Any pure pallies able to solo effectively?

[catalyst111]

Been reading through a lot of the posts, have studied junts build guide, but can't seem to find a solid answer. I prefer pure pally for the capstone, lean more towards 2HF, but its not crucial. Have 32 pt builds unlocked, VIP player, and drow. From what i've read I might want to roll a pally tank if i'm interested in more of a solo route? Sorry if i've missed another thread that goes more indepth into this subject, but i'm pretty terrible at searching forums other than going page by page lol. If someone could link a good thread that address the subject as well I'd greatly appreciate it!

[DToNE]

Unfortunately, being a pure paladin has too many restraints that prevent it from being able to solo. A few examples would be Traps, Locked Doors, Evasion, Beholders, and INT activation runes.

Oh well, that's what team play is for!

[lord_of_rage]

Pure paladins can solo lower lvl content fine. Depending on how you build your paladin mid and some higher lvl stuff. But its gear intensive at that point.

[catalyst111]

Yeah, but I really don't want to derail into a "this game is more enjoyable with a team" thing. I realize that for most people it is. I am, however, a new dad and my play time is easily interupted by a fussing baby. I get to squeeze in quests when he is napping or wife is off from work watching him. There are other reasons besides introversion as to why people look towards solo.

That being said...I guess I have to look more towards the rogue splash builds for effective soloing?

[catalyst111]

awesome, thanks rage. I will go back to junts post and do more looking into the splash builds

[SteeleTrueheart]

<SNIP!> A whole bunch of wrong stuff <SNIP!>

Usually I do not look at peoples join date, but this time it explains the incorrect statement that was just made.



Yes my pure paladins solo quite a lot. It is actually not too difficult if you are willing to put some resources into it and you get a decent UMD score. Learn your limitations and it becomes a challenge to yourself to try harder and harder things and really learn what the class can do.

[lord_of_rage]

Yeah, but I really don't want to derail into a "this game is more enjoyable with a team" thing. I realize that for most people it is. I am, however, a new dad and my play time is easily interupted by a fussing baby. I get to squeeze in quests when he is napping or wife is off from work watching him. There are other reasons besides introversion as to why people look towards solo.

That being said...I guess I have to look more towards the rogue splash builds for effective soloing?

Congratulations! Its really hard to get trap skills out of a paladin rogue. You are just really starved for skill points. The rogue lvls help with umd, provide evasion, and open lock is nice. But youll be pushing it for trap skills. Most traps on normal you can just time and run through. Same for hard. Elite hurts abit. If you can muster a solid armor class low lvl youll blow through quests fine. A dwarven paladin set up defender of syberis is amazing low lvl. Youll have 50 self buffed stanced ac at lvl 8 with the right gear. So nigh untouchable. You could splash fighter. There are options for solo friendly paladins it just takes some work and gear. Do you have 32pt builds avalible?

[LongshotBro]

i've played ddo on and off for years. there's been times of abundant friends and groups and times of solitary with many characters. honestly, for me personally, the pally has been the best all around class that i've enjoyed the most for solo and grouping.

the high points for me :
1) lay on hands
2) smite evil
3) saves/immunities

most recently i've been using a drow twf. i should note i am not a strict optimizer. he's got two acidy shortswords, acid guard armor, and that big drow scorpion and i have no complaints.

to my knowledge, there is no shangri-la of solo builds that can sneak, dps, tank, ranged, spellcast, heal themselves, have top-notch ac, and a plethora of skills. that being said, i'd say no matter what your build, you're going to miss out on something when you solo.

at the same time, if you can survive the fights, maybe heal yourself a couple times, make it to a shrine then complete the quest, what are you really losing? a few chests, the drop on some mobs, and boasting of making it through unscathed?

in so many games both online, offline, and PnP we tend to get bogged down creating virtually indestructible characters only to use them and find out they can still bleed. all these adventure games are more fun to me when you get your butt handed to you but still survive and in that regard, i endorse the pally for solo play.

they can kill monsters. they can mitigate damage. they have good protection. all your choices in creation are variations on those themes.

[arminius]

Unfortunately, being a pure paladin has too many restraints that prevent it from being able to solo. A few examples would be Traps, Locked Doors, Evasion, Beholders, and INT activation runes.

Oh well, that's what team play is for!

Paladins are excellent soloers. They are the best until higher levels, when Sorcs (esp. with Force of Personality) and self-repairing Warforged Wizards overtake them. Paladins self heal, self buff, and have outstanding saves which allow them to overcome traps and especially Will save problems that can easily be the death of soloers.

I can't think of any quest that you are held back by any limitation in the above quoted post, at least any quest where one would be soloing to begin with (i.e. we ain't talking VON 5 here). No traps that are impassible. Locked doors hold optionals, not the main quest goals (except maybe, what, Tempest Spine? Any other class soloing that?). Evasion isn't necessary. Beholders are Paladin's sushi--Beholders attack with things that call for saves, and Paladins have the best saves in the game. I can't think of any quest that any other class could solo where an Int activation rune holds a main quest goal.

