A good solo class

[Velant]

Hello, I'm pretty new to Everquest II, and would like some general opinions from you folks. I'm looking for a class that is capable of soloing tough content, as that is what has usually attracted me to a class in other mmorpg's (like the hunter and warlock class in WoW and the paladin and priest class in Guild Wars, etc). Would love to hear some opinions on what class can excell at solo farming (at all levels) in this game. Thanks!

[Ig]

I think the best soloing classes are probably Necro, Conj, SK, and Fury (not necessarily in that order). The pet classes are probably the easiest soloers (Necro and Conj) but from what I understand SK's and Fury's are a bit better at soloing named/heroic mobs.

[Wrapye]

This question comes up about once a month or so, and the discussion usually ends up in a "you can solo with every class" debate. In what is probably a futile attempt to head that off, I would say that while all classes can solo, some are better able to do it, and able to take on stronger mobs solo, than others. In addition to the aforementioned summoners (necromancer and conjurer), shadowknight and fury, there are the other two 'pet classes', the illusionist and coercer.  Both solo very well, but take more time to master, particularly the coercer since their pets are mobs that they charm.  Note that is not like the Hunter in WoW - the charm is temporary (a matter of minutes) and the mob can break charm early and attack the coercer. I've seen brigands and wizards do a fair job soloing.  They are both high dps with some ability to root/snare mobs while they attack them.

[Oakleafe]

As a Fury I wouldn't put their solo ability up with Necro, Conj and SK (Shadowknight).  For me the ability to solo equals the ability to deal with grouped mobs - furies don't get an AoE (damage to all enemies in the area) until level 32, and that's it for another 20 levels! I'd always list Necro and Conj as easiest newbie solo classes, but remember to use the fighter pet to take the aggro.  I've seen Coercers and Illusionists do very well solo, but don't have positive personal experince to share. All fighter classes, in my opinion, solo pretty well.  I guess I've found it easiest with SKs, Monks and Bruisers.  Healers like Templars do okay too (i.e plate armour wearers who have reaction heals), but they kill slowly.  I've solo'd okay upto level 34 with my Brigand and I hear that Swashbucklers are better against groups, so of the scout classes I'd recommend those two first for a new player. The ability to solo will not necessarily equal fun to play.  Fun to play will depend on you as the player and how you get on with the chosen class.  I'd suggest given a few classes a try and see what one you like best.

[TheSpin]

There are soooo many things to consider when choosing a solo class.  Here are a few things to know and take into consideration

1. All classes can solo the solo content and there is enough solo content to go 1-70 more or less.

2. Some classes solo heroic content much better than others.

3. Some classes can get around much better than others with stealth, speed buffs, feign death, ports etc.

4. Some classes can solo very tough mobs, but take extreme amounts of time doing it while others solo faster but might not be able to kill quite the same calibur of mobs.

5. Soloing heroic content is very dependent on gear and level.

[Gladiia]

Also, some classes are better at soloing different kinds of content.  Some classes can take groups of mobs with ease, but might fall short against tough single target encounters.  Others will excell at the tough single target encounters, but against a group of mobs, they are toast.  There is a large mix of single target and group encounters, and many of the classes have at least a slightly tougher time against one or the other. 

From what you are used to in WoW, you will find that necro, or conj is most familiar as they are the closest to the hunter class (permanent pets, high damge from a range, while said pet holds the mob).  Also, they get different kinds of pets, so you have some nice options.  Necro also gets a pretty decent heal, which comes in very handy.

Play a few classes - some people will swear that a class is not good to solo with, while another person will swear it's the best to solo with.  It depends on what you like, and what you are comfortable playing. 

[Moongloom]

My 2 1/2 coppers worth of opinion.    But let's look at other things those classes give you.

As said before Conjurors/Necros give pets that make playing fairly easy.   But get no self buffs for run speed or any kind of porting.  Pet takes brunt of damage and leaves you all nice and clean with no wrinkles on the dress...errrr i mean...robe.      They both get Invis and Necros also get  fear.

Fury's get snares and roots.  They also get a run speed self buff and can port to many places.  And when they do get ruffed up a bit by a mob they can just heal themselves.

Brig/Swashy can also snare.  They both also get the scout abilities of stealth, pathfinding, evac, and track.  Which can help a soloer.  And if you go sword and board with the Stam line there is a lot of survivability in soloing.

