5 Essential items for Soloing chosen by Tolero
When F2P launched, I decided to make an “experiment” character to see what it was like to try and solo to level cap as a melee. I’m a fairly relaxed and easy going player who likes to chase butterflies more than beat down monsters, so the idea of having to play quests – without having stronger spec’d friends in party to lean on – was kind of scary.
I wanted to see what kind of situations the Store helped with most that otherwise I would have been stuck without. I’ll probably write more about what it was like on MyDDO, but for now I wanted to help highlight some of these Store items for other solo players! -Tolero
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Hirelings |
| I’ve played with hirelings for a long time, all classes of them, and through all the various iterations of their changes and updates as I’ve leveled. Ultimately these little guys have become my best friends (even if they sometimes have a mind of their own during a fight).Once quests started to get really tricky or have hard to reach levers, they became invaluable. Sometimes they’re best when parked off to the side, called on only for healing or specific spells. Other times, they’re right by my side.
At the end of the day I think my favorite thing about them as a solo player is not feeling so lonely but with none of the downsides. They’re like a PUG that doesn’t back talk me, lets me play the quests the way I want at the pace I want, with no spoilers or judgment of how gimpy my build is, and they’re ALWAYS ready to join my quest. |
| Description |
Are you short on party members? Hirelings can help! Hire the perfect helper to join you in pummeling the enemy and take advantage of their special abilities like healing, lock-picking, and more! Fight alongside Barbarian, Sorcerer, Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, Favored Soul, Bard, Paladin, or Rogue Hirelings! |
| Store Location |
Guilds & Hirelings → Hirelings |
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Resurrection Cakes |
| This is always a good go-to item for soloing. Why abandon a failed quest? I could just eat a cake and keep going. There are plenty of times when I wasn’t paying attention to my health and then went splat, so having the ability to pick up where I left off was so nice! |
| Description |
Return your character or an ally to life with a Spirit Cake! The revived character will regain half or more of its hit points depending on the type of cake. Available in single, 3, and 5 stacks! Note: Not usable in raids or public areas. |
| Store Location |
Healing & Magic → Rest & Resurrection |
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Jewels of Fortune |
| Since I didn’t have the benefit of trading items with other players in chests when I was soloing, I’d put on some loot boosts. Even though they don’t increase the odds of named loot dropping, they do improve the quality of the “vendor items” so to speak. Basically because you’ve upped the loot quality, you get more out of those items when you vendor/deconstruct them. That helped me to offset the fact that I didn’t have someone to barter with over their chest pulls. |
| Description |
Turn up your treasure! Get a +1 or +2 bonus to the level of treasure earned from opening treasure chests for 3-6 hours. The timer on the Jewels of Fortune pauses while you are in public areas or when logged out. |
| Store Location |
XP & Boosts → Loot Boosts |
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Lasting Potion of Jumping (+20) |
| This sounds silly, but you would not believe the amount of times that I wanted to try for an optional chest, then suddenly realized that my character didn’t quite have enough jump to reach a hard-to-grab ledge or I left my clickie back at the bank or on one of my alts. Normally I always had someone in the party to hook me up, or a clickie item on me, but inevitably I’d forget and there I’d be staring at a ledge out of reach.When you get stumped as a solo player, checking the Store for temporary buffs or emergency items is a huge benefit. Remember to use the keyword search! |
| Description |
This potion provides a +20 enhancement bonus to your character’s Jump skill for 10 minutes each use. This effect will last through death, rests and entering a dungeon. Available in 5, 10, and 25-stacks! |
| Store Location |
Healing & Magic → Buffs → General Buffs |
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Adventure Packs |
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| So even though I was leveling as a VIP, I could tell that having access to certain quest chains was a huge perk. Also there were times when people recommended quests to me because of XP or loot, but I didn’t particularly care for those quests and wanted something else to do at that level.Having access to multiple packs allowed me to level in the content that I enjoyed most instead of constantly grinding on one pack just for the XP. I’m just not that kind of person. Off the top of my head, particular quest packs that I really enjoyed with my solo melee, were:
* Tangleroot Gorge
* Three-Barrel Cove (I’m a sucker for pirates)
* The Red Fens
* Delera’s Tomb
* Attack on Stormreach
* The Path of Inspiration
* The Dreaming Dark
* Secrets of the Artificers (Obviously I’m not good enough to solo the raids, but the quests and the adventure areas were fun!) |
| Description |
Discover new dangers, glorious loot, and even more power and prestige by journeying through hand-crafted Adventure Packs. Battle through hundreds of hours of exciting killer dungeons and glorious landscapes bursting with ferocious monsters, fiendish traps, and enough treasure to fill up an airship. |
| Store Location |
Account → Adventures → Adventure Packs |
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