Hard to find low level groups? Maybe AA XP is the cause...

[whytakemine]

<p>I've been playing my alts a lot recently, including a fairy zerker I started when eof came out.  On my first two toons (pre-AA) I grouped every chance I could and formed groups when I couldn't find one, partially because I enjoy grouping more but also because it was the fastest way to get xp.</p><p>Now when I play my alts I may join a group if the perfect one falls in my lap, but mostly I just do solo quests.  With the bump to solo mob xp, it's not much (if any) slower than grouping, and the AA xp is tons better by doing quests.  It's also nice to be able to log on for 30-40 minutes and jump right into doing something.  My zerker is level 53, and I think I got my 50th AA last night.  I have a feeling if I grouped while leveling my AA would probably be half of what it is now.  It sure takes a lot of incentive out of trying to find a group.</p><p>I think it's awesome I have so many AA already.  If the pace keeps up, when my zerker hits 70 he could very well have more AA than my main.  What I don't like is the bias it's creating toward solo play.  Is it making it harder to get a group?  If very many people are like me, than I'd have to say yes which in turn makes it harder on classes that don't solo well.</p><p>So...is it just me?  Is anyone else seeing this same trend?  </p>

[Kizee]

<p>With the amount of quests and solo contesnt there isn't any reason to group unless you want to do a dungeon.</p><p>As the game stands right now you can level faster and get alot more AA's if you solo quest rather than get a group and grind in a dungeon.</p>

[Siclone]

<cite>Kizee wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>With the amount of quests and solo contesnt there isn't any reason to group unless you want to do a dungeon.</p><p>As the game stands right now you can level faster and get alot more AA's if you solo quest rather than get a group and grind in a dungeon.</p></blockquote><p> oh your one of thoese, if your a good solo class ya, many classes no</p><p>you solo good as a templer?</p>

[Illmarr]

<p>Leveling groups are by and large uninterested in doing quests unless they stumble on them while grouped. For example doing Snoggle's quest when first starting Runnyeye. To be honest, I still think a chain-pulling group in a dungeon will be the best leveling exp in the game, outpacing solo + quest exp handily. But if you take a snapshot at say, level 50 of a toon that has ground groups in Stormhold/RoV/RE/CT and a person that has solo'd and done zone quest timelines, there's no question that the soloer will have signifigantly more AP than the grouper. 5-8 names in a zone are no where near the AP of 25 quests for a zone like Butcherblock or Steamfont, both of which have their own named, usually non-heroic. The grouping toon will be there faster and have some Legendary gear. The soloing toon will probably have Mastercrafted and collection rewards (Which are darn good in EoF zones) and a boatload more AP</p><p>Different is not worse or better since there is not a single standard to measure against.</p>

[Talz]

<cite>Siclone wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Kizee wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>With the amount of quests and solo contesnt there isn't any reason to group unless you want to do a dungeon.</p><p>As the game stands right now you can level faster and get alot more AA's if you solo quest rather than get a group and grind in a dungeon.</p></blockquote><p> oh your one of thoese, if your a good solo class ya, many classes no</p><p>you solo good as a templer?</p></blockquote>Any class can plow through solo content.  FD trials are the only thing I can think of that offer any challenge at all and that is just because of dps.

[Siclone]

<cite>Talzar wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Siclone wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Kizee wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>With the amount of quests and solo contesnt there isn't any reason to group unless you want to do a dungeon.</p><p>As the game stands right now you can level faster and get alot more AA's if you solo quest rather than get a group and grind in a dungeon.</p></blockquote><p> oh your one of thoese, if your a good solo class ya, many classes no</p><p>you solo good as a templer?</p></blockquote>Any class can plow through solo content.  FD trials are the only thing I can think of that offer any challenge at all and that is just because of dps. </blockquote><p>BS.....Some solo classes can kill at a rate of 4 to 1.  some classes simply cant solo to the point taht solo quests are very slow, shaman for example.</p><p>to post that all solo classes can plow though solo content is flat out wrong.  </p>

[liveja]

I don't think issues with finding lower level groups have anything to do with AA points. It's simply very easy to level a character to 30th or so solo, & thus, people are more inclined to simply blaze through the lower levels as quickly as they can, & then begin looking for groups.

