Best noob friendly solo build?

**Warlawk** · 05-09-2010, 12:53 AM

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** · 05-09-2010, 01:28 AM

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** · 05-09-2010, 01:45 AM

Originally Posted by Calebro

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** · 05-09-2010, 01:49 AM

see my edit

**Phidius** · 05-09-2010, 02:00 AM

/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** · 05-09-2010, 02:03 AM

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** · 05-09-2010, 02:47 AM

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.

**Calebro** · 05-09-2010, 03:19 AM

nevermind

**hockeyrama** · 05-09-2010, 03:48 AM

you can do the cleric but I would say just go more pure. If you set him as a variable cleric (not just heals but balanced ok, str as well as con and wis then you can pull it off very well if you play it right. The goal for a cleric on solo is to use his summon creature to pull aggro and his sp to buff. It hard until much later to use the sp for a cleric to cast well offensively. He much better to boost himself with tons of spells. Remember many can be done over and over. Example a simple aid can be very effective low level. It gives HP above your max so say adds 14 (depends on level). Now you buff ahead give yourself bulls strenght (+4 str), Bears endurance (+4 con) and the resist for the traps (sonic traps, fire, cold; whatever the trap is). This way you take less damage form traps. The level 3 resist can absorb most traps so after you run through it then recast it back to full (if still needed). Now so your stronger and have more hp with those buffs and can avaoid most damage. Now you ready to fight most things. Truth is I even buff my dogs when soloing. Now here is how the aid really helps. With good armor and shield/wep build your ac can be high. So you run into a couple of enemies. Take say 30 HP of damage (14 comes off the aid). So one CLW and then aid again and you back above your hit points. Even better is if you can time it so you hit the aid just as they about to go into your real (not boosted) HP. This way you always have more for every fight.

The idea is by buffing and casting after fights (usually) you can be an effective fighter. With your dog trippping some of the enemies and you hard to hit you can buff and fight then heal most of the stuff till you around level 7 without too much trouble on solo (certain missions will be hard so skip them). Come back and do the hard ones when you later level.

Without the correct buffs you won't need to worry about traps, or most damage from casters so just have to make sure your gear is good enough to fight without taking alot of damage.

All that aside I still think it better to try the level 2r/18 wiz WF. You may have trouble earlier but once you get fw you shoud be fine. Two things. 1. remember you don't have to do elite while leveling as it is hard to complete sometimes and you can come back and do later. 2. once you get firewall you can be very deadly by just learning how to position it to kill them while you run around the FW. You may have trouble early but can be great for solo later. The straight wiz or sorc is also good I like you though like to do traps.

Early level strategies for a wf sorc or wiz.
1. Learn hypno. FOr many creatures this is a great area effect spell. YOu walk into a group cast this then they al stand around with red halos on thier head. YOu then can fight one on one against each of them. A really nice thing a wiz can do (sorcs not usually) is to cast hypno *they all stand around) then cast charm on a few and have themn kill off the party. So with the right style sorcs and wiz can avoid most fights.
2. remember that range can be your friend. Many of the monsters can be hit with range attacks and they won't even respond to them. So if you can find a good spot then pick off a few creatures.
3. you can't handle aggro so don't get any. Expedious (angers wrath gives 2x expedious per rest instead of casting grab a few of these). combined with run and gun tactics can help in many situations. So run up to enemy get off a few nice spells then retreat with expedious. Then as the melee coming at you one at a time cast away.
4. use the terrain to your advantage. How many times you see a kobold shaman jump on a box and other area. Try to find your own perches to cast away unhindered.

With effective tactics many builds are possible solo gods. All depends on the players tactics.

**Aschbart** · 05-09-2010, 04:23 AM

Originally Posted by Warlawk

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** · 05-09-2010, 04:54 AM

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** · 05-09-2010, 05:03 AM

Originally Posted by 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

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

**Warlawk** · 05-10-2010, 03:35 PM

Well, I am trying out the WF 1 rog/Wiz build, will grab another rogue level later to bump trap skills up and grab evasion. Good lord but this thing is painful to level.

