Best solo melee

[Raved]

Hey guys, I'm returning after about 6 months or so and I'm trying to find a melee to solo with. I currently have a 41 ranger, 35 sk, and 27 paladin. I have a fungi and gear for them. The ranger is missing weapons. The sk has ebon mace and the paladin has a ghoulbane. Which would be the best option?

[Fammaden]

Monk.

[Raved]

Ah yeah forgot about the monk hes 42. The only thing I have for mine is the fungi and the non visi stuff. I would need to buy visi armor and weapons

[Tunabros]

Monk hands down

Sk can fear kite

paladin if against undead (lower guk!! =D )

Ranger against animals but is decent but downtime sucks so get a fung idk

hope this helps

[Baler]

You should get the ranger to 60 and try stacking ATK ;)
Use the OP ranger tracking to kill A haze panther (https://wiki.project1999.com/A_haze_panther) for their skins to sell. A panther (https://wiki.project1999.com/A_panther) Is the PH for them.

[Raved]

Ah yeah the panther skins would be nice to farm. I have gear for him already and a fungi. What would be some weapons to get him? Should I just go with the woodsman staff or find some 1hders?

[Keebz]

Woodsman Staff

[Baler]

Woodsman Staff
This^

Delay: 35
DMG: 31

Then figure out More DPS oriented gear at 60 and push your ATK with spells, wolf form etc. OR you can go the opposite way, spec AC and try hybrid tanking. By the end of the velious all the classes you listed in the OP are perfectly viable, Paladin is still the weakest of those in the entire era. I think you'll enjoy the TRACKING.

[jolanar]

Woodman's Staff is all you really need until you get your epics. There is also a 2hand sword that procs a slow that is pretty useful if you are soloing and tanking.

Monk is the most powerful melee when it comes to soloing for experience though.

Any class can be soloed to 60 though, so I would really just play the one you enjoy.

[Robeazy]

Exquisite Velium Battle Axe, costs the same as woodsman’s - useable on more characters.

[azeth]

SK will solo nice to 47 ish. I did Kedge Keep entry mobs 31-47.

Pull the room to the zone out, then zone.

Zone in, root any fish lagging behind.

Zone out to clear prox aggro from root.

Zone back in, kill rooted fish.

Rinse/Rep til room is clear, then keep it clear.

[White_knight]

Pretty much all melee's have their ways, albeit I would say warrior and rogue are the slowest due to the lack of utility the have.

Pal, SK, Rng, Monk can all solo 1-60 no problems, esp. with that Fungi you talk about.

Really comes down to what style you like.

SK - Fear kiting/more dps than a Paladin, FD, Pets, more mana reliant than Paladins, has BOTH invs (which is game changing), a Troll or Ikky SK with a Fungi at higher level is a sight to behold esp. when medding and watching that health tick up.

Paladin - slow and steady, can split easier than SK (common mobs) and has a slow production (XP) grind system (can basically play solo for 60-90mins without ever medding if you play your cards right) Only has IVU so relies on pots to normal invs. Can eventually 90% rez and has mini torpor in late game.

Ranger - can fear kite animals, has track, harmony, DPS is better than SK or Paladin, but takes more damage than SK or Paladins in standing toe to toe with a mob. "bowing" isn't really a thing in this era, it's fairly gimmicked sadly. Fun class to play with lots of utilitiy.

Monk - highest DPS of all, takes the least damage of all, play style is pretty straight forward - if you get good you will barely die because of Feign Death......literally one of the best skills in the game. Skill/button's to mash diversity is low on this class (you literally become at few button class for the entirety of you existence, but you are OP). Along with SK this melee class is great for an AFKer ish player who wants to solo mobs, then FD for 10-15mins waiting for repops.

[Robersonroger38]

You forgot bone knight!
Lol

[Baler]

if you play a monk you'll be expected to pull.

[Crede]

SK - Fear kiting/more dps than a Paladin, FD, Pets, more mana reliant than Paladins, has BOTH invs (which is game changing), a Troll or Ikky SK with a Fungi at higher level is a sight to behold esp. when medding and watching that health tick up.


SK regen is painfully slow 50+, even with troll/iksar regen & and invigorate bp. What's worse is they can't bind wound past 50% either, got tired of soloing with my sk praying for epic procs to mitigate downtime. Despite all the twinking you can do with them, they're just like a weak monk.

Rangers get worked pretty hard even with good gear, and it's almost annoying to maintain the amount of self buffs they have when soloing, usually always oom. I'd only go with ranger over sk/paladin if your ultimate goal at 60 is to raid.

