Your impressions of the various characters are pretty accurate for farther along in the game as well! As a Rogue or Ranger you will want to put some point in Strength as well, as that increases your auto attack damage. Druids also usually follow a 3/2 foc/vit ratio for the first 50 or so levels, until they have enough health to last against mobs.
In regards to your questions:
A. There are a lot of different opinions as to what class works the best for soloing.
- Rangers are a good option because they have a decent heal, decent damage, and decent support skills against harder mobs (bolas being the best one). They are cheaper in that the most expensive item you will need at a higher level is an offhand quiver that regens energy, as well as giving you an attack speed boost.
- Warriors are a good option because they are tankier, and therefore can survive easier against enemies. Their damage is quite impressive, especially if you can get ahold of some of their more damagey skills. As a warrior, you would want to prioritize getting an offhand weapon as well as an energy regeneration bracelet or amulet.
- Druids are a decent option because they have enough support skills to easily keep themselves alive, and their damage isn’t too bad (but slow, as you noticed). Druids don’t really need much in the way of expensive shop gear, but they run into energy issues quickly...you will need a lot of energy sigils (premium item) to play a druid well at mid-endgame.
-Mages are a harder class to play solo. They don’t have very much in the way of defensive or supportive skills, so you will be levelling slower or spending more for potions and elixirs to keep you alive. Like druids, they don’t necessarily need much in the way of shop gear, but energy regen is an issue as well (though not as much as druids, because mages have an extra energy regen skill that helps a lot).
-Rogues can be harder to solo as well...they are squishy too, with high burst damage/lower support skills. If you play as a rogue, you will need an offhand and amulet/brace similar to warrior.
All that being said, any class can be soloed pretty well, each has pros and cons...either high damage and low survivability, or lower damage but higher survivability. You will need to spend more gold on gear as a warrior/rogue/ranger, but druids/mages have energy regen issues, so you will need to spend gold on getting sigils and various regen items as you progress as a caster.
Also, the game is best experienced with others. Leveling with a friend can be really beneficial...your kill speed will go up with 2 people, as will survivability. Taken together, the total xp over time could be higher than if you were to try and solo the whole time.
B. There isn’t really any solo vs group content. If you want to play the game completely solo, without joining a clan, you will probably start running into some issues anywhere between level 100-150, as you get to bosses that need larger groups to kill. Although a lot of the drops can be bought from other players, depending on what server you are on. I’d say that on pretty much any server, it’d be hard to stay clanless past 150.
C. I would recommend saving your gold until level 100. If you have enough gold, you could consider getting a level 50 offhand weapon...but once you get to 100, you unlock a shop with better gear, so you would need to resell the offhand and save up for another one.
However you play, here are some tips that are pretty universal:
1. Don’t buy gold with platinum. The exchange rates haven’t been tweaked since the game was released (as far as I can tell) and the amount of gold that you get for the cost is very small. If you want to buy plat, and get gold, your best option would be to buy the special event chests and resell to players. Chests usually go for around 30-50k on any given server, depending on how desperate the seller or buyer is.
2. If you buy platinum, I highly recommend getting backpack and bank expansions from the plat store. You will need them at any point past level 30-40. I’d guess that maybe 50 backpack slots and 150 bank slots would probably be enough to last you a while, depending on whether you are a hoarder or not
3. If you play as a druid or mage, and you buy platinum, I highly recommend getting a load of energy sigils from the plat store too (health sigils would also be helpful as a mage). To prevent wasting your money, I’d recommend waiting until level 50 or so, so you can make sure you want to continue playing as that character.
4. Super Knowledge elixirs will massively (4x) increase the amount of exp you receive from kills. You can use them at an earlier level if you want, but I usually prefer to wait until level 50 or later. Quests will do a lot for you in the early game.
5. Restoration potions and resurection idols are super helpful, as restos heal/regen a massive amount of health and energy, and idols will bring you back from the dead wherever you died.
Another thing to keep in mind is that practically every premium item can be bought from other players (excluding extra character slots and hotbar slots). So if you have some gold saved up, and want to get an item from the premium store, try shouting around that you are buying it...there’s a fairly good chance that someone has some spares they would be willing to sell you.
Best of luck to you! Enjoy the land of Dal Riata!
Have questions about anything? PM me!
Alternatively, you can rarely find me online in Sulis.
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