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Title: How soloable is the game? Post by: angry.bob on June 28, 2009, 06:22:47 PM I just got an email with a special price of 9.95 a month to resub. I've been thinking about coming back but I loath grouping. Is it possible to play all the way to the "end" without grouping?
Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: rattran on June 28, 2009, 07:21:32 PM Yes. You won't be able to do a bunch of fellowship/epic quests until you've leveled far past them, but soloing to 60 is perfectly feasable.
Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Stormwaltz on June 28, 2009, 07:43:49 PM Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Ingmar on June 29, 2009, 01:08:43 AM I really wish the epic wasn't large-fellowship-required at times. If Sjofn and I could duo it I bet we'd actually play this game a lot more. I don't really want to just solo to 60 when there's EPIC SHIT with ARAGORN and RADAGAST and TOM MOTHERFUCKING BOMBADIL that I'm missing out on. You know?
That said, if you don't get nerd rage at missing out on that stuff this game will be fine for you to solo in. Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Arthur_Parker on June 29, 2009, 02:09:45 AM I thought this was interesting.
Quote WarCry: Meeko: Any chance that some of the epic instances in volumn 1 will be eased as not so many people are around to group with who are interested in doing them... or a way to hire npc's to help complete them in future? Orion: Funny you should ask this. Book 8 will see the first change along these lines. Chapter 11, Orthongroth is already set this way. Moving forward - post Book 8 - we are taking a different approach. My recent work has been focusing on providing both solo and group version of the Epic instances to allow players to choose the way that they want to complete the overall epic story. Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Hawkbit on June 29, 2009, 06:07:30 AM The red text would make me resub instantly. If I have time for it, that is.
Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Mrbloodworth on June 29, 2009, 08:24:24 AM Opps... :awesome_for_real:
Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Yegolev on June 29, 2009, 11:58:14 AM Something to consider when soloing: you are going to have travel amplified a great deal due to cutting out X number of quests available to you in any particular zone. If you are interested in leveling quickly and want to keep to quests that are about your level, you will end up traveling even more. I'm soloing my runekeeper mostly because of time, since grouping with others just slows me down. Also they annoy me, but this is not news.
Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Sjofn on June 29, 2009, 01:08:30 PM I really wish the epic wasn't large-fellowship-required at times. If Sjofn and I could duo it I bet we'd actually play this game a lot more. I don't really want to just solo to 60 when there's EPIC SHIT with ARAGORN and RADAGAST and TOM MOTHERFUCKING BOMBADIL that I'm missing out on. You know? That said, if you don't get nerd rage at missing out on that stuff this game will be fine for you to solo in. Yeah, we'll get into it for a little bit, but then we have to drop 54876234534 quests because we can't duo them, AND we miss out on the big epic storyline, and Ingmar gets all :heartbreak: and then we stop playing. Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Soln on June 29, 2009, 02:02:07 PM if it's any consolation my wife and I are in the same boat. With the exception that we irrationally kept at it and finished bk14 last night. But yeah you literally need a full team of 6 or 5 lvl60's to complete the instances after Bk 12 (?). I'm not exaggerating, they were the old "epic" content. Now they are just a pain the ass. Particularly since they unlock traits/deeds and legendary skills that make playing somewhat easier.
Interesting complaint thread of the week last week about the reduction in the leveling curve on the official forums. Guy was highlighting how many new people were running around at 60 who didn't know how to play. That's debatable, but he was right to also highlight that most of these new people don't have ANY legendary skills, which really reduces their effectiveness. I can honestly say that my legendary heal has doubled my effectiveness -- saved several groups in the clinch. Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Xeyi on June 29, 2009, 02:03:36 PM Yeah, we'll get into it for a little bit, but then we have to drop 54876234534 quests because we can't duo them, AND we miss out on the big epic storyline, and Ingmar gets all :heartbreak: and then we stop playing. I have exactly the same issue. I'm sort of ok with skipping most the quests I can't find groups for, but having to skip the main storyline as well gets me every time. I'll likely give this game another go when they finish the epic quest reworking though. Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Ard on June 29, 2009, 03:12:16 PM Interesting complaint thread of the week last week about the reduction in the leveling curve on the official forums. Guy was highlighting how many new people were running around at 60 who didn't know how to play. That's debatable, but he was right to also highlight that most of these new people don't have ANY legendary skills, which really reduces their effectiveness. I can honestly say that my legendary heal has doubled my effectiveness -- saved several groups in the clinch. Yeah, I saw that post also, and I really think the guy also missed the boat on the fact that there was just a leveling contest that didn't exactly encourage people to stop and farm pages, or quest items, or rep items for the traits. Yeah, there are probably some first time 60s now who don't have any, but I really expect they're probably the exception, not the rule. Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Stormwaltz on June 29, 2009, 03:56:32 PM I just got a third Legendary for my 60 over the weekend. ¬_¬
Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Rishathra on June 29, 2009, 04:24:41 PM I feel like I'm going to be one of those 60's with no legendary traits. I'm at 51 now and have all of two pages for one book, and no books. I stopped grinding for traits about ten levels ago, mainly because I was having more fun just doing quests and visiting all the various zones, than sticking around in one and killing the same mobs over and over. I know this stuff is important, but I'm just having more fun leveling. It's not like I'm in any real hurry to get to 60 either.
Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Ard on June 29, 2009, 04:32:13 PM I bought my books from the AH in my low 40s. I did my normal questing in Misty Mountains and Angmar. For the two that only drop for you, I had them completed by the time I was like 46, with no extra grinding. I bought the pages for the other book off the AH and actually had that one done first. Yes, this took a few gold, and is more expensive for certain classes, but it really wasn't that hard to do.
Now the one that takes items out of Urugath and Carn Dum... I'm still not done with that one. Stupid putrid slime. Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Mrbloodworth on June 29, 2009, 04:39:30 PM Funny you guys bring this up, some of us were thinking of doing a Carn dun group this week end. I guess i should have sent out that Kinmail.
Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Lianka on June 29, 2009, 04:47:46 PM I'm going back and doing the grind traits I need at 60. It felt almost criminal and dishonest one shotting level-8's in Ered Luin, but it sure was fun! :)
Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Ard on June 29, 2009, 06:11:44 PM Funny you guys bring this up, some of us were thinking of doing a Carn dun group this week end. I guess i should have sent out that Kinmail. I'm not on your server and my kinship isn't as useful for getting things like this done ;) But hey, if you want fish, we have that. Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Soln on June 29, 2009, 06:26:15 PM I just got a third Legendary for my 60 over the weekend. ¬_¬ you're talking about Legendary items, because you can't solo CD. You can buy those items to finish your class quest. Are you saying you go all your books and legendary skills solo? Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Yegolev on June 29, 2009, 07:00:48 PM I'm going back and doing the grind traits I need at 60. It felt almost criminal and dishonest one shotting level-8's in Ered Luin, but it sure was fun! :) Ah, I only feel a little dirty clearing Enmity of the Dourhands III in Ered Luin. :awesome_for_real: Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Stormwaltz on June 30, 2009, 01:11:45 AM you're talking about Legendary items, because you can't solo CD. You can buy those items to finish your class quest. Are you saying you go all your books and legendary skills solo? I'm talking about Legendary Traits / Skills -- Sword and Staff in this case. You can only AH the pages for one of the Legendary books. For Lore-masters, it's the one that unlocks March of the Ents. Not coincidentally, that was the first Legendary Trait I acquired. I didn't get Noble Savage until I was almost done Moria. Were we talking about something else and I didn't grok it? Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Zetor on June 30, 2009, 01:31:06 AM Yeah, I farmed angmar and misty mountains for about 10 hours to get the sword & staff pages (class-defining LM legendary, pretty much a must). It wasn't a happy happy thing to do, and I probably wouldn't do it on a 2nd character.
Like others have said, there is an overabundance of fellowship quests; there are entire sub-areas that have nothing but fellowship quests in them (for a WOW parallel, think of the various elite sub-zones before they got un-elitified: the troll ziggurat in hinterlands, the keep in arathi highlands, the blue dragon area in winterspring, etc). Then again, the lower-end instances are not very inspiring (that's an euphemism :grin:), so you aren't missing out on THAT much while soloing. You can definitely get to 60 by just doing quests, and you don't need to complete them all. Some changes on the lowbie group-content stuff would indeed be welcome... but what I'd kill for (and would eliminate the reason my guild quit again) would be a sidekick / mentor system. Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Yegolev on June 30, 2009, 10:50:59 AM I think I have a summary of this particular soloability topic, but I might be missing some things.
