At what point does EQ become a group game? Or Guild game?

Discussion in 'The Newbie Zone' started by Magneress, May 3, 2021.

  1. Magneress Augur

    00Vanilla Everquest
    01The Ruins of Kunark
    02The Scars of Velious
    03The Shadows of Luclin
    04The Planes of Power
    05The Legacy of Ykesha
    06Lost Dungeons of Norrath
    07Gates of Discord
    08Omens of WarSeptember
    09Dragons of Norrath
    10Depths of Darkhollow
    11Prophecy of Ro
    12The Serpent's Spine
    13The Buried Sea
    14Secrets of Faydwer
    15Seeds of Destruction
    16Underfoot
    17House of Thule
    18Veil of Alaris
    19Rain of Fear
    20Call of the Forsaken
    21The Darkened Sea
    22The Broken Mirror
    23Empires of Kunark
    24Ring of Scale
    25The Burning Lands
    26Torment of Velious
    27Claws of Veeshan

    Granted the whole point is to group, guild, chat, and share adventures, even if content is easy, it's still a social game. Mechanically, however, when does it become neccissary to sort of box several characters? Or have help?

    At what point does the ability to MOLO (mercenary solo) content end?

    Alternatively, I would love a spectator account that can't interact with players in the world, but can read quest dialog and explore the zones and inspect mobs and the lore of items on them :p

    Tho primarily this thread is about what I can expect if I come back and say, play on Vox. I'm curious what content will be easily accessible. And I am allowed to multibox two characters on Vox using the same client from the same machine?

    If I had to hazard a guess, #13 The Buried Sea, is where stuff starts to become challenging. My next guess would be #22 The Broken Mirror, where mercenaries really took off.

    The last expansion I really experienced was OoW. When I was still in the military and never really picked the game up after that.
  2. Moege Augur

    Vox: box as many as your computer and brain can handle, my brain stops at 3.5, 4th one (bard) sings (and dies) by his lonesome.

    If you level up to 115+cov t2 group gear then following applies, if trying to do it at xpac level cap going to need a group
    RoS named are going to a pain molo (big aoe/dots)
    TBL you are going to need help (aoe/dots, mobs hit hard still)
    ToV can probably do a lot molo (even named, missions except Great Divide probably need help)
    CoV same as ToV (missions going to need help)

    ToV/CoV has HP you need to oversome, molo probably groin to take a bit of timr
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  3. quakedragon Augur

    Hi
    I think he's asking when does Moloing end.
    As in taking his merc and going to zones his level. Not already 115 and what can be molo'd.
    Ex 1. Lvl 84 going to Field of Scale with a merc, fighting a DB mob, a Sebilisian battlemaster, those guys make short work of me and my merc. Moloing ends here. The game is now ramping up fast it's difficult to handle leveled content anymore via moloing. Also note, this is expansion 15 of 27, so very behind in game as well. This is with autogrant AA on too. The xp starts to become .02% per kill too. Not very enjoyable anymore.

    Ex 2. Lvl 67 going to dragonscale hills, fighting a minotaur or whatever, white and yellow cons are doable with me and my merc.

    This is why I suggested they make 75-115 content in a new expansion, https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/need-a-75-115-zone.274473/page-2#post-4018631
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  4. Tucoh Augur

    -02 Alpha

    [IMG]
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  5. Kutsuu Augur

    This depends on way too many factors like what class/merc combo, how well you're staying geared/AA'd as you level, what buffs you're going to have, the type of zones you're going to attempt, and probably 500 other factors. Some classes can generally molo *some* same-level content throughout all of EQ, some can't. A lot of progression content requires more than 1 player even if you could kill the mobs. Most of the later expansions that aren't molo friendly in general have zones or activities that are molo friendly.

    Ultimately it's a group game that tries to throw solos a bone here and there. You can have a large impact on how easy it is for you to solo depending on your class choice and how you play/prepare.

    Example: A shadowknight + healer merc that stays current on gear and AAs and always has buffs from the guild lobby stack can handle just about anything that doesn't AOE the healer merc down or straight up requires more DPS or more bodies. A rogue with a healer merc, especially undergeared/AA'd... not so much.
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  6. Vumad Cape Wearer


    There are a lot of factors. Lets take for instance kiting. A necro can kite in every expansion, unless a mob summons, in which case the necro can't kite. An enchanter can molo a ton of content, until there are mobs that can't be charmed, in which case the ENC hits a wall. Tanks now get a slow belt that frequently procs a 50% slow, and with all of the utility of the knights, a SK can molo damn near anything with a healer merc if they are raid geared.

    So the big question is... what classes/armor. A SK can molo a ton, and a SK boxing a BRD/SHM can molo dang near anything. 3Box with a SK and you are a full group. On the other hand, when I was an ENC boxing a CLR with a WAR and ROG box, I sometimes would need a real tank to fight named mobs, such as working on my VP key in the ROS expansion.

