Group vs. Solo

[Eternal-Elf]

Originally Posted by Lucrio40 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I got my first 1k pp off a mage who was afk xping guards. The guards were blue to him at least. He was also using a fire pet. I don't know about soloing red cons, but if a mage pet can solo blues without healing, then I'd not put it out of reach of a mage to solo yellows at least with heals and nukes.

How did you make 1kpp off of guards if you afk killing them? did you come UNafk to loot them ?

[Weekapaug]

Originally Posted by yaeger [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Why this focus on solo play? This server has a good population, with lots of friendly people. Everquest's focus has always been about group interaction. Working together to camp current content.

The live server never had as many people exploiting solo classes to this extent.

Do the Devs have any intention of looking into the non-classic solo exp rates far exceeding group exp?

I remember none of these from Classic EQ. Solo play has always been a viable option, but it was never such a clear-cut advantage to grouping.

I can't speak for everyone but lately I've found myself soloing so much on my druid alt because group exp has tended to suck in comparison. Because there are so few warriors, "group" generally means "hybrid tank." "Hybrid" anything means 40% experience penalty. So, basicly, grouping means having to eat someone else's 40% experience penalty.

Why deal with that if you don't have to? I play a few classes and prefer grouping if I have time to sink in for a good session or if the GF is home and wants to get on and go get a group together. But if I'm not up for a long grind, which I haven't been lately due to RL stuff, I'd rather see my bar move during the short time I have to play....not crawl....So I solo my druid.

The reason this doesn't seem classic is because during the live classic era we didn't even know about the hybrid EXP penalty, beyond speculation. We do now, making it non-classic IMO (beyond being a really shitty decision for the health of grouping on the server) but it's not my server so I don't decide these things.

[Estu]

I agree with your sentiment, Yaeger, even though your post seems to be inspired in part by my post about druids and shamen. I'd like to point out that I have two characters (a cleric and a paladin) specifically for grouping. I don't know why, but everyone seems to think that all anyone does in this game is play a single character at a time: you have your main, which you level up exclusively, and then you use it to fund your alts, and so on (solo or not). Sounds boring as fuck to me. I like to have a pool of characters to choose from depending on what I feel like doing at the moment. So I might be playing my shaman solo the most, but that doesn't mean I don't hop on my cleric or paladin a good deal to group.

That being said, with the caveat that so far I've only really grouped in Crushbone and a little in Butcherblock, I've found soloing to be much faster exp. Here's what happens in a group:

Spend 5-15 minutes actually getting a full or almost-full group, or notice that Crushbone is full and log on to another character (sometimes you get a group immediately, but Crushbone gets absolutely packed at peak hours and I prefer to avoid that clusterfuck).
Get slow EXP.
Deal with people randomly leaving your group, going AFK for no apparent reason, playing badly.
Deal with trains and mob stealing.
Get considerably less money; wonder how you're going to buy your spells/gear/whatnot.

Maybe it's better at higher levels, but soloing has been in general a faster and more gratifying experience. I still like to group, but I spend most of my time soloing. I do agree that it's silly how people think they MUST TWINK THEIR CHARACTERS if they're going to play in a group. Twinking is gravy, it's not what you need to do whatsoever, with the possible exception of warriors since they have such a hard time holding aggro early on without good weapons.

[Overcast]

Originally Posted by yaeger [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I browse through the forums and I see a huge non-classic trend, it's bizarre.

Everyone is concerned about picking the best solo class, about soloing to max level and then twinking and PLing out a group-oriented class. You can't go into a zone without tripping over a mage or druid.

Why this focus on solo play? This server has a good population, with lots of friendly people. Everquest's focus has always been about group interaction. Working together to camp current content.

The live server never had as many people exploiting solo classes to this extent.

Do the Devs have any intention of looking into the non-classic solo exp rates far exceeding group exp?

I remember none of these from Classic EQ. Solo play has always been a viable option, but it was never such a clear-cut advantage to grouping.

I kinda leaned on a class that could solo some - but it's a class I wanted to play and not really a primary soloer (Shaman).

I've found a few good groups over the last couple days, they are out there. No one LFMore? Then put a group together.

[Lucrio40]

Originally Posted by Eternal-Elf [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

How did you make 1kpp off of guards if you afk killing them? did you come UNafk to loot them ?

I wasn't the mage. I just noticed he was afk killing and saw at least 2 unlooted bodies rot. So I camped out near his pet and just started looting.

[Eternal-Elf]

Originally Posted by Lucrio40 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I wasn't the mage. I just noticed he was afk killing and saw at least 2 unlooted bodies rot. So I camped out near his pet and just started looting.

lol bad ass way to make some easy lootz!

[XeldiablosX]

Hey thats the kinda loot Im talkin about and easy mode =p

[Elissa]

Originally Posted by azxten [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

To be honest Mages are completely OP still. Their pets tank as well as an equal level and level appropriate geared tank except they can use fire pet and get a huge DS so it's the equivalent of being able to whip out a tank alt at any moment that has chloroplast and high level mage DS. Their DPS is classic but pets are supposed to get the shit kicked out of them more. A fire pet shouldn't be able to tank yellow/red cons without even getting a single heal. In classic you'd have to practically chain mage heals on fire pet if it was fighting a red not go AFK to get a drink while it solos.

Just FYI, they can't. My fire pet can't even solo a dark blue without a heal at 37 (takes at least 2, on average). If you're talking about strictly low levels, then it is a little bit easier, but to suggest "without a heal" is totally exaggerated. At level 12, my pet could perhaps solo a yellow without a heal if very lucky. It doesn't stay that way and it certainly doesn't get easier as the mage levels higher. Yellow/Reds eat my pet alive unless extremely lucky, and even when lucky, I have to burn my entire mana bar heal my pet, assuming it doesn't die while on cooldown (very common for upper cons). If I take the time to cast a nuke, it will likely die. It's simply not efficient to kill yellow/red cons at higher levels if there is a plethora of blues to kill instead.

Don't worry, Kunark is coming. We're much less "OP" then. I hardly think the state of the class now is OP at all though. Plenty of other classes can solo as well or better.

[Darenenski]

Do torch quest. Mem lvl 4 nuke, top pet heal, next best pet heal, burnout pet. Set cruise control for free xp.

[jhudson1]

I <3 grouping. It's seriously everything I've always wanted back, everything I loved about EQ classic. Grinding out EXP with a group of people you can just sit back and hang out with.

EDIT

Thank you so much Devs for doing this