I'd definitely go Paladin for a melee solo build based on OP's classes. So easy to regen health with DW helm & fungi or DW bp, and they just have way more solo utility than SKs despite not having FD unless you're fear kiting which is a miserable experience for a melee. Also if you can get bored of solo they can get pretty creative duoing with any class because they can self heal so well 45+.

[Legidias]

if you play a monk you'll be expected to pull.

Being expected to pull as a solo melee would be interesting

[Baler]

Being expected to pull as a solo melee would be interesting

You got me :o

[Master Roshi]

with a Fungi, monk wins easily.

[kjs86z]

monk

buy yourself an Imbued Fighters Staff for < 4k and enjoy

protip: unequip the slow IFS in between swings and get some fist dmg in, requip before swing timer is up....its pretty much weaponized autism but itll increase your dmg by quite a bit once you get the timing down

[magnetaress]

lot of hybrids and melee can do loio gobs too once u hit 51 or so? I know sk can do them around 51 for sure, they are ez pz

[elwing]

Define best... Monk are generally better... But try on 50+ cleric mobs for example... Fear kiting is just better in some cases...

[Barlu]

Having solo’d a Monk to 60 and now up to 54 on a Pally I don’t think the Monk is as obvious a winner as it is being made out to be. The Bind Wound in battle Nerf will definitely slow things down compared to what they used to be. That being said FD is pretty amazing and instant afk is nice while soloing.

Since the case has already been made for Monk here are a few thoughts on the Pally. First, there is no exp penalty on Pally vs. Iksar Monk. Get a new weapon (Reaver) and use the Fungi until you are able to click Deepwater BP. Once you can do that, ditch the Fungi and get an eyepatch of plunder (will take a bit of extra plat) or Crown of Narandi (preferable eyepatch). At this point you will be extremely capable soloing.

The mobs won’t die as fast, but the downtime is less between kills. The Deepwater Bp allows you to heal for 300 HP ever 10 seconds using a Jasper as the regent. You can also root a mob and do this 3 times in battle before root breaks and be 900 HP to the good. Calm is effective pulling and keeping an off mob rooted really isn’t much of an issue at all. Gets tricky before lvl 54 when you get Enstill if you get more than 2 though.

With this setup I’ve been pleasantly surprised with what a Pally can solo and how fast. I typically burn DS pots as well when exping which help 50+ but aren’t required. If I get 3 mobs in Guk I can usually take them all down no problem using roots and bp heals.

Just my thoughts and both were a lot of fun so you really can’t go wrong.

[enjchanter]

Didnt read any of this thread but the answer is monk with a fungi undisputed

Lame answer but its true

[Gustoo]

It depends on gear. I think an SK is generally most useful versatile soloer and can fear kite for decent efficiency.

With excellent weapons and fungi and stuff monk is pretty strong.

[kjs86z]

The answer is monk no matter what other people try to say.

Its not even close.

[Nagoya]

Being expected to pull as a solo melee would be interesting

Well. Who's gonna pull for ya?
I'm sorry but a Monk has to pull pretty much no matter what lol.

Back on thread, nobody mentions the Warrior so I ought to mention them.
Not because they are the "best" obviously. They aren't.
But they are super fun, and I will even go as far as to say that they might be the best solo melee for level 1 to 30 (fungi, twink yaddi yadda). Obviously from there they lose a loooooot of ranks vs the other melee classes hehe. But for the very very beginning they are super strong and fun, bonus XP, very fast to get all the cool skills to DPS more (dbl atk, riposte..), get the most XP out of quests, etc.
I am not trying to sell the warrior as the answer to your thread, not at all ^^ but they deserve at least a tiny mention, so here it is.

[ScottBerta]

Monk or SK easily.

Monk with fungi and say Peacebringer or IFS, good ac/hp gear and mend is money.

[jolanar]

Didnt read any of this thread but the answer is monk with a fungi undisputed

Lame answer but its true



The answer is monk no matter what other people try to say.

Its not even close.

It's not the fun answer and people are probably tired of hearing it but it's definitely 110% true.

That said who cares, play whatever. It's a freakin grind after 50 no matter what.

[Damarous]

Well. Who's gonna pull for ya?
I'm sorry but a Monk has to pull pretty much no matter what lol.

