Solo help

[Zelq]

<p>I took some time off.  Okay, I took A LOT of time off.  I've come back due to the boredom inspired by some other game *cough*.  I fired up my Troub and just stood there.  I have no clue how to play him anymore.  I'm sitting at 23, struggling through the single pulls trying to remember what the hell I'm doing.  It's been painful.  At first I thought it was my crappy gear, but many have told me quest gear is just fine until Kunark.  There goes that theory.  So I come to the community here, begging for some help.  Anyone care to take this lost soul under a wing and smack him around?  I have the following questions (that I can think of right now)</p><p>1.  What's a good single pull rotation?</p><p>2. What's a good multi-mob strategy?</p><p>3.  Gear, what should I be looking for stat wise?</p><p>I will basically be soloing until Kunark at which point I should be able to drag some people in for help.  ANY help, advice, whatever would be greatly appreciated.  I had forgotten how much I had enjoyed running around my rats and I don't want this current frustration to damper that any more than it has to <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[liveja]

<p><cite>Zelq wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I took some time off.  Okay, I took A LOT of time off.  I've come back due to the boredom inspired by some other game *cough*.  I fired up my Troub and just stood there.  I have no clue how to play him anymore.  I'm sitting at 23, struggling through the single pulls trying to remember what the hell I'm doing.  It's been painful.  At first I thought it was my crappy gear, but many have told me quest gear is just fine until Kunark.  There goes that theory.  So I come to the community here, begging for some help.  Anyone care to take this lost soul under a wing and smack him around?  I have the following questions (that I can think of right now)</p><p>1.  What's a good single pull rotation?</p><p>2. What's a good multi-mob strategy?</p><p>3.  Gear, what should I be looking for stat wise?</p><p>I will basically be soloing until Kunark at which point I should be able to drag some people in for help.  ANY help, advice, whatever would be greatly appreciated.  I had forgotten how much I had enjoyed running around my rats and I don't want this current frustration to damper that any more than it has to <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>Honestly, until I got to Kunark, I played my Troubie just like I did my Swashy: stealth up to the mob, & cut loose. If it was a multi-mob encounter I'd start hitting the AOE bombs as soon I back-stabbed. This worked fine until I got to Kunark & mobs began hitting so hard I had to learn to kite. BTW, I was using all master-crafted armor, jewelry, & weapons to do this stuff, with adept1-3 spells & the occasional M2 training choice.</p><p>If you're having trouble, try kiting. What I do .....</p><p>Target mob, then fire off an arrow, back-pedal a bit & Shrill, then Snare, then I hit my right arrow key & begin running in circles, nuking & auto-firing until the mob is dead.</p><p>You could also, with grouped mobs, try mezzing one, then charming a second & using it to help you kill the third.</p>

[Tinrae]

<p>I second Flaye. I really didn't notice a problem soloing until I hit RoK, but the majority of the time I used the best gear I could get (mastercrafted/some legendary) and all ad3's.</p><p>I focused my AAs a bit more towards upping my personal DPS rather than group buffing when leveling up solo. Perhaps  using a roundshield and the Skald AA line for the extra defense would help you?</p><p>In Kunark I've been mezzing - debuffing - stun - back attacks with some kiting as needed. I don't attempt to take on encounters, but if I pull an extra add I'll mez it.</p><p>Gear is very important to a solo bard. I tried to be cheap in t7 by not buying xegonites for MC armor and using treasured quest stuff instead. Soloing was not pretty at all....luckily, I managed to guild-group my way through most of it....<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/499fd50bc713bfcdf2ab5a23c00c2d62.gif" border="0" /></p><p>I try to focus on STR/INT/STA on my gear, with melee bonuses.</p>

[Mew]

<p>I have done alright in Kunark without kiting.   Get MC gear to start with.  Max out your bard shield block and parry AA's and go sword+board (STA/WIS to cap and AGI 4/4/<img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />.   Put 5 in your enhance:cheap shot, charm and mezz AA's.  Avoid the poison Bard AA since that will break mezz everytime.  Buy/make heal potions. They are nice to have once the mob is mezzed.</p>

[Rayche]

<p>I found kiting to be a better method for me. I'm dual wielding mastercrafted weapons and a mastercrafted bow with ad3 spells and mastercrafted armor.</p><p>I find that I can kill faster and not worry about needing to heal up between fights and keep a constant rate of pull up.</p><p>I kite in reverse though, so I'm always facing the mob and tossing spells and arrows at it while I move. It just works better for me.</p><p>Also, if I'm pulling an encounter I'll fire off PoTM and JCap myself, then pull with my encounter nuke, followed by my encounter dot then all my encounter debuffs since they trigger Perfection (All the while walking backwards). By the time the group gets to me they're mostly dead at this point and 1 cycle through my spells and combat arts and I'm off looking for the next group.</p>

[Carthorn]

<p>I have a 34 trouby (which is my first char) and have no issues soloing 31-33 mobs or encounters. Not sure if that will change shortly. I mainly have being doing butcherblock and havent run into any issues. Any heroic mobs (solo ^^) i can kite easily.</p><p>I found gear is the most important thing (then at least apprentice IV or adept skills). I usually get the IV skills cuz they are really cheap. If you are having a hard time for cash, then start harvesting everything and selling it. Rares around your level from harvesting will easily net you a 4-15 gold each, and don't forget to sell collection quest items that you have duplicates for. Being that I have an old eq1 account from, 1999, I have a crap ton of veteran gifts so I use the 40 slot auction house bag with only a 20% markup which helps a ton.</p><p>As far as casting order, usually pull with bow, start HO, debuff def, mental (most important imo), etc, then start unloading. I switch from dual weapons to shield, depending on the fight. If I have to kite, I use a shield so I get an extra stun if I need to get away.</p><p>My AA setup at the moment is:</p><p>Agil 4 - 1</p><p>Stam 4 - 4 - 4 - 8</p><p>After switching to Stam with a slow, heavy hitting weapon it has made all the difference at a low level. Double attack destroys mobs. Also, with stun + bump you can use your stealth attack while in combat. Not sure what you picked for your masteries, but I chose to do the atk speed increase, which is [Removed for Content] awsome for a while.</p><p>Hope that helps.</p>