Epic elite with melee

[Wgrace45]

Very simple question; on youtube so far every video I've seen of people soloing epic elites has been divines and arcanes, or archers, I haven't seen any melees actually doing epic elites solo, so my question is - can they? Is it virtually impossible for a melee? If they can, which ones can?

PS: I don't necessarily mean 100% melee, when I say melee I just mean up close and personal style fighting, rather than "keep my distance and deal dps so i don't take damage"

I'm a huge fan of dual wielding melee style combat but I don't want to lose any possibility of soloing epic elites one day. Sorry if this question triggers the "noob alarm" on some people - I havent played in years and when I did i only got to level 13... So yeah, I guess I kind of AM a noob.

[maddmatt70]

Yeah its possible to solo epic elites on a melee, but it is far less efficient in terms of the time it takes then it is on spell casters. The guys I know that solo epic elites do it in order to get a shot at +5 tome upgrades when they sacked some of the other chests that are easier to get clears throat. The real soloers do it for the loots not achievement and these days it takes so long to fill lfms or get a full group that they just go off and solo it or perhaps short man it with a spellcaster character because it is more fast to do so.

[Zerkul]

Some quests are more easy on melees if properly specced for, some others are much more easy on Casters: it's usually harder to solo on melee though than soloing a caster. Soloing on a melee means you are either running the Blitz moment with a Legendary Dreadnought or a Monk with EiN or some other build that is survivable and does a good damage output: soloing on a melee is no joke.

I daily run Stay at Inn Epic Elite with my two melees (FVS melee and Stalwart Defender) and my caster (Human Sorcerer Nuker/Enchantment build). I solo it then post lfm for extra loot. I usually do it for a shot at +5 tomes as madmatt says or sometimes i sell at AH the EE Bastion or EE Bracers of Twisting Shade. If you can manage to get Blitz going from the start of the quest till end you get much better completion times on melees than casters for this kind of quest. With my caster soloing involves sometimes recalling and using the shrine outside with the subsequent loss of time: i need to pay as well much more attention because, while on my melees i have consistent defenses, on my caster one mystake more can be deadly.

EDIT: Melees with no innate selfhealing abilities usually scroll-UMD heal or use a good amount of Silver Flame Potions... both solutions need a good amount of healing amplification.

[maddmatt70]

Yeah you do not quite have the best caster build for soloing. Best builds are warforge archmage shiradis force specced and WF sorc heavy survivalist build. Your sorc is no 150+ fortification, evasion with high saves self healing capable of 450+ quickened and multiple spells, 650+ hp, with cheap spell costs, but good damage capabilities. There are a couple of solo caster builds on the forums that were posted recently.