well, learning more of your story, I whole heartedly agree.
You cannot go to sol a with no tanks at that level. Simply can't be done.
I'd suggest heading down to Najena for a spell. Najena seems to have an
inordinately high amount of casters. Casters, as you know, have low hp, so
they are great prey for a magic heavy group.
Furthermore, using an all instrument attack (Hymn, DDD, CoD) you can plow
through tentacle terrors. I soloed all of level 24 in one night (4-5 hours)
just killing the TTs in najena. Najena is a great spot for many of the same
reasons as sol a. It is empty. (the night I soloed, I was the only person in
najena) If you are bringing your whole group, then I suggest hitting
Bonecracker's room or either doing the TTs or the goblins. Goblins are
probably better exp, but I hear there is a new high level NPC in those
parts, so be very careful. If you are lucky, you might be able to take over
a named spawn when someone leaves. Assuming your party is avg level 23, you
can easily hold the najena room, the ogre captain or the bonecracker room.
Although breaking any of these (particularly najena's room) might be
difficult.
I'd try bonecracker first. Full spawn is 2 necros, 2 pets and bonecracker.
With an enchanter this is child's play. I suggest killing the necros first.
Have the enchanter charm one of the pets and sick it on the other, while the
party helps out. Then do bonecracker last. Try to draw out the bonecracker
fight so you can space the spawn. Spawn time is 19.5 minutes and you can
pull mobs from the surrounding areas in between room spawns. Without an
enchanter, it's harder. I'd probably do necros, then bonecracker, then pets
last. Have the cleric stun to interupt casters and be sure to focus on one
mob at a time.
Ogre captain is a pain, but a little more fun to crack. Clear out the
elemental room first. (as you come down the stairs, it is the door on the
right.) Should be 4 - 6 spawns in there, but they are elementals which
aren't that hard. Cardinal rule here: no runners. If you let a runner go
around the corner, you're in for a hurting. Once the elem room is clear, med
to full and pull the 3 ogres from around the corner. (keep a careful eye on
the clock the whole time here, you don't want to get caught in respawn) med
up again and you're ready for the captain. Usually the captain spawns with
an elite guard and a regular guard, although it may be 2 elites sometimes.
Also rarely there will be a visiting priestess. If you see the priestess,
come back another time. She won't agro on you when you attack the cap, but
she will heal him. If you are foolish enough to try. (I know I was) Then it
is imperative that you kill the priestess first.
Lastly Najena's room. Very tough break as a full spawn is 2 mages, najena
and 3 pets. If you are lucky, najena won't be spawned for the break.
Standard Operating Procedure is kill najena, then the mages then the pets.
eep, meeting, gotta run, more later perhaps.
Draelon
-----Original Message-----
From: Kimes, Dean W. [mailto:
dean_kimes@...]
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2000 3:46 PM
To: '
eqbards@onelist.com'
Subject: RE: [eqbards] Attack speedups
Bards are wonderfully powerful if there are no casters around.
My group is just the opposite, there are no non-casters around, guild wide
pretty much.
I am 23rd level. I don't play enough hours to gain even two levels in 3
weeks though.
I like Sol A a lot, but I can't be effective in Sol A. I can't really tank
and if a group is caster heavy they really have no other use for me. This
has done nothing but continue to foster my opinion that melee classes are
not useful until you get to the level where they artificially created a use
for them by giving critters insane resists. The cleric can tank as well for
this group as I can. His heals of himself when he tanks are sufficient
taunt to keep the mobs on him and the other casters can easily make it a
one-gob fight 90% of the time.
Kit
what level are you kit?
I leveled from 25 - 34 in 3 weeks in sol a. I don't think I totaled more
than 6 deaths for the entire span.
If you give me your level, I would be glad to tell you where I hunted, the
group makeup, what we had trouble with, etc. Personally I found sol a to be
my favorite zone. It's rarely crowded, has good loot, TONS of goblins to
pull, great exp and I found myself to be a very valuable member of the
group.
One group in paricular was bard (me), 2 monks, 2 rangers and 1 warrior. We
were about level 30 and camped in the bar. The carnage that we created was
unbelievable. We finished every single fight at full health, including one
where we had a mix of 8 inferno, fire and flame goblins, including 2 wizzies
and 2 shamen. It was by far one of the best displays of how powerful bards
are. I sang Hymn with lute, anthem and psalm of warmth and we were
unstoppable.
Draelon Stormsong
-----Original Message-----
From: Kimes, Dean W. [mailto:
dean_kimes@...]
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2000 1:04 PM
To: '
eqbards@onelist.com'
Subject: RE: [eqbards] Attack speedups
I would try that, but the cleric would probably just let me die to prove his
point. In Sol A it is a big taunt. If I play Hymn and my two other songs I
definitely get the bulk of the attention. The last 6 times we have had
deaths in our Sol A groups, on 5 of them the deaths have gone like this.
