Changes with the February Update: Alternate Ability Grants for Gold Members and Ability Changes

hope this gets more active players and less mercs being used

Im sure with your new vision of Everquest you will attract so many new players you will not miss your once loyal paying/veterans of so many years.

The more I think about it the angrier I get

https://forums.station.sony.com/eq/index.php?threads/november-producers-letter.205020/
^ there, at the very end.

Agree here, RoF was the first expansion in as long as I can remember that we progressed to level, not level to progress! And the partisan and task rewards were tuned well enough that it was pretty close to the same speed to ding 100!

The day you break my zerker Is the day remove my credit card info and never log in again I make soe tons of money by pling lower levels while they are at work I track all the krono’s people feed me to level them up cause they just don’t have the time to put into leveling themselves the bottom line u screw my abilities u make me less effective of killer last year only in kroon I generated soe 1700 just in krono’s alone. That is not even counting my own sub.

What is your bottom line you want to generate more gold accounts by granting aa’s I get it but how much revenue does soe earn from the abilities u want to mess with how many krono have been sold.

Server lag totally with u on it here is a solution reduce mobs in crowded arear where mass killing is happening I mean some zone have ungodly respawn rates anyhow. You want to fix this the do so without hurting the player base tomany awesome games are coming out this year that threaten eq like never before Elderscrolls online for example will take ¼ player base of eq that will not return because of your current actions. Eq next wich is your baby will take another ¼ from the base that may return or may not return given current actions.

Do a search, go read the producers letters like it was suggested...

https://forums.station.sony.com/eq/index.php?threads/november-producers-letter.205020

I've been playing since Dec 1999 and now have 3 accounts, several L 100s and lots of alts. I /cheer the changes. Responsive to community concerns, well thought out. Good job!

Joyeuxx

I have to agree, with a 100th level Rogue with 4k AA as my main. It's not a class that can really solo, it does best in a group with a tank that can hold aggro. Otherwise my toon goes down fast. So as cool as having playing a class that has high DPS, it can't really survive on it's own and sometimes even in a group. Nerfing the riposte is uncalled for, for this class.

I am with you 100% my friend, I am sitting here pissed, all the accounts , all the work, just given away so they can make a buck or what ever the reason, It is a horrible idea and has pretty much killed this game for me.

I think the point is to steer you toward the Heroic characters so grinding 52 or 65 or any level below 85 is not considered in the argument.

Picture this.
Your a new player. you arrive with your lvl 1 toon and before you is the immense task of leveling to 85ish and getting 4K AA so you can group with a larger group of the population or experience some of the newer content.
Would you rather spend 3500sc or pay someone to PL you or grind for weeks to get to this desired state in the game?

I totally see SOE's point. Come to our game, get in the middle of things right away.
Yes there is still plenty of grinding to get to 100 and 10K AA but now you're with a bunch of other folks right in the middle of current content etc.. I know I've got plenty of level 80 to 90 characters that I enjoy playing and would be happy to group with fellow players.

"If they start out at lvl 85 they won't know how to play their characters"
How long does it take to learn how to play a certain character? One level? Two levels?
I can just imagine that by the time they hit lvl 88 they will know all the ins and outs of their character.

Nerf Swarm, not Headshot, Decap or Assassinate
Bring on the Heroic characters and the 4K AA.

Since 2000.
Online right now Lurkn on FV. 100 Zerker ( yes I decap )
Several accounts, standby what I said.
Changes remain its not the game I want to play. If others do fine but it wont be me.

So you built the " classic Coke " of MMO's and now slowly but surely you are gonna ruin it so we all abandon it for another game. Well since raiding is the end game and Everyone should be able to enjoy every facet of play, next all gold accounts will get a 100th level character and 10k aa's... I cannot tell you HOW disgusted I am. The bonus was plenty for the aa's, I returned to this game to old friends and old charaters after a 2 years break. My main was 85th level with 1900 aa's and teir 4 SOD gear. In two months I am level 100 with 4k aa's but any gold account will do that now. You never think of refunding anything for those of us who worked so damn hard, I believe you are TRYING to ruin this classic and unique to this day game. The only way this would be remotely or mildly fair is to make it a set number of AA's for all gold accounts to use as they see fit. So our hard work is rolled away in the patch. I have more time on my main than most airline pilots have in the cockpit but hey all my and other dedicated players time isn't worth a crap to you ... We didn't stay all these years and keep coming back becuase this was a give away game, I can go play my 12 95th level WOW characters for that BS.

