Does the game get significantly harder?

Discussion in 'Tips, Tricks, FAQs, and New Player Discussion' started by Larloch, Feb 7, 2013.

  1. Larloch New Member

    I know this is not a new trend for mmo's but It's so easy at the beginning of this game. I want to get a gold membership at the start but I'm concerned about the difficulty and I'd rather not play with a test character to see if it gets harder. Also, how is the difficulty for a duo group? Is there a lot of content and opportunity for a duo to level all the way up? Are mobs going to have more HP later because right now they instantly blow up which I don't think is going to be fun for duo exping or small group exp. At about what level would the difficulty be increasing and the opportunity for content difficult enough for a duo or small group arise? You don't have to spend the first 40 levels following a solo quest path or something before any group content is in place do you?

    I liked how EQ 1 was super hard from the very start and you could group on Orc camps and things like that.

    Thanks guys.
  2. Estred Well-Known Member

    Well Mastercrafted Gear and the like is "current day" mechanics and much of pre-level 80 is "old world" so you will breeze through content like no ones buisiness if you are smart until you hit Kunark... then is slows a little. You cannot Solo/Duo current "Heroic" content without already having current Raid Gear.

    Bosses at 95 have Billions of hit points. My Raidforce takes 5 minutes to kill some bosses at 10,000,000 damage per second. So yes, the game does get harder. Though it is harder to find lower-level groups.
  3. Ragna Well-Known Member

    Yes and no.
    Most outdoor zones and solo content in general will stay easy as it's supposed to be soloable by all classes.
    OTOH heroic zones (at level) will be challenging for a duo/small group without a high level mentored member. In fact, while leveling, if you want more challenge you can always go to a dungeon slightly above your level.
    Here's a list by level : http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Dungeon_Timeline
  4. Larloch New Member

    Thanks for answering Estred. What about the HP on normal mobs on the way up? Does it increase so that the pace of the game slows down a bit or are you pretty much blowing up monsters instantly all the way up? I understand that if I choose to find and make use of the newer better gear or whatever and then use that gear on old content it's probably going to be easy. That being said, can a small group choose to seek out challenging content that may be some levels higher in order to have a challenge while xping on the way up or something like that? I'm more concerned with the leveling process more than anything not so much how the difficulty scales at the endgame.

    Maybe I could ignore all this new gear introduced by the expansion features and just use what I find in the world or something.

    Edit:

    Thanks for answering too Ragna. So dungeons are where I'm going to have look to find the hard stuff? I guess that kind of makes sense. EQ 1 was kind of like that too with the dungeons being much harder.
  5. Venomizer Member

    Are you dual boxing or playing with a friend?

    The game gets significantly harder.

    Most low level mobs are designed for solo play, 1 person.

    Each monster has not only a level, but a category of what type of group is a match. Some are intended for 1 person, 6 people, 12 people, 24 people.

    Fighting a single solo mob with 2 ppl will feel very boring. especially at level 1. you will never be as powerful compared to an even level monster as you are at level 1.

    There is a lot of challenging content and opportunity to duo from about level 14 all the way up to max level. If you are looking for constant random pickup groups you wont find that while leveling up. If you have a duo partner EQ2 would be a great fit for you. Its a polished game with a massive amount of thoroughly tested content.
    Finora likes this.
  6. Buffrat Well-Known Member

    All the content below 80 is basically pinata after pinata since the loot revamp. Killing 80-90 heroics will take roughly 33% longer (4 hits instead of 3?).
  7. Ragna Well-Known Member

    Sure, if you choose to.
    You might have a some "dull" levels along the way tho, when your current zones start to get easy and you're not ready to take the next batch of instance.
  8. Larloch New Member

    I'm playing with a friend. Your post is exactly what I was hoping to hear. Thanks a lot.
  9. Venomizer Member

    Yes mobs hp increase.

