Alania

I ... am.... so.... fucking.... tired.... of questing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The exp in KC is fucking retarded, I could only stand half an hour there before I was thinking to myself "As much as I fucking hate questing, sitting here killing ridiculously difficult mob for ridiculously little experience is about as smart as playing with my own shit." So I went off and quested and got 3x the exp in as much time.

What braindead dev thought that giving heroic mobs insane amounts of hps, insane damage output, pack them close together, then give them SHIT for exp when killed was a good idea? When the fuck did I start playing WOW, where the whole leveling experience has me playing by myself for the maximum exp/hour? Why the fuck is heroic content locked up in over-stuffed dungeons with mobs that hit FAR too hard for soloing. Hell, even in a 4 person group (2 mages, 2 healers) we had a hard time killing heroics because they are hitting for 2-6k a hit, and they're stacked one-on-top-of-the-other and we have no room to move. You took all the fucking heroics out of overland zones (fuck the pussies who thought this was a good idea) and then made it all but impossible for small groups to enjoy dungeons without the holy-fuckin-trinity (tank that doesn't suck, 2 healers). I'm pissed as hell that myself and my bf can't 4-person our way through most of the dungeons.

If you aren't soloing, you're dumb. If you're grouping with less than an optimal group in an open dungeon, you're even stupider. I have yet to try out any instances (except in beta) but I have a feeling that everything I knew of the past 3 years of EQ2 is out the window. No more are less-than-optimal 4 person groups capable of killing alot of shit. You're stuck grinding retardedly lame solo quests ad nauseum.

Chox

Quit bitching and go quest, its easier/faster grinding is so gd boring.

mattmandude

Questing is definitely the way to go, but I agree that it's retarded that doing heroic instances gives LESS xp than soloing. It makes sense to me (how the rest of EQII is) that you gain MORE xp by having to go through the trouble of putting together a group and killing heroic shit. Not the other way around, heh.

Now, I think I'll only think of going into heroic stuff once I've soloed to 80 and want to gear up.

keldo

Heroic instances actually give great experience the first time through, thanks to discoveries. It is when you sit in one place and grind that the experience stops flowing. Crypt in Sebilis at 72 (difficult to get there, and mostly level 76-80 mobs) netted about 80% of a level in 2 hrs. Maybe a little slower than a power quest duo or trio, but most classes couldn't solo that fast. Plus, a decent amount of usable loot dropped.

Discouraging grinding the same places over and over is fine by me, I never enjoyed that mindlessly farming the same area over and over was the best way to get experience anyway. Does anyone really think you learn your class better pulling for 10 hrs straight to the same spot in KC, vs doing 50 solo quests? I don't think it is, and the person who did the solo quests would also know the layout of the zones a lot better.

Thundaarr

Agreed. I absolutely LOVE most of all of RoK I have seen so far, but the sokokar are very WoW like, I could do without those modelsfor them for sure.

As far as getting xp, the solo quests seem to be the way to go. Going in with a full group into a place like Karnors for an hour or two will net you far less xp than just soloing during that same time and doing faction quests that involve "collect 10 silks" or whatever.

In all seriousness, this should be rectified. The quest xp should have been toned down and the xp gained per mob kill should have been upped, or at least give a dungeon bonus in places like KC and chardok, so that you can slay things for xp. People shouldn't be lvl 75 2 days after the expansion comes out either way though, imo.

This is supposed to be an MMO, and while I heartily support solo content, they shouldn't flip the balance in full and just say "punish the people who like to group"

As far as sitting in one spot and grinding for hours, I don't like that, and a majority of other people don't, either. What I DO like is going into an enemies castle and laying waste to everything I see, having scouts track for named and going to kill them, roaming all over and seeing the layout of the place. But there should be no way that the time, effort, and ability of 6 people should be diminished or lessened when compared to a solo player.

Eq2 is a great game because of it's community, and it's community is so great because we group together and band together for so many things during the course of lvl'ing. WoW's community is horrible because everyone solo's until lvl 70, not learning the intricacies of interacting with others in an MMO.

