I don't know what level and class you are. As a level 60 Monk I like to solo in velks. I start at the ent and slowly work my way up to UD then turn around and work my back to the ent. It's not fast or great xp. I manage about 10% in 2 hours. It's constant single pull killing. Always mobs up. If groups are there, rare, I kill around them and keep moving. Every now and then I'll get a gem drop or a random named. Collect all the TS drops. Made a good bit of plat doing that. Might be something try out when you can't find a group.
Phinny's still the most active & populated server in EQ at the moment, it easily doubles Quarm's concurrent players at each given time (by comparing chat channel #'s). Personally I thought Quarm was going to attract more players than this. For a new server with rewards hype, it isn't exactly raising any eyebrows. So keep that in mind when complaining about population on Phinny, because this really is the best EQ has to offer for those wanting to group & experience an active non-box army playerbase. I wouldn't mind seeing an across the board exp bump for Phinny, it'll only help the server. But I honestly don't think Quarm is the reason why activities are lowered. I can tell you summer time is a big deal for most, people go out more, and stay indoors less. There was a time pre-summer I would burn 8+ hours on weekends gaming. These days I'm usually at the beach or out doing something during the day. Also the impending WoW Legion launch (with pre-expansion patch coming this week), it's bound to cause a dent. A lot of people, like me, play EQ during the "in between" times as we wait for certain MMO's to come out or certain expansion/patch/living world content to get released. So as other games get ready to launch their brand new expansions & content, such as WoW's Legion, GW2's Living World 3, BDO's siege content, ESO's new DLC, etc.. you'll see more players come & go. It's inevitable. But with all that said, I honestly wouldn't mind an exp bump on Phinny.
You make fair points. With the age of the playerbase of EQ though, I don't think people are spending less time in EQ because they're not in school. It's more like they're doing summer things with their kids who would normally be in school, or going on vacation, or just electing to spend the weekends and evenings enjoying the weather outside rather than sit in front of a computer screen. I've played three xp sessions, each less than three hours, on Quarm, and have gone from 51-59 in that time. My anecdotal experience from these group sessions was that I ran into four regular players from Phinigel, and another three that had tried Phinigel but never made it past 30 because they hated the xp. Out of about 20 group members, factoring in losses and replacements, 20% were trying Quarm instead of Phinigel, and another 15% gave up on Phinigel without spending serious time there. A couple were from ragefire, but most of the Quarm players were from live servers. Quarm is okay, but the Legion expansion has me interested in WoW again for the first time since 2012. (Played two months of Panda and skipped Warlords expansion completely) Also, SWTOR is almost at the last chapter release of their last expansion, which makes me want to resub for a month just to finish playing through the whole storyline since it was actually good. I guess the moral of my story is that Phinigel doesn't provide much of a reward for the time spent there, and it's solely because the devs decided to penalize the xp in favor of forcing you to buy xp pots. It definitely has the best ruleset, which is the reason I started playing on Phinigel. Quarm has essentially the same ruleset, and it is letting me do two expansions I missed while they were in era, since I quit a month into GoD back in 2004.
I don't find the solo exp that bad, got my little SK from 19 to 24 in under 4 hours on Saturday ... though it does help having a 60 Druid and 60 Enchanter following her around!
I love how crappy solo exp is, because EQ has always been a game about playing with others. That said, to get over "we want the perfect class" nonsense and to help break people's "I'm too shy/lazy to form a group", I'd love to see a huge exp bonus per-person in group.
No less true, it's an MMO for a reason. Soloing should only ever be a way of supplimenting experience not really 'life style' choice to play the game. The exp is fine in that regard. On my recient reroll I get about 1.5% exp killing yellows in middle no where NK, that seems more than reasonable.
I don't think anyone reading a thread on solo exp is going to find your power leveling experience relevant.
It's an MMO. How everyone plays affects everyone else. If solo'ing is an easy and viable option, then group play across the board suffers. Obviously the developers agree with making Phinny a grouping-style server, I just think they could do more to reward it. That would simultaneously help the "exp is so slow" people, make groups even easier to find, and in turn help *some* of those that look to solo's life easier. Some people want to solo because they don't have time to make groups or have trouble finding groups due to their class, so by encouraging grouping even more, those people at least would be helped. People who want to solo just because they're antisocial should probably seek another server besides Phinny. All the live servers and other TLPs support it much better. It's nice to have at least one server were grouping is encouraged so much.
5 levels in under 4 hours using 2 level 60s at level 19 to 24? And you think that is good? No wonder people are flocking to make alts
Huh, Salty much? Maybe you just need a new game, every post on these forums you post on just seems to crank out the the QQ or hostility when people seem to play the game just fine.
