Best solo melee class?

[Snaggles]

As for soloing a melee class? Yea the ranger with a fungi to mid 40’s should be easy unless you are picking horrible spots. If you have a better melee you might be more successful…but you still aren’t efficient. Old world stuff, low hps, blue cons. It’s the same recipe for any melee solo grind.

Adding panic animal to the ranger was a HUGE quality of life gain. With horrible gear I could easily solo to 50. The tolan bracer helped out that muddy middle like in highkeep. A good bow kit will drop an 1900hp noble or bard with ease.

I feel the reverse kite experience for a ranger to 50 is far better than the SK until they get dooming and invoke…then 49+ they do very well.

SK’s and Pallies have it better. Monks too if they have solid gear. Warriors as well but more select as they can’t really split a camp without burning root nets or other expendibles.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Originally Posted by Snaggles [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I feel the reverse kite experience for a ranger to 50 is far better than the SK until they get dooming and invoke…then 49+ they do very well.

I don't use Dooming Darkness or Invoke fear very often. They aren't necessary for a better SK experience tbh.

The problem with longer duration fears is you increase the odds of the mob running into another mob.

It's better to use your short duration fear so you can control where the mob is going. Invoke Fear isn't really more mana efficient either. 3 short duration fears is 120 mana for 54 seconds of fear vs 100 mana for 42 seconds of fear. If the mob is undead, you can use Spook the dead, which only costs 10 mana per cast.

Dooming Darkness is useful in some very tight areas where you need the mob to run as little as possible, but you can get away with Engulfing Darkness in a lot of places. That's another reason why blood ember gauntlets are so good. Dooming Darkness also isn't as mana efficient as casting two Engulfing Darkness (less total snare duration), so I don't like to use it unless I have to.

[Snaggles]

Yes, but the more time the target is snared the less recasts are needed. Dooming is a much slower snare percentage which helps with landing more melee hits.

Invoke last a bit over twice the time (and casts 1 second quicker) so you spend less time getting hit or casting fear before the current one breaks.

Dooming/invoke will result in a faster kill than engulfing/fear and a better quality of life. I’d rather find a spot you can use it properly.

Ideally using undead fears as they are even quicker and more efficient but undead stuff tends to be in dungeons or in Kunark. Undead mobs tend to cast and Kunark ones have more hps than most equivalent live mobs. Outside Karnors of course where each fear is viable.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Originally Posted by Snaggles [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Yes, but the more time the target is snared the less recasts are needed. Dooming is a much slower snare percentage which helps with landing more melee hits.

Invoke last a bit over twice the time (and casts 1 second quicker) so you spend less time getting hit or casting fear before the current one breaks.

Dooming/invoke will result in a faster kill than engulfing/fear and a better quality of life. I’d rather find a spot you can use it properly.

Ideally using undead fears as they are even quicker and more efficient but undead stuff tends to be in dungeons or in Kunark. Undead mobs tend to cast and Kunark ones have more hps than most equivalent live mobs. Outside Karnors of course where each fear is viable.

Blood Ember Gauntlets + Boots are typically more efficient than casting Snare/Fear, as SK's are often limited by mana more than HP. This is especially true if you have Fungi Tunic, Epic, Racial Regen, etc. I still use Blood Ember Gauntlets + Boots for fear kiting at 60.

Getting hit a bit more isn't a big deal when you can just regenerate it while standing via Fungi Tunic, Epic Proc, Racial Regen, etc. The goal is to sit as little as possible, which means trying to spend less mana.

Meditating less means more time killing. Faster kill times do not always equate to more kills per hour, as you need to take recovery time into account as well.

Once you learn how to use short duration fear + engulfing darkness, there isn't really a need to go back to Dooming Darkness + Invoke Fear. I don't have any issues with htting mobs while they are snared via Engulfing Darkness.

You also open up more camp options, as you can fear kite in smaller areas. I fear kite in Howling Stones North for XP on the ramp. Your short duration fear is just long enough to where the mob won't run into the corridor most of the time.

[Crede]

Originally Posted by Snaggles [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Yes, but the more time the target is snared the less recasts are needed. Dooming is a much slower snare percentage which helps with landing more melee hits.

Invoke last a bit over twice the time (and casts 1 second quicker) so you spend less time getting hit or casting fear before the current one breaks.

Dooming/invoke will result in a faster kill than engulfing/fear and a better quality of life. I’d rather find a spot you can use it properly.

Ideally using undead fears as they are even quicker and more efficient but undead stuff tends to be in dungeons or in Kunark. Undead mobs tend to cast and Kunark ones have more hps than most equivalent live mobs. Outside Karnors of course where each fear is viable.

You will go oom extremely fast using dooming/invoke unless you have some potg/c2 bot keeping you going.

It's really a balancing act between mana/hp if you want to go for a couple hours without taking breaks. I would usually lead w/ dooming but then use spook the dead or blood ember boots if no undead mobs around. By the time dooming wore off I had done enough damage to resnare w/ BE gaunts & then finish off w/ spook/boots as needed. Once the mob is around 50ish% engulfing is the way to go for mana saving(and also for splitting). I would also tank as much as possible to lighten the mana load, and once the mob is like 30% you can just keep it perma feared in place & ideally if you have epic you can swap that in to get procs to regen as much hp as possible.

