Rethinking my playing style

[Ragecaller]

<p>Now that i am considering respeccing my AAP's and considering the cost for this (steep for someone whose highest character can just tackle T3 areas), i am wondering if i might want to change my intended playing style. I'd like your opinions so i can make a more informed decission.</p><p>I love trying out stuff. As a result, while i have many alts in their teens, i don't have any highly leveled main at the moment. My current strategy is to stair step a chain of alts up so that each gets level locked so it has the broades possible coverage of tackling mobs in a separate tier without any of them greying out. The idea behind this being that i could use those alts to farm advanced crafting books at my leisure without having to constantly scrounge enough cash to pay for them on brokers. This would give me the means to leisurely try out the various different crafting professions and allow me to get MC gear without having to rely on the willingness of other crafters to help me out with that.</p><p>This desire for independence comes not from wanting to play alone, but from not being that good at enlisting help of others. I have vainly tried for several hours to request the services of an outfitter to turn some blackened iron into armor for him, meaning it isn't that trivial to find a crafter willing to help you out for a donation provided you supply the materials. Eventually i decided it would be easier to just level up an outfitter and make the stuff myself. Being dependent on people at a time that no one feels up to helping you out is one of the most frustrating experiences i have had in this game. I really want to get rid of that combination. So far, the best way i saw to do that given the means available to me was to remove that dependency as much as possible. and worry about making friends once i got the necessities out of the way.</p><p>However, it helps to have a steady supply of gold, and to be brutally honest, solo farming is major boring crud. I play MMORPG's for the cooperative dungeon crawls. Not to keep killing beetles hoping to find recipe books in their carcasses. I'm also itching to see something besides the commonlands, nek or TS. I'm thinking i should work on a main again and forget about crafting for a while.</p><p>What i'm considering is to shelf the alts for a while and focus on working one of my characters up to max level as fast as possible(sticking as much to the solo quest timelines as progression with combat and quest experience on allows) and simply use that char from there on to farm cash and fund my alts. It may be a much faster more gratifying approach to achieving my goals than stair stepping alts, and it will definetely let me play in groups more often.</p><p>What do you think? Should i continue on my original plan and avoid the frustration of needing someone's help and finding no one to help me out? Or should i toss caution to the wind and just start rocketing up my main, picking whatever group i can find wherever they might be so i can see a bit of the world and make some friends, at the risk of needing to fall back on a market i can really not afford in order to keep my spells and gear up to the job at hand?</p>

[Errolflynn]

<p>My advise, find a good guild that suits your play style and times. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Kordran]

<p>Joining a guild would probably make things easier for you. Alternatively, you have to be a bit more persistent and creative in getting help. You don't want to spam, but don't just ask for help once or twice and throw your hands up. YOu can also use /who to find specific types of crafters, so look for the ones that you need who aren't in adventure zones (e.g.: they're in a city, guildhall or tradeskill instance) and send a /tell to them directly. Another approach that I also recommend is that you don't just say "looking for a crafter to make <whatever>". In the level 1-9 chat (which tends to be the "global chat" on most servers), say something like "could anyone recommend a crafter who will make <whatever> for me?". People may know of a crafter that they like, but that person may not be on at that moment. You can add them to your friends list (even temporarily), and when they do login, send them a /tell saying that they were recommended to you, and would they be willing to make what you need.</p><p>As an aside, I have several crafters, and when someone has asked me for help, as long as I'm not in a raid or instance, I'm happy to lend them a hand (and I think you'll find very few crafters will ask for anything but the rare(s) and fuel costs; at the lower tiers, I don't even care about the fuel costs).  So don't think that you're being a major imposition on their time or anything. That said, when you find a crafter who's willing to help:</p><p>1. Make sure you have the rare(s) that you need, and check with them if they also need you to provide raw materials. Not all crafters keep stocks of the lower tier stuff, so they may need you to provide that.</p><p>2. Ask about their pricing. Most crafters, in my experience, will tell you not to worry about it or will just ask that you cover fuel costs and will tell you what that is. If they're just asking for fuel costs, it's nice to offer a tip; if you don't know what is appropriate, ask. I know for lower level players, I just tell them not to worry about it and "pay it forward" by helping someone else down the road.</p><p>3. Travel to them. If they're willing to help you out, so don't make things inconvenient by requiring them to zone all over the place. If you're good and they're evil (or vice versa) then you can both meet in Sinking Sands. It's neutral ground you can both zone to without a lot of hassle.</p><p>4. Put the crafters you like on your friends list. They're a resource for you, and for others you might meet who want recommendations for a crafter.</p><p>5. Thank them. Most crafters do what they do because they like helping people, and being thanked and appreciated for their work is often reward enough. Someone who just pays me fuel costs and runs off without saying a word is someone that I personally won't go out of my way to help again. Crafters aren't NPCs there to service you, so make sure that you don't treat them as such, and that'll go a long way towards building your own "support network" of crafters that can help you as you level up.</p>

