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Book of Knowledge: Guide to Soloing

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  • Y.O.L.G
    • May 1999
    Zato

    Book of Knowledge: Guide to Soloing

    Guide to Rogue Soloing
    Submitted by Kohr, aka Stumps
    Edited by Zato


    "Rogue Soloing"... that's a nice play on words.

    When one thinks of soloing in Everquest, the last class to come to mind is the rogue. Unfortunately the rogue is perhaps one of the worst soloers in the game, but being the worst doesn't mean it can't be done. There is a subtle art to soloing with a rogue, there is no definite technique. Where other classes have a formula to soloing (kiting, reverse kiting, charming, etc...) the rogue has only his own wits and experience, for almost every situation for a soloing rogue is unique.

    This guide is intended to help those who choose to solo with a rogue. With these few tips, a little experience and a blessing from lady luck; the rogue can solo with a good rate of advancement for almost his whole career. As well, the better a rogue can solo the better he is in a group. So read and read carefully, for you won't always have a monk to do the pulling. =)

    ---

    Equipment

    Equipment is one of the most important things for a rogue, solo or in a group. Armor and weapons will make or break your character, so choose carefully. Extra gear (for special circumstances) will also aid your rogue, so carry lots of backpacks cause you're gonna need em.

    Armor -

    Armor is pretty simple... it's all in the AC. Whatever you've heard about stat bonuses, throw it all out the window. It's all in the AC. All stat bonuses have negligible effects, so it's best not to worry about em. Maximize your AC, ditch your regular jewelry for AC rings (jagged bands or plat fire opal), AC earrings (any of the 2 ac ones, or diamondine if you can) and AC collars (collar of undead protection, regular banded gorget, runed lava pendant if you can). When comparing armor pieces, look at the AC. Ravenscale is probably your best choice in almost all circumstances (might want to choose azure sleeves over RS arms), so head over to CT. If stats come up for debate (like you have 2 pieces of armor with similar AC), strength has the highest priority and then dexterity (for weapon procs).

    Weapons -

    A solo rogue must choose his weapons wisely. Light, fast weapons make a good choice as well as weapons that process. It is wise to keep your 1 Handed Slashing up to par, for that will increase the choices of weapons you can use. The dragoon dirk, stiletto of the bloodclaw and obsidian shard are great weapons for lower level rogues. The polished granite tomahawk (1HS) is perhaps one of the best offhand weapons a rogue can use up to around level 25. When and if you can (especially after level 27), upgrade your weapons to dual serrated bone dirks (the engulfing darkness process is awesome for a soloing rogue). The gloomwater harpoon is also a great high end weapon, as well as the burning rapier. If you have kept your 1HS up, try to score yourself a short sword of ykesha or an electrum bladed wakizashi. One thing to avoid are heavy weapons. Ditch that glowing iron pike and anything else that is over 4 weight (with the exception of the PGT), because the stamina bar is a big issue when it comes to soloing (explained later).

    Extra Equipment -

    Most people will tell you that having specially tailored equipment will help you in the long run. This is true. Magic resist equipment is very useful when fighting casters (especially the lizard clerics in Cazic Thule) and even other resist boosting equipment can be carried (disease/poison resists are great against shamans and necros). I personally carry around a bloodstained mantle and use my guise of the deceiver (+17 MR from those two items) when I fight casters. Other equipment to carry around are high stamina boosting items like the crude stein (will explain later) and high HP boosting items like plat fire opal rings (will explain later as well). Bandages are always a must and I always stock up on around 100 bandages when I hit town (remember to train up your bind wounds too).

    ---

    Tips and Techniques

    Movement -

    Movement skills are perhaps the greatest asset a rogue can have for pulling and for running to save your hide. If you are a veteran of first person shooters, you are probably already using the mouselook feature (by holding down the right mouse button). If you don't use this, learn to. It will increase your movement ability twofold and save your life in many circumstances.

    The second movement item is a little trick. Many of you will notice that you can strafe faster than you can run (to strafe, hold ctrl down and use the left/right keys or use the left/right keys with mouselook). Moving faster is of course good, but moving sideways is often difficult. You can also strafe diagonally (still faster than run), by pressing the up and side key at the same time. This is much easier to navigate and will increase your speed when pulling or running to zone. You should note however that when you jump, you will jump forward, not in the direction you are strafing.

