Quote:
Originally Posted by Reiker
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However, a new player who starts today is going to have the same bankroll as they did a week or two after the server released. The majority of their income is coming from within the game ie. coin and vendor loot dropped from mobs. This obviously doesn't increase as more players enter the game. So while a PGT may be worth 4x more now than it did then, your average level 15 melee who would probably want one won't come close to being able to afford one. No sane level 50 on the server is going to twink a new character with a PGT or an Advisor Robe or any of these items that have been made an example of. And this is where the problem lies, the buying power of a percentage of the playerbase is increasing the price for the entire playerbase, essentially making the poor even less incapable of equipping themselves than months ago. Essentially the large influx of new players is straight up hindering those new players to progress themselves, interestingly enough. It's a double-edged sword that is harming the newer playerbase instead of nurturing it.
The detrimental effects don't end here. The majority of new players need groups to level. 95% of groups in EQ follow the lines of the traditional D&D trinity: tank, healer, dps. If anyone has been leveling here recently, here is what you'll see.
The majority of the time you will be looking for a tank. You'll have bards and rangers tanking more often than warriors or knights. If you do find a tank, it's only because a level 50 is bored and decided to twink one out. You'll easily group with more twinked tanks than "normally geared" tanks, probably at about 4:1. If the tank leaves, your group dies. This is the largest issue with the lower end leveling scene at this moment.
Your healers are druids. Druids are the least gear dependant healer right now, so by virtue of the above, there's a large influx of druids.
Your DPS are casters. You may very rarely find a monk, as they do well without gear, but you'll almost never find an untwinked rogue. Most full groups will consist of 3-4 robed casters, as those four classes are the best in the game without good gear.
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Being a new player on P99 this is definitely a great post and worth commenting on.
My "main," if you could call it that, is an untwinked Barbarian Rogue. He is currently level 11, equipped with a Puguis, some large cloth, and about 40 plat. The only "twinked" item I have is the Pugius. Some guy gave it to me for helping him transfer crushbone belts to his alt. Otherwise I'd be using a Tarnished Rapier.
The only thing I can apparently buy with this 40p is Banded, which is largely irrelevant to a class who shouldn't be getting hit all that much, and can't even pull aggro with his pathetic weapon.
I've tried to buy basic +2 STR rings, but the guy selling them wanted 25p for a pair. I remember these being 2-4pp each all the way into Velious.
I've tried to buy a new weapon. I dug through the EC forum and found someone had sold a Serrated Bone Dirk for 50p about a month ago. Running to the tunnel I find a guy wanting to sell one for 250p (he wouldn't list the price, I had to send him a tell). When I said, in so many words, "rofl, no fucking way," he went crazy and begged me to offer a lower price. It's the strangest thing I've ever seen. I just stopped responding as I didn't want to get into the whole back and forth where his feelings get hurt because he's not going to get the wild price he wants.
Gloomwater Harpoons go for about 200, and I don't know if that's reasonable or not, but 200p is a pretty distant goal at this juncture. My farming options are Bone Chips (~5plat a stack, in the EC region as a Rogue this is a horrible time:return ratio), High Quality Bear/Cat skins (what I'd been doing, mostly, before I headed off to gfay), and Silks (20p-ish a stack, but rarely any buyers). Over in gfay, I try to sell Crushbone Belts for 1p/each (which is normal). They sell, but the buyers are wildly erratic and further, I have to go back to EC to (try to) buy anything.
On the subject of group composition, you're pretty much dead on the money.
Over in Crushbone, here's the group composition analysis:
Druids, untwinked (100% inevitable, often 2/group or worse).
Paladins, twinked (close to inevitable, and often more than 1).
Warriors, twinked (about half to a third of the time).
Rogues, twinked (about 1/4th the time).
Wizards, untwinked (about 1/4th the time).
Bards, twinked (uncommon).
Clerics, twinked (rare).
Special Mention:
Mages/Enchanters, untwinked or twinked (not seen in groups past 8, typically pulling/leveling faster than full groups are).
Any other combinations I've only seen once or twice (twinked Human Monk one time) or not at all.
If a class is even the least bit gear dependent, 90% of the time they're mad twinked. While I'm backstabbing for 15, the Wood Elf Warrior with a Mithril Two-Handed Sword and god knows what else is hitting for over 30.
Is it frustrating? Not really. I'd like to backstab for, you know, 20, but no one keeps me out of groups because my gear sucks (yet). There's more flexibility in groups when your tanks are twinked -- it lets Druids heal, for instance. If we were all as poor as me, we'd need the trinity starting at level 4.