Mechgraber
Well-known member
I imagine this has been done on a ranged character, but I thought I'd toss my hat in the arena as a melee representative: all* legendary quests soloed on R10. It's been a work in progress for a couple years, and I finally "caught em all", so to speak. I'll explain that asterisk later.
Rules I set that are arbitrary and no one else has to follow: solo means solo. That means no hires, summons, pets, alts. No one buffing me outside the quest with epic mage armor or 10% extra HP. No cakes for endless resses, though jibs is fair game. The massive -96% healing penalty in r10 means that actually soloing is very different from parking a hireling and spamming heals on yourself, I would consider that a vastly different (and easier) category.
There were successes, failures, and many close calls.
Some of these quests were tough, and there were deaths, sometimes multiple ones. Most were completed flawlessly, but out of the 202 legendary quests:
10 had 1 death... 6 had 2 deaths...a mark of chaos water elemental with a ridiculous champ combo in IOD got me THREE times (piercing DOT, sure why not)...
...and the absolute tank of a bulette in "The Price of an Egg" got me twice, with another 2 jibbers deaths from ressing and ddooring the hell out of there.
Turns out the price was pretty high.
Other notable fatalities include the dino in the last Vecna quest curb stomping me (went in with epic moment on timer), but I jibbered, ddoored, sprinted to the shrine then got up and took his 500k hp arse down...eventually. Similar situation with the magic mouths in Zulkir's plan. They dodged all my attacks (10x in a row, really?) and overwhelmed me, but was able to recover. Some deaths were...a bit dumb, I accidentally jumped off the bridge in the beholder quest while avoiding some reapers and had to jib to the shrine there as well. The goal was flawless but I took messy victories as well.
Toughest quests (no particular order):
1. Fall of the Forbidden Temple
This is the only quest that I had to change anything about my build. The boss spams charisma damage (sometimes in the hundreds) so I dipped into fatesinger, limped my gimpy way through the quest then took that lame Kopru down. Much respect to the Mark of Chaos water elemental that eliminated me on the way, but I got the last laugh.
2. A Blood Pact
Jeez, this Baphomet guy is a stud. He even bugged out partway through and stopped taking additional weapon procs or quick cutter damage.
Still got it done, just took a bit of stubbornness. Definitely reset epic moment in the air after 75%, turns out he just lets you chill up there after a while.
3. The Price of an Egg
The longest quest, clocking in at 66 min of demolishing drow, crushing carrion crawlers, pulverizing purple worms then getting bruised by a big, big burly bulette. The purple worm boss at halfway was hard enough, but the endfight was something else.
This boss is fast, does not give a flying F about realistic physics (it's burrowing, you're jumping, you still get hit, OK then?). Plus it spawns a clutch of half a dozen baby bulettes halfway through.
This was one for the ages. 2 jibs...2 ddoors, 2 shrines later...and we're feasting on bulette steaks and purple worm omelets to regain our strength.
And boy did we need it...
4. Back to the Abyss
Most of this quest is fairly straightforward, even downright easy, then it slaps you awake with a heavy dose of demogorgon, right into the veins. This guy hits hard, debuffs the pants off you, and that breath attack does just silly amounts of damage even if you dispel the dot immediately. With good timing it's avoidable but he still hits very hard. Never have I ever wished for a shorter cooldown on bless. Took a few ddoor scrolls and resetting the epic moment but got it done.
5. Going Rogue
1.4 million hp worth of poison-spewing dragon. Not much to say here other than that, lots of running in circles trying to slice some dragon hamstring whilst avoiding getting sliced myself.
Time to get some dragon booty.
6. Snowfall and Sunlight
The last quest completed and definitely one of the tougher ones. The baron took some getting used to (had to actually practice this one, blocking at exactly the right moment), luckily he's not that fast, and wastes time casting some weak spells as well. Ettins hit very hard (~1200x2-4 even through 500+ PRR) so it took a bit of work goading him into throwing a boulder at me before going in to get a few hits at a time. Where is he getting all these boulders from? Are they brown snowballs? Not going to ask why they're brown. At least Viktra was a pushover.
