Why yes, I'd like to do as a group. Oh wait, empty Maybe TDS will be better Empty Maybe TBM will be better Empty Maybe 95 will be better Empty Maybe 100 will be better Empty Maybe 105 will be better Empty "Oh your problem is you want to solo or group" Hmmm lets see the options Next post "oh you have to try hard to groups, its possible, just try hard" It's like a loop with you guys. You are not seeing the issue, instead you ask question, so I answer, then you throw your prepared answer into it. You are not seeing the issue, instead your asking questions so you can feel happy throwing your prepared answers. Reread what I said. Thats from a returner TODAY, not some TDS returner who only had to deal with a few years of 100% end game only zone expansions. TDS is several expansions ago. Irrelevant Sir, that is relevant, you just want to ignore it because it makes your point look bad. 60 is not the mid game TODAY sir. Neither is 85. People trying to bait me into answering questions with your prepared answer too, rather than looking and addressing the issue. Look at the issue, quit going in circles and making up fluff. If you asked the developers if they made ToL coming out soon, a future catchup expansion, they'd be like "nope, this is for CoV end game content, people who played CoV for a year, not for someone returning 7 years later going through it alone with a merc" They'd say the same for VoA, yes its relevant. Difference between VoA and DoN VoA designed for people who spent a year doing HoT (people gonna say "oh you dont have 100% HoT gear, thats why its tough" "oh you don't have VoA gear even though you just started 90s and VoA, thats why its tough") DoN NOT designed for people who spent a whole year doing Oow, you could be doing Kunark and its still relevant to you. (you just have kunark gear 8 expansions behind, no worries you can still do DoN) So again, 2 things, many things actually because a whole decade of not addressing the issue New expansions provide no zones for mid/early game players, not even 1%, not even just a zone or two. 50+ zones, not even 1 for mid/early gamers when they expansion was the latest at its time. New expansions make catchup even more difficult since past decade Let me repeat this, New expansions make catchup even more difficult since past decade.
Your issue is you want what you can't have.. be a low level character grouping with high level ones. Also, you are antagonistic, which would make people NOT want to group with you. I group with friends, they are nice people, if I saw someone acting rabid like you are in gen chat, you would not ever get a group with me, and also be put on /ignore as I made that decision. You have never said what your level is Now as to your level concerns. You say Oh I can't to TBL solo because it needs top ROS gear. Lemme tell you, TBL BIT for everyone.. TOP ROS gear wasn't all you needed, you needed a group of dedicated people willing to slog through the Smoke trials. So do HOT, -> ROS, It's not a bad solo thing, I did it as an alt bard in a little over a year, including the Thuli Island progression minus like 3 tasks I had to find one extra person to come help me with. There are zones and paths available to you. And they are Free to you. Now, if you want to be a level 80/85 character in end zone content.. that's only gonna happen as a PL.. and that's a whole different story. Also, just because you don't like all of our answers, doesn't make us all wrong, You might want to step away take a deep breath and try considering the information presented to you as people genuinely trying to help you.
What is "mid" game then? Because middle/mean means...middle...so......(max level) / 2 = middle which would be 60 Have you tried starting a group? Because i've seen multiple 90-115 LFG's in general chat. In fact, I'm on my 93 SK grouped with a 95 Warrior. He wanted to try out a RoF zone...bit too hard for him so he wanted to regroup to HoT Grounds....there were already 8 people in there at the camp he wanted, so I suggested Valley of Lunayan in VoA...and here we are killing away. Every time i'm in Lcea or Frontier Mountains (100-105 zones), there's always 5+ people. Howling Stones usually has a group or two as well (I'm sure 1 is a PL/Bot group) ToV and CoV are full of people Dead Hills (heroic adventure zone) usually has people idling by their quest givers This just in...advertised for LFM in Valley of Lunayan, picked up a 91 Rogue. Look, groups happen when you attempt to make them We've read it all a hundred times. We get it, you don't. I've responded multiple times with multiple leveling paths as a returning player (like 3 months ago), from someone who's coming back from the VoA/RoF era. I'm not having any troubles, nor am i demanding that the game caters to me and allows me to skip 27 expansions worth of zones/experience and automatically bump me up to level 115 for simply logging in. I've gotten a Beastlord, Bard, Paladin combo to 115. I have a Ranger at 111, a monk at 108, and i'm currently working on an SK / Mage / Rogue combo that's in the mid 90s. How about you tell us where your problem is. What level are you at, what's your group composition, what zones have you tried and failed at? You need to make up your mind. Do you want to talk about mid game during older era content like SoF like you mentioned, or in todays game? And a level 85 is able to group with a max level 115. Technically, an 85 can experience end game content with a group. So how is that not "mid game" when they're able to experience end game???? And quick news flash, everything prior to max level is considered catch up. Catch up does not mean "make current content easier". It means catching up to max level/end game content by any means. The game is 22 years old. You have 20 years worth of content to go through and level through and catch up to the others. EverQuest has never been about "reaching max level quickly". Experience (both levels and learning curves) have always been slower and made this game harder. I think you got used to other games in your hiatus and are expecting that kind of leveling/catch up play. You will not find that here short of getting Power Leveled.
