What is the most soloable build in DDO?

[Euthorcize]

I've played DDO for years off and on. The highest i've ever gotten a character is 12. I never have what most would consider "uber loot", in all my time, i've only ever seen 2 tomes.

I am pay to play, so I have access to all the races/classes.

I'd like to stroll my way through the quests and enjoy them, reading every line of plot, without rushing through them. I've been unable to find a group who takes a slower pace on quests.

So!

If I want to see it all at my own pace, I need try to solo. I have some gold but not a huge amount, not enough to live off of potions/scrolls or hirelings.

What class/build is the most soloable build in DDO? If you can provide a link or a build with your suggestions I would appreciate it a lot.

[Rdonaccount]

warforged 18wiz/2rogue will be the most soloable build. Probably archmage with evocation as either primary or secondary focus, force spec'd for cheap damage. Great self healing, evasion with great reflex save (insightful reflexes is a must), sustainable cheap damage, immunities, trap skills.

There are a lot of others, 17clr/2mnk/1rogue for example, but i think wizard would be the best.

[Euthorcize]

I played a sorc warforge up to 9. I think you need to explain this bit to me. How is a wizard a good soloer? At what level does that become good soloing at? I would think it would be rough at the start.

[Azonalanthious]

Wizards in general get a good mention, not just warforged variants -- non-forged pale masters has pretty much all the same benefits, while sorcerer warforged are also quite solid, though pretty much all of these builds have a rougher time at low levels.

Clerics and favored soul builds probably take the second tier below wizards.

Monk would probably be the best of the non-casters to take as a majority class -- they lack the dps of some of the other classes, but have a reasonably easy time getting AC, saves, and self-healing and have evasion.

[English_Warrior]

I played a sorc warforge up to 9. I think you need to explain this bit to me. How is a wizard a good soloer? At what level does that become good soloing at? I would think it would be rough at the start.

To be a good solo build you need 2 things at least:

Good self healing
Good dps

Warforged arcanes have these two covered plus they get natural immunities. The 2 Rogue splash wizard build also has traps and locks covered too and gives the bonus of evasion.

[Standal]

I like soloing for some of the same reasons you do. I'm not opposed to fast completions, but I like to know the quest not know to follow the leader. I've pretty much soloed everything with my WF melee/healer FVS. Melee for persistent damage so you can spend all your blue bar are healing you. The only things I haven't soloed with him have been group challenge quests and the Gianthold flaggers/Vale/Reaver's Refuge. He's level 20 now and is very survivable.

I'm also running a lot with a WF Sorc right now. He's only level 9 so I'm not sure how well I'll do with him, but that's really my learning curve not the character. I know that many people are able to solo pretty much everything with a WF arcane. I do use some consumables, since my blue bar needs to provide my damage output.

I would take exception to your comment that you can't afford hirelings. Hirelings can be a pain, but they are very cost effective healing. The only problem is you have to nanny your nannybot. Still, I've used hirelings to run "solo" and always accumulated plenty of plat.

[Euthorcize]

I've never made a serious attempt on a wizard at all. I've not tried non caster FVs. If either of you could provide a link or a build, i'd appreciate it.

[Rdonaccount]

wizard becomes a good soloer as soon as they hit lvl 5 and get fireball, assuming a relatively fast pace in combat. Basically, you use a superior inferno III clicky, kite 15-20 mobs together, and blast them all. You can still go at your own pace for exploring and chatting with npc's, but with dungeon scaling, fireball owns most mobs at those levels. And at 7, when you get firewall, soloing becomes a joke.

Now, keep in mind, this is not the only way to solo on a wiz. You can still dungeon crawl in the classical sense on a wiz, you just need to find cheap ways to do damage. Evocation archmages can get 1sp magic missile's at lvl6, with free metamagics. That can go a long way spamming on mobs when soloing. Until that point, starting with a decent str and using a named greataxe from a low level chain (carnifex from delera's is best, but hellstroke from chronoscope or antique from carnival series are also good) can be perfectly fine. Yes, soloing is a bit tougher at the lowest levels, but just using mage's armor (or the bracers from waterworks) and shield spell can give you a decent ac for those levels.

Wizard is also great for soloing because you can swap spells at a shrine, if you find that you need a different tool for the job. The other advantages that wiz give over sorc or divine are the synergies with rogue. High int = lots of skill points for traps or social skills, insightful reflexes is great when combined with evasion.

[rocky0]

I think it all depends on your playing style. I only use the fighter types and I have a pure fighter on level 19 and a monk on level 17. Depending on your definition on solo, there is a thread somewhere where this is really, really, really debated, I use a hireling cleric. The monk is nice because I can use self healing with my ki strikes.

