This game is too Raid Orientated

Where did I say anything about soloers? Here is a quote on my post that addresses that: "We recruit the classes we need, and really don't care what gear they have when we recruit, just that they know how to play their toon to a minimum standard", that includes soloers, heck that includes anyone breathing. All I said was our preferred recruitment is for ex-raiders coming back to the game because there is a higher percentage that will know their class then anyone else.

Our raiding guild if fairly small so when we recruit someone it tends to be a class we need right now, so we bend the rules a bit to get them geared up so they can contribute immediately.

But w/e. Each guild has their own rules. So it's a moot ( ty Cold Metal!) point to argue. Seems lots of here got things against soloers having an idea that they want a free ride to sunset. Which is wrong on many levels. But again it is the matter of opinions.

It was me who was talking about soloers and you replied. So it's logical conclusion. But the post you quoted I was really addressing to Estred

Anyway dont get your panties in a twist (joking) dont get mad. I dont care what you do or dont in your guild. I am just saying that I dont have any issues with fabled gear dropped in solo. Never had.

No, no problem. I just didn't like the idea that someone thought my post was stating that we exclude anyone based on their play style. We only exclude based on showing that you can't play your class to the level we need for all of our raiders. That's even after we try to help you and gear you up. My guild as a 30 day policy for recruits before they can become members. At the end of 30 days we may decide that you just aren't a good fit for us, but you will always leave with better gear then you showed up with and hopefully you learned a few good things that would improve your playing skill.

That sounds very fair. I agree and firmly believe that we have to earn our membership in any raiding guilds by playing our char the best we can or at least try. And by showing loyalty.

What makes me always sad when a guild recruits a char hoping they stay. Gear them up help them to learn raids scripts and after gearing they jump the ship for better pastures. It feels like the worst type of use.

I simply consider it the cost of doing business as a raiding guild. You always hope that everyone you recruit sticks around and becomes a productive member of the guild. I'm guessing for the most part it's probably around 30% of those who we recruit end up not making it to the three months mark.

What I don't get is why folk think it is EASY for a solo player to gear up with Fabled AS drops. At the rare rate they drop I've got more pieces stashed in the bank for future alts than I've been able to equip on all 6 of my level 95s combined. Best equipped of the 6 actually has TWO WHOLE Fabled pieces.

Then again, maybe I'm a rarity. I insist on farming my own gear.

OP I don't know how long you've been playing EQ2, maybe you came over from WoW or something but this game is not like that. You don't get "welfare epic" gear from easy content that's as good as what raiders have.

I started in 2005 shortly after launch when it was just Freeport and Qeynos. It was very hard to solo even those darn rats, beetles, and snakes outside of the front gates of either city. There were no mercs to "molo" low level dungeons with. Making money if you didn't craft was brutal for the casual solo player. I remember having less than a plat until I figured out it was best to start putting those stupid collection quest items on the broker vice trying to finish them.

But the point is this game is, and always has been, a raiding game. Back in the original it was somewhat difficult to solo even simple things, and dungeons were really rough. I remember doing Stormhold the first time and we just could not get past Lord Andros and the first Scion. We died like seven times and gave up. Now you just grab a merc and tear through it. Granted, if you pull too much you may die but compared to how it used to be it's easy mode now.

Once you reach End Game now, it is hard to get into a lot of the well-respected raiding guilds that have been around for a long time. Even if you somehow do, you will be expected to play perfectly and have the best gear you can for whatever content you're going to tackle.

It is what it is, but EQ2 is one of the more hard core raiding games out there and the "average subscriber" does not deserve free raider-quality loot for minimal effort.

So you ultimately agree with OP on that

?

And we all try to tell him that's not really. Because there is so much solo content to work on. Much more than raid. Plus as you said yourself adding merc into the picture made even old epic zones trivial.

So what is it too raid oriented or not?

Holy moly! Are you familiar with Dungeon Finder? Have you noticed that it worked like a cast iron balloon? Of all the things I have read in this thread, this idea is the one furthest out in orbit, I think. Dungeon Finder failed miserably because people didn't really want groups, they wanted easy über groups that were guaranteed to succeed with little to no pain. And DF didn't give you that, sometimes you got grouped with tanks whose only understanding of taunting was the /taunt emote (real story) or the healer who wouldn't cure because "cures take too much power" (also real story).

Raiders talk about "progression" for a reason. You have to get gear for your whole raid force from the easy raids. Then you can progress to more difficult raids and eventually to hardmode/challenge raid encounters. There will ALWAYS be raid content out there that most raiders can't do, because SOE has to have some challenges for everybody to work on (the game would be as much fun as popping bubble wrap otherwise).

We weren't able to kill that [deleted][rude] Warboar in POW for a while! We had to work at easier raids to gear up enough so that we COULD kill him. And each name in POW is a little tougher than the last, so you have to improve the whole raid's gear incrementally.

In other words, there is absolutely no way a random Schmoe off the Norrathian streets can hope to contribute at ALL in a raid that you're not geared for. The first AOE kills you dead. The healers rez you, and while you are still floating in the air while the rez animation runs, the next AOE kills you AGAIN. Since in almost every raid, each death in your raid force strengthens or heals the name, you are not just not helping when this occurs, you are actually contributing to the overall failure of the raid.

