To all Solo players..You won

To begin with, I am primarily a solo player (which often irritates the missus to no end).

Not having experienced mainland Kunark (I do not count Timorous Deep as Kunark proper) beyond running my fury and sorcerers up to Teren's Grasp to get the abilities to 'port there at will (I admittedly advance at a pace that could charitably be described as 'glacial' ), my ability to comment on non-solo content is limited, at best.

Now, speculation...that I can do.

With the exception of Kurn's Tower, which will likely get the Unrest treatment (into what, I cannot say), I am personally not expecting SOE to put in any 70-75 level group content into Kunark. Which is actually not a good thing, in my opinion, despite the fact that Kunark is seemingly - seemingly, mind you - tailor-made for people like me. Eventually, I'll get there, and as I always enjoy grouping with my wife in these situations, it will mean that we will either have to group for the solo content, or...not group. Personally, I think the thing to do is write off the possibility of such group content being introduced until the next expansion.

However, when that expansion does appear ( I am very much hoping it will be Odus ), I am hoping the level cap will remain at 80, but that we will see something along the following lines (using Odus as an example):

* A new starting city - let's say Paineel, the (theoretical) home of the Quellithulians with the new player race of <insert racial name here>.
* A linked overland zone that rivals Timorous Deep...for argument's sake, let's say Toxxulia. Levels 1-20.
* A zone that avoids the 'now off to Butcherblock we go' syndrome. Let's say the Stonebrunt Mountains. Levels 21-30.

From level 31 to 60, most of the existing overland zones should be adequate. Although I will not complain if new stuff is introduced. Such things could easily be placed in Erud's Crossing, or off the coast of Gunthak. Just as some parts of the world sank, other parts of the world could now have additional landmass above sea level as a result of tectonic movement and/or geological/climactic change.

* A 'small group' zone along the lines of Rivervale - the ruins of Erudin, with the Erudin Docks as a 'mustering point'. Levels 61-70.
* A higher-level overland zone. Gulf of Gunthak. 71-80. Perhaps this could contain 1 or 2 Crossroads-style outposts with merchants and such.
* An obligatory raid zone. Crypt of Nadox. High level and brutal, with oodles of phat lewt, just the way raiders (those I know, anyways) like it.
* A series of low-level group content zones for levels 69-75: Erudin Palace, Kerra Island, the Warrens, and the Hole.
* Two or more Heritage Quests tied to the new continent.
* At least one additional character slot.

Anyways, those are just some ideas that popped into my feverish mind.

WeatherMan wrote:

You got to love the rehashed 15 low level zones he suggests
and the 1 obligatory raid zone.
No bias whatsoever.

o hey at least he allowed one 71-80 zone as well.
Gee thanks

To tell the truth the biggest gap in eq2 now is
30-60 content
That content lacks the most landmass and the most group instances.
followed by the 71-80 content.
Furthermore there are plenty of starting cities
personally i would like to see qeynos and freeport revamped into 2 large seamless cities.
I would like to see odus as the next expansion
I would like to see no new races and a new class (beastlord)
If needed I would like to see kerra isles as the start zones a fast 1-30 experiance. (timourous deep/gfay)
I would like to see stonebrunt mountains a 30-50 experinece (steamfont)
I would like to see a 50-70 zone (like lesser faydark)
I would like to see the rest as a 71-80 expansion (basically 2-3 more highlevel outdoor zones)
a level 40 instance
3 tier 8 lvl 75+ instance (should just change shard of fear 71-75 to teir 8)
5 more raid zones (fth, mmis, eh, cwm, tnt)
Instnaces and any other zones where they see fit.

I am always amazed when someone says that 30-50 lacks content.

Steamfont, Rivervale, Splitpaw (~35 in Nek), Feerrott
[+] Runnyeye, Cauldron Hollow, Deathfist Citadel, Cazic-Thule, Obelisk of Lost Souls, Solusek's Eye, Crushbone Keep,
Lavastorm, Everfrost, Sinking Sands, etc.
[+] Clefts of Rujark, Klak'Anon, etc. etc.

It is 55-62 that is dullsville. IF you managed to pick up all the quests in Maj'dul in the Peacock series, etc. or like very tough content with crap loot there's Pillars of Flame. The solo collection quests in Tenebrous Tangle, and the solo quests in Lesser Fay. That's about it!

62-70 has so many zones it's not even funny. If you lock your combat XP, you still can't experience all of it.

Someone posted a great idea. Kaladim has outlived its usefulness as a lvl 60-65 open dungeon. It should be repurposed (nerfed if you will) as a lvl 45 heroic dungeon. Cut the mobs by 40%. And since the rebalancing of loot because of Kunark makes the old world lvl 50-62 loot a joke, just relabel all the Kaladim loot as lvl 45 and leave the stats.

feldon30 wrote:

Where would they put the class piece from kaladim though?

