Maybe when the servers go 64 bit, they will be able to handle much larger loads of players (mostly boxes of course) and we will see large scale server mergers to help alleviate this problem. One can hope. To answer your question, though, no - I don't think there is a group game, and I don't think there has been one for years. This is *why* so many people box - especially those who don't want to raid, like me. I enjoy boxing far more than I ever enjoyed grouping and raiding. It is far more relaxing and enjoyable, and it lets me walk away whenever I want. I never feel rushed, or like I need to meet a deadline (and thus chained to many hours in xp groups) as I did in the early years of EQ and on TLPs. If I couldn't box - or was forced to be sociable and deal with the issues that crop up from needing X number of hours in Y xp camps with Z people in a 'hardcore' game like EQ...I wouldn't play EQ anymore. Just my 2cp.
I'm seeing quite a few of the same names pop up complaining about Boxers, Class imbalance, failure to get a group, failure to launch... and so on. Group game clearly exists. Its a game based for groups. Derp. But ask yourselves.. If you are whining this much on forums, are you even in game doing what you can to progress? When people see you online, are they thinking "Hey, thats that whiner, I am going to stay clear of them!"? If I knew who you were in game, I would flat out refuse to group with you based on your attitudes. I dont want my play time to be your therapy session, and I for sure dont want to listen to you complain about how no one ever groups or helps while I am busting my to help you. If at the end of the day you want to white knight on the pedestal of Justice for groups and capability, Thats I guess your right.... "If ya cant beat them, Join them." Start boxing, Stop complaining, Stop thinking you are a victim. The games core mechanics are not going to drastically shift and make boxing irrelevant. Stop complaining about it. Do it, Deal with it or go back to WoW.
Long-lasting and valid points that grouping is both top-heavy and cliquey, with new/returning folks looking to relive the LFG days resigned to soloing for catch-up. Most are happy with this as long as soloing is viable, but progress vs time invested is vastly disproportionate for folks following this path. Therein lies the rub. Forum users seem to be pretty divided on whether attention needs to be paid to this. It doesn't seem to appear on the dev radar at all, despite the fact that it could be an absolutely trivial change to modify mercenaries, spell levels, itemization, etc to deliver a more consistent and productive solo path to catchup to current content.
And most are pointed in the direction of TLPs for this specific reason. It gives them exactly what they're wanting. The hard truth is, the game isn't meant to be pleasing the fraction of a percentage of new/returning players to the game, but to maintain the current population...which is the top-heavy scene. I don't think it's near as trivial as you're making it out to be. Take Heroic Adventures for example when they went to rework those to help with scaling...they broke it and never really got around to fixing it. But in all honesty, the path to 110 isn't horrible. Things seem to slow down as things ramp up after this point though. And after 110 you've got Overseer and can actually contribute to a group of 115s. Although I will admit, some classes that are reliant on groups (Rogue or Berserker and even Wizards to a lesser extent) could use some lovin's to help out wih the solo grind up.
I'm not making any specific suggestions here, but solutions that would provide the max benefit per Dev hour invested might be worth exploring. Some examples of this might be to remove required levels for certain buffs to land, removal of required levels on gear, remove the recast for Steadfast Servant, adding an innate DS to mercenaries, etc.
