Soloing vs. grouping, once and for all

[stormlord]

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

I've been wondering about group vs. solo exp. At this point in time during Live, I exclusively played classes that had to group, so I don't have a distinctive memory of the difference. What I certainly don't remember was constantly hearing that soloing was vastly better exp than grouping, nor finding a magician in every conceivable solo spot in the entire game, but this is clearly the case here. I can level significantly faster solo than I can in groups, and that's as an enchanter or shaman, not even the true solo-exp kings.

The impact this has on gameplay on this server is extremely obvious, and if this was the case in nineteen ninety-nine, I'll resign myself to the apparent fact that this is how it always worked and that people were just more willing to group back then.

So, to those of you who soloed extensively eleven years ago, was solo exp twice as good back then as well?

I've thought about this some. I really think it depends on the person.

Some people are really good in groups. They're not afk too much and love the thrill. If a group is well functioning and it's in a good zone for groups then experience will come in at a faster pace than most soloers will get.

The probelm is that a lot of groups are pickup and not very good at what they're doing. A lot of them aren't even playing for the experience. They just like it. Some will go afk. Some will have their mind somewhere else. They will spend hour(s) just forming the group. So the hypotheticall 200% with 6 people never takes form. Some of them won't like it. of course. I suppose they'll learn to hate this game.

You can't easily compare a single person to a group because a single person is usually an expert in a particular place when they go there. They press all of hte buttons and at the right time. They have it down to a science. But that's hard to find in groups. I've been in EQ for a long, long time. I've seen a lot of groups. Finding a group that really knows how to play is difficult, and can get boring if you always play with the same guys. Furthermore, since a lot of people do AFK (and often), necros and other classes with FD or CC ability will have an obvious advantage. RL beckons us. Games can't have all of our attention, 24/7.

I played a ranger in 99. I made another one in 2001 and that's all I played, mostly. I think that it was picking a ranger that made me remember EQ so fondly. If I had picked a group-dependent class, I don't think I would have felt the same way. I was able to solo, track, root, snare, kill from a distance, sneak, so on and so forth; I really had a lot of tools in my bag. Without many tools to use, it gets boring fast - you don't feel in control.

I also, strangely, think that soloing is boring. Well, it gets boring because you start to do the same thing over and over again. And there's no one to talk to or to correct. DDO is a fun game if you play it solo. But inevitably, you want to group to stay interested. For me, grouping ruined DDO completely. Everyone rushing, pushing ahead, not being able to absorb everything, etc. But maybe this is just the way I am. In EQ, I grouped a lot with my ranger. I hated camping. I soloed sometimes and it was faster experience, but it was boring. It got boring because I would master a zone and then AA or something. But I always did the same thing. I didn't go to new areas when I was getting experience. For me, the game was in the grouping and in the guild because they pushed me to do new things and to use all of my ranger abilities - ya, I used ranger gate a lot.