Stopping to smell the roses

[catweasle]

I've been grinding for a while now and while I'm far, far away from Triple Completionist, I now have a character where I feel confident to solo or PUG in most quests on very low Reaper. Whenever I PUG, the other grinders typically rush through at a blistering pace which admittedly is beneficial to me in leveling more quickly.

But I wonder at what point do you slow down and enjoy the actual content? When do you stop to smell the roses rather than grind at a breakneck speed? I think I'm getting close to the point where I want to understand the quest and read all the text from the quest givers to immerse myself in the story and enjoy the ride at a more sedate pace. But I'm not sure this ever happens. I can't remember the last time I was in a PUG where people wanted to go slowly to enjoy the quest fully. So my question to all of you is have any of you set yourself a point where you say to yourself "I've had enough of grinding for now. I'm going to level from 1 to 32 and immerse myself in the story the whole way through" ?

[YUTANG75]

Whenever I play a quest for the first time solo I'll investigate all the nooks and crannies and read all the dialogue. After that I'll just be blasting through it. If I get bored of the game I just do something else with my time until I'm ready to come back.

[salmag]

I've been grinding for a while now and while I'm far, far away from Triple Completionist, I now have a character where I feel confident to solo or PUG in most quests on very low Reaper. Whenever I PUG, the other grinders typically rush through at a blistering pace which admittedly is beneficial to me in leveling more quickly.

But I wonder at what point do you slow down and enjoy the actual content? When do you stop to smell the roses rather than grind at a breakneck speed? I think I'm getting close to the point where I want to understand the quest and read all the text from the quest givers to immerse myself in the story and enjoy the ride at a more sedate pace. But I'm not sure this ever happens. I can't remember the last time I was in a PUG where people wanted to go slowly to enjoy the quest fully. So my question to all of you is have any of you set yourself a point where you say to yourself "I've had enough of grinding for now. I'm going to level from 1 to 32 and immerse myself in the story the whole way through" ?

The first time through a new quest, I read all dialogue, and slow my roll.
Thereafter, I still stop to smell the roses (per se) almost every time I quest.

And while my speed varies, it depends on the quest. I will not break all boxes or go for conquest every time, but I try to do all optionals.

[Wahnsinnig]

But I wonder at what point do you slow down and enjoy the actual content? When do you stop to smell the roses rather than grind at a breakneck speed?

I always solo any new quest when new content goes live, just so I can take the time to listen to DM, read all the dialogue and understand the story. If I feel I have missed something I solo the quest again.

When I feel I have found as much as I can in a quest I go to the Wiki and read the guide for it.

[Nebless]

But I wonder at what point do you slow down and enjoy the actual content? When do you stop to smell the roses rather than grind at a breakneck speed?

When you solo and for me that was from day 1 and every day there after with the odd here and there's in various Hardcore League servers when someone elite opened the harder to solo dungeons.

I think the problem is with the players. Too many only think in terms of 'how fast can I level up' and just want to zoom to max or burn through there lives and that's not just in this game, but pretty much all games be they mmo's or spg's.

Think back to the pre-mount days when more and more wanted mounts 'because it took too long to run across the Marketplace central plaza'. Having to run 10 sec to the dungeon entrance was a burden etc... etc... Too many players now a days only think in terms of fast, fast, fast.

It's all about how you look at a game. I'm here for a relaxing time and even though I've run the dungeons hundreds of time, I still go slow.

[Inanout]

Do you ever look at the paintings on the walls?
It would be nice to be able to steal them with my rouge and hang them in my empty kraken room.

[salmag]

Do you ever look at the paintings on the walls?
It would be nice to be able to steal them with my rouge and hang them in my empty kraken room.

I wish they would add a little more clues on the walls, i.e. like the warning scribble in Kobold's Blockade - "Kobold's ahead". Just a few more little details to immerse the player.

Zergers wouldn't care though...

