Solo boxing guide through T6

[825th_tomcat]

What a great post, well done mate!

[Subdued]

I agree with the others that this is a great post, and I've used it immensely over the last month or two as I've moved up through the tiers.

Here are a couple of added suggestions from someone who has just recently gone through most of these progressions. This advice is to save you some time and effort (I’m a big fan of efficient playing, because my playtime is very limited so I try to make the most of it):

Pre-Raid Tiers: Make sure you're looting/banking all of your solo aura quest items as soon as you hit level 70 and start exp'ing in the 70+ zones. Chardok, Kael, Icewell, etc all drop the solo aura quest items. Take a moment to recognize what items are required for the quest (the 4 stones, 4 bits, and 4 lilies) and try to loot at least 1 on each on all of your toons (and bank them because they take up tons of space). Also, it’s very important to make sure you are looting the stone cutters, leaf folders, and the metal one for the bits. Those pieces are even harder to find than the stones/bits/lilies!

Once you can handle Shadowhaven, don’t overlook the benefits of doing the automation quest. Also, you can save up radiant crystals and purchase gear for your tank with equivalent ac/HP to tier 6+. Lastly, if you have a pet class, the augs for increased minion power can be purchased for radiant crystals as well. The augs are type 10 I believe, so you’ll have to put them into a piece of droppable Shadowhaven gear which the nameds there drop.

Donations: If you’re considering them, I have some advice. If you’re not, then by all means my tips won’t help you. I personally 6-box War, Bard, Cleric, Sham, Mage, Mage. If cost is no object, here is what I personally would recommend: 1 Mage BP & Mage Weapon Donor > Ares > Shaman Donor (for difficult fights, I rebuff the 3k regen of donor 1 right before the fight, gate the shaman to THF and exchange donor 1 for donor 2 for the 20% slow, then zone back in and CoH the shaman back to group) > 2nd Mage BP/Mage Donor > Warrior Donor > Cleric Donor. The first mage BP/Donor is huge because it can tank pretty well up to t4/t5 and puts out massive DPS. Ares is huge for tank survivability and the shaman donor used as both donor 1&2 can be a huge boon. Those 4 donations by themselves would run you $395 if I’m not mistaken, which is far from cheap, but depending on your financial situation they make for a great game experience.

Tier 3:

Due to my AAs and donator items, I ended up breezing through t4 and into t5 pretty easily. One thing I regret now, looking back, was overdoing the ST augmentations. The t5 Plane of Air augmentations are an upgrade to the ST ones and are very easy to get. Looking back, if I had known how quickly I would get from t3 to t5 and have access to the t5 augs, I wouldn’t have done much with the t3 augs when I was in ST. I would concentrate on just getting the high-AC ones for your tank (fingers, chest, legs, etc) and just wait until t5 to work on getting a full set for the rest of your group to save some time.

Tier 4/5:

You won’t get many spell upgrades between t1-t3. You really start to see new upgrades from the Sleeper in ST, and then in t4&t5. So if you’re reading the guide and seeing the “upgrade your spells and discs” at every tier, don’t be discouraged when you enter t2 and t3 and don’t really see any upgrades.

If you’ve donated some, you can probably skip the Powerful Armor set completely and save the plat for t6 armor or spell upgrades. Between the traitors gear and other t3/t4/t5 drops, you should be able to get through t4&t5.

[Nilbus]

Once you can handle Shadowhaven, don’t overlook the benefits of doing the automation quest. Also, you can save up radiant crystals and purchase gear for your tank with equivalent ac/HP to tier 6+. Lastly, if you have a pet class, the augs for increased minion power can be purchased for radiant crystals as well. The augs are type 10 I believe, so you’ll have to put them into a piece of droppable Shadowhaven gear which the nameds there drop.

I personally on newer characters just got them armor from radiant crystals as well as augs to go in them. You get to pick the focus effects you want/need and it's easier to get than spending plat on t4 and t6 armor. The tasks in the vale for return of the shissar are great for collecting RCs.

