Would you still choose to solo...

[clouddynasty]

If there was a 40-50% xp penalty on anyone who was not in a group?

Why do you choose to solo? I kind of want to trap all of you in the Plane of Mischief forever but maybe it's just because I don't understand you.

[maestrom]

I generally like the IRL freedom soloing gives me.

I don't hate grouping. I actually love grouping quite a bit. But what really grinds my gears is when I join a group and 2 people are AFK most of the time. People pop in, kill 2 mobs, and then bail without saying a word. People leave without finding replacements. Or are just generally not interested in pulling their weight.

I know it really irritates me when people pull this kinda garbage in groups, so I try to only group when I know I have at least 2 hours to tunnelvision on the game. If I'm not sure I can commit to being a good group member, I solo.

Edit: To answer your question, no. I would probably just group with someone else who was soloing near by to avoid the penalty.

[indiscriminate_hater]

lol. OP sounds like a hyper-extroverted teenage girl.

grouping comes with certain risks. each person in the group is another moving part in the machine. the more moving parts you have, the more failure points. sometimes it's just nice to not have to worry about group members being bad players or going afk.

for most solo classes, solo exp is way higher than group exp.

some people just like or need to afk a lot. can't do that in a group.

as for the social aspect, i oftentimes carry on conversations with other soloers while doing my thing.

[clouddynasty]

Edit: To answer your question, no. I would probably just group with someone else who was soloing near by to avoid the penalty.


Duo~ ! I love me some duo... but most of the time the Wizard, Necromancer, Mage, etc. that I approach isn't interested. Sounds like my inane XP penalty would nix it. Your gripes with bad group members is legitimate -repeated offenders should be tarred and feathered!

lol. OP sounds like a hyper-extroverted teenage girl.


Exactly what I'm going for here. BTW I like your Bard names! I did his Op. 33 several years ago and it was a blast. Also, the BnB reference made me giggle (like a teenage girl, infact!)

[JboxCSU]

I'd love to group more. But I can't stay online in long segments very often (family, work, sleep, preference of pooping in toilets, etc).

So I solo a lot.

[Voland]

This is why I like the Red server - there is 290% XP bonus for a full group, so most people prefer grouping to soloing :)

[Ciroco]

Because if I feel like going afk for 15 minutes in a group, my group members usually disapprove

[Daldaen]

Because if I feel like going afk for 15 minutes in a group, my group members usually disapprove

This.

Also if I get bored and decide to charm kill with 7 rooted mobs and I happen to wipe myself, no one really cares. If you get bored and over pull to entertain yourself in a group, I find people tend to care a bit more.

Grouping is to accomplish quests or kill big bad mobs. It's not for exps.

Soloing is for EXP/Leveling.

[Troxx]

As long as there are enough mobs to kill, on my bard I always prefer full grouping. Even though the xp is generally worse, that's what I prefer.

On my shaman it depends on the group. 5 melee and me? F that I'd rather solo. 4 needy melee 1 other priest and me? Doable but notsomuch fun depending on how fast we're killing. 3 melee a caster and another healer? Great!

Shaman is an odd class like that. The faster the group kills and the more melee you have to buff while healing and slowing - it's a pain. The slower the group kills (ie a duo) the better. Slow with turgurs is ridiculously powerful but it's expensive to cast. Slow kills where I get a bigger chunk of the pie and have fewer melee to buff is the most enjoyable setup imo.

[Mojo24]

I'd still solo. The vast majority of p99 players IMO are sad excuses for human beings so avoiding them is for the best.

[Gustoo]

Solo because I don't have the IRL time to be a reliable group member sometimes.

[Pyrion]

I tend to solo when i don't have so much time. My favourite setup is a small group, where people begin to chat a bit. 2 - 4 people is best, and for me it almost does not matter what classes they are. The kill speed is secondary. And as a necro i can make almost any combination work to a degree.

[jcr4990]

I like to solo sometimes and duo/trio sometimes to mix it up. Very rarely do full groups. It's really overkill for most camps in the game and pretty much always slower xp than small groups.

