To preface, let me say that I played this game EXTREMELY hardcore from release through about '04. I had a 50 Scout (RR6), 50 Minstrel (RR7), 50 Eldritch (RR7), and 50 Infil & Reaver that rarely RVRd. Needless to say, I played a LOT.

After about 7 years of telling people in WOW and Rift that DAOC has the best PVP of any MMO I've ever played, I finally decided to actually pick it up again. I don't have any of my old accounts, so I began anew as a free trial. Since then, I've been quite shocked to see how the community has degenerated from what I remember.

I get from 1 to 40 in a day via BG quests, and all is good. Then, the issues start. I ask for a guild about once per hour, so as not to spam; no replies whatsoever. I try to find a DTF group (after being explained what DTF is, and Googling the rest), but I don't have Soj ML10 so I'm worthless as a minstrel. I try to tag along with RVR groups to get BP to buy ML credit but I'm too low. See the Catch-22 here? So in the meantime, I'm soloing TDs which, as a minstrel with a max charm of yellow in a TD, is not very quick.

In general, noone is willing to help or even advise a new player who may actually have just picked up this game for the first time. Believe it or not, 10 years later people are still picking up DAoC. In my case, I've forgotten most of what I knew, but I've talked to several new players who are canceling their subscriptions before the first month due to this general lack of help. One of them described it to me very aptly; the only people left here are veterans who no longer need anything, and elitists who are too good to waste their time on you.

I loved DAoC, and I still love DAoC. But as a 10-year old game, I feel we need to help new players as much as possible. I'm more than willing to do so myself, but don't have many resources yet as I've been back only 4 days. When brand new players pick up this game and drop their subscription immediately, the game is going to die.

For what it's worth, I'm currently a 44 Minstrel, and I'm more than happy to help you or your alts with anything I am capable of.

Rather odd about the guild part. There are usually one or two guilds, almost on a daily basis spamming recruitment /reg.

 

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I don't know, when I'm in Camelot I see quite a bit of advice being thrown around, and there are always people spamming such and such a guild is recruiting. if you're in pve areas, you're in areas where 90% of the people aren't. While I agree that people aren't as friendly or helpful as they used to be, you're in the wrong places to get your questions answered. My advice is, go to Camelot and look for someone recruiting to guild there. A guild is going to be your easiest access for everything from new friends to info in this game.

Frankly I think the best thing that Mythic could do is re-constitute the level limits to make PLing inefficient so people have to level the old way.

 

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Perhaps I've been looking in the wrong places indeed and I surely appreciate the info. But it's also worth noting that after various posts in /advice or /lfg, I've had conversations with a good handful of people who conveyed these same observations.

Even if you were ML10, being 44 in rvr is worthless. You can solo Dousing the Flames (a repeatable quest for 40-50) to level.

 

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I think the point he was trying to make about not being soj ML10 is that he can't port back and forth in groups for DTF...so from the GROUP's perspective, he is worthless. Doing DTF without porting is inefficient at best. He's better off just grinding or questing imo. being a minstrel in itself isn't conducive to getting exp groups anyways.

Your best chance for exp without a guild is to go to AC and advertise yourself to a caster who's farming scales as a stun bot for them. That said, going to camelot to see if some guild is recruiting, and try to get in on some exp/farming they might be doing is probably the best way to go.

As far as people being not as helpful as they used to be it's certainly true. I think they are more helpful then people often give them credit for as well, you just have to look for them in the right places. if the people you are talking to are also new and are looking in pve zones where 90% of the people are not seeing region chat/ad/lfg etc, it stands to reason they are seeing the same things you are.

 

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I think what has happened is that the PvE players who used to be more relaxed about things have all left the game, primarily because their preferred style of gameplay has been trivialized I would imagine; what are left is mostly the PvP players who are more focused on what they are doing and a little less willing to take time to help someone with questions. Thats making some broad generalizations I agree, but I doubt there are all that many PvE focused players in game any more, and they are usually the social backbone of any MMO. PvP players are a tiny segment of the population - even in a game with a heavy PvP slant like this one.

We drove off all the very friendly people who are less competitive and are left with the most competitive players. Sometimes but not always they have less time for someone who doesn't already know everything. Along the way the game began dying.

I just came back to the game after leaving when NF went live. I have discovered that a ton of things have changed, that you can't rely on the web for information because so much of it is wrong, and that there are no good sources of information other than other players. The best thing you can do is join a good guild which has enough members that there is someone around to pick the brain of when required. I am having a lot of fun but its definitely not the game I left back when NF came out. Realm Pride is completely gone for instance. People take a keep, switch realms and 5 mins later they are retaking it etc.

 

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Lots of friendly and helpful people still around. Hope your luck changes. You can get a ton of helpful info on your rogues in a fairly active rogue forum here. As for guilds, you might find a pathway to a decent one by being active on these boards as well.

 

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sent you a PM galadyn, i know you cant reply yet but still read it

 

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Mythic launched the game and made realm rewards more important than individual rewards. What benefited the realm (keeps, relics, etc) >> what benefitted individuals. Also, it was much harder to cross realm, and buff bots were unknown. People needed each other to enjoy the game. TOA started the denegration into solo rewards. Rare drops, when you gain, I lose, etc. People hated their realm mates more than the enemy. Scroll drops, levelling artifacts, etc. Then they added instance dungeons and soloable classes. People no longer needed their realm mates to succeed. Toss in the explosion of buff bots, easy realm switching and /level, and you see the destruction of any semblance of community. It was a fragile and precious thing, realm community, but Mythic didn't get it. They still don't.