Levels 1 - 70 Solo guide for Warriors

[Tigtig]

Levels 1 – 70 soloing guide for warriors

By tigtig

About Myself: I am a husband and a father of a young child. I work full time, and only have 1-2 hours per night to play EQ. Some weeks I can play 5-6 nights, other weeks I don’t have any nights to play EQ. I prefer to play in groups, but with my erratic play schedule, regular experience groups are a problem. I would say I spend 50% of my time in groups and 50% of my time soloing. Some pick-up groups are great, others can be a nightmare. If my group turns out to be a mess, I spend the rest of my night soloing.
I don’t mean to sound like a lone wolf- I have good real-life friends that play high-end characters, but there has been no way to keep up with them—(except through doing MM’s together).

Disclaimer: This guide is not intended to be the “Ultimate Experience Guide”, nor even the “Ultimate Solo Guide”, rather this a guide as to what worked for me as I spent time soloing from 1 to (almost) 70.

Also, the 1,000 AA, Anguish-geared warrior may tell you, I solo ToV, BoT, or WoS. That is very impressive! But this guide is not for the Anguish geared warrior, rather it is for either the player who is new to EQ, or the causal warrior.

Strategy: Kill low-end dark blues; kill these much faster than higher level dark blues.
Faster kills = more experience. Light blue mobs provide little experience compared to the dark blue mobs, thus focus on low-end dark blue mobs.

The Essentials: (1) A haste item: I use a Cloak of Flames. A Cloak of Crystalline Waters also works.
(2) Truncheon of Doom (Procs slow on mobs), this is the warrior’s best friend.—A willsapper may also work.
(3) Haste Potion—Distillate of Alacrity (Both found on P.o.K. vendor )
(4) Healing potions – Distillate of Celestial Healing

Gear:
Levels 1-50 (1) fungus covered scale tunic; (2) High hit point items for every slot. The 65-hp rings are great. From 1-50 hitpoints are more important than AC.

Level 50- 60 – full set of Ogre (BD) cultural armor (fierce heraldic).

60-65 – a full set of PoP armor – full set of Kizrak’s armor.

65-70 – a full set of GM ogre amor.

Weapons:
Levels 1-30 A wurmslayer—a lamentation, a frost bringer, or a crystalline short sword will also work fine.
The damage seems to be capped up to about level 30, so the faster the weapon the better.

Levels 30-50 A Reaver –or any other good two-handed weapon

Levels 50-60 A War-marshall’s Bladed Staff.

Levels 60 -70 Edge of Envelopment


Zones:
1-10 Mines of Gloomdeep—Newbie Tutorial, nice quests, great experience.

10-15 Kurn’s Tower – Kill Skeletons, they don’t run, collect bone chips, sell for nice plat per stack of 20.

15-20 Paludal Caverns – Kill Bandits, Hands down, best experience in the game.

20-30 The Overthere – Kill chickens and Cacti near the mud hole, run to Warslik Woods zone line if you get into trouble with adds.

30-40 Warsliks woods – the giant’s fort was my favorite experience spot in all of EQ.

40-50 The Overthere – Skyfire side—kill Sarnaks, cacti and chickens—run to Skyfire zone line if get into trouble.

50-60 City of Mist—kill yard trash and work deeper as you go up in levels.
Alternative – Solusek B – Kill bats and then bugs. – can be tricky, bugs tend to gang up.

60-65 Plane of Justice – first cell block, Sentry’s and then Captain’s room and Galors.
Alternative – Skyfire mountains, drakes and wurms, (old world mobs, don’t hit hard at all past 60), careful for adds, run to the burning woods zone line if get into trouble.

65-68 Plane of Nightmares- Treants and Spiders—run to zone in/zone out if you get adds.
Alternative – Plane of Innovation—caution, certain mobs in PoI cannot be slowed.

68-70 Grieg’s end—weird zone, weird creatures, but kind of fun!
Alternative—Veksar, Just keep working deeper until the mobs turn dark blue, avoid the golems.

Alternative strategy – Join the general chat channel, solo until someone says “MM (monster mission group) looking for more”. Join the MM group. Listen to the leader of the group's strategy until you have done the mission several times.

Advantage—Much better experience --grinding solo, I can get an AA about every 4-5 hours. In a monster mission group, I can get about ¾ of an AA every 45 minutes. So for me the experience in a MM group is about 4-5 times better than soloing alone. Plus occasionally I can pick up a nice augmentation or new piece of equipment.

>O.O.C. I can update this guide as I get input from other warriors.

[osserkon]

whatever blows you hair back.
1-2 hours of grouping instead would yield more exp, drops and less sitting. although with the new ooc thing it will help solo downtime.

[Celeritum]

This is a great guide, thanks Tig

[Yakk]

Given that you are soloing low blue mobs... how are you paying for all of that gear, again? Or have Fungi tunics/Truncheon of Doom's dropped in value so far that they are next to free?