[nhdjoseywales]

I'd be curious why you would try to dictate a particular play style on someone else. Reminds me of people that whine about people camping a corner in an fps. Stop trying to tell others how to enjoy their free time and worry more about your own obviously sad fucking life.

[Monty405]

When I want to group I play a class which has no choice but to at least duo with someone (rogue).

When I am only on for a short period I play a more solo-centric class.

[Kekephee]

-Dot the mob
-fear the mob
-Send pet after the mob
-Feign death
-Minimize to watch Netflix
-Come back in ten minutes and the mob has been dead for a while but there's no one there to piss and moan about you ninja afking

[burkemi5]

I burned out on live because I would sit LFG for 45 minutes then need to log 1 hour after finally getting a group. It was exhausting. I solo on p99 because I can gain exp from the second I log in until the second I log out. And I don't need to split my coin with anyone.

I'm surprised to see someone so against soloing. Why group when you can solo? Yesterday I was soloing and playing Civ V during med and respawn time. That would be impossible in a group.

[Jimjam]

Honestly, it's the players' experience, not the character's that matter.

[kate79]

I get invited to duo/group a lot when people see me soloing and I usually turn it down because I'm usually doing IRL stuff (work) that means I have to take sudden and unscheduled afk breaks. I actually love to group, but there's only a small time frame that it's possible for me.

[Monty405]

I get invited to duo/group a lot when people see me soloing and I usually turn it down because I'm usually doing IRL stuff (work) that means I have to take sudden and unscheduled afk breaks. I actually love to group, but there's only a small time frame that it's possible for me.

I get the same (duo requests) when playing a Necro. It's not that I dont want to be social or maybe earn slightly less xp/hr but more to do with enjoying the freedom of being able to afk / log at any point in time.

[fishingme]

I prefer full groups on one of my grouping characters when I don't need to afk for 5 minutes every 2-3 hours. I prefer solo or duo with a friend when I need to afk for 5 minutes every 2-3 hours. A lot better for character reputation if you can play solidly, I unfortunately rarely can. Also being lfg all day and then getting to the last hour and a half that you can play before having to go to bed sucks.

[myriverse]

I love soloing so much I solo warriors. :)

Seriously though, like others, I solo because I don't have time for groups. Exclusively warriors though.

[uolen]

I have severe add. If I can constantly keep myself engaged I do okay but sitting in a group is so boring. If I'm solo I can get up and go some where else if I want without apologies.

[NegaStoat]

I have severe add. If I can constantly keep myself engaged I do okay but sitting in a group is so boring. If I'm solo I can get up and go some where else if I want without apologies.

That sums up my feelings on it. If I'm able to get a group that's in an area with constant pulls, it keeps my attention and I also feel motivated to be more social in the chat. If it's a group facing a restricted amount of targets to be engaged for whatever reason (long dungeon respawn times, other groups being competitive) I get bored super easy. Especially when other group members are dead silent and obviously tabbed out between pulls.

I think the best solution for the situation is - join a guild with a large % matching your level range - compare available weekly play times - establish a schedule for grouping - profit.

I personally like to solo so that I blow my mana burning down 3-5 mobs, read my textbooks for a while, repeat. This game is great to mix in RL things.

[Laszeil]

I'll group with you if you don't mind that I afk every 20 mins or so for 5-10 minutes at a time and leech exp. Grouping is nice, but I rarely have the time to sit at my PC for more than an hour, which is why EQ soloing works well. Burn all my mana, do my afk things while I med, repeat.

[Gumbo]

I like to do both but the problem I have at times with grouping over soloing is I have to head to a zone which I hope will have enough people to get a group. If I can't get a group there then I have to head to another zone and continue doing this until I can find a group.

[Tahlvin]

I usually end up soloing because as a Druid, I am not motivated to try and find a group with the stigma that Druid's have with many people.

Sure, we aren't the best at any one role, but pair a Druid in a group with a Cleric and let the Druid do what he does best, a little bit of everything. The cleric will be happy that the group has group regen and DS, while having support if anything goes wrong. In the times where everything is going well, Druid's can still add some DPS while being versatile if the group dynamic shifts.

