I soloing supposed to get hard at mid-levels?

[Qaliya]

So I've been doing fine mostly soloing with my now 10/1/1 cleric/rogue/fighter, but lately I keep hitting the wall in quest after quest. Today I did Ghola-Fan, spent well over an hour clearing out the whole dungeon only to get nuked by the boss, and then unable to return within the (annoyingly short) 5 minute timer. So, a giant waste of time, though I did at least get an item with a haste clicky.

This is nominally only a level 10 quest as well. I am finding more and more level 9 and 10 quests I cannot do at level 12. This one was especially frustrating not only because of not being able to get back in, but because 99% of the dungeon is easy and then the boss chamber was a complete wipe-out.

As an aside, this "harried" business is beyond annoying.

[Mrmorphling]

Well it really depends on class, equip and quest knowledge; with the right mix 99.5% of this game is soloable.

You are just 1 lvl shy of aquiring the divine "weapon of mass destruction" aka blade barrier that will change your view on quest; no more 1 by 1 slow hammering but run until red, pop BB, kite and self heal, rinse and repeat .

Plus bring me the head of ghola fan isn't one of the easiest quest for a melee oriented cleric as ogres hurt and wolves trip.

At your level i would suggest either the second part of cult of the six (both quenching the flames and church of fury are nice xp/min) or shadow crypt (better in a party with an arcane); if your sneak is good chamber of rhamat and khorush in menechtarum desert are very quick; if you have it Tomb of the shadow knight is extremely good xp/min aswell as you'll be able to get the huge trap bonus.

About your character always try to have the best +str/wis/con availlable which would likely be +5 (As +6 starts from lvl 13); greater false life; heavy fortification; potency and/or brilliance clicky (cannith crafting). For anything more specific i'd need to know more details about build and current equip.

[Marcus-Hawkeye]

I find soloing to be easy at the beginning of the game, but exponentially difficult as the level of the the quests increase. I tried the soloing, but without a lot of gear and preparation it was difficult. So I tried dual boxing, then triple boxing, now I'm maxed out with quad boxing. I won't go into detail, but this added an incredible amount of challenge for me, but at the same time, made it easier to *solo*. The game is primarily design to be a team game and attempting to solo it all the way through you will need to be overly prepared, or willing to step into multiple shoes as is my case.

[Angelus_dead]

So I've been doing fine mostly soloing with my now 10/1/1 cleric/rogue/fighter, but lately I keep hitting the wall in quest after quest. Today I did Ghola-Fan, spent well over an hour clearing out the whole dungeon only to get nuked by the boss, and then unable to return within the (annoyingly short) 5 minute timer. So, a giant waste of time, though I did at least get an item with a haste clicky.

If the boss kills you, then use Raise Dead and try again.

If you can't cast Raise Dead because you're dead, then have your hireling cast it.

If you didn't have a hireling who can cast it, that is your mistake.

[Arianrhod]

Particularly for first characters (no hand-me-downs to make their lives easier, no steady cash supply from the main), the level 9-12 range can be pretty tough. It's got a lot of really hard quests with crummy rewards, and even the wilderness zones (Ataraxia's, Restless isles) can be brutal. Milking the lower level quests (Stormcleave, Xorian Cipher, Delera's) for as much exp as you can get out of them, then trying to get into groups in Menechtarun or Gianthold helps, but to a large extent it's just a matter of toughing it out till it gets fun again

[aennae]

I advice you to follow gunther bovine journal. I could do all he did (with usually 1 level more, but i probably would have done it a the same level as him).

As someone mentionned BB changes things, but it does work well anywhere. Against archers/casters/evasion mobs it's usually a huge mana drain for low results.

I advice you to use a passive hireling, just use him/her as a safety belt and mana regen.

The trick is to ask him to pick your stone then to follow you. You may also set him on active and give hi/her order but usually i prefer to try to do everything by myself.

Don t forget to bind nearby, except for quest like Xorgan cipher or quest with entries in explorers zone
you will usually have time to come back (buy 1 mn mana regen drinks). So release, drink a beer, wait 30 second , heal yourself and rush back.

