Heroic Soloing T8, Help XFnarX : )

[Dreadpatch]

<p>Hello,</p><p>I just got way lucky and had my dictate master 1 drop.  I would like to try to solo some T8 heroic content, and was wondering what tips/ tricks would help with this.  Is is beneficial for me to find group healing gear etc?  My coercer is pretty solid with just about the best heroic gear you can find minus a couple of piece, but I don't think that  is necessarily the best for soloing.</p><p> I think I saw XFnarX say that he likes the push the envelope trying solo this content, so I'm looking for some advice with as many details as possible.</p><p> Thanks for your time!</p><p>Elusion</p>

[chily]

<cite>Dreadpatch wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I would like to try to solo some T8 heroic content, and was wondering what tips/ tricks would help with this.</p></blockquote>Displacement gear <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Dreadpatch]

Hmmm, sorry to sound like a noob, but what is displacement gear? Can you provide me with an example?

[chily]

aITEM -299692343 897491992:Soulshattering Band/a - Drop from Druushk in Veeshan's Peakbut there are some other legendary items too (forgot name of them :/ )

[Jesdyr]

<cite>Dreadpatch wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>just about the best heroic gear you can find minus a couple of piece, but I don't think that  is necessarily the best for soloing.</p></blockquote>Soloing changes a bit once you get into VP gear. At that point the rules change a bit because of the much greater reductions to recast times. FNAR and many other coercers that make it seem easy have gear you do not have access to unless you raid. With heroic only gear you need to draw the fight out a little longer by making use of mez as a way to wait for stun recasts. Because of this it is a good idea to not use Proc gear. I drop my PG and RE:2 set items when I solo anything hard. I also wear a necklass that has a large heal on it (often take damage on pull from AEs). You will also want to keep a good amount of +Subj on to decrease the chance of important spells from being resistsThe key is working out a casting order that works well for you. learn how to stun lock with as little overlap as you can. Before that last stun finishes you need to make sure the mob has NO Dots on it and is mez'd.I should note that you really need to keep with it. You will die A LOT when you are learning. Just keep with it and it gets easier. Try to figure out why you died (often just bad luck) and work out ways to prevent that situation. Chels is a great pratice run and is a great training ground because of being an instance. No matter how often you mess up, no one is going to take that named from you <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Dreadpatch]

Thanks for the response, still looking also for any heroic gear suggestions.

[Jesdyr]

<cite>Dreadpatch wrote:</cite><blockquote>Thanks for the response, still looking also for any heroic gear suggestions.</blockquote>If you look at Revel's post on eq2Flames there is a heroic item listed for each slot. Some are hard to get and others are not great for solo. Praetor's guard is a great item for groups but I dont use it when I am soloing something hard. Other items you will find while you are attempting to get those <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Aule]

