Hi as a casual none boxer character I'm in needs of a class able to solo everywhere. I liked my ranger a lot but as a none raider my only form of soloing is head shot farming. So basicaly if nobody want to group I must spend 20min to move to a good zone for head shotting then I spam the general and guild chat about me looking for a group then if I get one I must spend another 20min to go back to the zone. I thought about necro but then I got the memories of neeing unable to solo in zone with no room for kitting (but that was back in PoP days). So, is there any class who can solo/molo in the same zone he is looking for a group ? Chanter maybe ? Zone still have place with lower level mobs to solo while your trying to form a group for the big part ?
I'd probably go with a mage. Pet Tank with merc healer and mage dps are pretty capable in most zones and don't really rely on kiting space, mobs that don't summon, mobs that aren't immune to snare/charm etc. Warriors are pretty capable with or even without a healer merc, but rely more on AA/Gear.
It depends on how much you are willing to work to be a needed group member and a soloist. Lazy = mage. Hard work = Enchanter
For a long while now, Mage has been the go to soloing class recommendation. I'd say if you want the safe bet it's going to be Mage. 2nd place is Necro. Beastlord and Shadowknight are also strong soloers. Beyond that it's really just been a lot of flavor of the month stuff. You also need to decide WHAT you want to solo. Soloing for exp is VERY different than soloing quests and missions.
I had most experience as a chanter back in the days so I charmed kitted and charm burned a lot. The problem was that only a few specifiq zone worked. Is it tie to zone like it used to be or its betther ? I kinda always anjoyed my chanter in group when mezzing was possible (nothing like keeping 5mobs next to you for faster pulling) but last time I,ve played half the grouping zone mobs were immune to mezz. Its pretty much why I quited WoW the last time.
Necros has a lot of the "first picture" shots on Alla for a reason. A well played necro can still handle a lot of named, even after the nerfs. Have no issue handling trash mobs generally, even 2-3 at a time. Haven't kited in a long while. Generally stick to dungeons (2.5-3AA per kill) Chanter pets got a heck of a boost when they nerfed mage/necro pets. Chanters do not get the pet focus items, but their pet is definitely more then a speed bump now. And with the revamp to chanter DoTs, they are some mean DPS in and of themselves. With the right strategy, they can even tank for a time in a pinch. BLs, kickass, nuff said. And of course anything that can tank can pop a healer merc and take on trash mobs. If your tank can't handle that, it has no business tanking for a group there anyways. You may want to look into the "Pub Crawl" task, along with some other "port to PoK" items. Once you pop to PoK and mosey over to the Guild Hall porter, you shouldn't be more then 2-3 zones from 95% of the content. I have a lot of alts I gear up, and running them from PoK to where the named corpse is rotting generally takes me less then 10 minutes tops... long as the AFK folks in the lobby are not blocking door/merchants again.... (can we just have an hourly auto zone reset for lobby?)
Necro can now pet tanking ? Its seems that mage got it easy on soloing but half the EQ population seems to be made of magician so I'm reluctant in beeing one. So far I've quited my ranger (too dependant to headshot) and wizzy (I'm too bad at kitting with him sadly). I was a fan of wizard portals lol. I'm leveling a BL, SK and chanter. I guess that I'll make my mind someday.
Half the population are magicians for a reason. Mages used to be the most reliable option for this sort of play, being one of the few classes that were simultaneously capable of going at it alone and yet not dependent on much equipment to do so. Most classes with better equipment can do what Mages can do, but only Enchanters, I believe, can do more with less, and even then they're more restricted.
I decided to give my beastlord a go in frontier mountains..After the first 2 mobs I saw that the Merc was on passive and I didn't need any heals dismissed Merc and for the next hour I killed with very little to no downtime even a couple named..So I'd say BL can solo pretty well.
Lasii, which FM? the old level 30 FM or new 105 FM ? I find it hard to believe that BL can solo in the EoK FM WITHOUT a merc and especially the named.
Max AA/t2, can kill a named without Merc, quite easily. Just gotta pop burns and it dies quite quickly, but I also know my class and don't suck.
Beastlord Necro Shaman Ranger Druid Enchanter SK are all classes that can solo the current content, as far as trash mobs go, some better than others. Speaking from experience doing it. Beastlord gets the best pet heal in the game, they can solo a lot of stuff.
Mages are fine as long as you want 1 (max 2) mobs at a time. SK and Enchanter will give you more options with regards to what content to do, possibly the same goes with the BL.
Most classes can solo in current content given that you at least have gained either high end group gear (not ultra rares) from the previous expansion or the current tier 1 group gear from the current expansion. Now if you are wanting to do names solo then that list is a good bit shorter.
When choosing a class, it helps to be forward looking and not just look at what they can do presently. What I mean by this is that DoT changes are still in the works to happen for both SK and Necromancer. Now I will only speak about a Necromancer because I have played 4 of them up to max level. Necromancers are the only class in game that lose DPS as more dps classes join the group. This should be a big decision maker if you know what you are wanting. Necromancers are also more gear dependent than the other int casters. We use the most focus items in game and we have to be able to take a few hits for when "Goner" is about to die. This is a trick that we use because our pets cannot take a hit as well as mage pets or tank classes, and because our heals are not as good and beastlords'. We use aggro management to spread the damage being dealt through our FD and pet FD. Our group Proc Heal (Reluctant Benevolence) usually offsets this extra damage as well. Necromancers have the second best CC abilities, just behind enchanters, though limited by spell gem slots. FD pulling, rooting, punting, mezzing, snaring, slowing, charming, fearing (not doable at 105), and pet/swarm tanking are all at your disposal. For killing you can root rot, kite, pet tank, tap tank, and charm tank your way to victory. A bit of a warning though, if you want to play an easy class, I'd suggest not a Necromancer. Sometimes, you have to split pull where other classes like SKs can tag groups all the time.
In all my years of playing EQ I have never been able to get the hang of Int casters so I will pass on commenting there. For me the soloing combinations that have worked best are SK/Healer Merc and Shaman/Tank Merc. Neither one will drop mobs as fast as say a Mage or Nec Molo but you can do pretty well. I prefer the Shaman combo but that's a matter of personal preference more than anything else. Even though we don't have the best heals they are decent and being able to slow most mobs to a certain degree helps mitigate our lower heals quite nicely. We can stack dot's and nuke moderately well and with panther on our pet and tank merc there's not too much that this combo can't handle.