Back on thread, nobody mentions the Warrior so I ought to mention them.
Not because they are the "best" obviously. They aren't.
But they are super fun, and I will even go as far as to say that they might be the best solo melee for level 1 to 30 (fungi, twink yaddi yadda). Obviously from there they lose a loooooot of ranks vs the other melee classes hehe. But for the very very beginning they are super strong and fun, bonus XP, very fast to get all the cool skills to DPS more (dbl atk, riposte..), get the most XP out of quests, etc.
I am not trying to sell the warrior as the answer to your thread, not at all ^^ but they deserve at least a tiny mention, so here it is.

Gnome warrior ftw! Level 20 40% self casted haste and 30 dex/str makes a huge difference in soloing. Can't split things unfortunately, but still a LOT of fun.

[magnetaress]

I would say after careful shower thought analysis and about 30 seconds of thinking done in actuality.

It starts of with Monk>SK>Ranger>Pally>Warrior>Rogue

but by the end of the game pretty much everyone solos about the same, with SK's taking the lead, and monks being able to do OK

And any class can mow down lvl 40's by lvl 51+ by 60 and some gears u can mass kill lvl 40s mobs on any character.

Maybe the break point for hard stuff to solo is mobs lvl 48-52 for melees in general. Then its just kinda not gonna happen without cheesin pots, groups, nets, bs.

Going down into the undead parts of the hole is probably the hardest stuff an melee can do with any actual feasibility and its going to be an SK doin it, because without FD ur pretty much ded. And Sk's can actually move around in there, lull, and dps/self sustain a lil with leach/nukes/fears. Were as monks are just gonna spend all their time flopping and not actually kill anything.

[kjs86z]

A monk can solo LDCs in solB / hole entrance and then move on to the rat jail in hole to 60. Easily.

No other melee is going to come close to that.

Thinking a SK will go down to the undeads in hole and get good solo XP is a big stretch. Go ahead and struggle down there while the same level / equipment monk just plows through rats at a superb XP rate.

[Trainhop]

You're all wrong it's actually Shaman that is best melee.

[magnetaress]

A monk can solo LDCs in solB / hole entrance and then move on to the rat jail in hole to 60. Easily.

No other melee is going to come close to that.

Thinking a SK will go down to the undeads in hole and get good solo XP is a big stretch. Go ahead and struggle down there while the same level / equipment monk just plows through rats at a superb XP rate.

This actually goes to show just how much I don't actually know since I never play a character past 40 and only read these forums.

[Danth]

I'd vote for Shadow Knight if the player is poorly-equipped, and Monk if you have top-end droppables. Bad-geared Monks took a serious hit with the combat bind wound removal. Shadow Knights can manage reliably even with mediocre equipment due to fear kiting, but it won't set any speed records. Most players will have pretty good stuff on P99-Blue, unless the player in question is a brand new player just starting out.

Danth

[Barlu]

I’ve spent a ton of time soloing and did a monk to 60 almost exclusively soloing and my Pally is 55 from almost exclusively soloing.

I don’t see how you can make an argument that SK is going to solo better than a Pally unless you want to fear kite which sucks to do and also means you can’t solo in any dungeons. The downtime on an SK even if troll or Iksar is terrible. A Pally pops off 180 HP/tick regen using Deepwater BP and can do it in battle by casting a 20 mana root and backing up 3 steps. Add in that Pallys can handle adds far better than SK and it’s easy. Most dark blues that I solo take 60 mana which is the cost of Enstill and I’m back to full healthy 60-90 seconds after each kill. When exping on my Pally I can do 2-3 dark blues at a time and still have plenty of mana leftover by the time the fight finishes.

The general consensus in this thread is it is far and away Monk but from personal experience that’s just not the case. Monk may still be faster (I did mine before BW Nerf) but it’s not by much. My monk also has better gear than my Pally for what it is worth.

[magnetaress]

I don't play enough to have stuff like a DW bp...

so i would say troll in bronze is amazing

but yeah that is awesome Barlu, very impreessssed

i actually had one on my red pally before i quit last but gave it back to owner

[elwing]

I fear kite all my end levels in the hole... So yep, fear kiting is fine in dungeon... Named elemental? Fine, rock golems ? No problem... I wonder how well a monk solo the named clerics with their ch and 550 nukes... I agree that monk is probably better generally... But there's some case were a sk beat them

[Barlu]

I fear kite all my end levels in the hole... So yep, fear kiting is fine in dungeon... Named elemental? Fine, rock golems ? No problem... I wonder how well a monk solo the named clerics with their ch and 550 nukes... I agree that monk is probably better generally... But there's some case were a sk beat them

Good point and definitely some dungeons that you can fear kite. You are 100% right about Monk solo in the hole though. When I leveled my Monk in the Hole it was before the exp bump but also before the bind wound Nerf and the push Nerf. Those Cleric mobs actually used to be great because they would just start healing at 40% and epic/SoS reliably interrupted that so they were easier than most if you had good MR. There was a great spot on the balcony where I solo’d a bunch of levels that would be way less efficient now.

