I have a level 51 NM fighter and a level 31 HM fighter and have come to the point where I am grinding for two and both are extremely tedious.

There isn't anyone in the party search anymore. I have had to solo to gain a pathetic 2 % or less per day and I suspect there have been updates that kill the party search.

Being in a guild makes little difference.

Shaiya has become mind numbing and pointless.

I have a strong inclination to give all my junk away to guildies and quit becase doing everything alone is unfeasably dull and futile.

playing alone is indeed boring. The problem is the higher level you get, the less people there are to party and as you get 50+ UM each individual becomes quite strong, to the point where each one can stand alone without needing to party (most classes). That plus people have certain groups they want to party with and don't seem to party random strangers anymore. Also we are from all over the world and it can be hard to coordinate being on at the same time. And let's not forget since you usually take an exp hit when partying people don't like to give that up for someone they don't know. and/or don't really "need".

I used to enjoy playing solo. I played a mage in NM and found it frustrating to be totally reliant on parties. So when i hit HM i made ranger, archer, and combat defender. It was a breath of fresh air to be able to level up when i wanted to and not wait around for parties. But now, as a UM archer it's easy for me to solo (though it's actually faster exp if i duo with another archer or higher level - of course) but I just don't care about that anymore. Over the course of 10 months i've played around 9 different toons, and i've probably soloed over 300 levels. As it seems you know, It's boring and lonely to be solo all the time, and in the new pvp maps if you're alone you may as well just lay down when the opposing faction comes through and as always you can't do anything by yourself in pvp.

As you've seen shaiya quickly becomes boring and seems pointless when you play too much alone. It's the social aspect that is it's greatest strength. After all, it's a massive multiplayer online game. it's meant to be played in groups, not solo. It doesn't exactly have an engaging storyline or exciting quests to do. for the most part its grind and develop your character and then acquire gear and then pvp. To succeed to the fullest potential in any of those tasks, you need others help. you can't kill bosses alone, you can't get the uber goddess gear alone, you can't, even with the highest stats and gear possible, succeed at high level pvp alone.

Just try to find a group of people you like. if you can't find something fun about the game, don't force yourself to play, it doesn't work. Also try a bigger guild. As you said, if it's a smaller, guild you may as well be solo when nobody is the same level to party with.

I got my HM fighte to level 32 and after doing the quests had a lofty 4.6 % of exp. Nobody lights up on my buddy list anymore and all the people that started the same time as me have simply logged out and not come back.

I can't blame them. The game is extremely tedious to play alone and the levels are too far apart in HM mode. Nothing comes up on the party search and there's little prospect of accumulating 75 million for a mount.

I've just been going from place to place getting killed over and over again for nothing.

party search is and always has been less than useless, nobody uses it. As far as gold goes, that gets easier in time. The only thing i can suggest is finding a larger more active guild.

As a defender i actually prefer to solo. It`s very hard to find a good party that knows what they are doing.
Ive only been playing this game for 6 weeks but i agree this game is already getting to be pointless and tedious and I dont foresee myself playing it for very much longer.

I guess LastChaos isnt the only aeria game with a dead party system

The only games that I've played are Last Chaos and Shaiya. I for one, will say Shaiya does have it's shortcomings and the way it's run but it is seriously far better than some of the other games out there eh? I don't know but I'm fine in Shaiya 'coz I treat it as a hobby and I'm not in a race to get to the top of the mountain. I do pvp with my lvl 15 HM pagan and when I don't feel like it, I grind with my lvl 33 HM warrior. I tend to solo 'coz some of the parties make you go nuts. Anyway, all I'm saying is, take your time with what you do in Shaiya. This isn't real life after all.

After all these years its the same. I've got a level 59 UM fighter sitting in VR and there's no party, no exp, nobody to talk to, and nothing to do but get killed by high level furies over and over again, and ponder the long dark teatime of the soul.

I've spend a fair amount of money on AP and it has never offered me any advantage or progress.

As an ex-Shaiya player, I suppose I have the right to speak up.

You mentioned a Lv51 and a Lv31 character in your first post. I found those levels very critical as at 51, you're most likely grinding in Pando (talking about AoL), in which even I had issues because there mostly are no parties. I believe it was some when in 2009 when I lvled my UM Character in Pando, thanks to my some what linked Legendary Adamas I could use from my Lv59 Hard Mode Fighter and due to some support of the Guild I was in, -Deicide-.
At lv31, you could either grind in Fedion, but people usually pushed to Maitreyan or Cloron's Lair because grinding with Lv25-28 people that started at the beginning of Fedion could sometimes be rather slow. So to avoid that, people moved on to higher areas.

Since Episode 5, people had even more difficulties with grinding, because in Valdemar Regnum, you have to be in a party, because the mobs are hard compared to a normal to decent geared player, not to mention Furies that could invade.
I took advantage of early Episode 5 when there was a lot of traffic, as well as being a member of Dragon Reign at that time and we did constant Guild parties. We lvled up in no time.

Now since (as I heard) UoF is too strong and AoL not able to fight back (and this has been going on even during the times before I quit), it is hard to grind in VR or even find a party there, as most people stick to their Guilds or get powerleveled to avoid all the trouble.

filipvarga,

Please stop posting walls of text as a response to a 4.5!!!! years old Necro post.