Thread: The Great Captain Solo Thread

I thought someone had tried to start one of these before, but after browsing 10 pages deep I wasn't able to find it. That said, let's get a nice list of what we can solo post-ROI. With the level of DPS we can put out along with some of the awesome set bonuses we get, Captains are capable of amazing things now. I'll start with my couple minor achievements.

Grand Stair Hard Mode
Stoneheight T1

I had done Stoneheight T2 through the first boss, pretty sure boss 2 would be easy as well, but ran out of time and haven't been back since. The last boss/challenge for StH T2 would be pretty difficult with all of the stuns and massive hits the one guy throws out.

I've not been trying much recently, but have done

Stoneheight T1
Stoneheight T2 (first 2 bosses only, couldn't hack 3rd yet)
GS Easy mode
SH Easy

GS Easy and SH Easy modes were trivial for me. 20% return on revealing mark + whaling away with minimal strategy worked fine. Stoneheight T1 wasn't much harder, trash took longer than bosses it seemed. I should try SH hard mode and GS Hard mode. But the rewards in Stoneheight are better. In fact, for those who like rewards rather than challenge, you can down the first Stoneheight T1 boss in about 6 minutes (counting the trash lead ins), and get 4xTier 4 relics and 2-3 50k runes...

I should really try soloing grand stairs to complete the Moria metadeed.

Other than STH T1 / NCF T1 which are rewarding and fun (I laugh every time when I switch between slapping the hobbits and dpsing the cauldron), I do SH HM sometimes, it takes about 7.5 minutes and gives destiny points daily.
I tried Warg Pens HM, but died half way on the last boss (now I would go with different traits, but the whole instance takes too long and I did not find time for that yet).

Originally Posted by DelgonTheWise

I've not been trying much recently, but have done

Stoneheight T1
Stoneheight T2 (first 2 bosses only, couldn't hack 3rd yet)
GS Easy mode
SH Easy

GS Easy and SH Easy modes were trivial for me. 20% return on revealing mark + whaling away with minimal strategy worked fine. Stoneheight T1 wasn't much harder, trash took longer than bosses it seemed. I should try SH hard mode and GS Hard mode. But the rewards in Stoneheight are better. In fact, for those who like rewards rather than challenge, you can down the first Stoneheight T1 boss in about 6 minutes (counting the trash lead ins), and get 4xTier 4 relics and 2-3 50k runes...

I agree, Stoneheight T1 is definitely where it's at if you need to farm item xp and relics.

Yeah, I've also done Stoneheight T2 up to the third boss. IMO, the second boss T2 was easier than the first boss T1. However, my best so far has been getting one of the two bosses down to 1/2 morale, and that's with popping all my CDs. I'm sure if I could somehow manage to take one of them down, the other one would be easy. Cappies do really well against only one target, thanks to 20% revealing mark.

I haven't bothered with Northcotton Farms, because it seems incredibly annoying. The first boss seems doable (if painful, thanks to the constant kiting), and the third boss would be easy. But I don't think I could manage the second boss, unless those clouds do a lot less damage than I remember. I know my 65 burg went down in a few seconds standing in them.

I got couple solo kills so far NCF t2c, SHT t2c, Sword Halls HM, GS HM, troll OP in the moors, boss in delving(wight first to the left on freeps entrance), boss cow in BB in the moors ..... more solo stuff coming soon!!!

I've been doing Dungeons just recently solo to complete the rescue the elf prisoners deed. The first part of freeing all the prisoners is very easy to be honest and I go through it quickier than if I was with a group as I can avoid the wandering brutes easier and the trash isn't as harsh as it was when I was 65.
The challenge, which took me a few attempts to nail down, was keeping the prisoners alive during the last boss fight.

Still got to do it a couple more times to complete the freeing all the various prisoners deed

there should be some sort of rule that you can't use P2W shiz

This seems an appropriate thread to ask this, any other captains have groups asking you to main heal and main tank at the same time in 3-mans and the like?

Originally Posted by Neverwhere616

I agree, Stoneheight T1 is definitely where it's at if you need to farm item xp and relics.

t2 NCF is much better. you get over twice the runes and more relics.

it is pretty boring to do it solo t2, so i dual box champ/capt :P you can pull everything in between bosses and do the instance in 10m.

bringing a buddy in to farm it with two is one of the best ways to get relics/runes.

