I'm suggesting the next expansion be like TSS, but since TSS was 1-75 you can do it solo. I'm suggesting the next expansion be 75-115 you can do it solo. "The advertisements for “The Serpent’s Spine” stated that one could go from level one to level 75 without a group or exploring any of the previously existing locations in the game simply through completion of these newly added tasks. " Some of you may say "you can do it with a merc to 115" Some of you may say HoT is a great zone for 80-95 Let me chime in, I went to HoT lower floor, I fought a bothersome snake, now I'm 80% paragon heroes geared up, this snake is quadding 3.7K, yes I died multiple times because, wow it got lucky and did 11K on me, aka 33% hp gone. TWICE 66% hp gone. Yes I have the autogrant AA on, 4K AA and 80% paragon geared WITH BUFFS, getting worked by this bothersome snake. Looks like I'm going back to Oceangreen Hills or the SoF zones because by golly that bothersome snake hits like a truck and I literally have the best gear I can get. 75-115 is no joke, 75 - 100 is no joke.Please please please, WE NEED 75-115 TSS like zones. Zones with bigger than 5-10 level span. Blightfire moors was 20 - 45, Gorukar mesa 40 - 60. Those kind of zones seriously helped the 40-60 hell levels back in the days. Now today, 75-110 is literally the "hell levels of today" Please focus the next expansion on helping newplayers get caught up in the mid game to end game, aka 75-115. Yes 1-75 is a joke, all thanks to TSS, its at a nice spot, but 75-115 its hell. I literally stay at lvl 80 something for a whole week before I level. As a newplayer its not fun spending a whole week in the mid game just to level once, several weeks go by, I lose my interest because its too time consuming and there is no one around really. One of the benefits of TSS, it brought all those people in that level range to one or a few zones, that way theres at least a chance to group up, if someone else is in zone means theres a chance, zone is empty, no chance. I shouldn't be spending a whole week to level 1 time in my 80s even my 90s I predict it too. There is no one around, its pointless. I can understand 105 and higher, theres people around and its not lonely game is dead vibe I'm facing anymore. Being all alone 80s 90s, its a lonely game is dead, why am I spending a week just for 1 level, go play a different game feeling. Please focus the next expansion on zones for intention on leveling 75-115. TSS like zones please.
HoT is geared toward 85 plus, and going there at 75 is very optimistic. not sure what level you are? I think very few expansions were made with soloing in mind. But I agree, that soloing at low levels is necessary. I think it will be a waste of resources, to make a complete expansion for the 75-115 range, if retuning of existing content is possible. Retuning older expansions towards solo-molo difficulty would be a great move, it if wasn't for the TLP-servers(they need group content in that level range too). My suggestion could be an improved shroud-mechanic, that let high-levels players shroud down to downscaled versions of themselves. where their stats and damage output were scaled down. And where high-levels could get good(not great) XP by playing downscaled in low-level content. That could help low-levels with grouping opportunities.
with around 35k HP and 4K AA you are what, level 80 ? and you real think you can hunt in Hot ?, new Feerott is made for 85 and higher, HoT for 88-92 BTW: You need Abstruse armor or better for Feerott (or (HoT and higher) paragon armor is crap and only for lower zone,s
Paragon armor is better than SoD group armor, if you want upgrades the only options are UF and HoT.. If under level 86, I suggest grinding some xp in SoD as UF is pretty tough(iirc). If you need inspiration on what to do, you can always do progression or work on augs. If you are super ambitious, you can do the prayer shawl questlines(when you get 85+), it starts in old velious but continues in UF(and later RoF). I still use mine at level 115...
If you can raise the plat or find them free, you can start getting some TAs at 95. Assuming someone offers up. Recently, the pickings have been slim even for TAs from the latest expansion. Also, check for high level players farming or doing hunters on the upper areas of HOT. The may let you loot the no drop items for the higher end HOT armor. Do /over as often as you can. After a few weeks, you should be able to get about 10% XP/day by logging in twice daily to kick off a set.
This. Once you are 85, you should absolutely be using Overseer if your goal is to 'catch up' in a timely manner. Do consider that leveling to 115 as quickly as possible will effectively make a large chunk of the game less desirable to experience, though. There is nothing special about 115 content. Or being 115. The 85-110 content is arguably better than what you'll spend your time doing once you hit the cap. This is if you are just playing casually at your own pace. If you are trying to catch up for the purpose of raiding or something, then disregard.