[Faheuc]

<cite>Siclone wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Talzar wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Siclone wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Kizee wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>With the amount of quests and solo contesnt there isn't any reason to group unless you want to do a dungeon.</p><p>As the game stands right now you can level faster and get alot more AA's if you solo quest rather than get a group and grind in a dungeon.</p></blockquote><p> oh your one of thoese, if your a good solo class ya, many classes no</p><p>you solo good as a templer?</p></blockquote>Any class can plow through solo content.  FD trials are the only thing I can think of that offer any challenge at all and that is just because of dps. </blockquote><p>BS.....Some solo classes can kill at a rate of 4 to 1.  some classes simply cant solo to the point taht solo quests are very slow, shaman for example.</p><p>to post that all solo classes can plow though solo content is flat out wrong.  </p></blockquote>i have a lvl 30 defiler with 30 AAs precisely because i do tons of solo quests. it isnt very hard to do, i move fairly quickly through yellow and orange con mobs to do yellow and orange con quests.

[Talz]

<cite>Siclone wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Talzar wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Siclone wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Kizee wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>With the amount of quests and solo contesnt there isn't any reason to group unless you want to do a dungeon.</p><p>As the game stands right now you can level faster and get alot more AA's if you solo quest rather than get a group and grind in a dungeon.</p></blockquote><p> oh your one of thoese, if your a good solo class ya, many classes no</p><p>you solo good as a templer?</p></blockquote>Any class can plow through solo content.  FD trials are the only thing I can think of that offer any challenge at all and that is just because of dps. </blockquote><p>BS.....Some solo classes can kill at a rate of 4 to 1.  some classes simply cant solo to the point taht solo quests are very slow, shaman for example.</p><p>to post that all solo classes can plow though solo content is flat out wrong.  </p></blockquote>No, it isn't.  Plow isn't a synonym of speed. Solo play in EQ2 is the official easy mode of MMO's.  There are a lot more to things than looking at what classes have the largest numbers.  Of course some classes can do things faster than others.  The person at one in your ratio is still plowing (look it up if needed) through solo content with ease and even the slowest class in the game can easily quest their way to seventy.  My mystic didn't take that much longer than my assassin and can solo heroics with much poorer gear that would easily kill my assassin every single time if kiting wasn't an option. So yes, my assassin or somebody else's <i>insert burst dps class</i> may be able to solo four non-heroic, negative 200 hp mobs for every one my mystic can but there is a <strike>long</strike> very long list of ones I can kill that they can't touch no matter how much faster they kill four trash mobs. EQ2 is balanced in a lot of ways.  There are just too many classes and not enough creative players.

[Velius2820]

This is a problem for me.  On my first character I was always out looking for a group because solo play was just boring.  But since they added AA for level 10+ quests and the ability to acquire so much so fast  I have to solo quest.  Now I know what you are thinking, "No you don't have to solo quest, just keep grouping, SoE isn't forcing you to solo."  But this is not the case, I am a perfectionist.  If there is a way to improve my character I am going to be doing it.  I can't just pass up all the solo quests because I don't want to do them, they give me precious AA and I must have it all.  So when I make a new character here is what I do.  I'm always evil so freeport quests up to the level 10 ones to get AA from them.  Then I do all of the commonlands, antonica and GFay.  There is no time to group in there. I have to turn xp off just so I don't gray out all my quests.  It is true that I could just leave xp off and go to a dungeon group but if I don't see a group forming right when I log on, I'm off to solo and forget all about groups. It is really ruining my experience, and if I wasn't a perfectionist then everything would be cool but I deal with it.  So to the real question, did the AA increases and solo gameplay changes effect groups?  Well in my opinion yes it did very much.  This is only my opinion I'm sure the changes are great to most people and it is only the people like me that are really effected.  So I don't think they should be changing anything back.  The majority of people I talk to enjoy the changes very much.

[Novusod]

If you really want to improove you charactor you /disable xp at level ten and then do all the solo quests and group to kill all the duneon named and quests. By having my cake and eating it too I managed to aquire 51AA at level 34.

[Chay]

I've never done and experience grind in EQ2. EQ1 was all grind all the time I pretty much just work on quests, writs, and helping others do quests (occasionally I'll do some random meandering and exploring). I've never been big on pickup groups (EQ1 burned me on that too many times). I typically just do my own thing, I don't worry about leveling because I pretty much level at will (I actually turn off combat experience now and then so I can cram in more quests). I really don't believe that the experience changes or AA have changed grouping. I think its just the nature of the age of the game. Its a lot easier the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th time around for people. It just gets easier.

