I can't solo. I'm not stupid? The right tactics have elluded me.

Hello. I play Abhorash on Fennin Ro. I love my Shadow Knight. I'm new to EQ and think it's great. However, I am struggling so hard to accomplish anything. When my friends are online things go great. We quest together and have fun. When I'm soloing it seems impossible to do anything. I can't even make it to a level 60 hot zone at level 58 with my pet and merc healer without getting annihilated by mere pumas who are 11 levels lower than me! I know it's me. I'm not combining my powers correctly. So many of my spells seem ambiguous or useless. I can't seem to find a comprehensive guide (that isn't p99) so I hope to learn some strategies for my level that will allow me to progress and have fun. What can I do? What are some strong spell and or weapon combinations that will help me actually kill things? By comparison my Berserker alt is catching up fast. With much worse gear and only needs a healer merc to let him chop things up. Help me master SK. Please excuse me if I fail to reply timely. Thank you.

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/60-sk-getting-crushed.262075/


You will need to click the grey "comment" area on this one to see the suggestions
https://www.reddit.com/r/everquest/comments/pdavx7/looking_for_sk_leveling_helpguide/

this is a biggie here
http://eqshadowknight.net/

The pumas and all the other animals in Blackfeather Roost can be undercons but they do reveal their power by the adjectives in the NPC names. Be carefull with healthy and cunning pumas.

• First check your gear and keep it updated. Defiant gear until lvl 70. Also buy rings, earrings and a necklace from the Plane of Knowledge (PoK) vendor near the Crescent Reach stone. Rough Defiant is good enough for jewelry items if you are short on platinum coins. Use at least Ornate Defiant and Flawed Defiant for body armor pieces at level 60.
• Use a good shield+1H weapon for hard mobs. Create bandolier sets and hotbuttons for that (Shift-B).
• Buy new spells in the Plane of Knowledge (PoK) library and keep them updated. Use the latest high level damage spells or a rank below.
• Make use of DoT (damage over time) spells and memorize two or three of them. Recast them onto the mobs when they faded away if necessary.
• Also mem(orize) a strong DD (direct damage) spell for runners that cannot be snared and for quick tactical burst damage.
• Make sure to use the right merc. As a tank you should use the healer merc.
• Make sure to buff you character with as many buffs as possible. Life leech and mana regen buffs are important for shadowknights.
• Make sure to snare mobs at ~40% HP. Those spells do include a DoT component.
• Stick to blue con mobs when moloing (solo+merc).
• Check out my website (forum signature) for more general infos (Tools & Infos).

Blade of Disruption is about the best weapon you can use at 58. Bazaar buyable.

Best ratio 2h you can afford if it's not available. What's your Zerker use? What's your haste item?

Keep a stock of skinspikes (bazaar) and alacrity (PoK) potions. They help a lot.

Play like a tank, taunt mobs off your healer merc, follow up with a terror to keep the mobs hitting your damage shield.

Don't blow all your mana on taps and dots. Stay on your feet and stay swinging. Try to keep 2-3 mobs on you at a time, more if your merc's mana can keep up.

Oh, and Roost sucks. Hotzones are super overrated. Get your grind on in Velketor's, Old Paineel (jump in the hole, go through the rocks) Veksar, or Lxanvom. Much better cash drops.

If you can get a friend, have them grab a Rogue DPS merc and run high risk LDoN missions (mob count) With a good strategy you can clear them in under 15 mins for about half a level of exp. I like the Everfrost Theme (Adventure camp is along the river) because it cuts down on the zoning.

You can probably also buy healing potions made by SHM, if someone is making the lower lvl ones and putting them on a vendor. Or you can make a shm, but then you'll still have to buy the Nodding Blue Lillies if you can't solo places like Old Sebillis.

On live servers those low level potions [1-30] can be purchased from Elwin Razorfur in PoK.

Ralkor Stoneclaw [in the same room] has level 40-111 potions.

Crescent Reach - Alchemist Adeben (1st floor)
PoK - Alchemist Redsa

There is an SK discord that might help with some class tips/tricks https://discord.gg/cGhYkErb6S

Hehe, this is just the start..

When going up the level its getting way tougher.. soon you can't even enter the zones solo... Game is designed to PTW and loads of PTW..

You need 5-6 toons, all premium 15usdx6 month, and you might succeed the lower end missions.. wanna raid or do the tougher higher-end missions you need 64x15usd month army... Good luck! I say.. go look for another game, it will save you money and pain.

There are other ways to play the game that are vastly different/cheaper/more fun etc than that.

Why would I pay for stuff that I never gonna have? Like raid gear.. EQ DEVS need to make a sub that only costs 3usd month, none raid content...

Would you accept that you buy a car for full price but never ever allowed to go past 30km/h? Thanks to ... for some reason.

New expansions are designed for AllAccess accounts and groups/strong solo classes only. The problem is that this does not get communicated which does pissing off new and returning players that don't know about that fact and do buy expansions that they cannot use much. It would be honest and professional to lock expansions in the marketplace that are five levels ahead to FTP/Silver accounts by adding a required PC level or AllAccess account requirement to them.

New expansions should offer content for all account types including solo players.

It might be a good idea to add a new premium account type (Platinum) for raiders which does lock newer raid zones for Gold, FTP and Silver. Account prices and features could need a revamp anyways. The game has three user groups which are 1. Casual players, 2. Ambitious players and 3. Raiders. Currently the ambitious players do pay for raid content that they do not use so it would be just fair to add another account model for the raiders which do receive much better equipment and Rk III spells/songs.

