I am an old EQ2 player who hasn't really played much over the past several years. I purchased the new expansion, got the free gear from the box and started working through the signature quest line. I noticed that while i can breeze through the overland mobs I am having difficulty killing the names in the so called "solo" instance zones. I'm playing a brawler class, and am taking a lot of damage against the names in the "solo" zones. I usually die once or twice during the named fight (the free inq merc rezes me) but usually able to take the name out. During the fight i am throwing everything and the kitchen sink at the name using all of the temp damage reductions, all the heals available to me including the ward from my ascension choice. I am in defensive stance. Most of my abilities are handcrafted (journeyman) level. I feel like this is too difficult and feel like I must be missing some gear/stats. I put new gear in every slot all from the free gear box. I have the new familiar, and working through leveling the new mount. I thought I read somewhere that resolve is not taken into account in the solo zones, is that true? If so, what am I missing?
Resolve is not used for solo zones. There is a debuff that you have in the new zones that makes the first billion(I think) of health not count on heals. Between this and Mercenaries seeming to not heal very well, the new zones are very hard to accomplish. Check your mercenary and see how much his heal is versus this debuff. You may have to get better gear or a better tier Mercenary. My wizard is normally a squishy but it's very touch and go with a Fabled Mercenary in the new zones.
Biggest piece of advice I can give is make sure you do the 2023 Panda quests and get the Field Medic adornment from the panda merchant. Convert it to purple by examining it and pop it into your gear, you'll need to put it on your hotbar and click on it once per zone. The heal from Field medic easily makes up for any lack of healing a Merc might contribute. Additionally, make sure you have all your Merc's gear slots filled with items and accolades, even if the gear is just from tishan's lockbox it will make a big difference.
I'm a monk and I'm struggling to do the solo zones solo with a merc healer, so much so I've abandoned trying to complete them, I'm using the unlocked merc, and fully equipped the merc and still he can't keep up with healing me, I have no idea how to progress from here
I haven’t been able to put this rune on hotbar. Help. Nevermind. Got it. Equip equipment… not just the rune
the field medic helps but still need to use my own heals on my bruiser and still not getting any heals from merc.
Thanks for all of your assistance. Life in BoZ has gotten better. The name fights in the "solo" zones are still intense and requires proper timing of the defensive temps and heals to take the names down. The field medic adornment is a definite must have, upgrading your gear / combat arts / spells is also a must. The "free" merc is mostly worthless except for cures and the occasional rez. working through the companion researcher to unlock (what i hope) a better merc.
Make sure your free merc has gear in every slot. It won't likely do much (if any) healing without being fully geared. It needs the potency to overcome the heal persistent heal debuff. I would also recommend buying zimaran cure potions and curing yourself on occasion. Use your self cure, your mercs cure, and cure potions. DOTs will wreck you if not cured.
