Scale neg-level, crowd control spells

[stille_nacht]

nevermind, solo strategies have been discussed :]

[Kmnh]

Get 2 visors of the flesh render guards. Or roll a wf.

[FrozenNova]

My paladin has no problems soloing due to negative levels and crowd control - he has deathward and silly-high saves.
Meanwhile, my wizard will often have difficulty stretching his sp between long shrines when soloing - clearly you should also scale down all enemy hitpoints for solo wizards so I can do as much relative damage as your soloing melee.

Some content is harder for some classes.
Get a deathward clickie.

[steelblueskies]

greater command. scroll up some freedom of movement, not sure if protection from evil covers the greater variety.

negative levels vs monster arcane damage . spelldamage scales up with people. monsters attack rates don't.
many sources of neg levels are inherent abilities to some monster types. for others like beholders, there are other options to negate a number of negs.

there are also cleric and fvs hirelings who can cast deathward, as an option. failing that possibly scrolling deathward. or flesh render guard visor clicky.

restoration scrolls are another thought.

also, if you are having a rough go on sp between shrines on a soloist wizard, might i recommend scrolling or wanding as many of your self buffs as possible. even as far in as epics you can usually keep a party happy by scrolling things like grater heroism instead of casting from sp pool. only 11 minutes, but they want it for the save and tohit boosts, and you can re-scrollcast it without major issue a wee bit more often. works for other things too.

just keep a careful eye on the caster level on the item for things like resist and protection wands.
also pays to use your eternal wands when possible during your early levels(ie 11 and below) if you find you are having a hard time, especially soloing. it's not swift but by goodness is it efficient on the sp pool( and works much better if you keep wand and scroll mastery pumped while in that level range, you can respec enhancements later cheaply).

[Cardtrick]

To go with the consensus: no. There should be some challenge in soloing. I already have a much easier time soloing Amrath quests, for example, than running them in a group due to scaling. More scaling is not necessary.

This is especially true because Deathward is easy to obtain. Run the Tangleroot chain a couple of times on each character you level, looking for the Visors of the Flesh Render Guards. It's actually pretty decent XP/min if you don't try to explore the whole complex each time, and it gives Phiarlan favor, getting you extend buffs and rapid in-town movement. The visors are BTA, so you can pass them around between characters. I like having 3 of them, although 2 is enough for most content (they each give a single click of 7 minutes of Death Ward).

Alternately, grab a hireling.

[Cardtrick]

greater command. scroll up some freedom of movement, not sure if protection from evil covers the greater variety.

A couple of problems with this. First, FOM doesn't protect from Greater Command. And second, no one sells FOM scrolls.

On the plus side, protection from evil and magic circle against evil do indeed protect from it.

[stille_nacht]

yeah, i will switch class and race to rectify this! cant :O

yeah there should be some challenge, i wholeheartedly agree, but some quests seem flat out impossible to try and do on casual at level with a fighter/ hire :/ (no i cant scroll every protect buff either). I mean, if the clerics were spamming, say, cometfall, i could deal, 3 stringed great commands? i was on the ground for about 2 minutes while they slowly killed me :O. Unless i have a high high high save (can i get that on a fighter?) or a scrolled FoM (cant get it :O), i just die. (i might be able to get umd for protection from evil, ty for advice), same situation for hold person

fights against multiple negative level people (3inaroom/ boss casts it), i am fine with his damage spells, fine with their damage spells. then 6 negative levels, start missing. Every now and then, he casts enervate, and i go further, till my dps= 0 and my max hp is 63, then i suffer neg lev death. If he spammed even meteor swarm i could probably have won, not in the case of negative levels.


i guess they might have meant for certain classes not to be soloable :/, would make sense, after all, rangers and paladins are supposed to be more self suffiient.

[Paleus]

Going to have to say no as well. The specific spells you mentioned have specific counters to them in game. Part of soloing, even questing in general is learning how to effectively counter your opponents.

