Help in Soloing

[Bionickai001]

All right, I have a level 51 paladin and I've heard people talk about where to solo and all but everytime I go to battle something I die, badly.  What kind of equipment, AA, whatever else should I have while soloing?

[SladeBlackstone]

Hmm... Not really sure what you're trying to solo, but since we're pretty close in level (I'm 49), I'd say:1: Look up the solo timelines on EQ2i.   A Buncha hardcore people have given us a good roadmap of quests to follow.2: Writs, Writs, Writs!  Most if not all writs are for solo mobs, so use them as a roadmap of sorts.  Some of the old world writs are bugged and give EXP instead of AA, also.3: Play like a Ranger.  As you do normal melee attacks, use your stuns and knockback moves to get enough distance for your auto shot. (Strafe to your right or left, takes less time than moving backwards, esp if you're on a mount for joust and you really only need to go about 3 steps.  Don't wait to see the bow animation, half the time it doesn't animate anyway.)  Using the bow from operation greenhood and T5 Bodkin Bolts I'm slapping mobs for 300~700 damage an arrow virtually on top of all my melee damage.  If all the stars align just right, with an arrow + joust + procs I'm seeing 1400 damage fly off mobs.  (it's kind of nice having a burst that's as big as fireball, even if it is sort of random) The timing is a pain but once you get it down you should be able to knock off a ton of hit points once every 6~7 seconds (depending on your haste rating)4: Get Jaguar totems and run around zones you haven't been to getting discos.  Never hurts to get some EXP the easy way, and scope out mobs while you're in the area.

[Bionickai001]

All right, thanks, I'll keep these in mind.

[Buzzing]

<p>for solo you will want a faster weapon then what you would normaly want in raids or good groups so your best bet us a nice master crafted sword with oth an imbue and an adornment on it. In solo you have your wards and heals and using those to the max will help you out a lot. If you haven't already do the manastone hq, our biggest flaw is power. Those power potions will help as well. The joust strat works very well in open areas but if you are trying to dungion crawl at all you will need to boost your melee. I always solo in defence for the mit and defence.</p><p>Hope that helped a little lol</p>

[Boethius_Permafrost]

I solo with offensive, 1h, shield.  When I was your level, I did use defensive and had in-combat regen from the wisdom tree, combined with my runes, for long but safe fights.  It worked, but I probably wouldn't do that if I had to do it over.  If you have some intelligence on your gear, you can probably do better than I did back then with offensive and a shield. Don't forget spells and combat arts.  Upgrade spells and combat arts to adept3, wait for level 52 before you upgrade your armor to cobalt.  The weapon is your most important piece of equipment, but you may want to wait for 52 anyway.  For the jewelry slots, try to raise INT like you are a caster.  Full mastercrafted is overkill, but do it anyway. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />You might be able to get some better items out of mines of meldrath, if you can get a good group and do well.  I assume you have the FBSS (quest reward from "The Teachings of Yoru&quot<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />.  There are some quests which give weapon upgrades, but they might take too much time and effort, where by too much, I mean it would be faster to outlevel it and get a bixie sword at 58.Your achievements will probably help you most if you work towards 4-4-8 in int, agi, sta for damage, and hero+wrath (or optionally healling), but the increased self-proc in support will help a lot with damage.

[NANEEJE]

