Are group XP hunts still supposed to be a function of this game, because it's hardly something that I see anymore. Now when I say group hunts, I mean full parties of six or nine peeps getting good XP at a decent pace. You know..the kind of thing that keeps clans together.
I find that grouping actually hurts my leveling, and I really don't think this should be the case. I see that this trend runs through alot of my clanmates and longtime friends I have made in game. My personal dilemma stems from situations like this. As a WL, I can load up on clan hall buffs, SS, G.Heal Pots, and some Life Elixirs, then hunt the Ancient Battlegrounds solo for 25k XP per group mob. Since they're half hp mobs, I can cut through a group in about the same time it takes to kill a single mob in blazing swamp. Even in my high 60's, at this pace, I can gain about 35-50% a day (granted this is if I don't do my usual 1 hour of night fishing during each of my hunts). If I spent that same amount of time hunting in groups, usually around the Wall of Argos, I get about 7 to 10k XP per mob depending on the number of peeps in group and whether or not we're hunting angels. This usually results in about 15 to 20% per day and isn't much incentive to hunt with clanmates other than to have someone to talk to during the grind.
I see that duo's are really the only type of hunting most people like now and the only time you see parties running it usually involves some kind of automatons. What would increase the group factor in this game? I for one would opt that they bring back larger groups of mobs in the game like they were in Prelude. Only problem is, I don't know if this would lag the game out or mostly just benefit farmers. What do you guys think?
I do have the same problem.. I have a sorcy and a boxed SE and duoing with the SE in VOS is by far best exp group.. I only go for group hunts when we go to toi(for the Q ) or when we aoe(but thats still a 3 man pty) .. They rly need to do something about it so full parties(+exp bonus) are worth being together...
if you know how to make a stacked party and where to hunt, you can get great xp and a lot of fun, if you stink at making parties it will slow and stressful.
Personally, I cant stand soloing. If I was forced to solo, I would just quit the game...so boring. I can do one or 2 buffrounds with my CH buffs and noblesse ports, maybe an hour max with a boxed SE. But, by the end of that, I am so bored that I would rather bash my head against my wall than do another buffround.
if you know how to make a stacked party and where to hunt, you can get great xp and a lot of fun, if you stink at making parties it will slow and stressful.
Personally, I cant stand soloing. If I was forced to solo, I would just quit the game...so boring. I can do one or 2 buffrounds with my CH buffs and noblesse ports, maybe an hour max with a boxed SE. But, by the end of that, I am so bored that I would rather bash my head against my wall than do another buffround.
Well honestly, Im glad someone is on the same line as me here. I dont like soloing either, its a MMORPG for a reason.
And when I make up the bill at the end of the evening, solo will have cost me more then partying up. And in the end adena > xp.
For many, actually, and partying isn't the only one of them.
Smookie and spirelota, you both have classes that primarily take to specialised groups - pole groups and mage groups respectively.
Groups often have slow exp at first and only slowly get faster as the members get used to each other; in a clan that should be no problem.
I always enjoy packing one melee type between the two healers I play (as in, partying one), but it's stressful if I'm dealing with people I don't know.
solo will have cost me more then partying up.
Once again only true for a very limited range of classes - anything, for example, that actually hits things should be making more solo (unless it has manoring clan groups, but those are hella rare).
Except soloing with a buffbot, though I don't actually have the experience needed to support this claim, I just imagine it must be so.
Or if you are trying to make adena, nothing is worse than a group, as the amount of adena you get, if you do get adena, always seems so much smaller than the actual cost of the shots you just used in killing the mob.
It's not that I don't like grouping, I enjoy it when I can actually find a group, which is very infrequently, but I've never walked out of one thinking I had earned more exp and adena than I would have from soloing.
In Dion I still see people doing raid groups, this is a great way to get from 20 to 40 but only works if the person leading is at the raid boss,and knows at least one more raid that is up. Doing this type of thing is fun, bonds a clan for sure. Friday nights I used to see Raids going for 40+ lvls and groups forming up to do the dimension rift, where did this fun part of the game go? Now its just one person against the mobs, the Raid bosses stand around bored.
I kinda have mixed feelings on this issue. I remember back in C2 when the only kind of xp you could get was in perfect 9-person parties. People were **** about it being perfect, they had to have all the right classes, all the right levels or they weren't going anywhere. I used to spend hours trying to put parties together, getting so frustrated when I'd finally find an archer to fill that last spot and they'd leave because our BD wasn't 58+ or some such nonsense. (How did they expect the poor BD to get level 58 if no one ever grouped him!?) And when we'd finally get a group of 9 people together, we'd be maybe 15 minutes into DVC, not even to our spot yet, and someone would have to go.
Parties were so frustrating. I could play 10 hours and only xp for 1-2 of them. That is why I made my SpS. You can't count on parties. Full groups take forever to put together. Even now, when someone asks me to party I can usually always count on at least 30 minutes of sitting around waiting for them to find a SwS, or waiting on so-and-so to come back from dinner, etc. Then once you get out there, if you have to PR for any reason (pvp, mobs, restock), they break up. If one person says they're tired, suddenly everyone is tired and the party breaks up. Etc., etc.
I like, no, I need to be able to solo so that I don't go crazy. While the days of "omg this party is not perfect!" are over for the most part, it is still nice to be able to xp during those times when you can't find a group.
On the other hand, I have many more fond memories of grouping than I do of soloing. And it does seem as though grouping has been diminished a lot. I'm glad you don't *have* to have perfect parties anymore, but I do think it would be nice if the *best* xp in the game was from 9-person parties. ATM it seems as though a mage/recharger duo is the fastest xp. There is little incentive to do large groups. My clan is a large, very active clan, but we really only put together one party a day. The majority of the time people are off soloing. I am glad that we usually do either an AOE party or an archer party every night. I don't always get in on them but at least we do them. And they are very good xp, about the same or better than duoing w/ my SpS (keeping in mind that I don't have empower, LOL.)
Grouping beats solo hands down just due to the fact it doesn't get so mind numbingly boring. You don't need the perfect group or duo even. You just need to get a feel for what any pickup group your in can handle and let er rip.