Root Net Nerf also hurts the ability to kill the named there. Some have massive HP and I would blow up to 6 charges at times to kill Gibartik. Wasn’t a big deal back then could just flop to portal out and recharge in Paineel.

[kjs86z]

Rat jail in hole is the new LDCs.

[Hisamori]

I fear kite all my end levels in the hole... So yep, fear kiting is fine in dungeon... Named elemental? Fine, rock golems ? No problem... I wonder how well a monk solo the named clerics with their ch and 550 nukes... I agree that monk is probably better generally... But there's some case were a sk beat them

I solo'd in the hole near the exit TP pads, the broken gate and up by GT from 58-60 on fungi, epic, tstaff monk w SS quest gear and I could easily kill all the named elementals. Bejeweled, Gibartik, Soulstone, muck covered elemental, and Stonegrinder are all doable.

For bejeweled elemental, harvester, Soulstone, and wizards, I'd throw on my resist set and could resist most of the spells. I had 8 totems of rolfron zek on me and if I saw Bejewled casting ice comet, rend, or soulstone/harvester's CHing, I could just stun them. Since I was near the tpad pad, when I was low on bandages or charges, I could run out to paineel in 15 seconds, recharge/buy, and flop back down in a matter of minutes.

The occasional blood flecked obsidian shard, fiery jewel, fire emerald ring, speckled granite pebble etc. was more than enough to cover operating costs and slowly make a little change.

I highly recommend these camps to monks. Just faction and bind in paineel first.

[Knuckle]

Ah yeah forgot about the monk hes 42. The only thing I have for mine is the fungi and the non visi stuff. I would need to buy visi armor and weapons

pretty sure you can solo to 55+ with just a fungi.

[Danth]

I don’t see how you can make an argument that SK is going to solo better than a Pally unless you want to fear kite which sucks to do and also means you can’t solo in any dungeons. .

Deepwater Breastplate is a great item that not everyone will have. Probably most will settle for the still-nice Deepwater Helm.

Beyond that, I've played both classes at high level extensively and I feel the Shadow Knight solo's more capably between the two. Yes, the Paladin, once in a camp, can hold a few dungeon areas more easily. On the other hand the SK has a much easier time traveling around the world, much easier time getting INTO a camp, can go AFK more safely, and doesn't die as often. At high levels (52+ and especially 58+) the Shadow Knight can deal quite a lot more damage than the Paladin thanks to its pet. Higher damage doesn't just mean faster killing of experience monsters, it also means faster cash-farming of greens. Unlike the Paladin the SK has actual burst damage available in the form of its damage spells (and harm touch to a lesser extent) if it needs to kill something quicker. The Shadow Knight is the better overall solo package. There are some specific situations where the Paladin outperforms it, but on balance I enjoy my Shadow Knight much more when I'm online by myself.

Shadow Knight and Monk have a lot of overlap, with the Monk being more offense-focused. Since EQ usually favors offense that's the class I typically recommend to folks who have no particular preference between the two otherwise. The Shadow Knight is less gear dependent due to its spellbook, doesn't need to fuss with click items quite as much, doesn't need to limit its weight, and has an easier time in the tank role due to on-demand aggro (irrelevant when solo!). I like the Shadow Knight's convenience and consider that a fair trade for reduced kill rate. Min-max'ers look askance at notions such as "convenience" so the Monk is generally more popular; in addition the Monk benefits more from very high-end equipment (north Temple Veeshan stuff, etc) and a lot of players pick their character with visions of end-game in mind even if they'll never actually make it there. With regular-quality equipment I find the two classes about equivalent in overall power. Nonetheless, the Monk'll usually level faster if alone so that's the one I commonly recommend to players who ask.

I don't discuss Ranger much only because I have less experience with it, having never leveled one to very high levels. The animal restriction on its fear coupled with its lower armor rating and outdoor restriction on Harmony makes it a bit dreary during the middle levels. Dedicated Ranger players suggest the class can do quite well if a player sticks with it past that point.

