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I'm wondering who mainly plays where?? Whenever I'm on, there doens't seem to be hardly anybody in the Qeynos area...and even less are people willing to group...it's oh so lonely in the qeynos hills

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Lithiwen the Ranger

In Steamfont now. Don't know where I will be after I finish the armor quests.

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Tanithis Cryptwalker
Lvl 62 Necro of Emarr
Tanithis
Lvl 22 Necro of Al'Kabor

I'm running around in Qeynos. Not that I'm much use right now as a 4th lvl Paladin....


Grestlede

I have noticed alot of people in the gfay / crushbone area

I am currently in HHK ( High Hold Keep ) at lvl 11 - 12

One thing that might help you ......

In game type

/ all 8

Substitue number for the lvl you are. I usualy jump in game and do a / all 9 / all 10 / all 11 / all 12 and seek out a few players I see that might not be busy or in a group ( I look for people in PoK or Nexus, etc ) then I send those people a tell and ask if they are interested in grouping. I have already made a few friends this way. They instantly love me when I show them cool places to hunt with good exp.

One thing I have noticed, is that alot of people dont seem to want to group. I am not sure why that is over here on the Mac side. You can fight better mobs, more / faster exp, better / more loot *Shrug*
Guess peeps are either content soloing, or content grouping in Gfay / Crushbone

If you are near my lvl ( Currently 12 but going up daily ) - ( Do a / all Kha and you can find me and my zone / lvl ) feel free to send me a tell, I would be more than willing to group.

I group, but I know why ex-PC users might not want to.

Grouping with very inexperienced people is occasionally painful. Sometimes they always wait to be full mana before pulling, you'll have wizards meleeing, trains, chaos, etc. When you're in a group like that, it might actually BE faster to solo.

Somedays I like hanging out with people, but other days I just want to play with Rubuka by ourselves.

When I was in Crushbone, I was in a full group, but there were a handful of soloists there. We were efficient, for the most part. As primary/secondary healer, I never went LOM unless the fighting was too heavy. I knew enough not to waste mana on inefficient healer nukes... and I also know enough not to fight hand-to-hand (f-ing battle clerics and melee druids) when I need to monitor group health. (And, with all due respect to nukers, healer mana is far more important to being able to pull & fight/the pacing of fights... you nukers can sit and med so you don't overnuke at the beginning, imo. Anyway, that's why we were efficient... healers did our jobs, allowed pullers to pull as things popped up)

Anyway, I've mostly solo'd in areas that I like, but once I build up more platinum in my favorite spots, I plan to group again in the Qeynos area (Blackburrow) & the GFaydark area (Crushbone)... although I might take groups around other places if I organize groups.

Before level 10, there's not too much of a reason to form a group. After level 10, you'll probably get more and more interested in grouping (unless you become an antisocial kiter dr00d or something like that).

I'm sure there's also a constant flow through Paludal Caverns... so if you can find it, that's probably one of the easier places to get a group of more experienced players.

I'm in Qeynos Hills pretty much all the time except for tips to POK to unload and shop. I'm currently working on getting to lvl 12 or 13, so I can feel safer taking the head of Yollis Jenkins (who cons yellow now).

Give me a tell in game.

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Baroness Quenthel — 56 Dark Elf Nec
Danifae — 26 DE Shadow Knight
Zaton — 24 Half Elf Ranger
Faelin — 16 Woodelf Druid
Tinker — 10 Gnome Warrior
Glos — 10 High Elf Cleric
Nitestar — 8 HalfElf Pally

Im'a Shammy and I get right in there and beat stuff down with the tankers. I know I'm not doing much with my wimply little staff, but I'll tell ya what I am doing: Keeping my offense and defense up. Next level, I'll be keeping my Dodge up as well.

I don't do it if I'm the designated healer very much, but it is important to keep those skills up. If you get into your late fifties, have a defense of 5 and a dodge of 15, you'll die a bit more and won't handle hits as well. It's worth getting this skills up.

I really don't get down on "Battle Clerics" and "Melee Druids" until post 20. As a 15th level Shaman, I can heal just as efficiantly as a Cleric, and with their plate armor - they've got better AC than I do.

However, once you can /surname, you had better sit that butt down and watch my life bar if you're the Cleric unless you have a reason for standing up.

Grouping with new players... don't shun it, do it! EQ isn't a race (although some seem to thing it is). Group with those players that are new, teach them the ropes if you know them. No where in the manual does it say:

If you're a Wizard, learn when to nuke. Don't build up aggro on the MoB or you'll move up the hate list and it will aggro you as opposed to the main tank.

Nor does it say:

Clerics, don't beat stuff down and overheal otherwise it will jump on you and kill you and they won't taunt it off of you.

Group with people that don't understand this stuff and explain it to them. Truthfully, it doesn't really matter until 18,19, or 20. Classes really start to shine at around 20. That's when you need to understand your role and fall into it.