    Recon -

    Recon is perhaps one of the most important aspects of pulling. With sneak/hide, rogues are invisible to 90% of the monsters in Norrath. Use it and use it well. Use sneak/hide to find potential pulls. Use it to scout around your potential pulls so you don't end up pulling any surprises. Use it to observe the behavior of MoBs (if you see a MoB that will roam closer to where you want to pull, let it roam). In short, with sneak/hide and a little patience... rogues can make some of the best pulls.

    The Pull -

    A lot of rogues will tell you to always start your fight with a backstab/autoattack combination. This is, in most cases, the correct way to begin your pull. Sometimes though, you might opt to do otherwise. If you see another MoB in the vicinity of your victim, often it is best to pull it from afar with ranged weapons. This will decrease the chance of the other MoB aggroing on you and in the case the other MoB does aggro, will give you more time to run to zone. The loss in damage from ranged pulling is more than made up by fighting only 1 MoB as opposed to multiple ones. This is most useful in the case of pulling a blue con MoB while a green con is in the area (a green con that still aggros on you). Pulling with a ranged attack should only pull the blue con MoB and the green will stay behind (you actually have to fight in the vicinity of the green MoB for it to go after you).

    REPOP!!! -

    So you're running your pull back to the zone (or your choice of where to fight) and all of a sudden you see another MoB in the way. In most cases you will end up aggroing the second MoB onto you and will have to deal with multiple MoBs. If you can make a detour then do it. In some rare circumstances though, you do have a chance to sneak past the MoB. A MoB will not aggro on you if you sneak/hide unless another MoB is currently hitting you. So if you have some distance between you and your pull (you might have SoW, you might have snared it with engulfing darkness, or you might have it caught on a pathing bug LOL), it is often possible to sneak/hide past the repop and continue your single pull.

    Backstab -

    This one is probably a no brainer, but in a fight you can use your backstab from the front as an extra piercing attack. Use it... unless you are fighting casters. If you are fighting casters, never use backstab as a frontal attack. Wait for the caster to begin casting and then circle strafe (swing around the MoB to face its back... very difficult without mouselook, but easy with) and stab it in the back. The increased output in damage will more than make up for the few missed pierces from the front and in some cases you might even interrupt the spell being cast.

    Instill Doubt -

    Despite popular belief, instill doubt it a very powerful tool. The key with instill doubt (if you have not found out yet) is its timing with your special attack (backstab). Instill doubt will automatically fail if it performs its skill check when the backstab button is depressed. The skill check occurs roughly 5 seconds after pressing the button... when the "You are not scaring anyone." or kick message is given. So the key here is to time it to make it's skill check right after your backstab button pops up. Hitting ID roughly 4 seconds after hitting backstab is the proper timing. Just don't hit backstab again until the ID check has been made.

    Raising instill doubt is the other issue. It is a huge pain due to its slow rate of increase. The only way around constantly IDing everything you run into is the Gamepad macro. With the Gamepad macro you can probably max your ID in a few nights of macroing. Don't know how to do this? Well then look it up somewhere.

    Okay, now that we figured out how to use and raise ID, now we have to know when and where not to use it. The first thing to note is the pathing the MoB will take when it runs away from you. Of special note is if and when it will end up aggroing other MoBs onto you (AKA train you). If there is a long way the MoB must run before training you, then using ID is often a good idea (usually the fear effect will wear off before it gets too far). If it is a moderate way before the MoB will train you, then only ID if the MoB is snared (by a friendly druid or perhaps by engulfing darkness from your SBDs). If having the MoB move just a short way will end up training you, then do not use ID!!!

    If and when a successful ID goes off... it's time to start chasing that MoB. Strafe, jump, do anything you can to keep on its back. Lay everything you have into him (note the first backstab after a successful ID will not work... it's a bug). Alternatively you might want to bind wounds a couple times (though I would opt to chase it if I could) or even zone if you don't think the fight is going your way.

    It is often a good idea to run back to your fighting spot before or when ID wears off (you will get a message when it wears off). This way you can continue the fight close to zone and continue to use ID.