So far I've been using WF melee hirelings and sticking to Masters touch, buffs and just meleeing everything down while healing myself and my hireling. It's... painful. It works, and better than trying to actually get anything done on the ****poor tiny SP pool that low level wizards have but good lord it's like slamming my head in a car door. The people in the wiz forum saying that there is not much difference between a melee class and a wiz with masters touch at low levels have obviously not ever played a melee class.

On top of all that... Masters touch seems to just **** all over the client. It generates a lag spike every time it is cast or wears off when the client loads that HUGE list of feats it grants, and it seems to screw up other timers. When my buffs wear off, half the time the icon remains at the top of the screen with a 0 time left on it. I got feared and the fear image above my head remained until I logged out. When using this spell my targeting orb no longer autotargets things around me, for instance I have to manually click every collectible treasure bag that drops on the ground instead of just getting close and clicking the orb... and we all know how well direct clicking things tends to work in this game. Granted... my pc and fx card aren't cutting edge, but I've never had any issues up to and including running WoW raids on max FX settings. Very annoying.

Trying to stick with it and get through, but it just feels so painfully gimp right now that I am drifting to other lowbie characters I shouldn't really be playing just to escape the suck for a few minutes.

**Phidius** · 05-10-2010, 03:55 PM

Originally Posted by Warlawk

Well, I am trying out the WF 1 rog/Wiz build, will grab another rogue level later to bump trap skills up and grab evasion. Good lord but this thing is painful to level.

So far I've been using WF melee hirelings and sticking to Masters touch, buffs and just meleeing everything down while healing myself and my hireling. It's... painful. It works, and better than trying to actually get anything done on the ****poor tiny SP pool that low level wizards have but good lord it's like slamming my head in a car door. The people in the wiz forum saying that there is not much difference between a melee class and a wiz with masters touch at low levels have obviously not ever played a melee class.

Normally, people are refering to the very low levels - say, Korthos Island.

I would imagine leveling would be a pain if you are using a WF melee hireling - frankly, the only hireling I use is a cleric with Divine Vitality.

I've leveled melee toons, and to be honest I feel like it's easier to level the wizard.

Originally Posted by Warlawk

On top of all that... Masters touch seems to just **** all over the client. It generates a lag spike every time it is cast or wears off when the client loads that HUGE list of feats it grants, and it seems to screw up other timers. When my buffs wear off, half the time the icon remains at the top of the screen with a 0 time left on it. I got feared and the fear image above my head remained until I logged out. When using this spell my targeting orb no longer autotargets things around me, for instance I have to manually click every collectible treasure bag that drops on the ground instead of just getting close and clicking the orb... and we all know how well direct clicking things tends to work in this game. Granted... my pc and fx card aren't cutting edge, but I've never had any issues up to and including running WoW raids on max FX settings. Very annoying...

Yeah, I've taken to splashing a melee class on my wizzie rogues just so I don't have to use Master's Touch. Barbarian on my 28-pt builds, and Fighter on my TR'ed builds (to get back the feat I use on the Wizard's past life feat).

**Warlawk** · 05-10-2010, 04:18 PM

Originally Posted by Phidius

Normally, people are refering to the very low levels - say, Korthos Island.

I would imagine leveling would be a pain if you are using a WF melee hireling - frankly, the only hireling I use is a cleric with Divine Vitality.

I've leveled melee toons, and to be honest I feel like it's easier to level the wizard.

No, there are a number of posts I've read talking about soloing using masters touch and a two hander until you get firewall. To my experience an untwinked Sorcerer does not have enough SP to solo anything around level 4, how could a wizard possibly have the SP pool to do so?

**Calebro** · 05-10-2010, 06:43 PM

You've got the Rogue level. Use a rapier for the time being.

**Warlawk** · 05-10-2010, 06:51 PM

Originally Posted by Calebro

You've got the Rogue level. Use a rapier for the time being.

