Everquest II

Hello, fellow EQ2 players. I've been playing the game since August 1st (not on trial anymore :), on a medium pop. server, with only one char - monk, joined a nice guild who's been teaching me a lot and I've reached lvl 21.

I fell in love with the game's atmosphere, with the world of Norrath itself (at least from what I've seen of it) - I did lots of exploration, read (most of) the quests, am loving the graphics and the sound, the community is awesome (nice and helpful)...

Well, the game seemed perfect for me until I started approaching lvl 20.Then I began feeling frustrated, for most of the meaningful quests, the long ones, end with an Encounter I cannot solo. I am a soloer - fact. I like grouping but the most important thing is not having to depend on anyone else to play an MMOG all the time. So at the end of those quests there are 2 or 3 foes a few lvls above or even below me that will kick my ass. So I have to call for the help of other players to finish them. While finding a helpful player is not that hard, even on a medium pop server (which in my opinion translates into a low pop server in EQ2), it is likely the person will be many lvls above you, which results in me just watching the Encounter getting blown away by my teammate - that's frustrating.

And then there are dungeons like Vermin's Snye or instanced areas like Blackburrow - low lvl foes but quests that end up with Encounters I cannot solo! Or Encounters not tied to quests that will kill me, even though they're a few lvls below me! Frustrating!

Now I find myself with the best medieval setting in a MMOG I've seen in recent years, a game I was pitching to my friends as the best MMOG IMO - to which I don't want to come back, because I'm impotent in face of the objective of the main quests - finishing them on my own.

Now, what I want to know is: for soloing classes is EQ2 all the way like this? Having to group to finish quests? I don't wanna know about how could I respec my Monk and/or get better equipment - I wanna know if the next quests in the game are all like this or if there comes a lvl when everybody groups to do quests - that I can take.

Thanks for the help, guys - I really liked EQ2 and am ready to give it another chance if the future is brighter!

What class are you playing? Some classes are better at soloing than others.

The Necro and Conjurer are the best soloers, the Fury is second best (they have this incredible nuke that can kill things in a single hit) with Paladin (their healing ability but ability to use heavy armor is an asset), Monk, Bruiser, and Shadowknights coming close.

Dirge, Troubador, etc are some of the worst soloers in the game.

Now... as for the areas you're complaining about, I've never had a problem soloing them. Then again, I always create good solo characters from the viable solo list.

All characters CAN be soloed with patience.

If this game were actually made properly (like DnD on tabletop) the only soloers would be the fighters.

He says in his post he's playing a Monk.

A monk is a great soloer, I'm currently playing their evil counterpart - Bruiser. I mostly solo and I'm going about it very easily. I am not in the highest of levels, but I try to make sure that when I'm solo questing, the quests I do are green (preferably) or blue.

In order to achieve this, when I have some hours on my hands I like to do dungeons with people. You'll be surprised at how much fun and fast (especially with a blessed experience charm) leveling in a dungeon can be.

This double xp weekend was great, for example, in one group I went from level 24 to level 33 just dungeon hunting with them. This put me well ahead of my quests so that I can enjoy them without the frustration. If you must strictly solo, you could probably visit all the other zones at or below your level and make sure to do those quests so that you don't fight mobs that will rip you to shreds.

Ok post level 20 as you may have seen groups are a bit hard to come by.

What your gonna need is character that can solo pretty well and get some cash from loot for other toons you may want to try. You have a few options.

A bruiser does great spike dmg and can fd flop through dungeons with ease.  This class stays pretty close to a monk in most aspects but a monk is more punishment over time rather then right off the bat.  With a bruiser you can fd flop to named in dungeons and hit em hard and fast to gain some pretty decent cash early on.  Later on these nameds will get more difficult for the bruiser becuase while you can avoid, some of the later named will hit fast and can take you out with 1 or 2 hits.  So bruiser is a good starting farming character.

SK's are great becuase you can FD periodically, have mitigation, harm touch (15 minute timer aa's lower this) and attacks that debuff as well as heal you.  You can take on some harder hitting nameds but will have to wade through alot of trash mobs.  SK's will take alot more time to solo farm then the bruiser.

Necro's and conj's are pretty fair soloers but again you will have to fight every trash mob to the named.  You have an even higher dps but the trash will slow you down.

