lst level of balance

[Esquire]

How about getting rid of all the "group" missions included in the so-called "daily solo" missions?

Like the 1 that is in the 2nd tier of the mantis cave that also includes the lockpicking skill? Or, the 1 I got today, alien mission, that I believe I said something to the effect of "I want to face the aliens alone" to start it and that includes 3 to tank with a 3 minute timer to kill all 3? I actually lived thru the experience but the timer was over by a few seconds. Quick delete and subsequent log out. Skyrim will get the rest of my gaming time today. Is that what Funcom developers are going for here?

It seems Funcom has installed this type of content just for the shear sake of frustration and just about nothing more. Looking at needing 30 mil to level now and alien dailys providing about 1/10th of the XP to see some sort of progress, it seems I look forward to the timer dropping and being able to complete this "solo" content for even the 10th that it would give me, just to find this type of development.

Solo missions are SOLO missions, group missions are GROUP missions. It would seem the Funcom developers have a problem figuring out the difference or the balance required therein. If your going to mark something as solo, them have it actually be, solo (and that would equate to NOT needing a group to just get there, complete after you do, or simply relying on Funcom's random number generator to actually come up with the DPS needed to compete with the timer).

Group content is great. Until you find that your game population has dropped to a point where groups are hard to find, or you run into a group mission marked "solo". Balance should START there, in Funcom's own development studio expecially if your going to re-release to the masses again via steam or whatever. "Balance" is a state of mind and starts with developers, and it sure seems that this is sometimes very lacking in the development of this game.

[Wakizaka]

That AI mission is fine the way it is, but it does favour profs with average or higher DPS. It is completeable by all though.

The mantis daily is quite quick with some IP into B&E, as you can open the containers right by the entrance into that section of the den, otherwise you need to battle your way into the hanger where they don't require B&E skill to open. Also, getting to the location is easy when taking the entrance from Borealis, and using one of the tunnel warps to get you right there.

[Esquire]

That AI mission is fine the way it is, but it does favour profs with average or higher DPS. It is completeable by all though.

The mantis daily is quite quick with some IP into B&E, as you can open the containers right by the entrance into that section of the den, otherwise you need to battle your way into the hanger where they don't require B&E skill to open. Also, getting to the location is easy when taking the entrance from Borealis, and using one of the tunnel warps to get you right there.

I can almost guarantee you that my eng could NOT complete the AI daily. That toon couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag. The robot can NOT take on 2 much less 3 (can barely take on 1 in the AI dailys I'm doing now and is supposed to be 28 levels ahead of the toon, itself) and then the agro from the 2 that the bot isn't on would go straight to the eng. The advy lived thru it but still was conditioned upon the "good rolls" of the random number generator for the timed portion and this time, the numbers were on the low side, purely conditioned upon getting those high DPS rolls.

They start giving the lockpick daily at 125. NONE of my toons could hit that solo at 125, NONE of them. None in guild could have done it either. I walked a doc thru last night and opened the box for her. Even if you use the Bor entrance, run into the 1st room, you get 2 loot controllers, 2 dogs, 2 more loot controllers, and yet another as you enter the room where the "lockpick box" is. None of my toons could spare IP at 150 for lockpicking. However at 174, I have nothing but points as everything I use now is soft capped.

If you referring to 150 twinks, that isn't happening here. Contrary to popular belief, AO did get a few NEW subs and none of us have even a 200 as yet, much less a 220 with the buffs or $ to provide to alts. None of us have a high level crafter as yet either to hand gear down with much less twink into S-10 gear and you can imagine the credit situation. I still haven't even been in S-10 as yet and now too high level to enter with the advy due to the fact that we wouldn't have had anything to benefit us if we had of went there and farmed it. None of us dual-box as yet either so no 2nd accounts for buffs, even low level, and couldn't have used them if we did due to NCU limitations. That's due to the fact we haven't finished the grind on the 1st account yet. Development like this is aimed at alts and twinks of existing high level players, not new players who have to contend with this type of difficulty and misplacement of when the quest(s) are picked up.