<p>Useful stuff for soloing, non-T8-raid gear.</p><p>The vast majority of my gear is not raid gear, it's single group or quest rewards.  There's some raid gear, but when soloing it's not gear that actually is making the difference between living or dying.  When soloing I generally have only my VS cloak equipped, everything else is group (or less) obtainable.  I am able to solo farm named mobs rapidly and with little risk in KC, Chardok and Chelsith. </p><p>If I recall correctly, my spell stats when soloing are generally in the neighborhood of 600-650 spell mod, 49% crit, 3 dispersion items, 25% reuse haste, ~91% cast haste with full perpetuality.   This is terrible compared to my raid gear mode but works great for solo purposes.</p><p>Sorry in advance for not providing links to the gear.  Not able to log in my char right at the moment.</p><p>The gear that makes the largest survival difference is your dispersion gear:Embroidered sebilite mantle, outer seb factionRuned bracers of dispersion, drolvarg foreman in kc (< 1p on broker)Sash of the nathsar tribe, ornate drop in fens (<1p on broker)</p><p>The next most important gear is reuse gear, being able to chain stun a mob and have nearly no fear of being attacked is huge.  DPS gear helps but only helps you kill the mob faster, being able to stun-lock your target matters significantly more.</p><p>Muddy orb + gassy scepter set, re2 Dark muslin cap, forget exact name, re2 slamhammer dropEpic (either version)Ring of the four winds, isle of mara quest - needs raid but it's an easy raid nowRe2 caster cloak, forget name, has reuse haste and is fairly comparable to VS cloakCloak of unrest, unrest garanelUsla's bangle, re2 last mobSilten sash, forget exact name, comes from one of the re2 questsStarstricken stud, mc sisters</p><p>Ways to be healed help tooUnglued alchemist's amulet, KJ quest involving vaultsHideous mitts, COA dropVarious tinker items if you're a tinkerer</p><p>A good UI for maintained spells, it's huge to see exact times for when the stun that's locking down the mob is going to expire so you can line up your stuns to cover the largest effective amount of coverage. </p><p>Worth noting is that if you happen to have relic legs from KOS, then you will almost certainly get more mileage out of deep focus (t7) than intense focus (t<img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> becaues the 3.0s reuse effect on deep focus will outweigh the extra 0.5s duration on intense focus.</p><p>Now stack dps gear and spell haste gear.  Since you've probably crippled your normal gear by equipping dispersion and healing related items, you're probably well under the spell mod level you should be at, sacrifice crit rate to get your spell mod back up to at least 700.</p><p>Once I charm burn my way through the trash mobs and arrive at the named, I usually pet pull it to my desired fight location and mez the mob for prepping purposes.  Dagger of deadly seduction from SOH really comes in handy when playing no-resist-or-die, put epic back on once you actually start fighting.</p><p>Here's my sequence of events</p><p>Prepping the mob for kill:MezRootObliterated PsycheMindbendHostage (or Auspex if you have t7 EOF vest)Spell CurseTyrannical Mind</p><p>Wait until your reactives are about to cycle and get to max cast haste by either clicking a fishing pole or by refreshing root, mez, and cannibalize thoughts.  Hit chronosiphoning to get your last spell cast haste boost and get to enjoy the full 30s duration.</p><p>Stand 9m away from mob so that Shock Wave will hit.  I think of the fight in sequences of what stun I have active at the moment and will break it up accordingly.</p><p>Refresh root when it drops as spell casting permits, make sure to have root cycled and ready to go when you get to the daze/stifle portion of your stunlock.</p><p>Deep/Intense focus<send pet>TashianiaPuppetmaster (for reactive triggering)Master strikeHemorrhageBrainshockTyrannous mind <----Asylum <---------------  Swap order if you couldn't master strikeDysphoria (since deep focus is about to end)</p><p>Hostage/AuspexSpell CurseHemorrhageBrainshockAsylumShock Wave</p><p>Keep the DPS going and cast deep/intense focus again.  Scoot back a little bit since shock wave won't cycle for awhile and that's your only real close range spell that matters while doing this.</p><p>3s or so into the deep/intense focus stun,Absolute silence (15 stifle)more dpsEgo Melt right when stun is about to expire for 9s daze</p><p>Mob is effectively stunned, except it can still move.  If root breaks then it will run up to you, so you need root ready for this point.  Mindbend is important here because it gives you some overlap on getting your stun timing spot on.  And as long as the mob is rooted it will melee your pet and fire the mindbend reactive stun.</p><p>You'll have a little time here to reposition if necessary, this is the crucial point because none of your stuns are cycled.  Don't worry though, deep/intense focus and dysphoria are cycling fairly soon.</p><p>For added safety, whether your dps is too low or you don't have enough reuse gear, or the mob isn't approaching 50% health even, stop dps'ing after the second time you cast deep/intense focus, which you'll want to move to after your daze/stifle set.  Right click and cancel all your dots (should only be brainshock, asylum, and absolute silence), mez and /pet back off.</p><p>Wait for stuff to cycle around and pretend like you just prepped the mob and start again.</p><p>Using this technique, if the mob can be mezzed and stunned, you can kill it.  I was able to solo Doom for the first time at level 72 this way, sure it took 7 minutes but it got done.  Ever since LU45 this has become tremendously easy compared to the difficulty level before.  Have been able to solo the Golden Scarab in RE2, that took 12 mins or so, kept having to rest for pow - shoulda worn more pow proc gear for that fight.</p><p>One bad resist on a vital stun though and you're dead, and have to charm burn your way all the way back to where you were.  So getting masters on your stun spells, daze and stifle is really worthwhile. </p><p>For benchmarking purposes, I primarily solo farm KC and Chelsith.  A good clean run with no deaths on my part clears KC in 25-27 minutes of all named except for Vorador and the Armsman, who's usually on his ph anyways, (so 11 nameds), and Chelsith in 30-35mins (7 nameds), and bring chokidai totems!  (long jumping boots help too)</p>

