EQMac.com

First and foremost let me introduce myself. I have been away from eq since 03, but I started back when kunark came out. I've had high level characters, ranger, wizard, and mage. I obviously have a Mac and was recently looking for a decent game and was happy to discover that eqmac was here.
I do not get a ton of time to play these days with my third child on the way, so I'm looking for a solo friendly character for when I am unable to group. I loved my ranger, but was not a fan of the low to mid level soloing. I currently have a 12 ranger and 10 mage here. I understand that the consensus is necros and druids are the solo kings, but I have a few small issues with them...don't want to be a wolf and not necessarily want to be evil and use a skeleton as a pet...though I have always been a fan of dots.
I've never played a necro or druid so how do they compare to a mage solo?

Mages solo very well in the early game, but become less efficient at higher levels. Druids and necromancers both solo very well at all levels. So do wizards and bards.

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Ryoku Wing, Swift Tail of Temerity

Soft-skinned alt scum:
[ Ravenwing | Syovan | Prudence | Auvry | Sycorax ]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I was kind of expecting that. I am stubborn so I will probably keep my mage and ranger around and pull them out occasionally, but I'll give the druid and necro both a shot for fairness.

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bards are indeed fantastic soloers. between pac-pulling, dot kiting, charm, and mezz/heal, there's alot of content at all levels that can be done through singin' n swingin'

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I mezz four mobs at a time without using mana.
I run faster than any other character without using SoW.
I power level newbies without using buffs.
I GATE-HAMMER out of Vex Thal. Alone.

What can bard do for you?

Hyacinth Stormsong
Level 65 Maestro Extraordinaire
Destiny

That's something I hadn't considered. I had a 30ish bard back in the day too. Selos is hard to ignore.

...and the alt disease starts...

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You don't want to be a wolf and you don't want to be evil, but you like DoTs... I think I may have a solution for you!

Roll a Shaman. They are great soloers and fantastic duo partners to either a ranger or a mage. They're also a great trio partner to the ranger and the mage! If you want a great solo-class, the a Shaman is your guy - remember that any mob you can kill with a group of four, a shaman can kill solo*. Your kills might not be as fast as they would be with a Necromancer, but we're not paying a monthly fee here so you've got all the time you want and you the Shaman class will make up for their pace in the quality of kills you can solo later in the game. So instead of being a wolf, you could potentially be a bear - and instead of lugging around a skeleton, SoW your new wolf friend so he can run as quick as you! Perfect!

Druids are rarely wolves. If you can be in an outdoor zone, you should be on a horse anyways.

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At level 65, what mobs are bards soloing efficiently on?

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Bard - Can be meh/bad to absolute gods pretty much all levels. Player skill here is HUGE.
Beastlord - Meh early levels to okay mid levels. Yet to see what they can do end game solo, but guessing a lot to heck of a lot.
Cleric - Meh to bad all but end game. End game, it's slow like the shaman, but very effective. One of the first classes to solo a dragon along with shaman. Post that druid then ranger.
Druid - Good all levels, can be amazing end game with the right peep playing. (Lots of Tem god druids)
Enchanter - Kinda meh early levels, absolute gods in some camps mid level (Bloodmaw, DSP), end game gods to meh as it really depends on whether they can charm and pac, MR and whatnot. Some zones aren't chanter friendly end game. Player skill is a huge factor, gearing too.
Mage - Okay early levels, an absolute god about 29 to 49, good end game, but not as good as many baring some sweet charm killing.
Monk - Good early levels, not bad mid, meh to okay end game.
Necro - Good all levels, can be amazing end game with the right peep playing. (Phoh could solo the boots in CT, Zozo destroys PoTorment)
Paladin - not sure early to mid levels, end game effective but slow, kinda like cleric here.
Ranger - Not sure early to mid levels, but can be gods end game with the right peep playing. (See Lyrad if questions)
Rogue - Meh early levels, meh to bad mid, end game very hard, but easier that warrior due to spliting and evade options. (Only Rysia and Taien that I know of would solo them end game).
Shaman - Not sure early levels, but starting in their 50ies they're the first class that can solo Lodi without charming. Slow as heck. For single target kills, they can be the king here or bards, druids, clerics and rangers. (Buffem soloed one of the Seru shard mobs)
Shadowknight - not sure early to mid levels, end game can be very effective if the right peep playing.
Warrior - Good early levels, meh to bad mid, real bad end game. (Only Stamm that I know of soloed his warrior end game)
Wizard - Meh/bad early to mid levels, end game they be good to amazing, but player skill here is a very big factor. (See me in game for what's possible with them. It's a lot, but lagging in single target kills, up there with necro for dungeon crawls, some spots the best).

