Thread: LLG soloing the trees

I am aware of another thread but i'd rather talk about myself specifically soloing them. The best i have got one down to is 25k and then i had to run.
Gear:
6 pieces of draigoch
a few rep and instance drop jewellery (my rings are quest items)
my LI's are pretty good
stats
1358 might
700 vitality
8k morale
3k power
20% crit with red line bonus
method
herald + bladebro
revealing mark
wail away spamming all my heals possible, pots, herald, racial heal, etc...
through all this i still cant kill em.. maybe bad crit luck but i cant heal enough to keep up with their hits (most of them crits, sheesh).
What am i doing wrong? i know my gear has room for improvement, but do you think its enough?
P.S my virtues suck

I think you mostly answered your own question -- make your virtues not suck.

Physical mitigation is vitally important for any class -- particularly a melee class -- and a bunch of it is available from virtues. For a captain, it should be relatively easy (with a good virtue load-out) to reduce incoming common damage by 50%; that's an enormous boon, effectively doubling your morale pool.

You did not specify if you are using a one or two-handed weapon. It might be that switching to sword-and-board will give you a bit more survivability at the expense of damage output. Of course, as we all know, damage output drops to zero while dirt-napping.

I think before I got my might near 2k, I would actually solo using LoM with victory herald for power support. I was probably using the ToO tank set for roughly 1300might/1100vit at the time.

You might try LoM with shield-brother though. Blocking with the 2h+Inspire heal does wonders for staying alive without the big dps drop a 1h+shield gives.

Originally Posted by Cenzuo

I am aware of another thread but i'd rather talk about myself specifically soloing them. The best i have got one down to is 25k and then i had to run.
Gear:
6 pieces of draigoch
a few rep and instance drop jewellery (my rings are quest items)
my LI's are pretty good
stats
1358 might
700 vitality
8k morale
3k power
20% crit with red line bonus
method
herald + bladebro
revealing mark
wail away spamming all my heals possible, pots, herald, racial heal, etc...
through all this i still cant kill em.. maybe bad crit luck but i cant heal enough to keep up with their hits (most of them crits, sheesh).
What am i doing wrong? i know my gear has room for improvement, but do you think its enough?
P.S my virtues suck

I soloed them successfully in HoH (improves Muster Courage self HOT tremendously). I also had all my virtues maxed at 14 and they were all mitigation based (Phys mit stands at +9k)

Originally Posted by Mr.Mirkwood

I soloed them successfully in HoH (improves Muster Courage self HOT tremendously). I also had all my virtues maxed at 14 and they were all mitigation based (Phys mit stands at +9k)

I also went with improved Hope banner and not the herald.

Originally Posted by Cenzuo

wail away spamming all my heals possible, pots, herald, racial heal, etc...
through all this i still cant kill em.. maybe bad crit luck but i cant heal enough to keep up with their hits (most of them crits, sheesh).
What am i doing wrong? i know my gear has room for improvement, but do you think its enough?
P.S my virtues suck

Just curious, how are you traited? I gather at least 4 reds, but can't see more from your post.

For equipment, if you can get the purple version of the Martyrs set, the bubble is really nice for hard solos. Don't remember the rep requirement for it though. 6xDraigoch is pretty good armor, the revealing mark is nice.

One idea if you are close is to use consumables to improve yourself a bit while figuring things out. Pop token, scrolls, eat 3 kinds of food. Can help make up for your lackluster virtues. Can also use the Captains battle tonics for extra chances to crit. Also, pot pretty early, once you get far enough down that you won't heal up with a rallying cry. Cooldown will let you use your pot again in the fight perhaps. I also used some store pots while learning these fights (didn't buy, had from lotteries/store free offers/boxes/etc).

Keep defensive strike buff up, and try and do as much DPS as possible to get the heals from revealing mark. Getting crits for rallying cry is really really important, so prioritize your crit chain (and use sure strike to accelerate it).

If I fail to crit early in the fight, I swap to my other emblem (which has TON legacies) and hit Time of Need. Gets me a rallying cry for a net profit of health and power, and also chances for still more crits in the chain.