I know exactly the deal here, I played SWG for 8 years. I had the 4 accounts, all 4 maxed crafters, and the jedi when jedi were something to behold that could solo the entire game almost. And if Funcom development does, as SOE Austin did, and keeps designing difficulty for current endgame players in leveling situations, they will end up right where SWG is today. No new players and closed servers by nothing more than simple attrition of the existing playerbase. That doesn't seem like where Funcom says they're heading to. With a engine upgrade and a quasi re-launch on steam, there will be at least a few more new players who aren't twinks and alts as well and they will also get a good taste of this. Sorry, but these are not "fine the way it is".

[Awikun]

Over the years AO became easier and easier to play, but there are still people that keep complaining that it is too difficult

Daily missions are excellent XP source !
Few years ago the only alternative was grinding hecklers or doing dozens of "regular" team missions.

If any particular daily mission is too dificult for you then you can always delete it and try again next day. For example I hate "the Cup" mission which is about running to 10 different Bars all over Rubi Ka and delivering leaflets. It is very easy but time consuming and boring so whenever I get one I just delete it.

Mantis dailies are "daily elite" missions and that means that your character should be either well twinked or that it is better to do it as team (that most people often do).

As for alien daily "Distress Signal" every single profession can do it solo as long as the character is properly geared up. I have done it on every single profession and there were only 2 situations when I had to try it few times:
1. When more than 1 Alien Medic spawned (as they heal each other). Some professions could not kill them fast enough.
2. On my Doctor when 1 Alen Medic spawned and I did not push ALL my damage (including DoTs,. perks and/or forgot to debuff it)

Majority of people playing AO love it for its complexity and dificulty level (which is lover now than few years ago). There are still some challanges to beat and players/teams or even whole raidforces are sometimes wiped out and THAT IS A GOOD THING !

Improve your character, learn how to better use its tool set, try different strategies (learn to pull single mobs) BUT STOP CRYING THAT AO IS TOO DIFICULT.

If it does not work for you than maybe you should try Age of Conan as it has nice graphics, sound and every mission can be completed by naked character played by 5 year old mentally disabled kid.

[Darkbane]

On the various dailies, some are not very easy at the lower end of the level range you can get offered them unless well twinked, but you get to know those and just delete them and hope for better luck the next day. And a few levels and upgrades later, you'll probably be able to manage.

I would agree that AO could do with a gentler learning curve and experience, whilst not dumbing down or making the end game easier, but we'll just need to wait and see what the NPE brings there, and later on, what system changes we actually get.

If it does not work for you than maybe you should try Age of Conan as it has nice graphics, sound and every mission can be completed by naked character played by 5 year old mentally disabled kid.

Doesn't sound much like the AoC I played then... but that was a couple of years ago now.

[Cratertina]

Where's the problem? Do you remember the time before dailies?

[Wakizaka]

alien dailys providing about 1/10th of the XP to see some sort of progress

Where's the problem? Do you remember the time before dailies?

In my young day, having to kill 60k aliens to get AI30 in the days of just city raids and APF before +xp modifier added to AXP, rings a bell. Times were tough, but we made it happen.

[Esquire]

I used to be the one on the SOE forums saying some of the things I see here in this thread. "It's been too dumbed down", "it's too easy", "lets go back to pre-CU where there was nothing except mission terms and spin groups for leveling", and the ever popular "NGE ruined the game" (which in part I still believe altho only due to the fact they took the profs down from 32 to 9). But there I was the one who was the 8 year vet, took 6 months to grind my jedi, had maxed creds on several toons (3 bil), had 27 vendors fully stocked with every maxed crafter in the game, and a tier 5 player city of which I was mayor. I argued with newcomers to my own guild that the legacy quests were so easy that a level 5 could get thru most of them and then watched them mostly quit the guild and the game. Now, so many of them left the servers closed and I have NO game to play. Funny how that worked, isn't it?

