How many people are soloing EE?

[Beer_Dude]

I've done nothing but TR up until recently. I'm just now starting to do EE stuff. I ran with a competent group last night. Guys that know the game and are geared out well. We did pretty good but it was by no means a cake walk.

It got me to wondering. Are there many folks that are soloing the stuff like the CITW flagging quests? If so how well are you doing at it. Are you blowing thru it or is it a struggle? It seemed like it would be a rough go at soloing but maybe I don't just have good enough gear or past lives. I'm trying to get my PDK favor and I'm thinking I'd rather not have to use an LFM to do so for every quest on EE. On the flip side I love the fact that EE is actually elite and takes some effort. I know heroic elite is still very soloable for my toons which is in a way disheartening. Nice work devs.

[thegreatneil]

2 maybe 3.

[Therigar]

I'm not seeing it much at all with my characters.

Only 2 at epic levels at the moment. Only 1 that I would try it with. Not many quests that I would try it on.

I think that there's a lot more talk about soloing EE than there is actual doing. I get the distinct impression that there are a few players who are able to manage EE somewhat routinely but that the rest are all talk.

Personally, I've only given one or two quests a try on EE solo and normally I'm getting my rear handed to me before I clear the first encounter. OTOH, I manage EH fairly routinely with the same character and the same quests.

[Hobgoblin]

so far - i have planned it out, but i have managed to solo some epics.


they are all ebberron epics, and they were not easy, but i got them done. (not exactly on the first try........)

which tells me they are just about right in diff.


Lets see - esnitch - on a light based cha focused fvs.

was easy except for that **** golem! i finally had to just heal through it with pulling out a reg antique and beating him. everything else was crushed in there.

eparty same toon - easy - archon autotargeted the right mark from outside door.

ee adq1 - this one took a few (about 20) trys. just mana intensive.

I have tried ee impossible demands - i think it will be doable - i just need either trap skills or a +4 int tome. First time i got paralyzed by the trap and killed, 2nd time i pulled the boss too early and couldnt handle her and the wizard mobs. 3rd time i just couldnt keep up with the heals. if i get a +4 tome or tr that guy - i will be able to drink silverflame pots 2 at a time and keep beating her.

just my observations.

note im no sort of uber player, so you may have it easier then me.

hob

[MRMechMan]

A pretty low % of the game population are soloing EE. But more than 2 or 3 total. Definitely more than 2-3 per server, even. I'd say between 50 and 100 across all servers, maybe more.

It takes top gear, strong character build, good player skill, high metagame awareness, a lag free connection, a high level of concentration and knowledge of the quest.

In EN or even EH, you literally need NONE of them, they are forgiving to the point where they don't even begin to represent a bridge to EE.

With all of those things, EEs are not that bad to solo, and some are actually fairly easy.

But, if you are missing even one of those things soloing EEs becomes quite challenging, and if you are missing 2 or 3 it becomes impossible.

Examples: even with strong gear/build/skill, if you have a laggy connection, no quest knowledge and are talking on the phone, death will occur. Or, if you are lacking gear and have a ****** build, death will occur.

I think it is fairly well balanced at the moment, but I have been with some groups that have just crushed EE content...6 players with all the things listed in the second paragraph will just make EE look like an absolute joke, sure there might be some deaths but in good groups the outcome is rarely in doubt. EE solo is actually decent challenge sometimes so I try and do it as often as possible-for me, no challenge=no fun.

[ferrite]

Well I've managed to solo the well quest on EE. Mainly out of curiosity to test my virtuoso chops.

Had one death, the dragon managed to get in a lucky stun on me (death came one claw swipe later) Also, the dragon at that level has ridiculous HP, to me it seemed like it must have been a few hundred thousand at least.. ..Took quite some time before my lowly bard managed to take him down.

And no scale.. the nerve! I'll probably just stick to running EH.

[Ayseifn]

The few times I've done it were incredibly slow and painful to the point where I could have easily soloed EH 3x in that timeframe and with zero resources. Even in quests where the item I want only drops on EE I'll either just solo EH and use the lesser version or if I really really want the EE version group up, almost 1 hour to get to the hag chest and find out she's afk? No ty.

[Machination]

There are many more than 2 or 3 as stated here that have the occasional solo "ee". "ee" is a pretty broad term as the difficulty level is quite expanse between all the quests. There are some "ee" quests that are trivial for some classes/builds to solo.

If the question is how many people are spending more than 50% of their game time soloing "ee", yeah probably few.

There is a lot of short man "ee" action goin on. I've seen an LFM up and not get hit till 2-3 quests later. A lot of short man groups don't post up.

The fact for me is, soloing in DDO in general is really annoying. DC and losing quest progress is infuriating to say the least. I've literally logged from the game for days after this has happened before. I prefer short man (2 or 3) or just full on group. If DC were not an issue I think more people would attempt soloing more often. Fact is short man can make some difficult "ee" quests faster to complete, depending on party makup, but not all by any means.

I've done nothing but TR up until recently. I'm just now starting to do EE stuff. I ran with a competent group last night. Guys that know the game and are geared out well. We did pretty good but it was by no means a cake walk.

It got me to wondering. Are there many folks that are soloing the stuff like the CITW flagging quests? If so how well are you doing at it. Are you blowing thru it or is it a struggle? It seemed like it would be a rough go at soloing but maybe I don't just have good enough gear or past lives. I'm trying to get my PDK favor and I'm thinking I'd rather not have to use an LFM to do so for every quest on EE. On the flip side I love the fact that EE is actually elite and takes some effort. I know heroic elite is still very soloable for my toons which is in a way disheartening. Nice work devs.

