Soloing question

[Miele]

Hi all, I have a little 27 Illusionist alt that I made to play in a different way from my usual tank role, be it in groups or soloing. I read in a lot of places that Illusionists are very good at soloing and I can see why, but I was wondering if I'm missing some crucial spell to attempt it in an efficient way. Right now I can't do much but trying to keep the mob far from me with stuns, mez and root and nuke it, using my pet also to do some extra damage and to make use of his stuns too. At 32 I'll get the dumbfire pet too, which may help maybe, but since it works as a dot, it'll likely break root etc. Now I sometimes use the pet as a temporary tank, mezing and recasting it. Till it lasts I also use the 2 dots, but aside from that, I think I'm missing something important. So, what's the spell cycle you use when soloing tough heroics or nameds? P.S.: AA-wise I'm spending them in the wis line for now, to minimize resists etc. Thanks

[Squigley]

Im having the exact same problem and I have the exact same question.. Anyone?

[Scald]

<p>I had to solo two 67 3up heroics for a quest yesterday (Im a level 70 illy). Here's what I did:</p><p> 1. Use pet to pull to a nice safe area</p><p>2. When pet engages, tell pet to return to you</p><p>3. As soon as creature is in range, cast stun (single target)</p><p>4. Cast your 2 direct damage spells (the quick recycle one and the long recycle one)</p><p>5. Cast group stun</p><p>6. Recast fast recycle direct damage spell</p><p>7. Cast single target mez</p><p>8. Wait until both stuns and both direct damages have refreshed</p><p>9. Go back to step 3</p><p>If the fight is going long and mana is looking grim, I will use the ability which converts health to mana (as your health should always not be an issue).</p><p>If you are getting lots of resists, you may need to upgrade spells/invest in different AA lines.</p><p>With masters in mez and stuns being the most important, as if these get resisted, you have to quickly react (using the shorter duration single target mez, or perhaps casting a mez sooner then you would like if both stuns get resisted).</p><p>My 2 coppers. BTW, the fight took about 5-8 rounds to kill the critter (I forget exactly how many mezzes I used). I also have some good procing gear (grizzlefazzle, bone clasped girdle, the procing earring) and I had synergism (chance to proc extra damage whenever I cast a hostile spell) on me. Note, I didn't use my pet during all of this except for the oriiginal pull for fear of him putting a dot on the citter which would make mezzing impossible. I know the pet is smart enough to stop attacking a mezzed target, but don't really know if he casts dots.</p>

[Antryg Mistrose]

I've changed all my Mezz's into macros: /pet backoff /autoattack 0 <Mezz> Seems to work a bit better, and I might even run the pet on harder mobs now (I rolled an illusionist back when we didn't have a pet and have never liked it, or its control window)

[Miele]

<cite>Scald wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I had to solo two 67 3up heroics for a quest yesterday (Im a level 70 illy). Here's what I did:</p><p> 1. Use pet to pull to a nice safe area</p><p>2. When pet engages, tell pet to return to you</p><p>3. As soon as creature is in range, cast stun (single target)</p><p>4. Cast your 2 direct damage spells (the quick recycle one and the long recycle one)</p><p>5. Cast group stun</p><p>6. Recast fast recycle direct damage spell</p><p>7. Cast single target mez</p><p>8. Wait until both stuns and both direct damages have refreshed</p><p>9. Go back to step 3</p><p>If the fight is going long and mana is looking grim, I will use the ability which converts health to mana (as your health should always not be an issue).</p><p>If you are getting lots of resists, you may need to upgrade spells/invest in different AA lines.</p><p>With masters in mez and stuns being the most important, as if these get resisted, you have to quickly react (using the shorter duration single target mez, or perhaps casting a mez sooner then you would like if both stuns get resisted).</p><p>My 2 coppers. BTW, the fight took about 5-8 rounds to kill the critter (I forget exactly how many mezzes I used). I also have some good procing gear (grizzlefazzle, bone clasped girdle, the procing earring) and I had synergism (chance to proc extra damage whenever I cast a hostile spell) on me. Note, I didn't use my pet during all of this except for the oriiginal pull for fear of him putting a dot on the citter which would make mezzing impossible. I know the pet is smart enough to stop attacking a mezzed target, but don't really know if he casts dots.</p></blockquote> For long recast DD you mean the headache line, right? (I think the lvl 67 is called tumor, which is also the short duration mez, this if I understood it correctly). Thanks for the insight anyway <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Controlor]

