Priests and Soloing

[Crillus]

<p>I kinda want to heal... I've been having a tough time choosing a class. I know a few things:</p><p>*Don't want to be too squishy/helpless if I get agro.</p><p>*Want to be useful to a group</p><p>*Don't want to be completely without heals. Would prefer to be able to heal others as well, since I know I can competently.</p><p>Don't really feel like fighting for agro or playing a horribly overplayed class like fighters, however; I really do like the Berserker and Shadowknight, but I get the impression that the population of these two are just sick and a dime-a-dozen; I realize a well played tank still has potential, but I've played a tank in many MMOs and just don't so much feel up to it this time.</p><p>But I do want to be able to competently solo - but solo not so much for experience, as I know any class can do that - but maybe be able to wander into a random dungeon with at least green mobs and hack my way in, farm loot, etc on at least a limited scale.</p><p>I was kinda thinking Fury, but then I don't know how well they can take hits. It would almost seem that the inquisitor is an obvious choice, but what of the defiler? Would it be a major challenge to do some more tricky content solo?</p><p>Then - I've never tried a Warden, I'm not one who particularly enjoys the animal illusions, I like animals and all, but prefer to stay in my native humanoid form mostly - so on that, is it imperative for the Warden to shapeshift due to casting bonuses or are they just a competent without any illusion form up?</p><p>I realize, as a healer grouping might be my best option - but between those times when you don't have much play time, times when I just wanna go solo, or don't feel up to grouping - I want the option of some farming.</p><p>Any input to that? Thanks in advance.. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><p>Oh and I'm leaning evil side.</p>

[Eugam]

<p>Playing a warden since my first day in 2005 through old and newschool. The warden changed a lot. From "what is dps ?" to a melee healer. For me the warden today is the solo class number one.</p><p>My 2nd choice is the defiler which i am playing atm. He is slow(er) then the warden. Which i like because i am not as young as in 2005 <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /> He also needs a bit more of attention when soloing heroic. And he needs a bit more strategy. Warden has only one debuff, the rest ist straight forward damage and heal. The defiler has debuffs, DoTs and heal procs you want to spread over an multimob encounter. Warden is the top soloer due to power efficiency. The defiler has to work for his efficiency while the warden just has it.</p><p>I think the Mystic and Inquisitor are better then the defiler to solo with. But i love the class and it has a bit more challange. The big plus of the defiler is, that he gets different methods of regaining power at higher levels. Power helps to go through long fights.</p><p>I am quite sure the other healers do their job as well. In the end it is about how you like the different gameplay of the classes.</p><p>Edit: You just could disable illusions in the options if they annoy you on the warden.</p>

[Calain80]

If you are typically a tank player you might think about the Paladin: - He is primary a Tank. (No doubt about that) - It is one of the best solo classes. Also for heroic content. - He has some heals he can also cast on others (not as primary healer, but He can help a solo healer while beeing the tank) - He has some nice AE-DPS (not as high as an SK, but still OK) - He gets a great hate transfer ability that helps him to keep agro. But back to the healers: Fury can solo quite some heroic content, but they do this mainly with he "root and nuke" tactic also used by caster. The Fury isn't as squishy as a caster but also doesn't like to be hit. So you are slower using root and nuke as a caster, but if the root breaks you can take a hit or two until the new root is applied and can heal yourself up again after going out of reach. Not bad, but probably not the best healer to solo heroic content. Warden can take much more hits thanks to his buffs. Also the illusions aren't a problem, as you can change the Game settings to hide illusions. So even while using these spells you will still see your humanoid form. I would also rate them as a good solo class for a healer. Inq should also do fine. It needs a bit more planing to solo with an Inq, but therefore they have more tools to survive very nasty situations. (The warden has more stoneskins / death prevent / emergency heal effects and the Inq has some more stun / root / stifle / mezz abilities) I also have a Mystic, but at least I find soloing heroic content with it a lot harder then with my Inq. That might also be a personal experience as I play my Inq for over 5 years now and my Mystic only if there is nothing more to do for my Inq. The Defiler is probably the class with the lowest DPS capabilities. While it has almost the best survival tools that makes soloing quite slow. esp vs heroic mobs. So while they are very powerful healers I would not recommend them for soloing heroics.

[Crillus]

<p>Thanks for the replies!</p><p>I did try a Pally to 32 or so - and grouped some. I found that I just plain had much more fun healing than tanking. So - not sure which to go with just yet, but a healer of some sort. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Calain80]

For a "not so squishy" healer that can play on the evil side and that can solo quite some heroic content, I would say you could try Warden or Inq. As strange as it sounds the Warden is actually less squishy then the Inq. That is 'cause of the self buffs of the warden that give it about the same mitigation as an Inq, but with an a lot better avoidance. On the other side the Inq can spec steadfast that stops all interrupts and is very useful if you are fighting several mobs at once. Both are "melee priests". If you want to go for a spell based priest, that can solo well, the fury would probably the best choice.