Best Solo'ing in Progression and Beyond

So in my prior post I wanted to know what would be a good duo box combo. Now I ask what is the best solo'ing class going from classic all the way to live? I want something that can be sustainable through each expansion and doesn't get hit with the nerf bat too many times. I am thinking that would be the Necromancer. I just wanted everyones opinion. I am sure this will start and interesting conversation. Also, if your going to reply I would like to know why you think this is the best solo class.

Thanks!

Necro/Sham are a good "solo" 2box combo. Root+rot mobs all day. Or just 2 necros, if you don't mind having 2 of the same class, are probably more efficient.

I guess what I am asking is what is the best solo'ing class in the game going from Classic to live?

Berserker

Mage, dude. Best 2box would be something like mage/chanter, or mage/shaman

necros can kill at a faster rate and get to targets easier with FD, but mages can kill a variety of named mobs easier due to having the tankier pet

Necro/Mage best of both worlds plus FD rez.

I've played necro/mage 2box since underfoot. It has a very fast kill-speed so good for grinding, very good for named killing. Chanter's ability to Dps in Cotf and TDS makes chanter/Mage an overall more flexible duo for doing cotf/TDS progression quests and missions however

Necro best solo'er hands down. Now try to fill in the gaps...

Druid - Regen, Ports, Snare(saving mana on necro), Attk Debuff, some buffs, SOW
Shaman - Melee buffs, slow, haste for pet, Regen, SOW
Bard - Spell buffs, heal, resists, selo
Mage - Tankier pet, summon weapons/armor, COTH
Necro - Double the dots, 2nd pet to split damage
Enchanter - Clarity, Mez, Lull...

Those are the best pairs... druid fills in the most holes... but the 2nd necro is intruiging imho...

Necro is best at solo play, has way more tools than a mage.

Druid would be No.2 pick, and I would also put wizard in there, once they get a snare they are as good as Druids at quad kiting.

Another consideration is a SK, probably the best mellee solo'er but they do need decent gear and do not really take off in their solo ability until they start getting AA's

Its irrelevant on live because of mercs. once we get to live you can level to 61 i think you can take any buff in the game. Poisons on live are extremely nasty if your playing a melee.

Live is nothing like this at all. They complain about boxes here but you never need more then 3 actual toons to do any group content. Since that is 3 mercs and getting a j5 merc is trivial now. in fact in most cases I prefer a merc healer because they never go afk.

Even with the inclusion of mercs, however, if we are talking a 2box, it is still worthwhile to pay attention to synergy (and w/ mercs). While many combos will do well, some combos would have a much easier time of things than others

Edit: oops I misread, thought he said "duo" in OP

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See?

Merc healers are bad compared to a player healer. Basically you need 2 J5 mercs with max soother gear and max healing acumen to be able to compete with the healing that one single player priest class can put out in group gear at lev 105

And the gap only widens with tank merc. A player tank is many times better, if group geared with current stuff. Wiz mercs compete ok with players, esp with the right adps and vs melee dps without support

box a Bard, Shaman, SK, and 3 Wiz Mercs

Consistently, through the first ~8+ expansions, I don't think you could go wrong with Necro+Sham. Mage is a powerhouse of DPS/tanking, but that is *all* that it does - you have to depend on the other box to do everything else. Necro pet isn't quite as good (still very good), but you gain a tremendous amount of CC and utility, as well as nearly unlimited mana when compared to Mage. Slow is extremely powerful until mobs actually start to mitigate it or be immune to it, so I would not go without either an Enc or Sham. Enc shines more in a slightly larger group unless you're ready to work real hard managing a charm pet (or at the very least, pulling with your Enc and taking some hits so the Animation agros).

In real classic (P99ish), you'd be looking at Enc + Cleric or Enc + sham for the first few expansions.

our group is SK Blord Shaman.

I see people, especially one confirmed shaman, listing things a shaman brings to the duo with a necro, but y'all are leaving out a LOT of stuff. Debuffs - shaman have debuffs for EVERY resist type. I would have to check to see if they stack, or if the shaman MaloXX line overrides a necro's debuffs. Same for the disease debuff line. Even if there is no stacking of debuffs, a shaman also has DoT's from three resist types - magic (bane), poison, and disease - and they will ALL land on target without blocking one another. When you factor that into what has already been listed - stat buffs, SOW, heals, slow/cripple - it makes shaman really stand out as the choice for a duo pair.

Shaman.

Mage+shaman is front powerful.
Necro+shaman slightly less but have more utility (ivu/invis) to get somewhere deep, fd split...)
Any tank or monk+shaman is easy.
Enchanter+shaman is a bit more challenging but very efficient.

Or just shaman, they're the best solo class for nin fearable mobs in the next 4 expands.

Malo stacks with Necro's Scent of Tetris (I know it's Terris I just always call it that) on Live. Deathbloom took a nerf a while back, and necros were given Death Blossom, which requires you to be out of combat. I dunno about the lev 70-100's now, but I still never have mana problems on necro in the group game (although I hear raiders can). My mage gives me constant mana problems, even worse than wizards have, as far back as I can remember (later expacs)

Necro slow requires a separate small nuke cast, which can be resisted, then another cast, so it's kind of a ghetto-slow due to the time factor in using it. Could be useful in some situations with named, but often in the group game from HoT onwards when I was playing, stuff died too fast too need it. Necro mez will never work on a mob 1 level higher that I recall, but will work against even cons or lower. I used mez off and on until I didn't want to devote a spell gem for it (since spell gems are more important for necro than pretty much all other caster due to DoT stacking), and just used Persistent Paralysis AA root usually for CC

Shaman slows are highly underrated. Extremely useful and powerful.