Trolls in a Fungi Tunic, running around with a weighted axe always had a different way about them... man I miss the old days... My mercenary would be driven crazy the way I used to play...
I really feel like they should ease off on the xp grind a little for levels that aren't approaching current, either by reducing the amount of kills needed per percent of reg xp or by introducing more repeatable quests like the teek dalies, there's likely a sweet-spot they could hit where grinding alts isn't soul crushing that is still paced appropriately to encourage xp pots, I know I'd be more likely to burn xp pots if it meant I could get a level or two instead of an extra 5 or 10% just because of the dopamine hit from hearing that DIIIIING
EQ's design is packed with ADPS and synergistic gameplay. Soloing to 115 is possible, but there are better games to play solo and better ways to play EQ
Like what? Most of the solo MMOs I play dont give me the same RPG feeling EQ does, which is why I come back. I agree you *shouldnt* solo/molo, but it is a viable option. The core of the game is grinding, so its not a question of if it can be done its more a question do you have the mental discipline to do it. 1-70 are easy and can be carried by the tank merc face rolling reds. But when that is no longer optimal expect to take time to kill dark/light blue and greens for tiny pieces of XP. Thats the part that drives certain players mad because they aren't advancing fast enough for their given effort. And don't forget (if you are on FV) you can just purchase krono and buy the gear you need to fight higher con mods. Its all a matter of what you are willing to do, and what you consider fun. That doesnt bother me personally as EQ is a nice relaxing aspect of my day after (remote) work. I put on a good movie. Find a decent zone and just kill everything. Also gives me time to try out different skills as you will have more things to press towards the higher level almost to the point of being overwhelmed (which is why I never recommend boosting). And honestly after 85 or so you can group with max level and begin to build the social aspects back up.
Do you have a quote from the producer explaining why some classes are seen as more important than others when it didn't have to be that way.
I'd say 90 to 115 is going to be difficult. Gear isn't easily obtainable. Extravagant Defiant 80-90, and it gives 385 HP? That sure isn't going to be helpful when your suppose to be wearing at least 950HP+ type gear. Mobs are starting to knock you out within first 3 rounds. Getting lucky on you happens more often. You start to see 115s clearing zones, the zones you xping in. Like the grounds, lower level thule. If your a quiet and don't want to bother anyone player it will be annoying, pretty much what a solo player is. However if your a noisy 'hey can i join you, i need xp, im going to send tells' you maybe able to get in on that 115 clearing the entire zones if they friendly. So as a solo player, someone who doesn't really send tells to join groups, lvl 90 and beyond is going to start to get annoying with 115s in the zones where lvl 90 mains are trying to level. My tip of advice is if your lvl 90, do lvl 80 monsters, if your lvl 80 do lvl 70. It's not enjoyable but less deaths. Not enjoyable as in, getting stuff that is no longer useful to you like lvl 80 gear. Problem is 70 gear is 200HP 80 gear is 300HP 85 gear is like 500-600 HP 90 gear is like 1000-1400HP. It ramps up very fast and its even harder to get the gear too. 70 gear common drop from anything, defiant. 80 gear samething. 85 gear start having to work for it. 90 gear you really REALLY working for it. If you wearing 70 gear you can handle lvl 80 mobs. If you wearing 80 gear, you get FLOORED by lvl 90 mobs. Very bad beating. At 70 to 80 gear 50% increase, compared to 80 to 90 gear is 300 to 400% increase and gear drops from mobs that are no joke to a molo'er. Just heads up, at 90 its going to get real, and I think this is where many people quit.
At level 90(maybe earlier) you should be able to do SoD progression solo (mobs in oceangreen hills is around 75 I think), doing that will give you a full set of paragon-equipment, which is around 800+ HME(I think), it will also upgrade your merc to tier 5, if you can't handle the quest in feerrott. Paragon gear from SoD group-progression actually have better stats than some SoD raidgear, it is that good... The achievements are found under hero's journey. For example: https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=5589
Not to mention, much of the T1 gear from most expacs is tradable, and can be had for relatively small sums in the Bazaar, assuming it's several expacs behind current. My main chars have almost exclusively been equipped this way. Sometimes it doesn't have to even be old. I picked up full snowbound for three, paying about 3-5Kpp for each piece, last fall.
Definitely possible, even fun, you can rip through old expacs and catch up by yourself. Cotf-cov will give you heroic aa located In your special aa tab. You will also get cool illusions, trophies, and other useful items when you get to 100ish and start doing that slightly older content. As long as you learn what your abilities do and how/when to use them, it won't be difficult. Necro/mage I think are great starter characters, as you really only need a few items for them to be pretty effective. I guess as someone said also enchanters, but I have never played one so I cannot attest, but I believe when people say they can solo very well. Actually makes me want to try and enchanter, as every group will want you, and you can also use illusions and be whatever race you want which I think is cool. While you're doing this you can do overseer for exp.
