I've been thinking about some kind of Twink Solo Challenge as a complement to Trophy Trios. Wondering what folks think. I'm still kind of fuzzy on the details, but the idea would be to pick some level cap, well below 65, and see what folks can kill solo on their uber twinks. Why solo? Well, we already have a trio thread. The tactics are pretty boring most of the time: tank and spank or charm. True solos often call for different classes and tactics. Why a level cap well below 65? Well, I'm not that interested in a "grind a bazillion AA for your twink" challenge. A low level limit would take AAs out of the picture. Also, competition for good loot usable by high-level players is pretty stiff. Most of us kill that stuff all the time already for our main toons. A low level limit might steer folks off the beaten path a bit. What level? Donno! Maybe 46? That'd unlock twink loot farming in ToV, old-world planes, and PoP (to the extent that folks want to flag lowbie alts). But it's low enough that AAs aren't really in the picture. 46 is also high enough that most classes have a decent set of interesting abilities. Alternatively, maybe folks could just pick their own level cap and see what they can do. Clear Najena at level 15, or whatever. Can the twink get buffs or use clickies? Donno! Whatever's more fun, I guess. Maybe long-duration buffs like VoQ, Virtue and haste, but not short-term stuff like regen or DS? Maybe infinite-charge clickies, but not charged ones?
The whole thing is definitely an interesting concept. I think limiting the number of heal clickies (cough Darchon) might be a good idea?
a level 46 cap also brings the mage epic into play. which feels like a slight advantage. using snare glands and corpsing epics you could probably do some pretty hard encounters
The price of necro twink gear is about to skyrocket. I love this idea, and IMO it should be self buffs/clickies only. No pots.
I say all buffs and all clickies possible. If we want to be amazed by the targets that are doable by some low level twink they must be allowed to use every possible tool they can. With MGBs, and a number of very powerful clickies, I think there are a lot of fun possibilities. Of course this is just one way to play the game. Solo self found would be another interesting one. Where you can only use gear you’ve looted or quested yourself with no bazaaring. I also liked the idea of a single zone limited character seeing how high you could get a character locked to a single zone.
This is something I was thinking about too. When I got one of my friends playing here, we duo'd beast/ranger and did all self-found gear with no buffs to level 51. Was a fun challenge. I was thinking about doing another self-found gear/duo run with him again this year, but to 65. Iksar berserker club from kurns is a solid weapon you can get at level 12'ish and it lasts til 50+ pretty much.
No bazaar, no trade, no ground pickups. Mark the character name in a different color in the client (like how normal is blue, roleplay is purple, and pvp is red, something different for this). Should they even be allowed to take drops that were gained in a raid?
I like it, but I think you probably need to make categories and define over time which category a thing goes in, based on the submissions and what direction it takes I suppose. For example, Darchon's auto attack + healing scroll battle against a dragon is impressive as in "I soloed it" but it's years of preparation to collect that equipment. Nobody can hope to replicate that without farming all that gear. At the same time, spending time and farming/grinding are really the only good measure of worth in EverQuest, so I wouldn't say it's lame or anything, just the main category. Thott compares farming gear to training for a sporting event. http://www.afterlifeguild.org/Thott/BotB.php But the problem with that sort of training is that it's hard to get new people into it. With solo self found it'd be hard to police it, maybe if the player streams everything and has fans checking it, but I dunno. I think you need more of a formal list of what items are allowed/disallowed. A custom mode for competitive play is an interesting idea but not really for TAKP, so I think we need to find a community based way to do it just like the trophy trios. I think 'twink solo with no restrictions' is a good starting point though. No non-self buffs seems like a good addition too since even a level 1 can have 2000+ HP with MGBs. Maybe a time limit on the kill would be good too.
If anything should be forbidden, it should likely be Puppet Strings+instant healing items. I think most big solo kills on p99 are just monks with Puppet Strings, and it'd probably just end up the same with this challenge (imagine someone with bags of healing scrolls and corpsing multiple puppet strings!) The idea of seeing the best an individual class can do while unbuffed and gearing up on their own is more fun to me. Seems like the discussion and attempts to figure out what the best possible items for a completely solo level 50 SK or some such would be more interesting! The competitive part would be easy as well, since people could just look at the magelo of each character to find out their current standing.
In this vein, looking forward to seeing what other super-twinks could combine to do in a single-box group. Getting Jyoti ready for some new adventures, and maybe instead of quick leveling in the early levels, some choice attempts at things like this could add to the fun. Looking forward to hearing candidate mobs at various levels. One might have a record-holder by class and level for any given npc.
I think you're right. There will be some slow spots for sure, but it looks doable. 55+ will be a chore if you're playing a class that can't solo Sulon McMoor. A Necro could probably pull this challenge off.
Level 50 or 51 would open up options for clickies and proc weapons while not really allowing for AAs to be much of a factor. Especially it would open up warriors as being able to do a lot more solo challenges -- Truncheon of Doom for 50% slows at level 50, Blood Points for self-heals at level 50, Polished Obsidian Great Axe for Invoke Fear at level 40 with Silken Whip of Ensnaring for snares at level 50. Lots of fun stuff possible.