Now... the fighting shaman.. I plan on keeping my skills way up so I can trade hits with my doggie once I hit 34. Part of the reason Shaman's can solo so well is that they can take a few hits, I intent to take a few hits =)

In short.. if you feel like soloing that's fine! I took my neco all the way up on the PC solo. If you want to group (and can stand it) don't be too picky. These are the people that will level along side of you. Those are the clerics that will keep you healed a year from now when we're taking down Cazic Thule or Innoruuk. Little tips that you can give these people will only help them to get better.

"Newbie groups" on the PC side always have folks that don't understand the game yet. But as those players progress, they get a lot better, and you'll come to rely on them later in the game.

-Jeff

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"I've ruined my own lands - now I'll ruin yours!"
Floode - 22nd Level Barbarian Shaman
Takeo - 34th Level Barbarian Beastlord
Flood - 5th Level Barabarian Shaman (Do Over!)
Koruuk - 57th Dark Elf Necromancer (E'ci)
Floode - 28th Dwarven Warrior (E'ci)
Dazer - 22nd High Elf Enchanter (E'ci)

Actually, a cleric has Healing at L14, so you can't.

I plan to solo a fair bit with my Druid (weeeee! kiting), plus occasionally doing the porcupine thing vs. blues (go go damage shield) when solo... so I stayed out of the fight in the group until the big enemies were down & we were doing mop-up on the rest.

From my experience as a tank, I don't think everyone should be melee'ing... especially in the beginning of a fight when you may have extra adds and low agro on the primary tank. When the healer doesn't heal in time or starts nuking, then you've got a serious problem with battle clerics & melee druids. Heal first, melee as an afterthought, imo. Don't learn bad habits early... you can melee fine as a Cleric at level 12, but at 50, you invite disaster upon you and all who depend upon you if you're being the same battle Cleric.

Anyway, the other healer was actively fighting the whole time (which was fine because it worked), and I was 4-5 levels lower than the rest of the group (fighting trainer hill plus Warlord & legos) with equipment to match (tarnished scimitar, part patchwork, part n00b quest gear (leafrunner stuff plus rebirth stuff) plus n00b focus items)... so melee was not an option in that situation. I sat back, watched the primary tank/whoever had the most agro, watched the mez'er's health, and pumped the heals accordingly (sometimes chain-casting between primary tank & mez'er). Edit: Just to add, I also threw down a damage shield on the main tank when I could predict who had the most agro... but everyone in melee seemed to be ping-ponging a lot of the agro, so it wasn't that effective most of the time (even with a focus item to improve buff duration).

Yeah, really newbie levels (I went from 9 to 10 that evening, with the rest ranging from 11-14), but it worked.

Alot of people might not realize ...... Bonus EXP for grouping and Bonus EXP in dungeons ..... A group of lvl 10's on up would really clean up in Befallen!

Howdy!

I have been spending most of my time in the Freeport area working on my newbie armor quests. At this low of a level, i find I don't really need to group much. But I like making friends at low level, so You HAVE someone to group with later.

Also, I need to second what Khama said, there is nice bonus experience in groups and dungeons. In fact, he and I were grouped in Befallen for a little while (ALWAYS good to make friends with a good enchanter!!), and the experience was SUPER fast. So much so, that I went back by myself later just because it's full of undead (easy to kill for me) AND there is the dungeon experience bonus.

After all, there are times when I just need to go up a level or two in order to kill some of the monsters required for the newbie armor quests!

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Mordryn Kegslayer

Thorne Moonshadow

Proud member of The Shortbread Army

For now I'm staying in the qeynos area so I can finish my armor quest. Problem is, I need to hit Blackburrow to get certain pieces I need for it...and blackburrow is dangerous for a nearly naked level 6, lol

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Lithiwen the Ranger

Hmmpf =)

On a serious note, even though they've just got lower level spells, they've still got to learn their niche and start working within their role.

Sure, do what works. But if I have to stop slowing and dotting in order to back up and heal because the Cleric is too busy with auto-attack, there is a bit of a role reversal.

Now if I'm playing healer in that group, I've no problem with sitting on my arse and healing 'em all myself

-Jeff

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"I've ruined my own lands - now I'll ruin yours!"
Floode - 22nd Level Barbarian Shaman
Takeo - 34th Level Barbarian Beastlord
Flood - 5th Level Barabarian Shaman (Do Over!)
Koruuk - 57th Dark Elf Necromancer (E'ci)
Floode - 28th Dwarven Warrior (E'ci)
Dazer - 22nd High Elf Enchanter (E'ci)

Thats why I suggested that they put in the new group exp before this went live.

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Tanithis Cryptwalker
Lvl 62 Necro of Emarr
Tanithis
Lvl 22 Necro of Al'Kabor