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How is the game for a soloist?
My preferred style of play in MMORPG's is solo-play. I simply hate to rush through group quests at someone else's speed. There is no socializing ... just mindless zerging and you miss half the game that way. As a solo-player I can play at my own speed, socialize when I want and participate in the community without the interruptions of "Colonel Klink" types who spend most of their time trying to control other players.
True, I don't get all of the good stuff that way but when I want that I can always join a group/raid and go from there. I delay this as much as possible. I guess I just don't find raids all that social.
I've searched and whenever this subject is brought up all I hear is "Go play a single player game" complete with the old school EQ mindset and all (yes that ancient mindset still exist to this very day). Sometimes in those types of non-answers I can gleam some info but never anything decisive.
I can't seem to get a solid answer as to just how solo friendly this game really is. You would think that with all of the options in the soul system, you could create a very powerful solo char. Even if you can, is their anything there for a solo player to do? In WoW I can do many many things before I commit a char to the raiding grind. What about Rift?
Anyone know?
Thanks!
Comments
To say it's solo friendly would be an understatement. I played 4 betas and I'm in the headstart and the only time I've grouped is for Rifts.
Make a difference!
I played a couple days in Beta 7 and now for headstart. I am approaching level 30 and have solo'd most of the time. Personally, I think it lends itself to solo very well. All classes can have a pet to assist. All classes can have some type of heal. Getting jumped by three mobs can be painful at first, but if you build your soloing toon to handle those, you should be ok.
Certain things you will join a group for: Two people standing in front of a particular mob waiting for him to spawn or public groups for rift/invasions if you want to participate. Each zone has a couple of group quests, but for the most part, I skipped them.
For levelling, very doable. For Rift/Invasion, public group it.
Only time you'll ever want to group is rift raids and dungeons because you actually do not need to group for events unless you want to.
It is very solo friendly. However....I too love to solo and I rolled a stormcaller. got to about level 18 and was having a tough time staying alive, handling respawns etc. So I decided to go buy a second role and switched to necromancer/warlock and holy crap it was like night and day. I quickly mowed down mobs and quests by the droves and am having a blast.
On top of that, when I get higher level and feel like AOE farming or just using AOE in other ways, I can switch right back to my stormcaller role with one button, no issues whatsoever.
Love it.
Solo is great. That being said... All MMO are better played in groups.
the game is pretty blanaced between soloing and grouping, but i never did understand why anyone would want to solo in a multiplayer enviroment. Except when your in a game thats a few years old and the average population is alot higher and groups becoem hard to find . but thats just my thoughts. other than that there is alot of solo content in it.
This game is the best mmo game for soloing; it seems designed around one man playing many game instances:
Just run five instances of the game and one attack will do you five attacks! Yes all instances stack!
Also fun for pvp and farming! And selling! Oh the possibilities.
What a great solo game.
Thanks for all of the replies!
For those that don't understand why anyone wants to solo in a MMORPG .. don't worry ... I believe you.
Of course you would group up when there are others waiting on a spawned MOB as well as other times when you just want to play co-op. I've heard conflicting stories on whether Rifts can be soloed but if its like the PQ's in WAR then its all good.
I'm deciding on whether to try this game or not and looks like this is another point in favor of Rift.
This is subjective. For me, grouping is more trouble than it's worth. That said, after playing to level 30 in the betas, as a soloist, I had more of the same tired second-class-citizen feeling.
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
"People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
It's extremely solo friendly, but I'd make sure that you specialize in at least one dps soul, since mobs can take quite a few hits at higher levels.
Looking at your sig, it just dawned on me that its the same Hartsman who played with EQ2. Talk about someone doing their homework for you .... thanks.
So far, UO, AC1 and WoW are the only games I've played were I didn't feel second class.
EQ mindset is the best mindset, there will never be another world as big as EQ for a long long time if ever. That game is legendary. You think Rift will last 17 expansions like EQ? I highly doubt most games wont. and EQ still has like 12 servers going or so with 2 prog servers.
I played eq2 for almost 3 years, Does Rift have anything to offer compared to eq2? Grouping, PvP, community ?
Rift is extremely similar to EQ2 so you should feel right at home. When you get a group for the dungeons it is pretty fun, but the only time I enjoyed grouping for rifts was with my guildies. They are too much like PQs in WAR, where I felt like I wasn't really fighting a rift or group of mobs, but competing with other players to kill the mobs faster so I could win something.
You have a ton of people coming from just about every other MMO on the market to try it out for the first month. Expect a large amount of asshats, but there will always be nice players in there as well. You just have to search them out.
It's all about choices.
You can solo and group. It really is up to the player. Nothing is forced which is what it should be.
If you had to group for eveything people would be complaining about that instead
Ok. Here is the thing. People are flagged as a roving public group AT ALL TIMES by default, although this can be turned off. You just click on their portrait hit the button and you are in a group together.
Game is great for soloing just because of this. You can easily work together with someone without any fuss or muss. And you can do everything you need to do at your own pace. Come and leave as you choose.
The only issue is with instances. The instances do have nice rewards and many people are still stuck in WoW mentality. It might take 3 months for people to figure out you can do alot of instances without a tank at all or without a main healer at all. OF course you would need maybe 3 bards or DPS choloro to do it without a main, but it can work fine and the people doing the healing can actually have fun too. What a novel idea.
I'm not really certain the game is made for soloing. You will miss out on pretty much all of the "fun" content if you solo through levelling.
You could probably reach max level, but it'd take longer and be far duller.
I prefer soloing to level... But eventually I start grouping with my guild. Just finding the right ppl makes playing mmo's worthwhile. Hoping that Rift developes a good community.
Have no fear that any mainsteam game that comes out at the moment will be solo freindly. Never have any fear about that.