Well, I think there is nothing you can´t do solo...^^

But: Anyone who kill the OP WOOD(!!)troll solo yet? (moors)

Originally Posted by jchudz

This seems an appropriate thread to ask this, any other captains have groups asking you to main heal and main tank at the same time in 3-mans and the like?

Havn't experienced that myself, but if they did I think I'd laugh at them. Our self-healing isn't up to that sort of misuse.
We can Heal OR Tank any 3-man, but if we could do both at once why would we bother to bring anyone else with us?

Originally Posted by jchudz

This seems an appropriate thread to ask this, any other captains have groups asking you to main heal and main tank at the same time in 3-mans and the like?

No so much of that. I have had healers who seemed to think captains don't need healing. I've had a tank or two who didn't think they had to pull adds off me when I was healing.

Originally Posted by AlazkanAssassin

Havn't experienced that myself, but if they did I think I'd laugh at them. Our self-healing isn't up to that sort of misuse.
We can Heal OR Tank any 3-man, but if we could do both at once why would we bother to bring anyone else with us?

Originally Posted by jchudz

This seems an appropriate thread to ask this, any other captains have groups asking you to main heal and main tank at the same time in 3-mans and the like?

I actually have chosen to do this. It's utter suicide for an Isen 3-man, except for maybe trash pulls on T1. However, for a 3-man skirm, Cappy healtanking is the way to go, and it makes you feel incredibly epic.

What you do is heal the group as needed, while focus-DPSing on the lieutenant. You let the DPS pull the adds off you, but you always keep aggro on lieutenants. Since it's a skirm, the adds will go down fast, so you'll get an RC every 15s. Combine that with revealing mark, and you can easily stay alive long enough for your group to burn down the adds and kill the lieutenant.

Since no one is focusing on tanking or healing, which would severely gimp their DPS, your group will tear through the skirms with a vengeance. It's an incredibly fun, somewhat reckless way of doing things, and my favorite way to earn marks.

Originally Posted by IGolbezI

there should be some sort of rule that you can't use P2W shiz

For challenge soloing like this, it's generally accepted that it doesn't count if you used anything that you bought with TP. People differ on the use of DP perks, but personally I think they're okay.

Use every consumable you have, though

Originally Posted by sarefx

I got couple solo kills so far NCF t2c, SHT t2c, Sword Halls HM, GS HM, troll OP in the moors, boss in delving(wight first to the left on freeps entrance), boss cow in BB in the moors ..... more solo stuff coming soon!!!

I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to call "proof or it didn't happen" on the bolded ones. Every Captain I've talked to gets ripped apart in the final boss of Stoneheight T2 (although the rest of it is pretty easy). Additionally, how in the world did you kill the cauldron in NCF T2? The gas clouds will kill even an uber cappy in only a few seconds, the hobbits spawn almost constantly, and we have such low DPS that I bet the cauldron would be hard to down in time even if you could stand there and hit it without worrying about the hobbits/clouds.

Troll OP in the moors could be possible, but I know some really good Captains that have tried that and failed, and I know I can't handle it. Since it's something that isn't widely accepted as possible (like STH t1), you have to prove you did it.

SH HM solo, used a herald and had it song-brothered for infinite power via inspire. i think i cut it a bit close but it's possible with new mitigations and captains much better dps

P.S. no i didn't use any of the store pots on my hotbar, i use those in the moors lol

what kinda proof u want? lol SHT t2c I barely got it down, NCF t2c is very easy also I solo it once a week, Troll OP is freaking easy if u cant solo that u should not be in this thread, Wood Troll is whole different story, gonna try it some time since I got 1st age woot. Trick for SHT t2c: at least 65% phisical miti, Dagor set to spam DB/PA, 12k morale, 90% melee offence, and good crit chance.

The only undeniable proof is a video with your combat tab open. That would be best.

However, a screenshot works just fine. See legion45's post right before yours for a great example.

