I played almost every class on live up to a respectable level, anything I didnt play, my brother did.
I did alot of soloing with every class I played, my main was a level 70 ranger with 250+ aa, a 66 shaman, 55 chanter and 53 wizard were my alts (had a lowbie mage, monk, and cleric too).
Its hard to quantify who is the best soloer, it depends on too many things. For speed, rangers are for sure not the fastest from 1-65/70, I'll leave some comments on the classes I actually played.
Any melee (no spells) class will have problems soloing past about 20ish, even up to there can be a struggle due to downtime between fights.
Shaman are great soloers, from 1-65, though definitley not the fastest, they are one of the safest, once they get torpor, they will be able to kill many tough critters, but at no great speed.
Enchanters are great soloers, though it can get a little hair raising at times, I think it was my fastest 1-55 character solo, but she was quite well twinked, as a newbie, it will be slightly more difficult but not amazingly so, you just have to be more careful.
Wizards can find it slow up to level 29, until they get quad snare, at this point, with a friendly SoW, they can totally rake in the EXP until level 55ish, there is downtime but the mass XP you make prior to that makes up for it.
Druids are great soloers, they can root rot, charm kite, quad kite, heal, and add nukes for extra DPS (though this isn't really needed). Anything snareable that doesnt summon is killable by a druid, they are definitley one of the safest soloers, and also one of the fastest, very good duo'd with an enchanter.
Rangers are ok soloers, they are not the fastest, or safest, but can comfortably solo their way up to 65 if they so desire, without the need for mass AA. Before you have the abilities to PROPERLY bow kite (EQ/AM3), you can just fear kite, from level 22 when you get panic animal, until level 65 (western wastes, though it will take aeons). The old trick of getting headshot at 62 and AAing wont work in SoD due to there being no headshot AA. Once you do get your AA's, you can pull in (with max haste) approx 1 aa per 2 hours or so (in somewhere like HoH, which isn't on SoD). It is very safe, unless you screw up, even adds should be no problem to an experienced kiter.
And some comments on classes I dont know too well:
Necromancers are probably the best soloers, they have amazing DPS, great pets, and can just pet kite there way up to 65, following the same rules as druids (snareable / doesnt summon), they can even take on some mobs that do summon. Also they have little downtime due to their great regen.
Beastlords and mages solo in similar ways, I would give beastlords the nod due to the ability to slow, which lowers their mana expenditure, which again, in turn, lowers their downtime. Lack of snare or CC tools makes the camp options limited, but not massivley so.
The other two hybrids, SK and Pala, can solo to an extend, the SK faring better due to fear and snare, but both have fairly low DPS so will find it a taxing task to solo from 1-65.
Bards were great on live, but I hear they have been changed more than any of the other classes, so will reserve comments here.
In order of speed from 1-65, including inherent dangers, I would put the classes like this (excluding bards, as I just dont know):
Necromancer
Enchanter
Druid
Wizard
Ranger
Mage / Beastlord
Shaman
Cleric
Shadowknight
Paladin
War / Monk / Rogue / Zerker
Now play style may affect speed of leveling, and other factors, including how much has changed from live to SoD, which I am not fully aware of (I wish I was, need an FAQ!
)
I dont imagine that too much has changed, so this should roughly be the order.
I did alot of soloing with every class I played, my main was a level 70 ranger with 250+ aa, a 66 shaman, 55 chanter and 53 wizard were my alts (had a lowbie mage, monk, and cleric too).
Its hard to quantify who is the best soloer, it depends on too many things. For speed, rangers are for sure not the fastest from 1-65/70, I'll leave some comments on the classes I actually played.
Any melee (no spells) class will have problems soloing past about 20ish, even up to there can be a struggle due to downtime between fights.
Shaman are great soloers, from 1-65, though definitley not the fastest, they are one of the safest, once they get torpor, they will be able to kill many tough critters, but at no great speed.
Enchanters are great soloers, though it can get a little hair raising at times, I think it was my fastest 1-55 character solo, but she was quite well twinked, as a newbie, it will be slightly more difficult but not amazingly so, you just have to be more careful.
Wizards can find it slow up to level 29, until they get quad snare, at this point, with a friendly SoW, they can totally rake in the EXP until level 55ish, there is downtime but the mass XP you make prior to that makes up for it.
Druids are great soloers, they can root rot, charm kite, quad kite, heal, and add nukes for extra DPS (though this isn't really needed). Anything snareable that doesnt summon is killable by a druid, they are definitley one of the safest soloers, and also one of the fastest, very good duo'd with an enchanter.
Rangers are ok soloers, they are not the fastest, or safest, but can comfortably solo their way up to 65 if they so desire, without the need for mass AA. Before you have the abilities to PROPERLY bow kite (EQ/AM3), you can just fear kite, from level 22 when you get panic animal, until level 65 (western wastes, though it will take aeons). The old trick of getting headshot at 62 and AAing wont work in SoD due to there being no headshot AA. Once you do get your AA's, you can pull in (with max haste) approx 1 aa per 2 hours or so (in somewhere like HoH, which isn't on SoD). It is very safe, unless you screw up, even adds should be no problem to an experienced kiter.
And some comments on classes I dont know too well:
Necromancers are probably the best soloers, they have amazing DPS, great pets, and can just pet kite there way up to 65, following the same rules as druids (snareable / doesnt summon), they can even take on some mobs that do summon. Also they have little downtime due to their great regen.
Beastlords and mages solo in similar ways, I would give beastlords the nod due to the ability to slow, which lowers their mana expenditure, which again, in turn, lowers their downtime. Lack of snare or CC tools makes the camp options limited, but not massivley so.
The other two hybrids, SK and Pala, can solo to an extend, the SK faring better due to fear and snare, but both have fairly low DPS so will find it a taxing task to solo from 1-65.
Bards were great on live, but I hear they have been changed more than any of the other classes, so will reserve comments here.
In order of speed from 1-65, including inherent dangers, I would put the classes like this (excluding bards, as I just dont know):
Necromancer
Enchanter
Druid
Wizard
Ranger
Mage / Beastlord
Shaman
Cleric
Shadowknight
Paladin
War / Monk / Rogue / Zerker
Now play style may affect speed of leveling, and other factors, including how much has changed from live to SoD, which I am not fully aware of (I wish I was, need an FAQ!
)I dont imagine that too much has changed, so this should roughly be the order.