[kined]

probably. played a couple caharacters that could only group and it gets incredibly frustrating waiting on groups all the time, then wanting to go explore deep places of dungeons and realizing you can unless you can find atleast 3 other people to go with you and they have 3+ hours like i do. i like being able to explore by myself and i like the challenge. why force people to play with groups all the time? sometimes i just wanna get steady exp for 6 hours in a row in a less active zone, and i cant do that with groups. sometimes i just wanna play for 20 minutes and i dont wanna breeze into a group and leave pretty much right off.

plus, i feel like a badass when i hold a camp that takes other people a whole group to do steadily. enchanter soloing in CoM was some of the most fun ive had in this game.

[Wode]

I solo, duo with the wife and group with her and a buddy. We have tried adding other people but something bad always happens. 1. New guy wants to loot everything. 2. New guy wants to pull and has no concept of mana management, CC ability or what the group can or can't handle 3. New guy goes afk 4. New guy gets bored and does something we asked them not to..ie open a door or pull or go scouting etc... We have been wiped so many times by adding people to our group we just dont want to do it..even if it means we kill more mobs and have the chance for more exp or loot. We do like to meet new people but most times everything above outways the promise of a new friend.

[Lojik]

I group with people because I'm not skilled enough to kill my own merbs

[Charlievox]

I mostly solo because in real life I don't often get to play for more than 30 to 45 minutes at a single session. I feel like crap when I join a group and fifteen minutes later it's "Sorry guys, I gotta go help my mother in law up to the bathroom." Or some other stuff that takes precedence.
Sometimes I log on just long enough to kill two mobs, make a trip to the bank, or go see my trainer and then i gotta log off until the next time I have a free fifteen minutes.
I do have acstatic group I set aside two hours to play with on Wed nites, but I haven't even been able to play with them for the last three weeks.

[iruinedyourday]

Soloing is fucking great, its how I get the most immursed in this game. Nobody to not talk in RP speak while I dig through some of the darkest pits norrath has to offer.

[Recusco]

Solo allows flexibility but if I could duo maybe trio everytime I logged in I definitely would. Full groups just aren't for me.

[kennymack007]

Honestly, one of my biggest pet peeves is when I join a group of 2 or 3 and we got a good camping rhythm... then they keep inviting people untill it's a 6 stack that earns little exp and spends most of it's time idle talking or looking for other places to camp.

That being said; I solo when it's worth it. Why wouldn't you?

[kennymack007]

For example: I was in a 6 stack for a couple hours and we added each other to friends. We got like 1 maybe 1 1/2 levels each that night. The next day I got with a shaman and we duo'd for like 3 hours and got 3 levels...that night my friends were like "HOW YOU LEVEL SO FAST?"

[Pscottdai]

I get more than enough social interaction all day long with work and the family, EQ is my escape time. Mostly I solo but do have my friend list that I will group with/duo/trio on occasion. Guild chat is more than enough social interaction for me in game. Group chat for me is non-existent because I am too busy actually playing to be typing (primarily because I am a slow typist)

[Lagaidh]

It sounds like a majority fall into the category: I grew up.

I would LOVE to get into an old-fashioned grind group of regulars like the old days, but I barely know when I'm able to devote hours to the grind, much less keep track of that for 5 more people.

We old farts now. We have obligation shit to do. Damn it...

[dragonhawk]

Grouping can be fun but the xp is terrible and it's always a lot of work to coordinate those people. Someone has to do that work. And then groups insta-die when the cleric or tank has to quit. As soon as the cleric or tank says "30 min warning" 2-3 other people give their notice too. They might enjoy the big group feel but they can also read the xp bar and understand that groups are bad xp.

The other thing is that when I'm playing my wizard I feel bad for my group because my dps is so crappy. If I were a twinked rogue or monk we might be getting OK xp. But because I suck at sustained dps I can feel the group's languid pace.

If I'm going to group I want to feel useful to my group, not like the last pick on the dodgeball team.

Soloing is much faster xp, much better money, much more freedom, much more variety (can go off the beaten trail), much more afkable, and it's usually less work too.

[Monty405]

Its sad because the original devs actually did add minor xp bonuses for grouping without properly thinking out the mechanics of reality.

