Comments on: Static Grouping

By: DPS Population Imbalance | Kill Ten Rats

DPS Population Imbalance | Kill Ten Rats — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 06:03:52 +0000

[...] is de facto the largest buff to tanks and healers ever. This mostly comes down to what I said about static groups: anything that makes grouping easier makes group-friendly classes and builds more viable. As the [...]

By: Zubon

Zubon — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:13:13 +0000

The “wearing vendor trash” reminds me of a useful opposite we did: have a sugar daddy. I donated 30+ gold to the LotRO group to buy our kin hall, pay rent for the first while, buy mounts, etc.

(For the WoW players: the scale is different in LotRO. An hour of level-capped farming nets around 1 gold, or was it an evening? I never did it, just looted my existing characters.)

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:43:53 +0000

I’ve participated in two different static groups now, both in WoW, and they’ve been a total blast. It’s so much fun to watch the group develop over time. We cast our crappy spells, walk around wearing vendor trash, and gradually grow into a force to be reckoned with.

We have always had strict rules about leveling outside the group to be sure we all stay in range of one another. Now you can turn off xp for just 10G (well, and 10G to turn it back on again before regrouping), so that makes it a little easier if folks want to go off and level their gathering professions separately. The leveling pact sounds even better though!

I’ve always wanted to try a static group in an MMO that’s new to me. (Ideally new to the whole group, really, so we can explore and learn together.) Maybe I’ll rally for a CoH static group when this goes live. :)

By: Ethic

Ethic — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:33:58 +0000

Our static group in LOTRO on Landroval has been one of the best things I’ve experienced in an MMO, the other being playing WoW with my wife as a duo.

Having a regular group is extremely satisfying. You start to know what everyone will do and it becomes a well-oiled machine of fun.

By: Ethic

Ethic — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:30:21 +0000

We are 45 now and played last night around 8pm central time US. I will be on more often now that the skirmishes are live. Feel free to join our Kinship for solo players if you want, we have a kin hall for your convenience.

You are probably level 50 if I had to guess.

By: Cyndre

Cyndre — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:20:25 +0000

Zubon,
What level is your group approximatly, and what days/times do ya’ll play? My wife and I have ancient LoTRO toons, maxed at the original level cap (40?) and we might consider playing at some point with a casual group.

By: Zubon

Zubon — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:57:26 +0000

Heck, I forgot about super-sidekicking. Yeah, your group is always the same level no matter what level you are. You don’t need a static group in the slightest: whoever, whatever level, just join up and go nuts.

By: Phedre

Phedre — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:34:29 +0000

City of Heroes makes it even easier nowadays. It doesn’t even matter if you in range, or how many people show up for static group night. As it is currently everybody in the group sidekicks or mentor to the same level as owner of the quest. And the owner of the quest can define the difficulty level of the mission. You can set it up that regardless of group size the mission acts as if you are a 8 person group (or 4 or 2 or etc. person group), and you can also define that all mobs in the missions will +1 up +4 levels above you. Of course a level 5 sidekick acting as a level 40 is not as useful as a real level 40, but it does work.

Our static group of 5 all Arachnos soldiers and widows ripped through 8p +4 missions. It was amazing. But we all reached 50 and we started afresh on hero side with old dusty toons ranged between 10 and 20. We struggled at 4p +1 missions, but the system is that flexible we still had a great time.

But more to the point, static grouping is great. Because you only play once or twice a week the game stays fun so much longer. I wish I could do it all my MMOs.

By: Zubon

Zubon — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:06:20 +0000

The City of Heroes note is “planned” at this state. There is currently a two-member version of the Leveling Pact in-game, so a static duo like Brian’s is already accommodated. The plan was to expand that if there were no issues created by the smaller version. I have not watched for updates to that.

By: Docholiday

Docholiday — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:02:14 +0000

I wish I could do static grouping, but my schedule doesn’t quite allow it. I do agree that the LOTRO community is much more open to these kinds of things though.
However, the City of Heroes concept sounds interesting – I wonder if they’ll have any issues with Power Leveling and such?