|
Well, I don't want to dissuade you from crewing up because that can be quite fun; but, you can solo pretty much every ship in the game (although, I don't solo board anything higher than the Navy Man-O-War). Opening up Thunderbolt is a great way to make light work of frigates from a distance, so you don't have to worry which end you're attacking.
Other than that, one of the easiest ways to avoid damage is to use a "hit and run" style of moving up to the ship inside its gun shadow, so none of its cannons can hit you, then when you get close broadside it and start turning away. Learn to set your compass for the best scale to watch the ships with your radar, and then you'll be able to run out straight in front of them every time.
When you get them to the edge of your radar, or a little beyond if you want to work Cannon rep in too, then turn your ship perpendicular to them coming straight at you. In traffic, be careful to point your ship away from the busy area, so your escape route doesn't lead you into a crowd. For big ships, you'll get the hang of timing your broadsides, then taking a slight angle for the last one so you can turn to run away in a straight-line out in front of them.
Once you open up Thunderbolt, you can de-sail ships beyond compass range, especially handy for frigates, although you'll also learn to leave them enough sail to let their inertia carry them into the edge of your Cannon range for the shorter-distance ammunition types. For slightly better plunder, you can solo board the smaller flagships; start with the Navy Bulwark sailing the Windward Passage to get the feel for it.
Now, I got halfway through Sailing level 21 and just into Cannon level 18 working solo; however, over the past few days I started working with crews and found out that's going better these days too.
I started out the other day with a crew of random people, all single-digit Notoriety and mostly free players. None of them fired on anything random, and they actually jointly asked for orders before I started giving them.
Then, yesterday, I worked with a highly trained and well-organized crew that were all from the same guild. They were all effective players that were used to working together. Not only was it fun to have the company while Sailing, but I learned that I didn't have to keep moving to make distance as much, so we were filling up faster.
So, it isn't really a matter of "if" you can solo--you can. It is really a matter of of whether you want to or not. However, I've learned recently that, when I gave it more of a chance, sailing with a crew can be enjoyable.
|