In other words:

"People should be stuck years behind modern progression/content so I can feel better about all the time and energy I spent even though the community has spoken on a 2 to 1 margin that there needs to be AA grants."

no, it isn't.

and everything that you said falls into one of three categories:
1. being exactly the sort of butt hurt spite i was talking about.
2. having nothing to do with the auto-granting of the AAs themselves (and furthermore already covered by my repeatedly cheering the idea of an "opt out" feature)
3. saying that because a 15 year game old has basically gotten to the point where 99% of gameplay for 99% of people is done at the top end of content means that everyone that isn't already there should just suck it up and have fun playing a game that functionally doesn't exist to them is an invalid and ultimately stupid argument.

All the people complaining about the free AA for gold just because they had to spend hours/days grinding it themselves in the past are being silly. SUCK IT UP. If they had implemented this sooner you wouldn't have had to grind them out in the first place so your arguments are invalid. If you still want a "challenge" (not that hours of grinding aa is really a challenge at all) you can grind them out the hard way and not go gold at all, other people may not care so much about grinding the early expansion AA's and want to devote their time to work on the late game ones and really max out a hero.

Bottom line to be viable most classes need 3k-6k+ AA anyways and giving away the first 4 expansions of AA (all the basic lower level ones) for free to gold players encourages people to make more than one character by giving them the option to pay to skip a lot of the repeat aa grinding spots (51-65/70 or so) for every single char that are ALWAYS the same. This is an awesome change for the game and enough to make people want to go gold much earlier than before on heros (there really was no value to going gold until you had 1k aa already). This is good for the company because it nets more gold accounts, and good for the community because there are more characters avail. Its a real pain starting second, third, fourth, fifth, etc chars and having do redo ALL the opening AA for hours at a time (pretty much consists of camping with a high level box and leeching), and it will be awesome to skip some of the tediousness and go to the fun parts of the game on new heros (getting the other 3-5k+ AA or so and all the gear and levels you need).

That's actually one of the coolest parts of EQ you can choose the pace you want to play at, whether you power level and stick to hotspots with boxes etc or you solo it and go for quests and nostalgia exploring the different maps. This change just further enhances that. I will gladly buy gold on all my future heros if it means not having to redo the 51-65/70 AAs again and again and again. Hell this will actually make me try out all the other classes finally instead of sticking to the ones I already worked my off to make.

As for the nerfs....well that part is meh

All,

You here the shark music or danger music in the movies...impending doom!!! You always here about this was a very bad expansion for the game....UF....GOD.....etc. These changes will likely match those bad game decisions. You do not have the sheer numbers to re-tune the game going back to at least Omens of War for the SK nerf.

A lot of these abilities were part of expansions sold. These changes encouraged purchasing of such expansions. You should in such re-tune each expansion these changes effect..group and raid. You should re-make abilities changed to provide changes that replace the abilities and spells you are essentially removing these items which resulted in purchases/time spent in game.

Dun dun Dun..dun-an dun NA!.....shark music from now where...shark invested waters!

These changes will cause mass exodus. Bear warning to the dramatic music...please do not go into the water......re- think the changes including the AA auto grant... Not wanted or even remotely desired a change in this way. Many left after UF and GOD. Many more will leave after these changes. Please do not go into the water!

Rykear

many people left during expansions that are notoriously the most difficult content ever released, therefor many more will leave if you make catching up to the end game slightly easier for people.

it's that kind of impeccable logic that really encapsulates the bulk of this discussion.

Sure. Then /claim all your chunks of AAs and get the full benefit or what they want to implement if you so desire.
But make it optional, not mandatory. Win/win, people who want to get right in the level 100 game can do so without wasting time grinding AAs in between, people who want to take their time can.

I don't get what you are reading Piestro, why does it seem to me that more loyal customers who didn't just up and leave for a few years or whatever seem to agree that the auto granting takes away from the desire to play not seem to hold weight. It seemed to me more were against it than for it and the fix is to exclude certain AAs from the auto granting??? I don't get it. The opt in , opt out is not the point .... I am just getting angry all over again .... You know what screw it .. Just give all the AAs what does it matter if we don't get Tradeskill AAs ..its senseless in this debate .. I wanna have a lvl 85 toon with MAXED AAs , then get to 100 and finish off all the AAs from that point and sit around and complain how I am bored and have nothing to spend XP on ... That's a good way to keep a solid player base , take away the point to play ... grrrr >< ... Why stop there I think we should all log in and be level 100 with maxed AAs then we can all be on the same playing field right ? Wow , I cant believe I am getting this worked up after how many years of playing this game haha

YES! Why isn't there big AA rewards (either in points or immediately granting certain AA at levels before you can buy them) for the Hero's Path achievements?