Furies ............... longest class to solo with.  You will have to wade through every trash mob as well as take a while to kill, but at least you can heal yourself.

Palidan, no not worth it.

Warlocks, Wizards, chanties are pretty good soloers but you have to learn the tricks.  I'de suggest these later on when bored with current class and want to try something more thought provoking.

All scouts kinda suck at soloing.  You can sometimes dps a mob down before a mob dps's you down but there are much easier classes to do this with.

Originally posted by rsreston

Hello, fellow EQ2 players. I've been playing the game since August 1st (not on trial anymore :), on a medium pop. server, with only one char - monk, joined a nice guild who's been teaching me a lot and I've reached lvl 21.

I fell in love with the game's atmosphere, with the world of Norrath itself (at least from what I've seen of it) - I did lots of exploration, read (most of) the quests, am loving the graphics and the sound, the community is awesome (nice and helpful)...

Well, the game seemed perfect for me until I started approaching lvl 20.Then I began feeling frustrated, for most of the meaningful quests, the long ones, end with an Encounter I cannot solo. I am a soloer - fact. I like grouping but the most important thing is not having to depend on anyone else to play an MMOG all the time. So at the end of those quests there are 2 or 3 foes a few lvls above or even below me that will kick my ass. So I have to call for the help of other players to finish them. While finding a helpful player is not that hard, even on a medium pop server (which in my opinion translates into a low pop server in EQ2), it is likely the person will be many lvls above you, which results in me just watching the Encounter getting blown away by my teammate - that's frustrating.

And then there are dungeons like Vermin's Snye or instanced areas like Blackburrow - low lvl foes but quests that end up with Encounters I cannot solo! Or Encounters not tied to quests that will kill me, even though they're a few lvls below me! Frustrating!

Now I find myself with the best medieval setting in a MMOG I've seen in recent years, a game I was pitching to my friends as the best MMOG IMO - to which I don't want to come back, because I'm impotent in face of the objective of the main quests - finishing them on my own.

Now, what I want to know is: for soloing classes is EQ2 all the way like this? Having to group to finish quests? I don't wanna know about how could I respec my Monk and/or get better equipment - I wanna know if the next quests in the game are all like this or if there comes a lvl when everybody groups to do quests - that I can take.

Thanks for the help, guys - I really liked EQ2 and am ready to give it another chance if the future is brighter!

I have an 80 level Monk solo'd it most of the way. Of course some quest you will not be able to solo but there are so many quests in EQ2 it really does not matter. Mine is spec'd for strength. He also uses no weapons and fights with his bare knuckles and is a little ass kicked. You need to look around a bit more and get to other zones there are plenty of solo quests that are worth while. However as a soloer expect to miss out on a few important quests that is only expected.
 

Originally posted by rsreston

Now, what I want to know is: for soloing classes is EQ2 all the way like this? Having to group to finish quests?

EQ2 has thousands of quests. Most of them are solo quests, but the main so-called quest timelines (long quest series), are not meant to be solo'd all the way.

Personally, I'm mostly a solo player, I sometimes group, but I never ever raid. And there's more than enough for me to do in this game. Sure, not being a raider prevents me from getting the best equips and such, and there are lots of quests I therefore will never finish. But for me, that really doesn't matter, since there's so much to do.

I've completed over 1600 quests with my main, not much compared to the hardcore questers - the record is over 4200. I should easily be able to do at least 1000 more quests, probably a lot more, that's how much a soloer is able to do in this game! Besides, there's also much more than questing to do.

My main is a lvl 80 paladin. It's not a great solo class, but I love the playstyle, that's why I stick with this one.

Originally posted by Netspook

Originally posted by rsreston

Now, what I want to know is: for soloing classes is EQ2 all the way like this? Having to group to finish quests?

EQ2 has thousands of quests. Most of them are solo quests, but the main so-called quest timelines (long quest series), are not meant to be solo'd all the way.

I've completed over 1600 quests with my main, not much compared to the hardcore questers - the record is over 4200. I should easily be able to do at least 1000 more quests, probably a lot more, that's how much a soloer is able to do in this game! Besides, there's also much more than questing to do.

Thanks for your answer, Netspook, but how do you know which quests are not from the timeline? Do you just delete them when they get to the point of needing a group to finish the heroic encounter?