Runes of Magic US / AU

if it's REALLY so hard for you to play the game...instead of asking the devs for a silver spoon maybe look for ways to work around your problem?

If you cannot run content by yourself or find groups to run it with.....


Make friends on your server, the thing about ROM and any MMO in general is that being social can help you progress just as fast if not leaps and bounds above what solo play can accomplish.

Players farm grafu easy mode for mems all day everyday on every server.
the loot that drops is usually never looted, or looted just to vendor.

Make friends with a guildie/random player who runs these dungeons, ask them to put aside any of the dirty stats drops that would benefit your character (ex: if you're a knight and they get a hp/pdef of the castle with a dirty stamina XII) [or even clean dod/wa stats] then either find someone who is making tier stones, or head over to varanas and buy some yourself....random stat fusion stones drop with random stats, sometimes with only 1 stat(these are the ones you want) you can now dirty stat some gear with a couple higher end stats.

Get a pet, get consumables for your level (food,potions etc) and try to find other players to buff you before running the dungeon(priest etc)

if you do all of this you will be fine and level faster/run dungeons you want to run with no problem.


This is a bit of a process, however you will benefit long term if you choose to take this path. Time=money, if you refuse to pay into the game, be prepared to spend some time.


it will also get you ready for endgame content because statting gear is only a small part of endgame, buffing up and working as a team is what gets you phat lewtz.


if you are low on gold and are having a hard time making some, just farm daily items(use tp pots if you have them) and sell them on the AH(save a few stacks for when double xp rolls around youw ill be able to sell for a bit more)

After you put in the work and yoru char reaches a certain point you will be able to self sustain and progress.



-sas

I am not saying I want a "super-easy mode", I am saying that a solo-quest variant mode would be nice. At least for the lower level dungeons that it is hard to find an actual group to do.

After I posted last night, I decided to go back and try those quests I missed, again. I ignored Bernok, as I know better now. But I tried to kill Count Hibera in Bloodquarry, he was at 46% when I died. So I tried to do the Abbey, and had no problem (no surprise) until I reached the Duke. He was at 26% when I wiped. I might have been able to pull it out if my pet heal didn't have a two minute cool down. Or perhaps it I had one other person (either dps or healer) to help me. But alas, there was nobody around at the time. Perhaps I will come back at level 30/30, when I can bring my centaur pet instead.

This isn't asking about end-game dungeons to be easier, imo. This thread is about making it possible for the solo player to complete quests when no groups are available. I don't care if I miss out on the yellow stripe or the purple polka-dot gear.. big whoop-to-do. I just want to be able to do the content w/o recruiting a "ringer". For the record, I have 2 "statted" pieces so far, the rest is quest/drop gear.
And as for the "get a guild" style comment, the only ones I have seen advertise lately want a minimum of level 30. I ain't there yet, so that makes it a problem to join them, don't you think? I am not in a hurry to be 60+, and farm the end-game stuff. I am all about taking my time and enjoying the game as I level, and exploring the various areas. Sure, I could go to Xaviera and level super-quick (by all that I have heard), but that only gets me levels, not experience.

Quoted from "Darksabbath;483951"

I am not saying I want a "super-easy mode", I am saying that a solo-quest variant mode would be nice. At least for the lower level dungeons that it is hard to find an actual group to do.

After I posted last night, I decided to go back and try those quests I missed, again. I ignored Bernok, as I know better now. But I tried to kill Count Hibera in Bloodquarry, he was at 46% when I died. So I tried to do the Abbey, and had no problem (no surprise) until I reached the Duke. He was at 26% when I wiped. I might have been able to pull it out if my pet heal didn't have a two minute cool down. Or perhaps it I had one other person (either dps or healer) to help me. But alas, there was nobody around at the time. Perhaps I will come back at level 30/30, when I can bring my centaur pet instead.

This isn't asking about end-game dungeons to be easier, imo. This thread is about making it possible for the solo player to complete quests when no groups are available. I don't care if I miss out on the yellow stripe or the purple polka-dot gear.. big whoop-to-do. I just want to be able to do the content w/o recruiting a "ringer". For the record, I have 2 "statted" pieces so far, the rest is quest/drop gear.
And as for the "get a guild" style comment, the only ones I have seen advertise lately want a minimum of level 30. I ain't there yet, so that makes it a problem to join them, don't you think? I am not in a hurry to be 60+, and farm the end-game stuff. I am all about taking my time and enjoying the game as I level, and exploring the various areas. Sure, I could go to Xaviera and level super-quick (by all that I have heard), but that only gets me levels, not experience.

