Best solo spots for a higher-end Paladin

[Tirian Trueblade]

Didn't want to derail the other solo spot thread so I thought I'd make a new one. I'm at 4200+AC, max Avoid/Shielding, using a Fabled Blade of War and had been getting 11-12 AA per Veteran Lesson Run (so around 6 normally) per 30 minute session in Illsalin while it was a Hot Zone. Now that it's not, the best I can do is about 6.5 AA per session. Where are the rest of you at my approximate gear level soloing now?

I tried the skeletons in Loping Plains near the Hills of Shade zoneline, but they are a lot more dangerous since it's hard to always get singles, and I don't think the additional experience per kill is enough to justify the longer fights and danger of dying.

Note that this is pure soloing, no boxes. If I were to box I think I'd just grind out AAs at the skeleton camp mentioned above, but I'm looking for a true solo spot.

Thanks in advance!

- Tir

[Normy]

I've heard of folks soloing some of the undead camps in HoS, but I find the pulls too rough. Single, the mobs aren't bad, and I can take a yellow con for lots o xp, but the adds while pulling can be nasty. Find a way around that and you might find a new home.

The undead in Loping plains, I prefer the vampire mobs in the crypt, I've had good lucky with my root in there as it will hold most of the duration. I don't recall any actual cleric type mobs either, so made it a bit easier.

For pure grind though, you might be stuck in RoI. No other spot will give the same xp that the hotzone RoI was giving for killing that easy of mobs. Even now, its not bad its just not as uber as it used to be.

[Thyr]

I am curious as to how people are getting such awsome rates of return for aa's? Are they truely soloing? Are there bots? I can do around 2 or 3 aa in a lesson in illsalin. If I have more than a quickie half hour I will run to hos and do that i can do around 4 or 5 aa in a lesson there. The blackwater village has alot of wanderers that wander too far from friends and thus make themselves easy targets, as well as the beach is pretty easy singles, and if I really have some time i will log the shambot in and do a named camp. self buffed i have 25k hp, 4.6k ac, 2300 attack. I have cleave 5, fero 5, overhaste clicky (belt from lguk), and damage shield click (belt from crystallos) i have mayong sword as my 2hs, and fabled axe as my 1hs. i have about half the offensive aa's done including slay, and tirple attack. I know the sword is not all that impressive anymore, but I would think I should be able to match some of the dps people talk about here. Is it the aa's that make the difference? is there some clicky i should have? is it a familiar i need to get? if it is aa's what is a list start to finish of the useful dps aa's and why?

[Normy]

AA's do make a significant difference, I personally love the ones that max the extra hit with 2handers.

Some of it is knowing where to go in RoI. There are a few camps that is constant slaughter of undead if you can make it all the way in. I'm not the greatest at knowing it though, my buddy had a mage camped there that I could log on and coth between mobs. To run to that camp was kinda rough as there was a few points that had both live and undead nearby. If you can handle HoS, you can handle RoI, hopefully somone here can supply how to get there.

I personally don't pull 6AA's per run in RoI, I'm more like 4.5-5, but my DPS is lower.

[Tirian Trueblade]

My RoI path is to start in the room with the named drachnid. (You can pull all of the mobs around him without aggroing him.) I clear that room, then go outside and clear the mobs on the ledges, then back inside and through the tunnel to clear the next room. Then I clear the large room after that, then out to the arena ledges. (I don't kill the zombies on the steps since they are hard to pull single/double.) Finally, I invis and bypass the rooms deeper in and head down to the Clergyman area and kill there until my Lesson runs out.

- Tir

[olts]

i solo frostcrypt a lot. its decent exp, ya always alone there on fv and doable if ya geared in tss+ stuff and have a decent amount of aa. ya can solo up to 3 giants at once if ya burn loh and have the dps aa. 3 giants, because thats whats needed to break the camp for forged froststeel ingot - what sells for a pretty penny on fv ya also can probably solo the wep aug, i still need to figure out though how to break this camp. i always get 4 to 5 giants when i pull. WTB a non-breaking 3 min root

caero snowbunniesbane
80 paladin of tunare
forgotten nemesis
firona vie

[shiftie]

Burning lesson isn't always about dps - its about conservation of mana and clicks and timing things right. Switching in something like say the FC 1hs till the heal proc goes off and switching back to your 2her saves on mana. The SoF bp for the heal proc, anguish bp for the heal proc, por bp for the hot click etc all make going full burn a lot easier. Knowing how to use game objects to the advantage of pulling helps also so instead of getting 5 mobs you only end up with 1-2 of which you can root one and then you have a single. Less mana intense and things die faster as you are focusing your dps. Without a doubt some people are just better at soloing there is no explanation to it and that of course is my opinion. Make sure you have the flurry tribute running, and fero VII and Cleave VII are a big jump from the level V... true story.

