Thread: Soloing - red vs yellow

So I'm in the late 40's, doing Eregion and dipping my toes into Moria. I like a challenge, I like killing things that could potentially kill me(on-level mobs just can't). I have been traited red since I rolled this guy. Would going yellow give me a bit more survivability? I realize it's going to drop my dps by a lot, making fights longer, but not using most of the WS skills makes my power last a lot longer. That's the obstacle I face, some mobs I'm trying to fight have more morale than I have power.

I'm thinking yellow would let me go slower, stand there toe-to-toe and mostly echoes, ballads and melee, saving power to keep up defensive anthems and heal once in a while. I currently run 5r and smooth voice, so after I get war going I can get prowess and free peoples up sooner. I do use composure for power when I need to, but I don't like to coda unless it's absolutely necessary for power or to finish off the mob.

I guess what I'm looking for here is opinions of mini's who've soloed both in red and yellow, and the strengths and weaknesses of each I'm not seeing.

Your best bet at soloing is traiting red and blasting things as quick and hard as you can.

Anthem of composure and hitting coda will return power. Do it often and you're likely to finish every fight full of power.

Red line you can solo almost anything landscape toe-to-toe on level doing that, and those that you can't, you can kite.

Can solo yellow line (I levelled up to 75 post Isengard release 5 deep in yellow line) and it's not too traumatic, but red line is just vastly superior for soloing in my opinion.

One thing I've found in Moria is that a hybrid of Red and Yellow is very effective. I've run 3r4y since I got the last trait slot and haven't had a problem soloing on my own or healing 6-mans.

Originally Posted by Moejo

I do use composure for power when I need to, but I don't like to coda unless it's absolutely necessary for power or to finish off the mob.

SPAM IT! solo it really doesn't matter about keeping up more than one anthem. Just spam this is you need power.

Solo up to this date I run 7 reds, then healing 4 blue 3 yellow.

go red, the yellow line is no good in short fights, and i have not had a short fight solo unless i take on a rare elite in GR or pull 5-6 on lvl mobs

Go red and use Coda every time it's available to heal morale or power, whichever is lowest, and do a not inconsiderable amount of damage to whatever you're fighting.

I guess I really should be using coda more. I just hate that it takes so much time to build back up to maximum damage(3minors+AoW). It does hit harder than any thing else I have though, even with a rather substantial boost to PC damage from my starter LI leg. The PC leg on my weapon and AoW tac damage bonus on my book are the 2 main things I've been spending my points on. I have a 21% ballad/coda damage drum I use, I've seen PC dev for around 1k at it's highest vs. on level mobs, coda devs for 2500 or so, which is kinda awesome for level 46 when I think about it.

My general rotation is minor, echoes, minor, orome, minor, AoW, PC, CotSA?(the AoE one centered on me that gives 10% runspeed), wizards, valar, and the one melee strike when in range, repeat as things come off CD. I guess I could just coda at the end of all that and start over. Most mobs up to 3 or 4 levels above me don't last through half of that, so that's usually 2 or even 3 mobs dead by the time the rotation is complete. I always try to have echoes and the orome debuff on a mob as well as 3 minors/AoW on me when using the nuke-from-orbit skills.

P.S. I've noticed I can get the coda HoT/PoT from AotFP/AoC a LONG time after they have expired. A VERY LONG time. Is this normal?

if you want quick coda you really don't want to stick with the same type of ballads, both minor/perfect/minor or minor/major/minor are much faster than minor/minor/minor.

Mixing ballad type are one of the key thing with yellow line builds, you coda so often that it's very important to minimize the ballad time.

I'm really liking Noble Cause every 20 seconds from Anthem of Prowess coda. Yet another way to get back morale. And another reason to stand and use my sword.

Originally Posted by Moejo

I guess I really should be using coda more. I just hate that it takes so much time to build back up to maximum damage(3minors+AoW). It does hit harder than any thing else I have though, even with a rather substantial boost to PC damage from my starter LI leg. The PC leg on my weapon and AoW tac damage bonus on my book are the 2 main things I've been spending my points on. I have a 21% ballad/coda damage drum I use, I've seen PC dev for around 1k at it's highest vs. on level mobs, coda devs for 2500 or so, which is kinda awesome for level 46 when I think about it.

My general rotation is minor, echoes, minor, orome, minor, AoW, PC, CotSA?(the AoE one centered on me that gives 10% runspeed), wizards, valar, and the one melee strike when in range, repeat as things come off CD. I guess I could just coda at the end of all that and start over. Most mobs up to 3 or 4 levels above me don't last through half of that, so that's usually 2 or even 3 mobs dead by the time the rotation is complete. I always try to have echoes and the orome debuff on a mob as well as 3 minors/AoW on me when using the nuke-from-orbit skills.

P.S. I've noticed I can get the coda HoT/PoT from AotFP/AoC a LONG time after they have expired. A VERY LONG time. Is this normal?