You remind me a lot of when I first started playing RoM about 3 years ago xD Back then it was just me and my friend questing and running instances together, but even though he was a Priest and I was a Warrior, we weren't able to do Bernok or Forsaken Abbey on our own. We actually didn't bother looking into statting, but yellow stats didn't exist back then anyway, so it wasn't as big of a fad as it is now. We just used quest gear from levels 1 to 50.

I think for Bernok we ended up having to ignore that quest until about level 25, which was when we were strong enough as a pair to take him down. And then for Forsaken Abbey I think we were still in about the level 25 or 28 range and what happened was we joined a guild and the leader (who was capped at 50) had to run us through. Before we joined a guild we had tried doing Forsaken Abbey with pugs with players around our level, but we weren't able to clear it. We always wiped after the 2nd boss.
For Necropolis of Mirrors it was the same. Once we hit ~level 30 our guild leader took my friend and I and some other players for a quick run through. I did that instance again when I was level 45 with a group of players in the same level range as myself and we were able to clear the whole thing (once again, using just quest gear).

The problem that you're dealing with right now didn't exist too much back when I started playing; the problem of population and guild availability. Recently the population has declined so that it's harder to find pugs and due to the decline a lot of guilds have disappeared from the scene as well. However I applaud the fact that you keep going back and checking the instances to see how far you can progress in them. Trying to solo an instance is not always easy. But as you level up and get better gear (from quests) they will inevitably become more do-able. So instead of trying to do Forsaken Abbey at level 20ish, you might have to level up and try it at level 30ish. I don't really think there's anything wrong with that and definitely once you can solo an instance you feel very accomplished.

Anyway your approach is very refreshing to read

Since the topic has shifted a bit...

I've been around since Chapter I. I've probably completed the FA and BG quests on six or seven different characters. And each time, it was in the company of at least one 40+ level party leader. I doubt that more than one or two of the other players in each of those parties was in the same guild as the party leader, though my two current mains (yes, I have two) were both run through those instances/dungeons by a much higher-level guildie. Pretty much the same for doing Crafty Bernok and all of the other "Vahtos" quests, though with CB the party leader tended to be lvls 20-30.

And yes, I see calls to do FA almost every day when I'm getting ready to do the Malatina mini-games. This is on Osha, other servers will vary, of course. I have no doubts that there are any number of high-level guild members running their lower level guildies through FA and BG virtually every day.

I'm of the opinion that a party of quest-geared (that would be the Logar and Silverspring armor sets) players of appropriate levels (average lvl 22, absolute minimum lvl 17) should be able to run FA. If done correctly, you shouldn't suffer a party wipe, though one or more members might snuff it. Pretty much the same for BG.

Necropolis of Mirrors, in Aslan Valley, is a very different proposition, and it's going to take a lot more firepower than a group of lvl 35 characters can generate. But, by this time, you should already be in a guild which has members willing to help a brother (or sister) out with the NoM quests.

I have to say that I like Darksabbath's attitude about this. There is absolutely no reason why *any* new player should rush through this, or any other game. You would miss so much. Those of us who are, as I've said elsewhere, "crabby old end-gamers" tend to now see the early dungeons and instances as boring and old hat, even when we're playing an alt with a class combo we've not tried before, or for a long time. However, they can be so damned much *fun*!

On the flip side, there's nothing wrong with making your own, or even buying, "twinked" gear--using the AT to cobble together better gear for your character which will allow it to survive and even 1 or 2-shot some of the elites in the lower level zones. It can easily be done without spending a dime of RL money, and it doesn't have to take hours and hours of grinding. For example, my newer main had as much as 3 million gold, just from questing and doing dailies, before he was level 45. He got a slight boost from his "devoted and loving Auntie" from a one-time gift of 200K gold early in his career. He was able to use that gold to buy somewhat better gear, or overdura white gear that he could selectively dirty stat. Some of that gear lasted him until level 60--I finally replaced the last piece of it just recently.

What it comes down to is that in RoM, or just about any other MMO, you have to *learn* how to play the game, learn the traps and pitfalls of the instances and dungeons you enter, and how to use your characters' skills and gear to your best advantage. This means that you're going to die. Some will die a *lot* until they're able to get your quests completed. And then, they move on to bigger and nastier quests. It's as simple as that. How *well* you do it is entirely up to you.

Addendum: EsxCape nailed it while I was typing up my post. Great minds...