The best camp in RoI is the statue the spiders have less hp and they do not self buff. The shillskin cast "bolster" on themselves which if you remember meant a serious ass kicking in the DoD era - its a haste buff among other things. Just make sure you are ready to handle the bloodknight if he should happen to spawn he's the biggest undercon since dvinn. You can cycle those rooms and all the bridges and you don't run out of mobs before the cycle starts over.

As far as splitting the camp for the weapon aug in FC. Start in the far back right corner kill that mob. Root pull the 2 on the middle wall. Root pull the 2 in the opposite corner. From this corner playing off the angles of the pillar you can pull the mobs from the center of the room. There are 3 mobs in the center and on on the opposite side of the pillar near the corner where you started - Root this mob. Make sure you wait for the pathing mobs to clear out of the center first. When you root this mob I know it looks like it will pull all of them but because of the pillar it allows you to split 1 mob from the 3 by rooting the mob i mentioned.

On another note and I see it all the time Shackles has a very fast recast time. Nothing prevents you from recasting the spell. Part of being a good paladin is being aware of your surroundings, just cycle the target or angle yourself for los and recast the damn spell. This isn't ideal but it works - true story!

good luck,
shiftie

[olts]

[Thyr]

I think we might want to define high end. my guild has broken into mmm, and is doing solteris occasionally. i do not consider us terribly high end. high end is mmm farmed and higher.

when it comes to weapons however i have ignored them for a very long time because i was one of those who used to say "my job is to take a hit and stay standing. nothing else." yeah i am learning that was the wrong approach, especially since my life is changing (and eq is not) i spend alot more time soloing for aa's/levels in between raids.

i can solo illsalin easily enough, i go and kill the whole middle island without much problem. i can handle 3 or 4 mobs at a time. but the exp is not all that hot. i went in last night and tried to see from start to finish of an lotd what i could get for aa's. with non stop killing start to finish i made a whopping 3.6 aa's.

i then went to hos and killed for a half hour. i made 2.1 aa without lesson running. so with lesson running that should be 4.2 aa.

i had not considered fc, not sure what i think of that one. might have to go give it a shot. i used to take the shambot down and do the big room with the 2 named that spawn there (cannot remember the name right now for the life of me), but the mobs hit so hard and had so many hp that i had written it off as a bad place to exp.

direwind camps were not something i had about now because even when tss was a new expansion illsalin was still a better rate of return than direwind, i would not think that would change, but i could be wrong will give it a shot.

[Tirian Trueblade]

Didn't mean to get anyone hung up on the phrase "higher-end". (Note that I didn't say "high-end" ) On my server, I'm in the top 5 AC Paladins and have mainly a mix of TSS, Solteris and Tier-1 SoF raid armor. (I realize that Saryrn lags behind most servers in progression.) I just wanted to make a distinction between Paladins in my gear range and non-raid geared Paladins. (Although with the 500+HP of Crys group gear, the main difference now is AC.) Most of you that have posted here are within +/- 100AC of me, and that was my target audience.

After my initial post, I've run Lesson two more times in Illsalin using the path described above and managed 6.6 and 6.9 AAs. I should note that I don't stop to med - I use tactics like the ones Shiftie advocates: casting Morrow exclusively, and I never cast it when I don't have either Remorse for the Fallen or Epic click active, which is what allows me to keep fighting for the full 30 minutes.

Not that I'm trying to start a competition here, but is there anyone getting 7+ AAs on a 30-minute Lesson session now that Illsalin isn't a hotzone? I assumed there were other spots out there that I didn't know about.

- Tir

[Abazzagorath]

[shiftie]

can we please start to make the distinction between soloing and boxing - running a pocket healer isn't the same... I'm not saying you can't do it solo or taking away from what you say, but you can't suggest what's best for a single person based on what you usually box. If boxing a shaman then yes by all means kill the shillskins in there but without lassitude the bolster buff requires more mana used to heal. I'm not trying to press any buttons here but every time I see the word solo on a thread - I also see someone suggesting what they box ( a luxury that not all of us enjoy).

cheers,
shiftie

[Brohg]

You deleted Nullify Magic from your spellbook? That's by far the best way to deal with Bolster, way better than Lassitude.

[shiftie]

[knytul]

Regardless of the lovemaking between you two..i gotta ask....
Why in the hell would you delete Nullify Magic from your spellbook?

[shiftie]

that was his lame attempt at suggesting a strat that I'm not l33t enough to think of...

[Zorbee]

WAIT you can dispell mobs?!? What brouhaha is this?!?!

[boukk]

Can pull 8/9 aa in half an hour with lesson on a good cession in Direwind.

[Tirian Trueblade]

Is that in the "Boneyard" where Carrionmancer Marrowrot spawns, one of the two Son of Severan camps, or near the AG zoneline where Severan himself is? I'll try Direwind out tonight.

- Tir

[Normy]

Yea, never camped Dire myself, would love to try it out. Roughly where is a good camp spot? How many can I expect per pull? Any other details I should be aware of?