If you don't currently have the gear/virtues/whatever to succeed, could try later. No shame in having trouble soloing elites intended for a group.

Originally Posted by Cenzuo

I am aware of another thread but i'd rather talk about myself specifically soloing them. The best i have got one down to is 25k and then i had to run.
Gear:
6 pieces of draigoch
a few rep and instance drop jewellery (my rings are quest items)
my LI's are pretty good
stats
1358 might
700 vitality
8k morale
3k power
20% crit with red line bonus
method
herald + bladebro
revealing mark
wail away spamming all my heals possible, pots, herald, racial heal, etc...
through all this i still cant kill em.. maybe bad crit luck but i cant heal enough to keep up with their hits (most of them crits, sheesh).
What am i doing wrong? i know my gear has room for improvement, but do you think its enough?
P.S my virtues suck

Cenzuo, if you are on Nimrodel look me up and I'll show you how I solo solo trees on a Captain. I use a way different method than you do though, as I'm a HoH Captain not a LtC. So I'm not sure how much my advice would help you. Probably be better off talking to someone like Sweden who solos them as a LtC. But anyways...

The way I personally do it is stack my ICMR as high as reasonably possible combined with revealing mark. I also try to keep my warcry up to speed up my attacks so I get more morale back faster. Using this technique I can often take them out without ever dipping beflow 7k myself. So it works well.

Here is a shot of my gear, it is Draigoch and the jewelry is 100% stuff you get from Stangard/LLG rep vendors, the cloak is a level 70 Cloak of Dunlending Action. I ate foods, +64 Might, and used scrolls for the pictures as thats what I do out there. I eat Superior Apple cheese pies, normally one pie will last me 3 trees roughly. I use a War banner and not a herald, I use War-cry more frequently than I use Rally. Reason being, the faster I hit the more I heal myself through Revealing Mark. I tend not to run into power or health issues unless a tree gets froggy. I usually don't need potions but will use them if I have to, sometimes you get nasty crits back to back.

The trees also have some period where it seems like they are worn out or something and just sit there, its always easy to refill my morale when they hit that point. I just cycle through my skills, nothing fancy, and this is the same setup I use to solo the spiders too. On the trolls I switch to Hope banner and swap gears around till I'm about 1500 Might and 1100ish Vit and about 13k morale. On Trolls I do use potions and Rally cry as often as possible, sometimes even a store potion. To be honest they aren't worth soloing at all, but its classic to be fighting a Troll solo when a group runs by in shock

Oh I forgot to photo my Legendary stuff, I'll get it in a bit.

I tried soloing a couple trees with HoH once and it was a disaster, red traits is what works for me. I use both the herald traits and my herald of war spamming his heal and the red skill (sorry can't remember the name). Have the muster courage heal and power from RC traited as well.
5 draig and a mix of instance/GR/crafted jewellery.

Usually I can bring them down easily, sometimes I end up with full morale If I'm unlucky I have to use a morale pot, if I'm extremely unlucky i still have all of my emergency skills available I save for these moments, oathies, streght of morale, last stand.
Always pot the wounds and don't forget to kill the root if it spawns. It should be easy, you can eat food or use scrolls and a hope token to help you, i did it the first times.

To be honest, virtues won't make as much as a difference as getting better jewelry. I assume you are not limlight and stangard kindred yet. Once you can get the limlight jewelry you will be in a much better position. 6 draigoch pieces are fine, especially if you don't raid. You can basically get end game type jewelry all from stangard and limlight reputation. They have 2 rings, 2 earings, and a clicky pocket which I use on my raiding captain. Each piece is +126 might I believe, with an extra +96 might for equipping them all. The bracelets you can get there are not bad as well, they are also not unique so you can get two. The quickest way for you to get yourself to solo the trees is to get kindred in great river area. Once you do that you will have no problem with the technique you are trying to use to kill trees.