Note that the only way to have fun is to solo (or duo) since 99% of the groups are Zerk, BYOH, Know your way and so on. I was hoping for more normal group when getting higher but even at 12 i see only xp/loot farming groups. Joining them is simply out of question for a newplayer. I will be a burden for them and i won't have any fun running after and tossing some heals & spells.

[FrozenNova]

Note that the only way to have fun is to solo (or duo) since 99% of the groups are Zerk, BYOH, Know your way and so on. I was hoping for more normal group when getting higher but even at 12 i see only xp/loot farming groups. Joining them is simply out of question for a newplayer. I will be a burden for them and i won't have any fun running after and tossing some heals & spells.

Lead your own groups. As long as you make it known that a) you're unfamiliar with the quest and b) no, you're not demanding a guide, you'll get the sort of people you want.
Leading doesn't take knowledge, though experience does help. It's always a good thing to become familiar with leading - means you'll rarely find yourself lacking a pug.

[Innara]

I know you have probably heard this a bunch of times about how you should 'push towards getting that BB somehow and all will be well once again'...but it is true. It does get hard around the levels just before BB for divine casters, but believe me when I say once you get that spell your solo ability will improve dramatically. So to answer your question, the solo difficulty at mid levels does pick up compared to how easy it is earlier on. But it will once again get easier later on, it won't become harder still as you walk into the high level content (in my own experience).

[Beld]

You will find you end up usually having fun....if you don't know the quest and get a group of the same, it won't take any longer than solo and if you find someone that knows the quest, it might go quicker.

The whole 'there are no groups for me to join' is a tired argument IMO. As a previous poster stated, define what you are/what you are looking for and usually the other 50-75 players that are standing around perusing the LFM panel because they won't start groups either will join up.

Don't be afraid to fail...now that you have an idea on Ghola fan, change your tactics and try again (I once ran the quest on a at level melee pre hireling days and had to run back to the shrine and kill them all there where I could continuously raise myself, took about 20 min and about 8 deaths, but I did finish).

As stated by earlier posters, you may need to run some lower content on hard/elite to milk some exp to get thru these levels if you find the quests are harder than you can handle....or start a group.

As an aside, I would start a group and wait possibly 10 minutes, then head in and change the LFM to IP. I don't like to spend what little gaming time I find lying around just STANDING and WAITING for a group to fill....and if no-one joins and I fail....well, at least I was doing something

[FrozenNova]

I know you have probably heard this a bunch of times about how you should 'push towards getting that BB somehow and all will be well once again'...but it is true. It does get hard around the levels just before BB for divine casters, but believe me when I say once you get that spell your solo ability will improve dramatically. So to answer your question, the solo difficulty at mid levels does pick up compared to how easy it is earlier on. But it will once again get easier later on, it won't become harder still as you walk into the high level content (in my own experience).

A cleric without maximum gear walks into sharvarath.
Suddenly, blade barrier is the only spell with a dc worth casting.
It definitely gets harder in higher content.

[Innara]

A cleric without maximum gear walks into sharvarath.
Suddenly, blade barrier is the only spell with a dc worth casting.
It definitely gets harder in higher content.

I meant in reference to bladebarrier. It isn't that hard to do shavrath with BB alone. Perhaps my judgement is a little clouded by the fact I'm very used to playing a divine class and it's second nature to me by this point. Any case, as I stated that was in MY own experience. Experiences definitely vary.

[FrozenNova]

I meant in reference to bladebarrier. It isn't that hard to do shavrath with BB alone. Perhaps my judgement is a little clouded by the fact I'm very used to playing a divine class and it's second nature to me by this point. Any case, as I stated that was in MY own experience. Experiences definitely vary.

By that point I was used to scoring 5-8 kills with implode, picking off everything with destruction and flooring entire rooms with greater command and cometfall. It's always quite a blow to lose them after the levelling thus far.
Blade barrier is still incredibly effective in sharvarath, true - though it did take me a lot of getting used to.