If this is gonna be a "I can solo ____" bragging thread, great. The Champion version has motivated lots of Champs to try crazy things, and has lead to some really awesome solos. But they also require proof for the difficult ones.

Originally Posted by sarefx

what kinda proof u want? lol SHT t2c I barely got it down, NCF t2c is very easy also I solo it once a week, Troll OP is freaking easy if u cant solo that u should not be in this thread, Wood Troll is whole different story, gonna try it some time since I got 1st age woot. Trick for SHT t2c: at least 65% phisical miti, Dagor set to spam DB/PA, 12k morale, 90% melee offence, and good crit chance.

It's ok Milnor, I believe you

How much ICPR are you guys running? I ask because I spied a few of your builds and two of you seem to be almost allergic to power. I don't find that BB Inspire is enough for some of the longer fights.

I get alot of power from DB/PA crits with my dagor set, specially in underlvl content where ur crit chance is higher.

I think Tangaar figured out you only get like 98 power above and beyond what it takes to use DB/PA in the first place. Does this make that big of a deal?

Yay! A captain solo thread! Now I just have to go and solo something meaningful...

There is of course a long list of stuff I HAVE soloed but which I didn't really feel was an accomplishment, so no pictures (I can GET pictures though, if people really refuse to believe me for some reason):

Carn Dum
Urugarth
Barad Gularan
Inn of the Forsaken level 75 T1 (A great place to make gold at 75!)
Inn of the Forsaken level 75 T2 (It's so long! And just refuses to end! Didn't do the challenge on account of my captain not being a lore master)
Ettenmoors outpost tyrant, creep version (It really is trivial, honestly, unless someone comes to play with you while you fight it; the wood troll on the other hand...well, that one I'd love to see proof of a captain soloing, since I sure can't!)
Grand Stairs challenge (I think I have a screenshot somewhere, but I think Igash is something that's accepted as soloable by now)

I've also soloed Fil Gashan challenge (second boss was the hardest...curse you spammable stuns!), but frankly it was too hectic and I couldn't get good screenshots...I'll go back there for proof next week or at some point in the future!

Oh, there's also a few I do have pictures of handy:

Sword Halls Hard Mode (it's been done, but I can do it too!)



Frankly pretty easy, herald helped contribute some cursory DPS and let me use To Arms.

Northcotton Farms Tier 2, first boss:



Pretty trivial, used a standard of war to make it go faster since I could just stand in melee for most of it. This fight is accepted to be soloable at 75 I think.

Northcotton Farms Tier 2, second boss:



Couldn't really take a better shot as I was too busy running around for most of it. Used Amanda (my trusty disposable mook!) as a DoT on the cauldron since I was slapping hobbits and kiting pools half the time. Finished a bit past the last warning, so barely in time, but didn't use Oathbreakers (didn't have it), so could do it a tad faster. Winning the race approaches the limit of captain DPS though, hardest fight in the instance.

Northcotton Farms Tier 2, Thadur:



Pretty easy, hardest part was getting past that stupid pot to get to him. Amanda valiantly took all the stun poisons and half the distributed damage for me...not sure I could have managed the fight using a standard. Very effective way to get bulk relics (Stoneheight final boss is harder, and farming the first few is about the same return...plus this gives DP! Precious, precious DP...)

That seems to be the limit on pictures on this forum, so...yeah, enough for now. I'll be back though! With more pictures! And perhaps a video or two on request, though I'd probably have to turn my graphics down.

Coming Soon: FG (this time with pictures!), Stoneheight Tier 2 challenge, 16th Hall, probably other stuff if I'm bored enough!

More pictures!

This time, I beat up Barz in the Rift...sure it's level 50, but it's actually not as trivially easy as one would imagine. Or maybe it is. Won't bother showing the trash unless someone requests it...pretty much all the pulls from clearing appear as waves in the boss fight anyway.

Starting:



Second Wave:



Third Wave:



And the end of the fight:



Takes about 20 minutes just for Barz (or took me that long). Also something like an hour to beat up the tedious, repetetive trash pulls...got 2 gold and a boot gem out of the box (at least gems are BtA now, so I guess some seventh string alt will be getting Rift boots at 50), so not worth the time to farm it, but it was fun. Difficulty I'd say is a tad harder than Northcotton tier 2, but easier than Stoneheight tier 2's final boss (harder than the first two though, probably). Poor herald didn't last beyond the troll/keeper wave, too much AoE no matter where I put her, so used a standard for most of it.

