>This is one of many complaints made by high level bards . . . saying that
>they are not finding groups, and are not accepted at high levels.
>
>Pardon my audacity, but this complaint seems a little but premature, and to
>us "lower" level people, seems kind of silly. I play EQ a LOT, and I'm not
>bad at it either. Since release my character has made it to Level 18. If
>you are in the low 30's as you say, then you must play EQ obsessively, for
>that level seems so far away to many of us we are not even thinking about
it.
Aye, you are right. I happened into a group of power-gamers when I was lvl
4 (several were friends of mine from P4) and I've been playing "catch up"
every since. In order to try to stay with (or anywhere near) the levels of
those I used to game with heavily, I must play EQ almost every waking moment
that I am not at work. But they are the only people I know in the game.
*shrug*
OTOH however, it doesn't take all that much effort to get to high levels
quickly IF you know where things are, which mobs to hunt at which level, and
are in a group with good players and learn to augment their style of play.
This last point is really the telling one for bards, although it is
important to everyone. When I join a group I always am cautious at first.
I watch how they react in melee. How does the healer do his thing? Is he a
melee-oriented healer, or is he a stand back and heal person? Is it a
fetch-and-retrieve group or a wander aimlessly group?
If it's a fetch group, does the fetch wait until current melee is over
before going for next fetch or does he go when existing mob is down to 20%?
How effective are the casters? Do they dump their mana in rapid fire
succession or do they hold back and go for killing nuke? What is the mob
we're hunting, and what other mobs might turn up?
After I determine all of that, THEN I make my final song selection, memming
different songs if necessary. Do this, and you will be one of the best
bards on your server. Insist on sticking with your personal favorite song,
and you'll have dead group members. I recall one bard who used to ALWAYS
use charm song. Unfortunately, he'd do /assist first, so the entire group
would have to retarget.
Getting back to leveling speed, you can level quickly, all you need is one
person in your regular group who knows where to go for max eeps. One of my
former groupmembers quit his 30th lvl cleric and started over. In 3 days he
was lvl 12. He made a level a day for next 3 days. Do I recommend playing
that way? No way. While I enjoy being within spitting distance of the top
bard on my server, I wish I'd done differently now. I've missed out on a
lot of fun in the chase for levels. =(
>So relax and wait a bit for us normal people to catch up to you. Soon level
>30 players will be just as common as level 20 players, and I'm sure you'll
>have more luck. It seems to me that you should be happy, not sad, about
>your incredible sucess with the game. And to us down here in the mere
>teens, the complaint seems amusing.
When you get to a certain level, and you're on the leading edge of "the
pack", you have to stay in front or get trampled. When I first started
doing Thule, we had our choice of what we wanted to do. Almost no one was
there. 10-15 players in the zone at most. Now, 50-70 players in the zone
is common, and everyone is fighting over the prime hunting areas. That's
why I want to stay on the front edge.... I don't like having to compete with
so many people for a decent chance for a few eeps.
>I have never heard of groups where spots are "reserved" or "permanent" or
>"temporary". Again, I think this is something unique to high level
>powergamers. It sounds amazingly rude to me. To be "offered" spots as if
>they were job offers . . . wow, I feel for you, that ridiculous. It sounds
>like high school all over again.
You're quite right. But on the other hand, imagine being at a level where
anything you can solo gives you no experience. You MUST group to do
anything. Now imagine sitting in a dungeon area for hours, waiting for a
chance to get in a group. I once sat for 2 hours waiting for a "guy who's
about to leave" to actually leave. (turned out he did leave, spot given to
someone else, another quit, spot filled, and I got the 3d opening) A friend
of mine who got fed up with EQ once sat for 6 hours after being told he had
the "next opening".
You get to know which group leaders are the best. Which are most
successful? Which have best survival rate? Which is least likely to dump
trains on people nearby? Which leader knows how to control a spawn? Which
people know which items are on what mobs? And you try to get in those
groups. When you're in "the pack" (i.e., where most players are at
level-wise), you may have 50-100 group leaders who are good to be with.
When you're on the front edge of the pack, you have 3-4 good leaders and
competition is keen to get into their groups, because you know it would be
VERY worth your while.
Linako.