it's far easier to take down a group of lesser creatures, since you can mez the rest and take on each individually. This has it's own drawbacks (mez's breaking, resists, etc), but each creature won't be as tough as the single ^^^ guy, so it might be easier on the pet.<div></div>

[Venzule]

<DIV>At level 33?   I die about 2 out of 3 times due to adds but..</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1. Charm caster mob. (Master I charm)</DIV> <DIV>2. Root target that is 5 levels lower than me. 3^ Heroic</DIV> <DIV>3. Send pet.  If pet casts spell let the pet cast it and back off the pet.</DIV> <DIV>4. Send pet.  If it goes in to Melee back off and send until the pet casts again.</DIV> <DIV>5. continue to keep mob rooted</DIV> <DIV>6. Throw in DOT's and debuffs.</DIV> <DIV>7. Repeat 3 and 4 until mob is dead.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Outerspace]

It's not practical to solo heroics for XP until you get to Bonemire because it takes too long.If you want to solo heroics and nameds safely, you mez them first, then root, then debuff. You don't use DoT's. You let your pet nuke once then start casting mez whilst your pet is casting so it lands a fraction of a second after the nuke, leaving the mob as it was when you started but with less health. Repeat this, reapplying root and debuffs when necessary until the mob is dead. If you only use root you're asking for it to break and come and kill you.<div></div>

[Venzule]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Outerspace wrote:<BR>It's not practical to solo heroics for XP until you get to Bonemire because it takes too long.<BR><BR>If you want to solo heroics and nameds safely, you mez them first, then root, then debuff. You don't use DoT's. You let your pet nuke once then start casting mez whilst your pet is casting so it lands a fraction of a second after the nuke, leaving the mob as it was when you started but with less health. Repeat this, reapplying root and debuffs when necessary until the mob is dead. If you only use root you're asking for it to break and come and kill you.<BR><BR><BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>True true..  its completely inefficient to do it.</P> <P> </P> <P>I of course use Mez when the root breaks unexpected.  I recast root about every 10 seconds.  If root is grayed out and I cant recast due to early break I mez and wait.   Then root and send pet to nuke.  Also true about DOT's.  The DOT will break root quicker and also break mez so its best not to use it.  I rely alot of the root, but if your going to rely on the mez than dont DOT but it will take alot longer to kill the mob.</P> <P> </P> <P>If you get your pet within melee range of a 3^ Heroic the mob with kill it within 3 maybe 4 hits.  With my method above there is no chance of this.  </P>

[CronusFateweav]

There's not really any reason to keep recasting root while fighting. Cast it once, then keep the spell up and only recast it a) when it's low on time and about to break, or b) when it breaks randomly. It casts faster than mez so it's a quicker way to save yourself, but it won't be available if you keep recasting it. Statistically the root has no greater chance to break from a hit with 1 second left than it does with 45 seconds left.<div></div>

[Dagator]

I think this will help me alot.  I mean, I have read the posts before, but I just wasn't getting it either.  My problem is that I have only been using root, and there lies the real problem.  I only use root because I had been using my little dots, but I see that is not the way.  Debuffs, reactives and stuns/stifles only.  Then just mez and use root as a safety net.  Hmmm  I wish I wasn't such a [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] for 40 levels...lol  So the real trick is finding a caster pet that heals and nukes, and doesn't dot...

[Outerspace]

Yeah, thats what I meant. I didn't mean stand there spamming root, just reapply it when it's running out or if the mob "cures" it or whatever they do when it suddenly disappears.<div></div>

[Outerspace]

<div><blockquote><hr>Venzule wrote:<div></div> <p>If you get your pet within melee range of a 3^ Heroic the mob with kill it within 3 maybe 4 hits.  With my method above there is no chance of this.  </p><hr></blockquote>Try fighting a caster <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Mez/nuke/mez works great against them, unless you have really good resists and don't even need to.</div>

[SonnyA]

<P>Thanks all for the tips. I've stopped using my dots and the roots lasts a lot longer now. I've also tried to make sure to stay at max range, which gives me enough time to fire a stun if the root should break before it has recycled.</P> <P>For a faster kill, stun/nuke/nuke/nuke/root works great.</P>

[Crono1321]

Yeah we do better against casters than anything.  When you get mindbend, your life will be much easier, the mobs will get stunned as soon as they try to hit you when root breaks--this spell is AMAZING!  <div></div>

[ag]

Another option I've found a bit safer (depending on the geography) is to charm a pet that uses Snares, that way you have time to kite it a bit before it comes and pounds the gnome juice out of you.