As for the rest of the Rift, Zurm is more or less the same boss, so that's soloable. Don't think Fruz would be though, or Zogtark. Narnulubat MAY be possible, but you'd need locks to even try. The rest again probably not. Feel free to prove me wrong though!

I tried same thing just now, its not that bad, gonna try to solo more stuff in rift lol here are screens for none believers =P gonna do NCF and SHT tomorrow again with screens lol

Yeah, first and third bosses of Northcotton are pretty trivial. Only time I ever really had issues with first boss was when I lagged or didn't notice the egg, and the Spider healed up to full again. However, I'm having issues with the second boss. I can't seem to kill the cauldron, keep myself alive, and slap the hobbits all at once. My DPS is still low enough that I need to spend a large part of the fight hitting the cauldron, but that means standing in the clouds, which I have trouble surviving.

Megumi, are you doing all this traited HoH? I tend to prefer MoW, because it gives far more damage, which means more healing from Revealing Mark (which I have at 20%). Also, it gives me double the uses of DB and +5% crit chance, which means far more uses of RC. Other than unlimited power (which is awesome), why'd you go for HoH? Just curious.

Also, you really only need screens of the boss kill. If you can kill the boss, we'll trust that you handled the adds on your own

Cariance,
Sorry for late response but think about DB/PA power restore as an icpr, I can hit DB/PA almost every 4/5 sec, if it crits lets say every time so I get 209 power every 4/5 sec, its almost 2400 icpr, thats not including power restore from defensive strike, and plus I get like additional 100-150 power from traited rallying cry. Even if it crits every second time than its 1200 icpr which is still significant. I hope those rough numbers makes sense. And also I have cry power cost and melee skills power cost legacies maxed out on my weapon. If u want real numbers I can run my combat analysis.

Originally Posted by Philosomanic

Yeah, first and third bosses of Northcotton are pretty trivial. Only time I ever really had issues with first boss was when I lagged or didn't notice the egg, and the Spider healed up to full again. However, I'm having issues with the second boss. I can't seem to kill the cauldron, keep myself alive, and slap the hobbits all at once. My DPS is still low enough that I need to spend a large part of the fight hitting the cauldron, but that means standing in the clouds, which I have trouble surviving.

Your mileage will of course vary, but here's how I approached it: start with an archer (this is one of those fights where no argument can be made for a standard, any standard, providing more of an advantage). When the fight starts, throw telling mark and your pet at the cauldron...it's like having an extra cutting attack/grave wound DoT up for the full duration of the fight since pets can't get the eye. You'll pretty much always get double-eyes (since there's nothing else for the pot to target), so just kite those for the duration. Doesn't matter where you put them, just try to avoid them right on top of the boss. While you have an eye, you can also be slapping hobbits with your trusty /slap macro (can see mine over on one of my visible bars, hold-over from level 65 when I ran this a lot...it's next to my /raidshout aliases for telling people to remove corruptions and start/stop DPSing a boss).

When the eye goes away, that's your cue to start hitting the boss with whatever you have (and to use To Arms!). You can afford to stay in until the first puddle of the next eye cycle (if you stay longer you'll probably miss a hobbit, and if you miss too many you'll fail), just be sure to drop that puddle on one side of the cauldron...if you drop it there, you can move to the other side to not be in the puddle for a few more seconds of damage. Repeat until you win...if/when you get the one minute warning, just slap the current hobbit then run in and use last stand to finish the pot off, you won't need it anywhere else in this instance. DPSing through the pools is inadviseable (they stack!), and you don't really need to heal yourself much, if at all once you get the timing down.

That being said, I did fail it once on my very first try (played too conservative and ran out of time) before I got the timing down. Gets much easier with practice.

Originally Posted by Philosomanic

Megumi, are you doing all this traited HoH? I tend to prefer MoW, because it gives far more damage, which means more healing from Revealing Mark (which I have at 20%). Also, it gives me double the uses of DB and +5% crit chance, which means far more uses of RC. Other than unlimited power (which is awesome), why'd you go for HoH? Just curious.

