Level 50 vs Real life

[Chameleon]

Hi

I've had a lot of fun making it to level 45, but more and more the fun is being sapped from me! I only get to play 11pm-to-1 am most nights, which used to be enough to gain levels and enjoy the game. At level 45 though, it feels as if I am ever to reach level 50, it can only come at making big sacrifices in real life, i.e. playing some prime time and neglecting my RL/family, taking time off work to dedicate the required hours. Is it just me, or do others think that at 40+ it's ridiculously too hard to level? For example, in a 11pm -to- 1am session, it goes a bit like this ...

1 Log in innis, see 2 blue cons and 3 level 50's crafting, log
2 Log in innis, make a group with blue/green cons, go to the bog and kill orange/red cons for the same xp as solo blues (i.e. the bar doesnt move)
3 Add name to fins list and get told "you are 7th rogue on the list", wait 2 hours, log
4 See one/two yellow cons in innis and invite them, spend 2 hours trying to get enough people for an EZ group, leave before group heads out

Am I the only one with this problem? Maybe mmorpg's of this type are simply the wrong type of game for me?

 

[Tyka]

Originally posted by Ch@meleon
2 Log in innis, make a group with blue/green cons, go to the bog and kill orange/red cons for the same xp as solo blues (i.e. the bar doesnt move)

Do that, but ask people who are same level that you are, after a while people will come asking you if u want to make a group, and thats the way you get to 50.

 

[Chameleon]

Yes I've made my own groups since I made it to spragg den. I've not changed my approach since those days, but its empty in innis most nights, or only level 50's crafting or blue cons who cant survive in EZ. Also, over the last 20 levels or so I've found many people say "your groups are always great", but it doesnt naturally follow that they then invite you to their groups. Ns's bring no benefits to a group you know

 

[VodkaFairy]

I have exactely the same problem. Only difference is I can play from 8 to 10 pm. Solo'ing is too boring and takes too long, starting / joining groups is almost impossible in two hours.

Maybe mmorpg's of this type are simply the wrong type of game for me?

I don't think so, level 40 to 50 should be easier (for us anyway). Either that, or change aspects of the game that -require- you to be level 50, like RvR. There's another problem for Nightshades: they're not 'wanted' for groups. Sure, people don't mind inviting a NS when there's a spot free but I have yet to see something like 'Do you want to join my group for tomorrow evening/night?'. The chances for nightshades to be invited into groups is alot less than for example bards or druids. When you don't have the time to start groups either, you're forced to make sacrafices, or be bored the next three months solo'ing your way to 50. Or feel like a gimp in RvR without accomplishing much.

I don't know yet what I will do, untill a few days back I had alot more time to play, but that's all over now.

ps. I'm in The Kindred, a roleplaying guild, which is really nice if you want to have some fun and not think about levels/exp for a change.

 

[old.Charonel]

i have a similar problem, i get back from work after all the innis groups have left already, there are usually 3/4 groups around the bog/EZ, and usually they're gone by the time i can log in, once that happens, even if you have another 6 hours to spend, or only 2 hours, the result is the same, you get no xp.

once you get into the 40's soloing just isnt worthwhile anymore, in groups you can pull (at lvl 40) 45mil xp every ten seconds or so at banshees etc... soloing you'll usually be looking at about 6 mil xp per yellow mob, pulling at basically the same rate as you would grouped on banshee's if in a decent group with no downtime etc.. (entirely possible to get too, you dont need an UBER xp group for that).

and you can't start your own, becuase there are NEVER wardens/druids/bards/mana mentalists/menta mentasists, and without those classes you simply dont have a group worth xpign with because it'll just get wiped repeatedly or have so much downtime that it'd be faster soloing

simple fact, any innis group, by the time i get on, has left already, any people left in innis, sure you can make a group with them...but 1 pbae, and 2 single target casters, 1 tank, a ranger and a nightshade dont make an xp group that's worthwile bothering with , again, soloing would give better xp, and the xp from soloing isn't worth it.

when it comes down to it, i only get any xp at the weekends, and tbh i'm lucky if i get any then too since i can't group on any weeknights, therefoer people dont exactly message me about it for invites.

only xp i get is from when the guild goes on a cursed forest bashing, now the xp from that isnt as good as a decent group at my level because we allways have a wider level range than a "proper" xp group would , but it's allways a lot of fun and at least the xp is a LOT better than soloing, easily fast enough, and it's with guildies at the same time too , gives the higher lvl's some cashfarming, gives us lowbies some xp, and it's a good laugh , personally i'm gonna enjoy doing the same when i'm 50 because it's allwyas a laugh to pbae orange con mobs , makes a great difference to purps you hit for 600damage yet only make a little knick in their health anyway

 

[Darkdancer.]

the best and most fun way for u to level is in df, people arnt to worrried about what chars are in the grp.