Never use 3 of a kind ballads to attune always go red blue red or green blue green for healing

It depends now many mobs you fight. Up to three I would recommend red traits and warspeech since most AoE calls and cries hit up to three targets.
When fighting up to six targets I would use Coda of Resonance which heals you as well while dealing damage. If your anthem cooldown is low enough (five or ten seconds) you can always have your hot and pot active. But as you are going to spam CoR anyway a shorter cooldown for anthems is better. This way you can fight lots of mobs at once and you hardly loose morale or power. Best fight while going backwards to avoid some incoming damage and just spam three ballads, one anthem and the Coda.

Sure, traiting red ends fights versus a few mobs quicker than traiting yellow but you need longer to regenerate after combat so it should be indifferent what you choose. But for fighting half a dozen mobs at once yellow is in my opinion superiour as it deals more damage to more targets, gives you a HoT and a Pot and you are healed everytime you hit CoR.

So to conclude: Try both styles and pick whatever fits you most .

Originally Posted by Thruili

It depends now many mobs you fight. Up to three I would recommend red traits and warspeech since most AoE calls and cries hit up to three targets.
When fighting up to six targets I would use Coda of Resonance which heals you as well while dealing damage. If your anthem cooldown is low enough (five or ten seconds) you can always have your hot and pot active. But as you are going to spam CoR anyway a shorter cooldown for anthems is better. This way you can fight lots of mobs at once and you hardly loose morale or power. Best fight while going backwards to avoid some incoming damage and just spam three ballads, one anthem and the Coda.

Sure, traiting red ends fights versus a few mobs quicker than traiting yellow but you need longer to regenerate after combat so it should be indifferent what you choose. But for fighting half a dozen mobs at once yellow is in my opinion superiour as it deals more damage to more targets, gives you a HoT and a Pot and you are healed everytime you hit CoR.

So to conclude: Try both styles and pick whatever fits you most .

All good advice, but I don't even have a key bound for backpeddling(walking backwards). Another mmo I played pounds it into your head that backpeddling is bad, and I learned to strafe. My only movement keys are Q, W and E. I also have forwards and jump bound to 2 thumb buttons on my mouse, mostly for riding, but the jump comes in very handy in the tuckborough skirmish, kiting there requires jumping over a lot of stuff.

I am not an expert player by any means, I bumble about enjoying myself, solo. My Legendary book and weapons probably aren't up to scratch either.

I started to hit a wall around 45 and began to struggle. I had always run around in Warspeech and started to trait mostly red, have one that's not but can't recall off-hand which it is, those reds made quite a difference.

Don't forget, you can always swap traits around if you find yourself in a healing role, or want to try out another combination.

Soloing or skraid healing work best for me with 4r/3b or 4b/3r.
Healing tougher stuff I tend to go 4b/3y or 4y/3b (or sometimes 4b/2y/1r for PC stun).

Originally Posted by Merilda

I am not an expert player by any means, I bumble about enjoying myself, solo. My Legendary book and weapons probably aren't up to scratch either.

I started to hit a wall around 45 and began to struggle. I had always run around in Warspeech and started to trait mostly red, have one that's not but can't recall off-hand which it is, those reds made quite a difference.

Don't forget, you can always swap traits around if you find yourself in a healing role, or want to try out another combination.

I struggled a little at 45, going into eregion and the moria intro quests(all level 48-50 mobs), but once I got to 47 I am back pewpewing with no concerns. The sig trees and wood trolls in eregion drop like flies. I even tried to solo that wood-troll leader instance, I managed to survive the 3-troll pulls(with tale of battle up, vit food, SotHH, AotFP, plus all the heals I could pull off), but the 4-troll pulls were just a little too much. It's a level 49 fellowship quest, so solo at 47 I was impressed with how far I got, a better player might have even got it done. I'll try again in a couple levels.

So far my LI's I maxed AoW damage on my book, and tac damage on my sword, working on PC damage next. I did try yellow, but healing through the damage while putting out minimal damage takes more power than just blowing them up as fast as you can. I definitely think red traits with a couple yellows(once I get the trait slots for them)for lower anthem cd is the way to go. Noble Cause from AoP+coda is awesome in tight quarters with no room to kite. Just weave herald strike in between cries/calls/ballads.

Solo skirms with decent ranked herbalist I am a demi-god. 3 ballads, AoW, PC, coda kills most LT's. Trash mobs are a joke, and what I don't touch the herbalist tanks. I even let her tank Zealots until I get the trash killed. I have her traited with the standard heal, power over time, and the heal+avoidance buff skill. I use the tac damage for me trait on her as well, and boundless morale. All traits and her rank are around 11 now, I'm trying to keep them all kind of even.

Wow that turned out to be a lot more than I intended to say. Anyway that's how I'm progressing, about a bar away from 48 now. Question - the 5m cd bubble I get at 48, is that only useable on others or can I put it on myself as well?