While this is generally called "solo" it does involve using a healer mercenary. Journeyman 5 is really the only one that helps if you are serious about hunting hard kills, if you don't have it, it should be your #1 priority. Here is a GUIDE for the easier new version of that quest.
Preparing for Battle
Like old Honest Abe, we would be better served sharpening our axes before we try to cut down the tree. There are a few things to sort out before you ever set foot in the hunting zone.
Setting Up
Pets - Pet gear is well worth the added bonus to survival. Get the armor if possible, the weapons are not as big a factor.
Make sure to use your warrior pet. Max level pets (105, 100, 95, etc.) are rogues. The ones before that, are warriors (97, 93, 87, 82, etc). It makes a huge difference!
Player - Player gear is always important as far as having more mana and hit points. Specific things can be any utility to help with the fight. An example is a way to cast Tashan, such as The Lady's Entreaty. These help you by reducing the chance slow is resisted, and that can save your pet, or at the very least get you started on DPS faster.
Abilities -Read ahead to the combat section, and make sure you have all the needed AAs set up to a hotkey. Nothing worse than going to hit a button, and it's not there!
Buffs - Get MGBs (Mass Group Buffs) in the lobby if possible. The primary buffs will be cleric and shaman.
Spell Setup - I would advise against swift DoTs until you are sure you can handle the fight fairly easily. You want long timer spells going in case you need to engage in the Emergency! Phase in a close fight. This is explained below, under combat. Keep Swarm Pet, Pet Block, and as many normal Damage over Time spells as you can fit.
Finding a Target
Determine if you are after a specific drop, or just out to have some fun. Either way, you should head to EQResource to find out more about your target. If you don't have one in mind, they also have good named overviews, to help you choose. Pay special attention to the abilities of the mobs abilities, you want to avoid any with large AE damage until you have more experience or better gear.
Engaging the Target
For simplicity, I'll break down combat into Beginning, Middle, and End. These can vary, but I'm estimating each phase to last about 1 minute. Emergency Phase can happen any time. That means your pet has died, or merc healer has died, any time something has gone south ina hurry, switch to Emergency Phase.
Beginning Phase
Main priority is keeping pet from being squished in a second. Open with Fortify Companion AA and Companion's Aegis AA. I would hit these immediately before you engage, but consider it the first step in the attack.
Order of Engagement:
- Activate pet defense abilities/spells
- Pull target with Tash / Scent of Terris (both if you have them)
- Pet Attack
- If not an undead mob, Combust Bones nuke (makes mob undead for 12 seconds)
- Death's Malaise - necro AA slow
- Refresh Companion's Aegis or Aegis spell.
Middle Phase
- Refresh Pet Buffs as needed
- Get DPS going, stack as many DoTs as possible (5-6 at least, more as able)
- Use Skeleton Swarm spells as dps, and also as a fail safe for pet (see Emergency section)
- Manage Agro! Feign as often as needed
- If its looking solid, engage Silent Casting AA and start a burn.
- If not looking solid, take it slow, and babysit pet with block spells
End Phase
After 2 minutes, fights tend to get tougher. Mana can become an issue for the caster, and defensive abilities start fading off. Fight the urge to end the fight quickly, keep your focus on keeping pet alive.
Emergency! Phase
Any time it hits the fan, switch to these priorities!
Asses the situation, if it doesn't look salvageable, fade or FD and let it reset. Try again after you rest. Try a new approach if needed. Sometimes sending swarm pets in at the start is safer, and hold regular pet until slow is landed.
If Pet Dies
- Prioritize casting Swarm Skeletons
- Between Swarms, scribe pet spell, and recast
- Before you send him in again, get some block spells on him
- Send him in, keep pet spell up!
- Continue to maintain swarms on target
Salvaging a Close Fight
If you have enough DoT's on your named target, its possible to kill it even without a pet and healer in the End Phase.
Stay Alive!
- Embalmer's Carapace - 1 million HP rune plus slight damage boost
- Harmshield - AA, about 45 seconds of invulnerability
Kill the Target
- Pop any burns you can while under Embalmers, and then more DoT / Swarms
- After Harmshield starts, you WILL NOT be able to cast
If you had enough damage rolling, it is very possible to blaze a named while you are invulnerable. If a fight is going to be tough, start with Wounds spells, and they should be hitting their large damage recourse in the End Phase. This is your last shot! Any ability you can burn, burn it! Once you go harmshield, the named has to die before it fades, or you are out of luck.
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