I would argue that DBG is simply seeking profit at both ends, and that you are grossly underestimating the amount of money DBG makes from krono sales and heroic characters on new/returning players on live. The grind up to 85 for an entirely fresh account/player is not trivial at all - I don't even know where you're getting that from - and that incentives new players into purchasing a heroic character (and selling a krono for plat to buy gear.) And THEN from 85 to 110...LOL. When was the last time you did this without relying on already maxed/geared characters to boost the 85? Give it a shot sometime. Even if a person boxes from the get go on fresh accounts...this is a ridiculous grind. I don't think there's a game out there that comes close to it except for maybe Jade Dynasty. I'd be surprised if a new or returning player could even make it to 85 without a subscription (AAs become exponentially more necessary as one nears that level) even though EQ is marketed as free to play. EQs 'grind' can only be compared to the most hardcore asian MMOs in difficulty/time consumption. There's a very good reason people retire to WoW or Guild Wars or other games. As for the other end - two expansions a year that raiders have to buy to stay with their 'guild', another word for an addiction support group/peer pressure subscription retention. Then grinding their new AAs (or paying a powerleveler to do it for them.) I'm not sure which end is more profitable, and I doubt anyone at DBG would be willing to divulge that information as it might change the way players view the game and the development philosophy. I have a future project (that I will probably never get around to) where I'm going to journal either one fresh solo account (necro probably) or a three box team with no outside resources to help and post it on Reddit. How far can they get FTP, no AAs besides the 250 they can earn. I have strong doubts the three box team can go much further than the 80s. I'd be surprised if they could even get to the 80s. The solo necro can probably go further with smart AA choices, but jesus, I can only imagine how time consuming it would be. As for overseer...even on a premium account, it only amounts to, what, 5%/day at most? That does not fix the catch up problem (nothing will, because the catch up problem is only a problem for players - it's not a problem for Daybreak's bottom line. Which is exactly why it hasn't been fixed, and why HA scaling was never taken care of.)
Decent ideas for the most part. I think they could up the level of buffs that land on players for sure. Maybe 1-40 = 85 and lower 41-60 = 100 and lower and then 60+ gets everything. Can't completely trivialize the lower levels. Get a 2 and a half hour DS stack that instant kills every mob up to level 50, while awesome to witness and go through for us who are familiar with the game, would take away a lot of the learning process. But they could revamp the defiant gear system to be Elaborate (or elegant, whichever one is higher), and have it be a complete scaling gear system so you don't have to worry about gear until 65-70+ when defiant is no longer reigning king. I'd be okay with that. While I like and do use Heroics (i've got like 5 to use on each of my 3 accounts somewhere/somehow), first coming back to the game and trying out a new class and having all those AAs/spells/abilities thrown at you can be a little overwhelming. Jumping 30 levels at a time for a newer player may be a bit overwhelming as well. And I think the tank mercenaries already have an innate DS added to them. Nothing outrageous, but it's there. Cast a DS on yourself as a level 1-10 or whatever and on your merc as well. You'll see that the mercs DS is like 40 points stronger (and it increases I believe at certain level caps, never bothered to stay low enough level to find the break points). I've been doing this, thanks. Normally in the form of a 3 box set up. I've started over on 3 different servers and have 3 different box teams that have leveled up together. Or two I guess. I came back and picked up where I left off on my main account. So okay yeah 2. 1-60 in a couple days 60-80 takes a little longer 80-85 is a slog if you don't run HAs 85-100 goes by decently quick for me and the route I take (usually start with HAs, Teeks, and a few progression lines). 100-105 is TDS progression 105-110 is mindlessly camping out in EoK zones Between CoTF HAs and TBM HAs the biggest expenditures come out to be spells/abilities. Marks of Honor and Remnants of Tranquility are plentiful from all the HAs i run while leveling. I don't really have a maxed level character that can easily pass along xp to my new groups. It's usually faster for me to keep the box team together than try and have 1 toon leech xp at a time, and then the second, and then find a way to get the main toon to leech xp that was on the same account that was helping the other two leech xp. But I'm weird. I like the leveling process. I've got a few toons who are sitting at 115 and barely even ToV geared. To each their own, but it's not horrible. HA problem was never fixed because the Dev that was working on it quit before he completed the project. And by that time, HAs fell to the levels that weren't as much of a focus (as the lower levels are now), and thus it wasn't a priority any more. A broken quest at 60 will remain broken while a broken quest at 120 will (most likely) get fixed. It's got to be pretty relevant to the majority of the player base for it to be a priority. And new/returning players are barely a bleep on the radar for the devs, and therefor the lower levels of the game will not see anything direct attention. That's where the TLPs come into play.
I was describing a concept - simple changes with a big effect. The examples only existed to illustrate the concept. They have +35 DS on gear which, yes, only gets activated when you have a buff. Works just like players. My example suggestion was "give them a buff that activates it", again, only as an example to illustrate the SIMPLE concept.
