Aradune dead for leveling now.

This is all wrong. The 2 character limit was a joke that nobody bought in to. Every player I've encountered on Mischief long enough to get to know, says Aradune was the worst TLP to date. There will be no future enforcement. You'd now just want to hope to keep the rather large population that Aradune had, and you don't do that by further enforcing a rule that people disregarded from the start.

and you need other players to level up if you don't box. That solo/duo recommendation is absurd. If you prefer to spend literally 10-20x the time to accomplish what a guild could help you with in 6 hours, that's your choice, but it's not a wise one.

I didn't count how many people said to join a guild, but it was a lot. I'm going to say the same thing. Join a guild. Look for a family/casual guild, people there will be slower at leveling than a raiding guild. Remember the equation to calculate how high a level character you can group with and get xp, (Your_Level x 1.5) + 1.

The 2 character limit is real. It's something that Aradune has that no other server does. Even poorly enforced, it's a feature that makes Aradune uniquely attractive to a lot of players. Without it, Aradune doesn't need to exist, and we can all just go to Rizlona.

Also, you can definitely solo to level up. It was possible 20 years ago, and it's even easier now with increased xp rates and twinking.

As for why you would solo instead of getting power leveled 20x faster... well, some people actually enjoy playing the game. If you want to skip all the adventure maybe you should just turn the game off.

No, there are magnitudes of difference between Aradune and Rizlona. It's best to just consider Aradune a True Box server and then make comparisons. Rizlona is not True Box.

Of course you can. But the thread started as a level 30 something looking for groups on a server that's already in PoP. His best bet is to understand that not only does he have to level to max, he has to get AAs, get gear, get flagged. You can't do all of those things solo, or its foolish to do so unless some kind of solo leveling is your motivation.

I'm not the one having problems here. I think I've got it kinda figured out. Was only sharing my experience in response to OP.

Why does one have to do all these things?

And people offered the advice of joining a guild to make friends, and it was instantly shot down. Add OP to the long list of people who come here with the intent of causing drama and whining.

You're assuming that every player on a TLP is playing to raid; this FALSE assumption gets re-stated at every TLP launch. There are casual players on Aradune who only do group content, and there are casual-friendly guilds on Aradune who do not expect the majority of their guild member to raid. The same has been true on other TLPs as well. There is a point on all of these servers where you have to either (a) join a guild or (b) do some in-game social networking and make a friends list if you expect to play a lot in groups. There is a whole lot to do in the game between group sessions, if you want to actually play the game as designed, at least.

If the OP does in fact want to raid, there are several choices for raid guilds on that server, any of which will be glad to help him with catch-up tasks. If he can't find a fit in any of those guilds, then something else is wrong.

And BTW, Aradune does still have a 2-box limit; it's part of the ruleset, and violators can be (and on occasion are still) reported and may get suspended.

Don't know why people wouldn't want to join a guild in EQ with winning personalities like yourself in them. Really difficult to figure out...

If you refuse to take the only currently available pathways to your destination, the advice that has been given by other players, and you just want to sit in the road crying that you were left behind who should bother to listen to that?

Personally I have always found waiting in LFG isn't the fastest way to find a group, unless you are a needed class everyone wants such as enchanter, cleric, etc.

Just over the weekend I got tired of waiting and formed my own group. It was to the point where I didn't care what the group makeup was, I just threw out tells asking if they wanted to come. In about 4 minutes we had a full oddball group of Me (Druid), 2 clerics, a wizard, a mage, and a ranger. We were all in our teens and moved to Unrest.

We had to settle for unconventional play, I was healing, the 2 clerics and casters nuking, and the ranger pulling/tanking. It ended up working out because things were dyeing so fast.

Only remarking on this because sometimes forming your own group might yield better results, instead of waiting on others to decide they require your services, because that may "never" happen.

At this point nobody should be surprised that old TLPs become empty when new ones are released outside of people who raid log.

It's one of the biggest reasons I can never get fully on board with TLPs, wen they are just going to die and be reborn again each year.

This would be a completely valid opinion, if it were even remotely true.

On track record TLP do steadily lose players, I won't deny that, but its not like the populations fall off a damn cliff when the next TLP opens up so the server dies right there & then.
This is nothing more than an urban myth perpetuated by people who rely on hearsay & regurgitated codswallop for their narrative.

What the OP is complaining about is something that has happened on every single sever Live or TLP since the game began, it's because the game is level-based, nothing else.

Until EQ has a way for low level players to join a high level player group & be boosted up to being useful to that group, such as with sidekicking used by City of Heroes/Villains for example, this problem is not going to go away.

Eh we agree with each other we just worded it differently. Should have said empty for everything from 1 to closer to max level, instead of 'raid loggers' but basically meant the same thing.

I wouldn't say it's dead. Multiple friends are leveling alts and not finding issues finding PUGs at the lower levels. For those 60+ I'm finding nearly all the planes with multiple people and many with multiple picks.

Yes, the population isn't as high as it was start of POP, but that's expected seeing how most are probably done with all their exp, quests, etc. This was the case literally every expansion I've seen since classic and it was probably even worse classic-velious because there's literally nothing to do after you hit max level in those expansions.

But that isn't unconventional play, that is an amazing group to have. Especially against undead and in an outdoor zone. I'm so glad to see so many clerics and druids DPSing, when mobs are only alive for a few seconds, no one needs to heal anyway. And all 6 people in that group can Root in the off chance you did need to CC (but really shouldn't be necessary). When I play Ranger and we have no ENC/BRD, I tend to pull with either Root or Snare so at least one of the mobs will get to the camp later, around the time everything else is dead.

I'd be extremely happy to be in a group with this composition.

Ah but Aradune was supposed to be the golden savior that cut people down to boxing only two toons. Since "EVERYONE" hated boxing and wanted people to only play one toon, or two max, it should still be packed. Either that or only a few people crying on the forums wanted that and the rest just wanted a new TLP, so they moved on.

Mischief is the most fun I’ve ever had on a tlp. Tons of grouping there and Kunark in 9 days. I’d suggest giving it a chance.

It's unconventional, not ineffective. When people talk about a conventional xp group they mean 1 "real" tank, a cleric, an enchanter and 3 dps. That group has no tank, no enchanter and too many healers, but as he found, works quite well anyway. Also mages don't get root unless you mean the earth pet proc but in that group earth pet would probably be the least effective choice.

It's funny how the Earth Pet was great when pets couldn't hold aggro over players, but after that was changed they are kind of annoying.

It's not unconventional at all. You don't need a "real" tank (which Ranger in fact is at that point in the game) for a very large amount of the content in the game. You also don't need an Enchanter, it's just the safest way to play while also providing 2 of the most effective buffs in the game and being one of the top DPS via charm. Healers can DPS just fine and when mobs are dying so fast, nukes are higher DPS than pets/melee/anything else.