[Ereshkigal]

I've been grinding for a while now and while I'm far, far away from Triple Completionist, I now have a character where I feel confident to solo or PUG in most quests on very low Reaper. Whenever I PUG, the other grinders typically rush through at a blistering pace which admittedly is beneficial to me in leveling more quickly.

But I wonder at what point do you slow down and enjoy the actual content? When do you stop to smell the roses rather than grind at a breakneck speed? I think I'm getting close to the point where I want to understand the quest and read all the text from the quest givers to immerse myself in the story and enjoy the ride at a more sedate pace. But I'm not sure this ever happens. I can't remember the last time I was in a PUG where people wanted to go slowly to enjoy the quest fully. So my question to all of you is have any of you set yourself a point where you say to yourself "I've had enough of grinding for now. I'm going to level from 1 to 32 and immerse myself in the story the whole way through" ?

I usually do that the first time I run a quest. The roses don't smell so good after the first time around imo.

[axel15810]

But I wonder at what point do you slow down and enjoy the actual content? When do you stop to smell the roses rather than grind at a breakneck speed?

Usually I solo 2-3 runs of each quest on lower difficulties when they first come out - to learn them and flowersniff all the optionals and nooks and crannies. After that I run at a speed some would call a zerg or rushing. But it's not really breakneck speed at that point, that's just normal speed for me and for most players. I think there's often a disconnect where some people think normal PUG speed is a rush or zerg but it's really not...that's just normal speed for me and for most who have played these quests many many times. Also, DDO is a really long steep grind so I were to keep running quests at that initial slower flowersniffing pace I'd be old and grey before making significant strides in character progression in this game. Unless there's something new to discover it doesn't really make sense to run them at a slower pace anyway since I'd already explored everything.

[kmoustakas]

I've been grinding for a while now and while I'm far, far away from Triple Completionist, I now have a character where I feel confident to solo or PUG in most quests on very low Reaper. Whenever I PUG, the other grinders typically rush through at a blistering pace which admittedly is beneficial to me in leveling more quickly.

But I wonder at what point do you slow down and enjoy the actual content? When do you stop to smell the roses rather than grind at a breakneck speed? I think I'm getting close to the point where I want to understand the quest and read all the text from the quest givers to immerse myself in the story and enjoy the ride at a more sedate pace. But I'm not sure this ever happens. I can't remember the last time I was in a PUG where people wanted to go slowly to enjoy the quest fully. So my question to all of you is have any of you set yourself a point where you say to yourself "I've had enough of grinding for now. I'm going to level from 1 to 32 and immerse myself in the story the whole way through" ?

I do it often when I solo and randomly go off exploring in quests off the beaten pathway or when doing slayers I split off and go parkouring in the far reaches. I've done all the epic past lives so with my main I've been doing racials and enjoying it thoroughly.

Hardcore flowersniffing but not in a zerging group, that doesn't work.

[capsela]

2010 wants its thread back.
This subject is evergreen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5y1uy3abDM

[Drunkendex]

The first time through a new quest, I read all dialogue, and slow my roll.
Thereafter, I still stop to smell the roses (per se) almost every time I quest.

And while my speed varies, it depends on the quest. I will not break all boxes or go for conquest every time, but I try to do all optionals.

Same here.
I tried zerging., i tried hunting good xp/min.
I was actally decent at it.
And I HATED IT.
Only quests I zerged lately were ones I dislike.

[vryxnr]

I will join the chorus and state that I do most of my flower sniffing / exploration / lore / dialogue / etc the first time I do a quest (and I prefer doing that solo so others are not waiting around for me, or jumping in and preventing me from seeing what just happened). I like to learn quests this way: by delving into them and figuring out the secrets and optimal paths myself. Then I start gaining speed and efficiency in completing them.

Of course, sometimes this results in my having very different ways to complete quests than others. Sometimes it's interesting to see how others do things. Sometimes it's fun being able to share a different way that ends up being faster/easier (this goes both ways). ...and sometimes it's frustrating when everyone's on autopilot, don't communicate, and freak out when things don't go perfectly.