Phinny is nice and all, but not a huge fan

I am not the guy to dedicate a lot of RL resources to a video game. So boxing on Phinny is out. My original computer, which ran 6 instances of EQ np, wont run EQ now because I didn't upgrade the windows on it. My new computer will, so I single box on Phinny, as intended. Here is my take on it.

It's good, and there are a lot of cool people on it, but a lot of idiots from original EQ came back. 8 out of 10 groups are fun. The other two suck balls, and watching 2 or 3 people /qing out every time one little thing goes wrong is annoying. Sitting LFG for more than 10 minutes also sucks.

As a medium core player, it does nothing for me. I am not going to box/dominate content. I could, with a little RL effort. But it's not happening. The casual in me isn't happy, either. It's great when it's fun. When I sit LFG for an hour because I happened to log in when another 7 enchanters in my level bracket logged in isn't fun either.



Bottom line. I wish you would have added instanced raids to ragefire, or didn't. I would have been much happier there than Phinny. Launching Phinny kinda sucks.

Drama quit EQ? Naw. Sad tonight? Yes.

I'm kinda meh about it, thought I would have liked it more... but I'm having a hard time getting groups as a Monk. I've sat two nights in a row LFG in my high 40's for at least a couple hours at a time then logged with no XP gained. I have got very few pings from ready-made groups (everyone wants necros), not enough core classes to make groups (CC/healers) and guildies pretty much stuck in regular cliques.

Would have liked it a lot more if I could have 2 boxed a shaman to actually be able to kill something while LFG. Like you, I would have rather stayed on Lockjaw with raid instancing. It just seemed more convenient to have someone in the group be able to log-in their box to fill a certain necessary role as needed. That said, I do not miss the box armies and mage overload.

*shrug* For all I know, I might just be outgrowing MMO's altogether.

I duo a cleric/enchanter but i'm behind you, i like grouping up but some people... It can be tempting to not group up. My advice to you and everyone else looking for group is to take charge and find people. A single shaman can effectively duo with you a monk. A cleric or enchanter would also be enough to tackle yellows in a dungeon with you, a druid and a tank would work too. Just get one or two casters and fill up yourself. I know maybe I'm not a good example (since I have that cc/heals you say is lacking) but I've found it easy to find four members to make a group, and those 4 members without me could be a group on their own.

Hey. I have a question for you who have been playing here on phiny. What is the most needed class? I've played them all back in the day and enjoyed them all both casual or no life high raiding 12 hours a day online. What I don't want to do is come back and fire up a shaman or chanter or whatever and be stuck just sitting there with no group for hours. Thanks for the replies in advance

After double exp weekend I sat LFG as a 40 + for 3 hours tonight, finally get a group, grind for 2 hours, I die due to some respawns and an afk. The group immediately disbands and all the exp earned is gone. It was a totally lost night after 5 hours of game play. If you want to cut the exp gain in half to slow down the game you should cut the exp loss in half. Honestly, the exp penalty served its purpose, it slowed down the raiding and the top two guilds have now downed all the raid bosses except CT and Sky (EoV is hardly a boss anyways..) and established themselves. It's time to move on from the penalty and restore exp back to LJ/RF levels.

Classic eq at its finest.

Hey Hey Ho Ho xp has got to go!

Tanks seem to be in most short supply. Clerics are also really good.

There seems to be a ton of enchanters, but I have never sat more than 5 mins LFG on my chanter before finding a group, so even with alot of them there are still groups on the other hand the enchanter channel was at like 250ish all last week and this last week its down to only 150 or so, maybe people are quitting their enchanters, who knows.

I do agree that the death penalty seems pretty intense for the exp nerf. Losing 20% on a death is pretty ridiculous when 20% is 2-3 hours of exping at level 47+

Lol wtf..
What level were you when you quit? At higher levels there could be a 100 enchanters and they'd probably all find a group. The mana regen is so slow it makes it basically impossible to build a top group without an enchanter. Same for charmed pet dps.

Sounds like another guy just doing it wrong..

It's pretty hard to answer because it varies a lot based on what you're doing.

Tanks are the smallest numbers, but there's only 1 per group. So far they seem like they have had very little trouble finding groups. Then again, once in a while you'll see a tank guild member or a guy in chat LFG for hours.. but often it's the people who don't speak up at all and just hope for someone to message them.

