I couldn't agree more. That, in a nutshell, is why I will only ever group in guild. I'm not the best player in the world but, like many other people, I try damn hard! Guildies appreciate that where strangers usually don't. In a guild group, none of us are ever worried about making a ****-up - strangers shout and call you names while guildies laugh and call you pretty much the same names - who cares, when they screw up you get to call them the same names. Why suffer the hassle of grouping with people you don't know?
This is exactly why I never PUG. Ever. I group with guildies or a few of the people I've known for a long time. I don't care what gear they have, if they are a guildie and want to go, I'll take them. Some guildmates can be a little frustrating, especially if they are fairly raw in their playing skills, but hey they are guildies so I'm willing to put in the time and effort to make them a better player and help them understand the game a little better. Non-guildies? Sorry, don't have time for you, I have to go run Brokenskull for the third time today, Good luck.
OMG, every time I hear that I think of my 4 year old grand-daughter. If I could like your post twice I would
Aye xD I generally PuG worst-case scenario, since I haven't reguilded my Swash since the last one exploded, and rarely have problems because I generally analyze mob patterns mid-fight, and feel like I know my class somewhat well enough. But I'm also open to criticisms and not afraid to ask peeps to explain part of a fight I'm not grasping :L. Vast majority of peeps seem to self-ruin pugs though. And it does generally feel more relaxed running w/ guildies since you more or less know each other's in-game antics to an extent.
TBH I am scared to group with others on Splitpaw, scared of comments like "Not enough gear" "Don't know tacs, kick him", "SK/Warden Sucks, roll OP class noob"
When they say "not enough gear" I say "nude killings are the new trend..You have heard of the new challenge mode yes?" Oh you can kill that mob in full epic gear? pfft let us do it in full naked jacket! Kill Nagafen with a 2x4 wearing nothing but what your momma gave you and viola! Legend for the ages!
Only if they're Tolkien hobbits. If they're Larry Elmore halflings, I think I could appreciate watching birthday-suit halfling warrior gals...
This right here is exactly why I avoid trying to group with classes that aren't a support class (like a bard, because they only want you for your buffs, anything else is just secondary). I don't enjoy having someone else analyze my performance using third party programs that aren't exactly accurate anyway, they want you to push your buttons in the order their program tells you to. Not that your buttons really count for much anymore, with all the procs, you can do more without using abilities than you can with using them. (But that's a whole other can of worms) And I've lost track of how many times I've been asked what gear I'm wearing (full potent, for last xpac anyway) and then get nothing in response, and then see them continuing to LFM. The game is becoming too much about what you're wearing, and not about knowing how to actually play your class. I miss that aspect of the game.
Yeah, what's wrong with these devs? Why can't they give us a new zone with new mobs every single day? Are they lazy or something? Every other MMO delivers a completely new game every day. Am I right?
You nailed it! That's exactly what I meant. Every single day a new zone with fancy new mobs. Every. Single. Day.
It is because if you don't push the button at specific times and in the right order, you wipe. If your resists are not high enough you die often and group wipes. If your gear is not high end you die and group wipes. It is just plain bad design decision that only a few well skilled players in best gear can complete the harder content. Look I hate it myself and don't even bother with AoM as it is. Just to frustrating to deal with the scripts among other things.
