[kaluppo]

I didn't discover EQ until October 2000 so Kunark was out and Velious was just two months away from release. I didn't discover Project 99 until 2018 so Kunark and Velious were part of the Blue server when I joined. So in short I have never really known game play without at least Kunark zones being available.

I thought I was going to love doing the original timeline but man I think this sucks without Kunark. It's fine for grouping when you can get a group. But soloing has caused me some issues and I prefer soloing the Druid so I can get things done around the house on my med breaks.

I had no issues soloing from 1-22. I did my normal route of Gfay 1-5, BB 5-14, oasis 14-22. It was a good flow as I was only limited by my mana pool. Finding mobs to pull was not hard.

22-29 I spent in EK. I think I did 22-25 killing griffins and wolves and pulls were pretty easy to find. 25-29 I killed crag spiders. They were heavily camped during prime time so pulls were not as easy. I could kill two per mana bar but often I was only killing one because of no spiders being up. I would basically camp one spider and sit at it's spawn point waiting for 6 minutes till it re-popped. This was not ideal but I could live with it.

I did 29-31 I did with a mix of FP groups in unrest and the stables in SK. But now at 31 I hit a friggin wall! The stables had greened out because every time I killed a blue a green would replace it. After I was there for a few hours I would green out all the stables. That meant if I stayed I would have to waste time killing greens that give no XP in order to hopefully pop more blues kind of like place holders. No thanks!

So I moved to the Aviak tree. Like the Crag Spiders the tree is heavily camped during prime time. But unlike the spiders I can't just sit and camp a single mob at it's spawn point because I have at least a 60% chance that what will pop is a no XP green. So I just do my best to find a roaming mob that gives me some XP. There are times it takes me 10 minutes of running around to get a pull. That's BS.

This is why zones like LoiO, OT, FM and Dreadlands were so awesome for soloers. You could not run out of mobs. You're biggest worry was adds because there was so many! Man I wish I had the will power to not play until kunark comes out next fall but I know I don't.

I'm struggling to find places to hunt where mobs are available and not over camped by other soloers or part of a group camp and off limits to soloers. I'm just spoiled with always hunting Kunark zones over the years. I am only used to being limited by my mana pool and med times. I am not used to struggling to even find a mob to kill.

I'll probably tough it out in SK till 34. I have no idea where to go after that.