Frustrated At The Difficulty.

Let me begin by saying I have been playing in Norrath since 99. I have been playing MMO's ever since then and I have world first kills on more than one game end game raiding speaking.

With that being said:

I am increasingly frustrated and disappointed at the difficulty of 'casual content' in EQ2. I was able to level to 92 and go to the Eidolon Jungle and quest without a problem. If I pulled smart, I probably didn't even need a mercenary. Obol was the same way. In fact, if I stuck to strategies (With a merc) I was able to solo a lot of the named mobs found in Eidolon and Obol Plains. Then... Cobalt Scar came along. Everything (to my dismay) was yellow or orange and came in packs of five or six. You were swarmed by mobs and desperately trying to stay alive. Each fight felt like the panic of a near wipe on a raid boss instead of a fun questing experience.

THEN... Vesspyr Isles came. Do you know what it was like to get my Necromancer to 95... buy crafted gear from other players since my gear was a little behind par - and go to Vesspyr with the intent to have fun only to be killed in TWO HITS by a normal quest mob? (It wasn't even a ^^^.. or a ^^.. or evena ^ mob. Just a normal. Mob.

Killing the named mobs in Vesspyr? HA! Not at least without a tank and a healer. (And not a mercenary either. I just tried to kill one and my mercenary was killed in one hit.)

I struggle..and struggle... and struggle.. only to end up buying 4 pieces of BoE gear off the broker. For 200p. Desperate to be able to quest.

I go to do the first set of quests and there in the first cave you have to enter only few quests in.. is a giant named mob that aggro'd no matter how careful I was. I had to stop and ask for help to kill the mob I didn't even want to touch just so I could quest.

WHY are you scaling casual content difficulty level so high? Why should we have to be geared to the teeth just to be able to QUEST? I think the solo's are horrible, awful if you're a healer and not a DPS being followed around by a healer merc. Putting a healer merc on passive to heal you is one thing.. go in there as a Templar having to manuever yourself AND a merc that you can't just 'put on passive and go'.

I'm extremely disappointed at the difficulty of the game for casual players who have no interest in harder content such as Heroics or raiding or contested fabled dungeons.

I can only hope that the next expansion I can see white conned mobs that don't hit like mac-trucks just because I'm still wearing Vesspyr Isles quest gear and not heroic gear. Please do not scale quest mobs to Heroic level gear. It's wrong -_-

yes, usually expac differences do require something else for diffculty.
I am not too shocked
that's like saying you were questing during RoK no issues, but along came Tso and suddenly you struggled.
and than after struggling for awhile in Tso, you thought you should just skip it and try SF. and bam

I didn't run into this with my first character through, I happened to be in the level 92 Frostfell gear. However, my second character hit a brick wall. I was in level 92 master crafted gear, with a couple of shots of experimentation on it. And I had a ridiculously hard time in Cobalt Scar, and had to get help with Vesspyr Isles until I got going with a few of the quest rewards.

I have no problem with difficult content. At all. But you really shouldn't have to "gear up" from instanced content in previous expansions just to do the basic -solo overland- quest content. Either the critters or the crafted gear need to be adjusted accordingly.

I'd also note that while there has definitely been a jump from one expansion to the next, it wasn't until the last two that it's been ramped up so high as to be discouraging or aggravating.

I'm sorry, but other than the named mobs in Vesspyr Isles, I haven't had a single issue with the questing in Eidolon, Obol or Vesspyr. I will admit I have not bothered with CS at all though as I end up being ready for Vesspyr before I'm done with Obol.

This is a post I would more expect from a WoW era player tbh. After surviving day long corpse runs, death from getting a single add, and if you were human like me, having to kill fire beetles to see in the dark cause you were blind as a bat....
I enjoy the challenge personally, and there are many "relaxing" activities in game already (crafting, decorating, mentoring to do old content, etc) My advice? Rise to the challenge and enjoy the spoils of victory once you succeed. Good luck.

Wait, you think you can waltz into ToV in handcrafted gear and try and take on a named? I know I sure the heck wasn't able to kill a named the first time I came into ToV on my raid-geared character, I needed help to do that. You will have to have help as well if you want to kill the contested named. Did you not even have CoE gear from the last expansion? If you had COE gear, then you would just have to be cautious, as we all had to be, to start the gear quests.
We all came into this expansion with CoE gear.
We ran the overland quests then signature quest, just to get the gear to do the solo instances then heroics.
It took us quite a few deaths to get it done too.
I suggest looking over your gear again then your AA line and see where you can improve to survive better for the quests in Vesspyr. The gear rewarded is pretty much necessary to start running the solo instances then heroics.
If you are still having issues, then you need to adjust your play-style or perhaps try another class.

I agree with many of the posters here. I think a challenge is the fun part. I remember the old days of EQ. You had to work pretty hard to get anyplace, but it was fun and worth the work.