I would like this. I can sometimes raid but when im lvling i need to afk A lot. I can't just afk on a group for 15-30 minutes. But the days are gone when i could sit and just grind exp for hours and talk. I miss it and wish i could. But i want to use the little time i can do that to raid not lvl up.
This is exactly my point, yes I'm mid 80s, I get paragon gear from SoD quests, the only ones I don't have is the one where I have to do this mini raid, https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4641 Let me tell you something, "We did it, at level, with a group of 4. Paused at 20%, killed the 2 soldiers, and then just killed with ease. " Dead wrong, I did it a few days ago, I had 8 adds on me when I wiped and they didn't despawn, I said to hell with going back and killing those 8. I'm at a standstill where mobs either hit a bit too hard, or they hardly do much and hardly give any xp. I only went to HoT lower level about 2 times never went back after wiping a couple times from the snakes that hit like trucks. I did do Heroic Adventures too, I must have got the worst kind to be introduced too because I wasn't able to finish it, https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/estle-2-remember-the-dead.274362/#post-4016500 I must be extremely unlucky or something. 83-86 must be hell, probably more hell levels until 110, this is why I'd really like a TSS like expansion. The difficulty from T2 to T3 SoD ramps up a lot too. Them Iksars in FoS are not to be trifled with either. I can take them but its a lot of work. If SoD, HoT was like one of the end game zones, sure I'd be ok with it, but SoD, HoT are 10 EXPANSIONS behind everything. That's how far behind I am, struggling with content 10 expansions ago. The Abtruse armor, I don't even see it yet, I'm guessing thats in HoT? I have to do content I may not even be able to do, to get this armor, to be able to kill these bothersome truck hitting snakes? This is why I'm thinking a TSS like expansion is needed for 75 -115 I want to be leveling faster, not staying in this 80-105 content forever, I want to get to 115. Which is probably going to take MONTHS, and theres no one around but me. You see my dilemma? I feel like this game is dead, I'm wondering why am I still playing, this content is time consuming, is it really worth playing for months of heartache to get to 115? A TSS like expansion 75-115 is needed badly. People like me, I honestly don't think I'll be here much longer to be honest. People like me hitting ROADBLOCKS at content 9 to 10 expansions ago, SoD HoT is not as easy as people say it is. Sure if your already past that content and doing it on your alt, sure it may feel easy, but if its where your MAIN is at, that content is no joke. SoD T1 T2 not so bad, T3 and beyond "Welcome to hell levels, good luck sticking around EQ" No one around to hear you scream for 20 more levels (was no one in HoT lower floors, can't imagine for 20 more levels, probably even more barren at 95-100, cuz I don't see myself getting that far.
I was in a different situation than you, when I was 85 I wasn't in a hurry to level. Every time I wanted to solo/molo, I found some grindy quest/achievements with lightblue mobs. At level 85 it was aug-quests in hills of shade or crystallos-key(even if it wasn't needed), stuff like that. But that was only because I took my time. A TSS like expansion for 75-115, for people who wants to level up fast, will need to have a lot of content for the max-level crowd too. It could probably be done, but it would have to be an unusually large expansion, however DBG has been hiring new staff, so I won't rule out that it could happen again. And you are absolutely correct that the game has become top-heavy, and even with the catchup mechanics already in place(like auto-grant) it WILL take months to solo to 115. In fact 110-115 alone would take months to solo, as most of the XP come from group-quest-achievements. In my opinion the last few expansions are pretty rough to solo in(depending on class). Everquest is not solo-friendly...
You can do CotF HAs from 75-100 and buy group gear with the currency you get. Doing it molo would be rough but that's just how EQ is
All DP really needs to do to solve the slog of 75-115 is to remove the old-content exp penalty and maybe bump HA instance exp modifiers. As it currently stands, even on FV, I feel like the only time it's worth trying to level is when double exp is active.
I definitely do not recommend doing CoTF/HA until you hit level 100, the tuning on them is completely crazy after a revamp to those zones that put the damage on a higher level scaling and it has not yet been reverted to the original released damage/hp/ac etc tables - you'll get ripped apart. Similarly stay away from Underfoot - that content was tuned far too high to consider soloing while level - appropriate, it's probably one of the most brutal expansions EQ made after GoD. After 80 any kind of solo/molo is going to be extremely tough without being raid geared or a solo-friendly class like Necromancer/Mage/Beastlord/Shadowknight You really will need help either from guildies, other people in your level range if you can even find any. The other option is boxing - on a Live server you could run 1 all-access + 2F2P on one Computer which will also grant you the option of a couple of extra mercs to help too. EverQuest has never positioned itself as solo-friendly & Mercs only take you so far into the levels before they are not enough to facilitate soloing the available content. Personally I would love to see a solo-path through EQ to help anyone starting the game or returning to it at this point but the team is still small & the creation of such a content path is unlikely due to the investment of money & developers that it would require that would take away from the rest of the game - the best way to deal with your difficulties really is other players.