Edit - By the way there is something else you can try. Go LoM to solo the trees. To be honest you will lose some DPS, bit not as much as you think. You will gain a block on your two hander and that will make you have a lot more survivability. I usually solo trees by going high might, LoM, and not worrying about scrolls/tokens/food/pots/etc...

My personal build for tree-soloing uses LoM with a Victory herald. Basically make sure that Inspire and the Muster Courage heal are constantly up and out-last the trees. It's slow as molasses, but it works.

This is the weapon I use when solo'ing trees and spiders, the last rune on it is 30 might and the emblem I use has the exact same relics and stat legacy as the weapon. The GS does have + 27 Might though




And this is what I use when kicking trolls, once again the emblem mirrors the weapons relics, the last slot being Vitality. I've read about how they build up momentum making the fights harder, but they build it up so fast I just ignore it. I start with a 5 Draigoch Revealing mark, then switch shoulders and gauntlets out for Tognir. I switch to the chain of draigochs fate for +122 Vit, switch out bracelets for LLG VIT/Might ones, switch out war banner for hope, eat superior potato scones, apple cheese for cooked food and start the fight. They hit awful hard, crit harder, but I can take them down solo. Usually pre fight I pop ToN and use War-Cry, I use Rohan potions, sometimes I'll use a store potion too. Oh and I don't retrait, I stay with the same LtC, just changing out a few equips, food choice, and weapons. I end up with about 1550 Might, 1200ish Vitality, and about 12.5k Morale with the banner out. Forgot to use food now that I think of it.

Anyways, good luck though! I died a lot out here before I became comfortable. Nice thing is the rep you farm up sells very well and fast on the Auction

thanks for the replys, i couldnt reply earlier since i was away but i think you have solved my problem!
I got some new jewellry and that upped my might alot, (to the expense of morale, which i had found to be stacking quite alot) yeah, my traits are 5r (+crit, battlemaster, adherent, Turn the tide and -CD on battleshout) and muster heal and crit magnitude, with oathbreakers, MOW and IDoME.
I have sucessfully solo'ed one since my first post when i had changed my stats around, (and with an abundance of crits, might i add).
thanks guys

Originally Posted by Idelyn

Drop FB for Oathies when solo'ing

Yeah but this way if we end up doing Foundry/Roots/etc I don't need to head back to town and visit the bard :P I already kill them in under 3 minutes which is good enough for me, never actually timed it but I get about 3 trees per cooked food even including the running between.

I've tried HoH and LtC traitlines which both worked pretty well, though LtC was of course faster. I usually do HoH without a herald and just rely on valiant strike and muster courage to heal me. In LtC I Blade-Brother a herald of hope and rely on inspire, revealing mark, and muster courage to heal me. I haven't tried an LoM build yet but I'm sure it would work just fine as well.

I am HOH traited and i use the Hope Herald but i use song brother so my power hardly even dips.

I have Draigoch set too and the LL jewelry improved versions.

Thing to try though is use the Tanking set with the morale bubble.

A couple of times when i have had a bad run of crits and i have not had one for a while i use that bubble. (5 min cd). Gives you a 2.8K bubble and then heals you for 2 k at the end. A little OP really but shhhhh :-)

This way is prob a little slow (i have about 1700 Might) but i very really drop below half morale.

Branches still sell pretty well too :-) Can do the tree quest and usually make 7-8 gold off the branches and heartwood too.

Originally Posted by Cenzuo

I am aware of another thread but i'd rather talk about myself specifically soloing them. The best i have got one down to is 25k and then i had to run.
Gear:
6 pieces of draigoch
a few rep and instance drop jewellery (my rings are quest items)
my LI's are pretty good
stats
1358 might
700 vitality
8k morale
3k power
20% crit with red line bonus
method
herald + bladebro
revealing mark
wail away spamming all my heals possible, pots, herald, racial heal, etc...
through all this i still cant kill em.. maybe bad crit luck but i cant heal enough to keep up with their hits (most of them crits, sheesh).
What am i doing wrong? i know my gear has room for improvement, but do you think its enough?
P.S my virtues suck

