I've soloed a lot. It's just painful at this point in EQ. I pretty much soloed all of 44 killing the undead cleric in Kithicor getting about 1.5% exp per kill, and 5 kills per EQ night cycle. It's just the fact that you can kill a few and then have a long break waiting on mana again. Yes, you can solo but there is a whole lot more downtime for us than most other classes when it comes to soloing. It was our penalty for being the most sought after class for grouping in the game.
As for grouping exp? 10-20% every 30 mins in a good group was about right, depending upon level. Hell levels being the exception here. I think part of the reason that I get very good group exp, is that I get invited into groups which are capable of taking on much higher levels mobs than I could ever handle solo, and I go into dungeons and areas that other classes at my level would not be asked to go to.
Before Cheal its all about being one of two healers to keep the mobs going non-stop, but once you get Cheal, you can get into groups with players much higher level than you are in dungeons that are much higher level as well. At least that has been my experience playing a Cleric both here, and on live for many many many years. If you're good, you'll get the groups that generate great exp. Plus, I enjoy not only the interaction with other players chatting in group, but also the chess game that is managing mana, agro, and keeping your group alive. That's the appeal of playing a Cleric to me.
But yeah, soloing in Classic is still teh suck compared to what we became later on in EQ Live. Bash was a big one. Just the ability to help interrupt casters, either soloing or in groups was a real help. The DA Hammer from Griegs End coupled with our self proccing damage shield and self healing damage shield turned us into incredible soloers though. Not many people understood the power of that combination, but those that did had some of the most fun ever in our Clerical career. Watching 10-20 mobs at a time suicide on you while swung and healed yourself like a madman gave you an adrenaline high like you wouldn't believe. Watching other classes freak out and try and "save" you was both hilarious and frustrating. The frustrating part being that they took away from my exp gravy train when they tried to "help" me, and then quite often the inevitable break I had to take rezzing and buffing them after they died in the process. I don't know if you ever got to solo using those tools on Live, but if you did you'd understand why soloing on a Classic server is just a painfully slow experience.
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