There should be a way to temporarily down-level your characters, with armor, weapons and spells down-leveled proportionally - some possibly deactivated at lower levels, so that you can do quests, Adepts and help lower level players (by forming groups) and encourage grouping in general. This should be more fun for new people to SoD.
This is very important for Adepts. Currently, I have been waiting like 2 weeks for enough peeps (of the right classes) to be on to kill Lord Commander Ragarati, a level 52 Adept (character level 45-52 to engage). At least at 52, I can continue XPing by getting AAs. At lower levels, you have no choice but to EXPlock your characters for extended periods of time (days or weeks in some cases) due to repops of adepts taking days and several peeps in group wanting some item that drops infrequently or rarely. If you have a hard-to-get group NOW, trying to get one a couple days later can be a pain, especially if everyone wants some drop from the boss. Apparently, waiting for that drop, people create lots of characters to continue playing SoD. You can't just play a Main in SoD and wait on Adept drops (without EXPlocking - not a good solution). The repop rate on some Adepts should probably be looked at so Mains can do the Adept and keep going.
Another "solution" suggested by someone, was simply to forget him - "you can get better stuff at higher levels anyways" - not the best way to finish quests.
Apparently, Project Grin was created to allow players to two box tanks and healers at different levels to do different Adepts. This basically forces people to two box rather than find other players to group with - probably not the direction SoD should go (IMHO).
Furthermore, players use higher level characters to help fight stuff (e.g. totally destroy level 50ish bosses to help out lower level peeps). I had a level 55 and 65 help me and some others kill "a master rogue" and Glidrek in MielB for the Ring of Vengeance quest because we couldn't get a decent group together (MT, healer,etc. due to not enough of the right classes being on at that level). Although I truly appreciated the help, I don't think this is the way to do quests.
Just about everything in SoD seems to be a kludge or get-around from forming REAL groups with pullers, tanks, healers and other classes (especially since not enough of these other classes are around at any given moment).
If ALL players can down-level their characters, especially Mains, to help lower level chars, it would be more pleasant to play SoD and there would be LOTS of different classes to create decent groups with. I also believe the mobs are too easy to kill in general. Harder mobs would require a level of grouping beyond two-boxing. White mobs should be 3-players, yellow 4-5, red 6+.
I also believe the higher level chars would have more "fun" being a level 19 trying to kill something than just a 65+ coming in and whacking it for a lower level char.
To encourage grouping and helping out the lower level chars, the higher level chars should get the proportional or so EXP. The loot should be No-Drop. The higher levels may not be able to use the loot but the EXP should be worth something and actually encourage higher levels to group (of course leeching may need to be looked at - i.e. grouping within certain levels that can actually contribute would need to be tighter).
EQ2 has this ability and I have used it extensively to do some of the 4000+ quests it has. This would slow down the game so people could do the quests without the race to 65 - and at even 65, to do those quests you missed.
This is very important for Adepts. Currently, I have been waiting like 2 weeks for enough peeps (of the right classes) to be on to kill Lord Commander Ragarati, a level 52 Adept (character level 45-52 to engage). At least at 52, I can continue XPing by getting AAs. At lower levels, you have no choice but to EXPlock your characters for extended periods of time (days or weeks in some cases) due to repops of adepts taking days and several peeps in group wanting some item that drops infrequently or rarely. If you have a hard-to-get group NOW, trying to get one a couple days later can be a pain, especially if everyone wants some drop from the boss. Apparently, waiting for that drop, people create lots of characters to continue playing SoD. You can't just play a Main in SoD and wait on Adept drops (without EXPlocking - not a good solution). The repop rate on some Adepts should probably be looked at so Mains can do the Adept and keep going.
Another "solution" suggested by someone, was simply to forget him - "you can get better stuff at higher levels anyways" - not the best way to finish quests.
Apparently, Project Grin was created to allow players to two box tanks and healers at different levels to do different Adepts. This basically forces people to two box rather than find other players to group with - probably not the direction SoD should go (IMHO).
Furthermore, players use higher level characters to help fight stuff (e.g. totally destroy level 50ish bosses to help out lower level peeps). I had a level 55 and 65 help me and some others kill "a master rogue" and Glidrek in MielB for the Ring of Vengeance quest because we couldn't get a decent group together (MT, healer,etc. due to not enough of the right classes being on at that level). Although I truly appreciated the help, I don't think this is the way to do quests.
Just about everything in SoD seems to be a kludge or get-around from forming REAL groups with pullers, tanks, healers and other classes (especially since not enough of these other classes are around at any given moment).
If ALL players can down-level their characters, especially Mains, to help lower level chars, it would be more pleasant to play SoD and there would be LOTS of different classes to create decent groups with. I also believe the mobs are too easy to kill in general. Harder mobs would require a level of grouping beyond two-boxing. White mobs should be 3-players, yellow 4-5, red 6+.
I also believe the higher level chars would have more "fun" being a level 19 trying to kill something than just a 65+ coming in and whacking it for a lower level char.
To encourage grouping and helping out the lower level chars, the higher level chars should get the proportional or so EXP. The loot should be No-Drop. The higher levels may not be able to use the loot but the EXP should be worth something and actually encourage higher levels to group (of course leeching may need to be looked at - i.e. grouping within certain levels that can actually contribute would need to be tighter).
EQ2 has this ability and I have used it extensively to do some of the 4000+ quests it has. This would slow down the game so people could do the quests without the race to 65 - and at even 65, to do those quests you missed.
