Soloing vs. grouping, once and for all

[Daldaen]

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

I certainly wouldn't say that solo is higher risk ; reward.

ESPECIALLY for Druids and Necros that are kiting.

Kiting is essentially zero risk MASSIVE reward.

Kiting basically uses up an entire bar of mana to kill 2-3 mobs generally, for a druid at least (killing dark blues). Then I have a 10+min med break before I kill again.

Depending on where you kite you have 'zero risk'. I encourage you to kite in Kedge Keep and rethink that claim though (Yes I do this occasionally if root is not working)

[DekThai]

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

Kiting basically uses up an entire bar of mana to kill 2-3 mobs generally, for a druid at least (killing dark blues). Then I have a 10+min med break before I kill again.

Depending on where you kite you have 'zero risk'. I encourage you to kite in Kedge Keep and rethink that claim though (Yes I do this occasionally if root is not working)

Thank you for thinking outside the bun, just like he said, its depends on scenarios such as terrains and mobs.

[Daldaen]

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

Thank you for thinking outside the bun, just like he said, its depends on scenarios such as terrains and mobs.

You're welcome [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]!

[yaeger]

Soloing as a Warrior/Rogue/Ranger: High risk vs. reward.

Soloing as a Mage/Necro/Druid: Low risk vs. reward

It all depends, I'd view soloing as a better risk/reward scenario than grouping. Mostly due to a couple things: one person can't screw everyone over, you don't have 5 DPS classes just hanging out while the healer regens mana, and you don't have idle times LFG or looking for that vital group member (tank, healer, slower).

Anyone that says soloing SHOULD be better exp than grouping is wrong. It should be consistent exp. It should be relatively safe exp. It should be constant exp.

It should not be all-around-better exp.

[Lazortag]

I've been in some amazing groups that were definitely comparable to the exp rate of a mage soloing (crazy royals groups chain pulling, for instance) except that they were (a) funner and (b) safer. But most of the time the people I've grouped with have been idiots. I'm kind of surprised that this server full of "veterans" has so many people who seem like they've never played before, and think it's acceptable to constantly go afk, not assist, attack mezzed mobs, etc. I haven't had a good grouping experience in months, but then again I haven't played that much lately.

I realize that this has probably been said before (aka, the problem is that so many groups suck blah blah blah) but many of the players on this server really need to get their shit together if grouping is going to be desirable for people like me.

[yaeger]

Here's a hypothetical situation:

This isn't taking into account level differences, or group makeup with shared exp penalties.

Let say you get into a good group. Your camp has 20 mobs in it with a 15 min respawn (I'd say that's pretty good for a group to kill 20 mobs before repops, taking into account med breaks, difficult pulls, etc). Your group will clear the camp just before repops come, making you start all over again.

A soloer, to get equal exp as any member of the above group, would have to kill 4 mobs in 15 mins to get equivalent experience (see my previous exp calculation post).

That's what I don't understand. It's day and night comparison.

[Estu]

I'd like to suggest that a full group is perhaps not the most efficient way to go about things. Today in Crushbone on my level 10 warrior, I camped slaver caves with a 9 monk and 9 druid, and despite a lot of the centurions being green or light blue, I gained a full level in about two hours. Of course this is Crushbone at level 10 so it's faster than a later-level group, and I am somewhat twinked (char's gear is worth about 1-1.5k), but the experience was very noticeably faster than any full group I ever had at slaver caves. We had basically no downtime and kept everything down, just straight-up chain pulling.

This doesn't mean that grouping is necessarily faster than soloing, but I would suggest that maybe a duo or trio actually is faster in certain situations, maybe with the caveat that you have to compare against a druid or a shaman soloer rather than a mage or necro.

[insertname]

I am a necromancer, soloing the forums mwwaahahaha.....

seriously though, any update as to whats what about all this?

[vageta31]

Soloing is hands down faster experience, provided you understand and implement the most efficient method. If you burn all your mana and have to med for 10 minutes then you lose that efficiency unless you were able to kill about 8 mobs in that time. Kiting in general is only somewhat efficient and really only shines if you can either a) quad kite, or b) kite yellows and reds. Kiting a bunch of blues is sort of pointless as the whole entire idea of killing a higher number of blues is the lower mana cost in order to do so not to mention the extra time it takes.

My iksar necro spent most of his 20's chain killing high blues, whites and yellows and leveled extremely fast while never really running out of mana. I'm talking a level in 90 minutes or so. There's a threshold you have to find and understand to determine the best mana per kill efficiency. Do you burn more mana to kill mobs faster and then sit and med, or do you use less mana and take a bit more time?

I was killing the two treants and then still had enough mana to run around and kill 3-4 blues in the area, come back and still be able to get treants when they popped. That's 5-6 kills per spawn cycle with very little downtime. The only time I really had to stop completely to med was when I had way too many resists in that cycle and decided to just med to full before starting again. Of course the entire reason I played an Ikky was for the regen as it is god's gift to a necro.

How did I do it? Used as little mana as possible, sit down as much as possible and found a nice spot where I didn't waste time running too much in between spawns. Easy blues would only get one darkness, one fear and my pet. Tougher mobs would get one darkness, one boil blood, one fear and my pet. Turn off taunt, darkness mob, fear it, put on a blood boil, run about 100 yards out and then sit and med. With allure on I had gained a good portion of my mana back by the time the mob came after me in which I'd simply run away again and then sit and wait.

This threshhold takes time to figure out for each class, level and situation but if you're smart about it then it becomes natural. I did the same thing leveling my shaman to 50 completely solo. Instead of root dotting and kiting (which I find embarrasing to shamans everywhere), I played an Ogre and went full on battle shaman. I was tanking, yes tanking, spectres from 45 to 50 and doing it very efficiently. I also camped AoF solo from about 45 and up doing the same method of tanking and got awesome exp as well. AoF himself hit pretty hard so I only stepped in when pet was in trouble or I was getting low on mana, but I still had that option.

Had I root dot'd or kited them it'd have been far slower. I loaded up on HP and AC gear, rubi BP and FBSS, grabbed a nice high damage 2h weapon then went to town. I did this for most of my career and I leveled very fast this way. Open up with a slow, drop one dot on the mob then would melee it down with pet helping. Keeping hit points about 60-70% was enough and plenty to canni if needbe. The regen kept me healing fast during what small downtime I had and I was pulling pretty consistently. Most shamans don't use this method and I see them plugging away for much longer grinding but it's just not that efficient. Root dotting is a horrible method for Shammies due to the high cost of mana.

Then there is the whole idea of how much more money you make while soloing versus splitting in groups...

[fishingme]

I've got to agree, pling my brothers (cleric/warrior) when grouped they will get a level every 40 or so minutes. When solo each of them easily will get a level in 10-15minutes with laid back pling, not serious "hey lets frak some shit up and level asap"