Some experiences and experiments in M6 solo play

beckylunatic · May 2015

I decided this past weekend to attempt to put a few characters through their paces to see where they'd "hit the wall" as far as solo play goes.

I don't own any of the new dungeon gear, just Eternal items. The new Servitor gear will be an easy upgrade for all my characters because I can afford it as soon as that patch hits. Not so much for a fresh 60 or fresh 70. At any rate, my current stuff is not significantly better than an assortment of AH blues once the torso armors get patched to drop with an armor enchant slot.

I do have level 70 epic artifact main- and off-hand equipment on every character I played, made during double refinement. For the most part, these are just refined enough to make them epic. This is a fairly achievable amount of refinement junk.

I don't have maxed out jewelcrafting yet (working on it), therefore nobody has BiS rings. I use the Dragonslayer ring and usually the one you get for the intro to Spinward Rise where you just talk to everyone. If I didn't have the Dragonslayer ring, I'd use another from vigilance rewards or buy one. Level 69 rings are pretty cheap.

If I don't have an old artifact cloak, I'm using the one from Neverember's level 70 reward. Artifact belts got cheap enough in M5 that I got one for everyone, though I've only upgraded a few to the new ones. Again, all just-barely-epic.

All artifact slots are filled, mostly with purple artifacts. Lots of class sigils. Enchants are all minimum rank 7.

I've been playing a long time. My account has a lot of resources, and while I tend to take a slow and cheap route to upgrading things, I do upgrade whenever and wherever I feel it makes sense to do so.

Swordmaster Destroyer GWF - Dipped into Sentinel. This is the class that makes everything look easy. I am not running a crit build right now and probably won't go all-in for DPS because I have a Lathander set I don't want to give up. Perfect Plaguefire and lesser Soulforged. Upgraded shirt/pants (Berserker). Portal to Tuern, Mithril Mine, Gnarlroot Cave, all no sweat. One rotation on the phylactery in Phantasmal Fortress. Thayan Magical Shelter, Need for Mead, Biggrin's Tomb, no sweat. Many minor IWD HEs are soloable for this character. Queen of Hammerstone, no problem at all. The only "solo" thing that has given me pause is the Drake Pens boss fight, where I got a royal buttkicking a few times and ended up swapping in an Angel for one of my usual companions so that the inevitable SF pop would not be followed by immediate death. Between that and the Lathander buff, it was possible to pull off. Basically, anyone who says that M6 is still very easy to play solo and mains a GWF likely isn't seeing the perspective of other classes.

Divine Oracle Righteous DC - Enough Faithful for Benefit of Foresight. Greater Frost, lesser Soulforged. Upgraded to greater Wisdom belt. Upgraded shirt/pants (Zealot). Experimentally trying Vicious Dire Wolf as summoned companion with Loyal Defender gear. Mithril Mine was fairly easy sticking to one group at a time, likewise Portal to Tuern. Didn't do anything in Sharandar because saving keys for buffed rewards. Phantasmal Fortress required a few go-rounds with the Phylactery, wasn't in any real danger. Need for Mead was hairy but did finish it. Actually failed a Merchant in Distress HE (not solo but probably engaged too soon)... completed some other encounter with random people. Biggrin's Tomb, died twice in the room before Biggrin, did not die while fighting Biggrin but came very very close. Thayan Magical Shelter, died in the room with two wizards and a shocktroop, but had cleaned up enough to finish on respawn. Died once fighting the Summoner due to getting hung up on mobs. Fights that last longer definitely make Avatar less impressive in solo play than previously. Didn't hit the wall but need to gear up before repeat attempts at some of the level 73 stuff. Armor penetration is also nowhere close to what's needed.

Soulbinder Damnation Warlock - Pure Damnation. Greater Vorpal and lesser Soul. Wild Hunt Rider (epic quality) as a summoned companion with gear to increase his threat. Level 71 content is all doable as long as I don't screw up. Phylactery can be brought down very quickly which means this fight doesn't have much chance to go wrong. Need for Mead, I eventually had to bail. At the point when 3 barbarian warriors spawn, I repeatedly get my face beaten in even after taking out the throwers. They refuse to pay attention to the companion or soul puppet. I have hit the wall.

Stormwarden Trapper HR - Pure Trapper. Perfect Plaguefire, perfect Thunderhead. Why? Because of a Blue Power Ranger thematic thing, but that armor enchant gives absolutely *no* margin for error. Upgraded to greater Wisdom belt. Have been using a Dire Wolf summoned for a very long time, now using Loyal Avenger gear for bonding buff. Level 71 content doable. Phylactery doesn't take enough damage from roots and I don't have a great substitute for broken Aspect of the Serpent. Fight lasts through several rotations, though I don't die or struggle due to everything but the phylactery being vulnerable to my roots. That said, can't see level 73 content going well so I stop here.

