The gems are the gating mechanism though, truth be told. And that's not really a problem, but they should allow different ways to obtain them through raiding. Achievement rewards for flawless, shorthanded.. sense of urgency, etc. On top of dropping from the zones from last expansion. That facet of the issue would be quickly resolved.
I suggested this a few times a while back plus during ToV Beta - achievements should be used regularely to obtain good stuff, but it seems they are used way too rare for something like that.
Maergoth's idea of items from certain achievements is awesome. That could be taken so far, too. For all kinds of things in addition to what this thread is about. IE, what if getting extreme sense of urgency from all the ToV zones up through the High Keep zones gave you a bucket-helm to wear like the goblins? Awww yeah.
Not at all. Because then there is no significant reward from killing the final mob in the zone or avatars for that matter. Instead of giving them loot that replaces stuff you've gotten for a slight upgrade, they drop gems that let you slightly upgrade. The amount of etyma that would have to be required without flooding the playerbase with red gems even before they step into raid zones would incur an obligation to grind like NEVER before in this game. It would be miserable for anyone who even tried to do so. And because it's an option, people will be obligated to try doing it. It would have to be like, 10 green gems to make a red for it to be balanced, and that is a completely unrealistic investment, even for subscribers.
I'm really not a PvP guy,so I've never even looked at BF's. But from what I'm reading, even if all I do is die they're worth the trouble to go through. I may have to give them a go.
Really isn't a bad idea at this point. Avatars only have 3 drops, one of which is only useful for preds/sorcs, one of which is only useful on 5+ minute fights, and one of which is completely useless except for exploiting. Only reason to kill avatars is for red gems and hoping that the prismatic gem upgrades are substantial. Might as well just let everyone have access to them. Also even if there were lockouts we'd just kill them on alts, because unlike Vanguard's players, the majority of us are ******** who want all the gems to ourselves. Also to whoever said 210 gems, the amount of gems you would need total for a 30 man roster is actually 840 if you count upgrading them to purple for tov armor drops.
Buffrat, Maybe the lockout could be account based. Maybe the Gems can be no trade. That may limit the hording. If its stays as is, only equilibrium wil be getting the vast majority on AB which is absolutely no fun for the other 15 raiding guilds on the server. Contested content has never been fun in EQ2 for non 1%ers period anyways. If the mobs are up often enough to give a decent amount of the population a shot at getting a pull in, it would be a morale boost and would encourage more raiding. As it stands it just discourages late game progression. Look at SG in CoE.... Almost no one completed that zone and everyone who did had to farm avatars to have the gear necessary to succeed. So content meant for everyone couldnt actualy be comleted unless you were one of the very top guilds hording all of the Avatar drops. No fun for thousands of raiders who have too many responsibilities to be online 20 hours a week with a call list to boot. The situation is even worse in ToV. Now even EM raiding gear is not as good as heroic gear and the only reasonable source of upgrade gems comes through the content that no one but a few have any real access too. That is super broken and is not fun.
No reason for a lockout because presumably, with the small loot table it's feasible for that "one guild" monopolizing them to be completely done with their loot, besides alt loot. Before even being able to obtain prismatic gems. The new system of smaller spawn windows and multiple spawns makes it possible to take a couple here and there. I was in a guild that tried stealing avatars from the #1 guild on the server. Two of them, actually.. at vastly different points in progression back in RoK. It was a blast. We got one after a while. We weren't entitled to practice them in any arena somewhere. They didn't have multiple spawn locations or multiple spawns at once. We pulled an avatar out from under the #1 guild on the server's feet, right in front of them, where they had a boxed toon camped to instantly notify them upon spawn. That was the best feeling this game has to offer, hands down. Better than worldwide firsting mobs, better than getting the last piece of gear you need.. but for a single moment, besting the best. That is not something I support removing from the game. Contested lockouts enforce it, and just means two guilds would have them on lockdown, instead of one. Which, as anyone in Equilibrium can tell you, isn't an impossibility already. Sneaking avatars is pretty easy. It's still very early in the expansion, A third of the way through, the door will open for most guilds to obtain red gems in reasonable quantities, either from sniping contested mobs or from clearing Sanctum (which is NOT difficult). Maybe one or two guilds don't have the desire to clear sanctum and never will. But they are not instantly entitled to anything. Easymode raid content as it exists prior to red gems is a means for bypassing heroic content, not a means to upgrade from it. The jewelry is a different story and will be addressed.
It is very possible for any guild to at least get some attempts on Avatar's, the problem is more the willingness of guilds to make a dedicated run to try and get them. Most dont have that desire (my guild included) which doesnt mean we should change the avatar system to cater to us, dont agree with that at all. I dont think that is fair to the guilds that do put forth the effort, have the call lists, etc. I also think the current Red Gem distribution is ok. Would suggest though adding a RARE chance for one to drop in the Arena of the Gods, that way guilds not clearing AS but maybe killing an Avatar can get a couple.