I'm the one who found AO and brought our SWG guild over here and that was due to the "difficulty", complexity, sandbox, etc but when I run into "programed to die" development I have seen where that leads as well. You might notice I've not screamed about the daily you get to kill Ed Barton, a 170 NPC, that is handed out at 150, only these dailys that depend on a group getting the player to the solo quest or that takes a group to complete due to nothing more than the random number generator throwing good rolls for DPS. That isn't difficulty, good player management, learning your profession, nor skill relying on funcom's number generator for DPS, it's just basicly poor development and it costs subs. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt and the ballcap. I've seen post after post of people saying here that "no1 stays with AO until after 150" and there IS a reason for that which Funcom needs to be very aware of, way before they try and do a re-launch and maybe get the flood of new players, like me.

As for being "geared out", I still have no idea if I'm "geared out" or not. It's not all that easy to find what is even available in AO without knowing the exact name to scan the bazaar. We seem to find out a bit more every day and we do use the off-sites (as we all did in SWG as well). I do know that I'm still using a level 100 back piece, the 100 neck, and the alien HUD pieces that come available at 126, still at 174. I just haven't seen anything that uses the stats I like that is better as yet. And, it doesn't help the fact that I've been soft capped for just about every stat I use for about 15 levels now so I can't progress but the NPCs do, every level. I've been told I have to wait until 190 to get these caps released also and until 201 to get the core stats released. I understand why they do this, (froob accounts), but this design development is counter productive, for any sense of progression for subed players.

[Esquire]

On the various dailies, some are not very easy at the lower end of the level range you can get offered them unless well twinked, but you get to know those and just delete them and hope for better luck the next day. And a few levels and upgrades later, you'll probably be able to manage.

I would agree that AO could do with a gentler learning curve and experience, whilst not dumbing down or making the end game easier, but we'll just need to wait and see what the NPE brings there, and later on, what system changes we actually get.



Doesn't sound much like the AoC I played then... but that was a couple of years ago now.

It wouldn't take all that much in development time, either, to fix all of this. A quick look-see at the level these missions are given out, move a couple to the group vendor (and make XP more in line), or just delete a very few of these missions. Quick development either way.

I seen the "testor" badge on your name. I was also a "testor" over at SWG and had many a long discussion with Teesquared (Producer- we called him T2) over development also. The 1 that him and I differed on most was the Nightsister revamp where SOE made these NPCs basicly end-game difficulty for the "twinks" (fully geared toons) while totally forgetting that these NPCs were needed for holo drops collections for jedi that were trying to get fully geared. He went ahead with the plan and when the forums erupted, they ended up going back and re-balancing the "difficulty" on Nightsisters after the fact. I did get to tell T2, "I told you so" which he admitted was well deserved.

I played AoC as well at launch. That's the reasoning for the 2006 join date. When they did their version of the CU or C6CD (combat revamp), about 6 or so months after launch, I logged out, took the game off of my harddrive and never looked back. I don't remember it being all that faceroll-ish either.

I'm rather looking forward to the NPE as well.

[Wakizaka]

If you're having issues not being able to complete certain missions due to DPS or Survival issues, why not post a setup on that profession forums along with a short description specifying your problem; can't finish X fast enough, can't survive Y, etc; along with an equip setup, which you can build at Auno.org, and don't forget your perk setup, and people will help you out with some critique. Not every jaded vet is going to tell you to win the lotto and kit out in a full set of CC, there are quite sufficient substitutes all over the place.

[Gatester]

That AI mission is fine the way it is, but it does favour profs with average or higher DPS. It is completeable by all though.

The mantis daily is quite quick with some IP into B&E, as you can open the containers right by the entrance into that section of the den, otherwise you need to battle your way into the hanger where they don't require B&E skill to open. Also, getting to the location is easy when taking the entrance from Borealis, and using one of the tunnel warps to get you right there.

