Is Vanguard solo really that bad?

superwalrus · Post by **superwalrus** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:25 am

I was thinking of getting into Vanguard, but I read that it forces you to group. How soon does it force you to group? Is it like in EQ when you had to group to kill orcs in EC? If EQ is a 1, and WoW is a 10 in terms of solo play, where would Vanguard be?

Are the knight classes comparable to warriors for tanking, or are warriors going to be the only real tank? Are the servers populated with a lot of people or are they desolate?

Thanks,

Walrus

Post by **Ddrak** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:38 am

The first people to 50 were necros that soloed the whole way, so anyone claiming that you have to group to get anywhere is fairly obviously mistaken. The real difference between group and solo is the quality of gear that you get from the mobs - obviously group mobs are dropping significantly better gear than stuff you'll be able to beat down solo.

Knights seem at least as good as warriors, possibly better. Paladins in particular seem to have decent survivability as solo, at least as far as the melee types go. Casters seem to do better overall soloing, but die a lot more in the process as well. In terms of raiding, the whole thing is a complete unknown at the moment. You can't even *form* a raid, let alone find any real raiding content.

I would say on your EQ/WoW scale, VG is a 3 or a 4 in terms of solo play. You can do it, but you'll miss the best areas of the game. If you can find a steady group of 3 (tank/healer/dps) then things will go a lot more smoothly.

Quests are plentiful. I think they have more quests than WoW, but that's obviously subjective because I certainly didn't count. Quests are also the best method of XPing as a solo player, so you'll end up hanging around towns, picking up a book full of quests then slaughtering nearby mobs to fill the quests and get the quest xp.

Servers are populated, just the world is freaking huge which makes things look a lot more sparse than they really are. What actually worries me is if the worlds get much more populated then certain areas are going to face queues and bottlenecks as groups are fighting each other for shared resources - for example the Minotaur arena in Qalia where only one group at a time can be doing the events.

The one real problem with VG is the negativity surrounding it at the moment. A lot of people are really down on it right now, for a wild variety of reasons, and that's not a particularly good feeling.

Dd

Kulaf · Post by **Kulaf** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:36 pm

They launched with too many servers, because Sigil was so worried about lag in the n00b areas. Now that people are higher level it seems less populated that it should be because people are so spread out.

I personally feel they should consolidate a few servers.......but I think the bad PR of doing something like that might keep them from doing it.

Embar Angylwrath · Post by **Embar Angylwrath** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:47 pm

Personally, I think Vanguard is great. And it can only get better. All the bad press about it is waaaaaay over-played. The game is solid and well designed. It certainly is going to be the game that all others will be measured by.

Did they release it too soon? Yeah, probably. But even given that, it's still a fucking great game. I absolutely love it.

superwalrus · Post by **superwalrus** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 7:42 pm

well my main reason for wanting to play is that it has an anti-paladin. I always play either a paladin or a SK/DK and I have just played a Paladin in WoW and EQ for the last 5 years, so its time for a change.

Walrus

Fallakin Kuvari · Post by **Fallakin Kuvari** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:19 pm

superwalrus wrote:well my main reason for wanting to play is that it has an anti-paladin. I always play either a paladin or a SK/DK and I have just played a Paladin in WoW and EQ for the last 5 years, so its time for a change.

Walrus

Scale that gross exaggeration down in half, and you're right.

WoW's been out about 2 and a half years.

Njorls · Post by **Njorls** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:31 pm

Scale the reading comprehension up by 2.

He said he played one in WoW *and* EQ for 5 years.

superwalrus · Post by **superwalrus** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:32 pm

.... when you use a word like "and" it means you consider both. My statement is true, I played a paladin in WoW and EQ for at LEAST the last five years.

Walrus

superwalrus · Post by **superwalrus** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:32 pm

woah, hey Njorls.

Walrus

Fallakin Kuvari · Post by **Fallakin Kuvari** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:38 pm

yeah, I should skim less..

Whatever.

Njorls · Post by **Njorls** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:06 pm

I remember my BSS bitz

Freecare Spiritwise · Post by **Freecare Spiritwise** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 6:59 pm

Yeah, you can solo in VG just fine - the experience is almost better solo. Just like EQ, the overall best solo classes are necro and shaman.

Some of the better quest gear shouldn't be a big deal because unlike EQ where you camp x boss mob for n hours, in VG there's temporary groups that form up just to take down a quest boss, and everyone gets the quest. So there's almost no reason not to at least group for some of the bigger quest lines. Go stand by a boss mob, for example on the Infineum quests, and chances are there's 3-4 people standing around that need it also.

Aside from the 3 or 4 more populated dungeons, most are BYOG.

We are still having a blast with our shm / dk / nec trio. Even with our severely limited play time, we still feel like we're making forward progress when we play. In fact, we're almost glad that our toons are only level 30, because we don't want to hit the level cap too soon and run out of content. Also, there's so many cool dungeons that we don't want to out-level them, especially with the trivial loot code and the way group ownership is assigned. If a mob is gray to you, some random person (who it's not gray to) can run up, get the last hit, and screw you out of the phat lootz / experience.

Teglail · Post by **Teglail** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 9:37 pm

I have an old announcer friend that use to do gaming. He has a friend ( I know friend of a friend bullshit ) But VG itself is tanking. They are looking for an out right now. Trying to find someone to buy them out. I have a 23 sorc on Vg its not that bad of a game.

Embar Angylwrath · Post by **Embar Angylwrath** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 11:33 pm

Teglail wrote:I have an old announcer friend that use to do gaming. He has a friend ( I know friend of a friend bullshit ) But VG itself is tanking. They are looking for an out right now. Trying to find someone to buy them out. I have a 23 sorc on Vg its not that bad of a game.

Stop posting drunk.

Cetra Strife · Post by **Cetra Strife** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 12:17 am

Soe is rumored to buy out VG...again I say rumored...but yes, I've seen crazier shit then this happen.

Post by **Ddrak** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 12:42 am

I'd almost put money on SoE buying out Sigil at some stage. Would just make sense for them to consolidate, and Brad prefers to make new games than maintain old ones. That would just be pretty neutral for players though.

Dd

Teglail · Post by **Teglail** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 6:05 am

I'll cut you Embar

Kulaf · Post by **Kulaf** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 4:52 pm

Ddrak wrote:I'd almost put money on SoE buying out Sigil at some stage. Would just make sense for them to consolidate, and Brad prefers to make new games than maintain old ones. That would just be pretty neutral for players though.

Dd

I don't think it has much to do with Brad making games......he just likes to keep a closer watch over what was going on. When he got his promotion at SOE he had very little contact with what was actually going on with any of their games as he oversaw so many.

Brell Rants

Is Vanguard solo really that bad?

Is Vanguard solo really that bad?

hmmm

Re: hmmm

hmmm

hmmm