Twitch Stream: Weds, Feb 18 @ 2PM PST

Hubby and I did two Mercenary Tasks in Katta Castrum last night ( TDS teir I zone) We are level 102 and we turned both quests in at the same time, and we did not even receive 1% XP for turning in two quests. Why no XP? To clarify, we got less than 1% for two tasks. It is the new expansion, where we are told to go to receive XP. Will Daybreak be adding XP to the Mercenary and Partisan tasks in The Darkened Sea? In future expansions, will we be able to receive XP from Mercenary and Partisan tasks? Or should we only expect to see XP from mob kills and Heroic Adventures?

All good questions.
But #1 up there has been asked over and over by a vast majority of posters.
The nerf to XP and HA's is devastating to the returning player who wants to catch up fast and get back to Raiding. The side effects of the nerfs are also 100% negative. (grouping, merc exp etc etc)
I'm max level and max AA - I don't have a personal dog in this fight. (Except that like many others, I did not buy this expansion for Alt accounts - because of the nerfs that came with it.)

The loss of the "Silver Account" was a blow to EQ's ability to retain new players too.
At this writing (1:21pm EST) there are 56 players stranded in the New Players channel on Cazic.
Access to the greater community are what online games are really all about.

-Rat

I was wondering if there is any chance of reversing the nerfs to the mercs? I am fortunate that my job is taking care of my house and hubby. So, while he is working, and my chores are done...I box a chanter, mage and wizard. I play casters because this is what I am good at and what I enjoy. However, I am very dependent on the mercs for tanking and heals. The toons are level 100, and with the expected nerfs, I am afraid to progress them to 101. Some tier 3 and 4 zones can be pretty demanding already. I hate to have my tank (and healers) weakened. This trio always uses merc because most people are working when I play this group. I have spent years looking for groups, tired of that, wont do it anymore, so the mercs are a regular part of this daytime group. Any chance of reversing these nerfs for those who for whatever reason, need a merc tank full time? My main concern is the tank...mage pet can tank but cant grab agro...and in a zone when mobs don't mez and you get adds, agro off the squishies is important to me. So can we please have the merc nerfs reversed?

Is there a way to look at making "permacamped" mobs accessable? Im not asking for an "easy button" but it would be nice to be able to experience finishing epics or having a shot at certain mobs. In 14+ years I havent gotten a chance to kill the golems in plane of fear, it took me 6 months fighting for a chance to get va xi aten ha ra. These old old old mobs need a better respawn timer or some form of trigger/lockout system, particularly for epic mobs or old school raid zones. Boxers typically pay for several accounts. Thats money in your pocket. Im not asking for you to cater to every players whims, but pay attention to where the money comes from. A jaded customer isnt a paying customer for very long

People make a killing overpricing certain drops because they basically only spawn after a server reset, and typically only live for a few seconds at best. It really kills a lot of the fun when youre doing a quest to be bottlenecked by a permacamper. I dont mind time sinks, but its pretty rediculous to have this kind of time sink on a 14ish yr old mob/quest.

They weren't nerfed. That's just over reaction from people that don't bother testing how the changes actually impact game play. The visible stats changed significantly, but so did other non-visible factors. Mercs are just as effective (ineffective depending on your perspective) as before. The hp boost in a recent patch helped a bit with the increased spikiness on the tanks. You can play every zone in TDS using a merc tank + merc healer. Your enchanter can help out with slows in harder content.

Don't believe everything you read on the forums. Try things for yourself.

Daybreak - Please don't just jump on everything the vocal minority whines and complains about. Most people that play this game like it because it's hard. It's not easy mode like some of those other MMOs and that's what really sets it apart.

Please don't dumb the game down just to appease the people that complain about XP and the game being too hard. You will lose your core fan base if you start doing that.

Completing all of the Merc and Partisan quests for a zone gives you a couple of special AA's that giveyour character a permanent increase in stats. The reward makes Merc & Part more than worth doing without piling more XP on top.

