Live Update: Wednesday, February 19 @ 4am Pacific

Really funny how people complain about their hard spent time inside that.

Look at it this way: You enjoyed spending the time with your groups and toon to get where you are, if you are complaining about the effort you put into that, you should really think about what this game means to you, because (yes we all spent ages --- really ages...--- on some of our toons): though its still a game and a game should be there to have fun, so be happy, that with upcoming changes that there will be an opportunity for more people coming up again, that you can be happy with.

=> People like those complaining about their hard bloody way to 8k+ AA or more are often also complaining about the game dieing and loosing subscribers.

In my own opinion this change is really useful to make this game attractive to new people and prevents eq from dieing totally.

And now see it this way, I quit with underfoot and was almost Max AA back in the days at lvl 85 thats almost 3 years ago, so this patch still doesn't really effect my main char because I leveled up to 100 and hey, still dont have all the AA -- wierd, you see the point!? I am still far behind.

I came back in october and got some of my toons all of those AA which will be granted with that patch now anyways, I could either whine about it, or just be happy that if I do another toon I wont have to grind all those AA again.

The good thing about eq I always enjoyed and why I came back is that everyone can go their own speed and if you dont want the granted AA, then just simply dont opt in. But people like some above are whining about AA beeing granted to new people are just jealous that they didnt get it, but why, its a game, indee, and you should have enjoyed having time. -- If you still complain about the AA grant, well you totally lost the point of why you entered the world of Norrath I guess.

Was there any mention of any type of compensation for those of us who spent years grinding, paying for subscriptions, to get to the point where new players can check a box to opt into an equal position in EQ? I get that over time changes need to be made to keep a game going but this patch seems to be aimed more to the newer players, while giving the finger to the solid core of players that have kept this game going all these years. Free to play, instant level 85 geared characters, free 4000 aa's, really?

To the people complaining that "I earned those AAs and now you're just giving them away!"

1) Did you have fun while earning those AAs?

a) If yes, then great! The goal is to have fun. My bet is that it would be a lot less fun to have to do that all over again. I know I am definitely enjoying the grind on those AAs a lot less on my alts, especially since on my main I earned most of them when they were current after I hit max level a few months into the expansion. UF was what, 3, 4 years ago. And we earned those AAs because we needed someplace to put our experience and they made our character better, not to say "Hey, I have more AAs than you, neener neener neener!"

b) If no, then why in hell are you playing this game. If you didn't enjoy playing while earning those AAs, you need to be in a different game.

c) Yes or no, saving somebody else the pain of working up to 85 and all the AAs we had access to when 85 was current WILL help those players have more fun, stay with the game and learn their class in more current content.

2) There are dozens of things we had to earn before that makes no sense for people to have to work through today. Should people really have to run to Highhold Pass, including several corpse runs because they veered too close to that hill giant or cluster of skellies, from Qeynos still? Should level 20 players still have gear that only adds a total of 15-20 AC and maybe 30 combined to all other stats, no mercenaries and have to find a healer, a tank and an enchanter to do content? I worked VERY hard to get my 1.5 when it was current content, yet I'm not the least bit upset that my Mage got it by boxing two other characters with him for about 8 hours total play time.

3) Why do you think powerlevelling is so freakin popular? Nobody wants to grind all those levels and AAs out again on their alts, or when new to the game. I was gone for only 14 months and I have found the hill from 91 to 100 over the last 4 months to be slow, painfully at times. I transferred servers to be with an uber friend and do newer content to help speed it up. I am way behind on AAs, and do still have lots of UF and before AAs that aren't essential but would be beneficial. I'm looking forward to cutting short the grind a little, and I have well over 4000 AAs in other lines and spots.

4) It's not a competition against other players. If you make it such, you will never truly enjoy the game unless you are #1 on the server. It's a competition against the game: can you get the gear you want, beat the content you want to beat, become Hero of this or that. I don't care if I'm Ranger 157 on the server or whatever. I play to get that next quest complete, get that next piece of gear or augment, improve my spells, do more damage, progress and see more stuff. But most of all, I like hanging with friends online, doing stuff we have to do together, etc. A lot of my friends are gone, and they would NEVER come back having to level 1 to 100, and get 4000+ AAs to get to where I am and do the content that challenges me. Once heroic characters are added, they very well could, and that's exciting to me.

