Casual Player topped out?

I killed Mr. Lich in Prophesies...

I've played around with Eye and have finished
about half of it....( I think )

I tend to play solo because I hate getting into a party
with a bunch of idiots that run off and aggro everything
they can find, can't follow instructions or ditch you at the
first sign of trouble.
( and I know that I'm not playing at higher levels and do
not want to be a drag on a party that does... )

I play kinda casually...

When I have time to play I want to play, not study wiki
and design a build for each area.

Have I topped out?

75 p for elite Templar armor?

I see things here talking about buying and selling things
for 100P or even into the Ecto price range.... I've never
come even close to having that kind of cash on hand.

I see people wanting to buy huge amounts of materials...
and without hours of wiki research I'm not sure why )

I get my ass handed to me in the underworld.

I can't seem to find a place to farm solo that is worth
the time and I do not get pasted right off the bat...
( outside the Ice Cave bashing minotaurs gets old based on
the return income )

I'm looking for advice but I'm not even sure I know the right
questions to ask.

Just play through everything on your own time. There's no rush; every campaign is doable by itself with only heroes and henchmen, and they're fairly linear in terms of primary quests and missions. If you fail something repeatedly, use wiki for a quick reference. After you've finished all the core material, decide what, if anything, you plan to do after that. You don't need high PvP titles or decked out Halls of Monuments or expensive skins to simply play each game through, and you can't really decide what you want to do until you've finished the core material.

Heh, relax man.
You're not alone. I have been playing GW (all three campaigns + EoN) for two years and I've done it solo. I've have not finished any of the campaigns either

I used to get caught up in the wiki and builds, getting great armor and all of that crap but decided it was not worth it to me. I play just to have fun. I don't enjoy playing in groups because, like you said, it's usually filled with people with their own agenda.

I have never, in two years playing, reached 100p and I only sell and buy stuff from merchants. If I want dye I'll go to post searing Aschelon and farm a bit. Sell the blacks and whites you get for some gold.

If the game is getting frustrating just ask yourself why you play. Reevaluate. Think about what makes it fun for you and get a goal. If you go in with a goal it makes it more enjoyable.

Well....that's my take on it anyway
Hope it helps.

First thing to think about is if you are having fun or not. If its not fun then why are you playing?
The best advice I could give you is to find a nice small laid back guild. The huge guilds have their advantages but I find a nice small guild is usually better for the more casual player not interested in doing elite missions over and over again.
A few things to keep in mind, those elite armor sets are exactly the same functionally as the cheaper 1K sets (and alot of times they are ugly), The rare weapon skins that cost 100K+XXecto do the same amount of damage as any other max damage weapon.

Just stick with it and have fun!

1. Prophecies is not a "rich" farming area anymore. Most of the better farming spots were disabled over the years to discourage botting. The ones that weren't are badly overfarmed, making the rare drops worthless except for a few exceptions.

2. The "huge" amounts of materials are either for the elite armors or special gauntlets/gloves or for the EotN consumables.

3. Most players are making money by selling their Zaishen Keys every month; they sell for 5k per key. Just by making the predictions you are guaranteed enough points for one key. If you luck out in your choices, you can do much better. This month I received 80 pts which equals 80k if I had sold the keys.

4. Many of us play mostly solo. My guild has only three members who tend to play at random times. We all have problems with PuGs; either we are not good enough or they aren't. It is hard to find an equally experienced random group.

Lol don't worry, the reason why those top dollar guys pay so much is because they got bored of the game and accumulated so much dough that they don't know what to do with it. Thats why you have money sinks because some people just play the game WAYYYY too much.

Personally I consider myself a tad over casual and I myself accumulated around 2 mil. Of course I played for three years. On top of that more than half of it is from the predictions, so i would strongly recommend it. In a year, you can make 1 million at least if you play it right. How is that for cash

Other ways I get money is through minipets(but since you are just starting this won't work well for you) and NF chest running(100k per three months per char for a year approx, though rewards diminish)). And then I buy and sell, which is great once you make enough money, esp in z-keys. Basically I would say itll be really easy for you to make a lot of money even by playing casually.

Yeah... i'm with ErikTreeHeart, i've had GW for 2 years, and since then i've been purchasing the extra campaigns or expansions for that matter... i've never completed a campaign... i know to some that may suck.. but in time i've found an awesome guild that i have total respect for.. i have cash that gets me weapons just right for my proffesion, and my armour..

You may not think this.. but don't care what people think about you.., play it your way, with fellow players or by yourself.

Ghost.

henchman ftw tbh

So hard to find good group

Predictions?

What are predictions?

How and where do you do that?

( or should that question be a new thread ? )

Once you get yourself into a decent farming area and learn how to do it, money just comes to you. Then again, I get a lot of money just by playing the game, picking everything up and selling to the merchant. Normal mode is not the way to make money in this game so complete campaigns and start playing hard mode. Make an assassin, though the time and money it takes to get it right and where you want it might be a bit much considering the scale of the anti-Shadow Form movement in the community as of late.

Then again, you're kinda late to the game in general, pretty much the only way you're really going to get "rich" is if you luck out and get a really rare drop at the end of a dungeon, like a Bone Dragon Staff or Frog Scepter.

I've been solo farming outside Ice Tooth Cave without any difficulty
but when I move a little farther along in the story line path I get
my ass handed to me. ( do I need to watch my language or is that
OK here? )

Is that a build problem?

The build you use for farming (solo) has a different purpose than if your running quests or missions. Re-evaluate your build for each area/situation. PvX wiki can be an awesome resource. or check out the profession threads here on Guru.