Solo player friendly yet?

for Cleric or Warrior?

No. And it will likely never be solo friendly for most classes. Even using mercenaries, cleric/warriors are not good. In the last ten years they've also increased the amount of group synergy and XP benefits from grouping, making grouping very compelling.

You can have a decent experience solo these days by picking a class that does well once a CLR merc is added.

Pet classes and Knight Molo (solo with a merc) well. MAG, BST, NEC, SHD, BRD. Other classes can molo to some extent but it is a struggle if at all possible for them. Other classes can't molo at all, CLR probably standing out as the worst with only WIZ behind them.

WAR can Molo if you really want to play WAR it's the worst at it. SHD is the best of the 3 plate tanks for the job.

All 3 pet classes get similar results in Molo but the methods they reach that result is different. MAG is pure brute force. NEC is Finesse. BST is a little bit of both. The biggest disadvantage of the BST is that their armor quality matters a lot more than the 2 casters.

CLR can get by but it wont be a very good experience because merc DPS is not very good. The CLR merc is the best merc so the best Molo experience is with classes that can take a hit and DPS.

Even molo, combat is way too slow if you dont have a group to speed it up.

Solo should be a last resort, not a first priority. I understand why, for many, solo is a first priority. But that is on the game developers to make it so that groups are more abundant than one player playing 1-2 classes in a "group".

PS- no one cares about XP group bonuses when many players are max level/AA by summer without it.

About 30k AAs to go and summer is over
/cry

And you also IIRC took a long break, just coming back, etc.

My comment was about the player that goes into an expansion already max level and max AA (or pretty darn close)... which is generally most of the player base on live.

Yeah was just joking around. Has to start a new character on top of it all. Kinda worrysome looking at 76k max AAs and only being at 45k.

Does that AAxp bonus still work where the further from max you are, the more of a bonus you get?

Cleric or Warrior solo is absolutely not solo friendly. Most of the game isn't unfortunately unless you're playing in content 15+ levels lower than you are. If you're looking at doing content in the most recent 3-4 expacs you'll need some friends or box toons

That works only on the first, flat 4k aas you get as far as I know and have experienced on alts.

Thanks for the update. 4k AAs goes by fast when the next few ranks of AAs cost 50-200 a piece lol

IMO a game that has this much boxxing has diminished the claim that it is group focused.

wow and many other MMOs have the ability to solo to max level but manage to have a healthy grouping system. i'm pre-wow but would like to see EQ management give up on the "headstrong" you must find a group system....

i even boxed back in the day for eq/wow, however times have changed and i have money to spend on EQ but can't get back into the game without the group. i'm rusty cleric, only level 105, but would love to group for dungeons and raids one day again.

i'm playing the new wow expansion and wukong this weekend, have cash for EQ, so let the classes level to max, or buy a max booster, or something so we can jump in here again.

thanks for the update.

So at 105 you can still level with max level folks. And I think that's the design they're going to stand behind is that 30 level range in which you can group and get experience form.

Problem is, only every other expansion is a level increase, so being 20-30 levels behind actually puts you nearly 6-8 expansions behind and that's a ton in terms of power and being useful in a group setting.

It has the amount of boxing because it is a group focused game... if players most players didn't/couldnt box theyd leave because the population is already low and top heavy spread across too many servers.

Between progression for hero AAs, getting your normal AAs, gearing with augs etc it can take awhile to get caught up. Somone on a TLP can get caught up in one expansion cycle with 2-4 box toons and mercs. Solo it likely won't happen for 2-3 expacs

Join a guild. If you have a 105 cleric in hand and you can't find a guild with players who are looking to do the same content, then there is something else wrong. Every live server has guilds looking for clerics, will train. They're not going to completely rewrite the game to make it as solo-friendly as WoW, and even if they wanted to, they don't have anywhere near the development resources they would need. The game is what it is. Also, at 105 you have the option to use the overseer, and that costs nothing.

this is quite true. i personally have a 2nd account and have the ability to box .. but its just so damn boring, after 10 mins of boxing/soloing i start to look for chores around the house to do instead.

a sink full of dirty dishes or boxing for 0.001% exp a kill .... thats a hard sell darkpaw!

Have you tried playing in era for your level?

I think that the nature of gaming has changed too much since EQ was in its prime twenty years ago. A game that one can't just log in and start playing and enjoying it with one account is going to struggle to find many players. When a game is new and has a large enough of a playerbase for people to find a group of people they don't already know quickly, a heavily group-focused game might work, but only for as long as the player counts allow for that.

I left EQ behind permanently a couple years ago because I found that there were more than enough games that I enjoyed that also cost the same or less than 1 year of subscribing to EQ for one account + the expansion. Paying for more than one account or even having one paid account + some free accounts to box was just no longer appealing for a game as far behind in tech as EQ is.

I still lurk occasionally to see if anything is going to change. That, and the ~20 years or so that I invested in EQ still pulls at me sometimes.

As solo mobs? That's a clear no, but... For current content all you have to do is to beg someone to help with missions, then log on Overseers and log off. Repeat until you are ...