7. Times Long Past
One of the most hated and saga-skipped quests from the most recent few years for understandable reasons, it took 40 minutes but it felt like hours. Then yet another dragon at the end with a dimensional anchor so the stakes felt quite high. 0/10, would not recommend.
8. Portal to Below
Lots of nasty critters in this one, carrion crawlers suck, the umber hulk absolutely slaps, the hook horror is easily one of the hardest hitting non raid bosses in the game and the drow lady holds her own as well.
Lots of running around in this one, quick cuttering, primal screaming in the game and primal screaming in real life wondering why I'm putting myself through this at all. There are safe spots on mushrooms in both of the big fights, but I tried to use those as little as possible. I'd probably still be there if I tried to get the bosses down with a throwing dagger, but I imagine proper ranged builds could do this one fairly easily and quickly.
9. ToEE: Depths of the Temple
Boy is this a hell of an endfight, luckily without a long slog to get to. There's just a LOT going on, from the waves of mobs that spawn multiple times, the boss going invulnerable but still casting some pretty harsh spells at you whilst making faces at you from safety, the periodic blasts of massive AOE damage with an ever-evolving safespot, the bane damage DOT that stacks on you and needs a different mushroom to cleanse...all in a fairly small area with no escape. I expected this to take many tries especially after r8 proved to be a struggle, but I was lucky with the reapers (no dooms/vengies just a ton of others) and so got this done first try with no jibs/ddoors. Heart rate got high enough it probably counted as cardio for the day.
10. Zulkir's Plan
Lots of hard hitting wizards and their skeletons along with high dodge trash mobs that spam unevadeable unavoidable damage? What could go wrong...Zulkir himself isn't that tough but he's hired some great staff.
Easier than expected:
Toxic treatment: just spell absorbed and used pillars till the boss went down.
Demon Assault: first attempt got THREE dooms and a veng in the endfight (worst luck ever) second attempt got none and it was a joke.
Search and Rescue: r8 attempt a year or two ago I died 5x and it took over an hour, this time 33 min and pretty smooth
Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords: was anticipating this to be awful, but no vengies made this endfight very manageable, just lots of kiting.
Black and Blue: still a tough fight but after the dragons in the deck quests, very manageable. It's like running a marathon after you've done an ultra.
Wish Upon a Card: there are literally no bosses in this quest, it's a quest with all trash mobs only. OK...what was the point of that?
A few random things I've learned:
1. Spell absorb for vengeance reapers is pretty much mandatory especially if you can't pop them quickly due to other mobs. Circles are easy to avoid but horrid wilting isn't, and bane damage stings anyone. Any caster mob in the game will take a long, long time to chew through the ~200 spell absorb charges that there are available now.
2. Doom reapers are your toys in level 30-31 quests, but the roles swap a bit at 37-38...there are levels to this!
3. AC actually helps substantially in older content, but does very little nowadays. Many newer bosses will hit a ~400 AC ~80-90% of the time.
4. A single doom reaper is doable, double doom reapers are usually trouble, triple doom reapers are rare but you'll get chained and pounded super fast without an exit strategy.
5. Doom reaper DOTs fade if you get far enough away, and they might not stack up again upon the second encounter. It's like they forget their one move.
6. Let that doom reaper DOT go away before you charge around the corner and encounter another when you already have 5+ stacks. Not good.
7. There's some aspect to luck in all this, a bad reaper draw especially combining vengies and dooms can substantially change an encounter. Fears/famines/carnages/plagues/despairs don't meaningfully change tactics, maybe fears if there are a couple of them or they're weirdly placed.
8. Bluff-pulling a mob or two (or reaper) before a fight can make things much easier.
9. Pull things around corners or fight in doorways. Crowdsurfing is fun but it can get you killed.
10. Salt/paralyzing/knockdown/dragon roar...some form of CC or damage avoidance is needed.
11. No weapon in the game is going to out DPS a dust weapon due to the -35 PRR. Unless someone else has it...but if solo you need to bring it, as no one else is.
