Why is it always so hard to find a group!

[KwwBall]

This feels a lot like EQ was back in the day. I'm a good player. I'm friendly. I help people when I can. I always have LFG on, I'm always asking if anyone would like to group with me, yet EVERYWHERE I go generally people don't want to group.

What is wrong here? Everquest is a game designed around playing with other people.

Are all these lower level people actually just alts from established guilds so they basically don't give a fuck about anyone else?

Anyone have suggestions? Right now I'm only level 12 but damn! Maybe it's because I'm a Paladin...

[Reguiy]

It's because you're a Paladin. Shoulda put that in your first line instead of the last. Would have saved me 30 seconds.

[Tasslehofp99]

This feels a lot like EQ was back in the day. I'm a good player. I'm friendly. I help people when I can. I always have LFG on, I'm always asking if anyone would like to group with me, yet EVERYWHERE I go generally people don't want to group.

What is wrong here? Everquest is a game designed around playing with other people.

Are all these lower level people actually just alts from established guilds so they basically don't give a fuck about anyone else?

Anyone have suggestions? Right now I'm only level 12 but damn! Maybe it's because I'm a Paladin...

I hate to say this because I'm totally against any notion that any class is useless but....

Its because you're a paladin.


I basically got the same thing as a druid, only druids can solo a lot better than a paladin. However you should not let this discourage you as you WILL find a way to level if you're persistent enough. In fact I know a few paladins who leveled up fairly quick without any twink gear. At level 45 you can use your DW helm clicky to more or less solo all the way to 60. I would suggest finding a couple of people to trio with though, I'm sure there are plenty of classes that work well with a paladin.

Off the top of my head some interesting trios involving a paladin could include:

Pally, ench, shaman.
Pally can tank decently, hold amazing aggro, but does no damage...pally can also pull fairly well.
Enchanters can charm to add dps to this group as well as being able to crowd control in situations the paladin can't single well, enchanter could also keep the downtime to a minimum as well.
Add a shaman to this and you've got their debuffs to make everything super easy, their buffs make both ench and pally more effective, and shamans can do decent damage with pet/dots if healing isn't required often. At 45 add a DW helm to the mix and this group could quite possibly be an amazing trio.


Other nice trios:

Paladin/shaman/rog (fairly self explanatory)


Paladin/enchanter/druid (*prolly not great for lower levels but at 45+ with dw helm/es vambs and the ability to have 2 charm pets makes for some real potential...paladin could literally sit there with DW helm chain clicking pets to heal, help with stuns when they break although snare from druid makes tgis a nonissue, among other things.)

Blah I can go on but typing on a cellphone blows ...


SHIT you could even duo with a monk to 60 just chain healing with helmet ...lol

[Shaakglith12194]

Pallys do have it a bit rough, but just keep at it. Take charge and send tells asking if people want to join you at whatever camp you're killing at. At higher levels it will get easier to find groups. I couldn't get a group on my cleric until I was 14 or 15 and that was in zones with good population.

[Burrito]

Easiest way to beat this dilemma is starting the group

[Derubael]

Paladins make excellent takes - great snap aggro, spot heals (eventually), even basic CC. Their dps is lacking, but tanks aren't supposed to be about dps anyway. There is a stigma against them though, so you'll be fighting that on your way to 60.

Best solution is to start your own groups. Do a / all 10 15 and start messaging people about grouping up. This works for all level ranges.

[KwwBall]

Good advice so far! Thanks everyone. Norrath needs a Paladin Awareness month.. har har har

[mitic]

ive always actively started groups on my own when i played a tank.

after some days/weeks youll get tells the moment u log on for a group as soon you are known being a good groupleader.

[Daldaen]

Hybrid exp penalty needs removed to help the situation as well.

[Bazia]

It's been said but start making groups, if they go smoothly people will start hitting you up asking for more chances to group.

A little intiative goes a long way and kudos to you for playing what you want even though it's a bit less convenient.

