[SM] Need help with solo

[Niemosin7]

Hey, returned player here. First I am sorry if there are any grammatical errors, English is my third language and I haven’t used it much these days.

So, last Christmas I returned to RoR after a long year break, pushing my old 69 SM to finally reach lv 78 recently but does not do well at all as 2h.

I usually played SnB before but decided to get 5 off-sov and pick Bloodlord weapon from BS, does not have much problem in WB but end up dead every time I have a solo encounter with many other classes(I know, it's probably a skill issue).

So, what I need is not really about builds/gears since there are many guides about them already. What I looking for now is how to play and how to deal with other classes. And since SM is my only character, I have no idea about other classes at all except for some basic info.


Most classes I have problems with:

WE - melt everytime I get ambushed, try to fight back but my damage doesn’t seem to hurt them at all(and even with 700+ toughness, full parry&DD doesn’t seem to help me). Sometimes almost manage to kill them, then they just stun/jump away, go into stealth, then pop out of thin air again and melt me with their burst damage from behind. Is there any mechanic about them that I should know? Any counter?


Tank/Choppa - Doesn’t have much trouble with tank class, except for the regen one. Managed to fight well early on, the low-level one is fine but the high-level one seems to have a very high amount of regen, and I don’t seem to be able to do any damage higher than their health regen at all, while they can still keep spamming their abilities at me until I die.
I have tried a different build, full DPS build seems to have done damage higher than their regen amount but I die too fast. The defensive build is much better, survived longer but never be able to bring their health down more than 1/3 until they slapped me to death.

(-This is the most annoying one for me, same as regen WE. Is there any counter to this? Or should I make a regen build too? Phantom’s Blade alone doesn’t seem to help me with this long/tedious fight with those regen builds at all.)


Ranged Class - my biggest problem is catching them. like SH/shaman. Mostly I try to avoid them, but if you randomly pick a spot and you seem to find them everywhere. Sorc/magus doesn’t seem to have much problem if I bring Calming Wind+Max DD, but their crit damage is so xxxx hurt. I even got repetitive 2000+ crit damage from sorc once even though I have max futile Strike and 600-700+ toughness. Is that normal? Or did I do anything wrong?

I normally don’t go solo, so most of my encounters are on a defending side against those solo players, and it happen so many times to the point that I really want to get better at this.

As SM(a noob SM, of course, I know myself) Is there any enemy mechanic that I should be aware of? Like how they play/abilities/tactics-way to counter and so on.

[Aethilmar]

Caveat: I suspect that anything I say here has gotten worse over the past couple of patches since they SMs have been nerfed across several abilities. I used to (pre-nerf) run a 13/13 ED + WW build using 6 Off Sov. That gave me the ability to spam both shields and ED. It still technically works but with WW spam it has longer downtime and is therefore not as good as it used to be.

WE have always been a pain for SM (and a lot of others). Maybe there is some super build that handles them easily, but in general the best thing you can do with WE is pull them into traffic since any WE can disengage with you (and re-engage) at will and you need a second person to keep them out of stealth for the kill (or be a WL).

Most tank fights are winnable but they take so long that you either get help or get run over by help.

Choppas - high end regen on them isn't as bad as WE but still hard to cut through. Just have to time your KD and challenge right and you usually can eke out a win.

Sorcs and single-target Magus - Yeah. Don't engage them until you can get the drop on them instead of having to approach them while they have free shots. I remember once I got kited by a sorc who killed me through continuous WoDS spam ... it was sobering. On live the sorc would have died to self damage before getting through it. Not here.

Lastly, maybe the most practical thing I can add is I used to use Ensorcelled blow + Ensorcelled agony. But I switched to just using Gryphon's Lash + Potent Enchantments.

Lash is supposed to be unparryable and unblockable and way, way to many times I'd get close to killing something and get stopped by a couple of parries and die myself. Now I use it to hit them when I need to hit them and possibly apply PE and/or get a proc.

Anyway, good luck. Solo SM is categorically harder than it used to be with the nerfs so you will need it.

[Zxul]

Some general advises since I don't play pixies in dresses:

WE- most of them will be in Witchbrew build (since its only good build which WEs got left). Parry is good, and toughness is good for other stuff than Witchbrew /kisses/openers, however you also need absorb. They will also have high toughness, and possibly some parry, so you need a either a high str, or procs, to get past the toughness. They likely won't have high armor, so if you get a lot of parried attacks switch to Gryphon's Lash spamming.

In general, current meta is proc dmg, so try to get all the procs you can- Centuries of Training, Potent Ehncantments, etc. Procs ignore toughness, so those will hurt WEs, tanks, etc. SM seem to have a lot of proc options, so try to concentrate on those that ain't too conditional.

Also about WEs- lot of them will have tactic for absorb on being crit, so unless you got some super crit build it might be a good idea to remove crit entirely, and concentrate on procs.

Also specifically about WEs, WE opener (Enfeebling Strike) does a proc dmg when you move, and it can be used both from long stealth and from instastealth (Elixir of Shadows), so if WE stealths for a sec than runs away without staggering you, chances are WE wants you to run after it triggering the procs.

Also make sure to always have your opponent resist debuffed- those add lot of dmg, including to procs.

About kiters- Flee + ap pot is your friend. Improved Flee renown ability might be worth considering as well. Champion's Challenge m1 might also be worth considering.