Smurf, you put that very well.. heck even I came here to join up with some my friends and come back to a game I enjoyed back in around 2000. I loved it then and I do now. even with the Gold members getting grant. I don't complain as its an opt in system and I'd of opted out anyways. gives me another goal to make. but alas your kinda preaching to the deaf on this one as people are still going to whine and complain of it.. thats just how it is with Patches.. like Small nailed above.. to them it "Hurts them" and "Targets Them" when infact far from it most is either to fix imbalances or to incorperate the system to CotF better. (The Decap changes in that aspect come to mind).

But have to agree.. if they really need to whine over this... they as I should of said way above need to really take a hard look into what they find fun in a game... what they think is the most enjoyable and go do that. as if this kind of change hurts them this much maybe its time they realized that maybe EQ isn't truely the place they belong anymore and lost what it ment to be inside the world of Norrath.

The one above me put it perfect for all of you who are whineing over this grant.. and I above even said it clearer... Repayment for membership? Repayment for the AAs? Are they giving all people gold member now? no thier not.. so if your a Gold and others arnt (who might I add arnt getting this grant to begin with its ONLY gold). RIIIGHT... no you don't deserve anything for "membership" back..
and the time spent.. well look at the post above me.. if you can't anser thier number 1 with a Yes, then you seriously don't really belong in EQ to begin with.

Equal position? They get to feel the fun you had over the years? You're still 85? Is so is that your choice? They still have to level up 85-100, get the new AAs (another 4000-6000 AAs depending on class to max them). Did you have fun earning those AAs? Would you, without boxing and friends to PL you, really want to play 1-85 again and get those 4000 AAs on your own, in mostly empty zones, in content you probably saw dozens of times while doing it the first time.

Your compensation is that you did those AAs while current, when it was fun because it was new and you played with others. Yeah, I did all the work to get to 97 with the thousands of AAs I have, but I did it when the content was current, had fun doing it and did it with friends and compatriots. I would not want to do it again. I'm hating doing it again on my alts. I dominate box it so that I can get through it faster because it is boring to do it on an alt after doing it dozens of times on my main.

Ask yourself thise one question: Is this REALLY making you feel like you shouldn't have played all these years to make the character you have and would have been better off just waiting until you could start at 85 with 4K AAs and the fun you had wasn't worth it?

to say this bluntly
you spend years on a character and some Nooblet comes along and hits a button
and they are the same as you .....
Except!!! they are not the same as you.. are they ?
they are the Monk that asks if they get combat abilities after 90
the 100 mage that that doesn't know they COH.
Do you want to group with that?
I don't think I would still be playing the game if this was the choose I had
12 years ago.. do nothing ..
I earned everything I have on my Rogue { Now nerfed }

Lerilon.. allow me to add in something on this as many seem to be getting this wrong.. as its not an AUTO grant either.. . here from the thing and going to add notes to it.
- Auto-Granting of AAs for Gold Subscribers: << note its :FOR GOLD SUBSCRIBERS
-- A checkbox has been added to the AA window which will allow players to choose if they wish to participate in the auto-granting of AA abilities when they meet the requirements for those abilities. << this means they need the actual LEVEL still
-- For Time-Locked Progression Servers, the Call of the Forsaken expansion must be open before auto-granting becomes available. << if you don't like it you can go there...
-- All AA abilities up to and including level 85 and the Underfoot expansion, except those noted below, are auto-granted.
--- Excluded AA from auto-grant:
---- Alchemy Mastery
---- Arcane Tongues
---- Baking Mastery
---- Blacksmithing Mastery
---- Fletching Mastery
---- Fletching/Bowyer Mastery
---- Jewel Craft Mastery (Enchanter)
---- Jewel Craft Mastery (Non-Enchanter)
---- Poison Mastery
---- Pottery Mastery
---- Tailoring Mastery
---- Tinkering Mastery
---- Spell Casting Subtlety

See you STILL have to level and they STILL need to earn the ones after lvl 85 too. SO its still not all unlocked. Its not a flat out you get them right away..and those notes are straight from the dev page

The only thing I could add to this would be:
(Both comments bear in mind that Rangers have "stagnated" the last couple expansions)
1. Are the prosc rates enough to make this (HS) truly useful in a group setting via the two arrow spells we use all the time?
2. This is the perfect time to allow HS to work on anything with a head - like decap does. Now that the potential for abuse is eliminated, why not throw Rangers a bone here?
-Rat
PS: Re the AA grant - a dead horse is being beaten.