[Norathorr]

There is alot to be said for paladins. Some of the bbest groups I have had so far on P1999 are with paladins tanking. As a shaman they can give me extra hp and hold aggro without me having to root anything (at lv 47 at the moment). The exp penalty sucks, but the efficiency makes up for it imo!

[Ajkuhuun]

Hoof it over to Kurns you'll be snapped up like a dingo after a baby!

[rollin5k]

How come everyone makes a stink when hybrids want to join group but never heard much about lizards wanting to join.

Isn't the penalty about the same?

[Raelador]

It sounds like you are trying to start groups, but maybe need to be a little more forceful with them. Let them know you are large and in charge and know what you're doing. Heck I go and sit in front of people /smiling at them until I get what I want.

[Rararboker]

In my own experience paladins are the best tanks on p99. Maybe not for raid (as I don't do that) but grouping, they are amazing. As a wizard I can nuke mobs at 80% HP without stripping aggro from a paladin. I'd like to see a SK or Warrior do that (they've tried and lost, just in case your wondering).

[SyanideGas]

If you aren't a HE just say you're a warrior, nbd imo /role. Win forever.

[Pint]

Join a leveling guild with a significant number of new ppl or low lvl alts

[Reguiy]

How come everyone makes a stink when hybrids want to join group but never heard much about lizards wanting to join.

Isn't the penalty about the same?

From my understanding the hybrid penalty is shared with the group, but the race penalty is not. Not 100% sure but ya.

Anyway, I think pallies are great tanks. But if you're a min/maxer, meaning you want to level fast, there's no point in having a pally tank. Once hybrid penalty is removed then the tables will turn and no one will want warriors anymore.

[myriverse]

How come everyone makes a stink when hybrids want to join group but never heard much about lizards wanting to join.

Isn't the penalty about the same?
Lizards so sexy. But no, the iksar penalty is half the hybrid penalty (20% and 40% respectively).

http://wiki.project1999.com/index.php/Game_Mechanics#Race.2FClass_Experience_Penalties

[drktmplr12]

Name a tank that can root. Root is the single most useful thing a paladin can do. tank managed CC at its best.

[Swish]

Hybrid exp penalty needs removed to help the situation as well.

A sad truth, some sad people refuse to group with hybrids... it grinds my gears :p

[Reguiy]

^

The GMs encourage people to group as much as possible, but they keep in ridiculously hybrid penalties for 3+ years. I really don't blame people for not wanting to group with hybrids. The penalty is just silly.

I the penalty know it's classic, but EQ is all about grouping with each other. At the moment the best way to level is soloing, hands down. There's no point to grouping with bards/sk/pallies, etc for xp. Sure, they might do a few more things slightly better than their counterparts, but when everyone in the group is getting considerably less xp, it's really just not worth it.

[myriverse]

Only assholes refuse to group with someone because of a stupid penalty.

[Reguiy]

Only assholes refuse to group with someone because of a stupid penalty.

Say what you will, but the fact of the matter is that if a shaman is duoing with a pally, not only can that shaman not utilize his soloing capabilities, but the shaman is also being penalized 20% xp just for being in the group with the pally. Does that seem right to you?

[rollin5k]

I am a shaman and i wouldn't hesitate to group with a paladin over soloing.

[Xer0]

Say what you will, but the fact of the matter is that if a shaman is duoing with a pally, not only can that shaman not utilize his soloing capabilities, but the shaman is also being penalized 20% xp just for being in the group with the pally. Does that seem right to you?

You mean you dont get to sit and watch things die, slowly? The penalty is put off by the chance that you have double the manpower-- less downtime, more quickly killing-- especially being that pallies are good tanks, you can throw out dots pretty freely.

only level 41 on my shadowknight, but ive found if I get good dmg (rogue), and good heals (cleric) the rest of the group doesnt matter-- let the chain pulls begin. xp flows like a river downhill.

Also, snare > root.