Oh and before anyone has a cow of omission, Clerics and Favored Souls can be excellent soloing classes as well.

[catalyst111]

A challenge I'm fine with. Don't expect easy steam rolling like in other mmos since this game is more group orientated. As long as it is fesible and not a complete waste of time, I'm game =). Guess i'll just roll one out and see what I can do.

[DToNE]

Yeah, but I really don't want to derail into a "this game is more enjoyable with a team" thing. I realize that for most people it is. I am, however, a new dad and my play time is easily interupted by a fussing baby. I get to squeeze in quests when he is napping or wife is off from work watching him. There are other reasons besides introversion as to why people look towards solo.

That being said...I guess I have to look more towards the rogue splash builds for effective soloing?

Actually, it's already been derailed before, just that I haven't heard about it from Paladins yet. The only build I heard of that has actually derailed from the "this game is more enjoyable with a team" was actually Valiance's Cleric build ( http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=164323 ), which was built under similar situations to your own. Of course, this is only a viable choice if you're not dead set with Paladin with 2HF.

[catalyst111]

lots of replies coming in faster than I can keep up with lol! To Lord, yes I have 32 pt unlocked as well as drow so have plenty of options there. Honestly, I'm fine with having a solid char to solo with till 12 or so. That should at least allow me to get a bigger grasp of the class and into some other areas. Definatley need to state that i'm not looking for the end all class that can pwn everything, just something that won't leave me pulling my hair out and screaming at the monitor (therefore ruining my gaming with a screaming mini-me)! The tank build that junts posted is kinda what i'm leaning towards due to the survivability. Will be slower killing but as long as i make it through i'm happy =)

[arminius]

yes I have 32 pt unlocked as well as drow so have plenty of options there.

Yes, good to note. I wouldn't bother building a Paladin with less than 32 point or Drow. Now, anyway. I mean, I did when there were only 28 point builds in the game, but we didn't know any better back then!

[lord_of_rage]

We can work up something similar to junts build using a thf option for dps. But with dwarven axes and bastard swords getting glancing blows next update you can use that aswell. Id love to work with you and help with a build. If you are on khyber ill even help with gear.

[SteeleTrueheart]

Pure paladins can solo lower lvl content fine. Depending on how you build your paladin mid and some higher lvl stuff. But its gear intensive at that point.

Yes I agree that higher level content really takes the right gear on a pure pally. With good gear things are hard. With great gear not so hard but not easy either. You will probably never see a paladin soloing DQ2 for instance.

Of course nothing will help if the player is bad. Like constantly forgetting holy sword components. Rushing down the final hallway in Sins after forgetting to chug an invisibility pot. Or thinking you can take a quick afk in a place mobs patrol.

Err .. I mean I have heard of these things happening!

[catalyst111]

No, i'm not dead set on THF, I just prefer it. Dtone, not too sure you caught the gist of what I was trying to get across. Don't really want a thread where I ask for solo advice being filled with "omg just get a group" off thread ranting =). I have looked at valiance's solo cleric build and am experimenting with one now but for some reason I keep getting pulled back to Paladins. Probably because I enjoyed annoying my DMs with them in PnP DnD =)

[PopeJual]

I'd say that any melee class can do just fine at soloing because you can just bring a Cleric hireling along to top you off in between fights. Quick self-healing that's available through Heal scrolls, Reconstruct for WF wizards/sorcs and Cleric/FvS self healing is certainly better than a Cleric hireling, but hirelings certainly do fine for pretty much all content up through the mid levels as far as I'm concerned.

Paladins get an extra edge over Rangers, Fighters and Barbarians because of the panic-button nature of the Lay on Hands ability and the very nice saves certainly don't hurt.

I'm a fan.

[catalyst111]

Lord, pm sent =) My experience with melee in this game has been very limited. Went the arcane caster route at first, but some emergency afks with the boy kinda made me realize that squishy + distracting baby doesn't make for a good gaming session for me...at least at his age lol. I'm cool with going sword and board, THF, TWF, unarmed, etc...just something effective that will give me a good enough grasp on the class and up to mid lvl mechanics so I can evolve from there. Think the farthest I've gotten with a melee char is lvl 5 monk. It is an enjoyable char but, like I mentioned earlier, just really attracted to the Pally class in general.

[valharan01]

Paladins can solo quite well. Ignore the naysayers. I would offer one piece of advice and that is which PrE to choose. Going with hunter of the dead GREATLY increases your solo ability and extends it easily into much higher quests. With hunter of the dead you are losing out on some DPS vs KOTC and increased defense vs DoS but your gaining immunity to level drain at HoD II as well as increased healing amplification and restoration.

With a good build designed around Hunter of the Dead you can easily solo alot of very difficult quests.

[catalyst111]

haven't seen too much on hunter of the dead, will have to check that out! Also, seem to be unable to check my pms through myddo. See that I have one but still trying to get the browser to let me in!