[Dreadpatch]

Great post, thanks for taking the time. I will need to try it out : )

[XFnarX]

<p><cite>Dreadpatch wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Hello,</p><p>I just got way lucky and had my dictate master 1 drop.  I would like to try to solo some T8 heroic content, and was wondering what tips/ tricks would help with this.  Is is beneficial for me to find group healing gear etc?  My coercer is pretty solid with just about the best heroic gear you can find minus a couple of piece, but I don't think that  is necessarily the best for soloing.</p><p> I think I saw XFnarX say that he likes the push the envelope trying solo this content, so I'm looking for some advice with as many details as possible.</p><p> Thanks for your time!</p><p>Elusion</p></blockquote><p>Hiya, sorry about taking so long to post. I actually quit here recently because of some life changes and changes that are coming to the game that directly effect our solo-ability and general usefullness.</p><p>If you want to know how to push your solo-ing to the limits, do NOT focus all your training on "charming" and getting a good "charm" spell. Our greatest strenghts are in our ability to control a mob through stuns, dazes and stifles. (Mostly stuns tho.) I mainly use charm to clear mobs out of the way by chain suiciding them on eachother.</p><p>Here's some quick tips;</p><p>1) Learn a good stun cycle for you. Everyone will be mildly different because of their PC and game lag. Some combos might be "more effective" but if there is a resist or 0.5 sec game hick-up, this can throw your entire chain off and get you killed. It took me about a year o perfect mine.</p><p>2) Subjugation gear is your friend. When I'd solo my Subj was at 521 static. This is very easily achieved with quest / broker gear now a days. You'll read a lot of argument on this one because some believe that Dispersion or DPS gear is more important. I personally think that 1 resist can kill you so any % to lower that is top priority. (Also get the 15% dagger from SoH, it basically makes your M1s @ M4 resist rates.)</p><p>3) Don't focus on to much on charm. I'd use mine to take a few hits and/or to pull & trigger Hostage. Personally after the rediculous amount of charm nerfs in the game I stopped thinkink of them as DPS all together. They are just punching bags there for my amusment while I burn down the mob.</p><p>4) Once all of this is mastered then focus on your DPS. Seeing which spells you can squeze inbetween stuns / control effect spells to pump out a little bit more damage.</p><p>Please also be aware, I had 2 different AA setups for DPS and Solo-ing  as well as 2 completely different gear sets. Breaking the 10k mark never happened in my solo gear, tho my resist rate was pretty awesome. lol</p><p>Like any class, it boils down to how well you know your class. Coercers take time, but if you want to learn they are one of the best classes in the game... just don't get to used to pwning named in the face for long, the next expansion's named are almost ALL immune to control effects. (aka immune to stun / daze / root / stifle, thus one of the many reasons why I left when I did.)</p>

[XFnarX]

<p>Oh, and Displacement / Dispersion gear is good for raiding / PvP, it's useless while solo-ing. Fighting T8 named you're lucky if you live through a hit, let alone "hoping" one of your pieces will trigger absorbing the following hit. The -ONLY- time when the Disps gears are usefull while solo-ing is if the mob AEs through stun / stifle. Otherwise you shouldn't get hit at all if you play your cards right by following what's listed above.</p>