Everyone's right though, start your own grps, search far and wide for heals and utilities like shaman or enchanter

[LizardNecro]

Unfortunately it is because Paladins siphon extra xp from their group. This is a classic feature, but one that is very unfortunate, as it makes people excludes paladins and SKs from groups. If there was one classic feature I would remove, it would be the fact that hybrid classes drain extra xp from their groups (in other words, they slow down their groupmates xp).

[rollin5k]

iksar Necro = 30%

Never again!!!!
Jk peeps over pixels .
It pleasures me to help a hybrid get some xp. Hear that

[Splorf22]

This feels a lot like EQ was back in the day. I'm a good player. I'm friendly. I help people when I can. I always have LFG on, I'm always asking if anyone would like to group with me, yet EVERYWHERE I go generally people don't want to group.

What is wrong here? Everquest is a game designed around playing with other people.

Are all these lower level people actually just alts from established guilds so they basically don't give a fuck about anyone else?

Anyone have suggestions? Right now I'm only level 12 but damn! Maybe it's because I'm a Paladin...

So the first thing you have to understand is that in a group a paladin is a 15-20% XP penalty vs a warrior. You have a 50% xp penalty (warrior is -10%) spread among 6, so 8%, and generally a warrior will be able to increase the group's damage by 10% or so relative to a knight (depending on relative gear). Now when given a choice between 40 hours of XP and 32 hours of XP to get through L54, you start to understand why people think the way they do.

Of course, paladins have some nice abilities to make up for things. They can heal themselves, LoH in a pinch, split camps (sometimes), root, stun casters, and so on. The problem is that in a full group, those abilities aren't important: the enchanter is ccing, the shaman/cleric are healing, and with everything slowed and debuffed who cares what it's attacking?

Anyway, your choices are either roll a powerclass (i.e. not a hybrid, wizard, or druid) or just make your own groups. Also even on my monk and enchanter and such I am not immediately besieged with group invites upon putting the LFG flag up, especially now that /who all 50 60 lfg doesn't work any more.

[Splorf22]

There's no point to grouping with bards

I think bards are the best main tanks in the game for XP groups. Unlike a Paladin, a bard can do so much for the group that I think they earn their penalty and low dps.

[webrunner5]

You mean you dont get to sit and watch things die, slowly? The penalty is put off by the chance that you have double the manpower-- less downtime, more quickly killing-- especially being that pallies are good tanks, you can throw out dots pretty freely.

Is it only me but do mobs seem to die a LOT faster with say 2 people than a whole group of 6?? I would guess the original Devs made it that way so you would not be killing a mob in 12 seconds. :eek:

[Coridan]

A whole group of six is presumably taking on reds. A duo is taking on yellows/whites

[KwwBall]

Another interesting thing I've ran into recently is higher level people for some reason just mopping up low level mobs for no experience while there are people who want to kill them for exp. Example, right now, in Unrest there is a 31 mage destroying the yard.

I do remember something about the Mage epic here in Unrest, but I don't think it involved killing yard trash for hours...

*edit*
Ends up being farming Zombie Skins for some poison vial things, gave him the six I had and then died to a train... love this game :DDD

[Barahir]

Only assholes refuse to group with someone because of a stupid penalty.

Hello there myriverse, I'd like to take this time to welcome you to the internet on behalf of all internet users. There is much that the internet has to offer, so much in fact that one can not see all of it. That being said we sincerely hope you enjoy your stay and stick around. Just remember to disable your history or that shit could come back on you.

[Lord_Snow]

To be honest, there are a lot of new people to the server, try making an lfg post on the forums to start groups around your level. Be an awesome tank and make friends with an amaizing monk. People on this server recognize an amaizing tank v.s someone who is new to tanking and doesn't know tanking from dps. I know wars suck till higher lv, pally and sk do well if they know their class and quirks that go with it. Being a good tank is the difference in people doing ooc lfg or seeing if YOU are online to defend the grp. But like others said, trioing is the best xp, maybe not the funnest ( depending on your trio) but the best. Groups with nonstop pulls I will take over duos or trios anyday unless the trio had an enc. Just get in them groups and be a badass tank.

