I understand completely what the original poster is saying. For people that have been playing this game consistently for years or who have been playing since the beginning it is no joke to return and try and start from scratch or even with a heroic character and get caught up. Don't believe me? I challenge anyone even with all your knowledge of the game to go to a live server, make a heroic character and try to level up without using any platinum, help, or friends. Just pretend you are coming back from a 10 year break. I recently just did that except I DID buy and sell a couple a krono so I could get some platinum. Leveling up, LFG, or forming your own groups from the depths of /general chat is at worst a complete nightmare, and at best 30 to 60 minutes of better than nothing I guess exp... the daily quests are terrible.. who picks those zones? And then after they pick those zones, who picks the mobs that there are like 2 of for the entire zone? I guarantee that after completing your j5 merc quest, and running a daily or 2 that's gonna be about all she wrote. Killing mobs for exp or even doing the progression in HoT for your augs is completely terrible exp wise. So now you've done your merc, you have done HoT stuff for augs, you do your daily Teeks stuff everyday which honestly just soloing the teeks tasks at 85 can sometimes take 2 hours... which will net you somwhere in the neighborhood of about 15 to 20% exp. So the best exp is probably to run gribbles right? Okay try lfg from 85 -100 and see how many groups you find. Form your own groups you say? Okay.. good luck finding the miracle that will magically be that the tank if you can even find one will be the highest level. If not you have to try and rely on tank mercs which is doable but by no means any real fun. So then what? Spend 2 hours doing gribbles if you're lucky enough to form a group that isn't completely incompetent? Trust me there aren't a lot of 85-95 people out there that know what they're doing. If they did, they would be 105. So I'm not really sure what the solutions are, I mean I have some ideas but this post is already way to long. I would just say that if you think it's easy to just jump back in this game after considerable time off and get caught up it is not only not easy but damn near impossible and certainly not fun if your goal is to hit end game. Honestly try it if you think I'm joking. Make a new 85 and don't take any help, just pretend you don't know anyone or have any resources available to you... see how long you last before you're like EFF this.. the grind is real trust me. Now if you're the kind of person who plays like an hour or two a week and kinda runs around in PoK and maybe goes and kills 3 mobs and then goes and tries to kill the mob that drops the fishbone earring for nostalgia then I'm not really talking about you.. I'm talking about the guy who comes back wanting to get caught up and raid etc. it's not as easy as you might think it would be.
Now what? If you expected to go solo, you choose the wrong class. If you expected it to be easy, you choose the wrong game.
Perhaps the wrong class for a fun solo experience, but the only thing hard about EQ is devoting the massive amount of time it requires. Let's not try to think too highly of ourselves just because we've invested a lot of our time into something.
To group over a healer merc, you need to be good.... A healer merc is casting HoT-line spells, and a heal every time someone's below 80%. In other words, you are one continuous spell-casting class. When a healer merc is in group, not only is a cleric on easy-mode, but rarely is a cleric even healing.... But, ANY group should take a cleric with open arms. A lot rides on a cleric. It's just easier with mercs
Exactly, the problem is the games broken, and the only solution that seems to work is a ponzi scheme. Why on earth would any player want to buy into this system? The only people who benefit are on the top, have tons of krono's and are established. Its virtually impossible to get anything done as a returning player. I mean you guys should all want some sort of change for the new and returning player, all those krono's you get for ingame currency have to come fromsomewhere, and its those players. Building back up the community should be a priority for all but instead the majority are just trying to keep their ponzi scheme from imploding instead of caring about finding a much less exploitative way to enjoy a game. And for the record, Skyrim and the Witcher are much more enjoyable solo games, and they are much cheaper than paying for 6 boxes in everquest. A couple more things that are literally out of reach for the returning player: Important rank 3 spells from previous expansions. Not even the top guilds do the raids cause they are all established core players who have their stuff already. There should be some sort of system in place that makes catching up in progression easier, not the current progression but the older progression. Sony knew this, this is why zones started losing their key requirements. But Daybreak is just horrible at understanding they are orchestrationg a really bad ponzi scheme. Eventually the Progression nonsense will stop producing the profits that keep the servers going, and unless they can figure something out they need to come back to the live side and make some serious Quality of life improvements. More content for a bunch of meta players isn't going to produce a profit. Create incentives for playing with other players, create a larger gap in quality between the player warrior/cleric/rogue/wizard, and the mercenary versions of those. Revamp the client, like seriously, nobody will return to the game if the game is 14 year old graphics. Doesn't it alarm anyone that their current method of profit is gouge kronos out of gimmick servers that force crazy competitive play?
