I just have a simple question for all you experienced BTers.
I really liked to group back in EQ. Soloing just wasn't my cup of tea.
However, times have changed. I simply do not have the time anymore I had four years ago. I usually can only spare 2-3 hours weekdays for gaming. I do not have the time to wait for pick up groups and I feel bad when I have to leave a group after a only an hour or so.
So my question is, what is the best solo class? For Undeads.
Warlocks?
(And yeah, I know. All classes can probably solo. I just assume that there are some who are just a little bit better than others.)
Actually, since the patch, it's kinda hard to say who can solo the best now... 
Another question. Are the prestige classes (or whatever they were called) still planned to be put into the game? You know, Archmage, Mountain King, Demon Hunter...
quote:
Everyone wondered WTF when Tarquinn wrote:
Well, I see...Another question. Are the prestige classes (or whatever they were called) still planned to be put into the game? You know, Archmage, Mountain King, Demon Hunter...
Hero classes are still being planned, not even close to being implemented however.
Anyways, any class can be played solo if you play the character right, there really isn't a "best" with food and drink and such. Warriors can regen health just as fast as a shaman could regen mana. 
Or is my guess as good as yours, because Blizz hasn't revealed any details yet?
The mage has the big, big damage and is extremely self sufficient. Summoning a limitless supply of food and drink means you can keep yourself going indefinately. The mobs don't even get to you in a best case scenario, just fire away, between roots and snares you have enough utility to help survive any bad times you may run in to.
While the warlock doesn't have the big damage output the mage has, relying heavily on a variety of dots, you also have a series of great pets which just plain make life easier. More hps to take hits for you, an extra body to deal with an additional add, and more damage output or benefits to you (like the imp buffing your sta or voidwalker being able to sacrifice himself to give you a short term invulnerability).
This is just my view, would be best to wait for Bajah or Black or someone else from the closed to offer their views though 
Oh yeah, zero details about hero classes aside from "Well, a dwarf warrior could become a mountain king!". Logically, an undead warrior would be closest to a Death Knight, really the only thing to work on at the moment, guessing, heh. Vorago fucked around with this message on 11-09-2004 at 09:01 AM.
Undead Mage = Lich
Undead Warrior = Death Knight
Undead Warlock = Dreadlord or something akin to it since their purpose is summoning demons, not undead.
Undead Rogue = Dark Ranger or something akin to it.
quote:Yeah, but those Death Knights worked for the Orcs. IIRC, they were the resurrected bodies of the necromancers from the first Orc/Human war.
Maradon! wrote this then went back to looking for porn:
I'd see undead warlock as being closer to a death knight, considering they can use swords and Death Knights were primarily a casting unit in WC2.
Thanks Vorago and Blacky. 
As for best soloers, there isn't really a best. I personally think the better soloing classes are Paladin, Shaman, and Mage. That's one tankish, one healerish, and one wizardish. Paladins because of their versatility, divine shields, healing ability, and armor/weapons. Shaman because of their jack of all trades thing - they've got something for everything. And Mages for the reasons that Vorago has already detailed. Bajah fucked around with this message on 11-09-2004 at 09:29 AM.
quote:
Bajah Model 2000 was programmed to say:
As for best soloers, there isn't really a best. I personally think the better soloing classes are Paladin, Shaman, and Mage. That's one tankish, one healerish, and one wizardish. Paladins because of their versatility, divine shields, healing ability, and armor/weapons. Shaman because of their jack of all trades thing - they've got something for everything. And Mages for the reasons that Khyron has already detailed.
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Tarquinn's unholy Backstreet Boys obsession manifested in:
Yup, it's already decicided for me that I will make a Human Paladin.
Prepare to die.
quote:
Mr. Parcelan thought this was the Ricky Martin Fan Club Forum and wrote:
Prepare to die.
can't guarantee anything though.
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A sleep deprived Maradon! stammered:
I'd see undead warlock as being closer to a death knight, considering they can use swords and Death Knights were primarily a casting unit in WC2.
A) WoW is based off Warcraft 3, not Warcraft 2. Death knights are big beefy frontline melees with useful support abilities.
B) Death Knights do not summon things. Warlocks summon Infernals among others. Best they do is raise the dead temporarily at extremely high levels. Now, a Warlock is in good standing for Dreadlord on the other hand.