You can also try to do the daily hotzone quests from Teek in pok, I remember them being decent xp for the time investment. You can do more than one daily per day if you select multiple level-choices.
What you're experiencing is "real EQ." I don't mean that insultingly or condescendingly. It's just that from one to the mid 70s or so has been completely trivialized - both in terms of the amount of grind and the ease of solo-ability. But low grind, easy solo xp isn't the game EQ is. EQ is grind-centric, group-centric. And starting around 80, trying to avoid grouping means MASSIVELY increasing that grind aspect.
How many AAs/hour can you get these days when you are near current content? I'm thinking that's probably the biggest grind of all if what a player is looking for is being raid ready. My 108 SK on FV is...30,000AA behind cap? I mean, what's that...hundreds of hours of box group grinding I'm guessing? By the time I finish ToV AAs I'll still be behind what raid guilds want.
Two years ago I ran my first live 3 box crew (SK, BRD, DRU) through Dead Hills/CotF and TBM HAs. They (some) are doable with the 70 gear bought off of https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=50309 @ level 75 if you have an auto-granted real tank. (Maybe a journeyman tank merc could handle it...never tried.) The TBM missions I do not recommend - they really are overtuned (red con named) and for most of them, named are part of the task list and can not be avoided. However, I definitely recommend doing all three heroics from Gribble Grobblenobber and 'Artifacts of Great Importance' from Skulk the Madaxe in Dead Hills. You only need a duo or trio at most to do these.
Mercs and defiant armor are a bigger part of this than the zones. One could also argue that content up to lvl 85/90 has been trivialized by Heroic characters and high level damage shields. Undeniably, once you reach 85 and can group with a lvl 115 it becomes meaningless to bother attempting level appropriate content. Just find ...any... max level friend and go kill whatever drops BiS gear for your level. In most cases you'll level faster than you can gear up. This is fine for most players but devastating to tank classes since loot-dropping named are tuned for groups with in-era or last-expansion gear. "Just hard enough" for current content becomes totally impractical for the catch-up player. What's most needed in here is a more accessible path for players to earn post-defiant gear upgrades in a level appropriate, expedited and soloable fashion. One proposal for this might be a vendor that sells out-of-era loot for Tribute points. Combine this with a 'catchup' expansion that drops tribute-rich loot from reduced-difficulty content, throw in some heavy instancing, and you could have a runaway hit with the casual types. Bonus if it has a strong nostalgic appeal, e.g. procedurally populated versions of popular legacy dungeons.
They should really just put the HA's back the way they were and limit exp gain on them over level 105 so they can't be abused by higher levels. Not that it even matters anymore, it was just at RoS release that people were using them to hit 110, so they tuned them up instead of XP capping them like they should have. They wouldn't even really need to do anything except revert the original change, the exp doesn't matter to high levels at this point. What is the point of having low level gear available on CoTF vendors if the low levels can't earn the currency to buy them? Easy fix, and I know that because it took them no time to make the change originally, so it will take no time to revert it. The other problem is Heroics. I think it's a good option to have, but why would they make changes that make people less likely to buy Heroic Upgrades? You need HoT armor to survive in HoT. Heroic Armor is just shy of T1 HoT group armor. Even if you can loot the remnants, you still need like 5k per piece to make the armor. It made sense at the time, but it's holding the game back now. I'm not sure how they can address this exactly with TLP's constantly going through these expansions again. Maybe when CoTF opens, HoT remnants could drop of the "weaker" con mobs in Feerrott and the prices to make the armor could drop to 1k or something. Get people into HoT and they will stick around, it's a great expansion.
When I was a returning player after twelve years of abstinence I had not much problems to level up to the cap which was 105. I was moloing the solo friendly rogue class with a healer merc without boxing and had about zero help from other players. About all gear got bought from the bazaar. At lvl 80-90 my PC was in the SoF expansion mostly. But I had All Access and the AA boost granted alot power.
