Best solo artist class after the big 3?

[Selene]

It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that the best solo artist classes are either enchanter or a torpor shaman. There also seems to be a consensus that necro, while a step below the other two, is the next best solo artist.

What class would people say is the 4th best? Is it druid? Bard? Or perhaps a well-geared monk?

I've seen quite a few cool videos of druids and monks doing well, though they obviously can't hold a candle to the other 3. But wanted to see what people thought, since I love soloing and find solo challenges to be the thing I look forward to the most at 60 (but I don't want to play any of the big 3 classes, ironically enough)

[Toxigen]

bard

[Jimjam]

Strings cleric with mallets BUT with the recharge changes it is a bit of a pie in the sky these days.

I’d like to see some top bard vids.

[enjchanter]

idk i think id probably put monk above bard

[Crede]

It’s probably a close call between sk if you have bead vs pally. Depends on situation needing fd vs lull. But if I had beads I’d probably make sk my melee solo artist.

[PatChapp]

I think monk
Monk can solo king tranix,emp,vessel. Lots of big stuff

[Toxigen]

yeah i guess monk if you're BiS with every toy available

[WarpathEQ]

Really depends on gear and type of engage but in general I would say either bard or monk.

On the lower end of the gear spectrum bard is amongst the best in game at soloing as their gear dependence is minimal. With a couple of vendor bought instruments you can accomplish 85-90% of what a BIS geared bard can. Similar to enchanter, when there are multiple mobs and charming or kiting is an available strategy bards can really shine and in some niche scenarios bards are the best class in the game for solo (think swarm kiting).

Monks are very gear dependent, an un-geared monk will struggle to solo anything, whereas a BIS geared monk seems unstoppable. In this regard I would consider monks the most scalable class in the game (and most expensive). Their FD ability allows them to split mobs and get in and out of tough to reach areas. They can be amongst the best in terms of melee DPS classes and their damage avoidance and mitigation makes them extremely tanky, especially against non-raid mobs. Monks are amongst the strongest solo class for 1v1 fights especially that require a melee engage such as summoning mobs.

[enjchanter]

The problem with bard is that you'll struggle vs stuff that summons even if charming
Anything that doesn't summon is pretty much just a blue con mob so idek if I'd consider it'd a challenge

[Jimjam]

Is ice burrower the only high level mob that doesn’t summon?

[Crede]

I think where they got monks wrong is giving them ridiculous dps. Take away that and their mitigation/pulling still make them a solid class just not completely broke. Also shoulda made their epic worn haste like Ranger/rogue.

[Toxigen]

Is ice burrower the only high level mob that doesn’t summon?

pretty much

[Snaggles]

Tantor doest summon. A lot of stuff does 51+ except a bunch of exceptions in Chardok.

[Vivitron]

I haven't found summoning to be insurmountable on my bard. For example a cliff golem was one of the first solos I went into thinking it might not be doable, but it turned out to be a pretty routine kill after a little practice. I even solod captain/general/admiral from the outpost out of completionism, though the casting and smaller hitbox make the general/admiral significantly harder than the cliff golems.

Everything in seb short of emperor is very doable on a geared bard, and maybe emp too although that will be very impressive.

I haven't cracked the kennelmaster tier chardok mobs on my bard yet; that's one zone where I feel behind other second tier solo classes.

[enjchanter]

Is ice burrower the only high level mob that doesn’t summon?

Generally all mobs 51 or up summon
56+ can't be stunned

[Keebz]

Druids are pretty lit if there's animals to charm, which is a surprising number of places. So I'd say them.

A lot of the non-ench solo vids involve strings, which I don't think should count and aside from Mela (bard), I haven't seen a lot of decent solo vids without them. Someone post them.

As for the melee classes, I actually think Paladin is up there because they can heal forever, esp. with Soulfire. I know Opmeter has done some cool stuff without spamming generic clickies (ahem, like certain SKs and monks).

[Vivitron]

Druids are pretty lit if there's animals to charm, which is a surprising number of places. So I'd say them.

Definitely good for druids that chardok 2.0 and pom are both relevant zones. There are some cool videos on the following youtube channel including Pheidippedes druid soloing mobs from Korucust's room. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVSs1fy933Y

[Balimon]

Paladin is up there, the issue is they need top end gear to do the more difficult fights without using soulfire clicks, or a willsapper.

[zelld52]

Monk is top 4. There's 5 broken classes in eq, and their ranking is as such.

Enchanter
Shaman
Necro
Monk
Bard

[Crede]

Monk is top 4. There's 5 broken classes in eq, and their ranking is as such.

Enchanter
Shaman
Necro
Monk
Bard

You really think bard? Their final charm/mez songs are trash.

[enjchanter]

I think ppl really over hype being able to kite 25 non summoning mobs around.

Efficient yes, but you're not killing anything challenging like that

[zelld52]

You really think bard? Their final charm/mez songs are trash.

Fair, but they get Selo's - which reduces travel time greatly. Bigly, even. And that's huge in this time sink of a game

[Snaggles]

Top solo classes can charm. Shaman is an exception but basically does what the rest of the classes do…mitigates, heals, and dps better than the target.

Without clickies and insane gear, knights are stronger than monks, bards, warrior, and rangers. If not the aforementioned charming top-4 (ench, sham, nec, druid), and given a BiS toon to do stunt kills with my pick would be a SK. You can bypass and reset if no sapper proc much easier. Drain Soul heals like. 2-2.5x faster than Celestial Cleansing. If you have all the mana in the world and aren’t burning soulfire clicks it’s a better kit for certain stuff.

Plus either a SK or Pally has a solid spell block, melee stats, and can channel a Midnight Mallet click or two.

[enjchanter]

Fair, but they get Selo's - which reduces travel time greatly. Bigly, even. And that's huge in this time sink of a game

Has nothing to do with solo artisting