Double post, but this just came to mind: Don’t worry about the next expansion or the latest expansion or “end game” until you get there/run out of zones that offer progression/experience to level. I pre-ordered ToV like 3 years ago when I first thought about coming back, completely forgot about it and never did play/log in until recently. I have toons at 115, and very well could get CoV and order ToL. But I’m not going to, why? Because I have no use yet. I still have RoS/TBL/ToV that gives me experience, and I have barely done anything in any of those 3 expansions. And guess what, I could get to level 120 without ever stepping foot into Luclin. I’ll probably get ToL 4-5 months into the expansion. You do not need to worry about the latest expansions or “catch up zones” until you hit the max level wall. And fun fact, once you’re max level, the AA grind is usually done in prior expansions zones since mobs and AA experience comes easier/faster. Just stay in your lane (I’m going to assume around level 105) until you need to change. Don’t worry about TBL. Hit 110, get your easily acquired Snowbound gear (ToV t1), and start off with Mercenary quests in ToV (plenty of people still willing to group to complete these). That way you can go from EoK gear/zones like, skip 2 expansions worth, and jump straight into ToV and be able to group with people at the end.
Yes ToL is high end content advancing from level 115 to level 120, and no it does not have any runt content. Pick your level - under 60, is original zones + ruins of Kunark, and Scars of Velious and the first luclin, plus Serpents Spine. Zones for 61 to 75, are in a number of expansions, and on up the ladder to new levels in new zones. I have characters at 115 max level as do lots of others, most of us want zones that allow us to advance, levels and gear. Pick your level and choose a place to experience. The level 85 HC will no longer be able to leech XP with people who ding 116. There has been comment about a new 105 or so new upgrade character that can get XP with high level characters to level 136 or so- some 8 years in the future.
EQ needs a squire system. You bring your gimpy low level into a max level group and get boosted enough to not be a one shot liability while still being able to contribute a little.
Instead of Shrouding, Squiring - boost your level, but keep your current skills/spells. Damage may not be great, but you've got increased stats/levels so that way you're not constantly being resisted/missing on melee swings and doing more than 1-2 damage. I could get behind this. Perhaps have it on a 24 hour lockout though, otherwise there really wouldn't be any point in me leveling my own toons up when i can experience the entire game from a Squires point of view ya know?
I think this entire thread needs to step back and remember this is was designed as a community based game, and soloing/boxing is something the player base generally invented... Can someone concisely explain to me how/why these early/mid-tier zones or scaling features would help newbie/lowbies more than just joining a casual guild that would be more than happy to help them get caught up? I'd think adding more mid-tier zones would actually be worse because then it further dilutes the progression path making zones more sparsely populated. That's the entire point of the Hero's Journey line of quests and making the F2P newbies start in Crescent Reach. What I think would be helpful might be expanding Hero's Journey & Defiant Gear further so it stretches through 105 (ideally 110, but I get it if that's to generous) and so people can gear up more easily. That might also get people with alts to stay in the "catchup" zones a little longer for gear instead of just PL'ing up.
Among the many complaint posts the OP has made, he doesn't actually want to play thru older expacs, he wants end game handed to him. He wants one zone to go from start to finish. I'm with others in this thread, you'd be blocked by me. Learn to play the game, enjoy the journey and quit complaining you aren't end game in 5 minutes.