Danth

[Ripqozko]

Deepwater Breastplate is a great item that not everyone will have. Probably most will settle for the still-nice Deepwater Helm.

Beyond that, I've played both classes at high level extensively and I feel the Shadow Knight solo's more capably between the two. Yes, the Paladin, once in a camp, can hold a few dungeon areas more easily. On the other hand the SK has a much easier time traveling around the world, much easier time getting INTO a camp, can go AFK more safely, and doesn't die as often. At high levels (52+ and especially 58+) the Shadow Knight can deal quite a lot more damage than the Paladin thanks to its pet. Higher damage doesn't just mean faster killing of experience monsters, it also means faster cash-farming of greens. Unlike the Paladin the SK has actual burst damage available in the form of its damage spells (and harm touch to a lesser extent) if it needs to kill something quicker. The Shadow Knight is the better overall solo package. There are some specific situations where the Paladin outperforms it, but on balance I enjoy my Shadow Knight much more when I'm online by myself.

Shadow Knight and Monk have a lot of overlap, with the Monk being more offense-focused. Since EQ usually favors offense that's the class I typically recommend to folks who have no particular preference between the two otherwise. The Shadow Knight is less gear dependent due to its spellbook, doesn't need to fuss with click items quite as much, doesn't need to limit its weight, and has an easier time in the tank role due to on-demand aggro (irrelevant when solo!). I like the Shadow Knight's convenience and consider that a fair trade for reduced kill rate. Min-max'ers look askance at notions such as "convenience" so the Monk is generally more popular; in addition the Monk benefits more from very high-end equipment (north Temple Veeshan stuff, etc) and a lot of players pick their character with visions of end-game in mind even if they'll never actually make it there. With regular-quality equipment I find the two classes about equivalent in overall power. Nonetheless, the Monk'll usually level faster if alone so that's the one I commonly recommend to players who ask.

I don't discuss Ranger much only because I have less experience with it, having never leveled one to very high levels. The animal restriction on its fear coupled with its lower armor rating and outdoor restriction on Harmony makes it a bit dreary during the middle levels. Dedicated Ranger players suggest the class can do quite well if a player sticks with it past that point.

Danth

Ranger is the easiest if you have access to good gear and sky cloak/epic. After 50 having 91% haste and 50%slow is pretty dumb. Plus chloro and fungi

[magnetaress]

I could solo hard mobs outdoors for days with bow, dots, roots, and those root swords in classic pre-50 on my ranger. So take that for what its worth. It's not as direct and fast as fear kiting or standing there and punching it until it dies, but it was fun.

Think if you really like tradeskills rangers are probably going to be great fun. I didn't tradeskill on mine, but it would have been nice with all the track, forage, sneak, hide etc built right in.

[Gustoo]

Yeah I did what mag described for two rangers in live and it works fine. It isn't as good as an SK who can dungeon crawl better and fear kite any mob in the game and feign when things get dicey.

I don't think this was a discussion about who is best at soloing at the classes peak geared up. It felt like it was which one is best to solo on your own from 1 to 60 with regular gear progression, which I think has the SK in a better place at least because you can do more things (versatile) and you can hold all the junk items you loot along the way.

Besides the deepwater breastplate which is a high end expensive item, the paladin is an inferior soloer even in undead dungeons where the SK matches the paladin and adds feign death and ogre racial benefits.

Any hybrid gets the job done, and the monk. We can agree on that. Take your pick. Rogue and warrior are hardmode.

[Selene]

In terms of soloing bosses in end game content, who does the best out of the hybrids? I think it's pretty clear pally after level 46 does remarkably well with the deepwater helm in fighting normal enemies and chaining through them with no downtime, but I was watching some youtube videos from Wickid with his SK and was wondering how paladins and rangers fare in fighting similarly named mobs? Would be interesting to know! can rangers actually face tank high end content solo like Wickid's SK did in those videos?

[magnetaress]

I would say can you face tank the fire giants in solb, that is the winning crown tranix achievement goal in ever quest and should be everyone's end game goal.

[elwing]

Pali/sk tanks just as well for bosses... Same combat table, same gear quality. But I would give pali an edge... Most taps are useless, boss resist them all, thanks to ivhandir hoop nerf, while paladin heals work just perfectly...

[Crede]

In terms of soloing bosses in end game content, who does the best out of the hybrids? I think it's pretty clear pally after level 46 does remarkably well with the deepwater helm in fighting normal enemies and chaining through them with no downtime, but I was watching some youtube videos from Wickid with his SK and was wondering how paladins and rangers fare in fighting similarly named mobs? Would be interesting to know! can rangers actually face tank high end content solo like Wickid's SK did in those videos?