If you do not choose to use a hireling, Im guessing the higher levels will get a touch difficult

[DrNuegebauer]

Battle cleric is the fleshie option.


WF arcane makes the game a breeze right up until the end
(18 wiz| 2 rogue with insightful reflexes. Max int/ 10 points in con and 6 in str. Skills: Conc| Search| disable| UMD)
grab the highest + 2=handed weapon you can find in low levels and masters touch it.
Maybe go the archmage route with force spec to deal with higher levels?

[Euthorcize]

That did not take long. I'm sold on a wizard/rogue-anyone got a link to a build?

[Ghoste]

I played a sorc warforge up to 9. I think you need to explain this bit to me. How is a wizard a good soloer? At what level does that become good soloing at? I would think it would be rough at the start.
Use more invisibility. Even without skill points invested into stealth, just run until you've run into enough enemies to raise dungeon alert too high, then stop and nuke everything nearby, then re-apply invis.

With the right approach, a wizard is a solid solo class from levels 1 through 20. If that wasn't your experience, then you need to change your approach.

[akiraproject24]

Imo while slower then some other caster builds and evokers. You can really push the farthest with a WF melee fvs or probably other melee fvs builds (just dont have one atm)

[SaIamander]

I hear 8brd/6ftr/1src are mopping up the kill count everywhere :rolleyes:

[zebidos]

Well from my experience halfling barbarian with 2 rogue, evasion toon with high saves and always with a hireling cleric.

When doing things solo hirelings are a cheap and easy way to do it.

[Valiance]

For what the OP requested which is a solo build that can go slow and take it's time I would probably recommend the 17cleric/2monk/1rog. High AC allows you to go as slow as you want.

For all around solo'ing to 20 I too would recommend the WF wiz. Like Ghoste said they lean a little bit towards "faster" solo'ing as you want to run ahead and fireball as many mobs as you can at once for efficiencies sake.

WF 18wiz/2 rogue, max int, near max con, few points into str. Archmage evocation makes solo'ing to 20 a down right breeze. I actually just did it on my main to get the past life and it was crazy easy.

Edit: If you don't have any real gear to speak off this lends itself to the WF wiz. AC requires gear and lots of it.

V

[Rdonaccount]

Battle cleric is the fleshie option.

I'd say that palemaster (either pure or 18/2) would be the fleshie option. Almost all of my characters are built to solo effectively, so I have experience with a wide range of soloing styles. Melee divines are a really nice build, and tough to kill, but melee dps against a large number of targets is inefficient. If you can build your melee divine to still keep a strong blade barrier when appropriate, that is certainly a strong build as well. And there are others, like ac/stunning wis based monks that can dominate while soloing.

The advantage of arcanes soloing is just the breadth of tools available when you focus on your casting stat rather than on str. CC/burst damage/efficient nukes give you the flexibility to tackle a variety of quest challenges quickly, rather than just holding auto-attack for a couple minutes while you swat at a dozen ogres.

And arcane buffs are far superior to divine buffs. haste/displacement are great for survivability, and having a good Jump spell (pre amrath clicky) is invaluable in a lot of quests.

[badbob117]

For me it is my Pure human Caster Fvs. I am almost indestructible. Blade barrier and free capstone heals can go a long way when you get well geared. The dr at cap is sick. When you get higher level you can solo 98% of the game, WF Favoured soul is pretty beastly as well.

That said it does get lame playing a favored soul at times. The most fun solo build i made was a pure Warchanter Battle bard. This is a really fun class try. You are part healer, Part melee and part caster. Can umd all the goodies. Can self heal great and even be a backup healer later on if you choose to go that route. Can stand toe to toe with any enemy and hold your own. Not only is a bard amazing for soloing , they are even better for parties so you will always be welcome to start grouping when you get fed up of soloing. It can be a bit hard getting high hitpoints for some players on a bard, If you got the time to grind out loot and run shroud, your hp will be pretty good.

So yeah if you want the easy button make a Wis based fvs, But be warned running around blade barriers in circles gets tedious. If you like hand to hand combat a bit better make a warforged fvs. If you like hand to hand combat but want to be a rockstar diva with attitude make the battle bard.

Easy button for me is fvs, Most fun i have had in awhile is my battle bard though.

[Ungood]

The best, and easiest solo class for a mostly starting slow placed player, who just needs to get their feet in the door, some gold coming in and build up some "loot" is the: Paladin.

Not only do you have solid self healing, (lay hands at level 2) you also have immunities to fear, disease, and if you spec right, you will have saves unseen by near any other class. Also if you Sword/Board it (1H weapon & shield) you will most likely have the AC and HP to slowly walk any dungeon that does not have some "agility" trial in it.