[Finora]

<p>Just do whichever one you think you will have the most FUN doing.  Finding a guild that fits you also helps a lot.</p><p>I've been playing since launch and still only have 1 character maxed.</p><p>As for money... I actually find my lower level characters really have no difficulty aquiring cash. Loot everything, sell anything you don't need either on the broker or to an NPC vendor if it's something you can't broker. There's lots of stuff to make money with these days. Collect all ? that you can find and sell ones you don't need. Doing just that I had an alt that racked up close to 30 plat before she was level 30. Ridiculous. My main didn't have a plat to her name until she was 30ish ...maybe higher than that. None of that was from farming btw. Just what I looted & collected during my normal play on that character.  I do tend to turn off combat xp, so I don't level really fast on just disco & quest xp but I never have much trouble with money for my alts and I never dip into my main's bank to fund anything for them. My newbie necro actually has made 4 plat since I started playing her without even trying and she's not even lvl 20 yet. So it's entirely doable. I DO have all 9 tradeskills though so that cuts my costs right there. All my characters must do trades.</p><p>So if you actually LIKE how you play, not 'needing' anyone else, then keep playing that way. The only thing I see that you might need to change is how you approach your money issue. You can drastically cut the costs of your gear/spell upgrades by doing your harvesting and either contacting a crafter directly or leveling up the appropriate craft yourself. The broker prices are basically convience store prices for crafted items, generally higher than if you went to the source rather than picking it up immediately.</p>

[Donilla]

<p>If youre feeling compeled to change your style simply because you think you have to, thats not going to be satisfying in the long run. Grouping can always be a challenge, I agree, the suggestions above are good ones.</p><p>Joining a guild would be a good way to get a set group of people that will hopefully join up with you. Better yet, a guild generally provides you with the crafters you're looking for. It's one of those things guildies tend to do for one another, and usually just for cost as well. With the new hall, location and materials are much less of a problem. And most guilds tend to keep spell books in the bank and they are intended to be used. Generally you take out, you put something back in later on.</p><p>On the other hand, it is usefull to have a main that is higher level. I use my main to harvest for all the lower level crafters. And I have altistis and I like all my clan members and play them. But the main is the main and she does get played more. The others get played in spurts. I'll spend a few days on one, shift to another, pretty much free flow alt camping if you will. Maybe if you let yourself make logical links from character to another, and not worry so much about each getting equal time, you'll feel less like youre grinding.</p>

[Zorastiz]

<p>As everyone said, find a guild that meets your goals / style etc, most importantly find one that has as many people in your timezone as possible, and or play during similar hours.</p><p>I love my guild but I never get to hang out with them much because we have different hours of play not just a timezone thing, and this can really suck if you are a social animal like me!</p><p>Find some guilds you are interested in, find their websites, post questions on their forums, talk to people in game from said guilds etc, do your research upfront, it will pay dividends down the road believe me.</p>

[Ragecaller]

<p>Actually both stair stepping and pushing up a main can be fun. It's the farming i need to do to make sure i got all the advanced recipes for the crafing careers of my alts (like one of the above posters i also insist that every character i make develops a crafting career) that is starting to get tedious. And since farming uncommon drops is best done solo it's also a bit lonely.</p><p>Pushing up a main will allow me to seek out groups (i'm after all after "progress" in the broadest sense of the word and can afford to just team up for fun in that situation) and finally allows me to see a few more zones than the tier 1 and 2's my chars are confined to at the moment. It will however strongly impede the advancement of the crafting careers of my alts (i try to avoid gaps in my crafting knowledge so i insist i got the advanced manual of a level before i'll scribe the essentials version), which means my gear might lag behind until i find a guild, make friends or get my upgrades otherwise.</p><p>I am not quite sure which style will be the most fun for me. Being independent has its charm, and definetely eliminates frustration most of the time, and it lets me try out a lot of different characters and playstyles. Pushing up a main will however let me experience content that is so far way out of my reach and dabble with the more advanced abilities of a character. Not to mention make finding a guild and make friends a whole lot easier than farming greens for treasure chests can do. It will however put me at risk of being completely unable to play my character because i can find no one to make the hurdles i have to overcome at the time possible. That is something i really, really would not enjoy and would go to great lengths at to avoid. Being able to do things together is fun. being dependent on someone and not having anyone to depend on is terribly frustrating.</p>

[Minelarie]