That's exactly what would happen, and I've explained that to him before. Creating a new zones for level ranges 90-105 wouldn't suddenly make everybody in that level range show up in those zones. Hell I've gone from 80-100 strictly through HAs before (ugh bored to death), as an example. Well, I'm not opposed to stretching the gear out over a few more level tiers...but that's not so much of the problem. There's multiple ways to get gear. Hero's Journey is just the easiest/most straight forward. HA's offer currency to buy gear. Some xpacs have zones/trash mobs that drop gear Bazaar holds gear that can be bought (or lucky enough to find someone to just hand-me-down) Quests/achievements reward gear/items Good ol' namer farming This goes hand in hand with taking different leveling paths though, IMHO. HoT had trash mobs dropping Terror Infused armor such as: https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=90308 Nothing comes free. It's just about how you want to go about acquiring said items honestly
My main is my identity. Such is true for many, many people. Adding mid level zones wont help you much because the majority of people are not going to reroll alts. Those who do plow to the end game or heroic. The place to find people in the mid game is on progression servers. You are complaining about a missing solution that wont solve the problem you are complaining about.
You are missing the point. Did you think when TSS happened everyone was saying "adding another starter zone wont solve anything, adding more mid game zones wont solve anything" These are zones starter/midgame DESIGNED for catchup. VoA, sure its 90-95 NOT DESIGNED FOR CATCHUP 6 expansions later. Its not a CATCHUP zone when everyone is at 115 It was designed for everyone being in 90-95, zone is PACKED, not empty, players to play with, not MOLO Just like TSS, CATCHUP zones will be where everyone should go, and if they want to experience the VoA, CotF, etc. they can GO OFF the path and experience it. People catching up to ToL, they don't give a bleep about VoA, CotF empty zones. They don't give a BLEEP, they trying to catchup to the playerbase. So. Your points lets go over them. Progression server, it loses its population by a lot by time its MID GAME, aka by time it gets to VoA. People wanting to experience MID GAME, like CotF, they don't want to wait a several months to a year just to finally be on CotF expansion, NEITHER do they want to join that progression server when its on CotF. They'd rather go play LIVE for new content. What happens on progression is that people play kunark/velious and before that expansions. Then get bored and leave. (its not the same as they remembered, stuff isn't the same as back then, even in progression servers) Now, Adding mid level zones wont help you much because the majority of people are not going to reroll alts THIS ISN'T FOR current players to reroll alts This is for RETURNERS and NEWPLAYERS to CATCHUP VoA zones was not DESIGNED for catchup CotF zones was not DESIGNED for catchup You need an expansion like TSS, just like when back then the issue was "too many starter zones, having another helps how???" Yes that was an issue back then. Well did it help? Exactly. Do I really need to explain yet again? You need to look at this from a returner/newplayer point of view and not NOT "it wont get people to reroll alts" point of view If mr. not relevant comes back again, yes, it is relevant. Same issues in past is coming back now. The fix to past was TSS was it successful? Yes Ratonga and Fae from EQ2 are a thing in EQ2, maybe if they need an excuse, time for a new race, and with that make the catchup zones.
Just another post by you, which is full of lies and misinformation. VoA is an excellent expansion for returning players to level up from 90 to 95. The fact that your incompetence prevents you from winning the level-appropriate content is not good enough reason to nerf the game even farther. Learn how to play EQ, not how to troll the forums. You are definitely on the mission to set a record in dumping into EQ sandbox.
Its the only path. Not DESIGNED for catchup. Catchup content is when a max level is 120, and they make zones for 90-115. When they make zones for several levels behind. TSS max lvl 75, zones for 1-75. Lots of CATCHUP ZONES 2011 VoA max lvl 95, zones 90-95. ZERO CATCHUP ZONES 100% end game zones at its time, 0% catchup zones 2012 RoF 100% end game zones at its time, 0% catchup zones 2013 CotF 100% end game zones at its time, 0% catchup zones 2014 TDS 100% end game zones at its time, 0% catchup zones .... 2020 CoV 100% end game zones at its time, 0% catchup zones 2021 ToL 100% end game zones at its time, 0% catchup zones a whole decade (10 YEARS) of 100% end gamers only zones, 0% casuals/catchup zones You have NO rights to complain as an end gamer, every expansion for a decade has been catered to you, 100% of the resources going to you.
