The things I've hated in Plane of Air for 10 years now are: half the mobs are very much see-through tons of them see invis the zone is generally confusing/annoying to navigate unless you're staring at a map
My fun times in Plane of Air: I had never been inside Plane of Air back in the day when PoP was released. Since it was just made a hot zone, I decided to give it a try today. I stepped inside the zone as a level 70 bard with a J1 Tank Merc to do the Level 65 hot zone quests for the gear. Killed 2 of the entry mobs and then Inlokher the Warlord spawned. Of course, he shadowstepped us around the entrance aggroing all the other mobs and killing us instantly. I have a free to play account with a 65 Shaman on it, so I loaded up the A5 Healer merc and zoned in the two accounts at the same time. After 5 deaths where he instantly ports the group into multiple other entrance mobs, aggroing them all... I gave up. ZAM says this guy despawns at some point. I waited a bit and he was always still there... always instantly aggroing on zone in, shadow stepping the party, and then killing us pretty much before the loading screen was even finished. This is the level 65 hot zone choice? In what way is it fun to have a zone rendered completely inaccessible for an intended level molo player until the mob despawns or a higher level player enters the zone to clear it? Guess I won't be exploring the hot zone since setting foot into it means instant death without any possibility of winning the fight.
People who have no issue with PoAir as a hotzone have never played in it at lvl 65. The entrance is a huge pita. All the mobs there see invis, split into 3 more mobs on death - and worst part: are huge undercons. They have the hp of elemental mobs, but give experience of mobs much lower level. And you need to clear your way through them to get anywhere else in the zone. For power leveling or swarming (which needs to be removed ala headshot/decap, but thats something else), who cares. But for those who are playing in level appropriate hot zones, its a terrible choice
I think of all the POP zones, PoA was the most "raid only". As another said, just the way its built makes it hard to get past the entrance mobs to the mobs you wish to kill, everything summons (most in BOT DO also, but BOT is more pull friendly. POW is actually not near that bad anymore since the water revamp, except of course being a caster in water, any type of caster, bites - interrupt city. Am going to get on my 6x zerker with almost 400 aa and see how he does. Not having a lot of confidence it will be worth the effort, but am looking forward to trying to see if they did anything to make it 65 group friendly.
While I'm very much in favor of zones *like* PoAir as hotzones because they got so little exposure in their heyday (and since), I have to agree here. Unlike some of the other PoP zones, PoA is set up in a much more linear fashion that is strictly enforced by see-invis mobs, stuns, and summoners. PoA is built for a single force to break in and progress along a path to an objective, not for groups and individuals to pop in at random intervals and join up at certain camps. This could probably be rectified with a bit of work, mostly making the zone-in island gentler and removing see-invis from pretty much everything.
First Island mobs split into more mobs when they die. Those small mobs mana drain. Eventualy you spawn see invis named mobs that will auto agro anyone zoning in. The entire first island is actually a raid event. Kill everything spawn a few names then a final name that has a chance drop a root clicky. Once you enter tunnels between islands you have to deal with roaming stun spiders that can chain stun a level 65 permanently. After that you have more open areas that are all raid events and densely packed buildings that are trash mobs for raid mobs located in those buildings. This is a raid zone not a group zone. Earth and Fire were the zones people went to when they wanted to group.
When the hotzones went up on test, I was kind of wondering how long it would take for this zone to get a thread like this... As the last few posts mention, it may have a lot of mobs, but people XPed when PoP was current (and if they were flagged raiders) in PoFire and not PoAir for a reason. PoAir is as close to something like Plane of Fear as PoP gets- you zone in to an island with see invis mobs who blind, stun, heal themselves (they're all paladins), and split into up to three unslowable mana draining mobs. 300 mana per hit isn't a problem at current level- it's murder on a level 65 spellbar. While I have no personal investment in whether it's a hotzone or not, I don't think this one will be utilized much outside of people PLing their own toons, since their higher level characters can handle it. WoS is 5 levels higher as a recommended hotzone, but a world away in terms of being able to move around and pick easier or harder camps- and you can port right there with a wizard, druid, or guildhall portal. EDIT: Ha, and another post at the same time!
I guess I could set up a 95 merc group to keep zone in clear for the lower levels until SOE does something about that ZI problem. I encourage others to do the same if you can spare the effort, kind of like we used to help with train control in Karnors.
The biggest issues with having the Plane of Air as a hot zone are the innate difficulty of getting there, and the keying requirements to move from island to island. Travel there is restricted, requiring a wizard port or use of a Guild Hall. A character that isn't in a guild and isn't a wizard will need to find someone willing to port them. And that's as difficult as finding buffs for your character these days. Wizards, be prepared to be pestered for ports! Coupled with the necessity of getting the appropriate keys to move from island to island within the zone will make it a terrible time-sink. I suspect many people will choose to go elsewhere than use this hot zone. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but last time I had a character in Air, the re-spawn rate was horrific, particularly for the key mobs. Unless that has changed, that doesn't seem conducive for supporting multiple groups at a time, making this a rather odd choice for a hot zone.
poor zones have been hot zone before like. level 50: Plane of Disease just dont go their so some where else to level.
Ya but its such a waste. Just shows that they look at their spreadsheets from a certain era, close their eyes, and pick one.
If the Plane of Air is a hotzone for, say, three months, then this shouldn't be much of an issue. It's a rarely-visited zone and it got some people to check it out. Move on to WoS or go to a non-hotzone area and grind away, content in knowing you've been to the Plane of Air. However, if it's a hotzone for, say, another 18 months, then I would have to say it was very poorly chosen indeed.
i didnt play in PoP when it was new but i did play in it in my 50s and 60s, all the zones this one included. I took my 76 sk there recently for the hotzone aug,withotu a merc, and encountered the dude at zin..he does suck bc when i killed him he isntantly repopped lol, but i was fully capable of killing him, solo no merc, and moving on to the rest of the zone. yes shes 76 but 65 means a GROUP of 65s not 1-2 toons either. btw, swarming was much moreso lowered than headshot/decap were, and fyi headshot and decap were not "removed" ojust stagnated for a year. the game's massive inflationg from SoD to UF and again to HoT etc greatly stagnated swarming without need for any itnerference from devs, just you know, so you have your facts straight.
One thing I'd love to see is the removal of the "Raid content" tag from Plane of Hate, Plane of Fear and Plane of Sky. And the removal of the Death Touch effect from the mobs in PoF / Some tweaks to make Plane of Sky more "PoP"-like.
Any modifications coming to this yet? I don't mean the tags, just making it more possible to exp in air?
Worse than this is the choice of Valley of Lunyan for a Hotzone. 2/3 of the types of mobs you need to kill for the Valley daily task come with faction hits. you start out non-KoS but after a couple months of doing daily tasks, you end up KoS to mobs that would otherwise let you walk by, no questions asked.
