In depth, *realstic playtest and rant

[Ice]

Each character should be able to solo hell in an 8 player game. I don't know where you came up with this idea that a solo is in players 1 games. On the realms the definition has been that if you can solo, you can solo in 8 player games.

If each character should be able to solo hell in an 8-player game, you might as well just boost all the monsters such that they have the same amount of life and give drops/xp equivalent to an 8-player game (something like an player 8 mod), and with more ppl it can even go up to the equivalent of player 64.

IMO characters should definitely be able to solo at least in player 1 reasonably, even up to player 3-4. Beyond that should be the domain of team characters or solo characters with far superior gear (or using some of the most broken skills). If every single character is able to solo 8 in hell, the game's probably so broken that you might as well not waste your time and just move on to a new game.

You want to talk elitist? Then don't just think of all the people who build cookie cutter builds with top gear and levels to 99... there are also a very large population of people who are just starting out, have no twink gear or simply have had to restart because their characters died in hc. If all these characters can survive and solo in hell players 8, I think something is very very wrong. The game would simply be too easy to be even worth playing.

And in any case, in terms of experience per unit time, players 8 is hardly the way to go. Players 8 does give you the most xp per monster killed but around players 5-6 is more than likely to allow you to level up much quicker.

Party combat should make the game FASTER not easier. You shouldn't have to rely on others to at least kill. It appears the necro cannot even kill in a large realm game, being useless in a party, except being a "curse bitch" for others.

Why wouldn't party combat make the game easier? Eg. having a necromancer casting amp against a bunch of monsters with 95% physical resistance would increase the physical damage potential of the party by 21x... Likewise life/mana boosts from skills like BO, oak sage would also go a long way in increasing survival rates and thereby making the game easier as well.