That avoids the issue with Masters Touch... but doesn't really make the whole thing any less painful, heh. Just needed to vent though, determined to stick it through at least until firewall. It just requires an adjustment of thinking. With the monk/cleric I pretty much just started out on hard and cruised through. On this I am needing to crank it down to casual sometimes and just run it more frequently instead.

**hockeyrama** · 05-10-2010, 06:59 PM

hireling is part of the problem not the solution.

He adds a .5 to the dungeon scaling so it like having one and a half players.

You would do better to just solo yourself.

Also, remember that you only need to get xp and the best way to do that is to leave the elite runs to later. Do norm and hard and one of them a couple of times for xp. So n/n/n/h and then if it is easy enough to do elite then do it if not then skip it till later if you need favor just come back with fw and clear then.

The problme is that many elite runs are way higher then posted. Example level 4 elite says it a level 6 quest but it is actually like a level 9 quest on norm (been discussed on many forums). So it easier to di everything on norm and then hard to get your xp. later if you do them on elite you won't get the xp but if you need the favor you can get it.

This way you should be able to solo with no problem. Aslo, when you do normal it allows you to see what types of damage they are using (pierce, bludgeon, slash) and what type of resists you need (fire, lightning). So this way when you repeat you can be setup with the right spells for the quest as a wizard you can get a good selection so knowing the best spell for the situation is key. Only problem is some wizards change the spells they cast so you may get messed on elite. Example Kobolds in harbor cast scorching ray on hard and lightning on elite (depending on level of quest) so you may have the wrong resists ready.

Remember as well a few failed quests is not the worst thing in the world. If done right you will get a good handle on a quest before you even do it on hard and then you might be able to handle elite as you will know it well. I still recommend leaving elite alone on most. Example: elite STK boss is hard, and the wight at the end of catacombs can be hard if you not have the right spells. Solo requires you to use your extensive list of spells. With the right spells prepared your sp pool will last longer as it will be used more effectively.

**Calebro** · 05-10-2010, 07:02 PM

Spells to keep prepped at low levels:
Mage Armor, Shield, Summon Monster, Expeditious Retreat, Repair Light, Blur, Invisibility, Repair Mod, Resist Energy, Haste, Displacement, Rage, Repair Serious.
These spells will get you to Wall of Fire, and then it's smooth sailing.

**English_Warrior** · 05-10-2010, 07:02 PM

Originally Posted by Warlawk

Well, I am trying out the WF 1 rog/Wiz build, will grab another rogue level later to bump trap skills up and grab evasion. Good lord but this thing is painful to level.

So far I've been using WF melee hirelings and sticking to Masters touch, buffs and just meleeing everything down while healing myself and my hireling. It's... painful. It works, and better than trying to actually get anything done on the ****poor tiny SP pool that low level wizards have but good lord it's like slamming my head in a car door. The people in the wiz forum saying that there is not much difference between a melee class and a wiz with masters touch at low levels have obviously not ever played a melee class.

What!! You must be doing something wrong...I have levelled a bunch of pure characters (rogues/wiz/sorc/fighter/cleric) to lvl 12 and beyond...and I can say without a doubt the WF arcane was the easiest to solo....and thats without even using hirelings (the only time I used a hireling was to duo Deleras part 2 and I got another WF Wiz for that job).

You just melee to level 7....you extend use masters touch, blur, nightshield, shield, bulls str, heroism, mage armor....and grab a flaming pure good blunt weapon to really dominate those annoying skelies. A wand of false life is good.

Cast haste on yourself often.
Until you get Wall of Fire I use acid blast as my round them up and AoE spell.

You do have to be conservative with the SP but there are enough shrines around and often its better to spend another 10-20 seconds beating on something thats tough rather than waste SP to cast a spell on it.....with the right buffs your HP will go along way.

Edit: almost forgot: always use the highest repair spell you can and only heal up when you are very low on HP....its more efficeint that way.

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