You pretty much reaffirmed my point.
Yup. Basically, I've been level 80 for sometime, but I don't think I've been to level 80 areas. Or 70. There's just no need to; go to level 20 area, level 30 area, finish some level 15 zone event... it all gives you xp and appropriate loot. Every zone in the game IS useful. Can't beat that freedom.
We should agree to disagree because I think it's a taste thing. I still play GW2. I did a ton of PvE stuff in groups but we were not in the same party. We came together for the event and went our separate ways after the event was over (I think you mean to put dungeons and fractals aside which is deliberate group content). GW2 does something that TESO does to a lesser extent. It rewards cooperative play and does not punish it.
My first 80 was a thief, and he played fairly meh in PVE. The steal skill was crap and there was very little class advancement after the initial few levels. I didn't do a lot of dungeon runs and really didn't care for the ones I did. The combat and world was very rote, and the quests were standard fare outside of the class quests which were ok but really long and a bit too over the top.
Hopefully they'll have more feedback and remove the NDA. Right now all I see is low level content, and very buggy stuff at that.
So, don't quest? Form up a group, find a group of mobs, and go to town? These games have the exact same systems present as EQ. The only difference is, you're no longerforcedto take part in them, like you were in EQ. You know why people don't partake in those activities? Because, just like in EQ, people realized that those systems sucked then and suck now.
These games do not have the same systems present as EQ. What MMOs these days have mobs that don't leash after 10 feet? If you want to grind mobs in modern MMOs, your entire group has to be moving constantly instead of having one guy going out and pulling things. And how many modern MMOs have CC like enchanters/bards that let you pull 10 mobs and control them while you kill them one at a time?
Bard kites were effective because xp mobs in EQ had no ranged damage due to the terrible resist system. The only mechanic to avoid this later was summoning and certainly did prevent bard kiting even without leashing.
I dunno, he's pretty spot on imo. In a lot of MMOs, grinding mobs with a few people is actually more efficient.
Which ones? Even the most grindy Korean games have all went to Quests over grind. The zones/dungeons are designed around quest completion, not grinding. I am not even saying that one way is right or wrong, but I don't think you are right that grinding mobs with multiple people (or even one person) is net, net more efficient. I can't think of a single game where it is, in fact.
The second half of the grinding mechanic was rare spawns with rare drops. I really liked that part of the grind. You have some of that in at least a couple of the dungeons in TESO. I found that the end boss (who spawns regularly) in some open dungeons dropped a blue item as a rare. There was not enough spawns nor was the named rare but I did have a bit of that old magic.
Who's the stupid one here? You didn't even bother to read what I typed, because if you had, you'd realize I mentioned nothing about grouping up to quest..
Just about all of them. What, exactly, am I out of touch about?
And there it is! You people want a slower leveling curve, you cry for the ability to "grind" mobs, but when those systems are present in the game, because they aren't beingforcedon you and others, you don't partake in them? Why do you think that is? It's because you want people forced to playyourway and at your pace/discretion. Like I said, people don't engage in that gameplay anymore, because we've realized that it sucked then and it sucks just as much now.
FFXIV had a grinding mechanic in it. It gave you a exp bonus when you string kills together. And i think, if I remember corretly there was no exp penalty for gruping, you all got what the mob was worth.
Not gonna happen.
