I really want to enjoy everquest like I used to but its so hard to find a group. I've got multiple chars in their 70s and rarely ever do I find a group. I joined a guild and it helped immensely.. but guildies are not always around or don't say anything when I ask if I can join them. I don't suck. I have 350+AAs on both my 75s (nec/bst). I know how to play my classes. Feel free to bash me for not having enough AA or whatever. I have all the ones that increase my dps. Going in the hole (if I can find a spot that isn't camped by AFKers with mercs) and grinding out another 500 isn't going to help me find a group any faster. Typically when trying to play these days it goes like this: Login Spam general chats for a group check LFG / Guild for a group wait 10 mins logout try again later I'm on povar if anyone wants to group or something. I also have a 66 pally / 60 mage on tunare. 1-60 is great. I have no complaints about that. (only because tank mercs make it stupid easy) I'm not trying to bash EQ. I love this game, but I see so many instances of people that would rather box with mercs than invite a stranger and quite frankly I'm about to give up once again. When did people get so antisocial? I think the XP requirement needs to be reduced 70+ so people can catch up faster and make non j5 mercs suck after 70. Also the amount of AAs you need is ridiculous. Something should be done about that. I'm not asking to get my hand held up to say 90 where it's not impossible to find a group. All I'm saying is that as a returning player it takes forever to catch up and the game is so unfriendly towards new/returning players that it literally depends on the people that have been playing for YEARS to survive any longer. *EDIT* And before someone tells me to suck it up and grab a merc.. Why don't you try leveling a new character without a PL or box and see how long it takes you? Just because you did it the long way 10 years ago doesn't mean that's the way it still needs to be today.
You have two pretty strong solo classes there in a BST and Necro. Start small, try to find at least one person who plays a class that compliments one of those and get out there and do something. It won't be mind blowing XP but it's a whole lot easier to add people when you say "me and jim bob are in X killing, anyone want to join?" than "starting/LFG group for X". Also if there are players a few levels below you, then go out and play with them and help get them to your level. The XP might really suck then but you might find a couple people to start a regular group with from then on out. Even though I duo box, on the weekends I park myself in the hot zone on whatever mob it is and kill slowly and just run as many guildies as I can through it. I can run 15+ people through their daily, and most of them stay at least a little while which is a nice boost in XP because the kill rate tends to go way up when they are there. Once people start seeing that you're someone that logs in and gets stuff done you will gain traction and get groups much easier. I know the hill seems too big but you just have to chip away at it a little at a time and you will get there. I'm only 10 levels higher than you and my main is a warrior so believe me you're not in that bad of shape as a BST or Necro.
I have (on an alt Ranger). He largely soloed until the first hotzones/hotzone augs appeared and then he grouped until interest in those zones waned. The he soloed until he bumped into a returned Paladin/Bard duo and leveled up really fast in The Hole. Seeing interest in Prescient Fleeting Quiver he farmed a lot of High Quality Lion Skins, continuing when it was acknowledged bow haste wasn't working right and other people lost interest. A lot. Like around 10 quivers worth. My main converted then to quivers, gave half to guildmates and sold the rest. Since Ranger was more than paying his way he got a set of Othni armor and the best group content bow. And he soloed. You joined a guild - good move. My main is in a raid guild so (now) 75 Ranger doesn't have a lot of contemporaries to play with. Fortunately even raid guild do Solteris for alts on occasion. He tagged along, got fully Solteris visible geared and a great bow. Headshot. Now 1600 AA. It was fast, easy, and with Defiant, then Othni, then Solteris pickup raid gear wow so much faster and easier than when I did it I was amazed. (You do have the Necro epic, right. With all the talk about it being so powerful Necros won't give it up you got one, right? Right???) SOE practically gives away exp, AA, and gear to lower level characters now. And the best part is...... .....at no time has my not PL'd or boxed alt not been fun despite the fact that he's not level 100. He IS caught up - caught up to where his effort has brought him in today's generous to low level player's game. And every minute I play him it's a delight (and I'm rocking progress not that progress > the ride). When I get tired of soloing (I'm not yet) I'll look in the likely places for groups. I can't imagine logging in for 10 minutes and then logging out. Seriously. At every level alone or in a group my alt has been too much fun to consider doing that. I posted some of this before and a critic commented that I picked one of the easiest classes to level. May I point out, so did you.
Is being run through Anguish raid to get an orb being PL'd? If that's the case virtually every half-serious group content player is a PL'd raider sir. I believe most people define being PL'd as enjoying a PL group and watching your exp meter go into hyper drive, not attending a PoTime, Anguish, or Solteris pickup raid. I'd expect any worthwhile guild (OP joined a guild) to do such things. (Orbs, access to Elite Energian power sources, J5 mercs, ... There are still a handful of tasks that a family or casual guild can do that benefits lower level members. The game does not start at level 100).