1) Epic lines should be soloable or scale to group. Turbine is working on this. 2) Mentor/sidekick would help friends play together. 3) Class-defining elements requiring a Grade A fellowship to get make people cry or give up. What did I miss? I don't really have a huge problem with an entire zone of nothing but group content, as long as the epic line does not take me in there. Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Ard on June 30, 2009, 11:22:10 AM 3) Class-defining elements requiring a Grade A fellowship to get make people cry or give up. They're also working on this, I believe. 3) There was a dev post recently saying the class traits regarding CD and Uru needed work. I went looking for it, but I couldn't find it. It might have been in one of the more recent dev chats. edit: 2) Might not really be an issue, as far as mentoring goes, since there's not really any xp hit for someone higher level than you helping you since the bulk of the xp comes from quests anyhow. The downside is you just get run through stuff instead of taking your time since they vastly overpower everything. Leveling people up however might be interesting and get people into Moria and beyond faster. Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Yegolev on June 30, 2009, 12:25:03 PM I was thinking of adding some sort or incentive to running a grey instance with lowbies (besides the fact that you could not run it when it was level-appropriate, nyuk nyuk). Not that I have any great ideas on this front.
Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Tarami on June 30, 2009, 12:38:31 PM I was thinking of adding some sort or incentive to running a grey instance with lowbies (besides the fact that you could not run it when it was level-appropriate, nyuk nyuk). Not that I have any great ideas on this front. How about titles and deeds that trigger 10 levels later than the respective quests for the instance? Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Yegolev on June 30, 2009, 12:41:42 PM Or a faggy hat. People seem to love those.
Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Tarami on June 30, 2009, 12:43:51 PM If we're going for what people love, why not just give them elf tits and be done with it?
Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Ard on June 30, 2009, 01:06:50 PM So the Merusk plan to victory?
Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Yegolev on June 30, 2009, 01:12:00 PM I'm suspicious more people like faggy hats than elf tits. Buuuuut... some sort of costume would be easy. A title/trait deed would be better, like mentoring once in a set of instances much like the "do X quests in area" deeds. What would get people on the mentor-train fast and hard would be a fancy mount.
Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Xeyi on June 30, 2009, 01:19:50 PM I'm suspicious more people like faggy hats than elf tits. Clearly the solution is .... a knitted boob hat Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: ghost on June 30, 2009, 01:46:40 PM I'm suspicious more people like faggy hats than elf tits. A combination of the two would be fantastic. :why_so_serious: Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Yegolev on June 30, 2009, 01:48:27 PM I think you're onto something.
Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Lianka on June 30, 2009, 03:38:20 PM I was thinking of adding some sort or incentive to running a grey instance with lowbies (besides the fact that you could not run it when it was level-appropriate, nyuk nyuk). Not that I have any great ideas on this front. I keep hoping I'm going to unlock some sort of as of yet unlocked by anyone ever title after I've finished all the quests and all the deeds. I'd be known as Sveta - The OCD. Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Yegolev on July 01, 2009, 06:49:39 AM I don't want to be the guy to point this out, but if such a title existed, they would not be able to add any more.
Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Mrbloodworth on July 01, 2009, 07:02:58 AM Quote from: Orion We'll be stopping when we feel comfortable with the new progression through the world. The overall goal is something like this: Newbie: Levels 1 - 14 having distinct racial tracks to move through. While all races share at some point in the areas surrounding them they should feel more separate and equal now. Early: Levels 14 - 22 having two distinct tracks through the Breeland experience, one following the epic storyline and the other following the storyline of Breeland. (Hush now about another area, we've heard you and know that you want another one. For the moment, Breeland has been restructured to provide those tracks. Mid: Levels 22 - 32 having two distinct tracks through the Lone-lands, following Epic Book2 and the story of the Lone-lands, and the North Downs, stopping shy of Esteldin, Meluinen and Othrikar. Advanced: Levels 32 - 42 having three tracks through the Trollshaws, Evendim (including Oatbarton) and Esteldin into the Ram Duath. This will also include epic Books 3 - 4. High: Levels 42 -52 will have four tracks through the Misty Mountains, Forochel, Angmar and the southern Trollshaws into Eregion. Some of these areas will need less work than others, but I cannot wait to get into the 32 - 42 stretch and finally make it clear for people where the questing is at these levels. Once done with that push, deeds, class quests (primarily at 50) and some other low hanging fruit will get a new pass. Title: Re: How soloable is the game? Post by: Tarami on July 01, 2009, 07:30:04 AM Yeah, but when? I don't have time to wait for two more books! I'll be like, old, then!
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