Frustrated

Hi, I am a new EQ player. I never played EQ in it's "hay day" and now a large group of friends that did play have gotten me to sub and play on the new progression server. I have been playing MMO's since 1997, so I am OK with the age of the game.

The issus that I am having is that it's taking hours and hours for me to get small level gains while my friends are all miles ahead of me. For example, I spent five hours at level 3 last night in The Commonlands and only gained one level.

The progress was painstakingly slow and tedious beyond what I feel a game should be, with tons of deaths from the Griffen or chaining mobs. I am fighting white and some blue mobs. I am a level four Bard now while my friends are nearing 30. Being an MMO vet I can't help but feeling that I am doing something wrong, and I am not getting much help.

Is this a game where It will take me a whole day to level? I regret taking an extended subscription option now as I have not had one moment of fun since I started playing.

EQ isn't equitable across the classes in terms of solo power at all levels - it was built from its inception to be a group oriented game, and only a few classes are capable of soloing effectively at lower levels.

bards are unfortunately not one of those classes, so yeah you're going to have a rough time of it at lower levels if you're by yourself and on the progression server lacking the myriad catchup mechanics that have been added for new players on the 'normal' servers.
you'll find leveling much faster and easier if you can manage to get yourself in a group.

Your friends are old pros, they should be guiding you, if not outright helping you level. Ask them for help.

Your friends are a holes.

http://www.eq.freemmorpgguides.com/everquest-leveling-guide/

http://almarsguides.com/eq/leveling/

Word of advise. Whites are ok, but as you level those whites (even level with you) will get harder and harder. Dark Blues are just below your level and light blues are the next lvl under you.

There are other guides but these are the ones I found first. You do not need to fight a mob at its spawn point most of the time. Find a semi safe spot to pull mobs and kill them there.

And as mentioned, your friends should be assisting you in some way, if not directly then indirectly such as providing direction.

Just so you're aware, the leveling speed has been increased by at least 10x on normal servers. If your friends aren't going to help you along (and they really ought to, if they dragged you in), you're very welcome to join us and experience the game as it's normally played these days. It takes an experienced player about 24 hours to get to level 80+ nowadays. Sorry you're having a rough time so far. It shouldn't be that way.

When first starting out as a bard, the best way to efficiently level up is by taking on even cons. XP goes down too much on blues and yellows are often too tough (can sometimes pull it off though depending on the mob type). The Commonlands can suck, as there are lots of roaming mobs there. I personally find both Qeynos and Butcherblock/Gfay areas easier going. But, try to pull stuff off to edges of the zone or places with no mobs pathing.

Level 2 Song - Chords of Dissonance will help you kill stuff faster (be wary, it is an AoE effect... it can get you killed if not paying attention to your surroundings). It's essentially guaranteed damage, and as a bard with bad melee dps, it helps tremendously.
Level 5 lets you equip a lute (stringed instrument). This will boost your Chords of Dissonance damage. That lute will be your best friend.
Level 6 Song - Hymn of Restoration is your regen song. Running Chords of Dissonance and Hymn of Restoration with your lute in secondary will keep you going. Focus on keeping these two songs running, especially when mobs keep stunning you.
Level 8 Song - Kelin's Lugubrious Lament will let you pacify/lull mobs and pull singles out of camps of mobs to solo.

These are key songs at the lower levels to let you solo.

Also, find some patchwork or buy some leather from the merchant or something. The extra AC will make a noticeable difference.
Find a rusty weapon you can use and make it a tarnished weapon by using it with a Sharpening Stone (Eriel Skelytia in EFP sells it) in a forge. This will help as well.

But, in the end, it's still going to be tough.

1. Your friends are jerks, they should make alts and level with you in a group. This x4 if you're playing a bard.

2. Bard is not the best choice for your first EQ class, especially if you want to solo. Roll a mage, you'll probably pass them in level in a week. Mages are overpowered in classic, bards are underpowered (as are all melee other than monks, and even they are rough pre 30 or so).

3. Get in groups....always.... EQ is a very group centric game. It's only because there are some things that are currently out of era that allow people to solo/get levels so fast. Mage being the biggest offender.