I would not call that power leveling!..sorry i was not very clear, I was being sarcastic ... on a live server in the same time i can get a character from 1 to 50+ ....
As of this era, there's really not all that much that can be done solo at 60. You can tradeskill, and go for your shawl and at least the 8th ring (not sure if anyone can realistically solo 9th). You can camp the rare spawn for Eyepatch of Plunder. You can work on your VP key. You can camp the low drop rate clicky buff items. You can do the solo stuff for your epic, if you haven't done it by then. That's about it. There's more raid content than you can handle, thanks to instances, but the game is pretty low on solo content. There's big name hunting for enchanter, shaman, and necro, but that's just for plat typically. Why on earth would you expect exping to 60 to be a viable solo endeavor when almost nothing else is? Btw, duoing is pretty ok exp from 1 to 60 with the right class combinations, and it's not hard to find at least one person in your level range ready to give it a shot. Easier soloing would mean no more grouping for exp, which would leave group dependent classes out to dry. No thanks!
Have to agree that raising the solo experience rate is just not in the best interest of the game. I think raising the experience modifier overall would be a boon for Phinny--even if only a slight increase. But if you incentivize soloing on a TLP server, you're going to really destroy the fabric of the gameplay. This is a grouping game more than probably any other MMO. What I'd LOVE to see if a rested experience modifier, but I realize they will probably never do that.
This is rather illuminating and pretty much what I thought it would be based on my experiences (no pun intended ) since I started playing a week or two ago. In other words its very slow and a bit prohibitive. To the people saying that the current xp situation promotes grouping I think you're off base. Its the true-box rules that have helped grouping more than any other single thing. Group dependent classes have never had problems finding groups in content that takes a group or a raid. With the relaxing of true-box rule enforcement, and the bot armies that inevitably means, prevalent 6-boxing is on the very near horizon and im far more concerned about that rather than worrying about letting people have an easier time playing catch up or leveling alts. Ive already seen a couple 6 boxers running around in the mid teens, and with the slow xp rates, it just means they have to sit around taking xp camps longer. Pretty much a lose lose situation. As for xping it shouldnt require a group to gain reasonable headway because its just a means to an end not the end in itself. In my view soloing should provide just as much experience as a group so that people can catch up to the group/raid levels and participate. In fact solo xp should be the baseline and everything else follows from it imo. Grouping should potentially provide equal experience for equal effort as a soloist (as long as relative efficiency is maintained) but primarily aim to provide access to raid entry level gear and interim questing objectives. Raiding should also allow experience (with a corresponding relative efficiency fall off) but mainly aim to provide access to the best gear and hardest quest battles.
Correct, I have noticed the same. However, I too don't Quarm has anything to do with it, just summertime holidays starting with lots of people either out and about more or on vacation.
That and people just quit because the old expansion drama has cause people flee and wait for later expansion unlocks or they just quit because velious is going to long and we're getting impatient for new class / race combo unlocks, thats the case for me. That and most quests finally get un-pucked with certain expansions, which is kinda ridiculous they don't work in the first place, like qeynos badge of honor doesn't work at all, and you should be able to complete the whole with the exception of the jagged pine bonus quest.
Yep, missed the sarcasm. To each his own, but when you put 60 buffs on a twink, including regen and spikes and you can get a lot of levels pretty fast. Apparently you aren't doing that or you should have had more levels in that time frame.
I agree - I noticed the drop in people playing starting well before Quarm came out. It seems to have been since around mid June.
It has been said by many long termers, and makes good sense, that out of three people that "take a break" only one will return in any timely fashion (weeks not years if ever). Among those that actually firmly quit due to dissatisfaction, one assumes the reason matters, that number returning is going to drop precipitously, I would be shocked if its more than one in five returning ever. Nothing new there, it is an old axiom and proven out well. Just a reminder nothing lasts forever but things can certainly be made worse. Shortsightedness and stubbornness being the prime mover in many cases. Each and every person that claims EQ does not need to retain the most players possible is pretty far out on a limb or have they never seen Vulak? Or Vanguard? Or any number of examples where attitudes became rather strange. Meh it gets less important every day.
Took me 11 years to return to EQ after I quit in 2004. Didn't ragequit because I hated the game or anything, but rather because I was making a big push to load up on credits to finish my degree. Just never got around to returning because I started playing WoW instead.
well for one you cannot put level 60 buffs on a twink, two i was not really in any rush as I like to max skills of alts I level up. If i really wanted to level fast I would use my 60 ranger, wear a shield and a Tunare idol (so no riposte) and pull a ton of mobs and have my alt just plink one or two points of damage on each of then as they kill themselves on my level 60's Damage shields.