<cite>Alent@Nagafen wrote:</cite><blockquote>3: Play like a Ranger.  As you do normal melee attacks, use your stuns and knockback moves to get enough distance for your auto shot. (Strafe to your right or left, takes less time than moving backwards, esp if you're on a mount for joust and you really only need to go about 3 steps.  Don't wait to see the bow animation, half the time it doesn't animate anyway.)  Using the bow from operation greenhood and T5 Bodkin Bolts I'm slapping mobs for 300~700 damage an arrow virtually on top of all my melee damage.  If all the stars align just right, with an arrow + joust + procs I'm seeing 1400 damage fly off mobs.  (it's kind of nice having a burst that's as big as fireball, even if it is sort of random) The timing is a pain but once you get it down you should be able to knock off a ton of hit points once every 6~7 seconds (depending on your haste rating)</blockquote><p>Hey Alent? I am not quite sure what you mean by this, I have a kick butt bow, the pristine cedar long bow, (love the range) and longarm.</p><p>I pull with it just to knock out 670 hit points on the first shot, (using fulginate arrows, im at level 45)</p><p>But I really want it to work in combat as well, but it has a 2m minumum hit range, so , what are you talking about that stacks on top of this hit to get 1400 hit points? I am not sure what auto shot is.... could you explain that? we cant root, so if i move back, the mob just follows me... lol. </p><p>As far as soloing, I seem to be able to do ok, i have all the 42 level ebon imbued/regular armor, good 35% rated blade and shield, and i can usually take down whites, plus a few regular yellows with a few heals, but.. and i have to say but... I couldnt do near this damage without the respec i did.  with 40aa points, its real nice to be able to go down teh agi 4,4,8, stamina 4,4,8, and the int 4,4... now i think i have one or two after today in the int line as well, but those crits, plus the double damage,they really help out.  But the best part is taking down 3 blue mobs and after the first one dies, the 2nd and 3rd are always half down, if not further, seems we have some skills.... lol.</p><p>good luck and have fun!</p><p>by the way, steamfont and everfrost are the zones i am going back and forth in, but i still ahve to finish zek.</p>

[SladeBlackstone]

Nan, Auto-shot is just the way I refer to the automatic shot that happens when you hit the ranged attack button...  comes from being recently exposed to a certain crappy MMO where that's the name of the hotbar icon.  Anyway. >_<As for the 1400 damage hit, that comes from almost playing to the parser: I'm just waiting for the drawn bow animation at first and hitting joust...  This causes the damage numbers for the arrow and joust (while mounted) to jump over the mob's head side by side.   At this point the arrow and joust both qualify for procs, and depending on what procs trigger, you do about 900 to 1400 damage.In order to do this mid combat I'm simply using kick, bash, righteous blow, or the Sta line ground pound AA, and strafing to the side.  As you get far enough away, the button for your ranged attack will light, at which point you can tap it to fire an arrow (Even if you don't see the animation, you still shot it.  Check your log for pierce damage or "fail to hit ___ with piercing damage") then I just rush in or let the mob come to me and hit a melee attack and I'm back to doing melee damage.  The only caveat to this is you have to be conscious of your bow's delay.  Doing melee doesn't reset the ranged attack delay, so if you stun and back off two times in a row you're just going to be standing there.  Your best bet (at least at first) is to pick a single stun and only use the bow with that stun.  (Kick being the best candidate at a 10 seconds reuse)  Once you get more comfortable with it, you can interweave all your stun/knockback moves with melee and arrows.  Keeping a recent bow seems to be important, too.  My current bow is only level 30 and against the level 50 DoF mobs it's damage has dropped considerably.In closing, a general safety warning: doing this in a group with melee types is dangerous.  Kick doesn't stun the mob, only interrupts them and prevents them from moving, so while you're getting into position for your arrow, the mob will turn and hit the nearest melee type until the knockdown effect expires an he can run over to you, potentially getting out of everyone else's melee range...  and some people get cranky when they have to chase mobs around.  If you're in a caster/ranged group it's safe as long as everyone keeps their distance.

[Scotia_The_Great]

<p>LIttle confused.</p><p>Why would you want to hit something with your bow when you have an in hand weapon?  Are these bow's dealing more damage than the in hand weapon or something?  </p><p>I use my stunning actions as a prelude to the longer casting high damage AE combat arts.  That way I am not sitting there getting hit while it is trying to go off.</p>

[SladeBlackstone]

My average melee hit @50 is 120~180 damage.  My bow does an average of 320~750 damage.  The extra damage really seems worth it to me.

