New to SoD, groups easy to find?

[Cayleu]

Hello everyone, I played EQ for 5 long years, quit to finish school and join the real world. Now I've that I've got a decent job and more free time, I've found that EQLive has turned utterly stupid, and the uber guild I was in went to WoW (blech). Heard about SoD on the Vanguard forums, so here I am! Currently patching, will log in tonight or tomorrow.

Anyway, I absolutely hate, despise, and detest soloing. I'll grind some levels of exp by myself as a necessary evil if it means I'll get groups later on, but how easy is it to find groups in this game? I am one of those sick freaks who loves playing a cleric, I enjoy staring at red bars and keeping people alive, dont ask me why, I just do. So, I've become very good at it, but clerics suck to solo in EQLive, and I dont want to play 2 characters.

Second question, I've read the rules, are there any unwritten rules or social norms that wouldnt be obvious from EQLive to be aware of?

 

[chelkey]

Clerics are one of the most easiest classes to get groups for, if you don't get one right off in /ooc try choosing a zone and asking folks to join you there in /ooc and by checking /who all lfg. Usually, if you are more assertive about starting a group, 9 times out of 10 you'll get one.

Some things that you'll need to know about SoD is that first of all this is not EQlive. Though the zones may appear to be the same, they are in no way the same. You will find different mobs at different levels than you recall from live. Quests and lore are totally different from Live as well, so just wipe Live from your memory and prepare to enter a whole new world.

Things to note:

When you die, you do NOT have to go loot your corpse, all your things will be with you at bind point and you will just receive a small experience debt that at low levels can usually be erased by just killing 2 or 3 mobs. As a Cleric, with rez, you will be able to lessen this debt by rezzing your corpse.

All classes can bind themselves in most places, except dungeons and a few other zones. This is done by typing /cmd bind.

SoD also has specialization points to spend that help enhance your character. Type /cmd specialize and these will be explained to you.

/ooc is serverwide, not just zonewide, so try to keep that in mind. Folks use /shout to communicate zonewide and /auc is used to buy and sell items.

Tradeskills currently in game are JC, Tailoring, Smithing, Mining, Fletching, and Brewing. None of these have the same recipes as Live.

SoDwiki, which has a link on the site's front page will help you along with some quests and other good info.

You will automatically be joined to Dalaya's Beginners for a guild. Your best bet for getting groups and help is by sticking with this guild until you have formed friendships and decide on or get invited to another guild.

That's about all I can think of off the top of my head. I hope you enjoy playing SoD as much as I do and if you should need help in game and see me on, don't be afraid to send /tell and ask away


Vonoria, 63 Seamstress of Evil
Kiynia, 53 Cleric
Pettugga, 50 Beastlord
Arisil, 39 Druid
Aamea, 32 Mage

 

[Marumm]

Second question, I've read the rules, are there any unwritten rules or social norms that wouldnt be obvious from EQLive to be aware of?

It's not unwritten, but be aware that the naming policy is enforced here much more strictly than on live. You're not going to be able to pull off 'Sefiroth' or 'Stabzilla' here for very long.

As far as grouping goes, it depends largely on the time of day. If there's lots of people on, you shouldn't have any problem finding a group. As you progress to mid-levels, you'll probably find yourself grouping with many of the same people, so reputation matters a hell of a lot more here than in something like WoW that has a zillion players.

 

[Cayleu]

Thanks for the tips, how many people play evenings and weekends? I'm sure it wouldnt be like a crowded production server, but hopefully it wont be empty either.

 

[rab]

~300 people on at primetime (USA).

 

[Hasrett]

Thanks for the tips, how many people play evenings and weekends? I'm sure it wouldnt be like a crowded production server, but hopefully it wont be empty either.

The current peak is 300+ which, given the size of the world, provides a lot of grouping and raiding opportunities without leaving you having to check 6 different zones before you can find a camp.

And as people said, generally finding a group isn't too terribly hard. Of course there will always be stretches here, as in EQLive, where groups just elude you. Those tend to be unusual, though. Also, most people I've talked to came across a few people while leveling with similar play times with whom they leveled regularly for ages. Personally, I had probably 8 or 10 people with whom I would group at least once or twice a week from the teens through the present.

 

[Arif]

Dual boxing here is allowed. It is a very good way to get levels and give yourself a better chance to find a group or a partner.

 

[Wiz]

Dual boxing here is allowed. It is a very good way to get levels and give yourself a better chance to find a group or a partner.

Reading the original post is also both allowed and encouraged.

 

[Knaroz]

also the group xp changes make it easier to find groups, 2 people xping in a group get just as much xp as 6 people in a group and you kill faster with 6, most times you can find a group that is looking to fill up just for the extra DPS

 

[Rambler]

As much as you don't want to play two characters, I highly advise you play two characters.

Those who play two characters can make it to 65 in at least half the time, if not less (/more depending on your reference).

You don't have to equip. your bot melee all that well, or AA him as much, but he'll stil be there for when you're forming a group. It's much easier to start a group with Tank / Healer than you can imagine.

 

[chelkey]

Or if you are not one of those folks that are in a big hurry to get to the end game, like myself. Then I suggest having the Cleric and another more easily solable alt to play when you absolutely cannot find a group or can only log on for a short time. I too love playing Cleric, but I have a BL also near to my Cleric's level, that I sometimes group with, but can also easily solo if need be. Tradeskills are another thing I work on until grouping comes along. This is just a couple of suggestions for those that really don't want to 2-box, like yourself.

 

[Dedmon]

It's not 100% different from live, because the core class roles are generally the same.

Wizards nuke the hardest , necro's dot the most, clerics heal better than anyone, monks pull most raids, etc

The differences in classes are little quirks that you'll notice as you level. Wizards have a virtually mana free DD that does mediocre damage, but allows them to sustain a pretty decent DPS in every situation, for instance. Necros can no longer twitch (i miss it), but their DOts (including all dots) directly reduce the DPS of a mob (If your dots do 5% of the mob's hip per tic, that's 5% less dps the mob does, up to 10%). Little changes like that, are for the better, and make for a more balanced game than Live.

I played live for 5 years myself, as a 65 monk/65 shaman duo. I got sick of the unbalanced BS in live, and when GoD came out I nearly went down to SoE HQ with a baseball bat (Figurativly of course).

There are no pariah (sp?) classes, though i havent seen a single bard in a group for over 5 months now. (Dunno why).

 

[Sant]

As a lvl 11 mage, I can tell that I have not grouped a single time (probably because Im a mage...), but I guess other classes can find group easier. That´s why Im thinking on making another character.... the problem is... I dont know what to be :S Any tips? I would love to read class play guides to know wich classes´s gaming style I like the most. It would also help us newbies to play better and understand the game faster .

 

[moghedancarns]

You haven't grouped because at level 11, few groups form, or advertise in ooc. You can form your own... however you will be unhappy with the results of grouping with melee types without a healer present.

Any ranged dealer, spell caster, healer, or other pet class works very well with mage.

 

[hooden]

The best advice I can give you, as a starter, is go to Blackburrow. That zone just beats all. You can almost always find a group there or start one too. Overall, it's a fun place to exp and get trained.

Also, if you play on off hours I can tell you that grouping will be much much harder. If you play around early evening in the U.S. time zones then you should generally be able to find some sort of group, although there really is no guarantee. I would suggest finding a RL or online friend from another game and start from level 1 with them. Starting a group with 1 is pretty tough, but if you have 2 or 3 then it gets a lot easier to get the wheels in motion and fill the last couple slots.