They can all dps.  So I wasn't going to go over that again.  But I thought I would point out some of the other utilities that they can bring to a soloer.  I am sure there are a few more that I am missing. 

[TheSpin]

At level 70 a coercer can straight up solo tougher mobs than any other class in the game.  That being said, if you go out and start one up you'll probably die every other fight and be ready to throw in the towel before you leave the island of refuge.

There's a learning curve when it comes to soloing, and to an extent some classes are stronger at some level ranges while others are stronger in a different level range.

One of the best soloers for a brand new player might be one of the melee priests cuz they can get great dps without spending money on spell upgrades since their dps is AA based, but you have to be willing to work on aa to do it.  There are so many options that it's impossible to cover them all every time someone asks this question.

[Velant]

Aye, everyone thank you for your answers. I now realize my question was a bit too broad. Now that I know that every class can more or less solo to 70, I'll get straight to my more narrowed down questions (regarding the already listed so-called *best soloers* at level 70):

2. Some classes solo heroic content much better than others.

- Now, looking at the classes people listed, I get the feeling that there is a break down among solo classes down to "group soloers" and "single target" soloers (ok, let me just replace the word soloers with farmers... I mean that is what we are talking about here in essence...). Where do the shadow knight, fury, conjurer, and necromancer fall under? (IE swashy's are for groups and brigs are for single target I believe. Learned that on their class forums ^_^).

3. Some classes can get around much better than others with stealth, speed buffs, feign death, ports etc.

- If I'm correct, this means that unlike casters with invisibility and scouts with stealth, fighters and healers have a much harder time actually getting to the grinding spots.

4. Some classes can solo very tough mobs, but take extreme amounts of time doing it while others solo faster but might not be able to kill quite the same calibur of mobs.

- Would shadow knights be considered slow but heavy-weight farmers? What about Furies?

[Lortet]

I do lots of soloing due to often being on-call for after hours emergency work - and don't like the idea of letting down a group by suddenly leaving.

As such I have tried a number of characters solo - and my favorites are

Brawlers - good single target capabilities, able to take groups due to lots of health and have a very efficient feign death to split up tough encounters (kill half the group, fd, pop up when healed to finish them off). Monks also get a power using stealth, but a few totems can get you round that one anyway. Rarely die here as fd is about 96% efficient. I like my bruiser more than my monk.

SK's - I have my aa points put towards lots of life leech capability, so as long as I keep hitting, I keep healing. Good on groups. Has a less efficient and short term feign death (can be used on others as well) and an evac as well. I don't die much with him. I don't find that fights take that long.

Rogues - Swashie and Brig both - swashy is better on group encounters, brig better on singles, but both excellent fun. Your health drops much faster than the brawlers and SK's, but so do the enemy mob's. Almost insta stealth, evac makes it pretty good soloing. They are tough enogh to go toe to toe with many mobs, but lets face it - moving into position after a stun for devastating back stabs is where it really counts. I find these the best fun.

Fury - ok on single mobs and groups of "arrow downs", but can get tedious nuking individuals while having to continually heal yourself from damage caused by it's friends. Still don't mind him, and his new porting to druid rings is great.

Conjuror and Necro - great - but I for some reason just got tired of them. Got a lvl 60 conj that I just stopped playing as it didn't keep me interested. Conj better against groups than necro, but both powerful. Necro better at keeping own health up, but damage often in the form of DoT's which are more likely to break roots, so more trust in a tank pet needed perhaps.

Wizards - the most common class for the farmers due to their power. Able to kill amazing things and die themselves just as fast.

Chanters - I'm not qualified to answer this one - only got a lvl 19 coercer - but the comments about always dying at low levels are not necessarily true - died once so far and I am taking on yellow mobs normally - an orange con was the one that got me. (all solo btw). Looking forward to lvl 20 as I have a "Coerce" master for him that my swashie looted.

[John_Bz_John]

if ur ganna become evil become oger shadowknight,ogers start with great strength and that will boost ur shadowknights overall power. a.k.a its good

[TheSpin]

If you're talking about 'farming' for coin.....the popular classes are the pet classes, necro and conjuror.  You see them soloing large groups of mobs all over the barren sky.

If you're talking about killing the tough mobs in dungeons....I think a well equipped wizard would probably be one of the best classes for it.

