SOE Can we get Back to great exp through Questing???

So then why even make solo content at all?
Pretty sure it was simple to find groups in RoK.
Grouping is more fun and has better rewards, that is why people will group.

Why make solo content at all? People complained that they were left dead in the water, if they couldn't find a group. There was nothing to do. They begged for -something- to do, even if it was not as lucrative as grouping. Keep in mind, while some prior expansions had some rather significant quest lines, most of them transitioned from solo to heroic to epic.

OK, fair enough. Despite being an MMO, it made sense to throw them a bone. However...

RoK changed things up to cater to the "Solo MMORPG'ers", but there was some serious problems with it. ROK inadvertently became the most anti-social leveling experience EQ2 had seen. What best sums up RoK is "quest prerequisites". If PlayerA was on Boring_Solo_Quest#17, and PlayerB was on Boring_Solo_Quest#35, it was a total waste of time for PlayerB to group with PlayerA, thus more often than not, they did not group. And the average EXP rate for groups killing heroic mobs? Absolutely woeful (SOE later boosted it, significantly). The expansion launch was an epic disaster of "solo or go home". Not what an MMO should be, ever.

TSO and SF both seen more of the tedious, stringent, RoK style quest series, that had to be done in sequence. DoV was more of the same, but this time the "solo MMORPG'er" was able to leech off PQs. Going forward into SkyShrine, there was a solo quest line with fantastic gear rewards, with solo zones available to keep things going. Now in CoE, there is a quest line, with multiple solo zones available on very fast reset timers.

CoE has the highest solo content replay value, and most meaningful rewards in solo content, of any EQ2 expansion. But it is no surprise that it is "not enough" for some people... It probably will never be enough until they can face-roll an effortless 20 second quest, and be rewarded with the sword of a thousand truths, a full set of the best armor, and a pop-up message declaring they just beat EQ2. No, wait, they will complain about that, too...

I dunno how much it hurt or not, but to come out with COE being a polar opposite in design concepts than SS, is disconcerting at the least.

Not sure why you all think this expansion's group content sums up to a "handful" and "hardly worth paying for." There are 8 new instances plus contested Skyshrine. Plus ST HM, which is still very much worth running. There is plenty to do, and rare drops worth running these zones for. I do, however, wish we had a Heritage Quest or four to do :/

Less QQ, imo...

And as far as me defending the questers, I don't care really. Just playing devil's advocate. People are going to find the quickest shortcut to the end of the game so they can complain ASAP anyway, so why argue.

Solo questing should never be as good as group xp but should be as viable as solo grinding.

This is a multiplayer game after all and so the player should be encouraged to join up with others for maximum gain.

The problem lies with the mentoring system as solo players can get reasonable xp by killing old group content on their own.

Certainly as it stands, xp from DoV2 and CoE solo questlines are woefully low. But they should not be better than grouping in relevant dungeons. You can do solo timelines in your own time, at your own pace, and so you should have a penalty vs grouping with others.

It wouldn't hurt to double or even triple the hand in xp reward from these quests though. Maybe even more. It still won't come close to group xp.

And they really should reduce the level restriction to do the obol plains quests to 93. Getting 2 levels from EJ quests is not possible.

I also miss all those voice overs in qeynos. And the choice of where you want to start instead of halas or gorowyn

No, you couldn't find xp groups at all in RoK because soloing was the only viable leveling path and the solo "quest" rewards smoked anything previously seen before, besides some end game EoF gear.

A perfect example of what not to do.

As one of those "Just scraping by" (mostly because I'm trying to upgrade my armor), we have enough communism in the real world. Don't bring it to Everquest. I don't want to be punished if I end up being the one with the money.

Rich players are how I make the plat I do have. I find what they pay big bucks for, and then I sell it. There's a stupidly huge number of shinies and gatherables that sell for good money that most people ignore for reasons I still can't figure out. They're practically free money that I pick up as I go. They require little to no grinding. That's not even getting into Krono.