[NANEEJE]

Totally agree, if you havent used your bows guys, check this out.. ALENT YOUR A GENIOUS!, I never thought i could hit 1,000 hit points of damage at level 45. I tried your method when i was soloing, only to add it, i hit mob at 30 feet, for 675 damage wiht my cedar long bow, fulginate arrow, (sta,agi,int aa points all at 4,4,8, thats all i have so far.) Now , he ran up on me, i charged him on 40%runspeed horseback, and passed him, range came up, turned around real quick, hit joust then range and wham, i hit a 1,120 hit... holy cow, that was awesome, so thanks for the advice, and yes, scotia the great, for some reason, we are given the ability to get an extra 600 hp out of the way in the first shot. THe further my int line got, the further damage i was doing with the bow. tried tested and approved, so give it a shot. oh my god, i would kill for quick shot, huh? lol

[SladeBlackstone]

Thanks for the praise, but I think "genius" is a little too generous. :^)  Nice on the spinning trick!  As soon as I get my Carpet I'm going to have to try that.  Didn't think about trying to use pathing and runspeed to fling the mob around like that.   Should be fun trying it even on foot, actually.  Yay to Jboots and Fae +5 runspeed racial!I think there's much more ground to explore with archery on paladins, too.  FBSS haste and Haste procs from MC Agi rings seem to have a rather drastic effect on firing speed, and the proc from MC Str rings should be nice if the effect harclaive has on archery is any indication.  Some rangers I've talked to have said that the bulk of their damage comes from just regular arrows with haste and poisons, so I'm thinking if there's a way to get more haste than just FBSS and agi ring proc, it's worth a shot.  Any ideas, anyone?

[Dragonlor]

Wow, I was really disappointed to read this.  Seriously.  This is not a hit on the poster since this has little to do with him and more to do with game mechanics, but this raises alarm bells for me.  Anytime a game has paladins jumping on the use a bow over their melee weapon bandwagon then something is seriously wrong with that class.  Fight like a ranger...argh!  I guess I will look elsewhere for my next alt, if this is what being a Pally means in EQ2.  Over my years in EQ2, I have certainly noticed a game developer bias toward the evil classes (SK over Pally, Necro pets way cooler than Conj pets, Inq over Templar, etc).  Obviously there are probably exceptions out there.  Just an observation.

[SladeBlackstone]

Don't let my insanity and excitement put you off, I push classes to see what I can make them do and usually find things that get nerfed a patch or two later.  Pally is an in your face class, solo or grouped, and you'd be a fool to believe otherwise. I'm not advocating using Bows over Melee weapons, I'm advocating using bows to supplement your melee.Archery is a nifty little trick we can use to get extra damage when soloing or PVPing, it doesn't work in groups, it doesn't even work in every situation.  (Use it in PVP against an assassin or a caster with root and he'll rip you a new one)  Even with archery, the bulk of your damage comes from melee damage, all you're doing is dropping a stun, taking two steps to the right, hitting ranged attack and then running right back in with in your face 1h or 2H damage.  The arrow is simply being used as a situational combat art in your arsenal to squeeze an extra 30~40% damage out of your character.And yes, the entire dev team plays and favors FP characters.  If you've played PVP at all you'd know this.  Fortunately... we have illy.  *pipe organ music plays, followed by lightning and a scream*

[NANEEJE]

<cite>Dragonlord1 wrote:</cite><blockquote>Wow, I was really disappointed to read this.  Seriously.  This is not a hit on the poster since this has little to do with him and more to do with game mechanics, but this raises alarm bells for me.  Anytime a game has paladins jumping on the use a bow over their melee weapon bandwagon then something is seriously wrong with that class.  Fight like a ranger...argh!  I guess I will look elsewhere for my next alt, if this is what being a Pally means in EQ2.  Over my years in EQ2, I have certainly noticed a game developer bias toward the evil classes (SK over Pally, Necro pets way cooler than Conj pets, Inq over Templar, etc).  Obviously there are probably exceptions out there.  Just an observation.</blockquote><p>I think you are off base here Dragonlord... you say it raises alarm bells for you? That tells me your not listening... IF you were listening, OP's post was "help in Soloing".</p><p>I thinkwe are right on track with this bow concept. Do you remember being a 51? I am 50 now, and my long cedar bow, is the main help.. Alent had one little trick and we are delving on that greatly, because it worked. </p><p>We aren't the best soloers, we are not the most needed groupers, you should know that, so why not give our selves any edge we can. I am consistently hitting 750 almost everytime using a fulginate arrow, pristine cedar long bow, and strafing after i stun, what does that give you? try it... it gives me 1500 points of damage in a fight that my melee and spell damage does not..</p><p>WOuld Alent or I do this in a group? absolutely not, but as a strong soloer, meaning that with all of your help, I am struggling to keep up with the quests as i am leveling faster then i wanted to. I am taking on white cons, even yellow down arrow cons to accomplish this. I would like to see your results of this idea... give it a shot, and tell me if its not smart or maybe there is something to go on. IT works for me, and I will keep using it, also, so much easier to hit for 750 damage right off the bat as a powerful pulling weapon when you are hitting greens and blues for quests.</p><p>I hope you try it out.</p>