12. A lot of fights can be avoided/invis ran past, they just aren't in a group. Dungeon alert is often just a bathroom break away from being gone.
13. Ddoor scrolls are pricy/valuable, but super handy in some cases. Wing+ddoor is usually good as the concentration checks get high in r10.
14. High MRR (300+) and high absorbs across the board (including sonic, evil, force as swaps, not just fire/acid/cold/elec) tip the scales significantly, even trivializing some encounters. 50 or 100 MRR cap builds feel great in some situations but fall flat in others, especially solo when you have all the agro, all the time, for far more time than in a group, and there's no one to heal you.
15. Hood doesn't last long, but it's always worth carrying and is the single best way to mitigate physical damage apart from moving around.
16. Archeron and Beast Mark champs are always worth keeping an eye on because they very well might crit you for 4-6k or more.
17. Soul of cruelty and other champ dots will eventually be painful even on high MRR builds, especially on monsters that DOT you without a save or through a way that can't be cheesed with spell absorb (Water elementals, I'm looking at you).
18. Harper pin saves the day occasionally, keep it hotbarred and ready for action.
19. Thrower with 1k affirmation proc to start combat is handy, in r10 solo you need all the help you can get sometimes.
20. Sometimes learning the mechanics of a fight or boss is absolutely not needed in a group as you can heal through damage or CC everything or just overwhelm packs with AOE damage. In high powered groups you can play VERY lazily and still win, but when solo on r10 you need to play smarter. You just do. For instance, in "Snowfall and Sunlight", you have to block to avoid the negative damage. Never even noticed that attack in groups or on lower skulls as it didn't matter. But for an r10 solo attempt I had to train to get used to the timing of blocking that attack without spending so long standing there that he also hit me.
21. There are some bosses you can tank and there are others you cannot. Know the difference and be ready to run away to heal (slowly) for another round. Very very few characters are going toe to toe with an r10 ettin solo, if any.
22. The skill of kiting, aka professional cowardice, is very useful sometimes.
23. Legendary strength of arms does help a lot, but in many fights it's just not really possible to keep up, at least without employing hit and run tactics. It doesn't cover up for weak defenses in harder content. At level 34 I had already done all quests r8 and many r10, but it definitely helps in some circumstances when you can't heal well.
24. You can never have enough HP and PRR.
25. No fail saves, especially fort saves, is very handy. A 1 vs disintigrate or horrid wilting brings even the bravest of heroes to their knees.
26. TUMBLE! Even with heavy armor +50% dodge is HUGE, and it makes a huge difference against hard-hitting physical foes. Even with only 2 charges, it's amazing.
If you bluff-pull troublesome mobs, lock down packs with a CC weapon, are pretty tanky via HP and dodge/PRR, have solid DPS, are willing to be very mobile during boss fights, have some form of big heals like temp HP or US epic moment, r10 solo is very doable.
Screenshots of completions: -->imgur.com/a/solo-r10-completions-G4rdOnV
Highlights (and lowlights): -->imgur.com/a/solo-r10-highlights-fPWIAfL
Will link the build, with updates on the last page. A few people over the past year have said they've really enjoyed it and it makes me happy to hear that! https://forums.ddo.com/index.php?threads/mechgrabers-endgame-paladin.16448/
All does have a bit of an asterisk for a reason: there are 4 legendary non-raid quests that I have not done on r10: the 4 mindflayer challenge quests in Sharn, which I have only done on r5, r8, r5 and r7 respectively. They are far, far more challenging on a per skull basis than even the latest xpac, likely averaging about 2-4 skulls more difficult than any other non-raid quests in the game. I could perhaps see myself getting those all to r8, but these quests are different animals entirely and I'm not sure if r10 is in the cards, no pun intended. The massive self-healing penalty of r10 combined with unique mechanics of each quest like mobs shielding, ressing or healing each other, psionic champs that take 5-10x longer to kill, etc means that I just don't really see it happening solo, especially the first one.
That's a good thing. The game does need some quests that are just stupidly difficult. Hats off to anyone who's done any of those r10 solo, that's crazy.