Gungo@Crushbone wrote:

<shrug> As I said, it was just some ideas. No need to get your panties in a bunch.

But it is possible to read yet not fully understand, or completely miss some of the words, so I can see where you might have jumped to automatic conclusions. It happens. And I'm unsure as to where you got '15 low level zones'...but I admit that the definition of 'low level' might hinge on how quickly one burns their way through to the pinnacle.

And I am fairly sure SOE would not bank a huge amount of resources on more than 2 raid zones, maybe 3 if the upper management demanded it regardless of the lack of financial viability in such an endeavor. But I have no way of reading the minds of the devs, admittedly

And I am taking comfort that we will likely never, ever see the beastlord in EQ2...the biggest reason being (that was stated by the developers) that no new classes would be added until the existing ones were all balanced against each other. This is likely to happen...never, actually.

I did play a beastlord in EQ, and I enjoyed the class and what it could do - namely, almost anything. There's another reason we will likely never see it. Would I play one? You betcha - because in order to be done correctly, it would make every other class obsolete. I'd put all my current characters on hold while I leveled a beastlord and made a whopping phat wadge o' cash, and then I would deck all the other characters out with (at the minimum) Adept 3's and Mastercrafted gear all 'round.

And I, for one, am having no problems filling my 30 to 60 quest logs. I am in no rush to burn through my levels, either. Managing these levels has never presented a problem for me, at least not yet. I was simply putting forth an idea

I would think that 71-80 has been more than compensated for in Kunark...but I acknowledge there are those who might want even more, despite the howls of protest I am hearing. I am not speaking of those people who would like to see more low-70's group zones (I believe my suggested number was '4') along with what was provided with Kunark, but people who, for some reason, despise - with a burning passion - the fact that solo quests were even included at all.

And three of the five 'starting areas' are on islands already - a fourth would be overkill, in my opinion. This makes five, a city on Odus makes six - far less than in EQ1. As an idea, mind you.

This would, in fact, be a perfect opportunity to introduce a new city (and possibly a new race) - the erudites of Odus have put their differences aside, and demand the same of any who venture there. Similar to EQ's Crescent Reach.

But as I said, they were only ideas, not intended to bring out the worst in people.

Jeger_Wulf wrote:

Funny, LS has generaly been considered the BEST zone in the game and it still is. Just because it is/was hard doesnt mean it sucks Not olny that, but not a single dungon in the game has even come close what Sol Eye is.

Considered the BEST zone or the best looking zone, and by whom? Maybe you still live in 2005, but funwise this zone needs a complete and total overhaul. Look at steamfont, the looks there and especially the quest progression, a masterpiece. Every time i level an alt to 35 +, i really look forward to go there. Tell me one person that looks forward to go to LS. Not only becuase of the totally restrictive walkway there (zone is big, but is more or less a linear walk. ) This is why the zone looks much bigger than it's actually is , just like lesser faydark.

The only thing that's to be found in LS is : 2 HQ and a long first walk to the teleporter, that about noone wants to make anymore unless the zone is grey, you are a brawler or can grab a conjuror with CoH.

btw, i'm not talking about the looks here, because...you want to look more thatn once at a zone, but not experience outdated and useless content more than once.


In my opinion, a very nice balance between solo and group has been made in the EoF zones, minus lvl 40-49 content, where you had to go to the old content to experience dungeon/instance stuff. This is totally out of whack in RoK, where i would shoot myself rather than go through the horrible soloquest/factiongrind again.

Double post

Well I read through the thread, and it's very interesting. I'd say that grouping is not always easy to do or something I'm able to do, so for me solo questing is a great experience. I do believe that grouping is an integral part of playing an MMO, but I also feel that I shouldn't be forced to group just to lvl up.
I look forward to experiencing more of the game content and perhaps sharing my feelings about it then.
-Cym

Beghard wrote:

I don't get people that gush about how challenging Lavastorm was. Lavastorm was not a hard zone. Lavastorm has never been a hard zone. A group of appropriate level plows through the trash in this zone.
Lavastorm is a tedious zone. The mobs aren't difficult, they are just excessively plentiful. The only challenge lies in your ability to endure the tedium until you get to the end and gain teleporter access. The HQ's in the zone are probably two of the worst in the game. They are more a test of player endurance than a test of player skill or ingenuity and calling the end rewards lackluster would be generous. It's just one long, linear gauntlet wrapped into the facade of being an island. Yeah, there's innovation right there.
The zone design for LS was flat out a bad idea. The devs wanted to make a challenging end-game zone and failed. SOE devs have often made the critical error of mistaking tedious time-sinks for challenge. The zone is one big wasted opportunity to do something fun and imaginative.