[Battleblade]

Warriors are very gear and group dependant. While Warriors can solo from level 1 to level 70, they fare much better in groups. Not surprisingly, gear acquired in groups and in raids can improve your ability to solo substantially.

Necessities -

Worn Haste - may be acquired by using tribute instead of an item. I believe tribute haste is 35%. In the long run a haste item is less expensive.

At the high end, 45%+ items are available as well as overhaste items.

Haste buff - Haste buffs eventually wear off. If you are going to solo for any length of time, Kizrak gauntlet right click (30%) or Potions of Alacrity (up to 50% ?) (also Belt of Marvelous Visions and Lizardscale Belt) allow you to provide your own haste buff.

Mob Slow -
Truncheon of Doom - accept no substitutes.

AC/HP self buff-
Kizrak BP and a vendor sold potion are a poor subsitute but better than nothing.

Debuff -
Journeyman's Walking Stick will help that ToD proc stick if the mobs where you are fightingare regularly resisting it. Keep in mind however that proc rates aren't high and that time spent slowing a mob is time getting hit by an unslowed mob.

Life Gain -
The vendor sold and tradeskilled healing potions improved Warrior soloing conciderably.

Obtain and use a high DPS lifetap weapon with a lifetap aug.

Steadfast Servant and Staunch Recovery (only worthwhile vs. very big mobs imo) are the only other really useful life gain Wariors have atm. One tactic that is useful is to allow being out of game to restore lost HP's and reset disciplines.

Misc -
Polished Obsidean Great Axe procs Invoke Fear. Warriors can actually fear kite (up to about level 60) as an alternative to fighting toe to toe. Snare the mob with a Silken Whip of Ensnaring and the fear it with POGA. It takes a bit of practice, but it's surprisingly effective. POGA also lets you fear mobs to escape a bad pull or to zone split (a borderline exploitive method of spliting mobs. Snare one, fear the other with PoGA, zone, zone back and fight the one you previously snared).

Damage Shields -
Breath of Ro and Skinspikes potions (Coldain Ring #8 is trivial to obtain btw) added to any worn DS can provide substantial additional DPS. This is useful vs. a mass of low con tradeskill dropping mobs (Gorangas dropping Acrylia in Maidens Eye) or trying to become the first Wariror to successfully solo Vindi.

Additional zones -
Maidens Eye (fletching supplies and exp until ~60)
ToSoRo (Ornate molds and patterns)
NC

[Phantron]

I've found The Hole to be the best place to solo even after it's no longer a hotspot just because the mobs are blue all the way up to 70 and they're probably the weakest blue to 70 mobs you'll find in this game. The only problem is the golems and gargoyles have high MR which means no slow and probably no lifetaps, and there's no easy way to walk out of there once you get down deep.

Critical hits are the basis of warrior soloing DPS. You get more way more DPS when you hit berserk, considerable mitigation on anything crippling blow works on (55 or lower), and you also increase your damage on anything that runs away that can be killed by finishing blow (and if it can't be killed by finishing blow, why are you soloing it?).

When soloing as a Warrior, the quicker you can get to berserk, the better. You will never actually gain life fighting anything so it all comes down to controlling your health below 45% once you berserk for extra DPS (and actually extar mitigation if fighting 55 or lower mobs). It takes some practice to manage your potions. Just don't get greedy and try to fight a tough mob while berserked. Note that with Veteran's Wrath 3, the DPS you dish out while berserked with mightystrike is insane.

Even if your dual wield weapons are better ratio, on sufficiently weak mobs, a 2h weapon may still outdps them. This is because if mobs die fast (say 30 seconds or under), the first attack you get is always free relative to delay assuming you're fighting singles (Warriors don't really have a way to handle multiple mobs unless you're trying to hit berserk).

Haste and Lion's Strength/Shaman equivalent are the most useful buffs I've found while soloing. It's not that other buffs are no good, but offensive buffs usually don't last long enough to warrant the time it takes to track them down, and defensive buffs don't really help much because the net HP change of a warrior soloing is necesarily negative, and you actually want to hit berserk as early as you can. Of course, the more HP you have the more leeway you've while maintaining berserk, but ultimately mitigation alone determines how long you can stay at berserk.

[Dacke]

A kunzar kujuch is also nice for the snare it procs.

At 54 i also solo some in Dranik's scar, Dragorns, rats and bats mostly.

[Molbo]

Originally Posted by Tigtig

From 1-50 hitpoints are more important than AC.

Couldn't disagree more really. If you have a fungus tunic then AC is ten times better than HPs. Its not like lotsa hps will make you regen faster. So you might as well mitigate more so you can outregen the dps from the mobs.

I had 1k ac with my bard around level 30 and he was regening faster than the mobs did damage to him.



Anyways, good guide if you can be arsed to solo

[Brabble]

I think the top personal tribute haste is 41%. The only reason I ever solo is to evolve something when nothing else is going on, but one good thing about soloing in GE is that the various rings and minor named drops will tribute well enough that you can run haste and a couple of other tribute things while you're there and come out ahead on tribute easily.
Not that this makes what you're doing efficient compared to grouping, but at least you can run tribute and use potions and the mobs will more than finance your expenses.

