Best solo class overall for heroic champ? Starting from scratch.

Discussion in 'The Newbie Zone' started by Prail123, May 4, 2014.

  1. Prail123 New Member

    Feel like having a bit of nostalgia and would like to roll a character to explore the world again. Maybe check out some zones I could never look at back in the early 2000's.

    Would like to use a class that can solo really well with a Merc, and do some dungeon crawling. Could I have suggestions on the best overall choice for this?

    Thanks kindly!!
  2. feiddan Augur

    Mage. Necro second choice. Beastlord third, if you like to melee, once you get to higher levels.

    SKs are also fun, but require the most time investment of the four.
  3. Xianzu_Monk_Tunare Augur

    I think that Monks and Rangers would both be on par with Beastlords in this list.
    Raptorjesus5 likes this.
  4. Dandin Augur

    Enchanters take time to learn, but if you are willing to do research and have some trial and error, they are by far the most versatile class in EQ.
  5. Rorce Augur

    Mage, hands down. I believe they start a little slow at the Heroic Character level, but they quickly become very strong, and are easily the best solo'ers in the game.
  6. Zaxamaphone Augur

    Yep Mage.

    But.... if you are looking to go explore old zones you could never do, and it isn't current content, then I'd think about a Bard, Wizard, or Druid. When you are level 85 in Heroic gear you can go back to just about any content pre level 75 and explore to your hearts content in safety. The level and gear spread is big enough to not worry about dying.

    You'll mainly be thinking about travel speed.

    I'd choose a Bard... Selo's speed, levitate, and invis.. you can get anywhere quickly... and you have track to find those pesky nameds you never got to experience before.
  7. Ottopaul Journeyman

    In my opinion, Necro's and Mages are closer in solo power than the current popular opinion says. I'd actually edge necro's ahead a bit.

    Mages *DO* have the stronger pets, by a pretty solid margin, and a mage's pet+ healer merc(without the mage himself even doing anything to help) can probably take on a lot more stuff than many other classes who are giving it their all. This makes a heroic mage a much easier class to pick up and do well with. Not that there isn't plenty of finesse and tricks that a mage can bring to the table, but the pure power of their pets allows you plenty of time and leeway to figure out what those other tricks are and how to use em.

    But, there are also lots of limiting factors to a mage, which can prevent them from truly being able to go anywhere and kill anything. I feel like a Necro can handle more different types of situations by themselves than a Mage, or probably any other class in the game.

    Things like snare can really be a life-or-death game changer in certain situations in this game, and mages have to work around that. This is something mages have to consider, especially when doing a dungeon crawl(a runaway mob in confined spaces with plenty of nearby mobs to agro?). Feign death can allow you to recover from a situation that's gone bad. Necro's have both invis and invis vs undead. Necro's have Levant(self only evacuate). Necro's even have a mesmerize spell that works on any target type.

    All of these tools allow a necromancer to get to more remote locations, and take down more different kinds of mobs, often times more efficiently than mages can.

    Also, the last couple tiers of necro tank pets are nothing to sneeze at, and get much much closer to mage pet power, allowing the necro to do pretty similar things to what a mage can, while also being able to do so many things that a mage can't.
  8. strongbus Augur

    gota agree here. if you look at what each class can and can't do necros are a much better solo/molo class then mages.

    mages -
    best pet tankings.
    dd's to drop mobs faster.
    can self summon pet gear
    can't snare mobs
    only root they have is form earth pet
    no slow
    no mez
    no fd for when crap hits fan
    limited add control.

    necros -
    pet tank just under what a mage can do.
    can snare/root
    can fd when stuff goes bad
    can slow
    can mez
    more things to control adds
    any mob that can be snared/rooted and doesn't summon can be killed without pet or merc.
    have to get pet gear form others.
    have to stack up dots to kill mobs.
  9. Borek-VS Augur

    I agree with the general point re mage/necro. But...

    Necros are more complex to play, because they have to babysit their pet one way or another (e.g. aggro kiting); for a heroic level 85 this can be a big deal.
  10. Ottopaul Journeyman

    I'd second the Bard if this specific type of soloing is of interest. Bards are so so so so good at exploring older content. All of the reasons mentioned above, *plus* Fade. A bards fade ability should not be underestimated, and is one of my single favorite abilities in the whole game. It works better than Feign Death, and doesn't make you fall to the ground, meaning you can use it and keep on running. It works on just about every mob in the game. It has limitations against see invis mobs, but still works as an agro drop against them, as long as you're out of range, which is easy to achieve with bard speed.

    Bards are also incredibly hardy against lower level mobs. Bards can pump enough regen on themselves to stay alive through more damage than most grey cons can put out. Plus they can put out a pretty large damage shield on themselves, and to down a large swarm of grey cons if they need to clear out a place for some reason, or are farming low stuff for some item/material.

