Hey, all, in today's CF how do you deal with ranking? The thought of having to solo/duo up is the thing keeping me from playing even occasionally. Have people just adapted and learned to solo effectively? I never had the stomach for soloing, and I certainly wouldn't know to make it acceptably fast (40-60 hours to hero) these days.

Mercs giving XP bonus helps, as does the constant 40% xp boost and/or even more generous bonus xp periods. You could also just commit to only ranking with groups.

Nt

I would say always use a merc, even when they no longer help combat wise. Just drag them around solely for the xp boost. Thats what I did last time I played, and I was doing a thief. Find a low damage high xp NPC, haave the giant rescue, and start using circle. Worked easily enough. I think the Giant from Galadon is neutral so goodies can use that one.

If you are a class that can buff the merc, all the better. Transmuters and bards do well, healer less so at later ranks just cause you suffer from minimal damage output. I could solo rank a bard using a merc in 50 hours pretty easily.Anthem, battaglia and frenzy talismans go a long way in making the merc more useful. I seem to remember healing songs not healing mercs though, but I don't actually remember.

If they survive the fight, they are good to go again without much delay.

I'd agree with your idea of always having a merc, except that my issue is normally that I level up too fast for my skills/spells/supps/songs. Only time I really feel the need to use a merc is if I found some sweet item of limited gear on a sub-level 11 character, and need to hit 11 before a crash or being forced to log off.

But yeah, if you know where low dam high exp mobs are, you can rank nicely with a merc.

I've seen people using the giant to kill the Juju zombie outside the maus, even.

I remember being surprised fairly recently that mercs can sleep immediately after combat. That with their super-regen means they can get back to 100% from close to 0 in about 3 ticks. Perfect for something like the Juju at the entrance to the maus.

I haven't had any real trouble ranking, including doing classes such as a necromancer or druid. There's usually some people to group with, and if not, stay logged in a bit and usually someone will come along.

Most of the heroes I've done lately have come in around 50-70 hours, I think. Haven't done an invoker in a while, but that would take longer I expect just from mastering spells. Just be efficient in your ranking, and take advantage of quests and down time to do what you can. I had a shifter doing a few ranks killing one mob over and over (boring) while waiting for a group to come.

Alternately, if you see a certain cabal is in power, you could start with a character for that, get help on the way up, and probably reach the pinnacle in time for the power swing.