Best noob friendly solo build?

[Warlawk]

Well, I'm fairly new to the game having started a few weeks ago. I am a P2P player though so I've got WF and monks, as well as Drow.

Now, I have a lot of familial duties that can call me away at any time (5 kids around the house) so I pretty much exclusively solo. Currently I've got a drow monk/cleric based on the 1rog/2monk/17 cleric build except I skipped the rogue level and went monk 3 for the fists of light stuff. Little did I know how painful soloing without find traps was when I started this. I'm now cresting 3monk/7cleric and it feels like I'm just battering my head against a wall sometimes. Traps are painful, dps is mediocre and sometimes feels lacking and it seems like my ac is just not advancing fast enough to keep up with mobs AB up around level 10... don't get me wrong, it's a fun build and there are a lot of things I do enjoy about it. Good saves, evasion, light path buffs, cleric buffs and on demand healing.

I was trying to use this as a favor farmer to grab 1750 and unlock 32 point builds, but sitting just over 500 favor now that's looking like a really long journey. Is this build going to start to shine as I grab some higher level cleric gear, or am I just going to feel gimp with no higher level toons twinking out my build?

It seems like you pretty much must have high ac and evasion, or a pocket healer to effectively solo. Now, keeping in mind that I lack effective twinking, would I be better off rebuilding this character with a rogue level and with items I can hand down, or starting something else from scratch? Tried some arcane, but for soloing the SP pool just doesn't seem to stretch far enough for most quests. Perhaps a 2 rog/18 barb build or something similar that is a DPS machine while still maintaining trapmonkey viability, and then just keep pikes of cleric hirelings around? They're cheap enough that shouldn't be an issue, I haven't tried a 2HF character yet, so I'm not sure if the DPS is enough to make this a viable approach or not.

It just seems like leaving out that rogue level totally shot myself in the foot. I was wanting to just keep going and finish the 1750 grind before rerolling, but with so many quests being ridiculously hard on elite strictly because of traps that is not feeling viable at the moment. Any opinions or help would be much appreciated!

(First thought is 1rog/monk since light path gives great heal over time solo viability. Go halfling and grab dragon marks for a little on demand healing as I need it. The perfectionist in me however just cringes at knowing that I am creating a substand character without the 32 point builds.)

[Calebro]

The problems with that toon as your first solo build are many:
1) It's a late bloomer on caster power, so you'll spend the majority of your time in melee for the first 75% of leveling.
2) It's a Dex based build, and most good solo builds are Str based. This is a bigger problem because of number 1 above.
3) You've just hit the weak spot for Clerics to solo, and it's even more pronounced because you're a multiclass on top of it. It will become a cakewalk for you once you get Blade Barrier and Heal, but with 3 monk levels, this won't happen until level 14.
4) It may not seem like it at a glance, but that's a pretty gear intensive build to use for solo'ing, especially at lower levels when your healing is lacking due to not having Heal yet. The difference between Cure Crit and Heal is HUGE. As I said, most Clerics are in a slump at that point in time. The fact that you're 3 levels behind means that you have to kill things extra fast in order to have a chance here. Now comes a combination of numbers 1, 2 & 3 above to create the gear issue. Since all of that is true, you need the absolute best gear you can possibly have at this point.... but you (probably) don't have it.

A better suggestion would be a WF arcane. Or an 18/2 rogue splash since you're worried about traps.
I know it sounds cliche, but they really do level up THAT fast and THAT easily if you play smart. You'll get your 1750 favor.
Remember to go back and grind all those quests that you don't have finished up to elite. Even if you're not getting any XP from them because you're so far over level. They're EASY favor at that point to get you closer to your goal of 1750.

*edit:
About the SP not stretching far enough: Just melee the low levels. Use your SP to buff and heal. That's it. When you hit 7th level wiz (or 8th sorc, or 8th-9th wiz/rogue splash) you'll have plenty of SP to kite and cast. It just takes a little practice.
If you were running out of SP too fast, I'd guess you were primarily casting those early levels when it's more cost effective in most cases to use that SP to buff/heal while in melee.

As far as a melee toon solo'd to 1750.... if you don't have the twink for your cleric to solo, you DEFINITELY don't have the twink to melee to 1750.