    Mobs hp increase faster than player dps. Fights are longer the higher level you go.
  10. Estred Well-Known Member

    Yep, as I said roughly during Kunark it really gets noticeable. I solo'd a Paladin through even heroic dungeons up through Kingdomg of Sky.
  11. Larloch New Member

    Do you really 3 shot mobs all the way up to level 80? That doesn't sound fun to me. I'm willing to deal with a newbie zone/phase up to level 10 or so but past that I want the game to be a challenge. Are you talking about the solo content?
  12. Estred Well-Known Member

    Not quite 3 shot.... but it is relatively easy in comparison to how things are at 80+
  13. Finora Well-Known Member

    The gear one gets by level 20 is better than or equal to what people used to have at 50 due to various gear revamps. The content in the old world due to complaints from some players & feedback from some focus test group people they had a while back was nerfed to it's current level of "difficulty".

    If you want challenge while leveling up I suggest you do what my son does & roam around in zones you would think you had no business in. Green cons are something you could nearly always mow over. Anything blue and white will likely be pretty easy. Yellow will take slightly more effort. Orange & reasonable reds will be more of a challenge most of the time.

    Stupid statement here but normal difficulty things always are easier with better quality gear/spells. Prior to Kunark I raided frequently & had raid gear from KOS & all master spells. When Kunark was released I marched into Jarsath Wastes at 70 & was killing oranges with little issue. This was prior to the gear & aa revamps. Revamped gear & amount of aa's we have today gives the same effect leveling up.
  14. mague Active Member

    You decide about difficulty. Use the solo questing to level up and get items. Then mentor down and do group and raid content. If you are 95 and a raid/heroic dungeon is 50 it is your decission if you do the raid/group dungeon at 40, 45, 50 or 55.

    This way you will see all content and experience quite a few challanges as duo. Even with mercs.
  15. Salavar Active Member

    It's not hard it's tedious!
  16. Mohee Active Member

    Me and a friend recently created two twinked alts. A warden, and a brigand. We are currently locked at level 54, master spells, full reactant gear, mastercrafted filling in the rest, all refined and experimented on and adorned. We refuse to use mercs with these toons. It has been quite fun so far. Currently we are working on the Prismatic Weapon timeline, and duo'ing white/yellow con Epic x4's is easy so far. They are long fights, but relatively easy. It seems so wrong :p but we are about as twinked as you can get. She plays a brigand, and at level 54 currently has 14k hp lol. It feels so wrong, specially because I've played since beta, and remember the original feel of the game and amount of hp and damage level 50's did back in the day.

    Stick to heroics or higher and you should have fun with your duo. I also prefer not using mercs because they just blow things up and make it less enjoyable in my opinion. Specially when you are trying to just enjoy the content, instead of leveling through it quickly.
  17. Ragna Well-Known Member

    When you're leveling your Nth alt sure... But for a new player everything (good or bad) is a discovery.
  18. Lempo Well-Known Member

    Sadly you are a rare breed. The overland zones Nek Forest, Feerrott, Antonica, Enchanted lands, Thundering Steppes all used to be fairly to very difficult. That of course was all before AA's were introduced to the game. There were hordes of people that cried uncontrollably anytime and everytime they died to an overland mob. Eventually the devs caved removed almost all heroic content from overland zones and the tears slowed. A very large segment of the playerbase simply wants mobs that can be whacked a few times and then drop amazing loot.

    In the Enchanted Lands you have Rivervale and in The Feerrott you have Cazic-Thule those 2 places still have some content that if you do it while the mobs are yellow/orange, 3-6 levels over yours you might find it more engaging, Permafrost too. It wasn't always like this at one time it was hard not to die in overland zones, now it is pretty difficult to die.
  19. Snowhaze Active Member

    You may have to look around a little, but you can find challenging things to do at every level. I recently came back and started with nothing, duoed with my wife and we had a blast going to all the places we had never been. We found heroic dungeons too difficult, if not impossible without mercs, but still challenging with mercs.
  20. Plavem Active Member

    The game doesn't really get harder in my opinion.

    The damage to mob health ratio is about the same. What I mean is at 30 in quested / zone gear. It will still take you as long to kill as mob as it will if you were lvl 95 in quested gear.

    You do get more buttons to press.

    Raids aren't over all hard, if you get a decent group of people.

    If you are looking for a challenge, then you can go into higher lvl instances, or end game instances with a merc and try to kill stuff, but honestly you prolly wouldn't get to far.

    Wish you the best of luck..