Asking because there are really no groups at all in my level range for the last few days, and almost every quest I have outside of a dungeon is sending me after ^^ or ^^^ heroic monsters, which on the TLE are near impossible to solo with most classes. Could we tone down the monsters outside of dungeons on the TLE server so that every 2nd quest is not sending us to kill ^^^ heroics solo? I love to group don't get me wrong, but you can't group if there is no one in the level range to actually group with. Quest sent me in Nektulos Forest to kill some ash owl bears, on live these are normal monsters nothing special, I get there on the TLE and hey are all ^^^ heroics for some wack reason and I have to kill over 20 of the damned things for one quest. This would be fine if there was actual people to group with, but there isin't, and killing one solo even as a necromancer that has 3 levels on them, almost kills my pet, I have to spam Debuffs with tainted heals to keep it alive.
Keep in mind that there are many quests and many zones - have you completed all the Butcherblock and other quests in your level range?
Thats the problem. I swiched from BBM to nektulos, and thundering steepes, and all I seem to find are quests to kill heroic mobs (that used to not be heroic on live), I could do green conning quests but they don't even give 1% at level 28.
Yeah I get what they are trying to here, but this only works when there is actually a healthy population of lower levels, which there isin't right now, even before RoK dropped I had issues getting groups for lower level things. I could mentor down, but the exp is so frigging horrible its better exp for me just to kill blue/green cons near my level solo. The server requiring a sub to access also deters many people from actually trying it, should be like a free trial of the TLE server for like 3-5 days after which they need to get all access to keep going on it, would get more fresh players in.
They were heroic on Live, back when the expansion was current. A lot of overland content was nerfed (epics becoming heroics, heroics becoming solo), and that was reverted on TLE because the whole point of TLE is to make it closer to what it actually was back in the day. What you are asking for amounts to trying to make the TLE server more like Live, which completely defeats the point of TLE in the first place.
Except that back in the day, there were a lot more players to group with. There are two factors: 1. Difficulty of mobs; and 2. Number of players If one is like the old days but not the other, then it’s not like the old days.
If you want an easier experience where you can solo everything fairly easily, then play on Live, where you can also use mercenaries. It's not like there's no alternative.
To be fair, the TLEs do reach a point where people starting fresh can’t find groups for lower level content and the current players just PL to max level in a few hours, which is why those systems exist on live. I’ve tried to get into past TLEs and called it quits after spending too much time LFG for Fallen Gate / Stormhold just so I could catch on xp after falling behind on levels because the rate of xp is abysmal. Even with double xp right now you can’t really quest to level up.
Yeah that's why I don't buy the whole "healthier population and groups at every level!" drivel that TLE enthusiasts like to throw out. There isn't. It's just as top heavy as live, the difference is that the top there is a lot closer. That's about it. And I've played each and every TLE (sans RtT) to max level when it dies and it's always the same deal. If you play in the first week or so, you get groups. Any time after that, you're out of luck unless it's like triple xp and you manage to find your way into a PL group.
You're basically just going to have to avoid Shattered Lands content, which is classic release. You *can* solo there, but you won't be able to complete every quest and be willing to adventure in a self-guided, non-linear method of play. Aside from that... You can do levels 1-20 in Halas, Darklight, Greater Faydark, or Timorous Deep, then just hit Butcherblock at 20 and it's easy questing. Desert of Flames and Kingdom of Sky zones are pretty solo friendly. EoF opening on a TLE pretty much renders the "I can't solo" problem moot by allowing you to bypass Shattered Lands heroic overland content. There's no reason to nerf existing content as it's not roadblocking you in any appreciable way.
You're being quite disingenuous by saying you can solo those zones. A zone like BBM is labeled 20-35 does not have nearly enough quests to take you from level 20 to 35. Even if you could do all of the quests there, even with double xp, there is not enough to even get you from 20 to 25. (I literally just leveled an assassin this week). Without double XP zones like neriak will have the quests well outleveling you by the time you get to level 9 (leveled my SK through there a month ago). Additionally if you're not a crusader or a summoner you're going to have an extremely hard time doing even the regular quests. Many of them require pulling groups of 3 a time which isn't doable for some classes. Bottom line is there is really no meaningful solo xp you can get until you get to RoK. In fact, it's easier and quicker to level solo through 70-80 than any part of the game past level 20.
Speaking from experience (and I've had quite a bit with earlier TLEs) you'd have it a lot easier when there're no groups available, if you dual-box, like, a Necromancer paired with something like Fury on follow, which buffs and heals can help out you & your pet(s) where strictly soloing makes things either too tight or impossible. TLEs are not so much about grouping per say, there's not even close as much of population for that, but for playing the "oldschool" way, so you'll have to solo a lot of below max content, which is why dual-boxing makes it quite a lot more enjoyable, or doable at least.
Dude, I did it on a guardian, where the primary solo fight strategy it to wait for the mob to get bored and die. If you somehow run out of stuff to do, zone hop for a level or turn in a few collections you either harvested in the zones you're adventuring in or bought with money made in those same zones. This isn't rocket science. I think the only solo quests I couldn't do at level were the siren kill quests in Butcherblock. I had to wait for that to go green and revisit. Other than that, follow the general solo leveling path and apply a minimal amount of thought if you find yourself stuck. I'm not being disingenuous, I'm assuming you're not an idiot.
1. That doesn't change the fact that you do not get enough xp from quests to actually level smoothly, even with zone hopping. 2. You skipped all the same quests in BBM on your guard https://u.eq2wire.com/quests/listing/2619932449821/17 as I did leveling my assassin. https://u.eq2wire.com/quests/listing/2619932633566/17. And that includes both of us going back and doing some of the quests once they go green. Again, even with xp bonuses, I got maybe 2-3 levels in total from all those quests that are labeled. Thats my whole point. Look how few quests there are in steamfront: https://u.eq2wire.com/quests/listing/2619932626589/164 and in lfay : https://u.eq2wire.com/quests/listing/2619932626589/94. You do 3-5 quests and they immediately start out leveling and are not doable without grinding xp somewhere to catch back up for the majority of classes. It's literally not worth your time if xp is your concern. If there aren't people to run group instances with, leveling sucks. New/returning players get stuck around level 25ish while others get friends/pay to boost them to max in just a couple of hours. If boosting didn't exist, there would be a lot more low levels going around to play with.
You guys also need to consider completing collections as well as doing lore and legend and language quests. A lot of stuff can be bought off the broker relatively cheaply. You can also go island hopping in the Overrealm zones, as well as in and out of buildings in the cities for easy disco XP. I don't know if it's the same now, but you could gain a good 1-2 levels early on just running around Qeynos for 5 minutes.
You can also buy the books from the Qeynos Mage Tower and the Freeport Arcane Academy, a ton of those books are dirt cheap and can easily be done solo. A lot of them are catalog books you get some coin and sometimes an item for completing them as well as experience.
You're absolutely right, I forgot about those. I'm tempted to roll a new character on Kaladim, as I haven't played since launch of the server. Sure, I could get some friends to powerlevel me, but I'm kind of curious to see how far I can get solo to see if it's really as bad as people say.