[Warlawk]

A better suggestion would be a WF arcane. Or an 18/2 rogue splash since you're worried about traps.
I know it sounds cliche, but they really do level up THAT fast and THAT easily if you play smart. You'll get your 1750 favor.
Remember to go back and grind all those quests that you don't have finished up to elite. Even if you're not getting any XP from them because you're so far over level. They're EASY favor at that point to get you closer to your goal of 1750.

I really appreciate the feedback here. However... I have tinkered with a WF wiz and a Drow Sorc (both low level but pure) and they both have serious issues with keeping enough SP to get through a quest solo. It seems like the wiz would have this problem even more so due to having a lower pool than sorc. I think I stopped the wiz at 3 and the sorc at 4 because they just didn't seem to have what it took to actually get through a quest.

[Calebro]

see my edit

[Phidius]

/agreed with Calebro.

My first toon on a new server is always the WF Wiz/Rog... not only are they fun to play, they're also very effective as a 28-pt build.

[Calebro]

If you're set on melee'ing your way there, another cliche build to consider is the Exploiter.
Good melee, decent AC, trap skills, wand whipping your health back up, etc.
It's only real downfall in solo ability is it's Will save. A Hold Person will kill you almost every time playing solo. That and it's ability so solo grows weaker as you get to around where you are now, whereas a caster's ability to solo grows stronger right about then.

[Warlawk]

Yeah, I've looked over the exploiter, but it looked like the lack of twink and 32 point build combined could hurt the effectiveness a lot.

Maybe I'll just have to suck it up and work through the early pain with a WF Rog/Wiz. Go Rog1, then into wiz. Grab Masters Touch with a greataxe and then heal myself... hmmm, just might work I guess.

The feedback is much appreciated guys, thanks a bunch. The perfectionist in me just cringes at rolling something without the 32 point build, and I'm just not a fan of throwing cash at it. Always feels better when you earn it anyways.

[Aschbart]

I really appreciate the feedback here. However... I have tinkered with a WF wiz and a Drow Sorc (both low level but pure) and they both have serious issues with keeping enough SP to get through a quest solo. It seems like the wiz would have this problem even more so due to having a lower pool than sorc. I think I stopped the wiz at 3 and the sorc at 4 because they just didn't seem to have what it took to actually get through a quest.

I soloed a drow wiz (pure) to almost level 4 and had no problems at all, in spite of the lack of self healing. The trick? I packed a level 1 WF pocket barbarian (even through WW!) and spent my SPs to just buff and heal him up. Sometimes conjured a monster buddy, but since I couldn't heal that one it wasn't all that useful. So you can efficiently melee through low levels without ever grabbing those crude bashing tools yourself, and you don't need any physical stats to make it work. This character is level 7 now, but didn't solo for the last part, allthough I'm convinced she could have. Drow are squishy, even when starting at 14 Con (which I have), so even a mediocre PUG will help you levelup faster than trying to solo. Now that I got firewall I should be good killing stuff, but my inability to heal myself means it's still going to be hard for me to solo - at this point I'd love to have a WF instead of a drow.

In short: WF Wiz should be good to solo from level 7 onward, and to get there you can pack WF melee hirelings, or just grab a weapon yourself. Another option is to heavily utilize charming spells of all types (Charm Person, Command Undead, Ooze Puppet, Suggestion) and let the critters beat each other up. Use wands to even the odds (eternal ones, if you have them) and otherwise stand back and save your SPs.

[Bart_D]

I only bought WF recently so im fairly new to arcane self healing. One of the reasons i got it was to make a rogue2/wizard to try out soloing, and im wondering what stat spread (28pts) you guys would recommend?
Then one i have rolled up (level 4 only) started with str14 dex8 con16 int18 wis6 cha6 ... does that sound reasonable? Or will i need a better will save? Reasoning behind str/dex: I will take insightful refelxes and should never need a strength item to avoid enfeeblement. Plus greataxing with an 18 str wizard is fun

[Arctigis]

I only bought WF recently so im fairly new to arcane self healing. One of the reasons i got it was to make a rogue2/wizard to try out soloing, and im wondering what stat spread (28pts) you guys would recommend?
Then one i have rolled up (level 4 only) started with str14 dex8 con16 int18 wis6 cha6 ... does that sound reasonable? Or will i need a better will save? Reasoning behind str/dex: I will take insightful refelxes and should never need a strength item to avoid enfeeblement. Plus greataxing with an 18 str wizard is fun

Those stats are spot on IMO. You can get by without a will save, just make sure you have plenty of remove
curse pots/wands