I don't understand. Are you telling me you want to run me through anguish for my epic and gear me out through raids? Maybe then people will want to group?
Nope, I'm telling you to join a family or casual guild and expect them, or a pickup raid by a higher level guild, to help get you though some "rights of passage" toward a better toon. One can't kill Moss Snakes continuously and expect to progress. On my server, Lee who claims something like 2,200 gujld members who raid lower level targets because raiding is fun, has seen 100's of players through Anguish for orbs and helped many get J5 Mercs. That's what guilds do sir. I don't understand you - when someone advertises Power Leveling 30Kpp per hour in /ooc they are offering to take you to Anguish on your server? I thought not. (BTW, headshot would work just fine with my Ranger's older group content bow and Defiant gear, much less Othi. You don't understand headshotting apparently).
I have no idea about the anguish orbs and crap.. I'm just a guy that wants to group with people and thinks it takes too long to get to the point of being able to group whenever you log on. Maybe my guild is the problem.
I'm level 100 and have halfway decent gear. I don't get a group (or at least a group doing what I'd most like to be doing) every time I snap my fingers. It doesn't work like that for Clerics, tanks, or DPSers. The "problem" is not as gear and level dependent as you make it out to be. My 75 Ranger can likely get a group at 6 PM tomorrow within 15 minutes. (As it happens, I don't want one - they'd slow me down.) The Farm. If not the Farm then there are 2 other likely spots. If you are in a guild with 10-20 level 65 to 80 players you ought to be able to get a group easy as pie. ALL of you want experience and experience unlike other forms of progress (flags you don't have to get any more, quests you don't need to do any more) can be gotten almost anywhere. Ought to be easy peasy and it's actually happening can however be different. On the plus side, my Ranger is a group. Heck he gets exp a lot faster than any group my main was in at level 75. It's just that grouped only with a merc there's not much happening in /gsay. A good reason to join a guild where there are others at your level IMO.
FWIW even at max level you can't expect to get a slew of invites in a 10 minute time frame. A lot of people will sit around saying they're LFG & then not invite each other. Better results can usually be obtained by starting to kill somewhere & saying, "room for more in zone x", then keeping an eye on general & tossing an invite to anyone in your level range who says they're lfg.
I returned to the game around the start of this year; I was level 35. Somehow I managed to find groups through the sixties and seventies, but just from observation I can tell that those levels are an awkward time for many people. If you can manage to make your way to the early eighties, it seems to me that there's a more consistently lively population of players around those levels.
The problem may be that in the 15 minutes or so (asking LFG then waiting 10 mins then logging) means the OP misses the pickup raids from general chat cuz they are never on longer than 15 mins at a time. Your point about family guilds running anguish for 2.0 orbs makes sense...it isn't that hard to do Anguish anymore... As for Solteris, etc. raids...apparently the OP doesn't think raids lower than 90s are useful so would rather just get more levels. Shrug. The OP has many issues in the post... - how long have they been back to get those toons to 70s and 60s? - why level 4 toons on 2 servers at the same time? - how is 15 minutes LFG helping? - how long should it take a toon to get from 1 to 100? It seems some people want to get to 90s in days and then will complain they can't get groups cuz the gear the toon has sucks or the toon doesn't have enough AA. When someone (you) offer an example of how a solo toon can progress the OP simply picks at the mention of any raid at all as if that is some how cheating. As has been said before...the game is easy for the youngest players from 1 to 50 or maybe now 70s and then the game gets a bit harder. But once the game starts to get harder...it is whine time. The OP seems to fall in that same pattern...regardless of RL age. It is a no win situation...the game is too easy at lower levels...but too hard at higher levels. Just give folks level 100 beta buffed toons and call it a day.
Yet another case of someone putting forth next to zero effort. These threads are always such a weary read. If spamming LFG for a few minutes is all the effort you're willing to expend before giving up, then better get accustomed to soloing. Stop expecting to miraculously fall into some ready-made group that has been standing around idle just waiting for someone like you to log on, and instead create your own group. Fairness has nothing whatsoever to do with your issue here.
I think the biggest difference between my experience with a Ranger alt now at 75 and OP's experience is that I had a fair knowledge of the game (I knew about Anguish orbs and all that crap 8P ), looked for advice on forums, and worked out a plan designed to give me a good progression return on time spent. I have a plan to 80, another to 85, etc. But having reached a gear and content sweet spot (I knew that sweet spot existed before I navigated towards it) I linger because I'm still having fun and the AA's keep piling up.
