I'd rather them just boost XP for the people that want the grind than nerf something. Nobody likes nerfs. What I believe, and have stated, is there should be pros and cons to each choice/route you make in terms of acquiring experience. Right now the balance tilts a little too heavily in favor of just doing quests. Doing progression nets you: Raw experience, AA experience, items such as mounts tied directly to the quest lines, mission chests containing spells/items/ores, Hero's AAs, achievements like challenger which provides other perks (don't they give AA exp as well?), and the list goes on and now. You supplement the above with Overseer and get more exp or other benefits such as older collects for those who didn't bother wanting to grind those out, like myself, for additional exp and a trophy. Grinding nets you: raw exp, some TS items, possibly some items/spells/ores if you're killing PHs, possibly some collects, and am I missing anything? Pretty much everything you get from grinding you can get from quests, to some extent or better. So what are the pros to grind over quests? Getting a few more collects/TS items? Big whoop. What are the cons? Vast. What are the pros of questing over grind? Vast. What are the cons? Missing out on some collects/TS items.
The ability to level while grinding allows the casual player to make progress. The casual player who doesn't log in regularly won't be able to form a group of friends to reliably group with. They may have a few days here and there to play. They may find a group one session, but then days or weeks later when that person logs in again, those people from the group have all leveled way up. So things like leveling through progression and questing may work great for those who have a dedicated play schedule and a large friend group, but it's not necessarily viable for the casual solo player. Certainly EQ is a game built around grouping, but grinding allows the casual player to make meaningful progress and see the world. Perhaps not the whole world, but they can move their way through it. I'm a returning player far from top level. I'm having to progress pretty much all on my own. I'm mostly in empty zones and rarely see anyone around my level. When I lookup progression quests to do, they often either need multiple players or will be too difficult to do on my own. But grinding has been a fun and viable way to level up all by myself. Back in the olden days I would casually group by doing things like finding a camp or hanging around the LDoN mission site. But now that's not really an option (at the lower levels, anyway). And my play time is limited and sporadic, so it's not really viable to find people to group with long-term.
TLDR: Quest based progression games are designed to be experienced solo, whereas EQ is group based and inherently relies up on population with little structure to facilitate grouping. This is a good question, and has been elaborated on previously but I'll discuss my point of view. Pro -Questing works well for those with established groups or players that box. -Gives a defined path for players to center their activity Con - Limited population - Lack of a developed grouping tool - Boxing is too prevalent, which is bad for a social based MMO - Lockout timers on attempting quests and missions, limits the number of times social players can be helpful - Tasks are individual based, which makes it tedious. Not a strictly EQ problem, but a problem with Theme Park style games - Quests aren't designed to be repeated. Grinding has its drawbacks as well. It can be monotonous, and boring. However, it's a basic activity that can be performed by an individual player.
The way I see it grinding is an "active" playstyle, so is grouping up to do tasks within the defined progression structure. Grinding should be rewarding, not as rewarding as doing group based tasks because organising a group of players for a specific set of tasks is inherently more difficult unless you just so happen to have a regular clique to play with. Overseer is not an "active" playstyle it does not require you to interact with the in-game world, its npcs or its economy, I do not advocate for any nerfs, all I would like to see is that grinding has its place and that it stays viable - the main reason is that what happens when you cannot get a group? What happens when you are not in level-range for groups? What happens when your server is lower populated, do you just abandon it for a more populated one where you may end up still having the same problems anyway or stick around to not exacerbate the low population it already has? As expansions transition from being the current content to past content the XP required per level should be lowered to make catching up with the players in the current era a much quicker process, artifically slowing down the progression of players through levels when the game is creating much smaller expansions feels like getting a much smaller chocolate bar and being told to eat it much more slowly to make it last, by the players who are able to eat their chocolate bar just as fast as they always have because they DO have a clique. Nobody has asked for grinding to be faster than it has even been before, they just want it to return to some semblance of what it was before ToV, and they don't want to harm anybody else's experience options to do that. I'd like for EQ to explore more ways of rewarding experience than just killing, questing and collecting too, there's room to grow if the developers take off the blinkers.
Great post - goes back to what I was saying about playing when you can, and catching up with a binge session.
I'm not sure what this is a reply for my post. I stated the pros of questing are starting to tilt heavily in favor of that. Pure grinding could use additional benefits to help even the scales, but grinding isn't totally impossible to do. 40 hours from 115-120 seems the agreed time range. I said that's probably a bit too long, but a person with just an hour of play time a day average will be max level by end of January. You then have 10+ to finish everything else. The main problem with these threads is people run their mouths and cry like entitled babies but offer zero constructive comments. You'll find nerf overseer 100 times before a single solution is offered
16 mobs .. respawns in 7 minutes .. 0.064% per kill 1% per 7 min .. in current zones. Downing every mob in that 16 mob camp. Faster , if you are not boxing them like I do. With a full grp of mains, you could literally double this xp in the 7 minutes . Perhaps the "bad" is not on the server end .. Perhaps its user error ?
Or maybe it's just 0.064% is a very small number. Also, you’re hyper focus on bad players blinds you to the that fact that good players are rewarded 1% for playing the game well. Shift your focus from whiners are bad to playing well isn’t rewarded properly.
I've earned plenty of xp killing things. (grumble about my augs being super rare, but that's another thread). Go out, kill things, xp happens.
The topic is bad exp.. (grinding wise) I just proven its not. 7 min = 1%xp (good or bad players) Weak camp in a T2 zone. It really DOES become a how well do you pay attention to the game .. the mobs .. aspect. Poor performance players tend to not do such things. Highly skilled player's tend to catch this type of stuff. Thus they utilize camps like this and lvl in a day easily using this type of paying attention while poor performing players don't even find these types of camps TO utilize .. they simply come to the forums here an Whine / complain about how bad xp is .. (News flash) its even WORSE xp if you all up on the forums posting rather then in game actually killing stuff TO get xp in the first place.
Whining about whiners is the very worst form of whining. Combative, non-constructive, unhelpful & self-serving, better to say nothing if you cannot bring something positive to the discussion.
The best part about the slow exp is is it's SO SLOW that exp potions are worthless! Saved myself some money not buying any. I also just got off a string of 12 hour shifts, and it was nice NOT having to go burn a lesson for a half hour a day because even with lesson toons that need levelled from 116 to 120 aren't getting any exp from it that is worthwhile anyway. The best part of the slow exp? I got to sit on my in guild lobby doing NOTHING and getting exp! To think, I pay $16 a month with tax every month per account to play and get exp, and here I can get exp for doing NOTHING! Man, i love this game!
XP is fine. The HP of the mobs...that is more debatable. The ability of people to progress solo at their own pace...also more debatable.
If they keep making xp harder and harder to get people wont level and probably quit just think if there wasnt any overseer xp. just my 2 cents although i got alot more in my shared bank haha!
