"The Grey Zone"

There are several grey zones, where quests run out, but you haven't even come close to leveling up to get new quests, being a long time player i'm often running into maps several levels below the standard and i can only assume i'm not alone in that, being i'm not the best gamer around or even most active. But the point is that there needs to be a buffer where players can gain experience without farming monsters they've already spent the last 3 hours whacking with a frying pan. Something aside from the endlessly repeatable quests, such as, worst case scenario a series of mini games, and base each game off of something important, such as some players need more experience with facing down monster armies and coming out on top, some need better evasion practice, and some want a challenge in general, such as let's say a survival tournament. The typical monsters come in waves and you fight through as many waves as you can kind of idea, but instead of questing or map farming, it's sort of like hold the fortress, the endless ultimate rampage no one can conquer but everyone wants a high mark on the leaderboards for it. some can be solo games and some can be group games, based on preference, but just an idea to beef up the content a little bit.

Another idea is contests, who gets the biggest killstreak before dying by the hordes of monsters, who's got the best aim or takes the most damage and survives, but those can be incorporated into the idea of minigames i suppose.

 

The "grey zones" as you call them - when you have run out of quests for your level - are usually caused when a player frequently quests while grouped with other players who are 6+ levels higher. Even players 4-5 levels up will cut XP from monster kills considerably. This leaves you with needing to do a little "farming" to close the gap.

 

Maybe it's exacerbated by grouping, but I play solo, have through several toons, and there are definitely dead spots where the experience gained from quests isn't enough to carry you to the next level where more quests will pop up. Running a DK now (for the first time ever; still geting a feel for the skills), and at Level 31 had to "farm" a map several levels ahead of me for experience because I'd run out of quests in Torstrom/Hailstone/etc. Got to Level 32, but after a small bit of progress on the experience bar, I'm already down to a single side-quest again, no Cloak quest, no main story quest. I'll be spinning my wheels for a couple hours just to get to Level 33 and hopefully have a few more quests pop up.

There are dead spots in the low-, mid- and high-40's as well where you grind to Level in order to get into the next map. Now >that's< frustrating, when you can't even farm in the next map in order to gain experience to Level so additional quests appear.

However, back to OP, there are events (sucky as they are in terms of material rewards) which do mimick some of what he suggested, arena-type event. They don't happen all the time, but some have stackable entrance frags which you can save and use when you're at a lull.

There's also Full / New Moon maps which can be accessed off-event as a change of pace while you're grinding.

Finally, if you've carried at least one toon through to Level 50, your alts can jump into the Parallel Worlds at their own level, again as a change of pace and an additional (painful mode+) challenge. I'm still not convinced the PW rewards are worth the effort for even newly Level 50 toons, but that's another topic altogether

 

I have never had this problem (well at least since way back Teganswall area was endgame when lvl 36 to 40 was pure grind ) In fact I have one alt toon that may even hit lvl 50 without ever entering Lor'Tac. The "grey zones" only happens if a player rushes thru pve and does nothing else.

The "buffer" is already there. It is called events (and there is pretty much always one on.) Do a bit of these and the "grey zones" can be avoided.

Luck be with ye,
Mikey,
Tegan

 

I assure you sure that i'm almost entirely a solo player and don't rely on high level players to carry me whereever i want to go, XD


---MERGED---

And events don't necessarily fit either. many events are all about new quests that require special items and special currency, even special keys to get there, it's not made for leveling up your character so much as it 's about getting unique gear and prizes

 

I guess some of us remember the game when most leveling had to be done via boss grinds. What we have currently is almost seamless by comparison.

 

certainly it's improved sevenfold since the start of things but there's always room for improvement, and even if my spitballing ideas are nothing more than a frivolous unnecessity it can still hold it's own merit as an activity, if even gambling jesters in kingshill have a place in drakensang then minigames aren't an unreasonable idea to draw a crowd

 

I tried PVP twice when I first started: Buggy, long waits for a match, and when I finally got in, was completely wiped out without a chance; not certain it was a twink, but the experience disheartening, to say the least. Have never played again on any of my few toons. So, yes, I focus on PVE.

Also, I'm experimenting with other characters to learn their skill sets; currently running a DK. I want to advance as rapidly as possible so that I can play with those options, see if it's a character type I'd like to focus on in the future (main toon is RA).

Have pretty much always soloed ... the guild system is pathetic; relying on Forum posts to find partners, really? I was randomly invited to join a guild the other day, accepted because I'd like the advantage of grouping for Full Moon to share vials / get more boss kills, but the Guild Master logged off while I was accepting. Turns out he is a Level 38 RA (the invitation was for my still weak Lvl 50 RA) who apparently randomly invites anyone and everyone; I'm going to estimate there are 3 or 4 Lvl50 players out of a roster of about 40. As I was trying to ask the Guildmaster about his focus (before realizing he'd already split), another guild member laughed, saying I was going to confuse everyone by speaking in English. Yeah, I'm on ghost-town Tegan, like you. So, not much chance I'll benefit from Guild play, either in events or Parallel Worlds, another reason for new players to focus on leveling up to 50 quickly so as to be able to start the real game, PW grinding

 

The game is made in the way so you can learn how to play and use all the things.
You can bypass the need for grinding if you know how to do it.
One example:

That means that I have reached level 40 ... 5 times in few weeks ...with different characters.
Knowing that ... that actually happened when the game was more "XP grindy" ... and it has been changed way to much ... you would need way much less time to get to level 40 or 50 now.