Thanks for reading. It's been a fun journey and I've had a blast!
Rules I set that are arbitrary and no one else has to follow: solo means solo. That means no hires, summons, pets, alts. No one buffing me outside the quest with epic mage armor or 10% extra HP. No cakes for endless resses, though jibs is fair game. The massive -96% healing penalty in r10 means that actually soloing is very different from parking a hireling and spamming heals on yourself, I would consider that a vastly different (and easier) category.
There were successes, failures, and many close calls.
Some of these quests were tough, and there were deaths, sometimes multiple ones. Most were completed flawlessly, but out of the 202 legendary quests:
10 had 1 death... 6 had 2 deaths...a mark of chaos water elemental with a ridiculous champ combo in IOD got me THREE times (piercing DOT, sure why not)...
...and the absolute tank of a bulette in "The Price of an Egg" got me twice, with another 2 jibbers deaths from ressing and ddooring the hell out of there.
Turns out the price was pretty high.
Other notable fatalities include the dino in the last Vecna quest curb stomping me (went in with epic moment on timer), but I jibbered, ddoored, sprinted to the shrine then got up and took his 500k hp arse down...eventually. Similar situation with the magic mouths in Zulkir's plan. They dodged all my attacks (10x in a row, really?) and overwhelmed me, but was able to recover. Some deaths were...a bit dumb, I accidentally jumped off the bridge in the beholder quest while avoiding some reapers and had to jib to the shrine there as well. The goal was flawless but I took messy victories as well.
Toughest quests (no particular order):
1. Fall of the Forbidden Temple
This is the only quest that I had to change anything about my build. The boss spams charisma damage (sometimes in the hundreds) so I dipped into fatesinger, limped my gimpy way through the quest then took that lame Kopru down. Much respect to the Mark of Chaos water elemental that eliminated me on the way, but I got the last laugh.
2. A Blood Pact
Jeez, this Baphomet guy is a stud. He even bugged out partway through and stopped taking additional weapon procs or quick cutter damage.
Still got it done, just took a bit of stubbornness. Definitely reset epic moment in the air after 75%, turns out he just lets you chill up there after a while.
3. The Price of an Egg
The longest quest, clocking in at 66 min of demolishing drow, crushing carrion crawlers, pulverizing purple worms then getting bruised by a big, big burly bulette. The purple worm boss at halfway was hard enough, but the endfight was something else.
This boss is fast, does not give a flying F about realistic physics (it's burrowing, you're jumping, you still get hit, OK then?). Plus it spawns a clutch of half a dozen baby bulettes halfway through.
This was one for the ages. 2 jibs...2 ddoors, 2 shrines later...and we're feasting on bulette steaks and purple worm omelets to regain our strength.
And boy did we need it...
4. Back to the Abyss
Most of this quest is fairly straightforward, even downright easy, then it slaps you awake with a heavy dose of demogorgon, right into the veins. This guy hits hard, debuffs the pants off you, and that breath attack does just silly amounts of damage even if you dispel the dot immediately. With good timing it's avoidable but he still hits very hard. Never have I ever wished for a shorter cooldown on bless. Took a few ddoor scrolls and resetting the epic moment but got it done.
5. Going Rogue
1.4 million hp worth of poison-spewing dragon. Not much to say here other than that, lots of running in circles trying to slice some dragon hamstring whilst avoiding getting sliced myself.
Time to get some dragon booty.
6. Snowfall and Sunlight
The last quest completed and definitely one of the tougher ones. The baron took some getting used to (had to actually practice this one, blocking at exactly the right moment), luckily he's not that fast, and wastes time casting some weak spells as well. Ettins hit very hard (~1200x2-4 even through 500+ PRR) so it took a bit of work goading him into throwing a boulder at me before going in to get a few hits at a time. Where is he getting all these boulders from? Are they brown snowballs? Not going to ask why they're brown. At least Viktra was a pushover.
7. Times Long Past
One of the most hated and saga-skipped quests from the most recent few years for understandable reasons, it took 40 minutes but it felt like hours. Then yet another dragon at the end with a dimensional anchor so the stakes felt quite high. 0/10, would not recommend.