1. Casual players -> FTP/Silver
2. Ambitious players -> AllAccess Gold: $9,99-14,99 / month -> $8,99-13,49 / month (-10% without money inflation)
3. Raiders -> AllAccess Platinum $9,99-14,99 / month -> 10,99-16,49 / month (+10% without money inflation)

Platinum would cost 22% more than Gold and Gold would cost 4/5 as much as Platinum. The difference is 2-3 dollar.

Overseer, low level content with max light blue mobs, foraging, crafting ?

It is truly sad that "strong solo classes" in 2023 is an exclusive list, and a seriously missed business opportunity.

Not familiar with Fennin Ro, but find a friendly guild, and buffs as you can. Not sure what classes you usually get to group with, but, consider a tank merc, they start to fade in power at about 60, but buffed with HP regen and damage shield they are still monsters, and pull with your snare. If you have a safish spot to do the fighting make yourself Puller in the group list, so it sits there til you bring a mob or two in. Also if you can set up near a PoK stone or a zone line, so that you do not have to die, is a bonus. Once you get to 61, there will be a big jump in the level of buffs that will stick on you, boosting your power and that of your merc. (my toy necro 75 with max level 120 buffs on her, the pet and tank merc were destroying multiple mobs) SK being a tank is going to want very good gear and AA for the group game, and best gear +AA if ever want to go raiding, but that is for the future.

Tank mercs are great if you can cast a DS on them, but since the consolidated Journeyman change, Wiz mercs are truly a thing to behold. At 65+ they chain shock of magic and never lose mana. Three boxing is hilarity; fighting for agro is pointless since they never need heals anyway.

Until you get better gear try soloing in older zones a good one for you might be old Sebilis I'm certain you can still get XP there its a hot zone (maybe not the current franklin one but it still gives HZone XP) and you shouldn't have problems there (with a merc) as long as you pull and dont aggro big groups

Ok, I also had some solo problems till I got some good information and experimented around.Here are my thoughts:
1. Sk are not the fabulous soloers contrary to perception. However, they can solo reasonably well. However, some mobs are greatly underconned and some areas are tougher than they seem. You have to get an understanding of the zones by reading about them.

2. As noted above, always have at least two dps dots memorized.
3. Always have your life drain and life tap dot memorized.
4.Always buy shaman potions. You can get them from vendors. I always use alacrity and spirituality. You can also use health, celestial healing, replenishment. Get a shaman as an alt and get him up to 200 in alchemy. They could then make you essential potions such as translocation ( which is gate) if you get in trouble and can make skinspike potions noted below,
5. ALWAYS have Banshee aura up and the level appropriate skin spike potion. Having a shaman to make these for you will save you a bundle and ensure that you always have potions. I do know I can also make potions of comprehension that gives you more mana and other buff type potions. Seriously, take advantage of these, many of which can be bought at vendors.

5.ALWAYS use a mercenary, preferably a healing merc or dps. I prefer the healer. Don't be stingy about this. Also save up some aas to beef up the merc.
6. Always use a pet and give the pet weapons and armor to beef it up. The pet should NEVER be the tank . It is there for extra damage that is always good to have.

7. Make sure that you taunt and pull the mobs off your healer merc. Treat soloing like a group and use taunt ,

8. Always try to make out all of your weapon and warrior skills at each level. I make out each weapon and also always use kick, slam, taunt and disarm.

9. While I didn't do this next suggestion for a long time, I am kicking myself for not doing it: Consider boxing with a shaman alt !! Shamans not only make great potions , as noted about, but they are fabulous buffers and very good healers. In addition, they can have their own mercenary to help you out. With two mercs, you should be able to handle just about anything and everything.
10. Always be sure that your buffs,, including hardening skin buffs, are on you. Every so often, I stop and rebuff myself AND my pet AND the mercenaries. People forget to buff their mercs Shamans are the best buffers in the game. Use them for everyone in your combat group.
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11. Get the best gear. All melee types are gear dependent. Always get the latest gear from the defiant merchant near the Crescent reach book in POK. The Defiant gear should last you till level 75 or so. After that , you will need to do the daily quests and other farming/purchasing to constantly get updated armor. I would make sure you get updated armor and weapons every 5-10 levels.

12. Use a good two handed weapon for relatively easy fights where you are fighting light blues and one or two dark blues. Use a sword and shield for tougher mobs.

13. Make sure that your aas are set to auto grant so you can automatically get your best combat AAs. I personally allocate 10% to AAs or even more for me to get AAs for trades and mercenary improvements.
14. Finally, buy spider's bite poisons made by rogues for soloing and Scorpion's agony for grouping if you are main tank, SA potions increase hate. These potions can proc that will add to your dps.

hope this all helps.

No one mentioned yet.
FD, Feign Death!
Pretty much one of the OP skills in the early game.

You get aggro while running to the zone you going too, FD!

Secondly, the zones your going too. Honestly I'd get used to fighting LBs at 58 if your moloing.
Look at xp per hour, not xp per kill.

Good zone for you is Old Sebs. https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/zone.html?zstrat=89#NPCs
You can handle a few, and can kill the nameds. Lots of nice things drop, things people still buy.
Some nameds drop item worth a krono.

While Feign Death is a SK best friend, I personally don't find it very useful unless I am in a group and worry about overpulls. Since I use a shaman alt with my sk and the shaman also has a mercenary, I rarely die . So I don't worry about memorizing FD.

Yeah I know you mean. I box shaman with bard.
I don't hotbar fade anymore because I rarely die and need it too.

How does this help the OP?
Solo/molo SK? they don't have a shammy.