Covid has infected Norath and they are social distancing.

Well for classes that can quad\swarm kite it's kind of a no brainer for leveling. But I think mostly people solo because it's easy, steady consistent XP that you can pick up for 30 minutes or 3 hours at a time if you want. It's slower than a good group in a high zem dungeon, but it's much more consistent because there's no waiting around for a group to assemble or to invite you into it.

When I was leveling my warrior, I had a Fungi Tunic, Fungi Staff, some lower tier raid weapons (VP weapons, Eashen 2h, Dagarn Whip, etc) and was twinked to shit. Despite that, I still wasn't very useful in groups. Holding aggro was still very hard compared to Pal/SK, and I got like 3x more exp just soloing the guards in HighKeep.

So even though I wanted to group, it was hard to justify. Even now at 54, with Epic, Willsapper, Pirate Eyepatch, etc. I can't hold aggro for shit. Honestly the best weapon is the 2h that procs Root from Chardok. If I can get buffs (Dex, FoS, VoG) it's not so bad, but even at 54 I feel useless in groups and it's better exp to solo. Everyone else grouping in KC or Seb is super twinked too, so the only hope of holding aggro is procs. I've been in groups where we just let the ranger tank to make it easier on the rogues.

On my bard though, I got epic at 50 and grouped all the way to 60. It was a blast. Charming, mezzing, slowing, lulling, pulling. Pulling like packs of 10 in KC basement and snare kiting them around the room while the group picks them off one by one. Or doing Sebilis and lull pulling, staying in camp just long enough to proc epic then running off to get more. That was a blast.

I grouped on my necro too even though I knew it was worse exp, simply because it was a lot more fun.

So there's a lot of factors. Your class, your gear, your time available, your desire for efficiency or fun. People do still group.

The cool thing about being twinked is no one had to hold agro! Think 5 demonsionally.

In a group full of twinked melee the group has like 30 hp per second regen. It doesn’t need a healer. Pingponging aggro is a feature not a bug.

I actually think the opposite. If you're incredibly social in game and this is your social outlet, I'd question what you're doing irl.

The most fun I've had is playing my super twink necro (had epic, VP soul well staff, beads, etc. at 46.) grouping in KC, HS, or The Hole, or even Seb if I could get a pet from crypt. I'd use Staff of the Undead Legions or the ranger dagger from HS that procs 600 DD as pet weapons, along with Tola Robe, so the pet absolutely shredded. Along with that, I used Shadowbond and Pact of Shadow + Vexing Mordinia or Soul Well to be the group healer. I also pulled in some groups, since necros get undead lull as well. It's also easy to deal with Charm breaks, though Necro charm breaks are much rarer than Enc. Just FD, instantly stand and either ST or recharm. Pants clicky for haste. Root/ST for CC. Lots of fun. It's even better now with the slow proc shaman weapon from Chardok, I combo that with the 600 DD weapon and the pet is just insanity.

In the vast majority of cases soloing is just faster XP ... and that's not even counting the time lost trying to find a group.

Back when the Hole was the place to be I would bring my mage there hoping to get a group. It would often take hours to find one, if I could at all, and then it would take awhile more to actually get to that group. Once I finally did I often earned less XP (just depending on the location, group make-up, etc.) than I could solo ... and eventually I gave up on grouping.

The game is made to be grouped to make it easier.

But with top game knowledge, soloing competes or beats grouping for efficiency.

So people solo.

A good quality group doing good work in a high exp zone like lguk without other people fucking things up is a beautiful thing, no doubt. But creeping around as a cleric and breaking camps and fighting in a little hallway corner before repop works good too.

Its fun to show off an extremely well done twink.