a heroic 85 in 900 hitpoint gear is so 12 years ago though. EQ makes a catch up mechaninic of VoA gear having 500 HP more, but you have to be 100 to kill the nameds and noone on live is doing the content anymore, so few pieces in bazaar for extraordinarily high prices from the viewpoint of a returning player with a whopping 15k. Easier to replay for higher level players is NOT a catch up mechanic. One thing never talked about in this thread is, they nerf XP on old expansions to "push players into the new expansion" but by doing this are... delaying players attaining. <derp> Even after 20 years, they're adding more and more delays to ancient content, like derailing bardic mail quests, bone chip quests, etc etc etc. Why? XP pot sales. are a higher priority to them than players attaining and maybe buying the next expansion in under a year.
When they made VoA early/mid game was empty. When they made RoF, early/mid game was empty. CoV early/mid game empty. They are avoiding the issue rather than looking to solve it. Solving it is making catchup zones 1-120. Traditionally EQ has been zones with wide level margins, 15-40. Since VoA, has there been any traditional zones? with 25 level margins? When was the best EQ timeperiod? Anytime since last decade? NOPE not during VoA, not during EoK, not during CoV. Kunark? Velious? Whats special about them? Large level margins. TRADITIONAL EQ expansion zones City of Mist, epic zone 35-50 LARGE LEVEL MARGINS CATCHUP ZONE Kunark max lvl was 60, this is a 35-50 zone several levels behind. NOT TRADITIONAL (HoT - ToL) Any zone in VoA 90-95 tiny level margin, early zones in that expansion was made for people coming from spending a whole year in HoT. NOT DESIGNED for catchup. VoA is 90-95 expansion, 100% of the zones 90-95, ZERO zones for anything 1-90, not even 85-90 ZERO, NONE. NO CATCHUP ZONES. TBM ZERO NONE catchup zones for like 100-105, NO ZONES for anyone below 105. CoV???? ZERO NONE catchup zones for like 105-110. A whole DECADE, ZERO NONE, CATCHUP ZONES. 100% END GAME ONLY 0% zones for (10 YEARS) catchup/returning players 0% zones to these players End gamers have NO EXCUSES they can make because 100% of the resources are going to them.
Your assesment of gear availability is wrong. Here is my post a few days ago about this specific subject: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...y-level-path-with-quests.278025/#post-4070225 Tradeskilled Extravagant gear is lvl 86+ and has just a few hundred pp cost to make, since tradeskill components can be quested from Overseer. Rustic gear is from common items dropping from HoT Tier 1 nameds, which can definitely be killed by lvl 85 toons. Both have 1400+ HME, 50% higher than Heroic. On-par with VoA dropped gear. And lvl 90 toons can and have killed VoA Tier 1 nameds while wearing 1400 HME gear.
Then you do something like TBM Come to forums to let people know its difficult. "hey these mobs are taking out 70% of my hp in a single round, if healer doesn't get me to 100% every single time they heal, I will die, which happens every now and then and annoying to recover again and again from complete wipes" "hows your AAs" autogranted "Hows your gear", well its not the best but... "thats your issue its gear" get good get geared and then try again. "well I'm just a casual doing casual..." GET GEAR AND GET GOOD, no excuses. You 92? You should be fully RoF geared. NO EXCUSES "But RoF is 95-100 and VoA is 90- ..." NO EXCUSES Still getting whooped GET GOOD, NO EXCUSES
Just a simple question: how many Irae Faycite Shards do you currently have at your lvl 90 ? Just to make things simple to evaluate, each Irae Faycite Shard adds about 7% to your spells effectiveness (one Irae per spell in use though) By the time you leveled up from 85 to 90 in HoT you should have Kindly faction with Dream Delvers, have all gear slots at 1400 HME and have all Faycite shards for all your spells/songs/disciplines up to lvl 90. And all those at Rk2 level preferably. All that is available in HoT expansion, no need to get even to Tier 3 and 4, 1 and 2 will do. That would make your character far more powerful and very ready for VoA Tier 1, which would be trivial at that point.
