I personally think that if you are basing your opinion that leveling is 'too fast' on your little test study, I'm glad you're not developing meds. Sure, you can hit 80 in 7 hours - with 100p, 5 accounts, some real life cash. The point is that if you wanted to get a good example of the leveling curve, you would have done it with one account. Starting from scratch. Yes, leveling 1-80 in 7 hours is too fast. But not everyone has the capacity to do what your friend did. Therefore, it is the exception, not the rule. I don't care either way, I don't ever go to ZAM, so think what you want. I just don't like when people start 'advocating' things from a very, VERY skewed perspective.
I wish I could level my alts that fast. But really you also have to consider AA as well when leveling these days. Even the fastest power levelers take over 100 hours played to get 80/200.
Sidhan@Antonia Bayle wrote: Honestly, it the original challenge was a knee-jerk response to the 100th time I saw someone say "You can hit 80 in a day." I said "Prove it!" and someone did. My personal opinion on leveling speed was based on newb toons I've played myself. I mean to (when things slow down a bit after Sentinel's Fate is launched) roll another toon and see how that first 20 levels is now that SOE has smoothed out the leveling curve.
Novusod wrote: I've had someone say they could do it in about 18 hours, although no one's taken me up on documenting it yet.
Playstyle is very personal. What's nice about EQ2 is there is a choice. Some games like WoW give no choices. You level up as fast as it happens and cannot slow down the rush to the "end game." I have characters that are over 4 years old and are at 60 and 61 with 122AA/89AAs respectively. At the same time, I have a character who maxes both level & AAs with every expansion. One character I did kinda pwr level to 80 in about 2 months. It wasn't for me.... I like to slow down and smell the flowers along the way. To me, it's a journey never ending. To others it's only the "end game" that's worth while. And yet, to more peeps, it's somewhere inbetween. Some peeps think raiding is the only game in EQ2. Others love the instances and dungeons. Still there are more choices, the lore, crafting/decorating/tradeskill timelines, collections, HQs - L&Ls - Sig quests - live events and general quests that are the draw. And some love working in those AAs even at lower adventure levels. Of course, I would never leave out those who want to be the most uber player in their class with masters and gear! My hat is off to peeps who pwr level characters as well as to those who decorate and revolve their character around tradeskilling - and to everyone else inbetween. That is what I like about EQ2 - always choices. And that is what we should celebrate rather than the differences.
