Well, I've decided to give the shammy another go at it. I quit earlier this year, but my 6 month routine (quit for about six months, play for about 3 months, quit for about 6 months, etc) has brought me back to EQ.
Thinking ahead, I remember it being hard to get pick up groups, so I'm looking for a good place to solo root rot as a level 85 shaman while I pop on lfg. Obvious requirements are enough single pulls before respawns along with mobs that don't summon and can be rooted (obviously! ). Other pluses are mobs with low HP, those that don't cast or have a ranged attack, in an outdoor zone (using a horsey), and/or a zone with a higher ZEM than normal.
So, any thoughts? Shamans are a bit unique because we can't easily kill swarms of light blue mobs, which I understand is the best way to rack up xp these days. It seems the best shaman soloing method is to get the highest con mob with the lowest number of HP, because if done right, the melee damage doesn't matter at all. So it really all comes down to how many dots you have to cast before the mob falls over.
I had fun in Old Kurn's last night at the zone in. There were 4 mobs that were easy to break with VP / zoning, and then enough mobs to easily park by the entrance. That being said, zone pulling only works when it isn't a busy zone. I'm not adverse to pulling a zone line, but I do enjoy being able to move deeper into a zone and carefully pulling from there (as an aside, I do have the iksar mask to let me move about FoB zones unmolested). However, from touring the SoD zones, it really does seem the majority of mobs are packed to always have at least two mobs on any given pull (ie. Kurns / Kaesora). Not saying this is bad design (it's probably good design) ... just pointing it out.
Outdoor zones are always viable, but I'd appreciate being pointed to a specific spot in the zone if that's the case.
Anyhoo, thanks for any advice you can give.