Quoted from "Malignatus;483963"

Addendum: EsxCape nailed it while I was typing up my post. Great minds...

lol can we just get together for tea time and reminisce about the good old days? xD

Lol guys, thanks. I'm an old school rpg/mmo player, I see no reason to rush to the "end scene" of an mmo, been there done that.
Not certain what you mean by Logar armor, or Vahtos, but I have the Silverspring stuff.
I don't have any yellow stats on my gear (iirc), I think I did what is called dirty-statting? It's on a guide I found on the forums, get 3 like fusion stones with stats on them, steal good stats off better gear with them.. etc. So it's not like I got the castle or bunker stats I see advertised all the time in world chat (as if I could afford them anyways, lol.)

I really don't want to "drag" some high level so I can finish a quest. That is lunacy that the game has come down to that. It makes me wish I had discovered this game a few years ago. But then again, it was only recently I finally shook free of my EQ addiction.

Is boxxing allowed here? Meaning, am I allowed to play more than one toon at a time? Since I can't find people my level very often, that would make some of these things more do-able for me.

A GM said that you can dual client, meaning more than one RoM window open on the same computer, but you can't dual box, meaning running RoM on two separate computers at the same time.
I'm not really sure why that is.

I think this thread needs somewhat of a crowbar separation between discussion of the suggestion itself, and discussion for the apparent reasoning behind the suggestion.

A brilliant suggest can come from terrible reasons, just as brilliant identifying of a problem does not automatically mean that you have a great solution. And here, the difficulty in gearing up (cost, effort and glass ceilings that have to be overcome) does not directly effect the idea of Supereasymode.

At the risk of being called a troll again, may I ask for a clarification of the original idea?

I had presumed originally that this new mode would be balanced for parties in quest gear. My main problem with this was that it would, imho, only make it easier for people to be pulled through or to overgear and solo the instance. Thus making less likely that people form parties and tackle the content as intended, which I had (in my colossal arrogance) presumed was at least part of the reasoning.

But many have now added the idea that there should be a solo version of each instance. This is a whole different kettle of fish, and really is quite a paradigm shift for the game. Maybe it would work, maybe it wouldn't. Can't say I really have much of a strong opinion about it. It would add more content - but instances aren't really designed for soloing, and it would again give huge advantage to DPS and AoE combos and leave the Healers and Tanks in trouble again, imho.

What I often have against these kind of ideas, and please correct me should I be misunderstanding any point made here, is that often people hold up the fact that no one runs the lower instances any more, it is nearly impossible to find a group for Vahtos Bosses, etc, etc, and then nearly universally the solutions that are put forward largely consist of removing any need or encouragement whatsoever to make a party and make the entire game a solo activity until end-game.

This to me is a mistake - moving in a direction that completely opposite to correct way. Don't remove group quests - make them more important. Start quest chains in instances that give really great rewards later on. Increase the reward of getting inside those difficult instances, encourage players to do so and those that want to do find a group suddenly will have more luck. Yes, people will still be overgearing the instances, yes high-levels will still be pulling people through, but more people in total will want to do the content and so more parties will be formed.

The issue here is not only with the design of the game, but with player's attitudes. Too often players reject that which seems difficult. Forming a party, buying foods, learning to work as a team and the basics of healing, aggro and etc is beyond what many low level players are willing to put up with. And so they need encouragement to do so, not some way to continue to avoid it. Some players moan about how long it takes to for Joblid to spawn, and they are never online when he does. Other players set up come-on-in and start killing vines, and do so until he spawns. Meh, perhaps I will get off my soap-box now.

To sum up, in my opinion, low level instances are great fun, in fact, instances are great fun. About the only reason now that any one enters FA is for quests, so imho it would be ludicrous and beyond my understanding to remove that one and only encouragement to enter, especially under the guise of allowing players to experience more of the content. Imho, it would all but prevent new players from enjoying the best content that the game has.

I don't have time to read this entire thread, but it seems the discussion hasn't changed much from page 1 to page 5.

Overall, I must agree with KatalanOrk. The insult in the poll was an attempt at making those of us who disagree with the original poster feel guilt, the issue IS the players' attitudes, and having a super easy mode is just unnecessary and changes the game from an MMORPG to an RPG.

Should we not encourage players to associate with one another?

It's certainly possible to get to end game without doing instances or ever even joining a party/guild, but it's annoying and takes a long time. For that matter, we can also get everything necessary for end game gear and the like without paying.

You just need to realize that Runewaker is giving us a challenge. It's a challenge that promotes teamwork and persistence.

I'm cool with it, considering WoW got boring once raiding and PVP became the only goal at end game. I don't want RoM to be WoW. I love how it takes time to get to that max level, and it takes time to get the "best" gear. I love how working with my guild makes it easier to get to that point.