When I look through the broker, there really isn't much in this game that is unattainable, unlike several years ago when it seemed everything was impossible. Plat doesn't worry me, especially at 90+ levels when all characters are enormously overpowered.

Now, as to the subject of whether there's enough content. The entire CoE storyline got me one level. Now normally I'd worry a bit about not having enough to do, but actually have a huge backlog of old quests and places I haven't explored yet.. I suppose it's time to finish all of 'em off.

Yhea, I liked these quests in Kunark too - did them on multiple toons even after I grinded some alts to level just becuase. I enjoy the multi faction feel - have always wanted factions to mean more in EQ2. Kunark was the first xpac where quests actually made alot of sense in relation to the game - even the trivial ones.

On venny/Naggy finding a group to do these quests was generally easy becuase you knew you were gonna end up with pvp sp people often grouped up to try to better the odds.

I enjoy good old fashioned dungeon crawl/xp grinds the most but agree quest XP should be bumped up some - choice in leveling should be as near equitable as possible from questing to grinding.

Would be nice to see "heroic" overland zones again. Maybe keep the easy/solo zones they have but then allow an option to goto CL-Heroic or WL-Heroic, etc where the mobs are all heroic, bosses are all x2 etc with appropriate drops for the content. IE heroc mobs could have mini scripts, require self cures etc, and be equal in power to a heroc instance mob of the same tier. These "heroci" zones could provide additional xp bonus' for grouping.

dbl post]

I love coe quests that won't update the group, and then you have to do the same quest once for each person in the group just as if you were solo. It's completely contrary to grouping, like they design it to keep us separate.

yhea that was utterly annoying.

I think one of the issues is that what could have been "plat sinks" (appearance gear, fluff stuff), has been changed into real life cash sinks...

But.. that's actually nongermane relative to points 1-4...

How about this:

1. Make solo quest xp comparable to overland grind xp, for the same amount of time expended (based on the average time it takes to do either as tracked in the game's usage logs - to be tweaked by the devs as necessary to retain parity).
2. Make heroic quest xp comparable to heroic zone grind xp (see first parenthetical comment).
3. Make epic quest xp comparable to raid zone grind xp (see first parenthetical comment).
4. Let XP potions apply to quest xp as well (to the same degree as it affects kill xp, aa xp, and ts xp).
5. ?????
6. Profit.

as to #4 I thought exp potions did apply to quest exp? as well as explore exp.

maybe becuase we've already been doing the other parts of the game? i was 92 when the expansion hit did the sig quest on one toon did not get to 95 got to about 93.5 IIRC and had to grind the rest out as well as raid the SS zones. this after questing myself for the most part up through each expansion as it hit with an 8 month break and playing all parts of the game.

Well to answer the quote Alenna has responded too. The lack of content outside of the Solo line is the issue. Wurmbones End also somewhat assumes you to be at minimum level 94 for the Solo Instance (at least to not be excruciatingly long it can be done at 92-93 but you really aught to be 94 by then).

Imo there should be enough quests to reach cap by questing, but they should be spread across multiple hub-areas with separate stories within them. Separate "end quest" rewards per hub and ya know, if I want, I should be able to say "forget questing I am going to the Contested zone to level with some friends" and expect to not instantly be screwed by trash. ST-Con at launch was very startlingly hard compared to past Contested Zones, a precedent that was set by Kael Drakkel.

SF: The Hole was enterable at level 85
TSO: Tbh I do not know if there was a Contested zone in TSO.
RoK:
- Sebliss (75-80)
- Chardock (80)
- Karnor's Castle (70-75)

Chains of Eternity: ST-Contested (93-95) and really should be 95 due to the drains, random-directional ports and the like. It was doable... but not really friendly to walk into at 92 to start leveling as most Contested zones start at the level area and end at the level cap (in the back).

Then that makes you different from the person of whom I asked that question two weeks ago...

As far as I can tell, it only really affects the AA XP gained from quest completion. If it does apply at all to quest xp, it seems like it is at a lower percentage than you'd get from straight grinding with a potion. I'll have to run through and do the same quests on equal level toons (one with a potion and one without) so that I can get exact figures.