[MadTexan3]

<cite>Chayna wrote:</cite><blockquote>I really don't believe that the experience changes or AA have changed grouping. I think its just the nature of the age of the game. Its a lot easier the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th time around for people. It just gets easier. </blockquote>I agree, and add to that the fact that when you're soloing you don't have to share loot drops.

[Eugam]

I solo a lot and i do quests a lot. That said, there is not a single heroic instance in game that isnt involved in one or more quests. So there is as much appeal to solo quests as to build a group and do an instance to complete or progress quests.

[Rattfa]

Having solo'd and grouped my way to level 70 over the last few months, I can tell you that there is as much AAxp opportunities in group dungeons and there is with solo questing. Most dungeons are full of exploration points, named mobs, not to mention the quests in those dungeons. AAs come very quickly at low levels, but slows down a lot...imo not doing dungeons is taking away a huge portion of AA opportunities, and unless you lock xp and do every single solo quest through the game I doubt you could get to 100aa when you reach the cap. Also once you get to t6 at least, the ratio of solo/heroic quests shifts dramatically.

[Jal]

My new fae is 21 with 16 aa iirc and i am intending to mostly solo him to do quests for AA but also i want to see if you really can play the game with app1-2 spells.  Im not twinking him at all im using quest rewards and drops and selling stuff on the broker.  I dont have any master or even adept spells i dont think aside from the m2 choice and its alot harder to solo than maybe for a twinked alt. Easy mode no, learning your character and getting aa quicker yes.

[Talz]

I didn't mean easy mode to be a bad thing.  It is why I keep playing.  I  fought the good fight in EQ1. I killed the dragons, vanquished the gods and all the stuff in between.  It is nice to have a very laid back and stress free way to level. On my healers I constantly turn down group invites.  It isn't totally because most PUGs suck but it really is how people approach me.  Random invite... no.  Get me my MMC page... no.  Ask politely for legitimate help and I probably will. I don't see AA as making things harder than it already was for active groupers to get groups.  I imagine the real issue is that groupers out level questers so each tier the grouper to quester ratio gets closer and closer to each other.

[whytakemine]

Ilmaaaaah@Lucan DLere wrote: <blockquote><p>Leveling groups are by and large uninterested in doing quests unless they stumble on them while grouped. For example doing Snoggle's quest when first starting Runnyeye. To be honest, I still think a chain-pulling group in a dungeon will be the best leveling exp in the game, outpacing solo + quest exp handily. <b>But if you take a snapshot at say, level 50 of a toon that has ground groups in Stormhold/RoV/RE/CT and a person that has solo'd and done zone quest timelines</b>, there's no question that the soloer will have signifigantly more AP than the grouper. 5-8 names in a zone are no where near the AP of 25 quests for a zone like Butcherblock or Steamfont, both of which have their own named, usually non-heroic. The grouping toon will be there faster and have some Legendary gear. The soloing toon will probably have Mastercrafted and collection rewards (Which are darn good in EoF zones) and a boatload more AP</p><p>Different is not worse or better since there is not a single standard to measure against.</p></blockquote><p> I would love to see the playtime of someone who did xp grind groups vs someone who solo quested their way up.  I would probably agree that a good grind group will get xp faster, but if you factor in the time spent getting a group, or the xp in a mediocre group, I think solo questing would come pretty close.</p><p>I guess I can provide one data point for the solo questing side. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>To hit level 50, it took me just over 4 days of playtime on my fairy zerker.  Other than one run through RoV, one run through RE, and doing the two "kill a bunch of nightblood" quests in RV that was pretty much all solo quests.  I also haven't even touched a few zones, so I still haven't gotten the exploration xp for them (everfrost, lavastorm sol eye, OoLS, nek castle, maybe more).  I think I've done 2-3 of the lower level collection quests, so no cheaply bought levels. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Anyone want to post their /play time who's done the xp group grind post-eof, and whether or not they bought a couple levels via collection quests or otherwised influenced their play times (level 70's mentored down, etc)?</p><p>There's really too many factors to know which one is truely faster, but it would be cool to see anyway.  </p>