EQ has improved a lot over the years. Game used to be so frustrating I left twice. At this point, I am basically satisfied. Now ... there is a lot of room for improvement but things are better. My frustration level still rises at times. The latest is with Brothers Island. Me and my happy gang of bots usually do well with most mobs and Named mobs but in Brothers Island my mage pet keeps getting killed when doing a Named mob. Got so frustrated used 3 merc healers and my shaman as back up. Mage pet, which has been my very best tank to date, still got smashed. By the way, mage pet is highest I can go as a non-raid player. I've now had 3 different Named mobs in BI kill my pet several times
when I usually can use one merc healer with my shaman as back up with no problem. What gives? This kind of frustration is what drives me away from the game. Secondly, one thing I really like is the possibility of getting a rare raid-type item as I kill mobs. Please keep that in the game. It adds a little hope that my characters won't always be second rate simply because I don't raid. At my age, the craziness associated with raiding is just too much for me to handle .... . Have a good time all you gung-ho raiders ... been there, done that.

I am so glad someone asked this question. I have 4 Epic toons...they have their 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 and they have their Epic Request Ornamentations. However, it was very difficult at times to get my named mobs due to all the people permacamping them so they can sell multi-quests. I don't want to pay for an epic drop, and I never have. I want to do my epic myself with my friends to help me. I stayed up all night for 3 days in some instances to get the mob before the permacampers did. Not everyone can due that, we have real lives, families, and jobs. I believe that someone who has the epic quest should be able to trigger the mob they need. This mechanic is in the game, I can see that from other quests I have done. Epic should be challenging, but not due to permacamping. Multi questing should be abolished. If you are doing your epic, you alone should do your looting and turning in of items yourself. This would do away with folks permacamping these mobs to make plat. If multi questing is an unintended glitch, perhaps it's time to correct it. ( I realize these are old quests, but even now, after 15 years, most people want to get their epic, either as something their main toon didn't do back when, or with a new toon who could actually benefit from having the epic. The point is, the quests still matter to a lot of players...just sayin)

+1, been trying to do this and people have things permacamped so well it's frustrating. Can't really experience some old content. I think old content spawn rates should be reduced and maybe randomized, so more people can experience that content and they aren't permacamped as easily.

The thing is there are two perspectives, both are equally valid and need to be addressed:

1) Pleasing those that are actively playing it now to keep those players
2) Pleasing those that aren't playing it now to get them back or get them to try it

If you *ever* want the game to grow you need to address #2 and that *isn't* represented by the people who are here (at least not completely).

I have tried mercs on my 102 toons....so I assume my 100 toons will also have the same issues when they turn 101. I would still be happier if the changes were reversed. I can see the healers run out of mana faster, and I can see the tanks taking more damage. I don't need to see anything else. I didn't just read what others have said. I asked for reversal based on what I see with my 102 group. The 102 group has many AA;s and can handle the content, take up the slack....the merc situation for them is not an issue. They group with real players as a rule anyway. But my caster trio is much weaker with lots fewer AA and these changes will negatively affect them. And they do not group with real players. I don't really care if you consider it a nerf, it is a change, I would like it changed back.

You know you might be a vocal minority here too right? I don't have complaints about the exp or difficulty of the game overall but I suspect a poll to all the players might be the way to get opinions on things like that.

And you can't do number 2 at the cost of number 1. Generally step one is retain the customers you already have first as it is usually much harder to get people back then it is to keep them. And it is hard to get opinions of all the people who might come back with the exception of the few who keep coming to the forums after they have left the game. Any suggestions how they get those opinions from the #2 group?

perma camped epic mobs should be made spawnable like they did with the old cleric epic 1 mobs way back when.

The Universal Chat Service needs to be fixed. When I log in every time it is disconnected. I assume its because of the lag with logging. And it goes unavailable for no reason while playing. The only fix is a work around, either zoning or logging. Also there is the problem of Cross Server Chat and trolls from other servers, notably Zek, trolling and spamming General channels, even stooping so low as to try to poach/sucker players into moving to Zek server. The ability to do this and disrupt the communications needs to be removed.

Also using /ignore Zek.charname or SOE.EQ.Zek.charname DOES NOT work!

When will there be a new progression server? And can you disable autogrant until at least SoD as this will ruin PoP.

Laff

OK here's my question. How are you going to woo back players that have left EQ?
I stopped paying right before TDS. I didn't rage quit over any exp nerf, spell changes or merc changes. I left because I no longer found as much enjoyment in the game as I used to. The last few expansions have added more content, spells, aas, etc, but a lot of it was cut and paste from previous zones, spells, raid mechanics, etc.
For the past 2-3 years I only logged in to raid. I had most of the augs and clickies I wanted, so I really didn't want or need to group much.
Once our guild got enough extra shaman, I could sit out and log early.
Maybe I am a lost cause, but I really did use to love playing all aspects of the game.
Just wondering if anything new will entice me to play again?