Scald has close to what i do in my spell combo..... Mine is just longer heh. Note: IF your soloing the vast majority of time and NOT concerned with raiding. AA's should be Agi: 4 8 8 7 2 Time compression: Maz out nuke, brainbust, your 2 group dots, and get the final end to it Either Wis or Int line if you go down wis max out your Subj/focus. If int max out spell crit Illusory arms Max all but savante. The rest goes into your main single target mez and you have 1 pt left over to put where you please. (You really should focus on AGI first befor wis if your planning to solo but that is my oppinion) Note X2: I went wis line stead of int so will focus on that path. Note X3: GET PROC GEAR THAT PROCS ON SPELLS..... We are speed casters not high dmg casters. We have low dmg fast cast spells so proc gear helps and is needed to boost your dps because we cast so fast. With me having wis line i dont focus on subj gear that would help with my resists on stun root and mez instead i focused on disruption gear to help with my other spells. Also I dont have 100 aa so i will mention my tactic with having 89 aa it will change slightly with my 100 aa. Also this will be against blue con and above heroic ^^^ green cons are trivial. (and is for lvl 70 so it may vary with the duration of the spells). You also want to try to get as many masters as possible if not no less than adept 3 on your spells. *Edit* Finally got perpetuality so this chain has increased in length. 1) Send pet in and once mob agroes it tell it to come back. 2) When mob is close enough Single target mez them 3) Start Heroic opp 4) cast stun 5) halway  through csting time of stun send pet 6) Que up Chronosiphon so it goes off once stun is done 7) Primary nuke 8 )Brainbust 9) Color shower (normal group dot) 10) Solar shower (the group dot / stifle 11) Tumor (nuke / daze)     .... this is not a mez daze makes so mobs cant melee you. Combine it with the solar shower which makes it so mobs cant cast it acts as another stun while doing dmg the mob WILL run up on you but dont be worried it wont hurt you. 12) primary nuke 13) Root 14) Primary nuke 15) Start another heroic opp 16) primary nuke 17) primary nuke 18 ) group stun 19 ) primary nuke 20) single mez 21) wait for all spells recast timers to expire Rinse repeat.....(from step 3 - 21) Oh you can throw out your dumfire pet in between 16 / 17.... Dumfire pets no longer break mez so it will back off and doesnt count as a dot. Once the pet dies it will do dmg to the mob but this damage WONT break mez. With your persona out you want to have synergism on yourself AND the pet. Also you want Time compression on your pet to boost its casting speed. Mob dies you win At lower lvls the duration of your stuns daze and stifles are shorter.... So if you are finding them landing after hte mob is free from either of them then adjust how many nukes you do. Such as eliminating brainbust. or eliminating the first nuke and going straight to the dot/stifle etc etc till you find the ones that work for timing ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ANOTHER METHOD: This is the rooting method that i know of. (its one that i only really use on greens cause they are so trivial i dont care and it seems to kill mobs faster but is more dangerous. Note: Also for this method you dont need any aa's in your primary mez and instead use your aa's to go into your persona and your dumfire pet. 1) send mob then pull it back 2) mez 3) root (master 1 root is a must) 4) send pet (your pet also roots so if yours break its root may still be on so try to keep both roots on as much as possible) 5) send dumfire 6) chronosiphon (do this whenever it pops up again also) 7) throw everything and the kitchen sink at it as fast as possible (EXCEPT Group / Single stun) 8 ) IF mob breaks from yours and your pets root do group stun (its fast casting) follow up with single stun. 9a) IF you have room to root and move away, then root mob and move away and keep nuking. 9b) IF you dont have room to move away. Cancle all dots while the stun duration is going then cast your mez and go from there. 9c) IF your really freaking out cast phase. it will drop agro from you and go to your pet instead, (again i only use this on greens and i will occasionally go in and melee but its viable for blue + heroics.)