The main reasons to play on Ragefire are for nostalgia and a larger supply of low level toons to group with. If you don't have either of these, and you're looking to advance your toon quickly, you're not really going to enjoy Ragefire. Most of the modern conveniences that help both new & old players are disabled on Ragefire.

So, here are your options:

1. Ragequit.
2. Find other low level toons to group and/or guild with.
3. Tell your friends they're jerks for convincing you to subscribe & then abandoning you.
4. Try a "real" server where you get mercs & Defiant gear & free ports & the streets are paved with gold & just everything is better.

Stick with it. Everyone loves bards for groups, raids, etc. It's rough for everyone other than mages early on. Hell, on my SK, getting my lvl 7 skeleton pet was like Christmas for me. It made soloing go from very painful to just painful.

Bard's do indeed rock and from my personal experience I'd have a bard in my group 100% of the time if I could. And in the high end, a perfect raid would have a bard in every group'=) They are that valuable. So like Dilf said, stick with it! They do come into their own later on in the game.

I have friends like this.

"DUDE, YOU'VE GOT TO PLAY THIS GAME WITH US! IT'S SOOOO GOOD. YOU'LL LOVE IT!

Ok, ok. I'll try it.

"AWESOME!!! WELL, BYE. GOOD LUCK."

They want you to play the same game they do rather than playing the game with you. My friend is learning EQ right now himself for the first time and when he's logged in, I'm with him 24/7. This game is just too arcane to let someone new go on their own. Here's hoping you get better friends.

Yeah I think the live servers have it where bards can't kite swarms of mobs around The Overthere or elsewhere anymore. You *used* to be able to round up like 30 mobs and run in circles with selos and chain a few aoe DoT songs. Takes a long time to round up all those mobs and get them bunched up correctly but it is still the fastest exp/PL in the game to kill 30 blue-yellow con mobs at once

Live servers probably have it patched where mobs don't take the DoT damage while moving. So it's charm kiting or grouping for ya

So here's my story:

Friday evening when I got home from work, I was level 11. I managed to get into a really good South Ro crocodile group, and gained 6 levels. I gained another level by myself, and another in Upper Guk. After travelling to Unrest and not finding a group, I got into another good Guk group and gained another 2 levels. By the end of the day sunday, I had gained 10 levels over the weekend.

Before that, it seemed that everyone else had passed me by miles. So many people were 20, 30. 40. I was leveling slow on my own. But don't forget that a lot of people in those zones were also my level. Not everyone left me behind.

So once you can get into some grouping, it will go faster. Your friends might have to wait for you to reach 50, but you will. Play at your own speed and have fun doing it. You will never keep up with some people, so just enjoy what you can.

I don't have any friends like this.




At least not any more.

I'd say guild up, and if you already are, find another one. Get in on Orc camps in commonlands, and grab those quest turn in belts.

I am also thinking of rolling bard on TLP, (lockjaw) played one on live servers before, main question is, once you get the ability to duel weild, do you still bother with the lute, or what ever you are playing at the time or move on to duel weild. With the defiant armor on the normal servers, insturments are pretty much ignored so i have never played a bard that actually used one1

This game like many older MMO is very unenjoyable if you solo, even on noraml blue servers. The game is great if you can make friends and play together or if you have a knack of getting groups.

You missed out on the old days which is a shame. When I played in the old days people would come up and ask me to group, now it's much harder and many play solo classes or box.I think those that play mages or other well solo classes, want the ability to always level fast, not that they don't want to group.

And agree they game is very slow and I don't think it's good if they keep it at classic at a long time. The game get's really good around luclin and melee start to be good classes. Most often tanks just suck in classic and can't do alot.

Though I've gotten an all access sub I think I will just fool around with Everquest whenever EQ2 is down. Heck even EQ2 is not easy to get groups in all the time.

I run a large casual guild on a Live server and have a number of people who enjoy soloing. So I have to disagree or amend what you said. Some people enjoy soloing a lot and some don't and that is true on EQ also.

The progression servers are all about classic and slower exp. If you don't want that play on a Live server.