Hello all,



I have had some thoughts that I would share for comment or discussion. They are sort of wide ranging, but I think they flow in a comprehensible sequence.



First off, let me say that having a 4 year old son has (re-)taught me the joy of Lego. I used to love playing with these when I was young but had forgotten. We have built several of the Lego Star Wars kits (since he likes Lego Star Wars the game on the Wii), even the ones marked ages 8+ or 9+. I arrange the pieces, give them to him at the appropriate times, and he looks at the pictures and puts them together.



Lego has very little challenge. There is an organizational challenge at the start, when you have 1,000 pieces to arrange for easy finding. (A trip to The Container Store helped immensely with that.) After that, though, it's a very straight forward process of "find piece, put it in designated spot, repeat." The directions are amazingly clear, entirely pictographic and completely precise, even without a single word. This has turned out to be immensely satisfying and seeing the end result is great. You can then play with the toy you just built, or modify it, or smash it (usually accidentally) and rebuild it.



This brings me to Everquest II questing. I have read on these forums various discussions between "hard quests" and "easy quests," from the perspective not of the content to be done, but determining exactly what to do and how to do it. In other words, not that "killing enemy X is hard" but rather "finding out who to kill" is either hard (not specified and vague) or easy (go to X and kill Y).



Personally, I have come down on the side of the "easy questing." I largely don't care what the intent of the quest is (kill some number of X, collect some number of Y, go to some number of locations, etc.), but I very much prefer the quests to be fully specified without vagueness. However, others like the quest to challenge you to figure out what the quest really is. Both styles can be accommodated, of course. Right now, I use "Profit UI" which has a button to EQ2i which shows me exactly what to do, as well as EQ2map which typically not as helpful. A modification to the game itself could just as easily serve the same purpose. Great! Both preferences are now accommodated. Sure, the UI could be made more helpful to someone with my preferences by allowing things like WoW's quest managers, but I have no substantive complaint or request in that regard.



I enjoy the accomplishment of getting the quest done, of going through the steps one by one and getting to the end. I like seeing the new places the quests take me (some of the Heritage quests go all over the place) and trying new techniques on the enemies if they're repetitious, or even seeing if I can speed up my kill speed. I like seeing what the NPC says at the end, and seeing what the next quest will be. I don't enjoy spending time trying to figure out what to do.



Now, this leads to commentary on soloing and grouping. I use these quests and their consequent soloing time to learn as much as I can about my class in preparation for grouping (and even raiding; did a T6 raid this weekend with my guild). However, there's only so much you can learn. For example, my monk (69) can be doing one of four "modes:" soloing, duoing/small grouping, group tanking, and grouping/raiding. Each one is different. When soloing, I am not using my aggro handling capabilities. When duoing, I can use some of my more aggressive self-harming techniques (including the haste self-DoT) if I'm with someone who can heal. When grouping, I can and have often act(ed) as tank, when a few of my more rare abilities (intercede, etc.) come into use, and you have to pay attention to where the mobs are and where the group is. In the raid, you switch to full-out DPS and instead of trying to keep aggro, try to avoid getting it.



There're only so many of these techniques you can practice while doing solo quests. Moreover, as you gain levels, which seems to happen mostly through soloing and questing (although a good group with full vitality can get a few levels in a night of instances), you get more and more abilities, including ones that are so rare. My coercer (5SMILEY, for example, has nearly a whole hotbar of power-management abilities that don't ever get used except in the longest battles, which is to say nearly ever and essentially never solo.



Therefore, it is nice to be in a guild of people (or have lots of friends) who will get together to do thing as a group on a regular basis so you can learn your class and its abilities better, more often. You don't have to be doing a quest together (a Heritage quest, or whatever); just pick a convenient or fun instance of an appropriate level and wade on in. You will learn so much about your class. Be sure to review all your abilities and try them all. Sure, maybe rescue (or whatever) has a 10 minute timer, but "I wonder what happens when I hit it." Find a chance to do it and see what happens. Find out what happens when you start shooting the enemy right as it starts moving at the tank (you probably won't do that twice). Change up your usual sequence from soloing. Maybe don't bother with the debuffs or DoTs that you use when alone because you have so much power in a group. Maybe front-load with DoTs and debuffs instead - whatever. Change things up and see how it works.



Another useful thing in grouping is to be with people who have mastered their class, in the sense of having reached 80th season. But, not just have reached it, but have explored various sets of Achievements and various ways of handling the class. My guild has master adventurers in just about every class and their help is invaluable when learning my way. (I will grant that at level 20 in a class, though, talks about Achievement builds are usually beyond my comprehension and go over my head.)



Finally, by grouping with different people and different classes, you can learn what each class does and what they bring to the table. There are three totally different styles of healers. There are at least five styles of DPS (melee, ranged, DD spell, DoT spell, and AoE focus). Except for the (seemingly) rarified world of Guardian and Paladin raid tanking, there are several styles of tanking. Each class has their proclivities, but you don't have to slavishly adhere to them. Learn what works for you, and what works for your group. I'd love to have 24 avatar slots to play each one to 50+ and really see what they can do, but Sony probably picked 12 for Station Access because then at least you can learn one of each pair for the doubled monthly fee.



My monk loves duoing with HoT healers because of her self-DoTs; duoing with ward healers and direct healers is a very different experience and took a lot more getting used to. My coercer loves being in a group that lets her unleash her crowd control abilities; there's a great feeling of accomplishment when you live through a battle with too many yellow ^^^s because you could keep them on ice.



Anyway, to summarize: I prefer a clear, unambiguous route to advancement (quests). I enjoy working my way through content and then learning my class and teamwork in groups. I like being with people who are having fun and aren't "hardcore min/maxers."



In sum, I enjoy Everquest II, and I feel privileged to be part of the Legends of the Tundra on Lucan D'Lere which has a great group of like minded people who make my time spent with them enjoyable and relaxing.



Cheers!

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