[Ryan220]

I tried soloing LoD on EE once on my L25 Cleric

By the time Id cleared the first room Id used half of my SP - I gave up at that point


I guess only the best of players can solo EE

[phillymiket]

I can't solo an EE quest.

I do, however, solo certain chests in EE looking for items.

It usually involves a lot of invisible running, rubber-banding mobs and other acts of extreme bravery followed by a single fight that I may or may not win.
.

[EvilI]

Some EE quests are more solo-friendly than others. Even then, you need a knowledge of their inherent mechanisms and play somewhat smartly - the big gap betwen EH and EE is a problem here, since you get bad habits from the lower difficulty settings and it doesnt give you the right incentive to really learn the ins and outs of the quest...

[Eighnuss]

I only do it when I NEED the 375 pdk favor, which isn't often. Some of these quests can easily be a struggle. My views may be skewed, as I've only done these solo- I do not know how much easier additional people would make these quests.

That aside, I find the EE stuff kinda lame. Stuff shouldn't be made 'hard' through "inflation", but rather with the addition of puzzles and mechanics that require teamwork, coordination, and strategy. The only place where I enjoyed the inflation, was In the Belly of the Beast. That felt proper for an arena battle amongst the fiercest competitors in the Underdark. I hope I don't pull CitW loot on other toons before dryad challenges are fixed, cause I'd rather not have to run EE belly again.

If EE was a harder EH but with a timed simon puzzle in every room, now that would be badass. Until then, I'm satisfied running EH. Destroying everything doesn't really detract from the value of my gameplay.

ooh look what i found http://neave.com/simon/

[-Zephyr-]

I've been soloing all kinds of EEs on varied characters, and I disagree with what some posters said.
EE is all about aggroing mobs in a limited number you can handle. In some cases it won't exactly be easy (that's why EE Belly is so hard), but in most cases you can find ways (even in Belly, that arena is pretty big !).

Sure, your character needs a combination of multiple abilities : defences + self healing, and one way or another to damage mobs reliably. Yep, high DPS doesn't matter quite as much here, with good enough defences + self healing and aggro management, you'll have all the time you want to kill those very high HP mobs. Having some form of CC is also great even if not required (I guess I count that as a form of defence)

Remember, even if it shouldn't, scaling affects EEs a lot. I've seen ~80k HP mobs jump to 110k as soon as another party member steps in... Even if that other party member is my dualbox buffbot bard (it's still worth it to have him around !).

Still, unless you're running an exceptional character, expect soloing EE to take much longer than in a full party.
The best exemple I have is probably Stay at the Inn, I've run that quest in a full party making use of blitz (one barb blitzing the whole time and the rest of the party buffing/healing/prepping mobs and leaving him the killing blow) and it was done in no time - maybe 15 minutes. When soloing that on my FvS, it takes about 45 minutes with a reentry for the shrine, and twice that when I don't want to reenter but still don't drink pots.

Also, aside from Belly of the beast and maybe Reclaiming the rift, the PDK EEs aren't that hard. I've had more trouble with newer ones - but maybe that's because I know them less. Finding groups for those shouldn't be too hard anyway, lots of people still want their PDK favor because they just TRed or something.

[Crabo]

If solo includes being able to take a hireling healer, then my barb hasnt had alot of trouble soloing the EE stuff he has tried so far, but i guess thats not really solo.

[Beer_Dude]

Thanks for the input. It sounds like my assesment of the EE stuff is about right. As stated above EH is by no maens a bridge to EE. I like that this quests aren't easily doable on EE solo. There needs to be quests that just flat out have a chance for one to fail or for that matter even a party to fail.

Thank all for the input.

[Zerkul]

Almost all CitW flagging quests are soloable by a wide range of builds. Tactics are a must though because preparation is the best asset you can bring in all of them.

[slimkj]

I can handle myself in there but not complete. Bosses (/minibosses) get me most of the time. Trash can be picked off one (or two+ if you're unlucky) at a time in most cases with skill & patience. Never completed an eE solo yet, but got a good way into some. Not a fan of the easier epics so I'm talking harder Eberron and new stuff here.

Edit: I'm also impatient though. I would think with more patience and less ragequitting I'd probably be able to complete one

[Feralthyrtiaq]

The *only* EE I've done are the 3 Demonweb quests. I healed a full party with my FVS. It was a little messy at times, more of a pain in the lolth than a challenge honestly.

Shears of Fate exploit allowed for all kinds of solo-ing silliness. That makes every EE solo achievement suspect.

I'm just now got my 3rd life monk more EE capable with Brace For Impact and Legendary Tactics twists and GMoF capped but honestly I'm more focussed on leveling my completionist and getting an ED leveled at the end of each life.

Not in a hurry really. The PDK rewards vs the effort to get them (including getting Raid Loot Drops and Heroic Comms and dealing with the cluster-elf of a raid) are dreadful and not worth it for me at this time.

It will probably be the same for Epic GH. There *is* a very slight benefit to overall character power getting EE versions of the new U17 GH gear.

But why bother? If you can already do the EE content then do you really need the EE gear? No.

On the other hand it *is* "better" and I may want it later. /shrug

[sugrcain]

I have/will solo epic elite quests when looking for a specific piece of loot with my fvs or wiz but it's a last resort option for me, stopped when I pull whatever I was looking for. Much rather find another willing soul and short man probably using boxes to up the loot chance, or just let the loot dice roll in a full group. Really don't enjoy soloing in an MMO much, on any difficulty. I find it more tedious than challenging, inevitably I'll start wondering why I'm even playing an MMO after prolonged soloing. Curse of the ASE gaming personality type perhaps.

[taurean430]

From what I've seen it's usually done in short man groups. Done some full group EE runs and the scaling can make it painful at times. Either method is still quite fun! I do it in spurts though to avoid flameout because of the drop rates.