Sorry for the positivity.

It's your boy Vetis.

I wanted to resist but I obviously couldn't. There are so many posts hating on Phinny. So here is the perspective of a REAL casual. I work 16 hours a day. Monday through Friday and have a wife and a 2 year old. I get a couple hours here and there to play. I do however get to play a decent amount on Saturday. (Not so much this last Saturday cause I had friends over to do a Star Wars marathon cause I'm a nerd like that.). And I got to play part of Sunday. (Had to cut it off to watch the Broncos lose to the Raiders, sigh.)

Anyways, here is what I will address.

1. Exp rates
2. Can't find a group.
3. People boxing
4. 3 month unlocks.
5. Weak group classes.
6. Dungeons vs Open world.

1. I was upset at the noticeably slower experience rates when I first started the server. However, the more i read on the forums and talked with friends and guildies the more I liked it. You actually get to experience most of the content that is appropriate to your level. People are almost forced to play one character. GOOD! Finish what you start and master your class. It makes it so people aren't way out of your range within a day so groups are easy to find. So now, on that note!

2. I start my own group and can be picky about what roles I want in it and I choose the camp and how loot works (Need on what you want, pass on what you don't. Don't worry if you want to talk about this as well I'll lay down some more knowledge.) Not even trolling making a full group this way takes me all of 30 seconds to 2 minutes. No matter what time of day or which zone/camp. Every time. Even when I only have an hour to play after work before I go to bed. Nothing else to say about this.

3. Haven't run into this being a problem yet. I've played with one guy who 4 boxes and he plays all 4 better than most play one and he does it on 4 different computers. He is always considerate of camps, cc's, and filling his last 2 spots with guildies and pugs. I also play with another guy who boxes a mage and the dps is nice, but he's finding since groups are so easy to fill out he's probably going to drop the mage soon. Smart move imo.

4. 3 month unlocks. Uhh so lets crunch some numbers. So Release was last Wensday. You already know what my schedule has been thus far. I'm about 20% from level 19. Give or take, another 2 or 3 weeks and I'll be capped with my very light playing schedule. That means 2 months and some change of raids. I think I'll be pretty sick and tired of those raids by the end of 2 months. ALSO, if you haven't been paying attention or keeping up, the Dev's have mentioned extending the unlocks for expansions that do take longer to unlock like Planes of Power and Underfoot. So Chill out girls, DBG got its customers covered.

5. I heard people saying "play wizard or mage cause groups ain't playing with melee dps". To this kid I say. Son, I'm playing a BARD. The crowned champion of not having crap for dps (at this point in the game). So? How is it so easy for me to find groups? Probably cause I know how to play my class, and I don't sit around with LFG tag on saying LFG every 5 minutes but instead take the initiative to FORM a group. And again it takes a whopping 30seconds - 2 minutes to do it. WHILE BEING PICKY. Squashed, next.

6. Dungeons vs Open world. So far I've honestly found open world to be way better or at least EASIER to form a group and murder mobs. I'll give a couple of examples. I went to oasis/sro and started a croc group. Pulls were endless and always single. An easy 3 or 4 levels can be made here for like 10-15. Then I swung over to Lavastorm when I got bored to tears with crocs, change of scenery killed drakes/sprites/spiders, then moved to lava spinners, and the respawn rate there was amazing. Just endless, super easy pulls. Easy exp for days.

6. Continued: Now Dungeons crushbone was decent, these zones can be semi difficult to find a camp to kill without people jacking your mobs or what not. The biggest issue I ran into in guk (15-almost 19) was the trains. However for whatever reason my group ended up getting the scryer camp for about 4 hours in the non-instanced version. We took all the spiders (got the shield to drop) and the scryer camp, top of stairs, and all of the frogloks down the ramp to include the hidden room. With ALL of those mobs we were able to keep consistent pulls. But those zones get crowded and you don't always get to pull like that. However we did get 2 bracelets, and the shimmering orb off scryer. So as far as loot was concerned dungeons were way better. (though one of my groups did get lockjaw's tunic). So honestly I think they're just about even in how good they are. If you do dungeons yeah the reward is higher but so is the risk, like getting trained ( not on purpose) over and over and having to reset over and over. vs a safe consistent open world with a steady stream of experience pouring in.

Honest Facts by your favorite Bard. VETIS
Come chill in my twitch stream on the weekends. I love shooting the breeze with y'all trolls and anti-trolls. You get nothin' but love from the one and only.