Normally, I would suggest, Dwarf, as you start with the Dwarf Axe feat, which is (without needing to pay extra for the feat) the best 1H weapon in the game and if you sword/board it, that would be idea. Not to mention the high con which gives you extra HP and you have durability to spare.

Dwarf Pally is a very hardy build. However, if you are looking to do something more then slowly stomp your way though a dungeon slowly killing each mob one at a time, (and realizing that if you have to jump, swim, or do anything that remotely resembles agility you might as well do a different quest), then you might want to consider a human,

The Human bonus feat allows you to take Kopesh or Bastard Sword (I would recommend bastard sword, as you normally can get them loads cheaper then kopeshes and do 2H glancing blow damage), but since you also do not take a hit to cha you will get higher saves, which can be real handy.

Now if you are doing a 28 point build, expect to be dumber then a brick, as you really only get one dump stat as a Pally, and it's not Cha,... no.. it's not Dex either.

You might want to make sure your wisdom is around a 10, and then you only need a +1 wisdom item to cast by the time you are 4th, which, at 28 points, is going to be the plan to cast off + wisdom items.

So, Paladin, is a great slow, solo, start class if you want to self sufficient for the most part. If nothing else, it can get you the money you will need to get a hire for the class you really wanna play.

But that is just my 2 coppers

[Waylayer]

All good advice; but I did want to add one comment (or 3).

You mention not having gold for potions and hirelings.

Eventually, hireling cost is pretty insignificant. More-so when you use them in explorer areas and quests. It isn't uncommon for me to get 8+ hours out of hireling, when I am crawling through Gianthold.

Also, Wizards can be annoyingly expensive - if you want to make sure you fill your spell book properly; can be quite painful at the lower levels.

My "Tukaw" sorceror, exploiter ranger, and Wizard/rogue all solo reasonably well - each has different strengths and weaknesses - while each is capable of soloing, I usually bring along a hireling anyway - Divine Vitality makes the my casters happy; and a hireling cleric can be far more cost effective than potions and wands for my ranger.

[Lost_Leader]

Some thoughts:

WF FvS would be my favorite.


Both self and group healing, should you decide to group.
Solid melee damage. Sure, not top tier, but solid.
Some damage spells, primarily Blade Barrier.
Insta-Kill spells.
All the self buffing you could want.
Great Damage reduction.
Does not require great gear to be a good soloer.
and most importantly: WINGS!


The WF Wiz, or Wiz/Rog also is great. Rog gives the options of traps and the Insightful Reflexes feat is great for cranking up your evasion save without needing to have a dex score. I also love my WF Sorc, but sorc doesnt have any synergy with rogue stats, so I wouldn't consider that splash.

Light Monks are great melee soloers, but are a bit gear dependent if you want to hold your own.

There are some fun pally and ranger builds out there who focus a bit on their healing spells to give them excellent self healing and survivability. Maximize spell and some healing gear can go a long way here.

Bards can be excellent soloers, particularly a solid warchanter which gives better melee dps than spellsinger or virtuoso, though the spellsinger gets a huge mana pool.

[brian14]

I dislike playing wizards.

With that caveat, Arcane Archer is a very soloable class

[PwnHammer40K]

Paladin.

EDIT: OH sorry, are we talking about new'ish players? Nevermind then :p

[Angelus_dead]

The best, and easiest solo class for a mostly starting slow placed player, who just needs to get their feet in the door, some gold coming in and build up some "loot" is the: Paladin.
Paladin is fine at low level, but at 12+ or so it becomes much worse, struggling at solo combats that are trivial for a Ranger or Cleric.

[Angelus_dead]

I'd like to stroll my way through the quests and enjoy them, reading every line of plot, without rushing through them.
Wizard has been suggested a lot, but keep in mind that a Wizard being good at soloing depends greatly on foreknowledge of the quest. If your time schedule makes recalling out to reload or reset prohibitive, then look towards somethnig else.

[Sal'vation]

I spent a month reading through posts to find out the options for a solo character before I started playing the game. By far the one that is most recommened and is most powerful at level 20 is WF Wizard (also up there is 18 Wiz/2 Rog). So I went P2P and tryed one out and hated it. I'm sure it would have done great but it just didn't suit my play style. Then went and tried the Exploiter, another highly recommened solo build (Rng/Mnk/Rog) and it just felt boring and I was ready to stop playing the game.