[Alulien]

Plat. Imo it should NOT be used to buy upgrades from Baz, but rather T8 spells and/or tokens. I took a break after hitting 70 but before I started progression and when I came back I blew all my money in the Baz. Worst decision ever. Spent like 30k on a couple pieces here and there and they ALL got upgraded almost immediately in ToV.

My recommendation for spending plat as a fresh/newer 70: buy your important T8 spells and then a token (Vulak is ~2.5k, Kerafrym I sell for 5k, Xeg I've seen for about 8-10k) as Ssra SUCKS. Ssra is a real bottleneck, imo, as the bosses aren't easy for a new group of 70's unless you've done a ton of farming (Kael, Shadowhaven). I've spent enough time in Ssra to know that I never want to go back: I killed the first mob in Cursed cycle, wiped to DT on second one... spent hours trying to farm keys only to continually run into a situation where the mob who drops the key I need to get through this door is... on the other side of this door. That turned in to a little rant... but still: skip Ssra if you can (via tokens) and spend your $ on T8 spells!

[Xorp]

Oy.. I agree.. Srra is not the greatest place to run around in for 6+ boxes. All those tubes for travel-swimming up and down is the pits unless you have a mage who can coth all around back and forth every few min ;p .. I always try to skip ssra with tokens too.

[Safiya]

Also going to recommend buying tokens to skip Ssra. Though it's a great place to gear up in for fresh 70's or people that are almost 70 (basement area can be great for grinding AA's and snagging augs)....some of the mini fights and Ssra himself are a real beast if you're trying to do that encounter on tier. I had significant difficulty trying to manage the one mini boss that pops a boatload of adds (forget his name) and Ssra himself was a meat grinder for my toons if I was lucky enough to find him up. Maybe if you know a good strat from live things will be easier...but...otherwise...skip it. IMO there is no encounter in ToV or ST that came remotely close to the difficulty of an on tier Emp Ssra fight. It's a great encounter, don't get me wrong...it's just brutal for boxers (most of the server population) who can only manage a single tank/single group and for players like me who need at least *some* margin of error. Emp is not forgiving.

My only other advice....would be do not be shy about going into t6 labelled zones. You can get into Ascent and the Tower of Sol Ro without clearing earlier tiers. Once you've geared up in ST...SolRo will be a cakewalk for the most part with some potentially solid upgrades and a bunch of loot you can sell. Also, an incredibly high AC aug for your tank(s) that is a must have. I regret not going in there earlier. The Ascent will be harder if in ST gear but it's worth a few deaths for the loot. Do not expect to clear The Ascent...just farm the hell out of the first section. Amazing augs for tanks especially and great gear with fantastic aug slots for several classes.

Oh...and also do not hesitate to try to bang out your WoS pet quest. If you're careful, you could quite possibly manage it in ToV gear with a decent group. I did it in ST gear and thought it was super f'n easy. That said....stick to the quest and quest mobs. Some of the random nameds and even normal zone trash will be brutal if you're not prepared for the DPS they can spit out. Just take it slow and focus on the quest and you'll have a good chance of banging it out before you farm out ST. There is really no other reason to go into that zone besides the quest. the mini's I saw dropped loot but with garbage aug slots. I did not bother killing too many so maybe there are a few nameds in there worth revisiting but....somebody else would have to comment on that.

[Kuldiin]

Pre-logon:
- Download the patcher and also make sure you have the map files. Without the map files you will not have all of the handy labels that are specific to this server.

Is there a more recent link for the map files please?

[Lillu]

Pre-logon:
- Download the patcher and also make sure you have the map files. Without the map files you will not have all of the handy labels that are specific to this server.

Is there a more recent link for the map files please?

It's been a community updated package, as soon as there's a more up to date version we'll post it. The one up is always the latest version available.

[Kuldiin]

The link in the original post no longer works, but given the time passed was to be expected.

I managed to find the maps in the RoF client install (I am using the Underfoot version).