Changes with the February Update: Developer Updates

Except that it's not working properly on Test server.

I think this is exactly the point. The fact that they will ramp up the auto-grant an additional expansion with each new expansion seems to make this point. In other words no matter how many expansions EQ eventually ends up with you will be able to strictly level your way up to only having 4 expansions to AA through, There is plenty to earn after that point, but it takes the AA grinding up to that point out of the equation. People still have to level and play their characters., but it lets you focus specifically on this without the AA grind.

The number of problems with this is simply amazing(aside from the fact that pvp is massively broke in EQ), and of course the first one that comes to mind is a group getting trained and going over the limit causing them to get this flag.

I just hope the SoE decides to unnerf the epic clicky then, I was so excited almost 10 years ago when I got it, used it TONS over the years and has saved my butt thousands of times over the years as well. I know a lot of SK's that use it in groups and raids on a constant basis, I seriously don't see why we have to be punished for the SK's that lag out zones and such. Has to be another way to stop them from swarming and lagging out the zones then punishing every SK.

I think a lot of new subscribers are going to be disappointed when they find out their pay-to-win strategy didn't work out.

I hate to single out one person but here's a comment from the Zam boards:

"woot give me the free AA so I can focus on levels, gear and the adventure: I hope the instant level 85 toon follows suit soon.
That way I can make a level 85 rogue have shroud of stealth: to snoop around, retrieve corpse, explore zones, assassinate; to kill mobs, and escape to have an attempt to get away from the mob and not die."

Really, what's the difference between exploring, dragging corpses and leveling at levels 1-84 and doing it at level 85? I fell sorry for all the level 100s that are going to have carry these $90 wonders on their backs.

Ymir.

At least you have an epic that works at current levels, not every class can say that.

True that, is only a few class epics that are worth getting anymore and now SK one is on that list where it is not worth it.

Some folks here have made some solid and substantiated arguments for and against. One thing that has not been considered is what the realistic scenario can be. 15% may be solidly for the grant. 20% may be solidly against the grant. And in that scenario the remaining 65% could not care one way or the other as they will continue playing regardless. In other words- it may seem that 80% will either be happy or unphased. Then the idea is to utilize this auto-grant opportunity to fill in the 5% of people who are wildly claiming they and their 18 accounts are all quitting EQ because apparently everything SoE does is like the holocaust at every corner.

SK epic is unchanged for people who aren't swarming

Why not add something like veteran rewards, but base them on the # of aa's you've actually earned?

Still worth getting.

No it will change, is times when i get a few adds and click it, now even with only a few adds might last tops 30 secs. A big life line that SK's had when no CC around is gone.

That is just not true, you do not land 800 riposte hits on a few adds in 1 minute 45 seconds

Without trying to sift through all the posts in this thread, has there been an announcement of WHEN the patch will actually go live? (seeing as how it's, reportedly, screwed on test and Feb is half over now)

wed 19th Feb or there abouts still not 100% confirmed

All I can say, is the autogrant of AAs is single-handedly the worst thing you can do for the game. If you wanted to do it, make the players think a little more about the AAs they're getting instead of just handing them all of the ones available to "X" expansion.

Say for instance, you level your toon to 90, you get autogranted 1000 AAs to spend. The player does their research and spends them accordingly; at 95, boom, you get another 1000 AAs, 100 yet another autogrant. At least then, the player has to be a little educated about what AAs are best to have for their play style.

I am a Shadowknight and I am sad to see swarming go away but I do understand why it is happening but here is an idea that I think is pretty good just going to throw it out there
Make classes with the current abilitys like swarming and HS limited to instances so that it don't interrupt the players in the zones that there getting exp in like the hotzones ect. I wouldn't mind if I could only go into the zone alone (get the missions with 3 but only zone in with 1) so that I could still do what I really like doing because it is fun to me. Thank you for your ear and Good Hunting.

It's still affecting players whether you are in an instance or not. It slows the server down which means any zones on the server are affected (static or instanced). So, instance or not, it has to stop.

As I said it was an idea and it would stop most of the plvling and the selling acc and really that is what there interested in anyway, and if everyone kills 2 mobs at a time wouldn't that make a difference on the server lag as opposed to them killing only one at a time, and wouldn't a server slow down on the amount of ppl on the server not now many mobs I kill in an instance and if you aren't in my instance how would you lag while killing 2-3 mobs

LVL 81 ranger with 2817 AA's and with headshot as is it's a toss up weather to use Archery or not if headshot does not fire I could have killed 4 mobs meleeing in the time it took to kill that one mob. Archery damage is so bad I never use it in groups so unless I get lucky and get a proc off one of my HOA's I'll probably see another again. BTW if it's tune to proc twice a minute for a LVL 100 Raid geared Ranger how many procs a minute should my LVL 81 group geared ranger see.