Please don't force everyone to solo. And don't force everyone to group. There has to be a middle ground somewhere.

KFizzle

Yo i LOVE This expansion.

The sheer amount of solo mobs and quests is astounding and terrific.

BUT I for the same token am quite annoyed at the fact that like my Mami said, they basically made hard Heroic mobs with lots of HP but little XP.

In the past i had used groups and dungeons/instances etc to get my XP rather than questing because i quite get frustrated running from point a to point b just 'running' on what seems some pointless 'Fed-Ex' Quest where i gotta bring a package to this guy then he wants me to bring another package to another guy etc. I mean grinding in a dungeon isnt always 'fun' but it definately helped me learn how to play my toons for later when i would be raiding, and it helped me get masters and the like from the drops from names.

Oh and now a big portion of names dont drop chests? or dont drop them any more often than a 'trash' mob? Thats a bit silly.

Hell, yesterday when i got in a group of guildies do you know where we went to grind? PoA. Fucking PoA!! We were pulling whole rooms of things and getting decent XP because theres no other way i could see that you could get even 'decent' xp with heroic content thusfar in RoK.

Although right now (well not 'right now' cause i'm at work), i'm enjoying the fuck outta all the quests, the MASSIVE overland zones with fewer 'zonelines' and such, and the sheer enormity of it.

If the raids and higher level dungeons and instances are as good as stuff i've seen thusfar, then im definately going to love this even more.

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Deludar

With a decent group plowing chain pulling in KC the xp isn't horrible, its alot less then it should be compared to questing but its not really that bad, plus getting a bunch of masters off of trash mobs is sweet. Chardok definetly has a ton better xp then KC if you want an open dungeon atmosphere. Questing is the way to go, besides a couple hours of KC and Chardok plus an instance or two, all my xp has been from quests and im 25% from 76

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Thundaarr

The whole thing is this.. SoE swings too far either way it seems, and doesn't realize that small adjustments are best. I know that multiple tweaks on an item or zone are tedious, but you should try and take a more gradual approach to things rather than a wholesale change, imo. In this expansion, xp has swung too far to the side of the soloer/quest person. I have NO problems with soloing and questing to being a viable path to xp, but you should not punish those that decide to make a group. And right now it seems to be that way slightly. It might just be my perception, but there it is. You should either tone down the xp being given by solo quests, or up the xp given by taking a group into a heroic dungeon.

Safia

The quests and mobs seem to give the same amount of exp whether you do them solo or with a group. The optimal is duo'ing them with any compatible set of classes. Solo, the mobs hit hard and it takes time to get them dead, and it can be hard to deal with adds. If you go group, you end up having to redo a lot of quests to get people caught up or do quests you don't have yet, etc,..and the gains are slow. With a duo you can kill mobs fast and always be on the same page..it makes exp FLY.

No question at all that quests far FAR FAR outweigh any kind of grinding in any zone, and most of them are SO 'hold your fucking hand' simple..even the slowest most illiterate dumbest fuck on earth could complete them.

In one 30 minute period last night I gained 30% exp into 75 by doing a series of quests all within like two feet of each other in Kunzar Jungle. The only way you can possibly NOT level in this expansion is if you can't figure out "kill 10 lions" while standing in the middle of a field full of fucking lions.

oddyophile

With a well organized, intelligent group of players group questing is the way to go. Do some of the quests in Fens of Nathsar, but don't waste too much time there. That zone is a hellish time sink, and if you can get to 72/73 quickly just move on to the Jungle. The key is a well organized group that will stick together. People running off and dying slows everybody down. Killing 10 mobs is easy when you've got a tank that can hold aggro on 6-10 things at once, a healer or two that keep him standing, and dps skilled enough to burn down mobs so those two other jobs don't have to be done for long. What will take you 30 minutes to solo can be done in 3, and you'll be on your way to Jarsath Wastes in no time where the xp is even better.

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