To all Solo players..You won

My experiences with RoK:

I rolled a Troubador and made my way through Timerous Deep soloing my way up to 20 and doing every quest in sight. It was fairly painless and simple. The moment I left out of Timerous Deep and into the old world content and EoF, things got a bit more difficult as most of the server population was 70+ and the only other characters that were newbies were all rolling very solo friendly classes like necros and furies.

I painfully managed to solo with the occasional pity PUG my way to 68 and decided to take a crack at Kylong Plains after hearing about 65+ solo quests. Surely I thought these quests would be great at getting me to 75+ so I could utilize my skills more effectively in a grouping environment. It's why I rolled a Troubador after all so I could get groups frequently with others, they enjoy my songs, and I get to help others out. I end up getting utterly crushed by the white to yellow con Drachnids, skeletons, and Drolvargs. I LFG for hours and no assistance because everyone else, who's playing far more solo friendly classes *again* don't need help besides me.

I end up trudging back to Kingdom of Sky and Loping Plains to grind my way to 70 and I'll eventually head back to Kunark to try to get to 75+. No one on AB really groups before level 75+. It's really hurting classes that are designed to shine in a group environment or solo slowly compared to other classes, this is resulting in quits that translates into key classes being VERY difficult to find at 80+ level when people finally DO want to group. Good luck finding healers, tanks, and bards/enchanters for PUGs and raiding guilds who are re-recruiting are finding out that any attempts at finding the key classes they want is abysmal at best because they have to surf through the billions of necros, furies, and bruisers first.

People play EQ2 because it offers something different from WoW. Most people believe EQ2 offers a better and more mature community than WoW, more of an incentive to group but soloing as a very viable option, and a raised amount of difficulty. If you start to take these things away and the devs get the idea that the only way to "beat" WoW is to join them by making EQ2 become a solo to max level game with only grouping at the end then people are going to quit and go to the game that does this style of gameplay much better.

I soloed my way through RoK with a troub too and you are right. The difficulty of the mobs hitting none raid geared chars is stealing the fun out of the game. Get yourself up to 72. The MC armor does not prevent the mobs from hitting chunks out of your chest, but you get them killed a lot faster. After the increase in mob difficulty from KoS to EoF and from EoF to RoK, I wonder if the next expansion is finally death for all none raid geared chars. It would be death for bards. I already gave up playing him.

I have enjoyed this expansion more than any other! I do solo 90% of the time and I really enjoy a good challenge. This expansion provides all of that. I have grouped to do CoA and I am looking to group in CoM, there seems to be a fair amount of group content in this expansion.
I hope this formula will be carried forward in the next expansion.
Thanks SOE!
Slowdethh
L78 Necro, AP/AB