Enchanters have been finding groups no problem. Mana regen is so slow that if you want to make a premium group you need to have one. Don't know about raiding with them.

Pet dps classes: also highly valuable in groups, but again once in a while you'll see someone sitting afk. Best groups have still been the ones with 2-3 pet classes and an enchanter.

Clerics/healers: Those I've seen haven't had too much problems finding groups, but as usual once in a while the same guy will be LFG for an hour. Depends on time of day and what's going on.

Bards/monks: lots of groups available for the good ones. During the double exp weekend when most monsters were contested a good puller was worth his weight in gold.

Who's left..

Melee dps: rogues and rangers will sit LFG for a long time and then will come online complain about it. I wanted to play a rogue, it's my favorite class, but it's just a fact of life that they suck in classic. It's not that the dps is terrible but that they bring zero utility to the group. Aside from hogging potential loot, why would you ever pick a rogue/ranger over a necro?

the problem for people in their 40's is outside of the perma groups from the hard core raiders there just in not a lot there yet, the vast majority of people are still in the 20-40 level range, my highest is 28 and has not taken me more then a minute to get a group.

I'm a huge fan of Phinigel. I'm sorry people don't realize how broken enchanters are, they're the highest DPS class in this era you should always be getting invites. Maybe lazy enchanters ruining it for the general population (I have a regular enchanter I group with, but we will always take another to the group if LFG).

Once you do make it to 50 I think you'll be happy though, there are so many varieties of guilds to choose from, you can play anyway you want at 50.

Agreed. These "achievers" powered their way to the top when the majority of the population is under 40.

What did they expect?

To the OP, you need to learn to advertise yourself better..

Join all the class channels and put Enchanter LFG..Trust me they are looking for you. You might have to run to some random zone to get the group but that's TLP. Sitting in 1 zone and /lfg isn't going to cut it, or just staying on the LFG list isn't your best bet.

Make friends, join the different class channels, join general, etc.

Pro tip if you want to get a group with 7 other enchanters LFG at the same time:
In that "player notes" area of the LFG tab put down "Charm DPS/CC" and people will grab you for a DPS class along with CC class.
I was in a group the other day with 3 enchanters, 2 healers, and a BRD. The highest DPS groups I have been in.

To clarify, my enchanter is only level 14. I leveled a mage to 22 before losing my mind out of boredom. As for "playing the class right", I have leveled an enchanter to level 82, so I am confident I understand how to play the class. I don't go out of my way to find a group, I just stick up LFG and solo until someone invites me. At higher levels, charm works nicely. At this level, the animated pet with a dot is usually enough to kill a blue or even con, it does the job pretty quickly, and there is no down time.

I was more just annoyed with the /qing instead of just manning up and saying you are leaving the group. It's especially annoying when it's the person that sucks doing it. I haven't played a solo toon since 2002 and it's taking some getting used too. I am always looking toward the end game, and it's going to be interesting once the server population starts to thin and everyone is max level. No boxes to help means depending on a lot of other people, who are also trying to get stuff done. I know the top guilds will be fine, not so sure about everyone else. There will be plenty of guilds torn at kunark between getting max level and helping their guildies get epics.

It's both sad and funny at the same time that most of the people who come to the forums to whine about stuff are low level.

At level 14 you don't even have clarity.

While the vast majority may be in the 20 - 40 range, there are hundreds of people PUG'ing it out each night in lguk, the hole, and OOT. Last week lguk alone had 7 instances with 50+ in each one. OOT always has at least 3 instances, and the one time I went to the Hole (I hate it for XP) I believe there were at least as many instances. While I did always reach out to guildies first, I constantly put groups together full of random LFG's, and as far as I could tell the PUG groups outnumbered the pre-made by far.

I guess it's always been this way but, you will almost always have more success forming up your own groups than sitting around LFG hoping for an invite. Find a tank who is LFG, and then find some heals and DPS (I believe OP is an enchanter) and then go wherever is appropriate. I will point out that late-night XP'ing can be easier than primetime, because the pick populations drop considerably without the picks actually closing, which can often lead to a ton of open camps between them all.

On my way to 50 I did throw up LFG and sometimes I got invites, but usually after about 10 minutes of sitting on my LFG I said, this, and started sending tells to LFG people. You really, really, really, have to be willing to do this. You will also make friends this way and people will come to recognize you as someone who can put together and lead solid groups, which compounds your returns.