I've not done that daily in a long time, since there were faster ways for me to level, but I thought the item for that quest was simply unique and could be traded over from a high level character. Used to run in with my fixer, grab one, meep, then trade it to the alt that needed it and turn it in.

[Awikun]

You do not have to complete every single daily mission!

You may not like some of them, for example I hate :
"The Cup" - running to diferent bars delivering leaflets as it just takes too much time and is boring for me
"Rats" - I only do on some profesions with AoE taunts or dammage as those mobs often loose aggro,
On low level characters I avoid missions that are far away from grid/whompa because of low runspeed.

Most daily elites require a team!
There are some proffesion that if
a) at top end of level range for daily like 199 for Mantis (with Queen)
b) above average or well twinked
c) certain profession
Can do it solo, but for the rest just accept that you need a team or do not take them.

"kill Ed Burton" is one of my favourite missions it is very close to grid and it takes less than 1 min to kill him. As far as I remember I have never ever died there on any character.

Regular missions are just fine the way they are now. I know players that have problems with most of those missions (especially alien dailies at level 150+) but what I find most of the time that those characters were powerleveled on kite hill, have crappy equipment and 2-3 AI levels ...

[Phargus]

I've never had a problem with the distress call mission, even on mediocre chars. In fact I didn't even know there was such a short timer until I read this thread.

Get your pets properly buffed and trimmed (100% positive aggdef trimmer and the NPC damage boost buffs is a must) and equip some decent weapons and you shouldn't have much trouble.


Mantis den however can be messy unless you're very familiar with the place and/or very well equipped. Combined with a very long travel time to the mission spot if you're not familiar with the shortcuts and.. well let's just say you're not the first person to complain about these. This particular set of missions could probably use some adjustment.

[Esquire]

You do not have to complete every single daily mission!

You may not like some of them, for example I hate :
"The Cup" - running to diferent bars delivering leaflets as it just takes too much time and is boring for me
"Rats" - I only do on some profesions with AoE taunts or dammage as those mobs often loose aggro,
On low level characters I avoid missions that are far away from grid/whompa because of low runspeed.

Most daily elites require a team!
There are some proffesion that if
a) at top end of level range for daily like 199 for Mantis (with Queen)
b) above average or well twinked
c) certain profession
Can do it solo, but for the rest just accept that you need a team or do not take them.

"kill Ed Burton" is one of my favourite missions it is very close to grid and it takes less than 1 min to kill him. As far as I remember I have never ever died there on any character.

Regular missions are just fine the way they are now. I know players that have problems with most of those missions (especially alien dailies at level 150+) but what I find most of the time that those characters were powerleveled on kite hill, have crappy equipment and 2-3 AI levels ...

If I "do not have to complete every single daily mission", then why have the dailys in the 1st place? Added frustration? Is it really good game development to gate content from players by nothing more than shear difficulty, level requirements way beyond the player, or simply relying on the "lucky rolls" of a random number generator to complete? Is it a developer message of "he he he, we can kill you with NPCs" or just a message of "no1 will call our game easy"? However, not "completing every daily" is the way it seems to be working out and that was really no problem until I get to the point of the grind is really not all that appealing due to the requirements needed to level and the time to grind that level. You , yourself, explain that there are dailys you don't want to complete due to time requirements and/or "boring" content. Why have that situation (purely developer causation) in your game, period?

I haven't spoke of an "elite daily" even once. I would expect these to be group content as they're sold that way. I can solo the elite mantis cave, up to the queen, as a 175 now but the content goes much faster (less than 40 minutes) with just 1 172 trader along with me and the queen is very do-able with just another 150 advy along for some back up healing while I'm tanking. To be honest, that difficulty and "balance" has been well done, IMHO.

Rats seem to be no problem for me and I haven't drew the delivery daily. I use the jet pack, which seems to not be taken out of by a "hit" (like the nano car that came with my bought apt) and it goes pretty fast and is easily completed by even the eng (altho he gets spiders at his level). I had no idea there was even dailys in the game until after I had the advy to 100+. Up to that point I ground dyna groups and random world mobs after ToW. Never entered Formans either as I just didn't know about it.

