Help non soloable classes

[Halladar]

Karsten,

you aren't thinking things through.

So you got 50 levels in about a month right?

Tell me what areas you were in at each level range. Don't say it's too many, everyone knows that typically you stay in the same area for a few levels.

What was your progression? Also that is pretty darn fast, what is your /played?

Tell me your progression. Tonight I'll do a /w on each zone a couple times, then post in this thread what the population is at a certain time.

Also, to the best of your memory how many people were in these zones when you were leveling.

One month. How did you get your equipment? I mean did you camp it? Get it grouping?

Did someone in your guild give it to you?

I mean gosh, is it possible a lot of people who have maxxed were leveling when you were?

Don't speak in generalities. I want details.

[karsten]

halladar: no, you're not thinking things through.

however, would be happy to help answer some of your questions. remember as you read my progression, that --> I often put together my own groups from scratch rather than waiting passively for someone to invite me and you can too <--

levels 1-4: gfay, newbie soloing

levels 5-12: crushbone, generally between 2 and 10 people there, I'd group with however few or many were in my range and xp accordingly

levels 13-18: oasis, assloads of people. I'd group with however few or many were in my range and xp accordingly

levels 19-21: mistmoore courtyard, generally had to make full groups and then have the group move there. there's sort of a nomansland in this area where you're too high level for crocs and too low for solA.

levels 22-29: solA goblins, there were tons of people here (there still are) but i still had to make my own groups for two reasons -- the first is that the zone attracted every last crappy player on the server and i didn't want to group with them, and the second is that those players would often group together and not want me in their groups after I made that clear. However, if you can't find a group at this level range in solA you're doing something wrong.

levels 30-34: lguk ass/sup, sometimes i'd have to start my own groups and move there, sometimes there'd be enough people around. because of the DE mask it's easy to get people who want to come.

levels 35+: solb, kill kobolds. there'd either be a group of people there or i'd make one and move there.

as far as equipment goes, i chose not to care about it. I had a fine steel 2her that i used until level 22 (they drop like candy and is very easy to get one for free, hell i'll give any newbie melee a FS 2her if you ask me) and then an obsidian flamberge in solA (no drop, very easy to get if you level there). I'm still wearing pieces of bronze, but it's not a problem -- a level 50 can camp gear better than a level 20, regardless of class, and be more efficient at it as well.

really though, this conversation is, for the most part, supurfluous. I do hope i'm able to help with some of the leveling area tips, but doing any sort of analysis based on your criteria is also not necessarily going to yield the correct conclusions. For example, often when putting groups together for mm, lguk, or solb, there would be nobody in those particular zones when putting the group together. therefore, doing a /who all for those zones at any particular point in time won't mean anything.

I had (and have) a list of friends of people that i mesh well with and I know will do well in groups with me. I'll send out tells to them and see if they want to group, then i'll fill holes accordingly, and move to specific places. It's really not rocket science -- I do assume you have a similar list, you seem like a bright guy -- utilize it

[Jereziah]

I have to agree with Halladar on this one Karsten. Your argument that the OP suffers from self-debilitating behaviour, lack of motivation, lack of 'get up and go' enthusiasm is all irrelevant and misguided.

The universal theme here is this:

1) Most high level players right now were in front of the Project 1999 train. When the train started moving they simply strapped on some roller-skates and let it push them.
The sheer volume of players in your level group ensured you always (100% of the time) would have ample people to group with. If you managed to somehow miss a group, there would be a 2nd wave coming through in no time at all.

2) Most players who have started in the last 3 weeks or later, are trying to jump on a train that's moving already, doable? Yes - but much more difficult.
Players are now finding themselves without people in their level bracket, or without a group in a level-range that requires groups.

Now, let's clear up a few things before we continue posting:

1) You didn't start at the end of october, I began November 18th and you were level 45+ so unless you managed to pull off 45 levels in 18/19 days, you're lying. Most likely your rounding up and in fact started 5-8 days prior to that and logged dozens of hours in October before November even hit.

2) You can't possible relate to the OP as you are not and were not in the same scenario as he is. You started at a different time, with a different influx of players.

3) Melee have it rough, we know that. On a live server run by a professional organization, everyone takes it as is and makes the best of what they are given. We are not on a live server, we have passionate and very skilled server admins running this show. People whom, I can safely assume, would LOVE to see more players join our ranks.

It is for this reason that I believe some *small* changes could go a very, very long way to fostering the melee-leveling relationship.

I won't comment on what these should be, the purpose of this post is to help break down the barriers folks are putting up for fear of the players coming in behind them having a much easier time than they did. You need not be fearing of this, that's not the goal here. Relax, breath in, and recognize that this is a GAME. If we can make it *slightly* more fun and double our population in the process, why wouldn't we? At level 50 is it really going to matter whether or not a melee class can BIND WOUND to 100% or even 80%? Not really... so let's all take a step back and breath in the suggestion for what it is, a suggestion that holds the potential to round out one very pointed corner of this polygon we call Everquest.