    Disarm -

    If the MoB you are fighting is carrying a weapon, your disarm skill will come into play. Almost all weapons will increase the combat effectiveness of a MoB (either through faster delay or increased damage), so disarming all weapons is encouraged (disarming will never help out a MoB). Another bonus perk is that you can grab the weapon and keep it even if you do not manage to kill the MoB.

    Evade -

    If fighting your MoB by another fight, keep hitting the Evade skill. If you lower yourself enough on the hate list, the MoB might turn around and beat on the other people who are fighting by you. You then have the chance to get some free shots in. Unfortunately you won't be making very many friends doing this.

    Combat Equipment Swapping -

    All that extra equipment that I told you to bring along does actually come into play. If your recon shows you are going to be fighting a caster, time to put on the appropriate resist gear. Do this even if you've already engaged in combat, for it is never too late till you're dead. Often a little extra magic resist gear will mean the difference of taking that 200 damage force shock or wrath, and resisting it.

    Remember those extra HP items I told you to bring (namely plat fire opal rings)? Well they are your healing potions. If your fight is starting to look close, it's time to switch your items to get some more HPs. With just a couple plat fire opal rings you can give yourself an extra 110 HP. Some people opt to wear these all the time, which is cool too. I prefer to use jagged bands and switch em only when I need to. Just remember not to take them off if you have less than the number of HP you have added. So if you have only 75 HP left, don't take off you plat fire opal rings. You will lose the HP you have added to yourself which may end up killing you. Not a very bright thing to do. =)

    Server Side LAG!!! -

    Almost everybody hates server side lag (that's when your packet loss starts jumping up and down and you can't do anything). What server side lag does is effectively pause the game. Well, not quite effectively. Server side lag can also be your friend with a couple tricks.
    bind wounds - You can bind wounds when the lag hits. You will not receive the "You have finished bandaging yourself." message during the lag, but when the lag goes away you will have been binded (and have recieved the appropriate number of bind wound complete messages). If the lag lasts for a long time, then you can get multiple bind wounds done. This is obviously only an option if you're under 50% health.

    ranged attacks - Yes, ranged attacks do work during lag. You won't get the hit messages until after the lag subsides, but rest assured your attacks will be going through. So back up and let loose with arrows, daggers and shuriken.

    Poison -

    I personally do not use poison, but it can only help. If you feel that it is worth the time and money invested, then by all means go ahead. Every edge you can get will be useful when soloing.

    Stamina -

    Stamina is also very important. I'm not talking about the stamina stat, but the stamina bar in the corner. Remember when I said to use lightweight weapons? Well that is because you want your stamina up for a a number of reasons. During your pull, while chasing your MoB after a successful instill doubt, or during a retreat to zone; you will probably be making good use of your jump button (which requires stamina). With heavy weapons and a low stamina, you'll be a dead rogue. So keep an eye on that bar.

    "Boss! Boss! Da train is coming! Da Train!!! -

    Everybody hates em, especially if they'll end up messing with your fight (such as the numerous trains through the CY in Cazic Thule). If you see the train warning or see the train itself, it is time to relocate your fight to a more remote place (out of the way of the approaching or returning train of course). If you can't do so and don't believe you can finish your fight fast, then you better hot foot it to zone... cause nothing sucks worse than being hit by a train.

    Bind Wounds -

    Most people think this is a no brainer skill, just keep hitting it until you have 50% or more of your total HP. There are however a few extra tricks one can do to make the most of this skill:

    1) Take off any HP gear you have equipped. HP boosting gear will always bring you closer to the 50% threshold. So taking it off might lose you the extra few HP you need to get another bind wounds done. Afterwards, put back on the items and you'll find yourself with much higher HP than 50%.

    2) Likewise adding stamina boosting gear will bring you farther away from the 50% HP mark. That's where that extra stamina gear I told you to bring along comes into play (I use a crude stein as I mentioned before). So take off your HP gear, add your stamina gear and bind wounds as high as you can go. Then put back on your normal gear and sit down to heal the rest.

    Every bind wounds helps (heals 25 HP when maxed, about 50 seconds worth of sitting) and will reduce your downtime significantly. Max this skill as soon as you can, you'll be using it a lot in your solo career.

    HELP!!! -

    If you've found that you've bitten off more than you can chew, it is often a good idea to ask for help. Many players/groups are often more than happy to help you finish a MoB, pull some off you or even heal you. On PvP servers, ask for help with caution, as some players will gladly take advantage of your bad situation.