 

[Danya]

Unless the group has 2-3 pbae, I can solo about as fast as grouping. I do oranges or yellows with minimal downtime (mmm mana regen rocks), for 10-25 mil a time. In a group with 1 pbae, the pbae uses too much mana killing the mobs, this leads to downtime. Even getting 60 mil a pull is no good if the pbae used 70-80% of their mana to get that.

 

[elerand]

Originally posted by Danyan
Unless the group has 2-3 pbae, I can solo about as fast as grouping. I do oranges or yellows with minimal downtime (mmm mana regen rocks), for 10-25 mil a time. In a group with 1 pbae, the pbae uses too much mana killing the mobs, this leads to downtime. Even getting 60 mil a pull is no good if the pbae used 70-80% of their mana to get that.

Can't think of many mana mages who couldn't go 2-3 pulls before needing a mana rest, have you tried casting your mr on the other mages perhaps?

Would have to say unless you had mr3 or 4 then it could still be deathly slow, I know light spec is good but if you had much MR it wouldn't be THAT good would it?

 

[Tyka]

Charonel, pbaoe is not the only way to xp you know.

Me, Archan & Memeerf soloed siabras guardians/archmages when Arch was lvl 49, and got them down before they reached us, capped xp all the time, the trick is mana chanter debuffs cold, light nukers dd, wich will do cap dmg everytime, with good RAs like wp 3+ mom3+ etc you will do just fine.

You just have to try different things and do something yourself about it, sitting in innis marking lfg icon wont work.

Oh yeah most of the siabras were purple to us, and btw, if u get good druid buffs try and solo eidolons, they have very low hps becaues they are casters, go down very easy. Once i managed to 2 shot a red con eidolon

 

[Amadon]

good point tyka..
I think too many people have been spoilt rotten by pbaoe groups, and having raced to 40 in these groups, don't consider any other methods.
Of course I'm just as guilty as anyone else (or more so ) being a pbaoe mage..

As for getting into groups.. well I hardly ever got invited into groups unless I was in one or busy forming one myself, and this being a mana eldritch.. in fact my lvl 13 nightshade has been invited to more groups than my lvl 50 mana eldritch (go figure... maybe my shade is less gimped )

It's not just nightshades that don't get invited into groups

Only way to reliably get groups is to form them yourself. Find people who are on at the same time as you, find out what alts/main they play, and try organise them into a group starting when you get on. It's not easy, in fact it's a bloody nightmare at times, but it beats sitting in Innis for 4 hours whining about how you can't get a group.

 

[VodkaFairy]

Problem is some people don't have the time to start groups, or people just don't show up. Yes this hapened to me

 

[Amadon]

happened to me too

I decided I'd make the time at lvl 45 coz I was sick of xping and got to 50 in a weekend. In hindsight I wouldn't do that again because the price was nowhere near worth it, but at least I learnt something from it and made some good friends.

I've often had people:
a) say they'll be there the next night and not pitch
b) say they'll be there in 10 minutes and not pitch
c) arrive, get us all killed, disband for a guild group

either you let it get to you and give up, or u just make a mental note of who not to waste your time on for future reference and carry on recruiting

 

[Chameleon]

Good advice.
I dont think i explained myself too well tho ......

I always make my own groups, I dont sit flagged or shouting lfg, on many occasions ive made all ns/ranger groups and done far darrigs etc, its not about being an ns and not getting invited (you avoid this issue if you make your own), its more to do with the fact it seems to be able to get xp at 45+, you have to sacrifice entire evenings, or even days to get there. This can't be right, especially for the youngsters that play this game and miss out on vital social interaction with friends/family/peers and could even jeapodise their education, while sat wide eyed and pale skinned waiting for the 5th hour to get their turn at the fins/EZ. Sure it should be difficult to get to level 50 and you should feel a real sense of achievement when you do it, but the later levels are simply ridiculous.
I do enjoy DF, Darkdancer, it's usually fun in there, as it doesn't seem to take 3 hours to get a group together and makes a nice change, especially xp'ing amongst and around groups of many level ranges.