Expecting anything in EQ with 10 minutes, since it's inception is a bad idea. Only during the height of LDoNs did that even seem possible, and not for all classes, unless your timing was good for most. If you want groups within 10minutes, schedule them with some friends. It's the only way it will work consistantly, let alone ever. Join a grouping guild (if your guild is all about end-game and raiding, it's probably not right for you, but I've known people to play in such guilds and not max out or raid, but they have lots of friends outside of the guild also, and aren't afraid to make their own groups). Make a plan of things to do, both solo and in groups, then be flexible enough to not do those, if someone else has something in mind. Just have things you'd like to do and possible suggestions for the group(s), as well as a plan if you don't get a group right away. Some solo things, you might as well not plan on playing with others, like burning up stacks and stacks of tradeskill supplies to skill up or restock your trader. Or at the very least, plan on not grouping right away, and doing it until you get a group, then taking the time to put the stuff back up. Some things like epics (at least 1.5s) are pretty much, must do. You don't have to, as you don't have to do hardly anything in EQ, but it's expected, and if you do it an appropriate level is a great resource. Access to J5 mercs, is another one. DoN progression, and MPG trials. These are all things people are willing to help you out with as well. You just have to ask (but not insist). All of these things benefit you with flags, abilities, AAs, resist caps, etc. You want groups, but thinking getting help doing a raid, is PLing? Helping others is the core the of the game, and why most people want to group, along with the social aspect. It's alot less boring in a talkative group, but just as borinng, imo, in a quiet group, as soloing, and often at lower levels, less efficient now-a-days. It used to be a necessity, except for a few classes. Well anyway, the point being, it's not PLing to get assistance for a raid, since a raid requires 6 people minumum, generally, you have to have help. Yther Ore.
In your routine, you should add * go to WoS and /ooc LFG for 15 mins * got to OGH and /ooc LFG for 15 mins ...and while you are there ... do your dailys and get some nice xp/aa's There are always people doing dailys ... always Those are the HZ's for lvl 70 and lvl 75 ... There should be several groups there. If its barren day in and day out -- i would seriously consider moving servers.
I spend a decent chunk of my EQ time farming mass ts stuff in HoT and VoA zones lately; lots of armor and XP go to waste. I won't often schedule a session, be very chatty, or let you kill anything... but if you can find me farming (On Povar) you can sponge off me until you round that corner....... Lvl 85 w/ 1k aa's and HoT T2 gear will make you a more viable group member for PU's I think
Heya =). I kind of know the feeling. I came back about a year ago was lvl 70 no with 350aa's and it took a while getting used to mercs and such. The guild I joined "Doom Wolf" was a huge help (on erollsi marr if your on that server give kuwiq a tell). Now I'm 95 about 3800 aa's and loving it. I love grouping with people and that is the best part of this game. I have always brought lowbies in group if they want and you make good friends that way. However sometimes I'm only on for a little bit or afk a lot in between chores and its not fair to invite someone if your gonna afk all the time, unless they don't mind. Moral of the story man hang in there =). As many a holes there are like 15 awesome people. Come to e-marr and we'll rock it. I'm on usually around 7am eastern for a bit and then midnight eastern for a little.
I could be wrong, but I thought the level requirement to group with a lvl 100 and get xp is lvl 70 with instances starting at 85? Maybe its different on some servers. My first suggestion is to focus all your xp into getting levels at least until lvl 91 (96 preferable). Forget about the AA completely. With the AA bonus put in several years ago, its much easier to grind out levels and then return to older trivial content to pile on the AA later. The more you try to gain AA while in the lower lonely levels, the longer you will struggle finding groups. Im positive a lvl 85 bst with 200AA will do more dps then a lvl 75 with 1k AA... and if not, he can fake it while in a group instead of LFG. Secondly, as a necro or bst, you should be able to get xp with just your merc. Head to older content like Loping Plains with your necro. If thats to hard, go to the farm in Dragonscale Hills and do the Farm area. Even without being a hotzone, DSH Farm usually has someone there every night between lvl 65 and 75. If all that fails or no one is around in SoF expansion... try House Lower. I have never gone into that zone during the evening play time hours and found it empty. Yes, at lvl 75, you will be a bit lower then what most groups like, but with multiple groups, you can send tells for a free spot and usually get in somewhere. If you fail to get a group in House lower, go to The Grounds and beg for a group. Tons of people PL or run their Zerker alts in there. Take whatever you can get and always have the daily hotzone tasks for all the zones you visit. I constantly pick up underleveled LFGs for 10-20 mins while Im doing my lesson burn on my 100 zerker.
Levels below 85 are hard to incorporate into groups because of so much content being instanced and there's a 15 level limit for instances. The majority of the active groups on Povar will have 2-3 level 100s in them. Although you CAN get experience in an open zone with a level 100, what do you have to bring to the table? Basically, you are asking for a charity group unless you can find one your level. Go to your hot zones. Do /who all 65 75 and find out where people your level are. And allot at least half hour to LFG. Suppose I saw you LFG in general and I had a toon that level that I wanted to play with. It would take me 10 mins to log her on and get her to you. That's in addition to putting away whatever else I was working on or extricating myself from my current group. Scheduling times in advance with your guildies might be a good idea.