And if my toons are power leveled, under-equipped, with no AI perks, I have to be absolutely the worst power-leveler in history since I've been working on leveling this toon since May and just got 175 last night. I've seen the posts of leveling in just days but still have no idea how it would be done and really do not care all that much to know, either. I have no idea where "kite-hill" even is and it probably wouldn't do me much good anyway as the advy is melee and melee kiting is a skill I just haven't acquired in the years I've been playing MMOs all the way back to the 2002 beta of SWG. BTW, I do think I'm behind 1 AI point now due to needing over 3 mil to level the next 1.

[Esquire]

If you're having issues not being able to complete certain missions due to DPS or Survival issues, why not post a setup on that profession forums along with a short description specifying your problem; can't finish X fast enough, can't survive Y, etc; along with an equip setup, which you can build at Auno.org, and don't forget your perk setup, and people will help you out with some critique. Not every jaded vet is going to tell you to win the lotto and kit out in a full set of CC, there are quite sufficient substitutes all over the place.

I'm sure at 1 time or another I will use your suggestion. I have seen posts of toons having "alpha strikes" but have not put that together on how to make that happen yet. I have keybound most of my strikes to 1 key but there is a definite waiting period between specials (there was as well with the turn-based combat of pre-CU and CU of SWG but was taken out of the game via the NGE combat change. At that point in time, you could "alpha" your specials together but the drawback was waiting on the CDs of all of them and only having the standard attack until then, was a nice finish set up tho.)

I also haven't quite figured out how to use "sneak-attack" or the other from behind attacks with any consistency either. Sometimes they go off and then sometimes when I standing directly behind the NPC/player they won't go off for nothing.

[Wakizaka]

Sneak Attack requires you to be concealed and undetectable before you execute it, or to be really quick when running into a room for eg and spam it on the target. If the mob already has agg on you, you won't be able to use it. The exception is in PvP, where Aimed Shot & Sneak Attack are usable without the `undetected` requirement.

As for Backstab, the `from behind` attack that Shades and Advys have, it requires the target to be in combat with someone other than you, and for you to be behind said target.

[Awikun]

If I "do not have to complete every single daily mission", then why have the dailys in the 1st place? Added frustration? Is it really good game development to gate content from players by nothing more than shear difficulty, level requirements way beyond the player, or simply relying on the "lucky rolls" of a random number generator to complete? Is it a developer message of "he he he, we can kill you with NPCs" or just a message of "no1 will call our game easy"?

Dailies give excellent XP/SK rewards that let you level fast. However in order to do it you should know how to play your profession and should be becently equipped. I think that dailies are a sort of tests if you are doing OK or not. As in RL you can not expect that every student will pass every single test without any knowledge...
If you can not pass a test you should work/study harder and not complain that the test was too dificult. The overall "average skill level" of players in AO is already lower than few years ago and it leads to situations I had few days ago in Inferno mission.
We had a level 207 Crat who:
Had only 1 robotic Pet (no Carlita)
Did not use charms at all ( had no idea he could charm mobs or did not care to get nano)
Did not calm/mezz even 1 mob in situations when we had multiple adds (same as above)
When I tried to ask him to put more effort into team play he answered that he is Crat and he already buffed all team with +XP buffs ....

I am 100% sure that he is not able to do most of daily solo missions and next time I see him in my team I will either kick him or leave that team.

However, not "completing every daily" is the way it seems to be working out and that was really no problem until I get to the point of the grind is really not all that appealing due to the requirements needed to level and the time to grind that level. You , yourself, explain that there are dailys you don't want to complete due to time requirements and/or "boring" content. Why have that situation (purely developer causation) in your game, period?