[Phantron]

More HP gives you more leeway to be berserked without accidentally dying. More importantly, it is not really possible to do berserk soloing if you don't have enough HP such that one of the highest healing elixir you can use fills you over 45%. Of course, you could just delay drinking until you're at 10% health, but then you could die too.

Depends on how brave/reckless you are, it could be important while soloing. Of course, if you don't even try to go to berserk while soloing, then HPs are of no use to you.

[Grailknight]

Very cool... I may have to use this...

[Rildoan]

Some items of note:

Shroud of the Fallen Defender - 36-minute clicky AC buff... and good stats if it's your only BACK item
Kizrak's Gauntlets of Battle - 72-minute clicky haste buff
Velium Coldain Insignia Ring - 60-minute clicky 8-point damage shield
---> Ring of Dain Frostweaver IV - stacks with above, +10 HP regen and 10-point damage shield for 60 minutes... and the Protection of the Dain (rechargeable clicky Divine Aura) rocks
Cobalt Bracer - clicky shrink at level 46! very useful item to have, especially in raids
Cobalt Greaves - clicky invisibility at level 46

Fisherman's Companion - clicky-fishing pole that has clicky beer, useful for leveling your Alcohol Tolerance for free

JBoots or Fabled JBoots - clicky-from-inventory 18-minute run speed boost (outdoors only)

Bloody Ancille's Pouch plus lots of Purified Crystals - LDoN item, pouch is clickable from inventory, the crystals can be bought at the Magus in wayfarers' camps for about 9pp/stack. Granted, the arrows are no substitute to player-made or Mage-summoned arrows, but they are damned cheap - each crystal makes 20 of the arrows and they don't poof when you log.

Slipgear's Gem - VERY EASY quest and way easier than doing LDoN missions, get a rogue goblin shroud at POK, get SOW+Levi or SoE/FoE and invis pots (Mirao Frostpouch near Soulbinder sells them); good stats on the resulting aug (CHARM slot).

Try to get a Dark Whisperer from the Fairy MM in Nek forest; nice sword for dual-wielding and it has better AC boost than the closest DoN-purchased hammers (which cost 340 crystals at either camp).

Helmet of Rallos Zek - great AC, decent stats, See Invisible + Ultravision (worn), and usable at level 1

Glowing and Blood Earring of Rage - very nice stats on both items until you can get better NODROP ones

Split Blade of Destruction and Blade of Carnage - good, fast weapons ASSUMING you can afford them

[Tankenstein]

it is for either the player who is new to EQ, or the causal warrior.

While a good guide, neither of these two grps are gonna be able to afford a lot of the gear you suggest. I quit for a while and came back on a brand new account like a year and a half ago. I was given a set of Gothic Steel and a few crappy weps by some old friends and told good luck. The biggest problem with being either a casual or newbie Warrior is coming up with plat for new gear. Now add in soloing all the time and you'd spend more time farming then you would actually leveling IMO.

[Kult]

I solo in Ge all the time. Its garbage exp but when I am looking for a group and I sit around for 1hr i could have gotten 1/4-1/2 a AA. I suffer from the same problem the origonal poster described. I will sometimes log on for just 30 min at a time. Just long enough to burn LotD. I use basically the same strat. Although I am also a reseller. I make a huge amount of PP from this so i can afford to burn the 10-15pp per heal potion. Also a extra thing to do is tribute. I use the max armor/haste/hp and it only costs 98 per 10 min. And when I loot the garbage loots from the named spawns I can keep my tribute up and even build up more. Also If you find that you still run short on tribute you can either buy or make Mistletoe Cutting Sickles. They can be bought for 100-200 each and tribute for 1312* (may not be exact but close). so per each 100-200pp thats 10+ hrs of solo time. If you can afford it buy all the clicky items you can. I have the clicky BP for more ac/hp the clicky gauntlets for the extra haste buff, the grim aura earring for extar attack, cloak of the fallen defender for extra AC. I have been looking to do the coldain war for the extra DS boost.
On a different stratgey. What gives you great Exp for the solo time is this:

set yourself up in GE where you can pull 3 dark blue mobs.
load all your buffs and tribute.
Set up your highest damage item. not DPS damage. (i was lucky enought to get the fabled tandors tusk)
Pop LotD.
pull to a wall and pop furious.
when that is down, switch to your normal soloing weapons and then pop mighty strike.
Pop a healing potion.
Have the bag you have the potions in on the very edge of your screen so you can monitor then and know when you can pop another.
Once mighty is down. Pop stonewall.
By this time one of the mobs should be dead, and the others are taking damage from your DS while you only take half their damage.
Kill the other two.
Loot quick and Log.
Then when you discs are back up log back in and rinse and repeat.
Your LotD will still be up and this is the fastest way to kill 3 mobs I have found.

Hope this helps.

Kult
http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=1264052