1st death: me, 2nd death: other bard (lower level), 3rd death: other melee
person. The two bards have died a combined 15 times in our Sol A guild
groups. The other guildmembers have died a grand total of 6 times combined.
Every time there is a bad pull or we get trained its the bards that pay the
price. On one occasion the enchanter got waxed first by a wizard, but we
were not far behind even then.
Kitasi
-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin L. Crawford [mailto:
Lyrnia@...]
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2000 10:45 AM
To:
eqbards@onelist.com
Subject: Re: [eqbards] Attack speedups
Hmm sounds like you're letting your group dictate how to play your class.
DONT buy into it. You know how to be a bard better than they do. Hymn is
NOT that big a taunt. Especially in today's dungeons. They're _hardly_
dangerous. I can walk the entire length of lower guk, live to dead side,
and I might actually pull a train of 3 critters.
Play your class the way you think it should be played. Generally I find out
who's doing what and then I go, OK, I'm going to be doing X. If they argue
I simply state "You be a (insert class here), I'll be a Bard. If you don't
like it, lets trade accounts".
That usually shuts them up.
Bottom line: You play your character, don't let others tell you how :)
Lyrnia
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kimes, Dean W." <dean_kimes@...>
To: <eqbards@onelist.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2000 4:41 PM
Subject: RE: [eqbards] Attack speedups
> From: "Kimes, Dean W." <dean_kimes@...>
>
> Our enchanter seems to have no trouble keeping both tanks Alacrity'd thru
> the night and still does crowd control. Yes I could give us all a
speedup,
> but since the only other person even meleeing is a cleric it wouldn't help
> much. My finger-twiddling is much better spent on Chant of Battle if the
> enchanter is there to Alacrity. If he's not then Anthem gets back in the
> mix. If bards excel at anything its that we can fill in as a substitute
> just-about-anything. Problem I'm starting to find is that I'm only able
to
> get into groups that are lacking something if there isn't a person looking
> to group who's better at that thing as a primary role. When I do get in
> lately its always as a tank.
>
> Last 3 nites: Don't chain, we're darknessing. Don't anthem we're
> alacritying. Don't Chant we're skin like something or othering. Don't
Hymn
> or you'll get too much attention and die. Didn't leave much of anything
for
> me to do but swing, bellow and go owie. Occasionally we'd pull a wizard
or
> shaman gobie and I'd throw the resistances in.
>
> Towards the end of the night I get asked in group tell, "Can't you do
> anything but Bellow? I thought bards had all kinds of cool songs." My
> reply? Didn't have one, told them "I am retiring to the OOT to
contemplate
> life while beating head on gargoyles for a while."
>
> Kit
> one very wet minstrel with a headache
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Perhaps a Princess... [mailto:sarah@...]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2000 2:32 PM
> To: eqbards@onelist.com
> Subject: RE: [eqbards] Attack speedups
>
>
> From: "Perhaps a Princess..." <sarah@...>
>
> Swift Like the Wind costs a LOT of mana, and doesn't last as long as
> the lower level speed up buff. Add onto this that there is a speed
> beyond which a weapon can't get any faster. And Swift Like the Wind,
> in higher levels, isn't even used on people with haste sashes. Not
> worth it.
>
> So. Sometimes a minor speedup is good enough.
>
> Quicken is very definitely a combat buff. And fairly high mana. Grouped,
> I'd put it on my main tank and let a bard handle the speedup for the
> rest, preferring to use mana for crowd control, or other circumstances
> rather than keeping everyone Quickened.
>
> Just because it is better does not mean that it is always the best
> use of the enchanter's mana. Bards ARE Still needed.
>
>
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: Sylly Songsynger [mailto:jgs@...]
> >Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2000 11:56 AM
>
> >>From Eq Casters Realm:
>
> >Swift Like The Wind
> >---------------------
> >Target: Increase Attack Speed +160.
> >Description:Great for tanks when grouped. Increases the amount of times
you
> >will hit in a round against an enemy. In large/long battles it can make a
> >huge difference. Quite deadly when used in conjunction with Languid
> >Pace/Tepid Deeds. Combine these 2 spells when possible.. talk
> >about breaking
> >the odds. Slows down your opponent, increases your attack rate
> >This spell doesn't stack with Augmentation, but as such it provides over
> >double the attack speed for the target and is usually preferred anyway.
The
> >other important thing is that this spell helps increase combat skill gain
> >since you are making more skill rolls with your attack.
> >----------------------
>
> >So, when SLTW " provides over double the attack speed " - it hardly
matters
> >if VoV does a 35.271% increase or a 36.983% increase. Enchanter
> >speed buffs
> >are where it's at. I use Warsong because my enchanter wont give me SLTW.
> >She says she does not want me to die that quickly. But then again
Innoruuk
> >killed her and not me ;p
> >
> >Sylly Songsynger
> ><The Pantheon>
> >Bardette of 49 songs (yes, finally)
> >... somewhere on Innoruuk
> >http://www.sba.uwm.edu/jgs/sylly
>
>
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