It already does, from Bristlebane who is a rare spawn. From what other players have told me at least.
Stike, You do realize that as it stands the ability to obtain reg gems for a non avatar guild are; Legionnaires: 1 Every 4 days minimum, if you kill them on the only pull you get (this will not happen every time) The Crumbling Emporer: 2 Every 4 days (Most guilds will not be able to clear exactly every 4 days due to scheduled raid days) Bristlebane: 1 (Rare chance of him spawning) If your raid force needs 210 just to outfit EM gear... So say the starts align and it averages you get 3 red gems evry 4 day (You won't)... (210/3)*4=280 days... Absolute minumim if teh stars align for you. What about holidays or server crashes? What do you think is the prob that you wil lhave the same raid force 280 days from now (You won't) In fact not one non Avatar guild will ever get a full set of red gems for EM gear. It wont happen... It won't So next year a large amount of the raid community will stil be in 3 gemed Heroic gear with full set of raid gear in thier bags just in case... And your OK with that.... Realy? Its plain broken and not fun for a large majority of the players. Maergoth, I have no prob with some content being contested. I have a problem with the rewards being necessary for the majority of teh raiding population as it is now in ToV. I have a problem with the rewards being necessary to even have a whif of engame content like SG in CoE. If it is contested rewards they should be cool fun and alittle bit better than HM stuff. It should not be so much better and non contested content balanced around those rewards.
Xellium that's the point your not supposed to only wear Raid Gear. Potent 3/3 is on-par and comparable. They WANT players running Raids and Groups and by god it's about time we had itemization to reflect that goal. Players who start playing together more will ultimately become better players together. If he had this kind of itemization in DoV as opposed to the hyper-linear we got we may have kept a lot more players, I know a lot who left because there was "no reason to group anymore outside of PQ's" Had the Game itself not gone down for a full month we would have lost a lot less players tbh. I have no issue's getting even PuG's through ToV for Potent Gear, clearly they won't hit Vulak'aaers Dominion but still 5/7 slots is perfectly fine to raid even in early Temple.
So, you are happy farming heroics all expansion so that you have a greater ability to kill raid encouters which reward you with equipment that is worse than the heroic stuff you already have on? And you have no problem with having no viable source to upgrade your raid equipment to raid quality in any sane amount of time? You sir have a greater tolerance for pain than I.
Wait, maybe I'm missing something.. Why would you need 210 red gems? I calculate 144 for a 24 man raid force.And you don't need to gem forearms or boots because they're both lesser pieces, forearms especially.. so yeah. Most people came into this expansion in steward gear, which is of lesser quality than full 3 gem potent. You don't farm 3 green gem heroic gear to kill easymode mobs easier. 3 green gem potent gear allows you to steamroll those to get to your upgrades. Similarly, you can kill easymode mobs to avoid having to grind heroic zones. Again, ungemmed easymode gear is just a transition. It's not a goal. The reward from doing it is useful if you can get red gems, and it's useful if you don't want to farm green gems. Just because you seem to be in between those groups doesn't make it common enough to demand a change.
While we're talking about loot, while you're revamping the loot that's currently there, can we get more tank items with strike-through on them, it's annoying having to waste most your reforges to get strike-through to a decent number.
why wouldn't you need to gem boots if you gem gloves shoulders and helmet which all have the same stats?
Xeillium, I honestly don't see a problem with it, maybe its because I am enjoying the expansion as is the rest of my guild. Everyone is having a good time, trying harder and the results already.....we cleared AS as everyone worked hard to gear up and get gemmed potent gear to accomplish this. We are enjoying the heroics still, probably wont last a long time, but going to run with it while we can. The gemmed potent gear is pretty nice and if you have a guild that works together, will have no problem getting enough to green gem you out. As for the reds. We will get 2-3 a week from AS if we don't screw up on legionaires, and maybe another from bristle. Our guild is fine with that, sure we would like more but its acceptable and honestly there isn't such a huge separation from HM raiders and EM raiders as there was in the past expansions, but expansion just came out and we plan on working our butts off to kill some of the ToV mobs. I actually passed on 2 pieces of raid gear because I had 3 gemmed potent and other guildies it was better upgrade, we still killing without it, so like I said happy thus far. I am sure we will ALL need to be at least 3 gem potent raid deep to touch the ToV, but as long as the guild is loving running zones, this will happen. I'm sorry if your guild isn't quite as excited, but from my end its hats off to SoE, This expansion actually got everyone a little gung ho for a change which was nice. Not starting an argument, so don't take it as that, just giving you another perspective from another raider in casual guild.
Rebix. Our server has 7 guilds clearing AS, most only have 3. We're a bit of a rarity in the community.