[Qaliya]

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated.

Unfortunately, I have come to the same conclusion as aennae: grouping is usually just not fun in this game, at least for me anyway. Maybe when I know the quests inside-out like others, but I find very few people willing to be patient with a newcomer. Everyone tends to run in different directions like a herd of cats, and it seems like most people are in the biggest damned hurry, as if they are paying by the hour or something.

Sure, I could lead my own groups, but frankly, that seems like even more work. Grouping in general just seems to be a gigantic pain in the ass, unless you have people you really are on the same wavelength with.

And it's even worse being a cleric. The last group I was in, one guy kept running ahead of me, then complaining that he wasn't being healed. Duh?


If you can't cast Raise Dead because you're dead, then have your hireling cast it.

My hireling got killed very early in the boss fight. I didn't even have a chance to raise him, I had to run away or I would have died in seconds.

Drawing them all back to the shrine is a smart idea.

[djsonar919]

Being in a party was what this game used to be about. However, the lack of quests and the way TRs have to run quests over and over and over doesn't make most veterans want to help folks who want to take their time. Your best bet is to learn the mechanics of solo combat with bladebarrier. Once you have that spell, the rest of the content on this game is easy. However, in order for one to learn how to effectively solo with BB, you will more or less want to group with a cleric that zergs quests.

[Marcus-Hawkeye]

Q, then find a good guild that fits your playstyle. It took me a few months to find one i liked, but now when I group with them I barely notice the monotony of the quest, and just enjoy chatting about all sorts of crazy topics. Don't base your opinion of grouping in this game on pugs only. There are a lot of helpful people out there willing to help, but they are equally frustrated with pugs.

[DakotanSky]

So how the heck to I get people to join my LFM? I tried running necro 3 'Tomb of the Forbidden' with hirelings but I could not get them to function correctly to open the gates after flipping the switches. I am a lvl 12 cleric, posted a LFM for the quest lvl range 9-12 on normal and could not get anyone to join. Maybe I have the plague or something.

[Angelus_dead]

So how the heck to I get people to join my LFM? I tried running necro 3 'Tomb of the Forbidden' with hirelings but I could not get them to function correctly to open the gates after flipping the switches. I am a lvl 12 cleric, posted a LFM for the quest lvl range 9-12 on normal and could not get anyone to join. Maybe I have the plague or something.

It's true that the design of DDO's UI, progression, and monetization make it difficult to get groups from the LFM, especially for a low-profit low-popularity dungeon like Tomb of the Forbidden. There are quite a few things the devs could have done differently to have improved that situation, but that would run into some serious investment, and there are still limits.

In the near term, what you can try instead is forming groups without making an LFM: ask people and then invite them. If you don't know people, meet some It's true that that may involve more effort than you'd like to need to spend preparing to play a game... but that's the situation.


PS. There is a way to do Tomb of the Forbidden with a hireling. Run around to both sides first to unlock the levers with the key, then station the hireling at one of them and run back to the other.

[DakotanSky]

I was able to the the levers unlocked and trigger the hirelings to pull the switch, but it seems like they have to kill all of the mobs that spawn after that to get the individual gates to reopen. They were successful on the first set of levers but 4 tries later at the 2nd set and I gave up. I always got the impression that it was rude to /tell people and see if they wanted to run the quest, thus the LFM.

[EvilI]

If you didn't have a hireling who can cast it, that is your mistake.

I think this is a good illustration of what makes these forums so great.

/sarcasm off

[EvilI]

If you can't cast Raise Dead because you're dead, then have your hireling cast it.

My hireling got killed very early in the boss fight. I didn't even have a chance to raise him, I had to run away or I would have died in seconds.

Drawing them all back to the shrine is a smart idea.

Usually in a situation like that, if you put up an LFM someone will come along and help you by raising you or at least holding the instance open so you can make it back after releasing. That particular set of quests is a bit of a special case though, since getting to the ques is such a pain in the ***. Mind you, if you go back with a group the second time you play it will be a lot faster, and then your time won't have been completely wasted