best solo classo?

[Nothing]

I'm wondering, based on the experiences you have, what is the best solo classo, in your opinion? The majority of the daytime hours I spend here are from work so I tend to not be the optimal group mate at those times. My time at home is usually limited to a few hours a day, a few times per week. Currently this char is Dr/Ma/Cl/Mo. While I do like this char I'm not sure that I would describe it as a great solo char. Also by solo I mean in life outside of VK(in lvls above and beyond 20, not just getting up to lvl 20). I know, someone is going to say it depends on your play style and where you xp and so on and so forth. All I'm looking for is opinions. I can toss class combos around in my head all day and think they might be ok, but I just don't know for sure.

Thanks in advance for everyone's input, I'm really interested to see what combinations show up.

[Leaf]

There isn't a "Best Solo". However from what I've seen Necro/Druid make
a good combo on soloing. However certain classes can do better, it all
depends on how u play.

[12345]

Some popular ones...

Thief/Mage - Very tough to get stats, +dam equipment is very expensive, areas tend to be very dangerous. Perhaps the best solos if you can get everything together though.

Monk/ca/ca/ca - Tough to get stats, and you can't grip quite as much as a thief can stab. Weaker version of the thief to start, is perhaps more powerful after you get deathtouch though.

Mage - With high +spelldam and mirrors, there's a few areas mages can do quite well in at high levels. For soloing, stats are difficult since you'll need high dex. Lower levels are a challenge.

Necro - Juju is a lot like carrying a group around with you... not to mention your own personal army of darkness. Perhaps the best solos at most levels. Even more effective with druid second.

Druid - Lower levels suck until you're high enough to have decent forms, but you don't really need much in the way of stats or equipment. One of the easier classos to pick up and run with.

[Alberich]

Personally, for just hopping on and running a few mil coins while I drink a beer before bed, I like my th/ma alot.
That said, he's almost useless against big eq mobs that a ne/dr would rip to shreds without blinking.
If you just want a solo char to pop on with for an hour or two, run a bit of gold, and are planning on keeping another char for kililng big eq/sb mobs and helping out in groups, thieves and monks are really nice.
If you are willing to spend some time getting corpses, etcetc, ne/dr and ma primes can really kick some ass, especially at high levels.
Bards also seem to be some pretty powerful solo chars depending on sec class, but I've never played one, so I'll keep quiet on that and let tali or minstrel post something.

[Avatar]

I'll go ahead and chime in. If you're afkish, ne/dr might not be very fun to solo with. The undeads (other than Juju) don't last very long (2 runs or so) plus you have to pay attention to alignment and you have to hit areas with corpses to make the better undeads, which might not be the best xp around. Also, while shifting with undeads is an effective plan, it gets quite annoying...added lag while shifted, shifting itself causes lag, you can't embalm new corpses while shifted. It definitely can be effective, but I wouldn't say it's fun in the long term.

I've always considered caster/warrior to be effective solo. If you get some luck with stats, the bonus strength is very nice. At the same time, you would have caster-prime regen rates, which is nice while soloing (vs. non-caster-prime regen rates). Warrior sec also provides an easier capability to get decent AC. Each of the caster classes probably has proponents for it...I'd probably avoid cleric / druid primes for soloing. Ma/Wa should be quite nice, with AC and some spellbonus. Ne/Wa should be nice these days too, with a decent juju, decent AC, decent Str, lower order-lag for being necro prime.

[13]

ne/ba/cl/mo I would make if I was making a brand new solo character.

[12345]

[quote="13":2q7j4j3v]ne/ba/cl/mo I would make if I was making a brand new solo character.[/quote:2q7j4j3v]

Army of Darkness with gods of war, good healing, stone skin, protect and strike?

[Nothing]

I must say, that sounds very intriguing. But no mage for blasting, or are necro spells sufficient? I realize they're not along the lines of firewind, but are they fairly decent?

[Alberich]

with that you'd probably be blasting with bard, cry can do same damage as firewind, just gotta be careful cuz it's an area affect

[Roadrunr]

It really varies by level.

up to 2x40, mo/wa worked pretty well (although it sucked shadowing and having no healing)

I suspect my mo/ca/ca/ca or my ne/ma will be better after 2x40.

wa/cl has served me pretty well (just dont go look at Chaqpor's kill total this week).

ma/wa has been ok too (but I cant get used to having less hp AND less mana than rr so I tend to die more). I'm not sure I see myself soloing my last 16 levels to get to 5x40 but I should (if not for these stinkin newbies I kept making and getting stats on...)


I think my ma/wa could be as good or better than my wa/cl given equal levels if I knew how to play her...

[13]

Minstrel's Cry > Blastem's Wind

[12345]

[quote="13":34zb5lnw]Minstrel's Cry > Blastem's Wind[/quote:34zb5lnw]
It's much harder to make a saving throw against a bard. Cry does cost more than wind, and bards get only half the mana of mages.

[blackmore]

There are 2 aspects to being a good solo char - doing lots of damage to mobs, and keeping mobs from doing lots of damage to you. Every classo has strengths and weaknesses, depending on what mob you want to hit.

Mage - wind is still the measure against which all other blasting is compared. Mirror images (prime only) are one of the better defenses any character can have, though they prevent you from having much of an opening move (but against bigger mobs, they'll die more reliably with images up using web/curse/damn/bind as an opening).

Necro - if you can get corpses, necro is extremely powerful. Having an army to be hit instead of you is a great defense, and when they hit, that's bonus damage as well. More powerful as a prime with Jujus.

Druid - At higher levels can be incredibly powerful, especially with a powerful shifted form that gets the army of a necro to help.

Thief - with high damage and poison, you can do insane xp runs with a thief prime, especially with monk to focus and bard to sing brothers.

If I were to make a char intended specifically for strong soloing, I would only choose one of the above as a prime. With the exception of druid, they have prime skills that improve offense and/or defense. The other classes provide the same offensive/defensive abilities whether prime or not.

Bard - since this was brought up, Bards are respectable soloers in the right areas, but have no natural defense with bard, so you need other classes to provide your defense for you. Cry doesn't do more damage than wind, but with enough +charisma eq, you can prevent mobs from making their save almost every time, basically ensuring full damage, whereas wind will most often only do half damage. Gods is a great song for soloing, especially if you're using an instrument that lets the song expire after a couple rounds of combat, where you can cast while gods stays up.

Monk - flurry and counterattack are very nice skills. A good grip isn't going to compete with a good stab, but it's the only other class with a powerful opening move. Strike is extremely useful if you aren't casting.

Cleric - while Sanc is still a defensive requirement, you pretty much need cleric in your classo somewhere, so you're going to have sanc one way or the other.

Warrior - The problem with warrior is that you rely too much on other classes for their spells/skills. There isn't much gained with being prime as a solo char.

[Leaf]

Should prob ask Minstrel, but does Cry of Avatar kill your summons?
Like Peris or even Undead summons?

[13]

No it doesn;t hit pets, and with the instrument I think Mike said cry costs him 25 or 22 ? Plus it deafens people in the arena.