[Jesdyr]

<p><cite>XFnarX wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>the next expansion's named are almost ALL immune to control effects. (aka immune to stun / daze / root / stifle, thus one of the many reasons why I left when I did.)</p></blockquote><p>That sucks. Developers seem to add in CC abilities  but then when balancing needs to be done they throw their hands in the air and just make immunities.</p>

[XFnarX]

<p><cite>Jesdyr@Unrest wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>That sucks. Developers seem to add in CC abilities  but then when balancing needs to be done they throw their hands in the air and just make immunities.</p></blockquote><p>Couldn't have said it better myself. Actual "solo" content is near non-existent (minus endless questing) and it's obvious that some Coercers and Illus alike have perfected using their <em>control</em> abilities to their fullest potential that were developed and created by SoE and SoE basically responds by creating "useless buttons" during instances, while soloing (or trying to) and on raids that just clutter our hotbars. </p><p>I personally rather they make our control abilities and buffs useable and effect ALL mobs (raid or not) and take away 90% of my DPS. The reason I started a Coercer when the game was originally launched was because I was interested in a control based support class... not a DPS class. Given I think I came out decently ahead for DPS, but seriously it's taking a lot of the versatility out of the game. Which makes me sad in the pants and I'm a guy... my pants make all the decisions, thus why I quit. *nods*. [Removed for Content]</p>

[Kizee]

<p>Well [Removed for Content].</p><p>I made a coercer because I was getting sick of spam curing on my templar and wanted to do something different.</p><p>So far I have been having a blast but now they are making most of the mobs CC immune in next expansion? I was on the fence to not buy the expansion and quit but I think this just pushed me over the edge. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/1cfd6e2a9a2c0cf8e74b49b35e2e46c7.gif" border="0" /></p><p>Also, sorry to see you go Fnar because I always enjoyed your informatve posts. Take care!</p>

[Jesdyr]

<p><cite>XFnarX wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p> "solo" content is near non-existent</p></blockquote><p>And that is the big problem. Actually challenging solo content is non-existent. This is why we have to go to group instances to find something to kill. Sure we can solo Chels, but I bet even the best of us is always a little bad luck away from death while doing it. I expect to die a few times in there. Sometimes I dont die at all and others I get bored of my stupid mistakes and leave after a few kills <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I like finding way to get around problems. Immunities make it impossible.</p><p>Stun/stifle/daze immune hurts us even while grouped. These are things groups should love us for and not being able to use them sucks. Before our DPS boost I rarely would go into CoA because I always felt like I wasnt doing anything.</p>

[Dreadpatch]

Actually I had a post a while back when they turned us into dps that I didn't really want to be a dps class, I have a swashy for that. It seems the raiding community pushed to have the coercer turned into a dps class. It was fun for a while, but now it's kind of losing it's flavor. I think the beauty of the coercer is that he was as nightmare to level early on, and turns into a powerful manipulator by end game. The coercer's bad dps is supposed to be outshined by his nasty buffs and power regen. Now power regen is not a huge priority due to gear, and other classes buffs can be just as powerful. Due to the buffs and regen issue they had to give the coercer a niche and give him some dps. Basically the game has shifted tremendously since RoK, and not for the better imho. I have a feeling that same shift will continue in the new expansion. However the easy button leveling now kind of minimalizes the amount of work we all put in to reach level 80, and furthermore ensures that there will be several high end toons that do not fully understand how to play their toons. I never said this before, but I'm getting pretty close to the point where I'm going to quit. This is the first expansion I basically have zero interest in.