[Jimjam]

Is it only me but do mobs seem to die a LOT faster with say 2 people than a whole group of 6??

Social loafing, I guess. Once there is enough redundancy in the group it is easier for people stop pulling out the stops and start coasting a long.

[Swish]

What keeps a good group going is constant pulls, quick kills and no mana issues for healers etc.

As soon as there's med breaks every 5-10 minutes, suddenly people's dogs go ballistic, all the young kids need feeding, wives come home and work unexpectedly called :D ...if you get my drift.

[Tasslehofp99]

wow some ignorant people posting about the exp penalty in this thread


Having a paladin in your group doesn't automatically mean his penalty hits you as well just for grouping with him, that's not the way it works. His exp penalty just means that he is required to get 40% more exp per level than non-penalty classes, which gives him a higher TOTAL AMOUNT OF EXP than most other non-penalty classes of the same level.

When the game is cutting the exp up into slices between group members, it decides who gets the bigger slice by checking who has the highest total exp. In this case, since the paladin has required 40%~ more exp per level than a shaman, he most likely would take more exp than the shaman per kill. In a duo this penalty would hardly be noticeable, unless the paladin is like 3 levels higher than the shaman. In which case you'd probably start noticing the exp flow slow down a bit.


But as many others have already stated, the fact that there are TWO of you should also enable you to kill a lot faster and with less downtime. If you're in a duo with just about any class and gaining exp slower than you would solo...I hate to say this but one of you is most likely a newbie.

[bOONDOGGLE]

Just wait till you are in the mid-40's and there aren't any fucking tanks anywhere and you will be invited to groups. In fact, I just got out of a group in Lower Guk with a Paladin tank.

Just make sure you stack AC/HP cuz your spells aren't gonna be worth sacrificing AC/HP for Wisdom.

[KwwBall]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm pretty much kicking butt and taking names now. Quite a few ppl have put me on their friend list already (lvl 18 now) and I even got a tell shortly after logging in once ;)

[Rhambuk]

Paladins make excellent tanks

traitor

[Bill Tetley]

At higher levels it will get easier to find groups.

parked my paladin at 55 (epic, skybelt, divine might, sky armor, the works)... could never find a group playing him. made a warrior and very quickly caught right up to my paladin. players are prejudice against paladins

[fadetree]

Same. Parked my ranger at 52. Will play him again at velious when I can solo decently. Tired of the hate. Now I shammy for a living.

[Kender]

1-50 you can solo as pally, and it will be also easy to find groups. 51+ and pallies are treated like plague carriers

[KwwBall]

Well I'm playing my Pally to 60, time to change the status quo boys!

[NextGenesis88]

wow some ignorant people posting about the exp penalty in this thread


Having a paladin in your group doesn't automatically mean his penalty hits you as well just for grouping with him, that's not the way it works. His exp penalty just means that he is required to get 40% more exp per level than non-penalty classes, which gives him a higher TOTAL AMOUNT OF EXP than most other non-penalty classes of the same level.

When the game is cutting the exp up into slices between group members, it decides who gets the bigger slice by checking who has the highest total exp. In this case, since the paladin has required 40%~ more exp per level than a shaman, he most likely would take more exp than the shaman per kill. In a duo this penalty would hardly be noticeable, unless the paladin is like 3 levels higher than the shaman. In which case you'd probably start noticing the exp flow slow down a bit.


But as many others have already stated, the fact that there are TWO of you should also enable you to kill a lot faster and with less downtime. If you're in a duo with just about any class and gaining exp slower than you would solo...I hate to say this but one of you is most likely a newbie.

I was going to post this, but you did a good job. :) More people need to understand it instead of repeating what other people tell them without anything to back it up. It's all on our very own wiki. Either way, I'm sure everyone is awaiting the day the class penalties are removed. I know I am, but also I really don't care that much, it's more the other people that I want to get over it. I am not in a huge rush as I enjoy seeing a lot of places and learning things I didn't know before. Personally, I don't have many issues, but there have been a couple occasions where I get straight up ignored. I mean come on it's not that hard to say no or simply state that you just want to solo or duo, etc. It gets to me when people can't say a word, but if I was into role playing then I guess that should make sense being a troll shadowknight. :\ In the groups that I do tank in people are generally happy with the experience so I like to think I am playing the class well. A bad player with a combo with very low or no penalties would be a much worse choice than a hybrid who can do the job right.