 

[Amadon]

yes, the xp from 40 - 50 is stupidly slow, I couldn't agree more with you

If I knew what I was getting into when I bought the game, there's no way in hell I would've started, pity I'm addicted now

 

[Danya]

Originally posted by elerand
Can't think of many mana mages who couldn't go 2-3 pulls before needing a mana rest, have you tried casting your mr on the other mages perhaps?

Would have to say unless you had mr3 or 4 then it could still be deathly slow, I know light spec is good but if you had much MR it wouldn't be THAT good would it?

Yes, I have MR4, and yes I cast it on others, but they can still burn a lot of mana. MR doesn't really help that much while you're casting, only during downtime. If the mages / healers burn more than 50% mana on a pull you're going to get bad downtime. Even with MR4 50-100% mana regen takes about a minute.

 

[old.Charonel]

danyan i already dont group unless we can leave with two pbae's, been in a few groups with two of us (not really room for more unless two tanks are wardens really ) and both had mana regen ra's (i have serenity 2 and mcl 1 for that, other caster usually had serenity 1 or mcl), and we had NO downtime, niether mage ever really get's below 80% and by the time the tanks have managed to pull and the mobs had reached us we were already back on 100% mana. the difference with just one pbae however is scary, HUGE downtime, it is still vastly faster than soloing however.

point is that soloing is a waste of time since you can spend a whole week of doing it at night, getting wound up, frustrated, getting nowhere due to xp deaths, having prats pulling mobs into you, or even when it goes good, getting almost nothing for the countless hours of work,or if you do manage to claw, with your bleeding fingers, some actual xp into your xp meter, then you can get into a half decent group over the weekend and get the weeks worth of solo xp in just over an hour , it's just not worth bothering with solo anymore

they REALLY need to buff soloing xp, because it's just bloody stupid how little it get's you once you hit 40, the xp isnt even on a steady curve either, at 39 i could, if i really pushed it, get 2 bubs an hour soloing, at 40 on the same mobs (there were some a little higher, worked out taking same number of casts etc.. after i lvl'd) it takes me almost an entire night to get one fking bub of xp, CONSTANTLY soloing, and that's if i get lucky and not die.

and no i dont sit in innis spamming lfg, i check on it two or three times a night, then inbetween go do other stuff, i've pretty much entirely given up trying to get xp during weeknights now, hardly even bother trying anymore, unless there's a group there when i log/check in innis, i just dont even try, it's a total waste of time, i used to try getting grouped at innis on weeknights, but it's just not worth the hastle since you get absolutely nothing for it exept aggravation.

oh and about the "spoilt rotten by pbae groups, racing to lvl 40" AHAHAHAHHAHAH:

<------- 25days 6 hours played
<------- lvl 40.5 (and not going places anyway other than slowly )

i know shades on less than half that played who are higher level than me, so i sure as hell havent been spoiled rotten by uber xp , had to solo pretty much almost all of it, from grouping i've had probably a cumulative xp of about two levels or so

the xping in this game sucks though, because even if you DO get grouped, you have to pray to hell that even at lvl 40+ the group actually knows what it's doing, ie NOT dogpiling one mob in a pbae group and totally ignoring the one's on the casters/healers, tanks who can't keep aggro off you even BEFORE you've started casting etc...

you can message everyone to make a group, actually tried this a few times, managed to get most people together then our inc bard decides not to bother since he decides to go rvr, 35 minuits after saying he'll come and keeping us waiting, then the others hear about this then it's "sorry, taking too long", allways the same, you nearly get the group going and then people start leaving, or a bunch of inc people cancel etc... or just dont bother turning up at all and not give you the decency to tell you etc...

and spears....ooooh dont even get me started on spears

 

[old.Charonel]

Originally posted by Tyka
Charonel, pbaoe is not the only way to xp you know.