Fortuntly I had a week left on my first month so I tried out the 18Clr/2Mnk/1Rog and finally found a solo build I could enjoy and have some fun with. It is a good soild build but did have a few levels that were hard to get through, until you get the spell Blade Barrier and then you start flying through mobs. What made this build work for me is that you get to change up your attacks by who and how many you are fighting. So a good blend of hand-to-hand and spell casting. With no items or money besides what I found in the game I made it up to 20 and can solo 90% of what a the 20 WF Wiz can. Just picked up my Icy robe today ;) solo.

My next charcter was a light monk, and while the above character was nice to play the light monk blows it away as far as fun to play, and much smoother leveling up. Also he can out solo the Clr/Mnk/Rog (although for soloing epic, it still cannot get close to the WF Wiz). Some of my favorite aspects of the light monk is that it feeds off of combat once you have fist of light (lvl 3). The more hits you land the more health you gain, and the more Ki you generate to fuel special powers. The only reason you need a rest shrine is to recharge your cliclies, this is espically true once you hit level 7 and gain the ability to sit down anywhere and regain your health as long as you have 10ki left over from the fight. Other great thing is running and jumping. You get everywhere faster, and I love being surrounded by a host of orcs and just jumping over their heads, landing behind them and re-starting the battle.

Monks also have any amazing array of special abilities that provide great flexability for your character.

What I'm really saying is there is a ton of solo builds out there but you really have to pick one to suit your style of play.

One issue I had with a lot of posts on the forums about solo builds is they assume you have uber gear stacked away and unlimited funds for heal and barkskin potions. Also with guild ship buffs now, almost anything can solo their way up without issue. But if you want to solo up with only what your character finds exploring and use hirelings only when you have to have a second person to pull a lever then the above builds should work for you.

Also note that U9 will bring a ton of new solo builds to the forums, and make sure any old build isn't to drastically affected by it.


Clr/Mnk/Rog build
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=164323

List of other builds
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=173046

[PwnHammer40K]

paladin Is Fine At Low Level, But At 12+ Or So It Becomes Much Worse, Struggling At Solo Combats That Are Trivial For A Ranger Or Cleric.lol

[Ungood]

warforged 18wiz/2rogue will be the most soloable build. Probably archmage with evocation as either primary or secondary focus, force spec'd for cheap damage. Great self healing, evasion with great reflex save (insightful reflexes is a must), sustainable cheap damage, immunities, trap skills.

While yes, A WF Wiz/Rogue is an amazing solo class, but it is not a zone "walker" class, it excels at burning it's way though a zone, literally and figuratively.

I know this, because my Main is this build

[slimkj]

Use more invisibility.
On my battlecaster toy I've taken AM:Illusion at 6 for virtually free invis. So much fun. :)

[Anneliese]

The most soloable build from 1-20 for a newer player is probably a WF FvS ( http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=268346 ).

At 20 its a different question.


Its also a different question if you already know all quests, have superior gear laying around. or have excellent stealthing metatechniques.

[Ghoste]

On my battlecaster toy I've taken AM:Illusion at 6 for virtually free invis. So much fun. :)
Update 9 crafting = stack of cheap easy to make invis clickies (relatively speaking, of course)

[mournbladereigns]

All around WF FvS is strongest soloer. TOugh race, high HP's good melee ability, great self-healing useful buffs and offensive spells (more so after U9), and welcome in raids. And doesn't HAVE to have any uber gear to do well.

Tukaw build WF 16sorc/2pal/2rog is fun to play and great soloer, but needs tome loving.

WF Wiz/Rog is good as well.

I love my Drow Valiance build 17clr/2monk/1rog

Solar phoenixes are fun builds to play solo too. 15pal/3monk/2ftr (or rog/FvS), or the 12pal/7monk/1rog THough 15pal is stronger post U9, better self healing thanx to ridiculous healing amp.

[DaSawks]

Good soloers in no particular order.

1. WF FVS LOTB.
2. WF AM WIZ pure or /rogue2
3. Bard pure or /rogue2 are popular
4. Monk WIS, STR Light etc
5. Any build that can answer to BYOH

[slimkj]

Update 9 crafting = stack of cheap easy to make invis clickies (relatively speaking, of course)
Ooh I didn't realise you could craft invis clickies. That's good to know. Get some 5/rest to replace all the 3/rests I have spread out over melees. Not having to swap out to items or scrolls, having it on a hotkey and being virtually infinite is great though... I never dared dream of such convenient zerging! ;)

[SetofBs]

Re: Paladins

In my experience they are somewhat weak solo'ers. Their self healing is too limited and they tend to not have evasion. That is not a good combo in many quests. Personally, I like light monks for soloing as a melee character. They have speed, evasion, self healing, DPS, AC...everything you want (except UMD).