My Experience as a returning newbie

I post this in hopes that perhaps this will change the mindset of a lot of players or that maybe something will be done about the current situation facing people that are new, or returning and still relatively new (but learning).

I came back from leaving a few months after TSO I believe. I was young, in college, I didn't have time between my 3 jobs, school, and sleep to really play EQ so I just let it die. I always wanted to revisit the lands of Norrath but as the years passed and I became grouped into joining another MMO, I would eventually quit due to the heavily casualization and mindless grinding that had little to no challenge.

Recently, I came back to EQ II just because I'm bored stiff. The gaming scene is very hit or miss right now because of the new systems on the horizons and, lets face it, it's not what it used to be oh so many years ago. When I look at what classes were needed I found Enchanters and Bards to be the wanted amoungst the masses. I proceeded to level up three toons: An Illy, A druid, A paladin. There were a few in between but those ended up being my mains. My illy ended up at the respectable level of 75 or so, my druid is in her 50's and my paladin is in his 20's. This whole time I had a wonderful time questing, crafting, and man do I seem to love heritage quests, but something was amiss.

You see, you have a wonderful game here, but the community seems to be lacking. Whether it's social ineptitude or some other strange handicap, grouping is non existent pre end game. It was awful for me, as someone who loves grouping, to barely ever have any sort of player interaction. Why am I paying for an mmo when it's really ending up just a single player game until I eventually hit end game and suddenly I'm expected to know everything about my class?

On top of that, I would ask this. If you're new, be patient, if you're a vet, do the same thing. Today was my last day caring to try. I get a dungeon on my paladin via dungeon finder, it's with a dirge, he proceeds to pull everything within 2 seconds of sitting in the zone and we die. He does this again after coming back but I escape just in time to camp. When I asked what was up the dirge actually said I was "going too slow". I'm not even a new player, Im a vet gamer and I know what I'm doing on EQ, the only thing new about me is I don't know the content.

"Okay" I say to myself. "Maybe it's just that level bracket", which I have to admit is low for my paladin, but then I go on my 50 something druid. I actually got ANOTHER group on dungeon finder, it was a miracle because dungeon finder is probably one of the least used things I've seen utilized in this game. People told me it was broke before I didn't believe them but I have to agree at this point, after being grouped with only 1 other person each time, mind you I don't have a merc, it became very apparent it's broken and VERY bloody annoying. Anyway, I'm on my druid and it's the same deal. One other person, dying horrible deaths because the dungeons for 5 people.... I just had enough and camped.

This has been an ongoing thing for month upon months since I've started up again. There's no grouping, then suddenly when there is grouping it's some horrible, awful debauchery of haphazard adventuring. It's like watching Don Quixote only without any sort of entertainment value and a crap ton of dying.

This is supposed to be an MMO, but all I've seen is people in towns, trolls in channels, no one talking or helping anyone out, and absolutely no grouping.

I remember when I first started I could get a group for FG at almost any time within an hour or so of playing. It seems I can't anymore, and for that I cannot fathom playing this game any longer.

It's the age of the game and the lack of marketing. EQ2 doesn't have 10 million players like WoW or their fame to attract new ones.

As such the game is very top heavy. And Dungeon Finder is awful. You have a better chance just advertising you're forming a group in 1-9 chat. It sounds like you got stuck with the 10 year old on school vacation in your dungeon finder group.

I agree with your comments I really do, but unfortunately I think it's too little, too late for EQ2 to get out of these problems. You can work round these issues, but you have to put the effort in rather than relying on the game to do it for you. You have to persevere to form groups at your level, and if you're not prepared to it will unfortunately continue how it is.

Well I would stick around with EQ2 if I was you, more content updates are coming along with another expansion pack that will be epic!!

