So I hear TDS is a poor expansion...

Discussion in 'The Newbie Zone' started by Meto, Jan 3, 2015.

  1. Battleaxe Augur

    Outliers will have a different experience than typical players who have taken a break, not touched TDS, and are posting on the Newbie forum. Therefore projecting their experiences on such players is inappropriate.

    For many years I've known of boxed teams who beat year long expansions in 3 months or less. And there are (almost always) 10ish raid guilds that finish (gear every active raider up) 6 months before everyone else. EQ can not be reasonably designed to present such players a steady stream of new content lest the time between newest content and the median player gets to be ridiculous.

    Still SOE makes some effort to accommodate such players. Do the TDS group progressing/get a very nice but not game breaking trophy. Complete the (non-raider?) expansion/get a T Rex clickie. Stuff to do which doesn't create an insurmountable gear gap between the most accomplished and accomplished later players.

    Bored? Stop boxing and fill your groups with single account owning guildmates. When focused less on me, me, me and more on us, us, us the content will last longer and be more savory than when trying to swallow it whole without chewing and then complaining.

    Not that there's anything wrong with rushing through the content and then complaining that one has reached the level cap, is geared up, etc. Still no one in the small minority of players who choose to do that will ever get a smidgen of sympathy from me. Do it again, make 50M pp, or do something else.

    If OP comes back, I can't think of a better time to do it frankly. I would however suggest that OP establishes a social network to make their progression and the progression of others easier...and more fun than playing with yourself. EQ is, after all, a multiplayer game and the vast majority of players have plenty to do that they'd appreciate assistance doing. <- the situation OP is more likely to find themselves in than not.
  2. Nickster86 Elder

    Let me add in that I do not box I play a mage which helps a bit but I merely ask friends and guild for help instead of waiting for a group to come to me
  3. Battleaxe Augur

    Having already established a social network is a big help (something a returnee is unlikely to have immediately) as is aggressively asking for help with your agenda rather than helping others and more passively hoping for help in return. People who are takers (more negative spin than is warranted or intended by me) make out better in EQ - just a fact of EQ life.

    People aren't likely to help you if you don't tell them what you need, And then what you need next, and next, ... Not all returnees are so readily accommodated by the accommodating - they have to cultivate before they can reap.

    I don't believe the typical non-raider is 10 Hunter mobs from completing the expansion nor that a recently returned player can expect to quickly reach that goal. They've plenty of things left to do.
  4. Ratbo Peep Augur

    I'll add that they seem to be trying to make up for the fact that it's small by making it very tedious to get anything accomplished. It's a designed "time-sink" to get anything that matters.
    What's there is nice. The lore is great - even if it takes humpteen hails to get it all to finally spit out.
    Artwork is A+ given the old graphics engine.
    CotF did a much better job of getting people to at least grind a bit....

    -R
  5. Brohg Augur

    A friend of mine who boxes brd/dru/enc uses a tank merc for ... 99%(?) of her play, including named in tier 3. Once a week or so she rings me to come get bashed by some particular mob or other that's gotten in her way, but if I weren't around, she'd still kill it on the second or third try. She's gotten near full Highwater armors this way.
  6. beryon Augur

    Yes, the AC goes down from 100 to 101, and it has been confirmed to be working as intended.
  7. Brohg Augur

    There's no displayed number for the avoidance they gained in exchange
    Xianzu_Monk_Tunare likes this.
  8. Triconix Augur

    Lawls bro lawls. GoD is one of the top 5 best expansions just because of its difficulty. Tacvi is on the pedestal of greatest end zones of all time, along with PoTime, CoA, and DPoB (Could also argue Solteris and Crystallos being there too). It was purely for raiding, with trash that hit for 4k and final encounter of Tunat, who is one of my favorites. TDS has... the hulk's wimpy cousin. Plus, it was the stepping stone to OOW which was easily one of the best expansions and home to the another all time great boss, Mata Muram. (Top three expansions in no order is Velious, PoP, and OOW followed by TSS and GoD).

    DoN had dragons...automatically qualifies as better with just that. (And Vishimtar ranks as one of the all time best end game boss encounters). The zones in DoN looked better, the encounters were fantastic looking, it was overall a fun expansion, and I saw more activity - whether raiding or grouping - during that OOW/DoN era than most eras. You could also throw DoDh into that era, and DoDh had an amazing final zone with DPoB so no way is TDS better than that. DP alone is 10x the expansion that TDS ever will be. I never played during UF, but I hear it was like GoD 2.0 which sounds...awesome. What, it wasn't good because it was too hard? pssh.

    Like I said before , LoY gave us an awesome new race and maps, making it more groundbreaking and useful. Just for that, I give LoY the nod. Content based, TDS is better than LoY so those two expansions are a wash. Same thing can be said with LDoN. It released augs and a new dynamic instance system with changing zones. What has TDS given us that's ground breaking and new to the point of where it's changing the way we played? 500+ hails so we die of boredom I guess you could say is ground breaking...or a mount key ring, yippee!

    I'd put TDS ahead of maybe PoR, and VoA. Some expansions I cannot account for because I wasn't around: SoD, UF, HoT. Would I put it ahead of luclin? No. Kunark? No. TBS? ehhh maybe, if it weren't for Solteris saving that expansion. SoF? Even call, except that Crystallos is gorgeous and has DRAGONS!. RoF? I liked RoF more than this, personally. CoTF? About even.
  9. Xianzu_Monk_Tunare Augur

    Mercs from 1-100 use an AC/Avoidance along the lines of NPCs, which is high on AC and lower on Avoidance. At 101+ they are now set up to be more along the lines of what players are. The downside of that, is that the healer and other non-tank mercs can no longer off tank multiple mobs for extended periods of time, and the tank merc is a bit more spiky. The upside, however, is that they avoid a lot more attacks all together; which more than makes up for the spikiness, though at the same time this makes it such that if you rely on a non-tank merc to off tank multiple mobs things are not going to go well.
  10. Xianzu_Monk_Tunare Augur

    It wasn't when it originally came out. It was several years later after GoD had been retuned multiple times before it and Tacvi were placed on any pedestal. It was considered a failure of an expansion by most due to how it was at release. So it is entirely possible that in 3-5 years people could consider TDS an amazing expansion.
  11. Ravengloome Augur

    Some of these new raids Def have a bugged as all get out feel.