Paying for 6 accounts isn't necessary. What you SHOULD have done is come to this forum and asked for help. People would have given you direction. There are guilds on most servers that specialize in New/Returning players. I happen to be a leader of the one on Rathe, and this is where someone would re-learn and level to 100-105, I also have access to multiple raid guilds, the first of which does Rof-CoTF raids every Friday, and after doing that, you would then have access to the main raid guilds on server. Help is there if you ask.
There's already incentives for grouping with other players. The gap between player tanks and merc tanks is so large that even non tanks can out tank them. Rogue merc is considered to be inferior to wizard merc. A few threads about personal DPS have most classes in group gear outdoing wiz merc by a long shot, the classes that don't have a "l2p" problem. Revamping the client takes dev time, dev time is limited for EQ1. It won't happen by itself and its not magic. It took all of their effort to get a basic quest tracker that WoW has had for a long time. Also the graphics aren't even close to what they were 14 years ago. Play on Phinny, everyone's on the same progression track, you won't be left behind. Problem SOLVED. The most prominent solo posters on the Live forums either have raid gear or are classes that are very capable of soloing. Also you went from 1-105 in a week as a cleric solo, on bristlebane of all servers?
No I went from 100 to 105 in this week. Initially I returned for EoK cause it looked so awesome, and at first I thought it was genius but then the new car smell wore off and I realized that it was near impossible to even get TBM stuff done cause everyone was chasing the chase loot in EoK instead of playing the actual game. I was in RA for a short while and then I was in a gateway guild before that but I always play for only a few weeks before I remember just how horrible this RMT/Meta gameplay is. The progression servers are even worse, they are literally the food for the Meta player cause on the progression servers the chase loot is far more easy to attain and less random. Also the 3-6 month life expectancy on the chase loot really helps in the Meta game. Atleast this time I have made this post for me to go back to and read every time I see a news article promoting something new in everquest so I know not to return to this game again. Its just broken plain and simple. The company revolves around legal RMT and the odds and cost to play the actual full content of the game is way more than any other modern MMO for far less content. I'm a very experienced main cleric player. But its pointless to state how good I am since 99% of the forums and the meta players are the "get gud" types who haven't a care in the world for what I really have to say.
I think you're worrying too much about boxes (and misconstruing them as something they are not). Too much of your enjoyment in game seems hung up on them. You don't need them; so don't worry about them. Keep it simple. Log in, make friends, have fun doing stuff. If your guild doesn't meet your needs and do not welcome new / returning players and they are just not very social, then find a guild that better fits what you're looking for. RoV on the server has a very large casual membership. Do you like to raid? Then join the open raids on BB. Or see if other guilds out there are a better fit. This is a great game. It has issues sure, but it's a lot of fun and there are great people. You can feel very strongly about all the things you mentioned but still have none of it affect you. Really, meet like minded people, go have fun, and you'll be too busy having a good time to let that other stuff bother you.
Sadly, by a mile. Wiz on bal is more dps than rog on burn. Too bad too because I like my rog skin (Gelidran) and tank skin (Bazu) but for the most part don't ever use. And sorry. Semi jacked ur thread Azzy. You have some valid points but is state of game and dont see it changing.
A lot of people are in the same boat, mercs are supposed to help, but have stagnated to near uselessness. I say once again DO SOMETING ABOUT MERCS.