And of course Everquest Next

i have tips on using "/who ALL" commands & sending tells to find a group in the LOTPENSAB linked in my signature! =X

section is titled..."LFG/Anonymous flagging tips"...CTRL+F to find it using search! ;o

I share the OPs concerns, when I've discussed EQ2 with irl friends and they have expressed interests in joining me in eq2, I honestly tell them not to bother. It seems like it must be so hard to begin as a totally new or even returning player at this point in the game.

I have friends from EQ1 who come and go, been gone for awhile now, since SF I think. Were back when Sony gave all accounts 45 days free time with the whole security fiasco, which had them doing some DoF stuff. IF after time they decided to come back, I'd be available to friends to answer questions they have, and we would be able to make time to play together in dungeons that were not soloable.

If I had r/l friends who were interested in giving the game a try, I'd tell them that would be awesome, Don't buy anything yet because it's free to play up to 90 and I will make a new toon to play with you as you level up so you can group and see the stuff that isn't solo. Then once you've played awhile you can decide to buy in or not.

The lack of grouping has been an issue with EQ2 for quite some time now. There is also never any acknowledgement from devs here about this issue, or about how Dungeon Finder is badly broken.

One thing EQ2 could do to help is add in a feature similar to Rift's Instant Adventures. It allows players to instantly group up together, and the content scales. It's fun, you get rewards and you level. However, even if SOE attempted to do this, it would most likely come out severely broken.

like ive said elsewhere, i doooo i think itd kinda be rude to send people to a dying game ;p lol...

"i doooo think*" <-- oops, typo fix...added a random "i" before "think" for some reason... ''...

With the right guild, you can find groups easily. Shop around, there are plenty of guilds out there that have players willing to group. I have players of all levels that I regularly group with. I have found that raiding guilds are not where you want to be if you want to group and enjoy the content, but then again, maybe I'm wrong there.

I started playing this game on Nov 8 2004, yea launch. I played for about 5 years then quit. Just this week I decided to come back. Yes grouping is all but dead at low to mid levels. That's why I brought a lot of people with me into the game and my guild. I do youtube videos and stream. Although I'm not really well known I did a recruitment video and I stream all the time trying to get more people for my guild. If you want you're more then welcome to join us. The entire guild is new players except me. It's a lvl 45 guild in qeynos called Light of Qeynos and we're on the everfrost server... Feel free to join anytime. Just send any member a tell if you want...

Now this is a great way to come back! You got some friends to come back too and became active in recruiting for your new guild - thumbs up to you! I am already guilded on Everfrost, but I love the server - not too crowded, not too empty (this has been my personal experience, I still see ppl in lower lvls, YMMV)

Wow, that stuff is impossible to read. You might try reformatting.

LOL well it's definitely long but he's using paragraphs. Just personally, I didn't have problems reading it. It's the long walls of text that are lacking punctuation and paragraphs that I can't wade through.

On topic of the OP, my experience with the community has been different (positive). If you decide to stay, probably finding a guild with like-minded players would make the game more enjoyable for you. That's just a matter of seeing which guilds are active, checking out their recruitment thread/website, maybe running a group with some - but you know the drill.

Anyway, sorry you've had a rough go of it, hope things improve for you -- or if you leave, hope you find a game that will suit you better!

Edit: Sorry!! I thought the reformatting comment was aimed at the OP - LOL

pshhh most all of it is punctuated! =X

OP, your experience is why I've advocated the ability to auto level to end tier. There is a bunch of solo content to go do leveling up but if you play for interaction there is very little short of endgame.

OP - there is no one left. the game is dead/dying.

Hey Mr.Oldtimer,

lol you edited my post
but lucky, the red color does not come up for me so I could not read what you edited in my post.

Smokejumper admitted they turned this into a small "niche" game. Don't expect alot of groups even at max level.

The name Everquest went from the number 1 most popular MMO to not even in the top 20. You are experiencing the results of that kind of monumental incompetance.

Well I wouldn't stick around with EQ2 if I was you, poor content updates are coming along with another expansion pack that will beunderwhelming!!

And of course The Elder Scrolls Oline is coming out soon so why bother?