Trouble finding groups on Rizlona, thinking of canceling.

Returning player from the Luclin through LDON era. Because of COVID restrictions I thought I would give Aradune a try. Needless to say the early server issues pushed me off to Rizlona. I am a casual player and I rolled a necro as I wanted a class to solo with when time was limited. Needless to say I have made it to level 33, but have found the last few levels of solo grinding to be exceedingly tedious. I put up the LFG flag and state I am LFG in the general channel and it has been difficult finding groups, I think I have joined 3 groups now, none full.

When I played back in the Luclin era "boxing" was 1 other toon, now when I see armies of 12 plus toons I scratch my head. I am thinking of re-rolling on Aradune, but the idea is off putting given the time I spent getting to 33 solo on my necro. Any suggestions or is this what EQ is now, overloaded servers with performance issues or servers full of box armies?

Unfortunately I think what you're experiencing is going to be common on Rizlona. Fortunately, Aradune is in a much better state. As rough as it would be to reroll again, Aradune has a really strong grouping scene and the players have been 99% friendly from my experiences.

How is this possible? Thread after thread talks about how amazing the server is.

Jokes aside, the reality is that you are behind the curve. The one thing to always remember about a TLP server is to stay with the leveling waves. You essentially have 3 waves:

1) Wave 1, when the server first comes out/when a new expansion with level cap increase comes out. This is when most people are on and groups are most abundant.

2) Wave 2, when the people who rushed to 50 with their farming (usually) character go back and make their alt. Not as many in this group as in 1, but there is some overlap between the two, so it is still good sized.
3) Wave 3, when most of the remainder of wave one finishes up max level and starts making alts. Wave 1 is now almost non-existent. Wave 2 is pretty small at this point. Some groups out there, but things are getting pretty limited.

You, at this point in server life, are hitting the end of wave 3. There just aren't many opportunities out there. However, you aren't at a terrible point. Kunark is about to release. This means a level increase cap AND a new race, which means the leveling waves are starting over again. They will be smaller than at TLP launch, but they will be better than what you've seen.

You have 2 choices: Stick with your current character, understanding that it is going to get harder every day to find a group. Or 2, restart your character on Aradune and hit the ground running when Kunark launches. Just remember, though, that you have to stay on the wave if you want to keep up. You drop off that initial rush of leveling and you fall behind. Falling behind means far fewer groups.

My suggestion, if you have the time (and money) is to go with option two. Re-create your character, stock up on XP potions, and grind bigtime when the initial leveling wave comes out. Keep in mind you will likely be spending a lot of time in Field of Bone or the lake grouping up with Iksar. That may influence your character choice.

You're playing on the server that was, in the words of the devs, designed for bots. It's EQ: Single Player.

Groups get less common on all servers as they age, and they started as a non-thing on Riz.

You don't want to be on Riz unless you're boxing your own group, is the long and short of it.

Not everyone is bothered about krono.

Rizlona is doing fine, we don't want anyone there to buy/sell krono, just pay the damn subscription like a normal person and have some fun. That's what EQ is supposed to be about. If you're not having fun then it's time to do something else, pretty simple really.

This thread is so stupid, it's like someone saying they are going to cancel their subs because they are angry they got reported for 6 boxing on Aradune.

I originally played EQ when “boxing” literally meant 1 other toon on another machine. The vernacular “true box” didn’t exist back then. I saw the box armies initially but was having fun soloing and learning a new class I just rolled with it. I tried to get on Aradune initially but it was an insane hassle. I guess I was naive as to what EQ has become, I thought I would relive some of the fun I had back in the Luclin through LDON era , I guess that game is gone forever. Thanks for enlightening me as to the type who lurks around EQ servers these days.

76% exp happened on Aradune and Rizlona. Everyone during that week leveled up all the mains/boxes/alts they could want. Most people are already burnt out and you are 10 days away from a new expansion launching with a lvl cap increase and a new race that a lot of people love. Just go back to Aradune and play till the queue comes back in about 10 days.

Yeah, I might roll and iksar necro when kunark hits. Don't think I can grind through that original content again.

You don’t get groups in EQ, you make groups.

If you want to raid anything with keys in era you're not gonna be doing that on Aradune which has the biggest OW zerg guild in TLP history. Just something to think about unless you plan on joining the Zerg.

It all depends on how often you play.

If you are a casual player you're going to struggle badly on most TLP servers unless you are in a guild that has a lot of helpful & understanding players & even then you may find it difficult. Unguilded, well I would say your opportunities get exponentially worse.

While TLP do have a much greater prevalence of grouping going on in the early expansions you need to play often enough to keep up, fall behind & you get left behind & few players have the time or inclination to dedicate to periodically helping out left behind players who can't stay current once they caught up, if you are a seasonal or 1-2 days a week player then the TLP just won't suit you sorry.

If you can play regularly you will fare better but if your playtime isn't more than 1-2 days a week you won't keep pace very well at all, you would be better off on a live server where once you catch up expansions are only coming out once a year vs each 3 months like 12/8 schedule TLP which Aradune & Rizlona are.
Problem with live servers is the huge gap between starting out / returning & the current live population though there you have all the tools which can help you catch up like Mercs, aa boost, autogrant, Heroic Character Upgrades and once you reach 85 or use a Heroic Upgrade, Overseer.

Not super concerned about raiding, just wanted to experience content (guk, etc) that was sort of forgotten when I started in the Luclin era.

A 1 boxer hoping to group should never have rolled on riz over aradune . I think you should go back and get an active leveling guild for the best shot at groups.

Guild groups often take people over class or level.

I believe what you are saying about TLP not being casual friendly is true. I believe people were dinging 50 in less than a week, which seems insane to me, but whatever, to each their own. I took a long break from gaming, COVID kinda drew back in, but the community doesn’t seem the same as it was when quit playing EQ 1 and EQ2 10 years ago. Maybe I will check out a live server or EQ2 or find something else to do with my time.

If you only want to do Classic through Planes of Power and aren't concerned about raiding then Aradune would be your best option. If you want to see the game past PoP you'll find most of those looking for a truebox experience are also those that quit right around Planes. If you can find a guild of people on Rizlona that you enjoy and can group with you'll have a lot more freedom to actually do the things you want to do.

Either one you pick you'll find that the end of expansions are always slow for groups, especially for the early expansions where there aren't any AA's to grind once you do what you want to do.

Aren't they allowing transfers between Rizlona and Aradune? I thought that was added last patch?

Oh, just checked and that is Aradune to Riz only. That's a bummer.

*** Progression Servers ***

- Added the ability for characters on Aradune to /servertransfer to Rizlona for free. Note that the character needs to be of level 20 or above and your account and character must be at least 30 days old.

If you try a live server then Bristlebane or Xegony have a range of guilds including fairly casual ones, the population on those 2 is the highest regular ruleset for USA players, Firiona Vie has the highest population of all live servers but is a special ruleset server and worth reading up on what that is before contemplating that.
EQ 2 has TLE, similar to EQ's TLP but from what little I know of them their population attrition is way faster than EQ TLP servers.

a lot of players that have achived what they wanted in classic are taking a break until the next expansion opens ,including myself,always join a guild someone will help you lvl especially if you say all you want his exp and will pass on loot,loam was so cheap when i stopped playing last week.