Instead of complaining read the strats. Get ur boxed toon on follow. It will move with ur main. Gyro in advanced solo is easy. Just joust and he would follow. Luminox is easy in every form. Even Gyro is harder but as I said still easy. Try to fight him in heroic. A nightmare. I like this expansion because of scripts. It's not tank and spank boring anymore. Even on Bolgin you can completely avoid ads after the first wave. There are always ways to get bosses easy. Well done, devs!
The only AS fight I thought was too difficult for solo progression was Bolgin, but you don't need him for the sig quest update. The zones aren't really designed to cater to 'elite' players (my gear entering Nexus Core was all solo quested stuff, mostly Vesspyr with some CoE stuff thrown in). They clearly say they're designed for 1 player + merc or 2 players. Beating them completely solo would be impossibly challenging for most players. Sure, the instances are scripted and some encounters take a couple tries to get down, but they're really not that tough. If you're having problems, ZAM has a solid walkthrough of just about every encounter - some are vague, but they'll often help you understand why you're dying.
Instead of telling me what to do, read my post. I know how to box. I said it was no fun for me, not that it wasn't possible.
I don't anymore. I boxed 6 accounts using G13, sidewinder keyboard and 3 rows of macros on each account. Can't do that now. I will rephrase that, I don't want to do that anymore as I don't want to run the same missions every single day for the next 3 months of my life.
Mostly in quested gear with few old jewelry pieces I ran through solo Nexus yesterday in less than 20min. Would be faster if I didn't die once to Luminox beam. Got a nice secondary drop. http://u.eq2wire.com/soe/character_detail/442383966745
My Warden friend on purposely kept his CoE raid gear and did nothing but the advanced solos during beta. And he beat them all without reforging anything, changing any adorns or having a bunch of the new AA. Now granted he is a highly skilled player, but he went and showed that its doable. Now that ToV went live he went straight into the AS zones to get the updates he wanted and then moved right over to Heroics. Me I concentrated on the solo quest line during beta doing it a total of 3 times to figure out which pieces of gear I wanted when ToV went live. I did do Nexus AS in CoE EM Raid / Steward II / Ethereal Mix during the first run and thought it took too long even though I didn't die. Second run I pretty much had everything figured out and adorned everything with the cheap purple adorns which I later realized was a mistake due to how much easier they made everything and seeing how expensive they would be on release. The third and last beta run I did the complete signature quest-line in the gear I knew I wanted from the first two runs (with no purple adorns to skew the results) and it went easy and smooth. Once it went live I did the very same thing and am now farming AS for Etyma and Gear. Once I get adorned / gemmed / upgraded then I'll move into heroic. I have time. No need to rush anymore since I decided that raiding was affecting my health (2am to 5am gets old fast) and I needed to take a break from it. @ the OP. The AS zones are a lot easier now (Nexus Core AS was brutal the first week of beta). You are just going have to try a bit harder to figure them out, but once you do you'll be wondering how you ever had problems in them to begin with.
I don't see why you post this as if it's this is a good thing? You are basically admitting to running solo instances in an MMO to complete missions to get gear because the mobs don't actually drop any. You are doing possibly the most repetitive solo thing I can imagine in an MMO. No surprises. No trash loot for muting. No interest. No real skill in the fights, it's basically dps - dps - dps - run away - wait - dps - dps -dps. You will do this for a few weeks/months and then do the same again in different solo dungeons. It's woeful. Also every class is the same, players of all classes spam their basic buttons waiting on the red text so they can run away. They should just replace all the hotbar buttons have [kick], [punch], [heal], [cure], [debuff] because that's what this has become. It's a console game now.
I ran the quest lines not the AS except the signature quest required ones. I did them to find out what gear I wanted to get ready for Heroics. And to get the super dislodgers and the title and mount for me and my few alts. I group. I even do *gasp* pugs. And have been doing so since 2004. And I can and will Raid again once I find a guild playing in my timezone. I think you might want to read what I wrote again, some how I think you got confused. *edit* One thing I don't do, is go undergeared into heroic zones. I'm proud of being a good tank. I know my class and I know how to play. And to try tanking new zones in the wrong gear is something I refuse to do. I owe it to my groups, nothing else will do.