Master Infiltrator Scoundrel TR - Lesser Lifedrinker, lesser soul. Very much an alt with her poor weapon enchant, and a character whose general flavor I stubbornly refuse to change into a stealthier spec. I had not used her free respec and while the level 71 fights went acceptably, I had to respec in Phantasmal Fortress because I found the boss fight impossible without switching to the heal boons from Shar and DR, and I also took the opportunity to run a bit into Executioner for more damage, whereas had been Sab for cooldown reduction. Went much better but stopped here.

Whisperknife Scoundrel TR - Some Sab for cooldown reduction. Trans Plague, lesser Soul. Legendary DC Sigil (my only orange artifact on anyone). Upgraded to Puissance belt, but no full set. Upgraded trousers. Also haven't used his free respec, so boons are a bit of a mess and I'm not even sure if Tenacious Concealment is still broken at rank 4. Character is playable in level 71 and 72 content. Need to fix his boons up before taking him further.

Spellstorm Renegade CW - Enough Oppressor for Icy Veins, because it seemed like a good idea at the time. Perfect Terror, lesser Soul. More control bonus than combat advantage bonus on her stuff. Level 71 whatever is no problem. Surprisingly, the Phylactery takes more than one rotation to down, though the fight doesn't go terribly. I ran out of waking hours before I could get her into IWD.

I think a lot of people's problems stem from the level 73 mobs, effectively making those zones into one big epic dungeon without it actually being a dungeon. The bonus mobs have when they have +3 levels on you cannot be taken lightly, and in many cases cannot be taken at all.

beckylunatic · May 2015

Spellstorm Renegade CW in IWD - Still using her cat augment rather than a battle companion, although one would probably be beneficial with all the buffing a Renegade does. Need for Mead involved one death (or was it two?) and a few Soulforged pops, but the guards and Fenton survived quite well and kept anything from resetting on me. There is a definite learning curve. Placing Icy Terrain so mobs run over it while casting Steal Time seems to work decently. Not having Oppressive Force ready to go is dangerous. Swapped in Ray of Frost (was Magic Missile) for another way to immobilize something. Swapped in Disintegrate for a quick kill move, because dancing around trying to get a good line for Sudden Storm is too dangerous and anything I can get dead before I die, if I end up dying, is something that won't be waiting for me on respawn. 5 Oppressor points are now wasted and Spell Twisting is sounding better all the time. Waiting for cooldowns is literally killing me. No yeti. Giant is actually not too bad because the guards were able to tank him for me. Time to head out of town....

Died so quickly on an IWP Merchant in Distress that it was hilarious. Nevermind, I can grab a heroic later, my real goal is Biggrin. Almost died on the very first group, but managed to regain control (haha) of the situation. Clearing one pack at a time goes ok. The homing missile attack from the Deathlock Wights can be very nasty... it always could be from the ones in HEs, but of course they're all that strong now. I mess up with the room with the skeletal giant and can't handle the wights and zombies *and* the giant all at once. Respawn. Pull the wights and zombies to the stairs so the giant won't wake up. Almost die again but don't. Fight the giant. Slightly regret not swapping Steal Time for Chill Strike or something, which I would never have previously worried about for a single monster on a daily quest. Grumble to self about lack of swappable hotbars. Disintegrate, Ice Knife, and a lot of running in circles pulls it off.

Time for the big guy, though I'm more worried about his entourage. Killed by wights and zombies twice in a row. Must rethink strategy. Don't let wights summon any zombies, instead getting right up in their faces and miraculously pulling off a chain control rotation that locks them all down while finishing them off one at a time. Tricky because I don't find a position where I can get Icy Terrain under all three of them. Ray of Frost again proves worthy. With the last one almost dead, I fall back as far from the throne as possible so I can drink a potion while Biggrin wakes up. One final Disintegrate and we have cutscene. Biggrin and his wolves are less challenging. The fight lasts long enough that there are never more than two wolves up at a time, which makes their attacks easier to avoid. There's a very close call where I miss a dodge and get proned, but I don't die.

I am at this point still rocking my minor body and leg injuries from Biggrin's lady-friends, like a handicap in golf. I figure I'll try to finish off the night and just let them heal at the fire after. Still need a heroic, so I head for Dwarven Valley. Wagon Under Attack by trolls is probably the easiest of the lot. The trolls have fewer CC moves than other critter categories and you can use the wagon as cover. I proceed to do just that and am greatly successful, so I pack it in to head back to town. Enough is enough.

Edit: Further random info. Only buff item used is a pocket pet. No health stones, and just 8500HP potions for the sake of experimenting.

ph33rm3 · May 2015

But did you have fun? I can solo almost all content in this game, but NONE of it is fun. Being capable of completing a task and having fun doing it are two different things. Everything feels like a grind with no reward at the end. A pointless exercise in frustration for most I think.

