Best solo classes in Classic?

[Midoo]

I want an alt for when I'm bored of my Shaman. Usually I'd go for Necro but since we don't have Iksar yet I feel like the other NEC races aren't worth it. At least as an Iksar you're KoS everywhere but it's offset by great AC and regeneration which means you're meant for the minmaxing solo life.

So what are the best solo classes for Classic? (preferably in order)

[waltjig]

I want an alt for when I'm bored of my Shaman. Usually I'd go for Necro but since we don't have Iksar yet I feel like the other NEC races aren't worth it. At least as an Iksar you're KoS everywhere but it's offset by great AC and regeneration which means you're meant for the minmaxing solo life.

So what are the best solo classes for Classic? (preferably in order)

See any number of posts crying about enchanters. /thread

[Draulius]

If not counting Shaman or Necro, then Enchanter>Bard>Mage>Druid in that order.

[Kalamurv]

Monk is pretty fun solo to

[supermonk]

first time bard here. class is real fun; surprised i never got into it sooner. can basically do whatever the hell you want. group/solo/duo and get in and out wherever you want.

[JustMatt]

Necro, shaman, enchanter

[BlackBellamy]

Ogre SK of course. You roll heavy and everyone gives you respect.

[Fawqueue]

Best solo class is tough..because it depends on what you want to solo. If you are looking at purely XP from 1-50, that'll be a different list compared to the list of classes that can farm items at 50. If you wanted a class that's going to place highly on both lists, then your best options are either Enchanter or Necromancer. Enchanter is the ONLY class that can solo Ghoul Lord, Froglok King, and Efreeti at 50...so if gearing out alts all by yourself is important, then Enchanter all the way.

[Velerin]

Clearly rogue. Even better if you never upgrade your *dagger.

[cd288]

Necro is easily the best. Iksar regen is definitely a huge boost, but it's really not something that means every other Necro race is completely unviable and really isn't something that (in my experience at least) you'll really notice that much until like the long level 51-60 grind when you might have a bit more downtime as a non-Iksar Necro; but that downtime as a non-Iksar is also somewhat offset by the 20% Iksar EXP penalty, so the overall time to level is probably somewhat the same.

If you really want to min/max and also really like playing Iksars, then sure wait. But it really is the strongest solo class in Classic and top 3 through Velious.

[Meiva]

BEST doesn't necessarily mean FUN. I've been intrigued by players claiming to solo well on a Ranger. The class seems to be quite fun. A strong consideration for my first alt once I'm ready. Slinging arrows while moving and having a snared mob stumbling after sounds neat.

I noticed rangers come Velious are fucking badass as well. Possibly long before Velious, though that was the era I certainly took notice.

[YendorLootmonkey]

BEST doesn't necessarily mean FUN. I've been intrigued by players claiming to solo well on a Ranger. The class seems to be quite fun. A strong consideration for my first alt once I'm ready. Slinging arrows while moving and having a snared mob stumbling after sounds neat.

I noticed rangers come Velious are fucking badass as well. Possibly long before Velious, though that was the era I certainly took notice.

Don't be bamboozled by Ivory. You will snare/bowkite something exactly twice (a 2nd time to see if the time and number of arrows it took was a fluke, or if it was indeed that tedious) before it gets old, unless you are a glutton for punishment.

I'm talking average player (non-BIS raid geared) equipment here:

Classic era, if you're going to go toe-to-toe and doing anything higher than high greens/lowest of the blues, you will be doing a lot of rooting and backing off to heal. Rubi BP helps here, and at least one Ebony Bladed Sword will help conserve mana so you can back off every time it procs to med/heal/nuke/DoT. Oh and all of your heals, nukes, DoTs? You get them like 10-15 levels after druids do, so they're all underpowered against the mobs you will be using them on or the damage you are trying to heal from. They are supplemental to your melee damage output.

In Kunark, at a minimum you need Swarmcaller for the slow proc. I don't think it procs until a certain level though (40?), if I remember correctly. If you are lucky enough to get epics, Earthcaller is key for the better slow proc. Fungi Tunic probably a must, and you will be sticking to Classic-era mobs that con blue but don't hit as hard as their Kunark counterparts. If you still want to bow-kite... you will need a Tolan's Bracer to summon arrows. This was the era where rangers became a joke... our damage avoidance/mitigation did not scale well from 51-60 and we were all using low delay weapons to maximize DPS, which shot us up the hate list faster than warriors could. Devs threw us a bone called Jolt to help us manage our aggro.

In Velious, you get Panic Animal at 22 and can finally efficiently solo animal mobs outdoors. Tigers and rhinos in Overthere, snow cougars in Iceclad/Eastern Wastes, non-undead gorillas and tigers in Emerald Jungle, Tigerraptors in Wakening Lands, and if you're dragon-aligned and careful of adds in Western Wastes, glacier mastadons. Snare/Ensnare and Panic Animal are minimal mana cost and you can pretty much keep this up indefinitely, only limited by the amount of animal mobs available. Hybrid penalty goes away so you can XP faster. If you started a ranger alt in Classic, you are probably 60 by the time Velious hits and Panic Animal and the hybrid XP changes don't impact you anyway.

In every case above, obviously the more equipment haste you have, the better. Dark Cloak of the Sky from your Plane of Sky quest is a game-changer as it adds clicky spell haste and therefore stacks with your item haste (and quiver haste, once that change goes in).

