So your saying that a mage/necro/bst/sk/sham/ench using their pets are not truly solo? thats funny but ok. This game for the whole time its been out has defined solo as a person going out with no assistance besides what spells/disc/aa/skills/etc that class gets. Meaning if you can summon a pet to help fight its still solo cause summon a pet is one of the spells/skills/etc you get to help you fight. But even leaving pets out. A necr still has more ways to deal with mobs then a wizard dose. Both can kite any mobs that don't summon. But necros can root rot using dots much easier then a wizard can using dds. As dots won't break root anywhere as often as dd do. Even with summoning mobs. A necro can evac/gate like a wizard. But we can also fd, and if a necro is feeling brave enough can load up some lifetap dd/dots and tap tank the mob to death.
That's not what I'm saying, no. What I'm saying is we can define the word several ways, none more "true" than the others. They're just definitions of a word. But the most natural understanding in context is that which is defining one human being playing the game. That's solo. Doesn't matter if they've got pets or mercs, since these are just game objects like anything else. A merc is just a complex item in the game, same as a bag of holding, a healing potion or defiant gear. Just a game object. But we can also arbitrarily define solo as meaning a human being with no merc game object in use. And we can also define solo as no merc or pet since, again, a pet is simply another game object which is no different than a merc except you don't have to share rewards with the pet like you must share with a merc. Now if... IF ...we define as "no merc no pet" THEN I'm willing to put wizard against any other class and wager wizard does the best in this form of solo. Mainly, yes, because of gate. Getting out of bad situations is key to soloing. Whoever can get out of bad situations the best is going to die the least. Not only will they die the least, but will win just as much if not more than other classes by virtue of being able to do so much damage so quickly that the ratio of success:failure curves in the favor of wizard class. Meaning wizard can kill faster thus advance faster, not to mention far less xp loss to death. That's certainly one way to look at it. Another way is that necro et. al. have built-in assitants and automatically default out of soloing by the very nature of their class abilities. Remember, hiring a merc is an ability ALL classes have. Summoning a pet is an ability SOME classes have. But if "no merc" is the idea behind a definition of "solo" then "no pet" logically follows from the same idea. Because, again, a pet is simply a merc that is only available to certain classes. The pet is hired by mana instead of plat but serves the exact same function, and is a near-identical game object. Well sure nec has good abilities, I'm not claiming otherwise. But really it comes down here to the gate ability. In all honesty my familiarity with non-wizard classes is restricted to about 30th level and I don't remember a lot of their abilities since I've played the wizard pretty much most of my time. But if nec has a gate ability with a casting time as quick as the wizard then I'll concede the point and nec probably is better then even without pets. But how fast is that nec gate spell? Wizard is about 1 second casting time and I can use it to escape even melee situations. If nec gate is a slow casting spell then I still put my money on wizard because nec won't get his gate off if trying to escape.
But how fast is that nec gate spell? Wizard is about 1 second casting time and I can use it to escape even melee situations. If nec gate is a slow casting spell then I still put my money on wizard because nec won't get his gate off if trying to escape.[/quote] necros not even going try and gate/evac out . we just fd.
A level 75 necro has 1 second cast FD. Best get out of jail free card in game. Also, FD has a lower chance of failure. Also, I was soloing names with just lifetaps (tap tanking) at that level. For solo experience, I would just agro kite in Steam Factory without a pet. The pet would take agro too easily and die if I used it while kiting 2-4 mobs at a time. I would sit to regen mana once every 30 minutes. Even at level 105, I do not use my pet to solo for exp. I prefer root rotting in Dredge. Back in Kunark and Velious, I would prefer fear kiting. In Luclin and PoP, I would Charm a lot. How are wizard better?
I go back and forth wondering if this wizard vs necro discussion is just some master troll or a guy who really loves his wizard. So much of it is just bonkers. First off, you can't state that a pet class using their pets is not soloing. Soloing is a class using its inherent abilities without any outside assistance. Pets are a native ability of the class. You may as well say enchanters can't charm mobs to solo. Its crazy talk. Secondly, since when is gate an ability that defines soloing. Gate is used when you FAIL to solo something. And an instant FD is better than a 1 second gate in all situations. Who cares how fast Levant casts for a necro? No necro is dying because they can't evac fast enough. We FD, reset the encounter, and do it again. Lastly, I cannot think of one thing that a wizard can solo that a necro cant, but their are lots of examples of the reverse. In summary, wizards are excellent at what they do and if its your chosen class, more power to you. But lets not get crazy here.