8. Portal to Below
Lots of nasty critters in this one, carrion crawlers suck, the umber hulk absolutely slaps, the hook horror is easily one of the hardest hitting non raid bosses in the game and the drow lady holds her own as well.
Lots of running around in this one, quick cuttering, primal screaming in the game and primal screaming in real life wondering why I'm putting myself through this at all. There are safe spots on mushrooms in both of the big fights, but I tried to use those as little as possible. I'd probably still be there if I tried to get the bosses down with a throwing dagger, but I imagine proper ranged builds could do this one fairly easily and quickly.
9. ToEE: Depths of the Temple
Boy is this a hell of an endfight, luckily without a long slog to get to. There's just a LOT going on, from the waves of mobs that spawn multiple times, the boss going invulnerable but still casting some pretty harsh spells at you whilst making faces at you from safety, the periodic blasts of massive AOE damage with an ever-evolving safespot, the bane damage DOT that stacks on you and needs a different mushroom to cleanse...all in a fairly small area with no escape. I expected this to take many tries especially after r8 proved to be a struggle, but I was lucky with the reapers (no dooms/vengies just a ton of others) and so got this done first try with no jibs/ddoors. Heart rate got high enough it probably counted as cardio for the day.
10. Zulkir's Plan
Lots of hard hitting wizards and their skeletons along with high dodge trash mobs that spam unevadeable unavoidable damage? What could go wrong...Zulkir himself isn't that tough but he's hired some great staff.
Easier than expected:
Toxic treatment: just spell absorbed and used pillars till the boss went down.
Demon Assault: first attempt got THREE dooms and a veng in the endfight (worst luck ever) second attempt got none and it was a joke.
Search and Rescue: r8 attempt a year or two ago I died 5x and it took over an hour, this time 33 min and pretty smooth
Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords: was anticipating this to be awful, but no vengies made this endfight very manageable, just lots of kiting.
Black and Blue: still a tough fight but after the dragons in the deck quests, very manageable. It's like running a marathon after you've done an ultra.
Wish Upon a Card: there are literally no bosses in this quest, it's a quest with all trash mobs only. OK...what was the point of that?
A few random things I've learned:
1. Spell absorb for vengeance reapers is pretty much mandatory especially if you can't pop them quickly due to other mobs. Circles are easy to avoid but horrid wilting isn't, and bane damage stings anyone. Any caster mob in the game will take a long, long time to chew through the ~200 spell absorb charges that there are available now.
2. Doom reapers are your toys in level 30-31 quests, but the roles swap a bit at 37-38...there are levels to this!
3. AC actually helps substantially in older content, but does very little nowadays. Many newer bosses will hit a ~400 AC ~80-90% of the time.
4. A single doom reaper is doable, double doom reapers are usually trouble, triple doom reapers are rare but you'll get chained and pounded super fast without an exit strategy.
5. Doom reaper DOTs fade if you get far enough away, and they might not stack up again upon the second encounter. It's like they forget their one move.
6. Let that doom reaper DOT go away before you charge around the corner and encounter another when you already have 5+ stacks. Not good.
7. There's some aspect to luck in all this, a bad reaper draw especially combining vengies and dooms can substantially change an encounter. Fears/famines/carnages/plagues/despairs don't meaningfully change tactics, maybe fears if there are a couple of them or they're weirdly placed.
8. Bluff-pulling a mob or two (or reaper) before a fight can make things much easier.
9. Pull things around corners or fight in doorways. Crowdsurfing is fun but it can get you killed.
10. Salt/paralyzing/knockdown/dragon roar...some form of CC or damage avoidance is needed.
11. No weapon in the game is going to out DPS a dust weapon due to the -35 PRR. Unless someone else has it...but if solo you need to bring it, as no one else is.
12. A lot of fights can be avoided/invis ran past, they just aren't in a group. Dungeon alert is often just a bathroom break away from being gone.
13. Ddoor scrolls are pricy/valuable, but super handy in some cases. Wing+ddoor is usually good as the concentration checks get high in r10.