[Elephanton]

Antryg Mistrose wrote: <blockquote>I've changed all my Mezz's into macros: /pet backoff /autoattack 0 <Mezz> Seems to work a bit better, and I might even run the pet on harder mobs now (I rolled an illusionist back when we didn't have a pet and have never liked it, or its control window) </blockquote>The "/pet backoff" stuff is not really needed since our pet backs off automatically when you mezz its target... this has been in game for a few LUs now...

[Controlor]

<cite>ElephantonRU wrote:</cite><blockquote>Antryg Mistrose wrote: <blockquote>I've changed all my Mezz's into macros: /pet backoff /autoattack 0 <Mezz> Seems to work a bit better, and I might even run the pet on harder mobs now (I rolled an illusionist back when we didn't have a pet and have never liked it, or its control window) </blockquote>The "/pet backoff" stuff is not really needed since our pet backs off automatically when you mezz its target... this has been in game for a few LUs now... </blockquote>I have tried this since that update. If the pet attacks passivly. That is to say if a mob hits you then your pet attacks it w/o you directly commanding it to attack. When you mez it will back off on its own. BUT if you tell it directly to attack a mob and mez it it will keep attacking that mob unless told to back off. So i still do the back off because i dont trust it well enough.

[Miele]

Thanks everyone for your insights, they were helpful.

[ThyMajesty]

<p>well i don't know if this will work out in later lvls, but...i'm now lvl 34 and doing just fine soloing</p><p>1. get your personae to AT LEAST A3....try everything to get that at M1, all other things (maybe except mezz + root) are less important first</p><p>2. now, your are out looking at the mob you wanna takedown...for me there are 2 stategies:</p><p>a) mobs scaling from tripledowns up to single, sometimes even doulbeups...i just send pet in (pull it back to safe area if necessary) and let him beat, i debuff und stun the mob, give my pet the DMG-proc and nuke it away...with debuffing and buffing at the beginning i do not gain much aggro, pet mostly wont lose the initial one and you are safe .... you can recast pet, but pet can't recast you <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> so don't focus on fast nuking, staying safe behind pets aggro may be your winbutton...but key to that, again, is pet AT LEAST A3 </p><p>on grp-encounters...help your pet with mezzing </p><p>b) tripleup mobs</p><p>this is a little bit trickier, as these will beat your pet down quit fast, so you have to keep it ranged too -> dont let it go close to the mob -> /pet ranged</p><p>this time YOU open up the encounter, with root...then have pet attack and gain aggro, just reroot the mob, stifle/stun if you like and nuke...if root breaks, reroot, move and cycle again through your spells...but always ensure that pet has aggro because if things go wrong in some way you want time for mezz/stun/reroot whatever</p><p> again, i don't know if this strategies will work in higher tiers, but i think by that time you will be able to adapt your own ones <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Controlor]