Side note: Tangleroot Gorge has a deathward clickie- counters neg levels. Silver Flame trinket from Church and Cult gives protection from evil, should counter command.

Rather than asking for quests to be made easier, state how you are dying and ask for advice on how to counter it.

[stille_nacht]

Going to have to say no as well. The specific spells you mentioned have specific counters to them in game. Part of soloing, even questing in general is learning how to effectively counter your opponents.

Side note: Tangleroot Gorge has a deathward clickie- counters neg levels. Silver Flame trinket from Church and Cult gives protection from evil, should counter command.

Rather than asking for quests to be made easier, state how you are dying and ask for advice on how to counter it.

how do i counter hold from 5 different casters going of in chain as a pure fighter?

how do i counter a bunch of ghosts shooting enervate pretty often when i cant murder them in 2 seconds? (enervate has no save/ 15 neg levs per 6 enervates on average)

answer- i cant, it is literally impossible to fight when chainheld for 2minutes. but i do understand that this may have been intentional, after all, a fighter is not supposed to be a "solo generalista"

[QuantumFX]

Side note: Tangleroot Gorge has a deathward clickie- counters neg levels.

The Silver Flame Talisman that you can build up in the Bloody/Shadow/Cursed Crypt will protect you from negative levels when you are constantly being dispelled. (Beholders. And it works better than the optic nerve as enervation and finger of death are a beholder’s only dangerous attacks.)

Edit: Additional Thoughts: It would be nice if the Crafted/Greensteel/Carved Bone Shield enchantment Negative Energy Absorbtion worked on Enervation and Power Drain.

[stille_nacht]

The Silver Flame Talisman that you can build up in the Bloody/Shadow/Cursed Crypt will protect you from negative levels when you are constantly being dispelled. (Beholders. And it works better than the optic nerve as enervation and finger of death are a beholder’s only dangerous attacks.)

Edit: Additional Thoughts: It would be nice if the Crafted/Greensteel/Carved Bone Shield enchantment Negative Energy Absorbtion worked on Enervation and Power Drain.

does it grant immunity, or charges? didnt know that, still in teh process of getting sigil tho :O
if the charges are level scale, there had better be like.. at least 24 charges (6 enervates), otherwise its back to waiting around forever for the stuff to come back :O

[Paleus]

how do i counter hold from 5 different casters going of in chain as a pure fighter?

how do i counter a bunch of ghosts shooting enervate pretty often when i cant murder them in 2 seconds? (enervate has no save/ 15 neg levs per 6 enervates on average)

answer- i cant, it is literally impossible to fight when chainheld for 2minutes. but i do understand that this may have been intentional, after all, a fighter is not supposed to be a "solo generalista"

How to counter hold from 5 different caster - Increase your will save and dont fight five at once, lure, seperate, and use los blocking to avoid getting held. Kundarak delving boots counter this, but those are understandably rare and not expected to have gear.

How to counter neg leveling - as was pointed out in the very thread you quoted, get the deathward clickie

I have soloed many a quest on a fighter, its frustrating at first, you just need to adjust your tactics, get specific gear, use hirelings with specific buffs or accept that the second M in MMO stands for multiplayer.

[QuantumFX]

does it grant immunity, or charges? didnt know that, still in teh process of getting sigil tho :O
if the charges are level scale, there had better be like.. at least 24 charges (6 enervates), otherwise its back to waiting around forever for the stuff to come back :O

It’s charges. But each instance of Enervation or Power Drain is considered one charge. (So it can protect you from as little as 10 negative levels to as many as 80 on the Cursed Crypt upgrade.)

[stille_nacht]

How to counter hold from 5 different caster - Increase your will save and dont fight five at once, lure, seperate, and use los blocking to avoid getting held. Kundarak delving boots counter this, but those are understandably rare and not expected to have gear.