All the AAs I'd earned on my main was one of the reasons I stayed on my main. Even though the class has been badly left behind by the SKs and pet classes, warrior is what I know. And, the idea of learning a new way to play ON TOP OF the several thousand AA head start is daunting. But, this may change my mind. It may not, but like so many other times the game has changed, I just roll with it.

so you are saying silver members can go gold for a month then go back to silver and still have the aa's ? this hasn't been said by sony.

Thanks! It definitely makes sense that the better the gear, the better the outcome. I can definitely agree that while the counts per minute is decreased but countered on the increased in effective level is seemingly a move in the right direction. So it would just seem like a poor presentation of communication

I'm actually all for doing a PL and trying to level quickly, but it gets annoying when trying to actually earn EXP on my own and someone is doing a PL in the zone I want to be in. There's nothing more annoying than trying to camp a spot for exp, and then some level 100 jerk walks in and takes everything so they can PL someone. I recently started fresh on a new server, and my character has about 7 days worth of playing time and I'm level 69 with over 100 AA. I had no PL, and have only grouped with a friend who is always around the same level as me. For me the fun is actually earning things on my own, there's not much fun in having everything done for you and getting everything just handed to you.

being I'm not a dev I can not give full out with exact data but if its like how it was for me with my zerker I was tinkering with in offline.. judgeing by the maybe it will still be really useful as if all the math works the same the procs will be good still given good enough stats.. as per the HS per anything with a head. that I can't say as I myself can't stand Ranger class so I never put that to much testing of looking into all the math and mechanics behind it.

as for your PS: my post above this with the patch notes best be the end of it and the grant.. I have the actual DEV notes in my post.. and noted exactly how by testing and Dev answers in other posts that it will work.

Edit: for all asking how I am so good at stuff like this and knowing the mechanics and such in games.. I will give some explination but don't mean I will go working on UI's (I seriously hate writeing in XML.) I am a programmer by trade and training. I have been for nearly ten years now. mods and game testing have allways been a sort of hobby for me. specially in games like Morrowind or Skyrim, but in the MMO scene because I am so used to working on things like this I can see things that most likely wouldn't even notice. like odd FPS rates or even the core math behind things given time. not that I can truely change them all but in the end I can sometimes see the very info that most don't think is easily available..
I leave you all a little trick. find yourself a set of gear with 0! stats .. I mean all Zero.. and then your normal and fight.. say for an hour.. and watch how many times you catch a HS or Decap. you can boil down the math if you use a set amount of time to a per min count for procs. thats exactly how I tested Decap on a Zerker

You know what is REALLY funny to me? People complaining before they ACTUALLY know the results. It's just speculation. Maybe now I can get some of those 100s who were HS, Beam, Decap, Swarming and those benefiting from to group with me instead.

People who are upset fall into two categories:

1. I sell beam pulls to earn plat to buy kronos to pay for my game.
2. I worked my a$$ off and it's not fair you didn't.

People who are happy fall into one category:

1. This is Everquest silly, no one is EVERY happy.

Are you asking me if given the choice, would i rather spend years accomplishing the same thing someone else can with the click of a button? Thats a rather simple answer. Your missing my point friend. Earn your levels, AA's and gear. If that is a problem, maybe EQ was never meant for your play style. Good thing there are plenty of other games with easy mode to play.

Yes, this has been confirmed by Sony already, if you have gold for 1 month you get all the AA grants up to the level you are currently at, and you keep them if you go back silver, you just do not get any future ones at Silver membership until you go gold again.

that limit I know is largely due to the 1k only AA points that silver has max

If jerks aren't introduced to the higher end game i am fine. but there are prolly going to be instant plat sellers and frustrated or nasty new players who can't play right. i hope i'm wrong but you can't say instant higher up game is too advantageous. that said secrets of faydwer will now be unavailable to most players since most of those players prolly go there or similiar right away. until it all dies down and people move on from specific zonesets or new griefers are gone i can't really feel like the game will be great in that level range.

This is the normal for all game patches sadly.. been the same here, and World of Failcraft, and even dare I say it ... Runescape... People whine and complain about a patch becomes in someway... somehow.. it is going to ruin thier game (when infact its not)

it don't auto level them. it just auto gives them the AA's they would get at that level if they opt in