Keep LtC its the way to go
Get another 700- 1000 might (helps alot on your output)
Get critrating to 8-9k
Virtues atleast around 10
3 Dagor + 3 Prece is great for DPS
I often use TM on hourns but ofc RM is good for some x-tra inc morale
Herald does a good job with BB and some heals but with good stats n gear Warbanner is sexy too

If you follow the steps above youll be able to plow those hourns with ease

I remember trying to solo trolls, and failed miserably. Now I have five LL jewellery pieces, with the rest filled out with misc rep items, and a teal drop from RoF. Upgraded from a 3rd age emblem and weapon to 2nd age versions. Still use my crafted GR armour set, as that is the best I have access too. Ironically, it has higher armour values than the dragon set, although I do miss out on the set bonuses. All active virtues are maxed, aiming for mitigations, resistance, and vitality. All that aside, I get my might and vitality ratings up close to the 1200 mark. I'm somewhat skeptical about sacrificing vitality to stack might, as I fear diminishing returns will hurt a balanced character for solo play. Balanced lets me easily beat T2 solo skirms as it is. Going 5-red with MoW, and thinking about using an improved herald of hope, to boost morale up close to 10k. Duoing with a hunter, letting him tank as I healed in HoH worked out well. Going solo is another type of challenge.

Originally Posted by Aztec_Soul

...I'm somewhat skeptical about sacrificing vitality to stack might, as I fear diminishing returns will hurt a balanced character...

Balance is good, atleast on a ledge
Might is Great, atleast on a captain

Originally Posted by CaptainSweden

Balance is good, atleast on a ledge
Might is Great, atleast on a captain

hmm... then take Vitality on for a game of 'Limbo'... How low can you go?

Maybe, I can redirect all that into Might, possibly get close to 2k? but, but... I love my high morale

Originally Posted by Aztec_Soul

hmm... then take Vitality on for a game of 'Limbo'... How low can you go?

Maybe, I can redirect all that into Might, possibly get close to 2k? but, but... I love my high morale

Actually i said the same thing a couple of months ago, really loved my morale but i gave it a try.
Went from 13k -> 9k morale
Might approx 2.3k
Crit approx 9k

The loss off morale could be felt but only in my head, i die no more with less morale.
I kill more with less morale, and faster.
I crit more therefore i self heal more which is tecnically same as a high morale pool with lesser self heals.
The crits also helps on power (traited Rc).

Try it it tastes good, specially with 3 dagor and 3 precev....

Nom-Nom


Off topic:
Sweetest of all in this build is to run into a bunch of mobs and start swinging PA, youll crit with every PA so you will feel almost immortal while standing there bashing the lot.

Originally Posted by Cenzuo

I am aware of another thread but i'd rather talk about myself specifically soloing them. The best i have got one down to is 25k and then i had to run.
Gear:
6 pieces of draigoch
a few rep and instance drop jewellery (my rings are quest items)
my LI's are pretty good
stats
1358 might
700 vitality
8k morale
3k power
20% crit with red line bonus
method
herald + bladebro
revealing mark
wail away spamming all my heals possible, pots, herald, racial heal, etc...
through all this i still cant kill em.. maybe bad crit luck but i cant heal enough to keep up with their hits (most of them crits, sheesh).
What am i doing wrong? i know my gear has room for improvement, but do you think its enough?
P.S my virtues suck

idk i farmed them using the same strategy. max dps, draig set and revealing mark most of the way. had to use a power pot. i did have about 125% dps with store buff though, not sure what phys mastery or might level that would be

i generally started off by hitting war-cry before the fight with time of need. oathies idome and capstone, strength from within and time of need cd for faster farming is kind of nice. the war cry really helps

I solo trees with HoH, 5 Draig and one Dagor. I also have bracelet of the unbent knee, the bracelet from Roots of Fangorn, the three piece Exemplar set, 2 piece Victor set. Second age Halberd more or less maxed (recently put 3 of the crystals in it, but I could solo trees long before that). Eating a might food and healing food helps tremendously.

Also I only use the Hope Banner for this, I can't remember the last time I used a herald for anything. Heralds just aren't for me.