New player question regarding Soloing.

[Sillyfish]

Howdy folks.

To give some background to what I am familiar with, I have played Dark Age of Camelot since it released and when they made WAR I gave it a try and got to like level 30, but I remember very little of it.

The purpose of this post is to get information about a facet of play in DAOC that has always been my favorite, soloing, and seeing whether it is possible here in WAR also.

I don't know anything about classes, so I'd very much love some information on classes that do well in this. I also know nothing about equipment, but I am absolutely fine with someone saying "You must get XYZ gear from doing ABC activities before you can solo competetively." as that's extremely helpful.

Finally I have memories of this video here and I've been in love with the enormous dark knight guy at the end which I'm told is a Black Guard, even though he was dual wielding. is that true?

Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this and any class suggestions and instructions you might have for someone interested in this style of play. I would also like to clarify I don't dislike grouping and understand Teamwork is always better - I just like being able to go out and solo stomp things sometimes.

[sharpblader]

Howdy folks.

To give some background to what I am familiar with, I have played Dark Age of Camelot since it released and when they made WAR I gave it a try and got to like level 30, but I remember very little of it.

The purpose of this post is to get information about a facet of play in DAOC that has always been my favorite, soloing, and seeing whether it is possible here in WAR also.

I don't know anything about classes, so I'd very much love some information on classes that do well in this. I also know nothing about equipment, but I am absolutely fine with someone saying "You must get XYZ gear from doing ABC activities before you can solo competetively." as that's extremely helpful.

Finally I have memories of this video here and I've been in love with the enormous dark knight guy at the end which I'm told is a Black Guard, even though he was dual wielding. is that true?

Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this and any class suggestions and instructions you might have for someone interested in this style of play. I would also like to clarify I don't dislike grouping and understand Teamwork is always better - I just like being able to go out and solo stomp things sometimes.

Hello, welcome to RoR.

Firstly, solo is definitely doable but an "Unsupported" game mode. What this means is that the game development will always be based around group play and balancing around 1v1 is very rare.

Secondly, to be a successful solo roamer your class has to be built in a way where it has both damage and survivability which in most cases, only achieved through high end and expensive gear.

Speaking of classes briefly:

The best soloing classes in the game are offensive Archmage and Shaman. They are a kiter class which can heal themselves, and pew pew enemies from a distance with dots and powerful channels.

For beginner soloing, I would suggest the Witch Hunter or Witch Elf. These classes can perform very well solo even without the best gear. Both are stealth classes which can choose their fights and if things go sideways have some tools to escape. They have pretty good burst damage to kill enemies in a short amount of time. One can say they were designed for solo play. Their biggest downside is that they are less wanted in group play.

The class that you saw in the video is the chosen. It's a tank archtype and the dual wield was only in the cinematic, meaning you are restricted to SnB or a 2h sword/axe in game. You can solo as a chosen but you will require a lot of gear which you will earn by doing a lot of group content over a large period of time. Similarly all tanks can be geared specifically to be a viable in solo.

A general rule of thumb is that most solo builds do not perform efficiently in group settings so it's best to have multiple gear in inventory to switch on the fly.

If fighting against multiple opponents solo, you're going to have a hard time. It is definitely doable but highly depends on the enemies you're fighting. For example, fighting against a healer and dps who are equally geared and skilled, you have a very low chance of winning. Similarly, you will have to be extra aware of what's happening around you in RvR otherwise 75% of the time you will be getting zerged down. You will still be unlucky at times and 10 people will jump on you which happens more often than not. Hence, many people who start solo as a beginner in the game burnout and quit, or join a group of friends.

It's a hard and challenging road to solo in this game. Personally, it's very satisfying when you do win.

