Solo Hunting question?

[birdtail]

Hi! This is perhaps an obvious question but I was raised with the whole "the only dumb question is a question not asked" type of mentality

I have a Tamer/Archer Character that I would like to hunt with to profit. I want to be able to use my Greater Dragon as a nice tank and support him from the side as well. I would like to IDEALLY go somewhere where I have a chance at rare drops (Such as but not necessarily scrolls and artifacts and such). I want to be able to hunt with the GD and bring home (hopefully) something to sell!

Can anyone give me a suggestion on what might be good for me to work on? Ive never been a solo hunter except for running around and killing the random ogre or whatnot. I am used to Champing with a guild but alas, I am guildless right now by choice, looking for the right one.

 

[Padre Dante]

(Artifacts Listing)

Maybe try Ilsh for paragon drops (Balrons, Blood Elementals, and Succubi in Blood Dungeon?) Just be careful, because paragons love to re-target. You may want to "sheath" the bow here. Vet and don't move. Casting Greater Heal, Cure, or causing any damage, yourself, kind of "rolls the dice" on having the para re-target. Vetting the pet doesn't, from my experience.

Covetous (Levels 3 and 4) for Covetous drops? The monsters, individually, aren't terrible, but they often attack in packs, so be careful!

ML Monsters (Swoop, Miasma, Gnaw, etc.) for Mondain Legacy drops? Gnaw is easy, but the constant re-spawn of wolves can be annoying. Maybe set your GD on Gnaw and take out the wolves (some will be paragons) with the bow (he's also a tad hard to get to, due to those pesky changelings). Swoop is easy enough, and being neutral kharma, allows you to loot when it re-spawns w/o hassle. I like to use the bird slayer talisman against Swoop. Miasma generally requires leading spawn off. She's very popular in PvM, but I prefer fighting Gnaw and Swoop.

Stygian Abyss Mini-Champs for SA drops? I find the mini-champ rats in the Cavern of the Discarded to be boringly easy (but also a boringly long fight); just a bunch of hit points and low attack ability (I use a cu here, as it heals itself - getting yourself on the lower side of the southwest bridge helps avoid other spawn while you fight). The Fire Demon is ok too (similar to a balron, IMHO), and the Acid Elemental is also easy (more attack damage than the rats, but far less hit points). However, I have yet to get one of the SA drops form a mini-champ (based on an incredibly low sample - like 6).

What shard are you on?

 

[birdtail]

Hi Padre,

Thank you for the extremely helpful post! I am on Atlantic.

I tried a Cold Blood (?) champ spawn last night in Ilsh (mongbats, imps, dragons etc).. Died a few times but slowly made my way up to 8 candles from 3.. Then the server went down I definitely need another hand or id be at it all day, lol.

 

[Padre Dante]

I am terrible at solo-ing old school Champ spawns. They're hard enough in groups! However, the mini-champs in the Stygian Abyss aren't nearly as tough. Also, check ALL loot in the mini champ monsters, as imbuing ingredients (essences, vials, void stuff, etc. etc.) are also worth a fair amount of gold (and are far easier to come by then artifact drops). I have far less trouble with the SA mini-champs (solo) than I do with more proper Champion Spawns. It's also fun to check the garbage in the Cavern of the Discarded from time to time (a small portion of actual player disposed "garbage" ends up in the Cavern. My best haul so far has been 3 Powders of Fortifying that some "fool" must have thrown away!).

Oh, and lastly, you may want to try some of the old dungeons (Shame, Wrong, Covetous (levels 3 and 4)) for the "new loot". I haven't gotten terribly much worth keeping, but if you have an artificer, you get some great items for unraveling. You could then sell the resulting magical residue, enchanted essence, and relic fragments. I would avoid UEVs (Unbound Energy Vortexes) with your tamer/archer as pets deal something like 50% damage against those. My sampire is useful there, but the fights are relatively long (vs. something like a Swoop).