Pally are arguably better vs named if they can get a named one on one due to their insane healing potential. That’s a big IF though. So much more room for error without FD some don’t want to bother without that luxury. Sks are still nasty with all their tapping capabilities and also if they can get a max pet out who can quad for 46 but that’s not always feasible.

I’ve played all 3 classes heavily twinked. If I’m 60 just wanting to go around and snipe nameds, I’d want to be sk. Pally easily the most fun to level and be social with though. Ranger will not be able to handle the same level of named but if my sole purpose was to just raid Id rather have one over sk/pally.

[Selene]

What is the downtime like for an SK at the higher levels? (I wouldn't play either an iksar or a troll, too ugly for me) Are we talking like 10+ minutes of sitting on your butt? Not confident I can ever afford a fungi

[elwing]

Depends on the mob, we get large in fight regen... 1min is fine for me on legionaires at 4way for example. As a human without fungy... A few minutes every handful of rats in pom for exemple... Without fungy the trick is to pick your fight so you almost need no hp regen.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

What is the downtime like for an SK at the higher levels? (I wouldn't play either an iksar or a troll, too ugly for me) Are we talking like 10+ minutes of sitting on your butt? Not confident I can ever afford a fungi

Shadowknights can make cash quite effectively by killing guards. I got my Shaman's Fungi that way. Feign death and fear kiting make all guard camps viable. Having a high strength helps a lot with carrying all those guard weapons to the merchant. You should easily be able to afford at least an Iksar Ceremonial Chestplate by the time you hit 50. A cheaper alternative to a fungi is https://wiki.project1999.com/Dark_Runed_Breastplate . This heals you faster than a fungi out of combat, and it recently got buffed to 90 hp a heal as opposed to 63 before. This will only cost you like 25k to MQ, which is easily affordable if you mostly level by killing guards.

For a low budget SK, get a https://wiki.project1999.com/Embalmers_Skinning_Knife first.That will allow you to bind wound to 50% indefinately aftet every kill for free.

Once you hit 45 you get access to Blood Ember Boots and Gloves, which are cheap and save you a ton of mana. With these two items you can basically save all your mana for life taps, which means more time between reqired meditation breaks. By having free fear kite, you also save a lot of hp because you aren't constantly getting hit by the mob you are fighting.

Shadowknight downtime only improves as you get higher level, because procs and clickies save you tons of mana and hp. With a Shadowknights ability to farm money fairly well, you shouldn't have a problem obtaining the items needed to reduce downtime.

[Danth]

A cheaper alternative to a fungi is https://wiki.project1999.com/Dark_Runed_Breastplate . This heals you faster than a fungi out of combat, and it recently got buffed to 90 hp a heal as opposed to 63 before.

A slight terminology nitpick: It was a bug fix, not a "buff" in the conventional sense. It was never supposed to heal for the lesser value.

I like the Blood Ember gloves and keep a set handy, but I've never cared for the Blood Ember boots. Casting time is too long, almost half the maximum duration of the fear. Mana regeneration is definitely the Shadow Knight's main limitation, much moreso than health regeneration. Protection of the Glades might be my favorite buff spell due to its combination of mana regen and long duration.

Danth

[Ennewi]

I would add that while blood ember boots aren't worthless by any means, the fear effect doesn't last long enough for most situations given that the click takes a considerable amount of time to cast; not bad for lazy duos and trios, but the multitasking required while soloing can be a bit much. On the other hand, Polished Obsidian Great Axe (https://wiki.project1999.com/Polished_Obsidian_Great_Axe) offers a more substantial fear at level 40, 9 levels before SKs can even mem the spell. Though that does mean relying on rng/dex, it's still a great option if already using a two-hander–just swap in and out as needed. The duration of invoke fear is significant and, more often than not, another proc will occur before the previous one wears off.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

I use Blood Ember Boots quite a bit. It is actually quite beneficial that the fear is short. This allows you to fear kite in tight spaces, because you can measure out how far the mob goes before fear wears off. You can basically rubber band them back and forth along a fairly short runway consistently once you know the pathing in the area you are fighting.

Yes you will get hit when the fear runs off, but you are still saving a lot more HP that way than just face tanking. Blood Ember Boots will lengthen your kill time since you need to cast the boots more often, and the cast time is slow. But it is free, which means you can do it indefinitely on a mob, regardless of your current mana situation. In my opinion the extra time spent killing the mob would have probably been spent meditating instead if you used a mana fear. I would need to test that to confirm, but either way you have a time cost. It is either in additional casts, or additional med time.