[Celidya]

<DIV>I have a stupid but fun way to do it :smileytongue:</DIV> <DIV>It works well on green nameds ^^^ and blue if there is enough mobs around.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I first try to find a safe spot where i can run a bit. Then pull the named , root, mezz, i cast all the debuffs on him, then send my pet, simply a random mob that i found around. Usually the procs trigger well and do nice damage to the mob, and the pet dies in about 5sec. Mezz, charm a new pet around, and repeat. It takes 5 to 10 pets to kill the mob but it works nice and i find it very funny to beat a named with his own minions :smileyvery-happy:</DIV>

[Crono1321]

<blockquote><hr>Celidya wrote:<div>I have a stupid but fun way to do it :smileytongue:</div> <div>It works well on green nameds ^^^ and blue if there is enough mobs around.</div> <div> </div> <div>I first try to find a safe spot where i can run a bit. Then pull the named , root, mezz, i cast all the debuffs on him, then send my pet, simply a random mob that i found around. Usually the procs trigger well and do nice damage to the mob, and the pet dies in about 5sec. Mezz, charm a new pet around, and repeat. It takes 5 to 10 pets to kill the mob but it works nice and i find it very funny to beat a named with his own minions :smileyvery-happy:</div><hr></blockquote>Sounds extremely counter-productive to grinding to me...very slow and you kill all of your targets without getting a lick of exp.<div></div>

[AdiX__Styxx__]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Crono1321 wrote:<BR><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Celidya wrote:<BR> <DIV>I have a stupid but fun way to do it :smileytongue:</DIV> <DIV>It works well on green nameds ^^^ and blue if there is enough mobs around.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I first try to find a safe spot where i can run a bit. Then pull the named , root, mezz, i cast all the debuffs on him, then send my pet, simply a random mob that i found around. Usually the procs trigger well and do nice damage to the mob, and the pet dies in about 5sec. Mezz, charm a new pet around, and repeat. It takes 5 to 10 pets to kill the mob but it works nice and i find it very funny to beat a named with his own minions :smileyvery-happy:</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Sounds extremely counter-productive to grinding to me...very slow and you kill all of your targets without getting a lick of exp.<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>Depends I do this too when i need a named for a quest and theres a ton of mobs around that will just add to the fight and make it harder for me....just mezz em have my pet bash the named im trying to get for whatever reason then when pet dies grab the one thats mezzed so ya wont need to kill it while yer trying to get an update or a metal chest if yer just farming!</P> <P>He said it was stupid and it is if he is doing this to gain XP but if its for the reasons i do it then its pretty slick!</P> <P>Oh and when it comes to soloing advice to the OP try soloing the menagery when yer lvl 50 i used to do it all the time b4 the cap was moved to 60 its great fun and good practice just make sure ya got a few poison / decease cold / heat warding potions to kill the mob b4 the last one since he is a warlock or a wizzy and the final mob was if my memory doesnt fail me a paladin or a SK so decease / divine here Also a healing potion and a power potion might help since yer burning power when yer soloing and to speed things up use tha power or healing potions! (or mezz and sit and wait for it to regen /sigh)</P> <P>Anyways when ya hit 58 it becomes a lot easier cause of mindbend / amnesia and there was another one.... erm i forgot well they were ancient spells anyways! As soon as ya get these ya can charm a mob send it in while ya root the target on inc and jsut nuke yer heart out till you steal agroe then the mob comes for ya drop amnesia if the mob gets too close and have the pet attack it a few times to regain agroe while yer rerooting it. Now since amnesia is down and the target should be around 50-70% health depending on what kinda mob it is just slowly kill it while yer pet has agroe and if yer pet gets low on health mezz the target call pet back cancel charm and recharm so he will get full health again and reapply the same tactics!</P> <P>Ofc this tactics vary depending on what mob ya use to charm i prefer tanks cause they actually taunt the mobs.....yea they really do! healers are nice but i think coercers who use healers are just lazy casue they dont feel like recharming!</P>

[Celidya]

<DIV>As i said in my first post, i do that when i have to kill a named for a quest or loot if i want to, not for grinding. :smileyhappy: It's a lot faster to let the mobs kill themselves than to kill them by myself when there is ton of blue/green thrash heroic mobs around.</DIV>

[AdiX__Styxx__]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Celidya wrote:<BR> <DIV>As i said in my first post, i do that when i have to kill a named for a quest or loot if i want to, not for grinding. :smileyhappy: It's a lot faster to let the mobs kill themselves than to kill them by myself when there is ton of blue/green thrash heroic mobs around.</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>exactly my point! Nailing it right there celidya

[Crono1321]

<blockquote><hr>AdiX__Styxx__ wrote:<div></div> <blockquote> <hr> Celidya wrote: <div>As i said in my first post, i do that when i have to kill a named for a quest or loot if i want to, not for grinding. :smileyhappy: It's a lot faster to let the mobs kill themselves than to kill them by myself when there is ton of blue/green thrash heroic mobs around.</div> <hr> </blockquote>exactly my point! Nailing it right there celidya<hr></blockquote>Yes, everyone uses this tactic when soloing a heroic quest...<div></div>