Yes, you caught me, most of what I posted was indeed done traited HoH. As for the reason? That's easy: laziness. That's right, there's no real mechanical advantage to soloing most content traited HoH, I'm just too lazy to bother retraiting unless it's something I can't manage otherwise. I'd just have to retrait back again later anyway!

That being said, don't take the fact that I can solo something traited that way to mean it's automatically effortless...some of the stuff I've tried (and even succeeded at!) required a notably more crafty approach than "throw revealing mark at it, turn on auto-attack, go afk, come back to victory". Probably.

Originally Posted by Philosomanic

Also, you really only need screens of the boss kill. If you can kill the boss, we'll trust that you handled the adds on your own

I can't speak for Milnor, but the reason why I posted pictures of the waves for the Barz fight wasn't because I thought that otherwise someone would jump on me saying I had a group and had them drop at the last 15k or something, but more because this thread isn't being flooded with pictures just yet and I felt I needed to do my part!

When more people start posting pretty pictures, I'll be happy to reduce my posts to just a boss kill shot and text explaining how much I cheated (or maybe some sort of RP story, depends what mood I'm in!).

On a related note, I also think we should post relative difficulty (admittedly that's subjective, but still) along with new solos. As a baseline, anything that can be beaten just by throwing revealing mark up on a mob and auto-attacking (admittedly there are probably knockbacks and leashing and switching targets to consider, so it's not THAT simple), like Carn Dum or Urugarth, or content where you can just stand there and hit a boss without your morale moving would rate as "trivial" or "very easy" or some other term if people don't like those. Basically this is a fight where barring going linkdead or the mob resetting (or falling asleep!) the chance of failure is minimal.

Stuff like the last boss of Northcotton Farms (tier 2!), or Inn of the Forsaken's boss fights (set to level 75...below that, it's still trivial!), where it's possible to die and there are mechanics to consider, but the battle is still won mainly by standing still and letting revealing mark heal you, would rate as "easy" or something similar.

Then content where you have to be clever, or kite a little, or maybe even kite a lot at times, or where there would be a mark of choice that isn't revealing (or isn't always revealing), or a position of choice that's not "the same place you were 30 seconds ago" could rate as "moderate" or something in that vein. I'd say the cauldron in NCFt2 and the fights with Barz and Zurm in the Rift would fall around here, as would the first boss of Stoneheight tier 2.

And of course the content that pushes the limits of the class, requires gear and traits and possibly what-not would then qualify as "difficult" or "really difficult" or "super difficult" or whatever else makes people feel like they accomplished something. The final fight of Stoneheight tier 2 would fall here, for example. The end fight in FG probably would too, in my opinion, but I'll think about it more when I go back there for pictures.

Thoughts?

not quite sure what you guys think is so hard about boss 2 of NCF. here is the last half, i guess i could upload the first half if you want but it's not too hard i dont think

id stick the two halves together but im running on 32bit machine for a little while and i cant find any 32 bit program that doesn't compress the video way too much if you merge vids

Originally Posted by IGolbezI

not quite sure what you guys think is so hard about boss 2 of NCF. here is the last half, i guess i could upload the first half if you want but it's not too hard i dont think

Not "hard", just harder than say...the rest of the instance, or Grand Stairs or something like that.

A better way to put it (I think) would be that it takes more than standing still and auto-attacking with revealing mark up, so regardless of how difficult it actually is, it's a fight worth trying.

And I don't think there's a point trying to combine the halves of the video or uploading the rest even. Like you said, it's not such a hard fight to solo that people shouldn't believe you can...plus, it'd just be an extra 2 minutes of the exact same thing you already showed! Not like the pot changes forms or starts shooting lasers or something at any point!

Did SHT t2c again, with pics =P

NCF t2c last 2 bosses with pics =) note I killed second boss in 2 mins =P

soloed the first boss of SG. got it first try but it was hard.

second boss is impossible i think lol

trash isnt easy either

First off, grats on soloing Urchir (SG fire guy...that's his name, I think). Now I have to try that one too!