<cite>ThyMajesty wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>well i don't know if this will work out in later lvls, but...i'm now lvl 34 and doing just fine soloing</p><p>1. get your personae to AT LEAST A3....try everything to get that at M1, all other things (maybe except mezz + root) are less important first</p><p>2. now, your are out looking at the mob you wanna takedown...for me there are 2 stategies:</p><p>a) mobs scaling from tripledowns up to single, sometimes even doulbeups...i just send pet in (pull it back to safe area if necessary) and let him beat, i debuff und stun the mob, give my pet the DMG-proc and nuke it away...with debuffing and buffing at the beginning i do not gain much aggro, pet mostly wont lose the initial one and you are safe .... you can recast pet, but pet can't recast you <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> so don't focus on fast nuking, staying safe behind pets aggro may be your winbutton...but key to that, again, is pet AT LEAST A3 </p><p>on grp-encounters...help your pet with mezzing </p><p>b) tripleup mobs</p><p>this is a little bit trickier, as these will beat your pet down quit fast, so you have to keep it ranged too -> dont let it go close to the mob -> /pet ranged</p><p>this time YOU open up the encounter, with root...then have pet attack and gain aggro, just reroot the mob, stifle/stun if you like and nuke...if root breaks, reroot, move and cycle again through your spells...but always ensure that pet has aggro because if things go wrong in some way you want time for mezz/stun/reroot whatever</p><p> again, i don't know if this strategies will work in higher tiers, but i think by that time you will be able to adapt your own ones <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p></blockquote>Yes it works in the upper lvls generally you dont have to worry to much about the mob getting personal agro on you if you do as i had mentioned in an earlier post of saving your fast cast stun. If need be and feel you have to much agro use phase it will instnatly snap the agro from you to your pet. But that is one of 2 methods that i know of to kill heroic ^^^ at higher lvls. I am sure there are more than 2 i just havent tried (sept had to alter my first 1 when a mob was immune to stuns etc). Really the only mobs that screw us over are immune to root/stun/mez all in one. Or mobs that reflect our spells (like the final mob in nest if he summons his pet will reflect all your spells and slaughter you).

[Ardnahoy]

<cite>Miele wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hi all, I have a little 27 Illusionist alt that I made to play in a different way from my usual tank role, be it in groups or soloing. I read in a lot of places that Illusionists are very good at soloing and I can see why, but I was wondering if I'm missing some crucial spell to attempt it in an efficient way. Right now I can't do much but trying to keep the mob far from me with stuns, mez and root and nuke it, using my pet also to do some extra damage and to make use of his stuns too. At 32 I'll get the dumbfire pet too, which may help maybe, but since it works as a dot, it'll likely break root etc. Now I sometimes use the pet as a temporary tank, mezing and recasting it. Till it lasts I also use the 2 dots, but aside from that, I think I'm missing something important. So, what's the spell cycle you use when soloing tough heroics or nameds? P.S.: AA-wise I'm spending them in the wis line for now, to minimize resists etc. Thanks</blockquote><p>The previous posters forgot that you are level 27, so talking about maxed out AA lines and master spells is not reasonable.</p><p>Let me make this simple. The safest, most efficient way to kill badass ^^^ heroic named mobs requires a simple tactic based on our single-target stun. This tactic works from level 1 to level 70, and only requires a high quality stun and mez (master preferable). The WIS AA line is a huge advantage for the added subjugation. It is a slow way of killing the baddies, but is very safe and reliable. This only works on mobs that are not immune to stun or mez.</p><p>Here is what you do:</p><ol><li>Mez the mob from a distance</li><li>Walk up to the mob and stand behind it within melee range</li><li>Position is very important, must be behind the mob</li><li>Start a Heroic Opportunity (H.O.)</li><li>Cast prismatic to advance the HO</li><li>Cast single-target stun (this will complete the HO about 40% of the time)</li><li>If stun did not complete the HO, cast lightning nuke to finish it</li><li>If the rare HO comes up, just let it expire</li><li>Turn on combat</li><li>Keep an eye on the stun countdown icon until it is roughly two-thirds expired (about 4 seconds)</li><li>Turn off combat</li><li>Imediately cast single target mez</li><li>Wait for the stun spell to refresh and repeat from step 3</li></ol><p>Ideally, you want to get in three melee hits in the few seconds that stun is active. Sometimes you wont get all three before it is time to remez the mob, and sometimes you'll get all three right away. With practice, you will be able to anticipate timers and do this tactic with little difficulty.</p><p>The things to look out for are stun resists, mez resists, and making sure to turn off combat before mezzing. I usually wait until I see the stun icon before turning on combat. Resist the temptation to wait for the last second to turn off combat just so all three prismatic strikes hit. Use a fast weapon for this, you don't care about melee damage, you care about prismatic strikes. Queue up mez as you are turning off combat, and be ready for secondary mez if the first is resisted. With the subjugation set maxed from the AA line, you will almost never see stun/mez resists. Master mez and stun FTW.</p><p>Be patient with this tactic, you can kill really hard creatures but it can take up to 30 minutes for some of the most challenging ones. You can also suicide your pet and let it do as much damage as possible to the mob befire it dies and you start the mez. If the pet is dead, use the extra concentration slots to cast haste and proc buff on yourself.</p>

[scl]

<a href="http://www.arise-raid.co.uk/videos/EQ2_HEROIC_SOLO.wmv" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">This</a> is what I do.