    If you can, also ask for and buy buffs. HP Buffs, AC buffs, augmentation (the quickness line costs too much mana and doesn't last long), regeneration (or chloroplast) and SoW are great buffs. Always offer to pay and never demand or insult. You can always use another friend to bail you out or buff you in the future, so be nice.

    Use a Stopwatch -

    A stopwatch or timer really helps when you want to time a spawn or how much downtime you have. This will allow you to hide, and then go afk to do something else. It's not very enjoyable watching your HP climb while resting, so go do something else. FYI you heal 20 HP/minute from levels 1-20 and 30 HP/minute at level 20+.

    Plan Your Escape
    Always be aware where you are in relation to the zone and know how to get there. In some areas you can take advantage of your safefall skill to get a head start on your run to the zone.

    ---

    Where to Fight

    Your battleground is the most important choice for a soloing rogue. The best places are where you can pull single, manageable MoBs. MoB availability, respawn time, frequency of trains and specific places to fight (by zone is always nice) also factor into your choice. The next guide is a suggestion of places a rogue can solo well from my experiences. it is by no means the authority on where to go or what to fight, there's a whole lot of places that I don't know about as well.

    Levels 1-5

    Your friendly neighborhood newbie zone should be great for these levels. These are the easiest times for a solo rogue, so you'll breeze right by them.

    Levels 6-10

    Misty Thicket is a great place. The goblin camps by RunnyEye are a prime choice, and every so often you will be able to bag Mooto which is a pretty easy kill for his level and xp given. The goblin warbead quest in Rivervale is also a good supplement of xp as well as food and drink.

    Alternatively you might want to head to Crushbone if you're on Faydwer. Though there is more competition here, single pulls are easy and the loot is great. You can also do the crushbone belt and lego shoulderpads quest for some great xp and money in Kaladim.

    Levels 11-15

    You can stay in Crushbone and move up to hunting legionarres or in the castle, but this is very often crowded. Still though, it is a good place for loot and some nice items.

    Alternatively you can go to the West Commonlands on Antonica and hunt wisps, young kodiaks and dervish cutthroats (also found in North Ro). Wisps and dervs are a great source of income (lightstones and bronze weapons).

    Another great place to solo is in Beholder Maze. Muddites and gorge minotaurs are your targets here. The loot isn't so great, but this zone isn't very camped.

    Levels 16-20

    Oasis. This zone might be one of the most crowded and obnoxious zones in the game, but it is definitely one of the best for soloing in. The crocs are great xp and don't gang up on you, unfortunately the loot is almost non-existent. Start off with caimans, then crocodiles and then deepwater caimans. Deepwater crocs are usually too tough for you, even at level 20. The best way to play this zone is to bind wounds up to half and go after a low blue. Since you'll never be fighting more than 1 MoB, you can easily dispatch that low blue even with half HP. When you're done, bind wounds again and go at it again. Low downtime, good xp and high survivability make these levels a breeze.

    Levels 21-24

    Aviak guards in Lake Rathe are my choice for soloing. They respawn quickly (6 minute spawntime) and are easy to fight alone. Unfortunately there are only 2 places that a rogue can fight them. The single spawn on the plank and the three spawn on the altar. All the other aviaks require magic to pull (ranged weapons don't work). Often you'll find that Lake Rathe is pretty camped...

    ... in that case you head to campville #2, South Karana. Try to pick off low-medium blue aviaks and gnolls. Every so often zone into Lake Rathe and see if you can get a camp spot. If you ever find yourself with too many coppers/silvers and no bank to go to, go to the aviak merchant in the treetown and buy yourself some bandages. This is a great time to max bind wounds if you haven't already.

    Levels 25-30

    For the best xp, head back to Oasis and start soloing the deepwater goblin pets (often camped these days, so it might be tough). You will be able to handle higher con ones than you would normally think so since the DWG pets are easy for their level. Unfortunately there is zero loot to be had here.

    My second choice is Cazic Thule. The maze will be your new home. Start off with warders and defenders, then work up to defenders and sentinals. If you pull more than 1, ask for help in the CY or zone. Usually you can get someone to grab your extra(s), if not just zone (you can always pull again). This is where you will be making great use of sneak/hide. This is also a good time to look into acquiring some Ravenscale armor.

