Soloing: An Essential Skill on P99?

[mgellan]

The reason I soloed my Shaman a LOT to 60 is that my playtime is very erratic and subject to quick exits with RL intervenes, so it's unfair to get into a group and then bamph on them suddenly, especially when people have travelled to get into the group. Not too bad for the usual KC CY or whatever groups, but it's a big reason to solo. Just park in HS or someplace and pop in to take a few mobs, and save grouping for those WONDERFUL days when you have 4 hour blocks of time with nothing else to do to enjoy a good solid group!

Regards,
Mg

[Tethyr]

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

It isn't a necessary skill by any means, you just see a lot of talk about it because that's the nature of the average player here:

Started EQ in 1999-2001. Likely in middle school-college range (12-20ish)
Add 10 years. These people are now mid 20s-30s. Have some combination of full time job, bills, wife, kids, etc.

Pretty much this. Soloing is the appropriate play style for most of the p1999 demographic at this point. I usually only have an hour or two to play at a time; by the time a group really gets going I usually have to log off. When that happens I barely get any experience and on top of that I screw over a group of people that were counting on me to tank/heal.

[Fregar]

Soloing usually means you can take a pause whenever you like: you control the game, the game is not controlling your life.

There is no "pause" in MMOs, but beeing solo allows to be quickly available without pissing anyone off RL or ingame.

[Iumuno]

About the same here as other posters. My play time is very erratic, and except for at most 3-4 hours per week, Ì'll be afk 50-75% of the time, and I may need to log off at the drop of a hat. So not much options but a class that can solo.

[beentheredonethat]

I liked group play because that's what this game is about. But it's too hard to do that, you end up spending way too much time tracking down healer,tank, control and leaves you with no time to actually play.

From what I remember, necros and mages were best at going solo with no gear... so that's what I went with.

[BahamutDF]

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

Thanks for the responses! I'm one of those people who started EQ at Kunark release in 8th grade, now I have a wife and kid (got my wife in on the game though!) and chose a druid so I could solo and travel quickly. Pretty cool to know that a lot of others on the server are in a similar place.

That said, I do miss those grind groups that lasted hours with a good rhythm in a good loot spot... rare but really awesome.

+1

I started EQ in 2000 at 13. Now I'm old and married. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[fadetree]

hehe, well I'll be retired soon, so....
LFG

[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

I solo because I enjoy the challenge.

Also no one wants a 58 Shaman - people are either "too high for my group" or "torpor or gtfo"

[webrunner5]

High end there still is groups that last for hours. KC, CoM, Seb come to mind. Pretty hard to solo those zones unless a real Twink. And lots of fun and good loot if you have the time. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] Even Unrest, MM have long lasting groups a lot.

[Swish]

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

+1

I started EQ in 2000 at 13. Now I'm old and married. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

At 26-27? Get outta here! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]