Their reasoning is a group of 6 people can surly kill 6x faster than someone who is solo plus if we add a small % to sweeten the pot it will surely be preferable!

Problem is, not everyone carries their weight (whether it is their fault or a class imbalance ie an extra unnecessary support class) and often the # of mobs available just does not scale up.

[Nisei]

Soloing is fucking great, its how I get the most immursed in this game. Nobody to not talk in RP speak while I dig through some of the darkest pits norrath has to offer.

Yeah, and you don't have to worry about the bads.

[Feanol]

Its sad because the original devs actually did add minor xp bonuses for grouping without properly thinking out the mechanics of reality.

Their reasoning is a group of 6 people can surly kill 6x faster than someone who is solo plus if we add a small % to sweeten the pot it will surely be preferable!

Problem is, not everyone carries their weight (whether it is their fault or a class imbalance ie an extra unnecessary support class) and often the # of mobs available just does not scale up.

Playing on Red changes your mindset on this. If you can coordinate a group and everyone promises not to kill each other, the experience just flies by with the bonus %.


For me, it depends really on my mood logging in. I enjoy both very much, probably grouping a little bit more because I enjoy cooperating with other human beings and seeing how they interpret the role of their class.

Duo is probably my favorite thing because you have some backup without the sometimes hectic politics of a full group. Also, Duo lets you really get to know someone during downtime because it's one-on-one instead of the more acceptable silence of full groups. Can end up having some really nice conversations.

Solo is very fun because I get to be as inefficient as I want. Sometimes I like to play games with monsters and try out different spell combinations/ kiting methods that you can't really get away with doing in groups because they're dangerous or manna-hungry. Don't have to worry about accidentally drawing aggro off a group tank either by doing too much damage or casting efficient but hate-inducing spells.

[Charlievox]

I hate joining a group where the Leader insists on being the Master Looter and then the son of a bitch turns on Autosplit! First time I see the "Your split is..." Message, I split.
Autosplit is a curse! I'd rather not know how badly the Looter is screwing me than be reminded of it after each kill.

[iruinedyourday]

Playing on Red changes your mindset on this. If you can coordinate a group and everyone promises not to kill each other, the experience just flies by with the bonus %.


For me, it depends really on my mood logging in. I enjoy both very much, probably grouping a little bit more because I enjoy cooperating with other human beings and seeing how they interpret the role of their class.

Duo is probably my favorite thing because you have some backup without the sometimes hectic politics of a full group. Also, Duo lets you really get to know someone during downtime because it's one-on-one instead of the more acceptable silence of full groups. Can end up having some really nice conversations.

Solo is very fun because I get to be as inefficient as I want. Sometimes I like to play games with monsters and try out different spell combinations/ kiting methods that you can't really get away with doing in groups because they're dangerous or manna-hungry. Don't have to worry about accidentally drawing aggro off a group tank either by doing too much damage or casting efficient but hate-inducing spells.

qft, on red soloing is a dice roll with a HUGE disadvantage. You can still do it, but your mind is racing durring every named kill, 'am I doing this fast enough? /who, /who, If someone zones in what will be there ETA? 70% ok this is going to take X minuets /who..."

Soon you realise that even though you gotta roll against shit that you could normally keep to yourself on blue, you bring 2 of your favorite pals with you +1 or 2 of thiers to pretty much anything that is normally soloable..

Not to mention grouping from 1-50 with no gear and a shit load of lol's along the way!

[Charlievox]

I also hate to have to /ran 100 over every HQ bear skin that drops and always losing.

Don't get me wrong. I love grouping with well established friends.

My Wed nite group has been playing together with a few breaks here and there for 11 years. We get on Ventrilo and just chat and gossip while we play. I would estimate less than 20% of our chat is related to what's happening in the game. We all know each other's ads and disads and are so well balanced that if one or two of us needs to AFK for a few minutes, we don't even need to slow down our kill rate. We never argue over loot because we are all capable of making good loot on our own. The only time loot really comes up is if one of us is after a quest item and can't get it on their own.
We have a Mage, Cleric, Rogue, SK, Wizard and Enchanter.

But PUGs, no thanks.