Phinny is awesome, the only people on the forums are from RF/LJ and the boxers who's accounts all got banned when they tried to cheat on Phinny. Phinny is bustling and lots of LFGs and grouping going on. I'm having a great time. It's great. No one is positive on the forum cause they're playing the game

I am loving the server, and the community has been really amazing so far (albeit a few trolls in general). The people screaming the sky is falling here on the forums is the VOCAL MINORITY.

Keep things the way they are, XP rates, Pets, raids .. its all just right.

Great job DBG!

Hell yeah guys! I couldn't agree more. Christmas came early this year IMO. #phinnytilIdie

Agreed, Phinny should *not* be changed. I like it, but it's not for me given the time crunch. If it had been 4.5-6 and this xp rate, or if rate was same as LJ/RF, which 90% of players assumed it would be, it would have been perfect for *far* more people than these changes would have created a problem for. I'm certain of it.

Instead of changing it, DBG should merge RF / LJ, and create a new server (3 total) that gives this "vocal minority" what they want.

Yes, you will see a lot of people leave Phinny, but I'm convince there is room for 3 servers <= SoV. After PoP, I'm not so sure...

Claiming someone else is the vocal minority makes your argument fallacious and null. People are dealing with it be no one I know in guild, friends, or have spoken to outside of the forums likes the xp changes. There have been many legitimate issues discussed around the XP issue. Good points have been made on both sides - in the long run I think it will hurt the server far more than helping.

I know a lot of people who are just waiting it out to see what happens before they make the decision to stick around or not. It'll be interesting to see where the population is at at 30 days, 90 days, velious release - etc.

post pics with /played

ok ok long post so missed it somewhere
you work 16 hours a day.i assume you travel to work.i assume you eat.i assume you even sleep
considering work takes 16 hours of 24 hours leaves you with 8 to fill all that above and still find family time i assume you only play weekends
you said you took saturday to watch star wars mostly .
so how on earth could you be level 19 unless you did not sleep from saturday night till monday morning.
heck even the guys on twitch who had pre made group and did that 48 hours marathon only made it to low 20s.

Vetis hit me up in game brosif. I'll start hanging in your steam.

great post, i also enjoy the server so far, only thing that could potentially be a problem for me is the 90 day xpac unlock, 90 days of classic/kunark is ok (maybe a bit long) but 90 days of velious, luclin, PoP is way to short imo.

This.

You spend quite a while downplaying how many hours you're able to put into the game, but you're almost level 19 already. You can talk about 16 hour work days, family responsibilities, and star wars marathons as much as you'd like, but the reality is you've already put in more hours than many people plan to play in a week.

So, give us the rundown. What's your /played? How often did you use xp potions? How many of your groups were pre-planned, and how many LFG?

Agreed. I'm about 8 hours played and my toon just dinged 9 last night (was grouped with a nice 3-boxer who even let me get all the DF belts). No exp pots, and pretty hardcore exp'ing the entire time. Assuming the leveling rate is at least slightly beyond linear, you're looking at a minimum of 22-25 hours played.

Also, based on other threads, you'll be looking at about another 100-125 hours /played until you ding 50.

I'm not condoning or hating on the exp rate, just throwing in my 2 cents.

Would be inaccurate as I leave it on at night to skill up swimming and instruments.

Is your toon name Elaida?

I don't know, I'm just telling you what my schedule has been like and what level I am now. You can believe what you want. Idk why i'd make it up rofl

I call BS. No way on lvl 19 with 16 hour work days, a family, and a Saturday devoted to a Star Wars marathon.

Making a group in 30 seconds to two minutes? BS.

I am with you on being positive, it has been great, but you are not accurate with your times, at all.

Yes, accurate. I use the LFG tool, find people Id like to put together, get responses within a minute and the ball is rolling. People who are LFG are probably having issues knowing where to camp, etc. Form a group, get off your

this is what i am saying.to be honest i see nothing wrong with defending a point of view but creating this scenario and not even bothering to do the maths right kind of sad

He ranged thirty seconds to two minutes. Have you ever formed a full group in thirty seconds? The post smacks of over exaggeration, is all I am saying. I am not complaining about LFG, either.

I am fine with the exp rate, but to make it sound like you can just roll through levels with a 16 hour job, a family, and partial weekend play is gross.

ok mr.genius explain to us how within less then a week you could use 2/3rd of your day at work ,count in sleep,count in travel time,count in film marathon,count in family and still hit nearly level 20.
so if the hardcore levellers are right we talking at 25-30 hours spent to do this.
even if you do some maths and eliminate things like sleep and family and grind this 30 hours it means nearly 5 hours a day which is simply not casual as at least 99% of anyone with his work schedule and young family in ANY mmorpg would put in.