[Zuranthium]

Originally Posted by DeathsSilkyMist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Mino axe wielding lowbies will still chew through content.

No they won't. Unless your definition of "chew" is extremely slow.

Originally Posted by DeathsSilkyMist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

P99 isn't that hard

Correct. But it's definitely a timesink. And all we have in life is the little time we're given. So I prefer to not be excessively wasteful with it. Sitting around watching idiots slowly, inefficiently autoattack retarded MOBs with zero danger is extremely boring.

Originally Posted by DeathsSilkyMist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

People play the majority of the game without needing to worry about DPS checks.

If you don't want to worry about DPS that is your own problem. Plenty of people do care about playing the game more intelligently and those people will be hitting Level 30 on a new server and claiming the item camps while you are level 15 and farting around in Oasis or wherever. These people will have multiple Level 60's (50's for pre-Kunark) for their guild to use while you have only 1.

And factually in 1999, DPS mattered even more than now, as there was no Play Nice Policy. Everything was a total free-for-all, whoever did the most damage to an NPC got the exp and loot. THAT is actual classic Everquest (even if the majority of people played the game casually).

Originally Posted by DeathsSilkyMist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I am talking about the real P99 servers. Red is dead, so the XP bonus is irrelevant. And no, a min/maxed group is not going to be running 6 people due to the xp penalty. It would be better to run multiple groups of 3 or 4 players and level in different areas if a guild is trying to fast level characters.

Red isn't dead, anyone can go there and play if they want. The exp bonus on that server could also be ported over to other servers if the management wants to.

You don't seem to understand the exp bonus, there is a significant increase given for each member added, such that adding a 6th player means your group is getting the same exp per kill as if you had 5 people in the group, but now with the benefit of a 6th person being there.

It's generally not more efficient to split the group into two 3-person groups, as you likely won't have exactly the correct composition for separate perfectly tuned 3-person groups. Plus the aspect of wanting a stronger group of people together anyway to be safer in PvP. Or for a PvE server in actual 1999 EQ, wanting to fill the group to 6 so that you have the best chance of outdamaging another group in a hotly contested area (which was extremely common right from the low levels in Blackburrow or Crushbone).

Originally Posted by DeathsSilkyMist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

We are not talking about your definition of successful. We are talking about the normal definition of successful, which is a group that can clear content without dying.

That is not the normal definition. Leveling faster and getting better gear is pretty universally considered more successful.

And there are absolutely MANY practical scenarios where a group composition with bad DPS is not going to be able to "clear the content". If you get a group of people together and want to dungeon crawl down to some camp and people only have 2 hours before they need to log off, then you might not even get there at all if your group is killing too slowly.

Originally Posted by Zeboim [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Just gonna say that if you tell a melee character they can't join your EXP group because of what weapon they have, you are an ENORMOUS tool.

No, it means you don't want to waste time.

People are allowed to play the game more competitively if they want. In any actual Team-based competitive game, you take the people who are able to play at your level. Top ranked League of Legends players aren't sitting around trying to recruit Bronze level players to their teams for tournaments.

EQ can definitely be played more casually if desired. It can be fun to just hang out with people in a group and do some stuff and not worry about being super efficient. But for plenty of people, you don't want to be doing that all the time. You don't want to be spending 2x as long to do something for no reason.

And regardless, going back to discussing the power level of classes, it's absolutely idiotic either way to say DPS is irrelevant. If your group doesn't care about "Power Level", then whatever, they don't care. But a class like a Mage will FACTUALLY give a typical group the ability to kill more things. Which is exactly more powerful.