If you're just trying to find out if SK is a good solo class, then yes it is.  They handle both groups and single target content pretty well.  They have nice AoEs for groups, and because they wear plate and can heal themselves it makes them able to solo more single target content than many other classes.  SK also have a few tools to help them get around.  They have a fein death, but it only lets you lie down for 30 seconds and has a 5 minute reuse time (can be reduced to 2.5 minutes with aa).  They also get an evac, but it has a longer cooldown than scouts.  Any class can buy items to make them go invisible and they aren't too expensive.

[Velant]

Thank you all. Last post pretty much summed it up for me. One last question - you mentioned buyable items that any class could use to go invisible. Could you elaborate please? Are these one time use items like invisibility potions? What are they called?

[Ramius613]

They are called Chameleon Totems, and usually have 5 charges that last 15min(I think) per charge. They also break invisibility if a mob can see through it (ie their name is outlined in red) this uses up a charge even if you just activated it.  Also entering combat will also void a charge, so you want to be careful on how you use them, or you relatively cheap item could become very expensive.  There are a number of different types of totems, all of which give some kind of benefit (run speed, mana regen, hp regen, etc.) Check the broker if you are interested. Also, food and drink are important no matter which class you play, as well as having some potions and poisons (if you play a scout).

[Paddy McGloin]

Chameleon Totems have a required level of 30 to use however.

[TheSpin]

There are both chamelion totems and jaguar totems....jaguar gives both invis and stealth, while chamelion just gives stealth.  For the most part all the mobs that see invis also see stealth and vice versa.

Why does this matter?  It doesn't except for one thing.  These two totems are on different reuse timers so if you need to stealth more than once a minute you can keep some of each on you and use them more often.

[ParlMoebius]

It seems chanters are being grossly underappreciated in most of the responses here.  Probably due to the inherent challenge in playing them.  If you want a challenging class that is phenomenal, definitely top tier soloing, choose the Illy or Coercer.  Argueably only beaten out by summoners.  I'm not sure where some of these other recommendations for good soloers are coming from, other than the fact that all classes can solo, even my Templar with his measly DPS.

[ke'la]

Lortet wrote:

I do lots of soloing due to often being on-call for after hours emergency work - and don't like the idea of letting down a group by suddenly leaving.

As such I have tried a number of characters solo - and my favorites are

Brawlers - good single target capabilities, able to take groups due to lots of health and have a very efficient feign death to split up tough encounters (kill half the group, fd, pop up when healed to finish them off). Monks also get a power using stealth, but a few totems can get you round that one anyway. Rarely die here as fd is about 96% efficient. I like my bruiser more than my monk.

SK's - I have my aa points put towards lots of life leech capability, so as long as I keep hitting, I keep healing. Good on groups. Has a less efficient and short term feign death (can be used on others as well) and an evac as well. I don't die much with him. I don't find that fights take that long.

Rogues - Swashie and Brig both - swashy is better on group encounters, brig better on singles, but both excellent fun. Your health drops much faster than the brawlers and SK's, but so do the enemy mob's. Almost insta stealth, evac makes it pretty good soloing. They are tough enogh to go toe to toe with many mobs, but lets face it - moving into position after a stun for devastating back stabs is where it really counts. I find these the best fun.

Or get the Walk the Plank AA and they will Turn around for you this comes in handy as with the Sinister Strike(Creature Mastery CA) you can have upto 4 back attacks, so you make them Walk the Plank, fire off 2 of you back attacks, then stun and run behind them for the other 2(if they are Mastery compatable).

Fury - ok on single mobs and groups of "arrow downs", but can get tedious nuking individuals while having to continually heal yourself from damage caused by it's friends. Still don't mind him, and his new porting to druid rings is great.

Conjuror and Necro - great - but I for some reason just got tired of them. Got a lvl 60 conj that I just stopped playing as it didn't keep me interested. Conj better against groups than necro, but both powerful. Necro better at keeping own health up, but damage often in the form of DoT's which are more likely to break roots, so more trust in a tank pet needed perhaps.

Wizards - the most common class for the farmers due to their power. Able to kill amazing things and die themselves just as fast.

Chanters - I'm not qualified to answer this one - only got a lvl 19 coercer - but the comments about always dying at low levels are not necessarily true - died once so far and I am taking on yellow mobs normally - an orange con was the one that got me. (all solo btw). Looking forward to lvl 20 as I have a "Coerce" master for him that my swashie looted.

[Bromir]

FURY

easy as cake .. root nuke .. heal yourself if needed.  repeat .

you can do even con 3ups named with a fury ..

Yours

Bromir