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Delorne has soloed Zelthinak.
Drindle could clear huge sections of PoN solo and would amass more gems in two weeks than I would in a year.
Had a bard in Destiny for a month or so that said he was the best PC side Velious era. He said his guild would cockblock another's guild's access due to him perma solo killing all the dragons in WW including Sontalak to block ST access and they'd also keep Kael and Zlandicar perma blocked. (I'm guessing he'd get have half or all of the zone in a train then somehow get Sontalak to AoE the train and drop aggro and have the monster train chew Sontalak. He hinted to some degree).

Best to ask Del what he can do; I'm sure it's a lot.

Sks early to mid are meh. After 52 an MC bug things start to change. But we are very gear dependent.

that's a faction war exploit, and I believe it may have been fixed with Hobart's recent patch to fix potactics pitwar exploit

I remember the WW dragons exploit back in the day on eqlive, it got patched pretty quick once it became public knowledge.

here is how it worked:
you need good faction with dragons

charm a mob, and /pet attack while standing next to a dragon with good faction
the dragon will assist

the dragon mobs will fight each other, and the corpse will not poof if the mob is over lvl 55, so you can do 1 point of dmg and get exp+loot

I almost managed to solo Klandicar, but I used an ench and not a bard, so had trouble getting enough mobs to assist due to lack of ability to move fast enough

so I wouldn't really call it legit soloing of any WW dragons since it used an exploit that was patched...

apologies if this is not okay to share, feel free to delete/moderate my post

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Thanks for all of the replies. Understand the whole exploit post and I don't want to take into account anything like that...I play legit.

...that said...

Thanks for laying out the differences in the classes, that will help. I will try the shaman...thought about it but everything I read said solo 50+. Can't post anything longer so I'll post again later.

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well I think the point about 'exploiting' is about being able to abuse game mechanics to the full potential with a class that can change the way mobs behave

not necessarily as extreme exploiting as that particular example, but doing things that no other classes can do except pretty much bards and enchanters (and I guess with limited scope druids (charm animals) and necromancers (charm undead, limited mez))

examples
charm - can do some crazy stuff with this... find the right mob to charm and you can break the game. some mobs have ridiculous DPS or hitpoints. for example, you used to be able to charm The Statue of Rallos Zek (I got a screenshot of landing Dictate on him during a raid)
pacification (change agro radius) - can navigate deep into dungeons and lower risk, and until recently 'double pacify' was an exploit that broke the game
mez spells - lower risk, control situations to crazy extent, basically you can pull of some epic hero moments when you mez like 10+ mob trains
mem blur - once again can lower risk, control situations, save the day
song of high sun - amazing bard only skill, once again it can be game-breaking
modify factions through illusions and +faction spells and go to places you're not supposed to be able to go to (for example, permanant illusion AA + minor illusion made you be able to move around North Temple of Veeshan with dubious faction, could just waltz on into Plane of Mischief...)

for example, using a combination of the above if something agros that shouldn't in regular situations it would cause a death or mass wipe, an enc could mez a mob, pacify it, mem blur it, and then it would just stand there and not kill everyone. if mob can't be mezzed (dragons or giants) you can do a root+paci+mem blur and save the day.
or you could charm any unwanted additional mobs and pull them away from the group/raid (or make it fight for you)
or you could highsun a mob and make it go away completely...

insane exploits and abilities, that are mostly legit and within game rules, but nobody else can do! and depending on how well you understand the class and your play ability is, it could be above what the developers ever intended and be game-breaking godly type stuff that sometimes makes encounters have to be re-balanced or things get nerfed/patched

it's crazy good fun

but hey I might be biased towards enc because I've played one since 2001 and exploited the be-jesus out of the game with all the crazy things they can do, such as soloing group-level content and then some

there are some crazy things necros can also do with feign death, invis and divine aura and all their mob-controlling skills (fear, snare, charm, mez)

the point is - classes that change mob behavior = hax city

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PoN and Zelnithak aren't great experience at 65 though. At 65, I think druid may have the most efficient solo camp with PoS frogs as they can charm and snare.

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