Anyone else feeling the crush lately?
In the last couple months, I've levelled a crat to 100, an advy to 140, and another crat to 120.
I've noticed that it's crazy hard in some timezones to get a spot at kite hill, or anywhere there is hecks!
As soon as my 120 crat hits 130, I'm going to start on ado, and try to get them out of Ely because it's madness right now.
Here's some of the problems I've identified:
1. high level players (150-160) STILL getting research done in ely
This is the biggest and most obvious problem. The rate of XP acquisition even when buffed to the nines in Ely is really slow. This creates a massive stagnation in toon progression that's top heavy. The low and mid level toons (90-130ish) can just barrel through the levels, but face a huge massive logjam at gaining any dings in Ely past then.
2. People aren't acquainted with Scheol or Adonis, or what levelling opportunities are available there.
If 150+ toons moved to Ado, it would create openings for the 130's to team up with them, gain lots of XP using their toolsets, get them acquainted with Ado sooner, get them keys+quests out of the way, and it would even further help create openings for the lower level players to get (either) kited up quickly, or fight normally.
Years ago, I remember doing ado hecks and loving it. I remember seeing level 135ish players in ado all the time, and wondering if they were geared enough to make a difference in the team. Nowadays, it's a rare occurrence to see any 130 in ado (are we going backwards?)
3. Scheol to Ado run is stupid - I don't mean, it's stupid, it's stupid hard, I mean, impossible to do with a single 130. The mobs are insanely OP'd for the run, and crazy social agg just means death, death and more death.
If the Halls of scheol got a minor tweak - as simple as perhaps, adding a 'do not enter combat unless attacked' clause, it would alleviate strain on players who would progress naturally at the appropriate level that lack outside help to advance.
4. once you get players into scheol or ado, locations that are good for levelling are rather muted - I mean, they are either non-existent, or completely unknown - so it would be nice to see some more Dark-ruins-esque levelling areas that are team or solo to help alleviate the massive traffic jam.
Fixing up the geometry so that people can actually function there (either with an OST+NT, or just with normal teams killing mobs) is a good start, but a bit of re-vamp would be useful as well.
Those are my observations on Ely and the colossal traffic jam we are facing there.
TL;DR
Some players want a free ride - I get that.
But MOST players want to actually play the game, that's what we log on for. So, if Scheol was slightly more user friendly, and the trip to Ado wasn't so much like a suicide wish, I think some pressure on Ely could be dissipated quite quickly.