There's no way I'll gear up another character with the game in this state .It just pisses me off and I end up taking it out on those around me. I can't help it. This game makes me angry. I get rude and ignorant to players in game and people around me in the real world. I found it's best just to avoid Neverwinter altogether with the exception of dragon runs. I do them for the RP and leave. That's what Mod6 is to me... Dragon Heralds.

beckylunatic · May 2015

It actually is fun for me to see if I can beat something that is challenging at my level of gear and skill, for the sake of seeing if I can do it. If it seems like I can win I'll keep trying, but if the situation is hopeless then I have the option to bail (see SW in Need for Mead).

I agree that something like that Biggrin fight wouldn't keep me wanting to do it every day (weekly, probably just until I had enough ice to level the crafting, and grudgingly at that), and I don't think that it's been a good choice to make the content of campaign daily and weekly quests punishingly hard for people who are effectively just starting out. I agree that the difficulty should be in the content that people *expect* to do in groups, like dungeons and large heroic encounters. I don't think that epic-dungeon-difficulty mobs are something that should be between you and your ability to collect ten macguffins for a repeatable quest, particularly when you're going to have to repeat that quest twenty or thirty times.

I do think that people with a lower level of gear and experience would be well served by learning about aggro radiuses, because there's very little reason to complain about the difficulty of fighting things you were never required to fight in the first place, and complaints about that frustrate me to no end.

I'm done all boons except Tyranny on all characters that were started pre-Tyranny, and I don't give a hoot if I never finish those because seriously eff Tiamat right in the ear. If I end up incidentally acquiring the Linu's favors by buying them over time, cool, but I won't purposely grind them. So I don't really *have* to do this, but I'm seeing if I can, and trying to share what I learn with the people who are feeling like they can't progress at all.

burkaanc · May 2015

how much life steal did u have on your characters ?

remfdt · May 2015

But did you have fun?

No, not having much fun even with "successful" events/encounters. Basically, trash mob packs with arpen, crit, an AI that REALLY tries hard to maximize combat advantage, that can hit for 100k+ with normal/non-red attacks just isn't going to result in "fun" game play. Whenever skill matters far less than luck, in my opinion, it's the result of bugs or really poorly considered balancing.

beckylunatic · May 2015

burkaanc wrote: »

how much life steal did u have on your characters ?

I'm not monitoring that closely because in all cases it comes down to "probably not enough", and it's basically whatever their gear comes with. The HR is at about 7%. SW is more, CW is considerably less. I think the GWF is at about 5%.

senteriono · May 2015

beckylunatic wrote: »

I'm not monitoring that closely because in all cases it comes down to "probably not enough", and it's basically whatever their gear comes with. The HR is at about 7%. SW is more, CW is considerably less. I think the GWF is at about 5%.

try getting your ls too 3k on cw everything is a cake walk then

beckylunatic · May 2015

Getting some of the gear numbers up will happen, and I've realized that the 4th and 5th ToD boons were much more within reach than I'd thought, though I didn't quite get them finished off in all cases.

What I did do was spec my CW out of Icy Veins and into Spell Twisting, and I'm kicking myself over not doing this on preview first. "I'm sure it will be fine." Famous last words. While I'm sure it makes a huge amount of sense in a party in epic dungeons and when you've got your gear in a better place to control things for a shorter time while killing them faster, that additional control was apparently keeping my lowly CW alive while alone and being overrun by barbarians. Need for Mead felt like trying to do it on the SW; couldn't actually overcome 3 warriors at once, despite trying numerous powers, with and without Shield, etc. I'd get them down quite a lot but the repeated pummellings would do me in before any of them would actually die. I did do Dread Spire without issue though. The boss fight took a bit but it wasn't too scary; even got a greater mark.

I did the intended respec on my Whisperknife and bought him a new tunic, but didn't really have time to play anything more than Dread Spire, which went about as expected. The Knight Commander can be dazed, DoT'ed, and kited, and this TR build is designed to do exactly that, and Duelist's Flurry whenever it's safe to do so.

krailov · May 2015

I think that this is part of the basis for many of the complaints to date - if you have not re-specced your toon to match what the optimal build is for that class (as defined by the Devs), then you have no chance. I play the game as I like DnD - I can make my character, my way, with the powers and feats I choose... I should not have an 'unplayable' character because of that!

So, if you match the Devs view of your toon, then yes, the game is playable solo - barely (and you have some items to Epic). I do not have epic gear, I do not have my toons specced as per the Devs plans - so I cannot solo. Period. Fun gone.

silverkelt · May 2015

For new players, they do not have access to perfect anything, let alone greaters.. heck a normal might be more then they can afford anytime soon.

I do not think they shouldve made landscape so tedious as well.. I have no issue with dread ring or sharandar, they are fine, it squarely comes down to IWD/WoD areas.