[Bigcat Daddy-o]

[Bigcat Daddy-o]

[shiftie]

The guy never has anything positive to say... and if he does have something worthwhile to say he does it in a condescending manner and it never stops. Sure using nullify magic is a viable solution to the bolster buff he suggests but suggesting that I deleted it from my spell book instead of just saying oh by the way use nullify magic to remove the buff is assanine. I'm not imposing any kind of rules but if he is going to persist with his jackass comments I'd like him to either keep them to himself or just keep it to the shaman forums. I don't go onto the shaman forum and tell him how to solo or assume that I know how to play a shaman better than he does and I don't think he should feel it necessary to bring that attitude to the paladin forums.

[Bigcat Daddy-o]

[Brohg]

I don't engage in hand holding in a peer based forum.

You didn't ASK how to handle Bolster, you flat said you couldn't.

If real help that lets you do something previously impossible for you is difficult to accept, regardless of the source, I'm not the one who needs an attitude adjustment.

If you do know how to solo or play a shaman better than I do, please let me know, in whatever forum you like. I'd be more than tickled to hear about it.

[varutia]

What we need is an upgrade to nullify magic, I was fair bit annoyed we have not got upgrade to nullify magic which ranger who also is hybrid got it. A lot of good spell lines just disappeared or falled off after level 60 which is kinda sad.

[Brohg]

Rangers got two upgrades, even. Annul Magic and then Nature's Balance.

[Occam]

[shiftie]

[Brohg]

Sigh, here we go again. It is clear you didn't understand me. Talking over peoples' heads is a pretty common risk one takes when one refuses to speak down to them. I'll try to use shorter words. Oh, no, wait, I won't. Try to keep up, champ.

Nowhere did I say that your inability to deal with Bolster rendered the fights unwinnable. Shaman, in a parallel fashion, have fairly limited tools for dealing with monsters that heal themselves, but we manage to suffer through. The heals aren't dealt with, and yet the fight is still won. Fighting such mobs would be immeasurably easier if some blessed being descended from on high to point out, "by the way, Brohg, you have a mana drain spell." This is not the case, of course, but my analogy is made!

A dispel cast to pull the mob uses no fight time whatsoever.

In the spirit of being helpful, a word of personal advice to you: name calling in internet arguments doesn't have the effect you think it does. Ditch the sophistry and try again, slugger.

[olts]

back to topic, id suggest doing the 2 current camps in direwind. the boneyards mobs are lower lvl, hence the exp is worse. direwind can be extremly good exp if ya can keep both current camps clear before they respawn - wielding a dmg auged 2.0 or better, have all offence aa and fero / cleave V+ makes this easily doable. (thats a guestimate, cause thats what i use for dps: 2.0 with 2 dmg augs, all offence aa, fero and cleave VII. with a better wep, and god knows there are plenty now, it shall be even faster)

on another note: both current camps have a mix of life / undead. you can pull most undead without the annoying life mobs though if ya pay attention to their pathing and use the pillars. try to avoid any life mob, this will take exp down by a large margin hence they have a lot hp and take some time to kill.

c.

[Normy]

Tried out Direwind last night, taking the lower lvl mobs. Still great xp, 6.5% AA per kill, 13 with lesson. Was able to pull a full 6 AA's by killing the whole time. Popped the steadfast servant to make it easier, but it wasn't really all that needed. Saved a little mana, but I ran out of mobs at that camp before lesson was over, so easily doable without it.

I'll have to try the other camp tonight, but I like the lower level one better. Almost no chance of live adds, can pull 2-3 at a time and they don't hit hard enough to be too worried.

[Occam]

[Tirian Trueblade]

A few comments a question re: dispelling Boster. I messed with that approach last night and found that it wasn't worth it for two reasons:

1) The advice that "A dispel cast to pull the mob uses no fight time whatsoever" is true in a sense, but when I only have 30 minutes of Lesson time, the long cast time on dispel does waste overall time compared to an AA stun tag or simply rushing the mob - which is what's important in efficient Lesson runs or even Experience-per-Hour in general.

2) I can't determine which mobs cast Bolster. (Is it only Chaplains for instance?) Knowing that would make it dispelling on the pull more attractive, but as it stands, it doesn't seem to help me much.

Going to try Direwind camps over the weekend. Thanks a lot for all the replies so far, as you can probably tell - I'm genuinely interested exp efficiency and am glad of the info and advice.

- Tir

[flixor]

Isn't there any good spot in TBS as it seems largely deserted ?

[Normy]

There are some undead under the water in the buried sea zone, but I remember them having too much HP to really be decent for xp. They weren't a threat really, so it was easy, but still too much time per kill. Only really tried that one zone though.

[boukk]

[olts]

[olts]

[Brohg]

HoS is nice because roots generally stick, so can reliably split. Also you can snipe plenty of wanderers single. Have to be able to handle a mob, of course, but once you can, np getting one at a time, and there are more than a solo paladin could possibly mow through by himself before repop, in any of the camps. Much higher difficulty than the other locations mentioned here, though. Bloodmoon Keep also has an undead wing, mobs shouldn't be as hard individually as HoS, but more multipulls to manage with root. Don't know how that would go solo.