How to counter neg leveling - as was pointed out in the very thread you quoted, get the deathward clickie

I have soloed many a quest on a fighter, its frustrating at first, you just need to adjust your tactics, get specific gear, use hirelings with specific buffs or accept that the second M in MMO stands for multiplayer.

already said i know this is a team game. Casters typically come out of nowhere or are in a small room :O, mostly in lower level quests though, gotta go farm some stuffs now... deathward clickies...

[Cardtrick]

how do i counter a bunch of ghosts shooting enervate pretty often when i cant murder them in 2 seconds? (enervate has no save/ 15 neg levs per 6 enervates on average)

Since you're asking this after several of us have told you about the Deathward clickies from Tangleroot, I'm assuming you don't realize that Deathward makes you completely immune to most negative energy effects, including level drains. I keep myself constantly Deathwarded after level 7.

Seriously, run Tangleroot until you have 2 of the Visors, and your problems with level draining will be mostly over.(Beholders can still be a problem because their anti magic auras dispel buffs like Deathward. You'll eventually want a fully upgraded Silver Flame talisman or else a Beholder Optic Nerve to deal with them.)

answer- i cant, it is literally impossible to fight when chainheld for 2minutes. but i do understand that this may have been intentional, after all, a fighter is not supposed to be a "solo generalista"

On the one hand, it's true that a fighter is probably the second worst low level soloing class (after barbarians). On the other hand, there are things you can do. Being able to self-buff Protection from Evil and Deathward with items discussed in this thread will make a huge difference, but there is no easy way to self-buff FOM if you're on a character that can't cast it. You'll want to be pushing your will save as high as possible, especially in the early-to-mid game (wear the highest Resistance item you can, and strongly consider wearing a Wisdom item even though it's not otherwise useful to a fighter). Even better, one of the main advantages of the fighter class is the ability to get great DCs with the combat tactics abilities. You should be using trip every time it's off cool down, and you should take Stunning Blow if you haven't yet, and use that too. A caster can't be holding you if he's on the ground or stunned.

[fluffybunnywilson]

Meanwhile, my wizard will often have difficulty stretching his sp between long shrines when soloing - clearly you should also scale down all enemy hitpoints for solo wizards so I can do as much relative damage as your soloing melee.

I know that this isn't related to the subject, but I had the same problem on my caster for a while. Then I started just running longer distances without actually fighting so that I'd have a bunch of critters gathered up to take out with a Fireball or two. My spell points lasted a lot longer once I was killing 8 enemies with a Fireball instead of 2 enemies.

[hityawithastick]

If you're alone, you're going to fight enemies that outnumber you. And they're not going to change their strategy to make it easier. It makes sense that the mobs aren't pulling any punches here.

[QuantumFX]

Oh yeah… just remembered something else that’s kind of cool. Lesser Beholder Crystals can be found on the generic loot tables. (I have one on my main that I’m saving for Ghosts of Perdition.)

[NaturalHazard]

I sometimes use a hireling as a deathward clickie, often just for the deathward, but thats not really soloing is it?

[steelblueskies]

you claim you are getting hit specifically by enervate. enervate has a spell resistance check. get some sr . reduce the number that get through once your deathward and absorbtions are spent. actually that ought to work on command spells too. i'm going to have to sit down and reread greater commands listing. i swear i can't remember exactly how that one is set up. sr check since u9?

you claim that enervate is coming from a ghost. anyone have any idea where exactly he might be having these problems?

also hold =/= greater command.
spell resistance is still a good tactic for hold however.

other noteworthy item to farm for. mantle of the worldshaper from threnal chains end reward list. didn't bring it up before because threnal is a level 10+ chain(whereas tangleroot is level 3-7).

wear it and have 5 charges of spell absorbtion, and regeneration on top of heroic inspiration(5% exp boost), wear it at the same time as voice of the master from delera's and gain true seeing as well..
layered defenses for the win.