Monthly vs. Quarterly Content Releases

The devs have heard us when it comes to the Alerts vs Raids debate. They read the boards every day.

But just because we haven't heard any information on a change in direction, it doesn't mean that they're not considering it. They work WAY ahead when it comes to content (~ 9 months if I recall correctly), so it's possible that they simply haven't had time to course-correct yet. And we all know what happens when they announce their plans ahead of time

For the record, I love the monthly cadence, but I'd prefer more Alerts as well. I also do miss the Open World stuff, the Bounties, New LPvE maps and the other 'in-between' things to do - heck, it's been 5 months since we got a new Legend - but I'm hoping that their absence is a temporary situation.

The truth is this: the devs have a limited amount of manpower (no matter how many Replay Badges they sell). Right now, much of the core team is in the middle of balance adjustments - a huge undertaking that most of the playerbase demanded. It should also be noted that a large portion of the dev team has been working on the Xbox port for over a year now. Perhaps if we get them back in a month or two, more varied content will be forthcoming.

I hear you.

I was happy to finally have 3 relevant alerts, just to find out that DC dropped out of the relevancy window the day that the new alert arrived.

And no, elite alerts don't count here. Elite content is the worst thing since gu47. Just make the regular harder and drop the faux titles.

The mature, responsible forum goers thank them for keeping us informed and if they get a month or two over any hard deadlines they gave polititely ask ask for an update on where things stand.

They need to go back to the 3 month system:
Cr is the new problem
Content is considered old after 1st month
Gear cr is ridiculous
More balanced content player wise
Modding was important
Free time towards end or dlc
Singled theme dlc
Open world content

I want to say I am full 150 gear and not part 143 part 140 nonsense. Yea I'm full 143/0/1/6 gear. Yeah No!
And we have too many duos! Duo universe online? Hahaha nope.

Yup, all three of them.

Got to admit that for me at least the focus on Raids over Alerts is rapidly killing my urge to log-on to the game these days - between that and the player base's insistence of running everyf***kingthing without non-Damage roles I think I'm due another long break (or maybe to just walk away for good).

To give you an idea of how much I play.

My primary has all content completed this week expect BN that earns me marks, I even ran NGN and Bomshell. I run him through all solo, duos and alerts daily.

My alts all have PBR completed. All have been through PZR or PZE 1x or more with exception of my Earth toon. I have not had the luxury of running that toon through the new alert yet. I will tonight.

My primary toon needs a few more marks and he will have finished off the style in the vendor.

I also have toons under 30 I play and at T1. When I get bored of the higher content or farming on my primary, I go play lower tier content.

I play an average of 4 hours on most work days and off days is usually 4-6 hours. However, spring is in the air and I'm excited about not playing as much and doing more around the house outside.

If the game became to taxing for me to run multiple toons I would hang up all my alts other than 1 tank, my primary and my healer. The tank I would probably keep running is my atomic toon, as I am having more fun tanking with that toon ATM over my Earth toon.

GU47 included the last DLC, HoP II.

It had one open world mission, 2 duos, 1 alert, and 2 raids. That is 6 pieces or content or 2 per a month. It also followed the current setup we see today both in CR increase by 10 and content.

Prior to that we had this...

AFII...

1 solo, 2 alerts, and 3 raids. Again 6 pieces of content.

WotL II
1 solod, 1 daily, 1 duo, 2 alerts, and 1 raid. Again 6 pieces of content.

HoP II
2 alerts and 3 raids. 5 pieces of content

AFI
2 solo, 2 duos, dailies, and 1 alert - more than 6 pieces of content

WotL I
Dailies, 2 alerts, and 1 raid

Between WotL I and AFI the devs created the small content and large content release design, meaning this...

Small content would focus on solo, dailies, alerts, and maybe provide 1 raid
Large content would focus on alerts and raids with a possibility of a solo, daily or duo.

The small and large rotated providing a balance between dailies, duos, solos and raids with alerts being the primary focus on gear progression. Gear progression was not reliant on drop but vendor.

AFII changed that in that drop gear had a higher item level. Since AFII we have had the mentality and focus on raids and drop gear and heavy RB usage. Prior to this, many players would run content, that was mark relevant without much hesitation and buy the vendor gear. Today, why bother with vendor gear at all. I mean, we get alerts were you can run them daily and get the 2nd best gear in the game daily. Than weekly you take your chances for 1 or 2 pieces of rare gear in the latest and greatest raid.

The game has changed so much since 2014 with regards to content and gearing up a toon. I mean, in WotL I to WotL II area of this game it did not matter if you had vendor or drop gear as long as you modded your gear and had the stats. Today, forget it, it is all about the CR and stats and not about earning marks, it is why today even though DP is still relevant it is rarely played. But with WotL II content, I still could run TD due to players still needing MoF for players who were not lucky in the raid and wanted to improve their toon. Now, players simply have no desire to run it due to many players not wanting to grind for marks to buy the gear.

Monthly content has nothing to do with this change. CR relevancy, drop gear having higher CR,and little to no CR increase for most players when going from uncommon gear to vendor gear, etc...

I have rambled on enough.

Two things I know will fix the game and one was already shot down, that was moving from drop gear to vendor gear as best gear.

The other is CR relevancy. Hopefully when we move back to stats, they also adjust Vendor and Drop gear and make Vendor gear a more attractive alternative to spamming RB to get drop gear.