Would you still choose to solo...
 

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!)

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.

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

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.

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.

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