14. High MRR (300+) and high absorbs across the board (including sonic, evil, force as swaps, not just fire/acid/cold/elec) tip the scales significantly, even trivializing some encounters. 50 or 100 MRR cap builds feel great in some situations but fall flat in others, especially solo when you have all the agro, all the time, for far more time than in a group, and there's no one to heal you.
15. Hood doesn't last long, but it's always worth carrying and is the single best way to mitigate physical damage apart from moving around.
16. Archeron and Beast Mark champs are always worth keeping an eye on because they very well might crit you for 4-6k or more.
17. Soul of cruelty and other champ dots will eventually be painful even on high MRR builds, especially on monsters that DOT you without a save or through a way that can't be cheesed with spell absorb (Water elementals, I'm looking at you).
18. Harper pin saves the day occasionally, keep it hotbarred and ready for action.
19. Thrower with 1k affirmation proc to start combat is handy, in r10 solo you need all the help you can get sometimes.
20. Sometimes learning the mechanics of a fight or boss is absolutely not needed in a group as you can heal through damage or CC everything or just overwhelm packs with AOE damage. In high powered groups you can play VERY lazily and still win, but when solo on r10 you need to play smarter. You just do. For instance, in "Snowfall and Sunlight", you have to block to avoid the negative damage. Never even noticed that attack in groups or on lower skulls as it didn't matter. But for an r10 solo attempt I had to train to get used to the timing of blocking that attack without spending so long standing there that he also hit me.
21. There are some bosses you can tank and there are others you cannot. Know the difference and be ready to run away to heal (slowly) for another round. Very very few characters are going toe to toe with an r10 ettin solo, if any.
22. The skill of kiting, aka professional cowardice, is very useful sometimes.
23. Legendary strength of arms does help a lot, but in many fights it's just not really possible to keep up, at least without employing hit and run tactics. It doesn't cover up for weak defenses in harder content. At level 34 I had already done all quests r8 and many r10, but it definitely helps in some circumstances when you can't heal well.
24. You can never have enough HP and PRR.
25. No fail saves, especially fort saves, is very handy. A 1 vs disintigrate or horrid wilting brings even the bravest of heroes to their knees.
26. TUMBLE! Even with heavy armor +50% dodge is HUGE, and it makes a huge difference against hard-hitting physical foes. Even with only 2 charges, it's amazing.
If you bluff-pull troublesome mobs, lock down packs with a CC weapon, are pretty tanky via HP and dodge/PRR, have solid DPS, are willing to be very mobile during boss fights, have some form of big heals like temp HP or US epic moment, r10 solo is very doable.
Screenshots of completions: -->imgur.com/a/solo-r10-completions-G4rdOnV
Highlights (and lowlights): -->imgur.com/a/solo-r10-highlights-fPWIAfL
Will link the build, with updates on the last page. A few people over the past year have said they've really enjoyed it and it makes me happy to hear that! https://forums.ddo.com/index.php?threads/mechgrabers-endgame-paladin.16448/
All does have a bit of an asterisk for a reason: there are 4 legendary non-raid quests that I have not done on r10: the 4 mindflayer challenge quests in Sharn, which I have only done on r5, r8, r5 and r7 respectively. They are far, far more challenging on a per skull basis than even the latest xpac, likely averaging about 2-4 skulls more difficult than any other non-raid quests in the game. I could perhaps see myself getting those all to r8, but these quests are different animals entirely and I'm not sure if r10 is in the cards, no pun intended. The massive self-healing penalty of r10 combined with unique mechanics of each quest like mobs shielding, ressing or healing each other, psionic champs that take 5-10x longer to kill, etc means that I just don't really see it happening solo, especially the first one.
That's a good thing. The game does need some quests that are just stupidly difficult. Hats off to anyone who's done any of those r10 solo, that's crazy.
Thanks for reading. It's been a fun journey and I've had a blast!
, I already wanted to rope multiple times in Threats r10 when we messed up the skelly outside the blue zone in Wizzy room making it like 50 Minutes for what could be 8
An impressive journey, with lots of memories unlocked
). 
