[Meirril]

Alenna@Guk wrote:

Nero wrote:

Meirril wrote:

I'm just kicking around an idea. There are quite a few classes in game that have trouble soloing. While that can all be overcome with equipment, spell upgrades, and experience some classes will never solo nearly as well as others. This isn't a huge deal in old world content, because we've gained a lot of new abilities since then. But the difference between EoF and RoK was huge. Its still a bit of a shock for under-AAed, under equipped players that hit RoK for the first time. Potentially, SF could be the same kind of experience for the same kind of player.

What if a new mechant was added to certain zones that would rent you a pet? Call it a mercenary, or a loyal companion. Have it cost coin, status, quests, whatever. Have it only purchasable if you are not grouped, and have it go away if you enter a group or leave the zone. It would be even better if each NPC was a buff with a long duration (say 4 hours) that didn't go away if you logged, died, or even left the zone or joined a group but the NPC would despawn in those conditions. This way you could help someone real fast and not loose what you've paid for. If you went LD you'd still have the pet when you came back. If you had to enter a special instance to finish a quest or call back to home to empty your bags, as long as you came back in time you'd get the rest of the benifit from your NPC.

I'd suggest a small variety of NPCs. DPS types, Tanking types and maybe even a priest type. For solo content, a priest type really shouldn't be needed. Limiting the NPCs to certain zones should prevent people from abusing them too much. The pets shouldn't compair favorably with a real player from that class, but good enough that its a real help. Maybe something as effective as a single down solo mob?

EQ1's mercenaries system?

By the way, what is "party"?

Party is what a certain other MMORPG calls groups.

It is also the way that Dungeons and Dragons has refered to groups of adventurers for over 30 years...