    In the same way that I listed necro's as better than mages, due to all their extra utility/control abilities, Bards are extremely awesome for utility/control. I'm fairly sure bards have more versatility, access to more different types of abilities, than any other class in the game. The bard version of an ability may be weaker or watered down, or more awkward to use than the 'main' classes version, but bards still have those tools when needed. And in a lot of situations, several different watered down abilities add up to a stronger total than a single one of those abilities at full strength.

    Snare, Track, Mez, Charm, Fade, Invis, Lev, Stuns, knock backs, fear, damage shield, HP regen, lull, faction modifiers... I'm forgetting plenty, and it all adds up to a pretty great class.

    Bards are also fairly capable and efficient soloers of current content, but it's a lot trickier than the way a mage would do it, and takes a lot more skill.
  11. Fluid Augur

    So would this be a character leveled from 1? Consider just how many undead there are in the world. Consider how important tracking is. Consider how many indoor areas there are. If the intent is exploring with maybe some questing, leveling and solo/molo has to be discounted a bit.

    There is no perfect character for this. If you go with tracking [Druid, Bard, Ranger]. If you go with travel [Wizard, Druid]. If you go with solo/molo [Magician, Necromancer, Beastlord, ...]. If you want to interact with NPCs [Enchanter, Bard].

    I've tried exploring with my various Magicians and it usually ends in various disasters. Problem among many problems is gating when in trouble gets you reset to before you spent an hour running across several zones. Perennially lost w/o tracking.

    Druid is still one of my favorites for exploring and will probably remain so in the near future. I do have human Druids but I like the innate abilities of Halflings and Wood Elves more. Usually the nature of a conflict is changed from gating out of Dodge or respawning to 'Can I zone before my Merc dies?' I seldom get stuck in the loading screen or have to start over from scratch.
  12. feiddan Augur


    Yes, necromancers have more utility than magicians. But if you made a list of what each class can/can't do like this, you would likely find that bard is the "best" class - utility doesn't necessarily mean power (and traditionally, the devs have doled these two out in a zero sum manner).
  13. Xanumbik Augur

    for a fresh out of the box Heroic toon? Mage hands down.
  14. Maloghurst New Member

    Yeah, I'm in the same boat. I have a level 85 SK, which I used to play a lot many moons ago. I want to try something new, and I got the CE for the new expansion and I don't want to waste the 85 boost on a toon that I can just romp around on.

    And that's what I normally do, log in, maybe go farm some AAs for a bit, then I get hit with the nostalgia train and want to go wander around in the old zones, and places I didn't get to check out before.

    I can solo most old planes stuff with my SK, but I want a wider range I can check out. So most are saying Mage or Necro, I see Bard also which does sound pretty damn fun.

    I wanna just go out, see old stuff and kill it fast haha.
  15. Lophat New Member

    How far back in content are you talking about exploring?

    Just about any class can handle low grey cons. If you want to do content that requires any sort of effort to kill mobs, you will struggle with a bard. Bards are amazing at travel and crowd control and escaping. What they are NOT good at is killing efficiently.

    I'd consider a Monk. Survivability is awesome, escaping and killing efficiently. I sometimes take Monk to old zones and she is fun.. detailing trains with riposte only.. Lol. I also have a 105 Bard who almost never leaves the Monks side.. great box combo!

    Whichever Heroic toon you choose, do the Feerot / HOT quests to get a full set of augs.
  16. Laronk Augur

    Ahh I disagree while not optimal if you get into a situation where bst + cleric merc isnt working because you are too week you can have the beastlord heal the pet while it tanks and use a wiz merc on burn
  17. Necromonious Augur

    Enchanters can technically solo faster than mage or necro if you know what you are doing with charming/reverse-charming later. I say more effectively due to being fast and not requiring a merc.

    Plus they can punch into old content (like dungeons) probably a bit easier than mage would (necro could just run to wherever in the dungeon and FD so they are good for old content also). Mage kinda sucks for dungeon crawling due to no cc or snare, they are great for outdoor zone farming or named mob killing

    Biggest downsides to chanter would be the time investment to learn, more trail and error deaths. Aside from the upsides I mentioned above, another would be there is not a lot of enchanters, and like 50% of EQ population is mages ;)
    silku likes this.
  18. uk9999 New Member

    One thing I have learnt about the state of the game is you can pretty much play whatever you want to unless you want to be in a raiding guild that has said requirements for certain classes being able to join. Obviously some classes solo much better than others. I had a 85 mage non-heroic a few years back and had no issues soloing. I think I only grouped once or twice. As a downside of mage/necro dont expect people to come knocking down the door with group/guild invites. However if you are like me and only have limited playtime/play style those are probably your best options.
  19. Xianzu_Monk_Tunare Augur

    You've already got that in a monk or a Ranger but instead of them healing a pet they are instead healing themselves in addition to the healing that that cleric merc would be doing.
  20. Laronk Augur


    Well yea it depends on your gear level and such if you're well geared I would say they're all about equal with different strengths but if you're poorly geared I think that the pet classes have a very big advantage.