Actually, at lvl 90 things start getting interesting. And gear is abundant and easily obtainable. Good gear, definitely good. As an example, leather sleeves for Vah Shir beastlord culural armor, tradeskilled, easy-to-get ingredients (can be quested with overseer or bought at bazaar, like exotic silks, palladium ore etc.) 1340 HME, req lvl 86 https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=122971&aug16=123242&aug17=123386 1830 HME, req lvl 91 https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=112106&aug16=112377&aug17=112521 Paragon sleeves, quested in SoD (as mentioned above) 910HME, req lvl 75 https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=89385 TBM armor, bought with expansion currency, which is tradeable and sold at bazaar or farmed. Needs 1 task to unlock the merchants. 1500 HME, req lvl 85 https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=146418&aug9=147103 2023 HME, req lvl 90 https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=146418&aug9=147127 lvl 90 toon geared up in TBM armor with 2000+ HME per item (btw, all slots available + very decent weapons) can definitely take up on VoA expansion with a great success. Even with just a merc. Plenty of easy-kill trash mobs in there. So, perhaps the problem is not in absence of the soloable gear at lvl 90.
shaman , can np, when you can root / doting mobs and is not that much gear dependant . TOV , T1 group gear ( since they are tradable ) are pretty cheap to buy as well.
My pally has done 1 - 115 max XP mostly solo/molo. 90% of any group play was for a TA. However, it took forever. Start way back: Old UI, Old models, Corpse runs were a thing, the bad old days... There have been many improvements on the way that helped as well as a few nerfs. You can do 1-85 the hard way or pay to bypass. You can make arguments for both. Help and fellowship XP can cut the 1-85 time. Check the perks on the pay way. 85-100 you will need to work. 95 opens up some TAs which yield some nice AAs. 100 opens up the ToV TAs which can take you somewhere into the 109/110 - 112/113 range. I would assume at this point you are at the back of the pack. This would include people gearing up and people working on ALTs. One would expect grouping to be less of a problem. Best thing I can suggest would be look at the online players in the above ranges. Listen for guild recruitment (casual below 100). With any luck, there will be at least one guild with a number of active players in your range and during you main play period.
Yes, overseer xp. Overlooked that one Fantastic in that the overseer task offer a fixed % of XP regardless of level If you log in twice a day to do 12 hour tasks, that can be about 10% a day often slightly more. More or less one level every 10 days to supplement your other activates.
Overseer is nice, but its not AS great as people make it out to be. So for me, when I click experience, it shows .5 - 1.3 xp,usually, so I get around 4% xp. 4% is enough to cover 1 death. Also, I'm not trying to be hardcore into EQ anymore so that means usually 1 to 3 hours I try (usually more), and I'm not waking up checking my Overseer and going to bed and checking my Overseer, I'm not trying to make my life around did I do my Overseer. I feel like returning players are more casual, they will get 1-3 hours in (maybe more) a day. Some days maybe skipped too, other days maybe playing a lot longer. Not saying you need to change overseer, because it benefits players who have stuck around, but people saying leveling is super easy to level now because of Overseer, that's an overstatement. It takes awhile to do too, which maybe discouraging. Like 2 minutes of clicking complete quest, yes give me achievement, complete quest, yes give me achievement. Then more time clicking around seeing what you got, admiring what you got, more time clicking through every quest to see which ones have best success rate, etc. Its time consuming itself. All that time consuming tasks, might discourage people to use it, rather get 4% xp doing normal way in that 10 minutes to an hour than clicking around. I'd rather have a TSS like expansion for 70 - 115 than overseer. Overseer is fun because its new, but starting to get old, somedays I don't do because time consuming. Especially if you box, then click click click, box 2 click click click, box 3 click click click, box 4, etc. 1-2 hours gone by and all you did was ensure every box got there 4% and ready for another 4% the next day. If they had a IF quest shows up, use these agents, automatically choose xp as your reward, automatically use these agents on these specific quests, less time clicking around, it maybe pretty dang useful then. Its starting to feel like tedious task the way it is now.
It all depends on your level. The higher level you are, the more you get out of it...especially if you're doing the merc AA. After 110, it's a vialable leveling option if you don't want to do the ToV progression. Also, make sure you're doing the right type of tasks if you're in it just for the xp. Research gives the most, then the 12 hour tasks, then the 6 hour tasks. During the last bonus xp period, I had a toon finish a Research task with a critical success...got over 6% xp from just that one task.