Me, Archan & Memeerf soloed siabras guardians/archmages when Arch was lvl 49, and got them down before they reached us, capped xp all the time, the trick is mana chanter debuffs cold, light nukers dd, wich will do cap dmg everytime, with good RAs like wp 3+ mom3+ etc you will do just fine.

tbh i've been thinking about full caster groups since respec, just havent tried them yet, last time i was in one (had been trying this idea a lot since retail) i was void spec, and most other casters were too meaning that you had all these uber mob killing bolts and you were generally lucky if a fg of 8 could even land two bolts on the mob, rest would be blocked, havent had chance to try a DD spec caster group though, but you only need it to resist a few hits and it's lights out for the whole group

still, is worth a try, will have to get three or four mages (christ knows we have too many at 40ish in our guild anyway ) together and give it a go i think

if they've fixed the blocked by meelee bug with bolts (i'm hearing conflicting reports on this) then a full void group should do very well, 8 specbolts should drop just about anything. but i know it didnt work at all when i was still void...

 

[StormriderX]

Or how about 8 light spec chanters using their companions and nuking away

 

[old.Charonel]

Originally posted by stormriderx
Or how about 8 light spec chanters using their companions and nuking away

ouch!

how about 8 lightspec chanters using their companions and nuking away in rvr...oh hang on, that happens

 

[Danya]

nah, all chanters are mana.

 

[Ensceptifica]

Originally posted by VodkaFairy
change aspects of the game that -require- you to be level 50, like RvR.
..
Or feel like a gimp in RvR without accomplishing much.

Once people stop taking the obvious road and sit around waiting for the perfect lvl 50 group with druid/warden/bard in DL, they'll find RvR can be a lot of fun at any level. I've gone into RvR with my lvl 34 eld, knowing my chances of survival, and it's been great so far. I've grouped lowbies when playing with my lvl 50 warden, and I know there's people who'd rather wait for 30 minutes then take the gray guy who's been LFG forever.... It's not the RvR aspect of the game itself that requires a lvl 50 for RvR; it's some (and not many I must add) people who are just rps hungry.

 

[old.Thalion]

Not all Chanters are Mana, there are still some with Lightspec left.

 

[Slinker]

Your saying

<If the mages / healers burn more than 50% mana on a pull you're going to get bad downtime. Even with MR4 50-100% mana regen takes about a minute.>

Dont forget "other mages" like myself have MCL and Serenity which also help a great deal with MR , I have actually been in more groups where you get peeps asking for an "end" rest

 

[geldor]

ure rite Ch@meleon i soloed 41 42 43 but 45+ i spent a week in fins group solid made it to 50 had to get up at 7 or 6 to be in the group then spend hole day their till gone midnite but did make some good freinds

 

[old.Charonel]

i've found that most groups at lvl 40ish thesedays have no power downtime due to the casters at all, we sometimes have to wait for wardens and things to regen power, but casters (if there are two pbae's) almost never have any downtime, never underestimate RA's

 

[inuyasha]

gotta admit

After killing 9 yellows solo, i have downtime ;(
Just to use mcl and start over =))

Charonel...its not that solo is useless 40+, its useless 44+ :=)
I got both 42 and 43 solo in one day =)
Just that mana is nerfed =)


LIGHT FOREVAH!!

(im 43 now...finns anyone? =)))

Point, 43 enchanter =)

 

[Wuren]

yet again i hear about this "fin's list", why dont ppl bother to make new groups instead of waiting hours on a spot?

 

[karlophin]

keep perservering mate.

It took me just over 40 days play to get 50 but subsequently I know the game inside out. Fair enough it caused a lot of frustration but youll enjoy it when it finally dings.

p.s. grr to you guys who got 50 in 9 days play

 

[old.Charonel]

pvp server, 1st lvl 50 = just over 4 days played <shakes head>.

dont have that much of an intention of ever going to fins, on the rare occasions i've been into ez it's been a lot of fun, so i intend to go there instead , just hard getting anyone else to go there though

 

[Danya]

Originally posted by caelithar
Your saying

<If the mages / healers burn more than 50% mana on a pull you're going to get bad downtime. Even with MR4 50-100% mana regen takes about a minute.>

Dont forget "other mages" like myself have MCL and Serenity which also help a great deal with MR , I have actually been in more groups where you get peeps asking for an "end" rest

Yes, often it's the healers as we're relying on a bard for primary healing, druids are far too rare. Don't often get asked for an end rest as I'm almost always grouped with a bard and the bard plays endsong.
Was actually in a decent df group today with 1 pbae, even with 2 bards I was still doing mana regen buffs though (go empowering perfection ).