[Ardnahoy]

Regalia@Guk wrote: <blockquote><a href="http://www.arise-raid.co.uk/videos/EQ2_HEROIC_SOLO.wmv" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">This</a> is what I do. </blockquote><p>Excellent video. Watched it a few times and have a question. I've tried that strat many times before but sometimes, I'd get a bad combo of resists or early root breaks, and the DoTs make it near impossible to control the encounter afterwards. How do you deal with excessive root breaks? I see that you do something I do, which is to stand far away, giving time to recast root, but sometimes, mobs just break through roots in bursts and stuns may not be up.</p><p>Do you use illusory allies or phase to buy you some time for root refresh? Do you die often from unlucky series of root breaks?</p><p>I use the tactic on mobs on occasion, but tend not to when the mobs are harder. Do you use it on even con ^^^ heroics, or blue ^^^ named?</p>

[Controlor]

Regalia@Guk wrote: <blockquote><a href="http://www.arise-raid.co.uk/videos/EQ2_HEROIC_SOLO.wmv" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">This</a> is what I do. </blockquote>Just watched this video. Its very similar to the method that i do when i solo blue and under mobs. Not to nit pick but i noticed in your first spell combo chain (befor the mez) you had used your dot/stifle then you stunned then you used daze and restunned halfway through daze. That is kinda inefficient with spells isnt it. In the 2nd spell chain it seemed you were more efficient with these spells you stuned then doted then you did the dot/stifle and daze (still prob a bit earlier than i would) but it at least maxamized the combined effects. But nice job none the less good way to show how fast we chanters can kill. __________________________________________________ ______________________________________________ *Ardnahoy* To respond to your questions. (i cant speak for her but i use a very very similar tactic myself). I can kill and i do kill blue heroic ^^^ named with this (farm MM cat the vamp nameds using this method). I dont really use it for even con and above but i could (i prefer my safer tactic than this semi unpredictable one). If you time your spells right you can keep the mob from doing anything melee or casting for 22-23 seconds. With each on a 30 second reuse time. So thats 7-8 seconds (if not less if your pet stuns also) where you could die in. I generally dont start all out on the mob till my pet has rooted it in case my root breaks it can hold it still. If somehow it does break root AND all my stun type spells are down (this is fairly rare) I use phase. Fast casting it teleports the mob away and INSTANTLY puts agro on my pet. Usually my pet will have it rooted when it would otherwise be hitting me so when its ported away its still rooted and you go on from there. It is a good idea to use your debuff on melee i have noticed it makes a difference in how hard i get hit for (if i do get hit its only 1 or 2 times). If you use illusory allies on the mob after it kills them the hate will snap right back to you and if you dont have it under control your sol again. So use phase in case your getting beat on. I generally dont care if a mob runs up on me however as its norm stifle/dazed and cant do a thing i just let it sit there till i feel like moving away befor it breaks. You can do that entire thing w/o mezing (as i usually do) i just rely on root and my pet rooting and my other CC spells. Nice fast killing in under 1 min of blue ^^^ nameds. My other method which i do mez you have to know the timing of your spells and time them well with your dots. In a post i noted above the first method i mentioned is the one i use for even con and above mobs. Its safe and mob cant do anything to you. Only thing to watch for is pr. OOP is not good if yah get low just mez keep mezed and regen on up. But for that method you have to really watch resists because that can kill your entire chain. If you get multi resists be ready to cancel your dots and remez this one altho generally safer also has hazards to it.