Is this not an incredible game? If you don't think so, you don't need to play it. :/

Quoted from "Renown0;484084"

I don't have time to read this entire thread, but it seems the discussion hasn't changed much from page 1 to page 5.

Actually you've missed an awful lot of the discussion - in between the bits you have read a lot of different topics have been covered with out any interjection from me.

Nice that you agree with me, but... to be fair the thread is far more comprehensive than only my opinion, however excellent and dashingly conveyed it is

The point just flew past, and you guys missed it. I am not certain what server you guys are on, or even what server the OP is on. My simple point was that there is no groups "of level" doing the low-level instances it seems. I see people zone shouting for it, and that is about it. If and when something happens, it is a high level soling it while the low levels(s) clean the mess. I finally joined a guild last night, and one of them did the same for me for the abbey, quarry, and bernok. So I can at least say I got them done.

But, I really doubt that is how the game designers imagined the content being done. I would think a solo/duo difficulty setting, for people of level, would be far more preferable to that. At least, if I was one of the devs, I would rather have my content done by the levels I intended for, not over- leveled (and geared) folks.

Quoted from "Darksabbath;484097"

I would think a solo/duo difficulty setting, for people of level, would be far more preferable to that. At least, if I was one of the devs, I would rather have my content done by the levels I intended for, not over- leveled (and geared) folks.

Yes but in doing so it would finally put the nail in the coffin for doing actually at level in a 6 man party. Perhaps it is difficult now, it would be impossible after your suggested change.

And the trouble still is partly down to player attitudes - however badly designed you feel the game is. For example, if a guildie asks me for help in a low level instance, (if I can) I whip out an appropriate level alt for the purpose. Indeed I encouraged my guild to try and keep a stable of alts for the lower level instances so as to help our newer players (rather than do everything for them), and so that we would have something to do if we could not find a tank for whatever instance our main toons were running or whatever.

I'll repeat it for the final time - the problem with low level instances (which is not entirely what the OP is about) is that no one wants to do them, or at least that nearly no one wants to do them. By reducing the difficulty then sure you get balance between who wants to do it and how many players you need, but you forever remove the early stages where you can learn and experience team play.

However by increasing the rewards for going in there particularly at level, you keep the instance going and preserve the content for all players. There are many ways of encouraging players to get in there and you could have a debuff like with Lemislive that transports players out of the instance unless you have, for example, a Newbie Pet. You could get essential mats in there, etc etc.

But anyway I have said my bit. Still would like to know if the original idea was for a solo instance, or still 6-man instances only balanced to those in quest gear.

Quoted from "Darksabbath;483951"

I am not saying I want a "super-easy mode", I am saying that a solo-quest variant mode would be nice. At least for the lower level dungeons that it is hard to find an actual group to do.

After I posted last night, I decided to go back and try those quests I missed, again. I ignored Bernok, as I know better now. But I tried to kill Count Hibera in Bloodquarry, he was at 46% when I died. So I tried to do the Abbey, and had no problem (no surprise) until I reached the Duke. He was at 26% when I wiped. I might have been able to pull it out if my pet heal didn't have a two minute cool down. Or perhaps it I had one other person (either dps or healer) to help me. But alas, there was nobody around at the time. Perhaps I will come back at level 30/30, when I can bring my centaur pet instead.

This isn't asking about end-game dungeons to be easier, imo. This thread is about making it possible for the solo player to complete quests when no groups are available. I don't care if I miss out on the yellow stripe or the purple polka-dot gear.. big whoop-to-do. I just want to be able to do the content w/o recruiting a "ringer". For the record, I have 2 "statted" pieces so far, the rest is quest/drop gear.
And as for the "get a guild" style comment, the only ones I have seen advertise lately want a minimum of level 30. I ain't there yet, so that makes it a problem to join them, don't you think? I am not in a hurry to be 60+, and farm the end-game stuff. I am all about taking my time and enjoying the game as I level, and exploring the various areas. Sure, I could go to Xaviera and level super-quick (by all that I have heard), but that only gets me levels, not experience.

Well, I have very similar experience, but more with not wanting to do PUGs/join Guild. There are guilds that will accept lower players, but they mostly do not run any instances apart from taking guildies trough FA/BG/NOM. Those are growing guilds and you can opt to grow with one of them. I myself am still learning guild staff & raids. I had some mixed experience with PUGs, but later I found a friend who helped me with all my newbish questions and who dragged me trough instances.