I can't help but assume Hero classes are not going to literally change your character into something completely different... ranged hunter suddenly becomes a frontline melee with no ranged attacks or whatnot, just wouldn't make any sense. Want to play a big beefy melee? Be a cloth caster for 60 levels! Wtf.
The things that allows the warlock to really rock the casbah are Healthstones, Life Leech (or whatever it's called) and the Voidwalker.
The Voidwalker can tank and hold aggro very well, especially after i cast my curse which shaves 6 damage off every hit a mob puts out. The health stone acts as a lesser healing potion that i always have up and since soul stones are very easy to make, there's really no problem keeping them. I try and keep 5 on me at all times in case of an emergency so that i always have some to make a stone and Voidwalker after a death.
Life leech is a recent aqquisition and is very much 
. It deals fifty damage in five seconds for less mana than the warlock's DD and regens quite a bit of health back. Coupled with the health transfer to pet spell and the Warlocks EQ Shaman style Cannibalize i can keeo the pet up and deal a lot of damage over quite a large period of time.
Pull with immolate. The second Immo goes off, use Curse of Agony, and tell my VW pet to attack. My VW will use Taunt, and the mob will not land a hit on me. I drop Corruption on the mob, giving him 3 DoT's total. At this point, my strategy goes open...
If there's just one mob, and it's weak, I'll just start hacking away to raise my sword skill (Takes for-freaking-ever to get it up to the cap).
If there's a really strong mob, or if I'm pressed for time, I'll start nuking with Shadow Bolt, and drop another Immo on when the first one drops.
If there's more than one mob, I'll try to finish one off quickly, DoT the second, then use health funnel to keep my pet alive. I generally never run low on HP thanks to Demon skin ( you demon skin!), and after combat only one cast of health funnel pumps my pet back to full.
If anything goes wrong, I have my healthstone, my lesser health potions, and I can sac my voidwalker for his shield if he's going to die and I can't stop it.
Thus far, the only times I have died using this method, were the times i wasn't paying close enough attention and the voidwalker died before I could sac it...
The sheer number of them turns me off from them. Not to mention, ever since I picked Wizard as my EQ Class, I've had a contempt for cowardly pet classes.
What Vorago said about mages is pretty true. Soloing is fairly easy, my high damage destroys NPC casters (since I'm more intelligent than them, and use my spells more effectively, I'll beat them). Melee mobs require a bit more creativity, because they have the HP to make it close to me, and beat quite soundly upon my fragile rotting frame, .
We don't have roots, really, so far as I've seen. Frost Nova could be the closest thing, and it's a PBAE with a 30 second recast.
Good thing though, Polymorph is a way underutilized spell by mages I've grouped with or seen playing. Sure, turning your enemy into a sheep is very entertaining, but most people don't see beyond that. It's a Mez. They won't engage until it wears off, or they're hit. You're soloing and got an add? Polymorph it. You're travelling and aggro something annoying? Polymorph it. Your group is getting mobbed? Polymorph it!
Another cool thing is Frost Armor. If something does hit you, either in combat or while travelling, they become slowed/snared for a short time. If you're travelling, this means an aggroed mob will get one hit, then be snared enough that you can run the rest of the way.
Unlimited Food/Drink = No Downtime longer than like 15 seconds, ever. It's stupendous.
On the other hand, soloing is pretty easy for most classes.
It seems like mobs lower than you should be easy wins. Mobs equal to you should be tough victories, and a mob a level higher than you should be something you beat when you put thought and strategy into the fight (and/or use your long recast abilities like Rogues have I know for sure).
One thing I like about WoW that I don't really remember feeling in other MMORPGs is that with a lot of strategy and excellent use of spells, I can pull off some pretty nifty feats, and break some very difficult camps. In some other games, a lot of times it felt like if you weren't supposed to be able to do something by numbers, then you just couldn't do it. I feel like that when something is hard in WoW, it just means I need to try harder. If something was hard in EQ, I needed more people or more levels it seemed, unless it was a raid situation. It seems like the most creative tactics in EQ only really ever came out in Raids (stuff like CotH ferrying, etc).
* - There are exceptions. You could use things like Shiny Brass Idols to zerg in and grab quest items, or use invisibility to evade some aggros here and again, but these spots seem limited.
I classify that as one really good root, heh.I heavily favor the mage now. It was one of my favorites for my undead character anyway.