[chise]

Hey, welcome to ROR

That guy in the video is a Chosen: https://imgur.com/a/z9wpNjZ
A tank class, but also one of the best 'duelists'. Prob the most badass looking class

So, ill split the best solo/duelists in 3 'ranks'

A listed: AM/Sham, WE
B: Chosen, IB, BG
C: Magus, WH

AM and Sham are straight up busted for solo. Thats a healing class that can spec damage and end up having a deceptive good burst, and even when cant kill fast, will outlast anything.
WE is like that T1000 terminator. You can shoot it but if stays alive, will regenerates limbs and keep coming after you

Chosen can focus on doing spirit damage, so you can pile up defense while still doing good damage.
IB and BG are like fighting a brick: you trade blows and end up with a broken fist and teeth

The reason Im listing WH and Magus last is that AFAIK they take more skill and/or gear
Magus is a ranged caster. You build like a floating tank and can solo (almost) anything if you dont **** up you CCs
I dont have exp with WH, but they re more gear dependent than their 'mirror' (WE) since you have to focus on stacking parry. But when you do they can cut through any other melee.

Dont neglect the group aspect thou. If I had to rank these classes based on group play, that would be:
A: Chosen, BG, Sham, AM
B: IB, Mag
C: --
C-: WE
C--: WH (even if you have state of the art gear ppl will ask if you can bring an alt)
and you would build/play differently than solo.

Be prepared to be endlessly frustrated from enemies piling up on you thou. For every solo victim you will face ten groups, and when you come back to these forums to bitch about it we will they will laugh you out of the thread

[Sillyfish]

Thank you both for the detailed replies.

I think I'm going to focus more on Chosen or Black Guard then, as they seem to have excellent group utility.

Which would you say would be best for my goal - that of being able to solo once I've obtained sufficient rank and gear?

It SOUNDS like Chosen would due to what Chise said how they can do spirit damage and focus on beefing their defense while still doing good damage.

If anyone wants to talk more about whether this is true in todays conditions I would be very interested. Equally if someone feels BG would be just as good, please state why you think that. All information is helpful information to me at this point.

[Fenris78]

WH is a very strong duelist with appropriate build but sadly ppl mostly spec him to deal max burst, with zero survivability, and by this reason disregard the class as weaker for 1v1 versus the WE.

I strongly disagree with this statement, having some experience of the class with a defensive + regen build (dragon gun, sanctified bullet, repel blasphemy and Shroud of Magnus) ; this build is not TOO gear-dependant - at least Vanquisher to be in good shape - and still require to be lv 40 to have all the tools, but it allowed me to win about 80% of my duels, even against better-geared WEs and other tanks.
And it will not require you to stack parry or use any other defensive renown and gear than the full reflexes (20 renown).

Yes the WH require undoubtely more skill and fine tuning than the WE, but it's a very deadly class that can outlast many opponents when appropriately played. I also got some rSH (mSH are freekill if they dont flee).

Plus you can litteraly charge warbands in frontline, at least for some seconds while being mostly impervious to damage. And regen you full life every 10s with Dragon Gun + Sanctified bullets.
So you will be usefull in almost all situation, including mass fighting (while any other build simply is useless in WB vs WB fight), and resilient on top of that. Even more in fort/funnels, thanks to Dragon gun being fixed last month for moral drain.

Only downside is you lack the debuffheal + burst to reliably solokill healers (saving maybe zealots), but you definately can win some duels against dps DoKs if you are skilled enough.

And you WILL struggle a bit until full vanquisher + renown 50, the moment you will get you last tools/tactics. Afterwards, AoE WH will be a beast in RvR and PvE, while staying very strong in 1v1 and small scale (maybe not "the best" in those categories).

Finally, WH is one of the least support-dependant class of the game (you dont need healer and tank, unlike WL and Slayer), and probably the most polyvalent one regarding what you can engage with good ending.

[Sillyfish]

WH is a very strong duelist with appropriate build but sadly ppl mostly spec him to deal max burst, with zero survivability, and by this reason disregard the class as weaker for 1v1 versus the WE.

I strongly disagree with this statement, having some experience of the class with a defensive + regen build (dragon gun, sanctified bullet, repel blasphemy and Shroud of Magnus) ; this build is not TOO gear-dependant - at least Vanquisher to be in good shape - and still require to be lv 40 to have all the tools, but it allowed me to win about 80% of my duels, even against better-geared WEs and other tanks.
And it will not require you to stack parry or use any other defensive renown and gear than the full reflexes (20 renown).