[Fawqueue]

Don't be bamboozled by Ivory. You will snare/bowkite something exactly twice (a 2nd time to see if the time and number of arrows it took was a fluke, or if it was indeed that tedious) before it gets old, unless you are a glutton for punishment.

I'm talking average player (non-BIS raid geared) equipment here:

Classic era, if you're going to go toe-to-toe and doing anything higher than high greens/lowest of the blues, you will be doing a lot of rooting and backing off to heal. Rubi BP helps here, and at least one Ebony Bladed Sword will help conserve mana so you can back off every time it procs to med/heal/nuke/DoT. Oh and all of your heals, nukes, DoTs? You get them like 10-15 levels after druids do, so they're all underpowered against the mobs you will be using them on or the damage you are trying to heal from. They are supplemental to your melee damage output.

In Kunark, at a minimum you need Swarmcaller for the slow proc. I don't think it procs until a certain level though (40?), if I remember correctly. If you are lucky enough to get epics, Earthcaller is key for the better slow proc. Fungi Tunic probably a must, and you will be sticking to Classic-era mobs that con blue but don't hit as hard as their Kunark counterparts. If you still want to bow-kite... you will need a Tolan's Bracer to summon arrows. This was the era where rangers became a joke... our damage avoidance/mitigation did not scale well from 51-60 and we were all using low delay weapons to maximize DPS, which shot us up the hate list faster than warriors could. Devs threw us a bone called Jolt to help us manage our aggro.

In Velious, you get Panic Animal at 22 and can finally efficiently solo animal mobs outdoors. Tigers and rhinos in Overthere, snow cougars in Iceclad/Eastern Wastes, non-undead gorillas and tigers in Emerald Jungle, Tigerraptors in Wakening Lands, and if you're dragon-aligned and careful of adds in Western Wastes, glacier mastadons. Snare/Ensnare and Panic Animal are minimal mana cost and you can pretty much keep this up indefinitely, only limited by the amount of animal mobs available. Hybrid penalty goes away so you can XP faster. If you started a ranger alt in Classic, you are probably 60 by the time Velious hits and Panic Animal and the hybrid XP changes don't impact you anyway.

In every case above, obviously the more equipment haste you have, the better. Dark Cloak of the Sky from your Plane of Sky quest is a game-changer as it adds clicky spell haste and therefore stacks with your item haste (and quiver haste, once that change goes in).

This is fairly accurate. As a 60 Ranger with epic, planar armor, and sky cloak during Kunark I could solo any blue and do certain bosses inside places like Seb. Nothing like a caster mind you, but it was absolutely feasible to melee for a bit and then root and back off to heal or bow it to the finish line.

[Cen]

I went from a Bard on Blue to a ranger at first on Green. I wanted a hybrid again but more melee oriented. Reality hit me quickly. Ive been spoiled by a god class.

[cd288]

BEST doesn't necessarily mean FUN. I've been intrigued by players claiming to solo well on a Ranger. The class seems to be quite fun. A strong consideration for my first alt once I'm ready. Slinging arrows while moving and having a snared mob stumbling after sounds neat.

I noticed rangers come Velious are fucking badass as well. Possibly long before Velious, though that was the era I certainly took notice.

Unfortunately, arrow DPS is mostly insignificant such that it's not really a viable leveling method. It was always strange to me that the original EQ devs/Brad never gave Rangers much ranged DPS ability...I guess they were worried they'd be OP?

[YendorLootmonkey]

Unfortunately, arrow DPS is mostly insignificant such that it's not really a viable leveling method. It was always strange to me that the original EQ devs/Brad never gave Rangers much ranged DPS ability...I guess they were worried they'd be OP?

They didn't worry much about it while designing AAs for Luclin and elemental bows in PoP, that's for sure. =) Made rogues cry to Kendrick so hard.

[Hazek]

I want an alt for when I'm bored of my Shaman. Usually I'd go for Necro but since we don't have Iksar yet I feel like the other NEC races aren't worth it. At least as an Iksar you're KoS everywhere but it's offset by great AC and regeneration which means you're meant for the minmaxing solo life.

So what are the best solo classes for Classic? (preferably in order)

Well I think hafling rouge is best because you can sneak around behind then BOOM backstab! You can also steal coins so pretty super neat. named my rouge "Drizzzt" heh. just gotta get some leather bracer bands so you can take more damage then super easy peasy to solo monsters

[astuce999]

Well I think hafling rouge is best because you can sneak around behind then BOOM backstab! You can also steal coins so pretty super neat. named my rouge "Drizzzt" heh. just gotta get some leather bracer bands so you can take more damage then super easy peasy to solo monsters

The color red isn't a class :)

The rest was on point!

Astuce

[cd288]

Well I think hafling rouge is best because you can sneak around behind then BOOM backstab! You can also steal coins so pretty super neat. named my rouge "Drizzzt" heh. just gotta get some leather bracer bands so you can take more damage then super easy peasy to solo monsters

This is a joke right? lol

[Frug]

This is a joke right? lol

No, jokes are funny.

[Kalamurv]

You can actually solo with a rogue (including backstabbing from the front, although that takes some serious investment in learning the timing on how to do so). Sadly even geared their solo is meh at best. Its doable, just not efficient.