    As a 3-box ENC, CLR, MAG with a WAR, ROG, ROG/CLR merc, I 3-box molo almost everything. A guildie with a raid SK main and a BRD box 2 box molos almost everything. Etc.

    You can 1-character molo all content to some extent, but it's slow going, and most named are a no go. So usually in all content it is best to bring a friend, or a box, or better yet, a box and a friend.

    PS. Your spectator account is going to Zam.com and reading quests.
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  7. Magneress Augur

    Awesome thanks a lot everyone! Really helpful replies.

    I've been doing a lot of reading on allakhazam and cruising YouTube.

    It's nice to have that research backed up with everyone's thoughts. And know what I'm getting into.

    I remember old eq being a lot like this too.

    Found this video on yt of an SK soloing a TBL named. Looks fun!

    I definitely enjoy reading through quests. Also EQresources has some nice video fly throughs of zones.

    I'm going to keep chipping away on my zerker on Vox :)

    Watching people duoing TBL looks kinda fun as well.
  8. Phiyre Augur

    what is the name/line of the slow belt?
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  9. Vumad Cape Wearer


    There is no name. It's not a special belt.

    There are like 4 belt types. A tank belt that procs a slow. A melee belt that procs damage from offensive abilities. A caster belt that procs damage from spells. A healer belt that procs group heals from heals.

    I don't know exactly which expansion this trend started, but all of the belts from the last several expansions include an effect. Just inspect the belt and look at the focus effect. I think all classes can wear all of the belts, so even a ranger or wizard could wear one if they wanted to.
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  10. Tatanka Joe Schmo

    Yep, my main (druid) has the slow belt, mainly because I can't farm one myself yet, and the slow belts were stupid-cheap in Bazaar. Bought it for the HP/stat increase, didn't really care about the proc. Will have to be upgraded at some point obv, but all classes can use any of the belts.
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  11. Vumad Cape Wearer


    The procs are good and worth caring about. The caster belt at 115 is I think 5k DD, but the procs are calculated with AA modifiers. I think my 2H staff that says it does 12k procs at about 110k and does about 5k or more DPS. My melee DPS is very small but I believe that my staff proc combined with my NET can do about 10k DPS between casts during a burn.
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  12. Tucoh Augur

    I know you know this, but for anyone else reading the 50% slow is cut down based on the mob type and the message you get when it procs (partially, slightly, mostly etc).

    For most (all?) recent mobs the message is slightly and 25% effective. So that 50% slow is really a 12.5% slow and the best slow (shaman's Turgur's Insects) goes from 75% to 19%. This makes the belt still worth getting, especially now that it's pretty easy to get, but it's just one layer of many that plate tanks have to increase their survivability.

    Additionally, the slow belts were nerfed to 25% now (or 6.25% effective slow), but also debuff other stats.

    https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=165135
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  13. Niskin Clockwork Arguer

    I can't speak to how the belts work as far as which slow you get and why, but most mobs I try to slow with my Enchanter these days give a partial success message anyway. I do have the slow belt on my Monk but don't pay attention to which message it gives when proccing.
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  14. Vumad Cape Wearer


    All slows work this way.

    The message you get for the slow, as Tucoh was talking about above, comes from the mob, not the spell or the focus effect. Belts, SHM, ENC, BST, etc will all get the same partial message for the same mob. The message itself correlates to a specific reduction modifier.

    So really it's more accurate to say all modern mobs work this way.
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  15. Niskin Clockwork Arguer

    Yeah, I didn't say it very well. Basically if your belt proc'd slow gets a partial success message, then it's still probably as effective as a spell version because both were above the cap for the mob itself. Some don't have a cap at all, but it's only a few select types of mobs I've found.
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  16. Tucoh Augur

    I could be mistaken but I don't think slow works the way you're describing.
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  17. Niskin Clockwork Arguer


    That's possible. I was under the impression that a partially successful message meant the spell had a larger slow % than the mob could be slowed. In that case the spell was fully successful, but capped in effect. It's possible there is no mob cap, and this is like a partial resist with damage. But in my experience, all mobs of one type always give a partial or do not at all.

    If you mean something else, please explain.
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  18. Vumad Cape Wearer


    I think the confusion here is...

    Does the mob have a cap on the slow and the message indicates the cap.
    Example: Max mob slow is 50%. ENC slow is 70%, so mob is slowed to 50%. Tank belt is 50% slow, so mob is slowed to 50%. All slows work 100% of their potential up to 50% total, then 0% after 50%.

    Or does the mob have a modifier and the message indicates the % of modifier.
    Example: All slows are only 50% effective. ENC slow is 70 % so the mob is slowed by 35%, or (70/2). Tank belt is 50% slow, so mob is slowed to 25% (50/2). All slows are reduced by 50% of their potential.

    I believe that you are suggesting that the way it works is in example 1, but I believe Tucoh and I would agree that example 2 is the way it works. The issue with example 1 would be that the ENC slow and the tank slow would be exactly the same in performance, which I don't think to be the case.
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  19. Niskin Clockwork Arguer

    Good to know, thanks.
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