Obviously the biggest drawback to the boots is the cast time, so you can't really use them to fear away multiple monsters consistently. But usually fear kiting is one mob at a time, so that is a more specialized case.

[Danth]

In my opinion the extra time spent killing the mob would have probably been spent meditating instead if you used a mana fear. I would need to test that to confirm, but either way you have a time cost. It is either in additional casts, or additional med time.

Correct for the most part. I don't like the boots because they annoy me, not due to any ineffectiveness. I consider the longer meditating preferable to a longer kill since I can be AFK doing something else for the former. I also sometimes use the shorter fear if I have to fear in tight places like most dungeon zones where fear might get used although the longer fear is obviously preferred whenever it's usable.

Danth

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Correct for the most part. I don't like the boots because they annoy me, not due to any ineffectiveness. I consider the longer meditating preferable to a longer kill since I can be AFK doing something else for the former. I also sometimes use the shorter fear if I have to fear in tight places like most dungeon zones where fear might get used although the longer fear is obviously preferred whenever it's usable.

Danth

I agree. Blood Ember Boots do require quite a bit more effort per kill. So they are not ideal during play sessions where you want to take breaks from time to time.

[White_knight]

Monk, Paladin, SK, Ranger, Warrior, Rogue.


In that order for soloability.

[Sacer]

What do you mean by solo melee, are we talking cash camps at 60 or soloing to 60?

For cash camps I can see how pal/sk could be stronger, as long as you have plenty of time to recover between respawns, but for exp from 1 to 60 monk is far far ahead from the others.

Where does the monk shine :

- you will take a lot less damage, it's not even close
- the downtime is much lower as long as you have bandages
- you kill much faster once again not even close
- the permanent "out of jail" card with feign death, you can easily crawl any dungeon and if you do it right you should almost never die


The gear required is also pretty low, as long as you have your epic at 50 (wich is miles better than other hybrid epics and a lot easier to do it's a must have), a haste item and some weight reduction bags to carry a ton of bandages you will be fine. Fungi cuts the recovery time even more but really it's the bandages doing most of the healing at least for 50 - 60.

Bonus points in my opinion monks are also more fun to play and the skill ceilling is higher than other hybrids.

[jolanar]

What do you mean by solo melee, are we talking cash camps at 60 or soloing to 60?

For cash camps I can see how pal/sk could be stronger, as long as you have plenty of time to recover between respawns, but for exp from 1 to 60 monk is far far ahead from the others.

Where does the monk shine :

- you will take a lot less damage, it's not even close
- the downtime is much lower as long as you have bandages
- you kill much faster once again not even close
- the permanent "out of jail" card with feign death, you can easily crawl any dungeon and if you do it right you should almost never die


The gear required is also pretty low, as long as you have your epic at 50 (wich is miles better than other hybrid epics and a lot easier to do it's a must have), a haste item and some weight reduction bags to carry a ton of bandages you will be fine. Fungi cuts the recovery time even more but really it's the bandages doing most of the healing at least for 50 - 60.

Bonus points in my opinion monks are also more fun to play and the skill ceilling is higher than other hybrids.

I doubt there is a cash camp that knights can handle that comes close to mass killing in a place like Droga. But I would agree that if you want to have "more options, but do them slower" than a knight is better choice.

[Selene]

between SK and paladin, who can actually fight through a dungeon better? I am interested in playing an SK but my paladin right now does pretty well with lull, root, heals, and stuns to deal with those pesky casters.

i get that an SK with invis and FD available can move thru a dungeon better, but they cant deal with adds, and since they're mostly face tanking in most dungeons, downtime is probably too slow to actually fight thru a dungeon from entrance to wherever. I'd also imagine FD splitting isn't always feasible.

I'd like a melee class that can actually fight her way thru a dungeon rather than just be good at evading or FDing your way thru it. Is paladin a good pick for this?

[BarnabusCollins]

solo and melee do not go hand in hand

[Exard3k]

Paladin dmg is a joke. SK at least has some DoTs and Pet going.

But if Ghoulbane is the weapon of choice for you, dps goes way above SK levels.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

between SK and paladin, who can actually fight through a dungeon better? I am interested in playing an SK but my paladin right now does pretty well with lull, root, heals, and stuns to deal with those pesky casters.

i get that an SK with invis and FD available can move thru a dungeon better, but they cant deal with adds, and since they're mostly face tanking in most dungeons, downtime is probably too slow to actually fight thru a dungeon from entrance to wherever. I'd also imagine FD splitting isn't always feasible.