This seems to me to just be a gripe on players that box. I won't lie, I have 3 accounts. 2 gold 1 silver. Only 1 has EoK while the other 2 are TDS and RoF. I came back after taking one year off and started back up on a new server. Made a heroic SK, got him to 94 on my own, got a few groups for Gribble's and ran dailys. Started tanking tbm at 100 and EoK at 103. He's now 105 with just under 15k aa and a full set of work GRP gear. My server is BB and I WAS in RoV, but left as none of them wanted anything to do with a SK. I play 1-2 days a week and still get 1-3 players in a GRP then fill the rest with Mercs and go grind. I have the ability to box if I choose. I can buy the expacs if I want, but instead I get out and get a group. Don't sit LFG and hope for the best. Put up LFG/lfp and start posting in general or /ooc that you're forming a GRP. Most people will say LFG in general and wait. Look for that and send invites. All you need is 3 real players then head out with Mercs up. Keep an eye on general and replace those Mercs with new players as you grind or do tasks. As for metas.. that's just the game. If a game allows you to run more then one account then people will do it, don't get upset because it's not how you play. Another factor is your class, let's be real for a moment.. healers and tanks will always have issues getting grps at low lvls, either you can't take the hits or are oom too quickly and can't do your job. Try a different class, if you want a caster go necromancer or mage. Some of the best solo there or even an enchanter. Lastly for the Ponzi scheme.. yeah not everyone does this. I pay for my accounts. If I sell a chase loot for Kronos it's so I can save them since they will hold their value over time and if I need some pp down the road I can sell one cheaper then Bazaar price and be on my merry way. Point here. Keep trying, if you expect to be 105 super CLR after a week back from a long absence then your expectations are far too high.
Azzy - by reading about what concerns you most for gameplay, i conclude that youve chosen the wrong class at this time. There is nothing wrong with that, but if you value independence, solo achievement being irreplaceable having plenty of utility and travel abilities, being able to take out named mobs without boxing or relying on others, getting all the best and current loot on your own time and on your own terms...well the Cleric class has been stagnated in recent years purposefully. Roll up a mage or an SK or something.
Did I mention that the LFG setup in this game for a solo player is literally like slamming your head against a wall repeatedly? Primetime hours on Bristlebane, one of the most populated servers and I end up in a repeated wipe Kor Sha Lab group cause the group leader is done progression and is immune to the ae and the rest of us just repeatedly die while his keeps him alive. Seriously this game is so done for me. I guess the TLDR for this entire thread is, I'm pissed that I fell for EoK and resubbed and purchased the expansion only to realize this games just broken in the extreme. The reality of this game is in order to experience all the content the game has to offer you need to atleast initially invest in 3-4 boxes then spend your time farming chase loot/plat to feed your kronos for the accounts. If you want to play in the newest content you need to pay up front for the expansions on all the accounts then try to justify the costs with ingame time spent playing the mini meta game of farming kronos to feed the accounts. This is not a game. Its a ponzi scheme in the extreme. Daybreak before they were Daybreak, were an LLC based in Russia, we should have known this would happen. I've bookmarked this thread so that whenever I see on facebook or other ad sites that everquest has released something new like a new server or new expansion I can come back to this and remember just how awful this week has been trying to play this disaster.
I agree with some of what you said AZZ. Mainly I never play cleric classes. But the KRONO feeding is real! If you do not go all-access you are severely gimped. And running only 1 account is pretty useless for the most part. At least with 2boxing, you can usually find 1 other person in game and then you have a small group... oooh wow, 3 players!!! I am with you regarding the cost of EQ. And sure, some players will tell you: That is eating out at a restaurant... or a drinks at starbucks. Well, you know what? The reason I have money is because I actually don't waste all of my money on eating-out or coffee. And I certainly won't be wasting the money (and time) playing EQ anymore. Especially, with all the recent changes DBG did to the mechanics of th game. Especially, with their fu**ing greed on TLP servers allowing bot-armies to inflate prices of krono while simultaneously banning people for other less-severe offenses. DBG doesn't even follow their own rules and policies. Quite a few handfuls of people are still enjoying the game. And that is all fine and dandy, but I cannot commit to a game that "essentially" requires at least 2 paid accounts just to play. EQ is not a free to play game anymore as it used to be. It is a pay-to-play game and pay-to-win.