My experiences are very similar to you.

GWF (destroyer, IV).. for PVE landscape is clearly one of the easiest classes to play, for DDs they are totally different though, as any random red area will kill a GWF easily and since you HAVE to be up close, its just more difficult, however, you deal tons of damage). (greater terror, burning set atm)

CW(storm, renegade).. for pve landscape.. pretty much on par with GWF, for DDs , they are more effective, in terms of control and if you need to go range.. you can. (perfect vorp, burning set)

DC (DO Virt) I have loads of stuff on this one (got the lvl 70 epic shirt/pants, lvl 25 jewlerly made rings, mostly rank 9s and a few tens, some legendary items as well) with 15k power, 4k everything else.. and my arp is 40% on my DC, I made sure I was going to get it. I have zero issues with anything in game on my dc, but IT TAKES forever.. I mean literally fighting things for 15-20 mins longer then my cw/gwf , even with ilevel almost 1k above those.. its like watching paint dry at times. (pure plague, greater negation, burning set) Im working on getting more power next on my dc.. but frankly.. a few more percantage points in power, aint going to do anything in terms of making things go that much faster. Im never going to die and I can solo every lair, do some minor hes solo with him.. just a long process.

HR(pathfinder, trapper) I dont think there is much else you can do with a HR, other then trapper and be all that useful this mod.. I can do all the lvl 71 content and some of the lvl 73.. but its much slower, .. though Im 1/2 done my burning set and will have the rest in 8 more days) (normal plague, 2 piece pvp blue 2 burning set) HOWEVER, I will mention I like to play my trapper.. its really fun in every aspect of the game, just slower.

SW.. damnation.. just getting to 70 now.. rest of my alts (tr, pally, gf) will come after that point. Early areas were super easy, as it goes Im finding it much more difficult, swapped to leveling blues on it, have no healer slotted yet for this class, might have to get one.

It would be my suggestion to lower 73 pve landscape mobs down to 72.. there really is no reason to have them above that outside of epic dungeons really, there is nothing in those zones you need other then boons. Its just another time gate.

Heck even if they want to leave some of the mini lairs at 73.. I would find that ok.

Overall.. If someone only places a GWF/CW they would find complaints odd probably a average built character (with some mixture of r7/8s normal or greater enchants) can do both the harder areas with no issues.

Some of the other classes, with similiar ilevel will find it more difficult or insta death in some areas.

SW even with damnation, could use some more aoe control (they miffed with the chance at arms of hadar.. its SO short range, you almost have be taken a hit to use it)

HR trapper or combat, seem REALLY weak, any removal of perma stunning on the trapper, needs to have a boost in damage to compensate.

I will play with more alts in the next few weeks, you seem to be ahead of me!

beckylunatic · May 2015

I was able to finish off the CW's 4th and 5th ToD boons, and made choices that put her at 10% lifesteal, plus I managed to snipe a shirt upgrade for her. Need for Mead went significantly better this time even without Icy Veins.

Here's the thing about Need for Mead:
If you die, but there's still an NPC left alive fighting, monster health doesn't reset. If you get your butt back in there, you can attempt to finish off anything that was at low health when you went down, rather than having to restart. I should have been more cognizant of this on my disastrous attempt, because Fenton Hale being out of the picture was a major factor in the repeat failures (guards haven't spawned yet at that point). This may ultimately be more relevant to characters who are able to pump some healing into the NPCs, but they are a tool there for you to use.

WK Scoundrel TR didn't fare badly in there. One death during that tricky bit with the 3 warriors and no guards to help. As I've indicated before, this is a character I've tried to build to last. Very high stamina regen, and as long as there's no time limit, he can kite and DoT while waiting for cooldowns, dodge to refill stealth, then unleash a barrage of dazes and damage. Somehow, the NPCs did stay alive, probably because they weren't getting much aggro. Did a Totem of Auril (corrupted dwarves) alone without issue. Died attempting a Wagon Under Attack (trolls), due to getting overwhelmed by having too many strong foes active at once. Came back and was doing ok but didn't finish solo as some other players turned up. Didn't tackle Biggrin yet.

spookholio · May 2015

beckylunatic wrote: »

I think a lot of people's problems stem from the level 73 mobs, effectively making those zones into one big epic dungeon without it actually being a dungeon. The bonus mobs have when they have +3 levels on you cannot be taken lightly, and in many cases cannot be taken at all.

Well said, this probably why my CW keeps getting smacked down trying to solo the lesser HE's in ToD for Cult Missives.

daggon87 · May 2015

HE are not solo content.

beckylunatic · May 2015

All I have to offer from yesterday is that getting my DC the 3 available pieces of the new Dread Servitor gear got her arpen into a much more comfortable place.

Some experiences and experiments in M6 solo play

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