I am the type that plays mostly with friends only and don't like to pug much due to my Satellite internet connection that I play on being so laggy. Also back when I played WoW and they introduced the dungeon finder all the idiots the pugs from the DF would put me with 3 idiots or AFKers most of the time So that left a bad impression of pugs in general and I have not cared for them since in any game. With my 700+ ms pings on my connection tanking, healing, interrupting enemy casting and ccing can be next to impossible and even DPS output is handicapped leading to slower paced runs that piss off pugs. That pretty much means I have to be sure I either play with friends or solo in order to minimize hampering other people's fun or progress.If I could find others that understand the reason for not being able to tank on my SK, Heal a group on my Inq or Defiler, missing every interrupt and handicapped dps due to the 1.5 to 5 second lag that I have to play with I would group more. But most people do not want to accept that so I gave up an even bothering playing with randoms. As a result. I will just stick to running with one or 2 friends/guildies who happen to be at the time that I am playing if we happen to be in the same level range or they want to join me for something on what ever toon I am playing as. Most of them have all level 90+ toons so my level 20-89 toons are even left out of level agnostic dungeons and with the changes to DM I can't even run those with friends to level the alts it is back to the old content that has gotten stale after running it over and over on other toons while leveling which leads to more burnout and less time playing this game. Was nice to run some of the regular content then jumping to a few DM dungeons for a change of pace then back to the old content. Now that there is no rewards to the DM dungeons there is no point to even play them anymore taking away one of the ways to change up the monotony of the leveling grind. Now my options are basically run the same old quests over and over on the 20 or so alts, run around in a dungeon when friends happen to be on or just say to hell with it and log off if no one is around and play a different game.
Overall it just feels like a rather weak expac, and people playing it noticed. The setting & lore is bland unless they are planning on adding onto it later, going from preventing a dragapocolypse to stopping some trolls from monopolizing sea trade or w/e their goal is is a bit of a step down. There's something bigger going on in Phantom Sea but it's not as apparent so let's ignore it. I get it though, I've been an EQ vet since 99 and am aware of SOEs current mindset in regards to the resources each game is getting. The fact that EQ2 is still getting an expac on a yearly cycle is a miracle. The problem is what we get isn't polished and shiny and can hurt morale of the people trying to make the best of it. I've gone through every heroic zone now (save 1) and personally don't find them that much fun, zones are over scripted and hand holding new people through them each time gets old after the 10th time. I like hard scripted encounters, vanilla WoW Naxxramas/BWL/AQ40 was some of the most fun raiding I've ever done. Palace of Ferzhul was awesome in TSO due to all the different mechanics involved in the final fight against Varsoon. But all these require everyone in the group to actually pay attention and someone with slower reaction times is going to find themselves on the sidelines unless they are carried by a guild group. All of this combined with the release of the new WoW expac that, having played personally can call a pretty good expac, leaves people questioning whether it is still worth logging into EQ2. I've had plenty of guildmates recently "disappear" and know they are simply playing other online games because EQ2's carrot on a stick isn't as tasty looking as others.
. Oasis is not remotely active compared to about 3 months ago. I struggle to get Pick up groups I have been on holidays and I am lucky to get one group a day. A lot of players have commented on the loss of numbers and how hard it is to get a grp. We have very experience players that are well geared can't get more than one group a day is a joke. Oasis is dead like every other server.
I came back to game after several years, and folks, this game is dead. "Active, and High Population" are relative terms. May I suggest you log in to a truly vibrant "active, highly populated" game and see the difference. (Rift comes to mind.) 10 years ago this game was better then sliced bread, now it's dead, tired, old, and boring. No amount of excuses, (mature players, holidays, etc) can hide this simple truth. Don't get your hopes up if the same devs are involved in EQ Next. I highly doubt if they merged it all into a "Mega Server" that the result would be a high population server. Wouldn't attract new players, and it would still be log in to raid. You know the game is dead when: Only lfg out there is for raids It's always the same few ppl you see in general chat Low level toons are twinked and beyond. Low lvl items don't sell, aren't up for sale or priced exorbitantly. And before you start the flaming, yes I am leaving, and no I will not stay. It's sad they let this game die.[/quote]
This is a 10 year old game, where as rift is no where close to that. Also, rift has merged servers a million times. The few servers they have left are not always highly populated.
i think it's kinda funny to watch the LFG channel and see ( sometimes BACK to BACK) 100 tank LFG, 100 bard LFG, 100 Heals LFG, 100 DPS LFG. and the same people advertise over and over. Is it because no one wants to take the initiative and actually take charge and invite? just wondered.
