I have gotten each class to level 30 and am trying to figure out which one to take for the long haul first. Strictly solo, no grouping with no plans to ever group/raid. I enjoy each of the classes, but which one is going to allow me to do more in Planes of Power. Keep in mind, neither of these characters will be raid geared, does that narrow my choices on which one will be able to solo harder mobs in the long run?
Necromancer will fit your play-style in PoP and out of the 3 is the least gear dependent class. As long as your Druid has space and the NPC doesn't summon a Druid could solo in PoP. Someone with more Shaman experience will need to chime in, but I'm pretty sure they are even less solo friendly in PoP.
Shaman can solo, but they'll be more down time than you get with some of the better soloing classes, like the Necro.
Necro is, and always has been, known as an excellent (if not the best) solo class. They have insane utility right out of the gate. Invis, Mana Regen, self heals, ivu, undead charms, fear, snare, fd, 15 second of INVULNERABLILITY every 15 minutes, and the most Mana efficient dpa mechanic in the game: pets. Their DoTs do tons of damage, they're nearly impossible to kill if well played. I could solo like 4-5 hill giants at a time if I was lucky enough to grab them as they spawned. Snare+dot pet takes turns finishing them off. Got my gebs, djarn's, full suit of loam, runed cowl, and other nice items in my 40s from giants and xp to boot. Now I have clicky jboots and necro levitate, lich+pots of greater concentration. I soloed my Seb key while others waited days, was one of the first in and got a hiero cloak which I cashed in for Kronos. I love my necro, I prefer grouping, but I love that I have options unlike on my cleric.
Shamans are better at tanking non-undead mobs in the expansions ahead (mobs summon so you have to tank them a bit). Necromancers get an UD only slow in PoP -- but its nothing compared to shaman slow. Meanwhile, shamans have slightly better midigation and their dots are similar in damage (not quite as many though). Their healing is better but mana regen isn't quite as good. A great example of Shaman solo is slowly soloing the dragons in Western Wastes Velious. It's slow, but most people need a group to kill this dragons and shamans can do it solo. So basically, Shaman has always been a class good at doing one epic solo fight -- about as good as Necro I would say unless a charmed pet is involved. But Necromancers are a lot better at other kinds of solo activity -- like farming lower level mobs or killing things for medicore exp while your sitting around etc. They are also more convenient I'd say for travel (there are no levant potions but there are sow pots, FD/DMF is nice too). Shamans are more wanted in groups however. Even though this is a great era for Necro dps...that fades as people catch up to the content and other DPS gets a lot faster. Meanwhile Shamans will be in more and more demand starting Luclin in groups. So while the gap isn't as apparent now, in time Shamans will be considered much better for grouping.
Between Necro and Druid, who has more pet charming options in planes of power. I see this being the main option as a solo person come that expansion.
Shaman can solo a ton of really silly stuff but if you want a farm a necro blows them out of the water. Basically slow and epic means you can solo extremely safely. Adding in torpor makes a lot of stuff a joke.
Your point remains, but just to correct the details: Shaman slow is 75%. The necro one is the same as enchanter's slow - 70%. Lucy/Allakhazam messed up the spell data a while ago, and it now gets the ranges and levels wrong for all sorts spells, including these. If you want to see the proper data, go into Lucy's spell history and look back to what it used to be before it changed to current values.
Unless the target is not undead. Then the spell is a 0% slow that wastes time and mana. Shaman slow however still remains useful on the 85%+ of PoP content that isn't Undead.
Druids charm the werewolves in Ponightmare, which is pretty nice XP. You can also quad kite the guards in HoH.
I havent played a shammy for years, but I imagine that they're a little better root rotting than they used to be with the dot revamp.
Not odd when you consider it's a 20 year old game with a TINY population. If I would log into Apex, Fortnite, CSGO, LoL, etc I would get a match/group instantly. When I log onto an EQ server while in a guild of hundreds I can be LFG for a half hour before I exit out to watch Netflix or play a different game. Having the option to solo on a 20 year old game with few people and few group options if you don't stay at Max level is a good thing.
Necros solo better than any class in the game. They can take down summoning mobs if you need to, you just have to get your tactics down (manage aggro between you and your pet to allow time to stack all you dots, then take aggro, run and lifetap, get summoned, run and lifetap, get summoned, run and lifetap, get summoned etc). Also in pop, the bext XP is fire. A necro can sit at tables and farm about 2 times the mount of mobs that a shaman can in the same amount of time and still not be out of mana. Snare is godlike on non-summoning mobs. Also, FYI. as a necro I was soloing those WW dragons in era with ease. You dont need slow when you have better damage. And yes, even without the revamp necros have better damage than a Shaman. You can stack 7 dots on the mob, and lifetap away till it dies. See lifetap does alot more than people thing when soloing. Soloing = Mortal Combat fight between you and a mob. Imagine if you could do damage AND heal youself at the same time, then you aren't wasting time with 2 spells (and the downtime between those 2 spells) that do the same thing. With one lifetap spell I can create a much better hp differential (between me and the mob) than other classes. That is the main reason a necro can solo summoning mobs, their ability to heal themselves while still doing damage.