Sulan@Lucan DLere wrote:

Well if you compare LS (or EF) to any of the other overland zones, then it is comparitavely hard. When someone runs all over the place solo, and then gets to LS, I can only imagine they are going to think "uh oh, this is too hard."

Sulan@Lucan DLere wrote:

So what? I bet you dont even know what all of the instances are in there and from the sounds of it you werent even here when it was new. I played for a long time at lvl 50 before DoF cam out and geuss what, I never got a grp for LS because it was "to hard" or no one had the neckless. The mobs there were hard and they could wipe a group of regular players. Hell, allot of people couldnt even make it thru the tunnel at first. I also remember grouping there one time with a wizard, assasin, guard, temp ranger and an illy all lvl 50 and killing the mobs then was much much much slower than anything is now. Since you obviously wernt here before the CU you dont realy have much of a say about what it was like. The HQs there are NOT the worst in the game. I did them all before they got nerfed and Torbins eye patch was more tedious than either of the ones in LS. I spent 8 hours at one of the camps and 9 hours trying to get the stupid goblin. Tell me what exactly is your idea of something fun and imaginative and why was it so easy when it was new? The nightblood there was one of the hardest lvl50 raids in the game. It was one of the only raids that guilds actualy had problems with people dieing on the way and having to recover their shard before they could go in. The other was the giant in Sol Eye.

Try having a grp in the middle of LS with six people who have shards at every opposit end of the zone and tell me its not hard and doesnt take cordination.

Beghard wrote:

Really? Damn. Thanks for letting me know. I coulda sworn I moved over from EQ1 when this game launched. Thanks for informing me otherwise. I'm sorry you had such a rough time of it when the zone was new, really. I am. Sounds more like a personal issue for you though. All I can say is that if your group had coordination to begin with you wouldn't have been in the middle of the zone with shards at every opposite end..which by the way, there were two of. The beginning and the end. Lavastorm has two opposite ends with a teleporter connecting them. That's hard.

My journal is full of heroic quests for RoK but guess what i can't find any groups to do them.

Cuz everyone is soloing, and I guess you don't have a guild that will help you.

Beghard wrote:

I was talking about LS, and specifically Solusek's Eye w/ my roomie the other day. We both agreed, no other dungeon comes close to that one, both in terms of awesome, grandiose scale, and overall coolness. The devs would be hard-pressed to ever beat Sol's Eye.

Uros@Antonia Bayle wrote:

I concur.
Sol Eye is one of the best dungeons. I think OOLS was pretty cool when it first came out, too.

I wish they would make multi-tierd cool dungeons like those now-a-days. But no, we get...Seb, Char, and KC. All of which are repetitive and boring.

wohoooo!!!! we won!!!!!!

....

You never stayed in Jeuno lfg for 5 days (cause you couldn't solo even your own racial/job quests), to get 1 group only and this group was so bad it broke in 1h. Yea thats final fantasy xi in its worst days. Who the hell would want that thing back???? Im glad there is a lot of solo content while i look the lfg channels and CHOOSE when i want to group.

Thank the Lord we can choose now, being forced to group is the worst thing ever.

Valkrum Dunes.......... noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I didn't read all the posts.....but I have one thing to say:

We are the champions my friends....

I didn't read everything but I started EQ2 in feb 2005 and had a great fun playing with friends.
We were always 3, and it was great ... at first ... because I could'nt play as much as them and they started out level me. After I had to find groups to play, I was an assassin and solo was great until I couldn't kit anymore.
In DoF, I was in a good guild so exp was not a problem ... KoS was harder because I had to stop for 2 month and when I came back they were all 70. And grouping with non guildies is hard. But I had now a coercer and I was more welcome in groups than with my assassin.
then most of my friends left, and I'm on a french server, storms ... where it's really hard to find a group. I sometimes could stay a day lfg without a problem. But it was ok, I was able to solo quite well with my coercer.
Then I stopped for a year and came back in january this year. most of my friends have stopped, rerolled or just log in for raids so I had 2 choices, solo or staying lfg for days, because le french population is not the nicest population and they are less and less. So this expension was a blessing because I was free to do what I wanted. plus, when you find a group, will you be able to finish your quests? I'm 80 and I still havent finished my sebilis quests, coz everytime I go in there, I ask if we can go somewhere and people answer me ... oh sorry it's not where we're heading ... great :s
It's just sad there are so little dongeons ... Karnor, Sebilis and Chardock. And honnestly, I never find groups for chardock. then there are 4 or 5instances, crypt, maiden, vault, Chelsith and korocrust but same, nobody likes chelsith and never been able to go to korocrust, and there are 2 places (tower in field of bones and a third temple in the howling stones) you can't enter.
so you have a lot of solo content for low level and enough group content for HL players. anyway, when you're 80, you only group, but you can exp easily and that's great.