There are pick up raid groups out there. I ran one during KOS. But a raid-force is not necessarily equivalent to a guild. Many will accept "allied raiders", which means you get to keep your existing guild tag, but you can participate in the raids as a valued raider. I also guarantee that there are raid groups on your server that you don't even know exist. Go take a look at http://progress.eq-raiders.com/server-list/

While I'm talking about the progression website, that's also one way to shop for a group to raid with. Note the names of raid forces for your server. Then go to http://u.eq2wire.com/soe/guild_search and look up the guild, and note the names of the leader(s) and officer(s). Try sending these folks a polite in-game email or /tell asking for more info.

Raiding is not everyone's cup of tea, and it shouldn't be: one of the great things about EQ2 is that it supports a huge range of play styles and interests.

If you are having trouble finding a group to raid with, there are some basic ground-rules I suggest:

(1) Learn your class thoroughly. Good gear can't compensate for craptastic playskills. Read up on your class, ask who the best player of that class is on your server in chat. Talk to the folks of your class who raid. Install ACT and try out different AA specs vs. a guild training dummy. Learn to play your class well.

(2) Gear Up. Use tools like The Dragon's Armory to evaluate your gear. The Steward of Drinal T2 equipment would be a baseline (as of today, tomorrow may vary) for "minimal reasonable raid gear", or the Primal EM raid pieces that drop in Advanced Solo instances. You may not have 100% of EVERYTHING up to raid spec, but by golly, adorn every slot that can be adorned with good quality adornments.

(3) Be an informed consumer. Ask around, ask questions, and read the rules of any raid-force you consider joining with care. If you live on the Pacific Coast and can only raid at midnight your time on Sundays, don't apply to raid with a group that works on Eastern Standard time raiding from 1PM-3PM Tuesdays and Thursdays. Make sure you thoroughly understand the loot rules, which are the cause of more hiney-hurt than a truckload of Buttpaste can cure. If the loot rules don't seem fair to you before you join the raid, then they certainly won't when you get passed over for that Helm of Godly Awesomeness later.

Oh, and a word about DKP. DKP is not a measuring tool for genitalia, nor a measure of awesomeness. It is a currency that is generally related to the time and effort you put into a raid. There is not one single unitary DKP system, there are scads of variants. The Portal of Lies and Hearsay has a pretty good overview of how some DKP systems work.

Actually I believe DF failed because it had a habit of creating groups with no tank or no healer. Now it seems to even dump players solo in a dungeon...?! Yep, like players are gonna use THAT tool.

OH how dare you!!!! Telling the truth, giving good suggestions and post links to important information. Who in the heck do you think you are???? BTW, what is a SOE Community Council?

I mean it's raid orientated for the best gear.

tbh anyone that thinks eq2 is raid oriented is off the charts. it started out little raid oriented I would say, the gaps between the tiers (solo, group, raid) gear was bigger, but moved more towards a solo friendly, nowadays everything is like a .0002% upgrade of each other (heroic, faction loot, raid loot). you get loot in solo content that is far above means to clear the solo content. you can get all the CC needed from faction loot/group zone mount needed for any raid (except maybe DC). Everything really just says solo friendly

You can't fault a game based on Guild's policies for their loot system or your unwillingness to join a guild to experience the harder content. That's your own play style choice. The game puts enough of the story content in the solo and group versions to make it worthwhile for those players.

Also considering that EVERY single raid zone is a version of a SOLO or HEROIC instance anyways completely invalidates your assumption the game is raid orientated because the content is equally available. If there were 3 times as many raid zones than heroic or solo zones I would agree with you, but this is far from being the case.

And due to problems like that I think simply reducing the green stats on the solo armour wouldn't be enough, much more needs to be reduced.

For example I have a dirge alt that hit 90 recently and I got him a set of 90 handcrafted gear, now that 90 dirge in the most basic equipment in existence is already sitting well above some softcaps... like 400+ dps for example lol.

You should never ever under any circumstances not even while drunk and wiggling your ears while cleaning your oven naked get anywhere near a cap at what is effectively lvl 1 and noob island gear.

Green stats on 90 hc need to go down to about 75, then solo quest rewards / drops can be at around 100, heroic at around 140 maybe and raid can stay where it is.
On top of that the majority of blue stats needs to be removed and made off limits for solo gear.
Its really the only way to have meaningful progression.

Basically, I am a regular player who has been playing since rocks were soft. The Community Council is a group of players who have agreed to allow SOE to pick our brains about things. I try to watch for issues that affect my part of the community (EQ2, natch), even if it isn't something affecting me or even necessarily agree with... and I pass along those threads or in-game conversations, sometimes via the Community Council, sometimes via /bug or /feedback. The Community Council also has members from SOE's other games. Sometimes we help beta test our game or one of the others.

So, alas, no I don't have the ear of the dev team, nor any mystical control over what they do. But I've been playing a long time, and if I know an answer, I'll generally TRY to provide it, both on the forums and in-game.

My all time best suggestion? Find a true newcomer to the game, and hand them a plat and six backpacks, at random, and ask them to "pay it forward" to some other new person down the line. It makes you feel incredibly good.

Might I recommend not frying bacon at the same time.

I've done that, it feels great... provided they don't start begging for help, then it's obnoxious.