If you had access to soul defiler, then that would drastically change things as most of your mana problems should go away in which case i would probably throw in some more invoke.

[TytosOfEight]

I’ve noticed a lot of people who “play” rangers either don’t understand the class or just aren’t very good at it. It’s kind of cringe. In group content, my ranger consistently kills faster and takes less damage than my monk, even though both are similarly geared (mostly BiS or second BiS). My ranger has a bit more HP, while my monk has higher AC. The real difference? Earthcaller is overpowered.

I prefer my monk for places like Seb Disco because he can flop there, but in almost every other scenario, my ranger is the clear winner. To test this, I recently parsed 30 Geos on both characters, testing the difference of 100 AC. The result? My ranger took less damage overall, thanks to Earthcaller. Even during leveling, my ranger outpaced my monk, despite my monk being better geared. Around level 50, my monk’s progress slowed, but my ranger just kept trucking with Swarmcaller.

Another example: I was recently taking on the back four Guardians in Skyshrine. On my monk, I had to bandage/clicky heal after every fight. I swapped to my ranger, used Harmony to split, and downed all four before even needing to med. No contest.

Sure, a BiS monk with 1600 AC will tank better in raid content, but for group content, if Earthcaller lands, my ranger takes less damage. Oh, and I regularly tank HoT, Fear, Hate, and ToV trash on my ranger. Slap on an Aary shield and a 100 HP weapon, and you’re golden.

TL;DR: Rangers are underrated in group content, especially when played well. Earthcaller/Swarmcaller make them surprisingly tanky and efficient.

[zelld52]

Originally Posted by TytosOfEight [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

My ranger has a bit more HP, while my monk has higher AC. The real difference? Earthcaller is overpowered.
.

Wait, so you're telling us a mob that's slowed 50% will do less damage than an unslowed mob?

Dude, you're about to change the game with this insight. All you need to feel powerful as a ranger is a 200kp perma farmed item from Plate of Hate

For real though - how could you possibly compare slowed vs. unslowed fights.

Monks have the best melee damage mitigation in the game. It's not debatable. They have the highest defensive skill caps, they get block - and they get stonestance.

If the same mob was slowed with the same percentage - the similarly geared monk is taking less damage 11 out of 10 times. I duo'd from with my friend on his monk and ranger with similar gear on my shaman. The monk never needed heals - while the ranger needed an occasional heal. Same exact mobs, same exact camp. Ranger got beat up. Monk did not.

Again - not debatable. It's mathematics.

Monk:
Defense 252
Block 225
Riposte 225
Dodge 230

Ranger:
Defense 220
Parry 220
Riposte 185
Dodge 170

[kjs86z2]

Originally Posted by zelld52 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Wait, so you're telling us a mob that's slowed 50% will do less damage than an unslowed mob?

Dude, you're about to change the game with this insight. All you need to feel powerful as a ranger is a 200kp perma farmed item from Plate of Hate

For real though - how could you possibly compare slowed vs. unslowed fights.

Monks have the best melee damage mitigation in the game. It's not debatable. They have the highest defensive skill caps, they get block - and they get stonestance.

If the same mob was slowed with the same percentage - the similarly geared monk is taking less damage 11 out of 10 times. I duo'd from with my friend on his monk and ranger with similar gear on my shaman. The monk never needed heals - while the ranger needed an occasional heal. Same exact mobs, same exact camp. Ranger got beat up. Monk did not.

Again - not debatable. It's mathematics.

you aint too smaht is you

[zelld52]

Originally Posted by kjs86z2 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

you aint too smaht is you

oh fuck i thought i blocked you lemme fix that. idiot.

[TytosOfEight]

Originally Posted by zelld52 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Wait, so you're telling us a mob that's slowed 50% will do less damage than an unslowed mob?

Dude, you're about to change the game with this insight. All you need to feel powerful as a ranger is a 200kp perma farmed item from Plate of Hate

For real though - how could you possibly compare slowed vs. unslowed fights.

Monks have the best melee damage mitigation in the game. It's not debatable. They have the highest defensive skill caps, they get block - and they get stonestance.

If the same mob was slowed with the same percentage - the similarly geared monk is taking less damage 11 out of 10 times. I duo'd from with my friend on his monk and ranger with similar gear on my shaman. The monk never needed heals - while the ranger needed an occasional heal. Same exact mobs, same exact camp. Ranger got beat up. Monk did not.

Again - not debatable. It's mathematics.

I don’t get your logic here. Was the purpose of this thread to compare a class that can slow vs. one that cannot slow? Or, was it about comparing the overall class? Title is best solo class, not best class once someone else has slowed the mob. My ranger can 50% slow mobs and a monk cannot. They can slow with clickies but for not nearly as much or as consistently.

Oh, and BTW, Swarmcaller is like 400 plat and does the same thing: 50% slow.