<p>My guild has probably at least one lvl 80 crafter of all of the professions, the best way I have found to get what I need made is to is to contact the crafter ask if they would be so kind as to make whatever it is that I need. Then if they are willing to make the stuff ask if they are able to do it then & there or if would be more convenient to just send them the rares & some coin, and have them mail the items back to you. This works very well (in my experience). They can make the stuff at their leisure. This is not a method that I would necessarily use with a stranger tho, so that makes it abit harder to get stuff made.</p><p>As far as cash goes, harvest everything you see, sell everything that you don't need, commons sell for very little coin but when you add it all up it does bring some profit. Sell all of the rares that you don't need most of them sell for a very good amount of coin. Also in your travels grab the sparkly ? whenever you see them, some of them sell for multiple plat even some of the lower lvl ones, sell what you don't need for your own collections. Sell all of the Adept 1 spells that aren't for your class.</p><p>So to recap, Sell everything you can't use on the broker as long as the price is above what a npc vendor will pay. Harvest nodes & shinies & sell what you don't need.</p><p>And most importantly find a good guild that has a playstyle that appeals to you!!</p><p>Oops forgot something,</p><p>As far as leveling multiple toons goes, with the new expansion (released yesterday) your lower level characters will get an experience bonus of 10% per lvl 80 up to 50%, for adventuring & tradeskilling.</p>

[Mentalep]

<p>If you're worried about being able to afford mastercrafted gear and spells, my advice is to back off a bit.  You can get by with lesser (and dramatically less expensive) equipment until the later tiers, and you level so quickly through most of the game that you'll outgrow it before you know it, anyway.  If you have a tank character, you might want to invest in better equipment to help you hold aggro in groups, but other than that, I wouldn't fret.</p><p>Now, this advice might depend on your class, so keep that in mind.  My main is a guardian, and I've never had undue difficulty soloing or tanking with mastercrafted plate and the rest of my stuff mostly treasured.  My wizard is 42 and doing fine, and she's never had any mastercrafted gear (in fact a lot of her gear is pretty outdated).  I'd see how you do with more run-of-the-mill equipment before you worry too much about what you don't have.</p>

[Ragecaller]

<p>Since pretty much the one unanymous advice is to find a good guild, what are the best things i can do in game to pre select a few guilds that might match my playing style and timezone so i can screen them out further by visiting their site and talking to their recruiters? Screening each and every guild in game is a bit too much for my limited playing time and i am not that convinced the in game search tool is that good in highlighting guilds based on your general playing style, hours and the size of guild you desire.</p><p>What are the best ways to get my shortlist of guilds? Pickup groups? Plowing trough the server forum? Or just relying on the guild search tool?</p>

[Kordran]

<p><cite>Ragecaller wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>What are the best ways to get my shortlist of guilds? Pickup groups? Plowing trough the server forum? Or just relying on the guild search tool?</blockquote><p>I'd suggest logging into the server during what you consider to be your "typical" playtimes, use the guild search tool and browse through the list. For those guilds that look interesting to you, use /who to search for them and get a sense of how many members they have online at the time (you won't find everyone, because /who won't return people who are flagged as anonymous, but it should help give a general idea). If they look like they're fairly active, then talk with one of their recruiters.</p><p>And don't forget, joining a guild isn't like getting married. It's not a "death 'til you part" relationship. Most guilds have a probationary period where you and your guildmates decide if you're a good fit. Heck, I've been in guilds where I've joined and disbanded a couple of days later because they either misrepresented themselves, or I just couldn't tolerate some aspect of their guild. For example, one guild leader just could not stop spamming guildchat ... we're not talking about the occasional "grats" or whatever, I'm talking about non-stop, ALL CAPS spam about every manner of stupid you could imagine. Apparently he thought it was good leadership because he was "motivating" the guild members. He motivated me to disband. My point being that you never really know what a guild is going to be like until you're part of it for a while, but don't feel like once you've joined, you're stuck. If one guild doesn't end up working out, don't be afraid to try another.</p>

[Thantoes]

<p> Bah: Everyone suggests "Find a good guild"  Not such an easy thing to do. Guilds come in all types and sizes but unless you make one with close by friends and or family, you always run the risk (more often then Not) of getting Guild leaders and thier spouses that like to use the guild for their own gain. Officers that go on power trips because they have E-Power (so the think) People will make their close friends officers just because, then if your not benifiting them ignore or USE you when it is convienent (sp?) Or people you thought were "friends" stab you in the back. All things seen in the guilds I have been in both here and EQ1. All kinds of people play MMOs, there will ALWAYS be Aholes. So again finding a "Good Guild" is not that easy.</p><p>/rant off (sorry but this subject always riles me up)</p>

[Ragecaller]

<p><cite>Raisn@Nektulos wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p> /rant off (sorry but this subject always riles me up)</p></blockquote><p>No worries. Your pet peeve comes close to my own, which is the extreme difference in willingness to help others between people in guild and people not in guild. I'd like to think that in a truly strong community that difference would be minimal and guilds mostly an extension of the friends list.</p><p>Oh well, without ideals there would be nothing to strive for <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Donilla]

<p>I agree we want a community that helps others, whether they are in your guild or not, and I know the people in these forums take the approach of helping all. If you are ever fortunate to group, make note of the guid the players are in. If yoiu like how they play, you may also like the guild. Ask about it, do some research etc. The best recommendation for a guild are its representatives in the game.</p>