Out of curiosity, what class chara were you on, OP?

I am not relishing the thought of taking my wizzie through the VI quests at all. Especially through the advanced solo instance (can't remember it's name) where you have to kill the named by rooting it for a short time in the middle of the room inside a glowing patch while trying to kill other mobs in rooms just off the main room. The mercs don't seem to work well with this script.

Having group-scripted fights is fine - for raids. Not so for content that is meant to be able to be done solo/molo.

I had the most ease and fun taking my wizard through the ToV expansion among my various characters. With a healer merc, you aren't as death prone without it.

CS and then ToV are a little harder than the previous overland zones. This was the (possibly vocal) majority request as over time the overland zones seem to have got so easy you just have to blow on any enemy and they fall over.

CS started the new trend with some slightly tougher encounters and ToV added to it big style. If you hover your mouse over your target window of a named, it states you'll need help from others.

Some classes have an easier time, and of course gear helps tremendously. All of my characters can solo or molo the names in Vesspyr Isles now, but they have good heroic gear.

You're obviously not the type of player who likes being in danger. I personally like being a little on edge when out and about. Knowing I'm invincible in a zone is kinda boring (my zerker is anyway, but my other characters aren't)

I'll have to agree the VI questline is somewhat difficult. I've only got some of my alts through the overland questline and parts of the signature quest, by gearing them out beforehand using cryptic/arcane (& some potent) armor and weapon drops (and armor exchanges) for the different archetypes using a single well-geared toon. Being able to survive at the start for my alts helped make the questing and further upgrading much easier.

I thought it was only difficult enough not to be boring. Sure the named are hard solo, but they should be.
The thing is once you hit 95 and have any sort of gear you'll be one shotting that stuff.

VI isn't intended for sub-95 toons. If you're not 95 yet you have no business there. Other than that, if you're still struggling, the armor for sale on the loyalty vendor (the loyalist stuff) is pretty nice and will give you a huge step up.

Speaking as someone who has enough challenge in daily life that I DO NOT need challenge in my game, I found Vesspyr overland to be okay. My necromancer and illusionist both had some tough spots, but I learned where to be careful. They were both 95 and fully geared in Drinal's Steward gear from CoE. Both Cobalt Scar and Vesspyr have a couple of places where the mob swarms are overdone for cloth wearers, but once you figure it out you can be okay. The only named I can think of in a cave is Harla Dar's son (his name escapes me right now). I hate asking for help though I love helping others. Therefore, I hate that the "Solo" dungeons require two people really, but I have done them on a couple of characters. I would say there are some poorly thought out mechanics in them (the guy who can pull you or push you or hurl you into pits of snakes is one). However, with a good team they are doable without too much annoyance. When you get to the last required instance for the signature line you run into trouble. I did it once and found it so difficult I ended up being physically ill for several hours. I won't do that one again. I am not someone who receives satisfaction or achievement from doing something in a computer game so it is just not worth it to me. So, I understand the OP to some extent, but think maybe there is something he is missing in how to do VI. Just scope out the mobs before you land and figure the best approach for what you are doing...

This game is really hard in general.

All humans are not of equal intelligence and ability. The game content is aimed at an average player with average skill and ability. To make the game playable to the lowest common denominator so that the worst player can solo everything, would be very boring for everyone else. I am an average player and like things they way that they are right now. If you can't play Chess, then I suggest that you try Checkers.

I'd suggest hello kitty adventure island. it's super easy

This post was about simply trying to solo the quests (Or molo them rather, me and my merc) on my 95 Necromancer. Should I have to go back to CoE zones and grind obols for five weeks just to be able to quest in Vesspyr? (I should hope not). Don't say 'everyone' was CoE geared. Any new level 95 is not CoE geared. They are in the gear that they got from Eidolon and Obol plains (not the obol gear, the quest gear.). My Necromancer was in better gear than Obol quest gear and I was still being -TWO SHOT- by regular QUEST MOBS. (Not the named mobs... quest mobs.) Two hits without a heal. Dead. Even with my healer merc.. if I get more than one mob.. I am dead.

This is too difficult. It wasn't 'HORRIBLE' on my Assassin. The quests are easy on any of my -tanks-. As a healer you have to spam heal your mercenary until you get gear. But as a squishy class?...... it's horrifyingly difficult. Too difficult to be fun. If I wanted to 'rise to the challenge' I would be running Heroics again or doing end game content. I retired from end game raiding for a reason: I wanted to relax and just enjoy some quests and the rest of the game.

I do love people calling me stupid and that I have no skills. I do a good 2 million DPS on my Assassin in quest gear mixed with a bit of cryptic. He's not even in Heroic gear.

The scaling of this expansion and CS is awful. Period :|

I didn't know your guild still existed