Second, I ended up going back to FG so I could prove I did it. First boss is trivial, so not going to bother showing proof of that.

Second boss:



Oh god! The stuns, they refuse to stop! The stupid lieutenants just spam them, and the stun lasts longer than their warband contribution, so the damage REALLY adds up. Even though you can resist the stun, it still happens so often that you're stunned for half the last part of the fight. The first two thirds of the fight are really easy, but honestly this fight may well be harder than General Talug at the end.

Third boss:





It may only be level 60, but this fight has everything! Stuns, more wounds than you can consistently cure, a hard-hitting but slow-moving invulnerable boss, an invulnerability mechanic, positioning...in all it's a ton of fun solo with a captain. Not impossibly hard, but it's a ton of incoming damage and you won't win just depending on revealing mark and standing still. Makes Northcotton tier 2 seem like landscape content by comparison. Well, not quite...but it's still challenging and fun!

Up next, 16th Hall...maybe.

Ah, good old 16th Hall, redefining fun twenty completely identical trash pulls at a time.

First two bosses I'd say are trivial, pictures available on request.

Lost One (with challenge):



First, I will NEVER do that again. Getting to the end reminded me of why I hate 16th Hall and always have. As for the boss? Easy, I guess. Can't just stand there and take the hits though, there are a lot of little beetles. I miss the old version of this fight, with the corruptions and exploding ninja orc death squads dropping down from the sky every minute.

I did HoC HM, here r pics =P Also a first boss seem the hardest one to me, and trash pulls before a first boss were insane, but rest of the fight was simple.

Nice work in there, makes the captain look fun!!!

Now to ditch that RK and get my lowbie captain levelled up!

Well, using a light shield + some nice traits is really handy for soloing aswell and the right relics for more evade parry and block. I've solod T2 SHT aswell but the last boss. That one is really a nasty one for captains. also NCF isn't that hard for a cappy and sword halls Hm is doable aswell. GS isn't that hard either anymore now. but how about trying the first boss in rift ? it's pretty hard but Im assure u can complete it! Also a nice place to try ur solo skills is to go to nars peak and complete some bosses over there ^.^

I got first six bosses down in the rift, working right now on the giant in the arena, here are the pics
http://s1110.photobucket.com/albums/h455/Sarefx/

"So, Meg..." People may be saying, "You may be able to solo all this grey content, but what does that prove? I mean...it's grey! Trivial! Right?"

Well, I doubt anyone's actually saying that. But let's pretend they were, and that knowledge (along with the voices in my head) prompted me to go try something more...at-level.

Pits tier 1 First boss:



Took three tries. Honestly, it came down to how often I critted him; there's nothing I could have done better strategy-wise, and I used every meaningful non-store buff I can think of by the end (pay to win buffs are cheating, but I'll throw as much DP and as many consumables at something as it takes to beat it), and still had to man-heal the last time. The picture makes it seem like I was more in control than I actually was, like I said I critted literally EVERY DB on him that attempt. The main advantage of the prisoners was that I could blade-brother them without sacrificing a standard (best of both worlds!), the DPS they added was at best trivial since they attack once every fifteen seconds, or so it seemed.

After that, I cleared the fire wing trash (had a friend open the wing for me, but she left immediately after that). That was even harder than the first boss, especially once haze started tiering up. First few pulls were easy enough, but by the time I got to the two elite/one sig pull at the end, I had to kill one, die, and run back to finish.

Before Fire Wing Boss:



I gave the boss two solid attempts before all those nifty buffs started to run out, but I couldn't get him below ~70k. The crits just weren't going off in my favor I guess, and I kept getting hard to avoid fire patterns and taking 1k or so from that before I could move out of them. In the end, I got sick of it and walked off to take a break, but this boss is possible. I'd say harder than Stoneheight tier 2's end fight though, and also the sort of fight that depends more on gear and luck with crits on the right skill at the right time to pull off. Certainly not something you'd solo for seals.

After numerous attempts I finally managed to kill fire boss in pits t1, but I had no quest because I forced to leave instance so I can repair and re supply my consumables, here are pics, not gonna show pics for first boss because it was simple unless someone doent believe me lol