    If you're on Faydwer, there is an orc camp in Lesser Faydark that spawns a high level orc legionarre or chief (I think level 20-22). This spawn is about 5 minutes I think and great to do if not camped.

    Another option is the smugglers in Highhold Pass. You can take advantage of your safefall skill if you need to make a run for it.

    Levels 31-35

    Cazic is still an okay place, you can try to maze pull sentinals (but you'll probably end up grabbing a lot of warders and defenders you don't want). Or you can pull low level gators from the blue pool (though gators are tough for their level and gang up).

    Alternatively you can go zone hunting in Upper Guk. This is a little trickier since you will have to contend with multiple MoBs, but it can still be accomplished. There are two places you can do this. The first is by the live side zone, the second is by the in water zone closest to the dead side zone (dead end with a plank crossing a stream, the stream actually leads to a zone). In both of these places, there are 2 MoB spawns. The key here is to engage both of them, pick the weakest (or spellcaster if there is one) and try to kill it before you die. When it dies, zone and leave the second MoB. Bind wounds and rest for about 8 minutes (the spawntime in Upper Guk is about 17 minutes. Zone back in and take out that second MoB. You have now split the spawn on roughly 8 minute cycles. Easy to handle for a solo rogue (you are using a stopwatch aren't you?).

    Levels 36-40

    Time to either move forward or back. Move forward onto Lower Guk or back to Cazic Thule.
    In Lower Guk you can hunt the shin knights by the zone (on either the dead side or live side) which are an easy, single pull if others are hunting in the same area. Don't be afraid to fight those ghouls either. They are no tougher than their live counterparts with the exception of their ghoulroot.

    Back in Cazic you can start pulling protectors and fanatics from the planks or hunt them by the archon temple or on the archon temple. There are numerous pathing bugs in the planks area and archon temple that may prove to be of assistance, but are considered an exploit by the GMs (consider yourself warned). You can also pull gators from any of the pools, but it this case it is difficult to tell how tough the gator is (all the blue con messages are the same and the gators range from level 22-33) and sometimes even with a single pull you'll find yourself zoning. A word of caution, gators and MoBs from the pools and planks are notorious for being jumpy (they keep jumping on top of you which results in you missing your attacks). With a little practice, you can still fight jumpies without missing any attacks by backing up a little from time to time.

    Levels 41-43

    Cazic is probably the only option for a solo rogue. For lizards you will be concentrating on fanatics and zealots (crusaders, champions, justicars and judicators are still beyond you). These you can pull from the planks area or fight on the archon temple. High level gators are still an option. You can grab these from the green pool and tunnel, the well to the planks, the planks themselves, the pool in the planks (turn right when you face a choice and continue on) and under the archon temple (accessed from falling down from archon spawn or by swimming through the pool in the planks). My personal choice here is under the archon temple, since this is a place that is rarely, if ever, visited by anyone else (most people don't even know it exists). There are 3 high level (28+) gators under the temple and pools to fight them single in and use instill doubt with (they will circle the pool and not cause a train).

    Levels 44-47

    From Kinthaf:
    I soloed a couple of levels in sol B, the greater kobalds are all blue until 46 (most are still blue after) and can be soloed with some planning. If they are piercing/slashing you and you don't disarm them in the first 2 tries just zone, you have taken too much damage. Don't pass it up just because its a green kobald, solo at 47 they still give very good xp. If there are a green and a blue together, pull the blue with a range weapon and the green won't come. Don't solo near the lavastorm zone, too many trains come through there and thats where the pks hang out if your on a pvp server.

    Levels 48+

    I think it is safe to assume that your soloing career is at an end now. Time to group up and hit the planes now... go have some fun with other people. =)

    ---

    So that's Stumps' guide to soloing a rogue. Sure hope it helps and I expect to be seeing a lot more rogues... who are actually rogue. Take care and happy soloing. =)
    Zato Thornblade the Dwarven Assassin of Tarew Marr
    Zatolion, Cleric of Gawaine [Royal Knight]
    Lotaz, Sorcerer of Gawaine [Noble]
    Guild Leader of the Northwind Highlanders
    Zatosh <Savvy>, Shaman of Echo Isles
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