[NANEEJE]

To amend this, if you are 51, have you done all the quest in steamfont mountains? i started there at 46 and I am starting to outgrow it, there is still white cons out there. My suggestion now is to get all 4 writs for steamfont, ebon drakes, balesprings, geonachs, and go up to the gnome camp, tons of quests, and lots of fun ones, I have enjoyed that zone more than zek... just a suggestion.

[Excalibre33]

If you get bored... try this... on horseback, toggle autorun and aim for one side of your target, at the moment you run past it hit a fast CA like kick and let go of mouse directional control. You will automagically circle the mob while fighting. I know... no spells or heals while moving... but surprisingly this tactic works extremely well against certain mobs and doesnt do much except make you dizzy against others (I won't spoil it for you and let you figure out which mobs are putty when you circle them and chain stun them with CAs)... if nothing else playing ring around the rosy with your mob can brighten an otherwise boring solo grind. /cheers

[NANEEJE]

So is this your way of making up for the squire spell....? lol, i thought oh wow, summon squire? wonder what he does? so i bought it, summoned him... and waited... and waited.... he is useless.... I mean, i was crafting a rush order, and he is standing behind me when i ran out of fulginate clusters... so i says, hey naberek? hurry up and get me 10 fulginate clusters... he just stood there, I was getting clobbered by a kobold in steam font mountains, and i asked him to go get help.. he stood there and just watched me die... I dont know maybe if i summon a different one, he will help out more. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I am going to try this method, but believe me, it will be in a big open field first, sounds fun.

[SladeBlackstone]

On rare occasions mobs will run over and oneshot my spiltpaw mushroom before attacking me, when I prox pull.Makes for a great conversation topic in groups.

[NANEEJE]

Ha , that was funny... i did the circle the mob thing... and i kept running into a tree, and aggroing crap, and i couldnt get my auto attack to stop, so needed my lay on hands, but still i was laughing when the stupid kobolds, were trying to keep up with me.. too fun. Alent... splitpaw mushroom? what is that?

[Excalibre33]

<p>The trick is don't attack the mob at first if it doesn't have some room for you to twirl around it freely... let it aggro you and lead it to an ideal spot before turning on it, toggling autorun and aiming for one side... smack that quick CA as you come in contact with it and take your hand off the mouse or any keys you might use to navigate. You will autoface the mob and constantly cirlcle it. The mob stays stationary in one spot other than non-stop spining around to face you in the middle of your ring of doom... this is an ol'school soloing tactic that takes a little practice. I'm serious when I say that some mob types will be putty in your hands if you time your stuns/interrupts correctly and never stop circling them. After respecing to full STR there is very little I can't cast on my hotbar while on horseback circling a single mob and doing my little dance... just sit back and mash everything on your hotbar except the two long range/cast duration nukes, one ae and your heals... heck if you preward and spread your stuns out in your casting cycle, have DA and LoH up you might be surprised what lil ol you can take down all on your lonesome... well I don't want to completely spoil it for you. You'll see. /wink</p>

[SladeBlackstone]

<cite>NANEEJE wrote:</cite><blockquote>Ha , that was funny... i did the circle the mob thing... and i kept running into a tree, and aggroing crap, and i couldnt get my auto attack to stop, so needed my lay on hands, but still i was laughing when the stupid kobolds, were trying to keep up with me.. too fun. Alent... splitpaw mushroom? what is that?</blockquote>It's a vanity pet you get from beating the solo arena in Sundered Splitpaw.Edit: Oisin, that strat just might be enough to make me turn autoface back on, I'm going to have to try that.  I do that strat in a certain other nameless MMO manually by strafing right and holding left as I run past the mob... does that work here?