So, I've hopped on EQ2, made an inquisitor instead of a necro, because the class sounded interesting, I had never played a "healing" archetype before (Unless you consider poorly boxed healers on EQ1), and I hear they are pretty good soloers. Going slow with work getting in the way (mid 20s atm, having fun messing around the dungeons when I get a chance to). However, I'm curious on one point. I'm soloing/moloing pretty decently as is on inquisitor, and it's enjoyable. My goal as I stated in another thread would just be to solo what I can, and if possible go back to older "raid" quality encounters and solo them just to see all the content. (I assume this is possible on eq2). There are three big classes I'm interested in. Inquisitor, I'm playing now. SK, my final main on EQ1, and Bruiser, as I mained a monk for years and years on EQ1. Got the answer that any class can do the dungeon content while leveling last time. But if I was to ask for soloing old raid quailty encounters, which would be the go-to out of those? What would be the pros/cons of each one? Probably gonna end up making one of each just to see how I enjoy each playstyle, but always nice to learn a bit about each one, posssibly get a headsup on what to expect. Thanks
Soloing old raids now? Inquisitors are a good choice as are almost any Fighter Archetype especially with a Merc. Depending on the expansion you can expect different encounters. Any class can solo raids prior to RoK easily. Once you hit RoK you get some interesting scrips, death-touches, power drains, clicky-items and red-text events in Veeshans Peak. In The Shadow Odyssey however scripts get unforgiving and really only a tank that is well geared or a well geared Inquis can do these raids. Sentinels Fate is just barely old now (by level standards) and not easy to solo though with a dps friend you can do so. Does that help the outlook at all? Oh and of SK versus Monk for fighters the monk is the better choice for soloing.
Does indeed help, thanks. Spent the day at work thinking it over, decided to make a bruiser. If I turn out to not enjoy inquisitor later on, and have the bruiser ready to go, makes things simple...Plus 6-7 years of maining an EQ1 monk. Easy to slip back into "A monk, you say? I'll take five." Maybe I'll get to play a bit sometime before the weekend. Who knows. Thanks again
I do love my monk, they are good now finally, but for older content if you truely want to solo I would say an SK with the soulclaim heroic endline is hard to beat. It's like having your own personal chanter as quick as things melt now. My monk can stay alive better on tough fights, but if you are doing old content solo then the SK with 6% power per add killed is really nice on any fights where power is an issue. I would say try them both and see what you prefer though .
I'm a really terrible tank, but there's not much I can't do solo with an SK. I just don't ever inflict that character on groups
Would a Beastlord be any good for soloing? Just wondering as I want to start playing again after couple of years hiatus
In my experience, the melee healers (inquisitor, warden, mystic) are the easiest to truly solo. If you're going to pick up a merc and molo it... any class can do that.
I don't know how they are in eq1, but in eq2 - yeah for upkeep. You pay a higher price to hire them (1 hired at a time) and then an upkeep every half hour or so. You can stash them away when you don't need them (and not pay upkeep) and pull them back out any time from your 'bag'. (but only have one hired at a time)
I can solo quite well on my BL. Spec an AA tree for defense and spiritual stance. Stay in spiritual stance and use heals/wards and an Inq merc and you'll do ok. Also the better the gear the more you can do obviously.
My Wizard is a beast... but he's only 47. I also have an SK Merc that he groups with. Destroys 3^^^ that are 4 levels higher. I'll take that!!
"Best" is subjective. Healers in general solo safely but slowly. Tanks are similar in that they can take damage well, but don't dish it out as well as DPS classes. And DPS classes can solo quickly but less safely due to less damage resistance and or dependence on risky play styles.
All three of your choices are great for different reasons: The SK is just a lot of fun. They've got great AE and can handle a lot at one time. Get an inq merc and they're nearly unstoppable. They've also got FD for when everything goes left of sideways. The bruiser is a beast as well, with the added advantage that his FD is on a MUCH shorter recast timer than the SK's. That means that you can pretty much blow past a lot of the trash mobs if you're just wanting to go after the named mobs instead of spending time clearing the way. I'd have to say that the inquisitor is my top choice for running old raid zones though. As Estred already said, from RoK on you start getting some scripts which require you to do actions other than fight. With an SK merc I can easily get past encounters that I can't do on my SK with an inq merc. It's easy to keep the SK merc up with reactive heals while I'm running around doing whatever else needs to be done during the encounter. That said, I think you'll probably have fun no matter which class you choose.
quite specifically I was referring to Curses... merc's cant handle them and it's why I cant solo Ykesha or Munzok on my Guardian.
Agree with Fury having amazing DPS if spec'd well, but they don't have combat arts - that would be Warden, the other druid.
