Why I don't like to group

[Shiftin]

I love to group. As a rogue, it's pretty much required barring a fungi tunic or rubi BP and dual SBDs at 28.

The problem is the lack of places or actual grouping opportunities once you hit 20 and before you get to the 30s. I spent 6 hours basically LFG yesterday with 15 minutes in a group that broke up shortly after I arrived.

I spent my teens in oasis and had many an awesome group at orcs and crocs. There were some morons but those of us who had prior experience with the game gently corrected them and they either got better or were asked to find another group.

What i did notice in visiting UGuk, Highkeep, Unrest and Mistmoore in my attempts to find a group yesterday was that the server is camped to #@$() with people powerleveling. I zone in, get excited because there are 20 or so people in the zone, only to realize 5 of them are level 40+ powerleveling 1 or 2 other people and even when others of my level zone in LFG there's no place for us to camp.

I'm hoping this was some sort of anomaly with the bonus exp weekend because it's terribly frustrating.

[Aetherial]

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

The problem isn't solo vs group, IMO. The problem is lack of content for the 35+ crowd. There just isn't enough content for this many people leveling in the higher levels. I don't know if this was a problem in classic, because Kunark had already been out a couple of months by the time I got my first character to 35, but it's definitely a problem here.

A comment from one of the Devs back in the day was that he could walk naked solo through SolB or Lower Guk and never die... the idea was that there was basically 2 viable end-zones (pre Kunark) and Mobs died within seconds of popping, pretty much 24/7.

[Aetherial]

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

I love to group. As a rogue, it's pretty much required barring a fungi tunic or rubi BP and dual SBDs at 28.

The problem is the lack of places or actual grouping opportunities once you hit 20 and before you get to the 30s. I spent 6 hours basically LFG yesterday with 15 minutes in a group that broke up shortly after I arrived.

I spent my teens in oasis and had many an awesome group at orcs and crocs. There were some morons but those of us who had prior experience with the game gently corrected them and they either got better or were asked to find another group.

What i did notice in visiting UGuk, Highkeep, Unrest and Mistmoore in my attempts to find a group yesterday was that the server is camped to #@$() with people powerleveling. I zone in, get excited because there are 20 or so people in the zone, only to realize 5 of them are level 40+ powerleveling 1 or 2 other people and even when others of my level zone in LFG there's no place for us to camp.

I'm hoping this was some sort of anomaly with the bonus exp weekend because it's terribly frustrating.

sadly, I was suspicious of the viability of a primarily group-dependent character and had to eliminate Rogue for this very reason.

[Rasterburn]

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

So where do Wizards do their uber-soloing from 1-50 pre-Luclin? =P

I said where. Several of the Velious zones are excellent. Also a few zones on Kunark, but the XP is kind of crappy there in comparison.

[HeallunRumblebelly]

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

When I was leveling my mage, I used to group with pretty much the same people from 30+, guys that really knew what they were doing. The group exp blew away what I could do solo, even 40+ (hell, especially 40+). Sometimes none of our crew would be on and I'd solo at the best exp spot in the game and be sad at the slow exp rate compared to our normal group.

RIP Emo Kids.

tldr: group exp is fine, find good players that can hold those tough camps.

But have you done it recently? It was with the group exp change (where exp was pooled then redistributed, instead of everyone getting solo exp together) that soloing REALLY started to pass grouping in exp rate.

[Arclanz]

sad but true. Group xp sux. Group loot also sux. Every group has one or more loot whore(s). Oh, and most of the times I've died on this server were due to grouping.

See Yaeger's posts on page 8. This server should implement the 2003 group-xp patch.

[Locker]

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

Grouping for me is why I enjoy EQ - sometimes even horrible PUGs are fun in weird, random ways that result in negative xp. When everything goes well, grouping is amazing fun.

But yah, no question - solo classes have it easier in that they have they option to group OR solo.

Tork mom, camped!

(Sorry old nameless joke...)

[RKromwell]

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

Reality fear-kiting as a ranger is not like you described.

I did do that. I was nowhere near the efficiency of a necro, not to mention the fact that I had to find qualifying animals.

The reality... fear breaks, or is resisted or you are interrupted. In each of these cases the MOB gets a few seconds to beat on you. You lose health, as a ranger I can tell you that you last marginally longer than a cloth class. That means you need to self-heal, our heals were bad, our mana pool was tiny... which also means you need to med. Even if I never got hit, our mana pool was so small that self-buffs and fear, snare spell casts meant I had to med every handful of MOBS.

Also, even in very good gear at the time, I am not killing any animal worth decent exp too quickly. You still have to hunt blues. Reds and yellows will resist fear too many times.

This times 100.

I spent a lot of time in Eastern Wastes because I could solo there. That being said I would have to stay near the bridge to Ice Clad and pray I didn't get a lot of resist. I also couldn't do it on my own, I had to have crack or KEI to do so. Can Rangers solo, sure. Most would rather have a group though.

[minhjn]

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

I love to group. As a rogue, it's pretty much required barring a fungi tunic or rubi BP and dual SBDs at 28.

The problem is the lack of places or actual grouping opportunities once you hit 20 and before you get to the 30s. I spent 6 hours basically LFG yesterday with 15 minutes in a group that broke up shortly after I arrived.

I spent my teens in oasis and had many an awesome group at orcs and crocs. There were some morons but those of us who had prior experience with the game gently corrected them and they either got better or were asked to find another group.

What i did notice in visiting UGuk, Highkeep, Unrest and Mistmoore in my attempts to find a group yesterday was that the server is camped to #@$() with people powerleveling. I zone in, get excited because there are 20 or so people in the zone, only to realize 5 of them are level 40+ powerleveling 1 or 2 other people and even when others of my level zone in LFG there's no place for us to camp.

I'm hoping this was some sort of anomaly with the bonus exp weekend because it's terribly frustrating.

i agree with all of this

[Cyph]

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

I love to group. As a rogue, it's pretty much required barring a fungi tunic or rubi BP and dual SBDs at 28.

The problem is the lack of places or actual grouping opportunities once you hit 20 and before you get to the 30s. I spent 6 hours basically LFG yesterday with 15 minutes in a group that broke up shortly after I arrived.

I spent my teens in oasis and had many an awesome group at orcs and crocs. There were some morons but those of us who had prior experience with the game gently corrected them and they either got better or were asked to find another group.

What i did notice in visiting UGuk, Highkeep, Unrest and Mistmoore in my attempts to find a group yesterday was that the server is camped to #@$() with people powerleveling. I zone in, get excited because there are 20 or so people in the zone, only to realize 5 of them are level 40+ powerleveling 1 or 2 other people and even when others of my level zone in LFG there's no place for us to camp.

I'm hoping this was some sort of anomaly with the bonus exp weekend because it's terribly frustrating.

Is this kind of behaviour against the rules? I would hope so.