I'd like a melee class that can actually fight her way thru a dungeon rather than just be good at evading or FDing your way thru it. Is paladin a good pick for this?

SK can dungeon crawl just fine. FD works quite well. Not sure why you think SKs can't deal with adds. They just FD to get a mob solo. Then you don't need to worry about keeping adds rooted.

You would also be suprised at how many places you can fear kite in a dungeon. You just need to use your low level short duration fear with a high level snare so the mob doesn't wander too far. You basically just rubber band the mob with the short fear in a safeish hallway. And FD is there in case you screw up, so you have plenty of opportunities to learn the pathing and safe areas.

SKs can recover pretty quickly as well once they get a lot of clickies, proc weapons, and flowing thought I and II.

[Gustoo]

SK can dungeon crawl just fine. FD works quite well. Not sure why you think SKs can't deal with adds. They just FD to get a mob solo. Then you don't need to worry about keeping adds rooted.

You would also be suprised at how many places you can fear kite in a dungeon. You just need to use your low level short duration fear with a high level snare so the mob doesn't wander too far. You basically just rubber band the mob with the short fear in a safeish hallway. And FD is there in case you screw up, so you have plenty of opportunities to learn the pathing and safe areas.

SKs can recover pretty quickly as well once they get a lot of clickies, proc weapons, and flowing thought I and II.

This guy has apparently played everquest.

Besides monk deep OP with fungi, the SK is a billion times the best solo melee. The SK can kill harder monsters than the monk can, without excessive use of expendables which change the whole program for anyone. SK uses expendables better too, because of channeling.

Paladin is fine, the lull can replace the feign death its just not as good.

Ranger is also fine, has harmony for "outdoors". But being an ogre is a big factor for solo too, you just crush monsters better and resist stun which lets you do more casting work. In reality, only rogue and warrior are really painful to solo because they have no utility spells to support themselves with.

[Legidias]

Just sayin, I haven't seen vids of pallies, sk's, or rangers soloing naggy, drusella, or emp chottal

[Gustoo]

We aren't talking about full stack of buffs and full stack of expendibles soloing feats, which are a different thing.

We're talking about day in, day out everquest functionality.

[Atmas]

FD is a pretty invaluable, get out of a horrible situation, relatively, easily free card. So that counts for a lot. On the other hand I can solo a good chunk of stuff in Seb, Chardok, and other dungeons on my Paladin. Being able to self buff hpts, heal your health bar multiple times over, root, lull, and stun go a pretty long way.

[Crede]

Just sayin, I haven't seen vids of pallies, sk's, or rangers soloing naggy, drusella, or emp chottal

Because there’s a zillion monks that play this game with far more raid gear than sks have acquired. I’ll take an endgame geared ogre/troll sk over a similarly geared monk in this current state of velious against a named if consumables aren’t an option. But that’s a big if since monks have superior dps enough consumables can kill anything just like that cleric who just did general.

[Bbeta]

dont make me open a can of whoop ass. monks for fun and bestest

[Keebz]

Just sayin, I haven't seen vids of pallies, sk's, or rangers soloing naggy, drusella, or emp chottal

I have seen SKs soloing WW dragons though... They may be able to do cliff golems as well.

Which videos of monks are you talking about? The only videos I've seen of monks soloing crazy stuff involve puppet strings, which is more a testament to puppet strings being broken than anything.

I'm happy to be proven wrong and enjoy melee solo videos, so post some links!

[Gustoo]

Because there’s a zillion monks that play this game with far more raid gear than sks have acquired. I’ll take an endgame geared ogre/troll sk over a similarly geared monk in this current state of velious against a named if consumables aren’t an option. But that’s a big if since monks have superior dps enough consumables can kill anything just like that cleric who just did general.

Didn't hear a cleric crazy solo job but that makes me psyched since clerics are my jam.

Good thread guys.

[Legidias]

I have seen SKs soloing WW dragons though... They may be able to do cliff golems as well.

Which videos of monks are you talking about? The only videos I've seen of monks soloing crazy stuff involve puppet strings, which is more a testament to puppet strings being broken than anything.

I'm happy to be proven wrong and enjoy melee solo videos, so post some links!

The chottal one and drusella one was posted here actually. You can probably search for them easily enough.