Why I don't like to group

[Taluvill]

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

I'm still not sure why you're sticking with your 30+ number as a group killing 30+ mobs every 5 minutes would be earning WAY more experience than a soloer.

As I stated, when you factor all the variables, a group would need to kill about 3 mobs every minute (at the high end) to compete. I was able to do this back in October/November (much less gear available) at SolB royals with no cleric and no CC and with no downtime.

This. It's not that hard.

Edit: and 30 mobs in 5 minutes is rediculous. absolutely ludicrous. any group would blaze past any soloer.

[eqdruid76]

I just realized...

Most of these figures are based off levelling in Oasis.

[Taluvill]

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

RIP Emo Kids.

Did karsten keep a toon with guild leadership over that?

[Troy]

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

For once, I actually agree with Tiki here. Grouping is much faster, and, pre-manastone it was basically all that I did. I got my manastone at 34 duoing the camp with a 29 Druid. Grouping in Sol A was much better than anything I could have asked for soloing.

When I got my manastone, Keeping the BB docks clear and the BB house clear was awesome exp, as BB has a newbie exp bonus. With a Manastone (not a usual item), I can hit loads of exp while I was LFG on the global channels. Once I was able to get into a Sol B Royals group though (usually didn't take too long because the same good players kept camps and invited the same good players)
the exp was MUCH better. Grouping Exp is much better.


tldr: Unless I'm quadding with regen and my manastone, grouping is much faster. and even quadding with my manastone, soloing was still slower most of the time (depends on the group members and the particular camp.)

Druids are extremely slow at soloing, of course grouping will be faster for you. Keep in mind that a mage can solo at like 5x the rate of a druid.

[Taluvill]

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

Druids are extremely slow at soloing, of course grouping will be faster for you. Keep in mind that a mage can solo at like 5x the rate of a druid.

Granted. The only soloing a druid should really be doing is quadding, and I've found that even that is slow unless I have my manastone.

Edit: When I quadded, the population was a LOT lower than it is today, but I would only really quad while I was LFG. A lot more of the camps were open and available.

[Sareil]

I do remember quadding as a wizard on live. This was in PoP, but on the Velious Wyverns. It was never as good of xp as grouping was (or remotely as safe), but it was close, and the plat I got from it faaaar exceeded anything I could get grouping.

[Eternal-Elf]

When EverQuest first came out grouping was a great way to see more difficult parts of the game than you could see by yourself. That is what made it such a social game. You could rely on your party members to heal, DPS, CC, or do whatever to get you farther into the dungeon than you'd ever gone before, or into a zone that was dangerous alone.
However, now that 98% of the population has seen and done everything this game has to offer there is no incentive to "adventure". There is only the incentive to poopsock your way to level 50 and hope to get into a guild where you can continue to poopsock your way to getting items you would have deleted on live.

This game is very fun, but there is nothing new. I seriously envy the players that are experiencing it for the first time.

eh

[zianlo1]

[QUOTE=Noselacri;129165]
And that's the thing, really. The benefits of soloing are supposed to come at the price of less but safer exp and a lack of interaction. However, the guy who played back in anno 1999 when he was 18 and had a blast joking around with strangers and staying up until 2AM and so on, he's now a grown man with a wife and a crying kid in the next room. He doesn't care as much about bullshitting with other youngsters, and he doesn't need to play in an environment where having to leave the computer for 20 minutes is a problem. And unlike the EQ he remembered, this version actually rewards him much more for refraining to group. Suddenly soloing isn't something to do when there are no groups available, or the only way for classes that aren't highly desirable in groups. It's the best way to level up and by far the most convenient way to play for him. And since many, if not most players, are now more like him than the energetic teenagers they were when they started playing ten or eleven years ago, it's no wonder more and more players prefer the spectre island over Lower Guk.
[QUOTE]

This is myself and my g/f...Overall, awesome post. Stupid quote btw is not working for me....

[fugazi]

Add a slash so it becomes [/quote..], thats how you close a quote [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Anyways, after reading through the entire discussion and weighing up all the options I still think that adding a small boost to group xp would be good. We're all poisoned by WoW and aging, and most us could use a nudge here.

[Qaedain]

The most reliable mid-40s solo camp for a Mage is spectres in Oasis, I think. The five ground-level spawns can be cleared before repops, consuming sufficiently little mana to keep this cycle going indefinitely.

I don't know how long the respawns are, but 9-11 minutes feels right.

Reasonably speaking, a Mage requires about 2-3 minutes of meditating to regenerate enough mana to come out ahead relative to what is required for the next pull, rebuffs, etc.

In other words: in the 2-3 minutes it takes for a Mage to kill one mob and prepare for the next--that is, real grinding, not simply draining your mana bar to kill as quickly as possible--a group could easily bring in 2-3% exp. I did it tonight at BNB myself.

Ceteris paribus, grouping is faster.