Season2 Skald Guide - Work in Progress

******* 6. Solo Skald *******

This is obviously a big topic for me, but I have decided to break it down into a complete 1v1 strategy guide for each enemy class and leave it at that... for now.

Armsman - The full tanks are tough, but in my opinion Armsman is the tougher of the two. The obvious strategy is to kite, but trust me: I have kited my full powerbar empty and still lost to good Armsmen. They want to stand toe-to-toe with you and melee it out, dont let them. Avoid getting stuck in face-to-face combat at all costs. A combination of kiting and melee will work, but expect a long fight and do your best to pull him away from obstacles where he can use LOS (line of sight) to force you close to him (or HER!).

Cabalist - Most cabalists I encounter will either run or MOC (Mastery of Concentration). If they do moc, consider hiding behind an obstacle or running out of range. Once moc is over, they will most likely opt for "run". When facing a cabalist with no moc, you should have little problems keeping him busy and cc the pet. It is very rare that a caba will release and recast their pet (no idea why this is more common for enchanters, maybe it costs less mana or something) if it is cc'd, but I have had it done once and he killed me.

Cleric - Catching a non-smite cleric out in the wild is usually a race to finish it off before it can reach the nearest keep. Be sure to use snares and expect them to use their whole arsenal of insta-heals to get away from you. Smite clerics are VERY rare on Phoenix, but very fun to fight! Keep in mind that clerics need to out-last you and they have very low dps in melee. The smite is their only way to win and you should do anything you can to avoid them casting it too much. Expect a mezz to the face about halfway into the fight.

Friar - This has been one of the toughest classes for me to face, but on Phoenix they are not as strong as I remember (i.e. on Uthgard seemed a lot stronger). They generally want to just straight up melee you. I try to use what i call a half-kite. I stay in dd range and try to maintain it to interrupt but not get hit. The key to half-kiting is to spread out your spells over time so you give them only a short window to get casts off before your spells start comming back up. Ideally, you would do something like dd-wait-dd-wait-mezz(resisted/immune is ok)-snare(resisted/immune is preferred)-melee.

Infiltrator - Asassins choose when they want to fight you, it will always be with whatever they prefer of timers up. Whenever I am in asassin-infected areas i spam my dd's while running. Whenever I get popped, they get hit with two dd's. I also try to not only have my speed chant up, but either da or rest song. The hope being that either my first swing has some extra dps or their first damage gets migated by a tiny tiny bit by a rest song tick. Very min/max, I know but this is how asassins tend to operate. For me, Ns is more challenging than Inf.

Mercenary - Dirty Tricks must be kited. But dont think that is their only trick (more the case with a BM). A merc with no DT up can still be a huge challenge in straight melee so dont be afraid to kite a bit longer than just the DT duration.

Minstrel - This needs its own guide, but short version is: Make the minstrel work on managing his pet, chasing you, dodging you, dps'ing you etc. Make him busy and stressed will encourage mistakes. Mistakes must be exploited quickly as Minstrels are horrible creatures with a lot of reset options.

Necromancer - I generally dont fight necros. Simply because I have not found a good counter to them. I honestly believe they are the scissors to the hybrid paper and I am ok with that. I do however feel that a RR1 anything should generally not stand a chance against a RR11 anything else.

Paladin - A solo-specced Paladin can be a very scary thing. Luckily most of them are not and you should be able to just face them head on. Kiting could be required.

Reaver - They want to stun you and do their weird whip-thing from behind you. It really hurts so you dont want that. I generally try to get a d/q debuff off on them before that happens. Sometimes that works and others it does not, but getting fewer of the

Scout - The perma-snare makes this class my least favourite to face. Prepare to blow sos and purge for this one kill, but even then its not guaranteed. Without the snare style they could still be a challenge, but in my opinion this mechanic is currently broken.

Sorcerer - Rarely do i see a solo sorc, but if I do then I know to expect a moc. I tend to sos out when they moc and try to get out of los/range. I can then come back and usually get a kill.

Theurgist - I dont think i have ever had any issues with killing a solo theurgist as long as my RR is equal or higher.

Wizard - I dont think i have ever had any issues with killing a solo wizard as long as my RR is equal or higher.

Animist - Do not use your face to check if it's 1 shroom or a stack of them, its a stack. Its always a stack! Apart from that stack, killing animists should be pretty straight forward.

Bard - Chase em down and get them into melee. Be sure to snare strategically so it cannot get away. It can most likely never kill you. My main concern when fighting a Bard is someone seeing us fight and deciding to save the Bard or the Bard escaping.

Blademaster - Green sword equals kite. This is similar to how I would treat a hamster-form zerker. Dont let them interact with you for the duration. This is thankfully not too challenging to do as a skald. Keep in mind though that a BM has a significant melee capability even without tripple wield and you are in for a challenge if you opt to not kite at all.

Champion - Until recently this was the number two hardest class for me (second only to Necro). I have yest to test many champions "post-nerf", but my early interactions show no noticable change. I generally dodge champions close to my own realm rank as I consider it a complete waste of time. There is one exception, but he is my friend (who has beaten me 499 of our 500 fights). Kiting is essential with a champion, but I tend to run out of space/time/power before I get anywhere close to 0 on the champs hp-bar.

Druid - These rascals are delicious if you catch them solo. Basically any healing class will make you work for it and you should try to keep them standing still as much as possible. They will flee and heal up, but I honestly do not see a druid killing a skald 1v1 as something that will happen more than once every year.

Eldrich - This is the hib caster with no pet. I never remember what they can do and then they do something awful to me. I really dont run into many of these so I am actually thinkng to roll one to see what spells they actually have. Beyond their baseline stun and damage dealing stuff, I have no idea what they can do as they are usually dead shortly after I encounter them.

Enchanter - Most solo chanters use the snare pet. Given a healthy powerbar, they can recast this pet up to 4-5 times (!!!). This means that my cool strategy of killing the pet becomes a very lengthy exercise. I have had better luck trying to seperate pet and chanter to the point where I can land enough blows on the chanter before the pet can "snare me off of its master)

Hero - Heroes are super-tough and the EXTREME amount of hitpoints unfortunately means kite-or-die. Even when my full powerbar of skaldness, I

Mentalist - Chase them down and make sure they dont out-cc you. Delicious lurikeen meat 9 out of 10 times.

Nightshade - Asassins choose when they want to fight you, it will always be with whatever they prefer of timers up. Whenever I am in asassin-infected areas i spam my dd's while running. Whenever I get popped, they get hit with two dd's. I also try to not only have my speed chant up, but either da or rest song. The hope being that either my first swing has some extra dps or their first damage gets migated by a tiny tiny bit by a rest song tick. Very min/max, I know but this is how asassins tend to operate. For me, Ns is more challenging than Inf.

Ranger - If you think he is near, spam /face and your snare. This will help you get to him asap and make sure he is in combat and even if he comes out of it and manages to stealth he should still be snared. Delicious lurikeen meat 9 out of 10 times.

Valewaker - The strafing gloom-faces will usually try to sidestun you when in melee and cast on you when in range. A MOC'ed Valewalker can regen a ton of health and do a lot of damage so the best place to fight a vw would be near a big rock or a corner where you can break los once it mocs. In straight up melee, I usually do fine as long as the vw doesnt get help.

Warden - Pull out your one-hander and keep them engaged. Most experienced wardens will try to snare, kite and heal up: You obviously wont allow that!

******* 7. Smallman Skald *******

TBA

******* 8. 8-man Skald *******

TBA.