[Jereziah]

Karsten,

Your previous post has a lot of flaws in it. Assumptions and declarations made such as 'if you can't find a group in XYZ, you're doing something wrong' do nothing but increase your post-character count. You know as well as I do with 150 players online during XYZ hours, you have significantly more trouble finding players to group with than if you had 2,000 to 3,000 on a live server. Let's leave out the blanket no-value statements like that as they don't help at all.

Now, without actually posting on anything else you said, I think we can agree to disagree that some people find it hard to level, some don't. The question at this point is this:

Do we, as players and supporting people of Project 1999 feel that it would increase our player population if we supported some *minor* changes to help melee classes level more effectively?

To put it bluntly, this is Classic EQ. If we are fine to leave it as is then nothing gets changed and we all knew what to expect when we rolled our class.

However, if there's a large enough population to warrant it, minor tweaks could be made to help out those melee classes. NOT exp bonuses... trivial tweaks such as the suggested 'allow bandages to bandage past 50%'.

I'll exit the thread now as we've pretty well beat the perverbial dead horse... well... to death [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[karsten]

No, the attempts to discredit my assertions based on incomplete knowledge are irrelevant and misguided. In fact, those two adjectives are so inappropriate to my comments that i wonder why you'd use them.

the universal theme here is whether or not a person wants to spend their time complaining about their situation or spend it bettering their situation. It's really an allegory to life, but I'd be digressing--

most high level players WERE in front of the project 1999 train. That makes sense though. Think about this though -- I'm actually not one of them, having started on this server on october 27th. The very fact that I've been able to level a hybrid is in complete contrast to what you're saying.

I've stated time and again about the challenges to me finding groups, including not having people in my level range, alienation, the fact that as a puller, pathing bugs get blamed on you, that sort of thing. In fact, as I got to 34+ it got even harder -- assuming you guys are somewhere between 15 and 30, that's where it should be the easiest for you to level.

Now, let's clear up a few things that are incorrect about your points:

1) Ask anyone when I started. In fact, if you read back the thread a bit, you'll see a post by someone i leveled with in crushbone.

2) You're right -- as previously stated, the deck was stacked even more against me.

3) The staff here is truly dedicated, and being on the dev/gm side of an emu server is one of the most thankless activities I can think of. However, I would offer that the staff's dedication to keeping the server as classic as possible has tended to trump other aspects.

Really though, again, we've all spent X amount of time posting when we could have been spending it leveling -- i've given what I believe to be a very handy blueprint for how to do it -- you can too!

[karsten]

umm, jez in response to that second post, I do agree with you that some people have trouble leveling and some people don't, but that's based on the fact that some people are more proactive than others, as opposed to whether or not some classes can solo well and some others can't. And i think that's the pivotal point here

hey, there are things that i'd prefer to be different on the server too. I'd like to not have to wait on translocators, for example. I'd ventue though, based on my experiences thusfar, that the focus and vision of the server is to keep it as close to classic as possible as opposed to making changes in order to boost player population, especially if it's done in such a manner as to placate more vocal members of the community

now, all of that said, if there are melees out there that could use a hand leveling up, I'm more than happy to help if i can -- shoot me a tell!

[Jereziah]

On a slightly less serious but equally important note, I have actually decided to reroll necro as my premiere toon on this server. Once 50, I expect I'll come back and help the bard along (Jereziah).

I figure while doable, it'll be easier to do it in this order and playing a necro is something I never did in classic (played mag then bst).

So, there's nothing left to do but dive in and the first step, as we all know... is to pick a Race/Diety/Name...

Suggestions?

PS: Saw the best EQ name ever just now... Elfis Questley

[karsten]

bards are really a hard class to play on emu just in general, i leveled one to 60 on vztz and promptly stopped playing him -- if you want to stick with your bard jere i'd be happy to help if i can, the server could really use more

[Widan]

Log on and try to start a Crushbone group at 3am est. It doesn't matter how proactive you are, people just are not online. When I logged off this morning there were only 73 people playing, and that counts people who just left the client at the character select screen. Many of these players were either close to 50 or sub level 5.

And if you've read my previous posts I stated that I am still leveling my warrior, because that's the class I want to play. I'm not sure how taking a few moments to post my concerns on the forums is somehow making me less proactive in the matter.

I understand the want to keep this server classic, but I think one of the main goals should be increasing the player base as well. Someone who isn't as big of a masochist as me is not going to stick around if their first impression of the server is trying to level up a melee class.

Edit: Can you not kite efficiently with bards here? They should be the one melee class that this thread really doesn't apply to.

[karsten]

yeah, i see what you're saying, i'd say that the night before thanksgiving ought not to serve as the ideal time though. Even right now though i'm seeing plenty of people /oocing for tanks. What level are you? I'd be happy to shoot you a FS weapon or some plat for bronze or something