[Kizee]

<p><cite>Dreadpatch wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Actually I had a post a while back when they turned us into dps that I didn't really want to be a dps class, I have a swashy for that. It seems the raiding community pushed to have the coercer turned into a dps class. It was fun for a while, but now it's kind of losing it's flavor. I think the beauty of the coercer is that he was as nightmare to level early on, and turns into a powerful manipulator by end game. The coercer's bad dps is supposed to be outshined by his nasty buffs and power regen. Now power regen is not a huge priority due to gear, and other classes buffs can be just as powerful. Due to the buffs and regen issue they had to give the coercer a niche and give him some dps. Basically the game has shifted tremendously since RoK, and not for the better imho. <span style="color: #ffff00;">I have a feeling that same shift will continue in the new expansion. However the easy button leveling now kind of minimalizes the amount of work we all put in to reach level 80, and furthermore ensures that there will be several high end toons that do not fully understand how to play their toons.</span> I never said this before, but I'm getting pretty close to the point where I'm going to quit. This is the first expansion I basically have zero interest in.</blockquote><p>That would be me. lol</p><p>I know how to solo very well but I don't have a clue what to do in a group. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/499fd50bc713bfcdf2ab5a23c00c2d62.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Jesdyr]

<p><cite>Kizee wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I know how to solo very well but I don't have a clue what to do in a group. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/499fd50bc713bfcdf2ab5a23c00c2d62.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>Grouping is easy .. Use your DPS buffs and not charm/PE (unless you have no melee classes). Only use Mez when the group is dead or going to die. If the tank is taking lots of damage or a squishy pulls aggro, hit the stuns.Other than that, learn a good <a href="http://www.eq2flames.com/coercers/23131-facq-improving-dps-spell-priority-casting-order.html" target="_blank">DPS spell order</a> and do that. If your group has power issues, take care of that to the best of your ability.</p>

[Kizee]

<p><cite>Jesdyr@Unrest wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Kizee wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I know how to solo very well but I don't have a clue what to do in a group. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/499fd50bc713bfcdf2ab5a23c00c2d62.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>Grouping is easy .. Use your DPS buffs and not charm/PE (unless you have no melee classes). Only use Mez when the group is dead or going to die. If the tank is taking lots of damage or a squishy pulls aggro, hit the stuns.Other than that, learn a good <a href="http://www.eq2flames.com/coercers/23131-facq-improving-dps-spell-priority-casting-order.html" target="_blank">DPS spell order</a> and do that. If your group has power issues, take care of that to the best of your ability.</p></blockquote><p>So you use your mez when group is dead and solo what just killed the group? <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /><img src="/eq2/images/smilies/97ada74b88049a6d50a6ed40898a03d7.gif" border="0" /></p><p>I think I will pick it up quickly since I came from DAoC where Midgards main healer was their main crown control too. IDK who the heck thought that one up but I was never bored haha.</p>

[Jesdyr]

<p><cite>Kizee wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>So you use your mez when group is dead and solo what just killed the group? <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /><img src="/eq2/images/smilies/97ada74b88049a6d50a6ed40898a03d7.gif" border="0" /></p><p>I think I will pick it up quickly since I came from DAoC where Midgards main healer was their main crown control too. IDK who the heck thought that one up but I was never bored haha.</p></blockquote><p>yes ... and I am sure I am not the only coercer that has done that. You mez, take a breath and then start soloing.</p><p>I use to play a bard in DAoC, it was what gave me my love for CC classes. In DAoC CC was needed fairly often ... Here it is not used nearly as much.</p>

[cclamike]

<p>My apologies for necroposting this but I have a question that I haven't found an answer to reading over the last few pages of posts.</p><p>Can you create a macro to cancel DOTs?  I find myself fumbling a lot with the spell cancelling process.  Thanks.</p>

[Jesdyr]

<p><cite>cclamike wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p> I find myself fumbling a lot with the spell cancelling process.</p></blockquote><p>There is no easy way I know of to do this.</p><p>The key is to know the duration of the DoT and make sure it will expire before your stun chain is over. Otherwise it is easier to just not use your dots. This will limit your DPS, but just one death will often set you back more time than being careful.</p>