It is a personal preference. For example I hate "The Cup" daily as for me it is too boring and takes too much time. However some of my orgmates like that daily because they explain that it is the only daily mission that you can break at any time (for example when you get invitation to BS or Inferno team) and later come back to finish it from the point where you stopped.

I haven't spoke of an "elite daily" even once. I would expect these to be group content as they're sold that way. I can solo the elite mantis cave, up to the queen, as a 175 now but the content goes much faster (less than 40 minutes) with just 1 172 trader along with me and the queen is very do-able with just another 150 advy along for some back up healing while I'm tanking. To be honest, that difficulty and "balance" has been well done, IMHO.

You and me agree that Mantis Elite Daily is well done and ballanced
Other complain that its too dificult...

Rats seem to be no problem for me and I haven't drew the delivery daily. I use the jet pack, which seems to not be taken out of by a "hit" (like the nano car that came with my bought apt) and it goes pretty fast and is easily completed by even the eng (altho he gets spiders at his level).

I like to do "Rats" in max 2-3 pulls. The problem is that if I do not have AoE taunt or nuke after few minutes of runing around and pulling few dozens rats they start to loose aggro on me and spread out instead of following me to trap.

I had no idea there was even dailys in the game until after I had the advy to 100+. Up to that point I ground dyna groups and random world mobs after ToW. Never entered Formans either as I just didn't know about it.

That is what I love in AO. There is no one straight path you have to take from level 1 to 220 you can do it in countless ways. There is tons of content and it takes a lot of time to see it all.
Foremans is in my opinion one of the best designed dungeons in AO and the quest line there is very well designed. Even now as I am leveling another alt I am dooing full quest line there because I like it ! I could have completely skip it as it is not needed and I could level a lot faster in Elysium...

And if my toons are power leveled, under-equipped, with no AI perks, I have to be absolutely the worst power-leveler in history since I've been working on leveling this toon since May and just got 175 last night. I've seen the posts of leveling in just days but still have no idea how it would be done and really do not care all that much to know, either. I have no idea where "kite-hill" even is and it probably wouldn't do me much good anyway as the advy is melee and melee kiting is a skill I just haven't acquired in the years I've been playing MMOs all the way back to the 2002 beta of SWG. BTW, I do think I'm behind 1 AI point now due to needing over 3 mil to level the next 1.

Kite hill is in SE part of Elysium and it is one of the most popular places for power leveling.
There are 3 (sometimes less if dual logged) players that do anything:
1. Outside team tank (220 Enforcer or Doctor) that is runing around on the ground level pulling several Hecklers to the botom of steep hill.
2. Nanotechnic that is inside team usually level (60-160) that is standing at the top of that hill (so no Heckler can hit him) and nuking using AoE nuke
3. (optional) Crat that is using +XP perk when group of Hecklers is close to death to increase XP gain.
The rest of team (including your adv) is sitting close to NT AFKing , chating or dulaloging other characters...
It is booring as hell but at the same time this is the fastest way of leveling from around level 60 to 160...

[Esquire]

Usually, I'm not all that big on "L2P" type of deals but the example you give is pretty hard not to throw that to. Mother always said "there are none so dumb as those who won't learn". As an old instance leader myself, It's not all that easy to have a group member like that and still be successful. But that's where the "vets" come in, helping the new players know their group roles. what they should be looking at doing at what times, and where to go/stand/etc.

Back in SWG, the last 2 years we were down to 2 devs so new content was few and far between but I ended up with still plenty to do by playing my game doing nothing but helping/outfitting new players which did benefit me also as my city grew in people and kept the tier 5 status and shuttleport while others died on the vine.

There still isn't much reason to have daily content if all players are doing is deleting the mission. And I'm sure Funcom can tell which dailys these are by nothing more than their metrics and how many of these are deleted each day. Might as well have the game as appealing as they possible can. And there are a few of these that qualify as "programed to die" content, given way too early in level range, etc. I understand that devs, expecialy with a 12 year old game think about installing content for seasoned vets or "twinks" but keep this level of difficulty out of leveling content. This game, like the sandbox that was SWG, is just too easy to make/develope end game content to challenge the vets without impacting newer players still on their way up. I see plenty of maps in just RK that are unfilled just the same as SWG had 2-5 entire planets made but unpopulated with NPCs back in the tre files. New content outside of leveling content is always the better choice IMHO.