In mean time I did start running alts that I would pass some of my old gear to, and on one of them I did some of titles that normally I would not be able to get. (Master of the Bear King for soloing Beruda Lize while level 10 or less)

I love solo part of the game, but I do more enjoy social aspects of the game. I find my self talking to friends in game, giving my suggestion (rare) asking questions (too many of those )... Also with help of friends and guild I was able to progress much faster...and so far never had problems with not having enough quests as some... at least not until now...

May I ask what server are you playing on?


EDIT:

Quoted from "Darksabbath;484097"

The point just flew past, and you guys missed it. I am not certain what server you guys are on, or even what server the OP is on. My simple point was that there is no groups "of level" doing the low-level instances it seems. I see people zone shouting for it, and that is about it. If and when something happens, it is a high level soling it while the low levels(s) clean the mess. I finally joined a guild last night, and one of them did the same for me for the abbey, quarry, and bernok. So I can at least say I got them done.

But, I really doubt that is how the game designers imagined the content being done. I would think a solo/duo difficulty setting, for people of level, would be far more preferable to that. At least, if I was one of the devs, I would rather have my content done by the levels I intended for, not over- leveled (and geared) folks.

It might sound strange, but I did FA and few other quests in groups of the same or lower levels at the time, and that is where i have mixed feelings about groups. First time I entered FA we all started running around, for some time together and then we separated.... some died along way... some get lost (including me) but we figured out and were able to pull whole instance (3 of us from starting 5, M/K, M/P and P/Something) while we all were around level 30 or less. (I might have been level 30) But at the time I did not know much about housekeepers, pets, what potions and food to use. With alt it was easy for me to buff enough to be able to solo the same level instances. Game is build with option to solo a lot, but you have to use all aspects of the game, from properly buffing to stating. (greens in beginning, yellows later)

I just did my first solo of GG two nights ago and was able to survive Evelyn and whole group of elementals that she lead to me... but it's still more fun to run it with friend.

Did anyone else notice that servers are indirectly influencing this discussion? xD "Well on my server..." "I don't know what server you're on, but..." "What server do you play on?" etc.

Biggest server difference that I've noticed, as pertains to the problem addressed in this thread, is between Govinda and Indigo (for example).

So on Govinda, it's PVE and there's still a pretty decent server population. Guilds are very cooperative; if your guild can't run something on their own, another guild will join up to help you clear it. Other players are very cooperative; if you need to run an instance it's very rare that you won't be able to gather a party for it, even if it's an older instance like Lair of the Demon Dragon or Origin. In this case, I think you'd see more drawbacks from implementing the OP's suggestion. The drawbacks would be the same ones that KatalanOrk pointed out in previous posts.

On Indigo, it's PVP and the server population is nearly nonexistant. I'd estimate maybe as low as 150 players TOTAL...and maybe 30-50 on at any given time. Guilds are typically not cooperative; they are pitted against each other, biased, PK those guilds they don't like, etc. Other players are very competitive or lazy; if you need to run an instance it's rare that you will find a party for it. Either no one wants to help you or they're too busy/too lazy to run it. Only high-end instances like SC/GC/RT hold any allure. In this case, I think you'd see more benefits from implementing the OP's suggestion since the population is more geared towards soloing instead of cooperating. Especially if any new players were to join Indigo, they'd most likely have to find a way to solo all the instances until they hit DoD.

Of all the servers I've played on, I've played most frequently on those two and they're basically like night and day by comparison. It's a bit unfortunate that the gap here is so wide... But I guess these kinds of things affect the issue we're discussing here. If it turned out the OP was from Indigo, I really wouldn't be surprised that he/she had brought up the topic.

I dont see the point in a "super easy" mode. GC easy mode is easier than DoD. I've seen a mid geared mage solo most of gc ez. A group of players in Quest blues dirty statted can easily clear gc ez, and if good players a group of players in Quest blues clean statted with temple/tomb will be more than able to clear gc normal.

Quoted from "Germz1986;484251"

I dont see the point in a "super easy" mode. GC easy mode is easier than DoD. I've seen a mid geared mage solo most of gc ez. A group of players in Quest blues dirty statted can easily clear gc ez, and if good players a group of players in Quest blues clean statted with temple/tomb will be more than able to clear gc normal.

I can see an advantage of some instances over others. Like there's not really a comparison between GCe and KTe...one is obviously more easy than the other. I have no idea why it was set up this way; by all rights, KTe should be proportionately easy to GCe, if not easier. So even though GCe is a really good model for an easy mode, you can't really use it as the catch-all example of instance easy modes in the game.