Yes the WH require undoubtely more skill and fine tuning than the WE, but it's a very deadly class that can outlast many opponents when appropriately played. I also got some rSH (mSH are freekill if they dont flee).

Plus you can litteraly charge warbands in frontline, at least for some seconds while being mostly impervious to damage. And regen you full life every 10s with Dragon Gun + Sanctified bullets.
So you will be usefull in almost all situation, including mass fighting (while any other build simply is useless in WB vs WB fight), and resilient on top of that. Even more in fort/funnels, thanks to Dragon gun being fixed last month for moral drain.

Only downside is you lack the debuffheal + burst to reliably solokill healers (saving maybe zealots), but you definately can win some duels against dps DoKs if you are skilled enough.

And you WILL struggle a bit until full vanquisher + renown 50, the moment you will get you last tools/tactics. Afterwards, AoE WH will be a beast in RvR and PvE, while staying very strong in 1v1 and small scale (maybe not "the best" in those categories).

Finally, WH is one of the least support-dependant class of the game (you dont need healer and tank, unlike WL and Slayer), and probably the most polyvalent one regarding what you can engage with good ending.

Ok, so I was kind of decided on Chosen or BG, but after your post about Witch Hunter I am extremely intrigued.

Your post and the mention of them speccing into parry in the above posts make the class seem to be some sort of Tanky Assassin. This is very interesting!

[sharpblader]

Spoiler:

WH is a very strong duelist with appropriate build but sadly ppl mostly spec him to deal max burst, with zero survivability, and by this reason disregard the class as weaker for 1v1 versus the WE.

I strongly disagree with this statement, having some experience of the class with a defensive + regen build (dragon gun, sanctified bullet, repel blasphemy and Shroud of Magnus) ; this build is not TOO gear-dependant - at least Vanquisher to be in good shape - and still require to be lv 40 to have all the tools, but it allowed me to win about 80% of my duels, even against better-geared WEs and other tanks.
And it will not require you to stack parry or use any other defensive renown and gear than the full reflexes (20 renown).

Yes the WH require undoubtely more skill and fine tuning than the WE, but it's a very deadly class that can outlast many opponents when appropriately played. I also got some rSH (mSH are freekill if they dont flee).

Plus you can litteraly charge warbands in frontline, at least for some seconds while being mostly impervious to damage. And regen you full life every 10s with Dragon Gun + Sanctified bullets.
So you will be usefull in almost all situation, including mass fighting (while any other build simply is useless in WB vs WB fight), and resilient on top of that. Even more in fort/funnels, thanks to Dragon gun being fixed last month for moral drain.

Only downside is you lack the debuffheal + burst to reliably solokill healers (saving maybe zealots), but you definately can win some duels against dps DoKs if you are skilled enough.

And you WILL struggle a bit until full vanquisher + renown 50, the moment you will get you last tools/tactics. Afterwards, AoE WH will be a beast in RvR and PvE, while staying very strong in 1v1 and small scale (maybe not "the best" in those categories).

Finally, WH is one of the least support-dependant class of the game (you dont need healer and tank, unlike WL and Slayer), and probably the most polyvalent one regarding what you can engage with good ending.

Ok, so I was kind of decided on Chosen or BG, but after your post about Witch Hunter I am extremely intrigued.

Your post and the mention of them speccing into parry in the above posts make the class seem to be some sort of Tanky Assassin. This is very interesting!

Witch hunters are very strong with their Flowing Accusation parry spec but I would not call them tanky. They rely on certain abilities to stay alive and once these abilities are spent you are very squishy.

There's a larger learning curve to play them effectively where you will need to know your opponents abilities, and I would not recommend to someone who's new to the game because of it. Whereas as a solo chosen you can afford to ignore enemy rotations to some extent while focussing on your own.

The upside with a tank is that you can get spots in group content like cities and forts easily which is needed to grind the best gear for solo.