The real only problem with Mantis I see is when it's given out. It is quite intimidating to enter that instance as a new 100 or get to tier 3 as a fresh 150 and stare right at 180s that are redder than red. This could be easily fixed by making the tier 3 daily come out at 170 which at least starts you out with yellow/orange NPCs and adjusting the other tiers, accordingly. It was quite a mess to get started as only 2 of our guild were in that level range at the same time period. However, we now have several others that are there now and I've been running mantis "dailys" at least 2 different tiers a night, sometimes 3, to get my daily done and the people who are on the tiers under me. Nice part is that instance does not have the stringent level requirements and I can still get in there to help them.

I don't believe I've ever lost agro as an advy in Rats but your probably much faster than I was as I didn't point up run speed until I was soft capped in every thing else I could put points in.

The "sandbox" and the choices are what drew me to AO as well and every one else that followed me over here. It seems since the advent of WoW that "they just don't make games like this any longer". Altho maybe after the critical failures of last years launches (TOR, Tera, and even TSW) it seems that "sandbox" is now getting a revamp of sorts. Smedley (pres of SOE) who said after SWGs NGE "sandbox is dead" now has said that EQN "will be the largest sandbox ever created" and that, to me anyway, is a good sign of things to come.

As for "kite hill" it always irked my skin to see AFKers running macros in SWG so I doubt I'll be taking part in camping mobs AFK over here either. I run a G510 board and the only macro I use is dance of fools and limber while I'm very much ATK. It always seemed to me to be an exploit of sorts and I see no entertainment in paying for a game that I'm watching TV while the confuser plays it for me. Each to their own, I guess.

[jorricane]

I do sympathize with you Esquire - having just come back from a 3 year hiatus I have had one or two challenges myself in a few encounters.

However, I do have the advantage of having played AO on-and-of for nearly 11 years, and have a very solid knowledge of how to gear and play most professions, if not perfectly, at least competently.

That being said, you are having some issues with the game that seem to be part of your general approach to playing rather than a specific thing you are doing.

As typing on my smartphone is a pain, I won't go into detail here, but I invite you to send me a /tell in game at Sauerkrat, and I'll do my best to assist you. I will be on this weekend in the afternoons, Central Time, and since I will be doing primarily inventory sorting, I will have more than enough time to help you out and maybe toss you some old-but-decent gear.

I look forward to meeting you.

[Esquire]

I do sympathize with you Esquire - having just come back from a 3 year hiatus I have had one or two challenges myself in a few encounters.

However, I do have the advantage of having played AO on-and-of for nearly 11 years, and have a very solid knowledge of how to gear and play most professions, if not perfectly, at least competently.

That being said, you are having some issues with the game that seem to be part of your general approach to playing rather than a specific thing you are doing.

As typing on my smartphone is a pain, I won't go into detail here, but I invite you to send me a /tell in game at Sauerkrat, and I'll do my best to assist you. I will be on this weekend in the afternoons, Central Time, and since I will be doing primarily inventory sorting, I will have more than enough time to help you out and maybe toss you some old-but-decent gear.

I look forward to meeting you.

Since starting this thread (and another on the perils of PVP without being twinked to all get-out), we have met 3 vets now who are lending aid to all of us SWG "noobs" to AO. 1 who is also a neutral guild leader who gets in our vent nightly and even has lead level specific raid with us, so we're not quite as bad as we were when I started this, almost but not quite as bad.

Always looking for more info and in-game people to run with and tell us where we're out in left field in our builds/what gear we need that we didn't have a clue even existed. I'll send you a pm with vent info and thanks. Sorry but I didn't see this post until today but most of us play weekends/eves US central time.