I do want to say this though. Let's say for example there is a group full of ALL Troll Shadowknights. Each one would get the same amount of experience and there wouldn't be a problem. Each player would be having their normal XP penalty with all of the group bonuses in place as they should. Some people make jokes on having a group of full hybrids, but actually that would be a perfect split of XP if they all were the same class.

[doeda]

for some reason all paladin players I encounter are amazing players, kind hearted and know their min/max..then you run into the twinked bards that can't run cirlces/twist songs, enchanters that only tash and dot, list goes on and on!!! love paladins

[Daldaen]

I love playing my paladin... just hate how if I am trying to be fast with snap aggro in a group and I Flash of Light a mob before its in melee range it will randomly run away feared. Stupid blind mechanics. WTB 10 more levels for stun.

[NextGenesis88]

Sometimes it seems as a minority you may run into max levels of the same class who really want to take you under their wing or help you out to give you an edge knowing the struggles you may have to endure along the way and how slow it can be. It may turn into you being a bit twinked and groups would be silly to say no as long as you know how to play. For example I just met a level 60 Ogre SK with an epic who donated 3 Darkforge pieces (used for epic quest), a weapon and a little bit of money to ease my struggles along the way and giving me a better chance to find groups. It's cool to make new friends like that and makes you feel proud to be your race and class and also the underdog. He's a good dude and player. I am more happy that I am making new friends and to me that's more important to the gear I was given. Having friends like that can also be a benefit to ask questions and advice while playing the game and having good conversations to help the time go by not so slowly. To me that's more valuable than the gear.

[tristantio]

Why does /who all lfg only work periodically?

I can dig for the patch note, but I'm pretty sure at this point in time it was added to classic/kunark eq.

[Laok]

As a bard with a pretty large XP penalty, I rarely run into issues with finding a group. I've never had anyone decline me because of the XP penalty. I guess I got lucky.

Most of the time, the groups tank is a knight. Up to level 50 (my current level) I can probably count on one hand the number of warriors I've grouped with. Fact is, knights are just better at agro generation. If I am the slower and a warrior is tanking, I might as well be the tank. A lot of the problem lies in people not knowing their classes, especially in the classic era. A warrior needs to rely on swinging his weapon and procs for agro generation. Put down those 2handers guys, 2 weapons means more swings means more agro, even when he misses a warrior is generating hate. A knight has spells.

Learn the mechanics of tanking (positioning, breaking mezzes properly, turning mobs, etc) and people will send you tells to join them because they know you're good.

[Asap]

As a bard with a pretty large XP penalty, I rarely run into issues with finding a group. I've never had anyone decline me because of the XP penalty. I guess I got lucky.

Most of the time, the groups tank is a knight. Up to level 50 (my current level) I can probably count on one hand the number of warriors I've grouped with. Fact is, knights are just better at agro generation. If I am the slower and a warrior is tanking, I might as well be the tank. A lot of the problem lies in people not knowing their classes, especially in the classic era. A warrior needs to rely on swinging his weapon and procs for agro generation. Put down those 2handers guys, 2 weapons means more swings means more agro, even when he misses a warrior is generating hate. A knight has spells.

Learn the mechanics of tanking (positioning, breaking mezzes properly, turning mobs, etc) and people will send you tells to join them because they know you're good.

Pretty much this. starting at early levels, Paladins and ShadowKnights rarely have trouble holding aggro, even when the group starts nuking at 99%.

I've played a warrior into the late 40's, and aggro generation never really got better. It's proc dependent, and not the greatest until epic/VP weapons

[Jimjam]

Warriors just need a bro to root for them.... and no one to nuke until the mob is near dead ;).