Nexus is the worst zone of the expansion, I dislike it even if it is the fastest (probably). here are some advices : Trash : The golems charged with energy can cast a ray, there is no casting bar. You can see them waving arms when they ready to do it. My warden ignore their pathetic ray but she was not ignoring those when she had 160 K hps. Each ray may hit for 80-90K. Luminox : just avoid the missile, he does not do anything. Golem Duo : Kill the one that cast a ray first, when he cast his ray just traverse his body the ray is only frontal. One he is dead, the other does nothing (you can almost go afk with attack auto on). Energy bubble mob : When you get the red text warning rush toward any bubble and kill it before it reaches the named. The more reach the named the more heal he get. Spinning mob : Kill the large pack of spinning mob from afar, they can be rooted and the move super slowly. If you dare throw some invulnerabilit (divine aura, cyclone or anything) and rush into and aoe them (this is faster). Otherwise use long range aoe. When few spinners remain you can rush in Spinner boss: Twice the mob will summon spinning mobs, thoses mobs do no damage unless you have the elemental detrimental that they do cast on you. Just move around and avoid them, if you have good gear you can more or less ignore them and heal their damage. Spinner can also be rooted (need to check i think we can). Luminox prime : Only difference is that when you run to avoid missibles you have to walk into the life spheres (shiny ones) the black ones will snare you. Also from time to time he will start casting a ray, just get behind him. Additionnal warnings : If you pull on an elevator, named will lower it and kill you, so don't. If you die you have to activate the elevators again (they go down when you die) there is a hole in the center of the main central room, don't forget about it. All mob but luminox prime are easy once you got it and whatever be your class and gear. Luminox prime is apparently hard for classes that cannot self-heal, reason is that you need very good trajectories if you want your mercenary to survive. Since he follows you he is likely to step in a black sphere or to get a missile. Nexus as welcome instance is a very bad choice, others are much easier and more traditionnal. Nexus is about runnng/jousting not about playing your toon.
When I posted this thread my main concern was with my mediocre alts and mediocre players and it raises an old argument that has plagued the EQ2 membership for years. I am proud of being an EQ2 player who had a grounding in years of playing EQ1. It sets me apart from those players in games like Rift and WOW where a pack mentality of unregulated abuse, and foul behaviour makes me question how many of them can read, never mind learn and follow a strategy (I briefly ventured into both games to find out so I do know). So, I love my game and I love my guild but I do worry as I watch the slow demise of the entire gaming industry. What's more I have no problems with Nexus Core or any of the zones be they Advanced Solo, heroic, hard core, Raid, or Challenge mode. What I have a problem with is placing these zones in the quest line that tells the story of the zone. I loved saving the baby dragon for Hallar Dar and I have to congratulate SOE for giving us a story I actually enjoyed reading while taking the quests. It was immersive. But for those players who have used this thread to tell us how easy it was because they are expert Shadow Knights that can defeat anything I'd like to raise the topic that this isn't about us, those who post and read the official forums, and can overcome a challenge by seeing death as a learning experience. It's about the majority of players who play EQ2 and who could be playing EQ2 who will view these deaths as a barrier and a conformation of their own mediocrity. While we want this challenging content and even more challenging content, the very survival of the game demands that all paying players get all of the start-out gear and finish the story of the zone. Then, with encouragement, once they are assured that they have recieved what they payed for, they can learn that the harder Advanced Solo Zones are actually doable but what is required for this is loot from every single named so that even if they fail to finish they can walk away with a sense of accomplishment. It's not a big deal and while these people will generally not end up in our raid forces they will add to the colour and populations of our servers, crafting items, buying gear from the broker and making my home in EQ2 viable for the next expansion and beyond.
Really nice well thought out post. It is a two bladed sword however. EQ2 has become more "casual" (and oh how I hate that term) over the years to make it easier for newer players to jump into. The problem as I see it however is most of the newer players we get now are the ones who jumped into the game when seeing the FTP tag. So you have an influx of new players who might pay for a silver account to get rid of the really annoying features of bronze, but who will probably leave after a few months to go find something else to do. Meanwhile a large amount of the core group of players, who have been paying the lion's share of the bills through a monthly subscription, are getting fed up with everything becoming too easy and leaving. The one cannot replace the other in terms of paying SOE's bills. So SOE has to walk a very fine line to keep the game profitable and do their best to keep both sets of players happy and in game. But ToV shows me that they might have realized that its better to keep the gold players happy and have a guaranteed income source then hope someone sees the game listed in Steam under FTP, tries it and decided to stay. We shall see.
The opportunity to complain non-stop in multiple threads about the same things, thats my guess about what Kalika likes most about ToV.
I did it without a merc on my sk without any deaths. I read the strat and had guildies telling me what they did and it really wasnt too much of a problem. Without knowing some of the strats, it would of been a long night. Now im not sure i will have the same results on my other toons
