I have always been a group only player. I have been content with raid guild players obtaining loot behind locked content that I would never be able to use. There was always something for me to do. I have two accounts that I have loyally paid for, one going back to day one. My experience with The Broken Mirror is running back from my bind about every third mob. That is ok, I have been challenged by tough content before. Everything in the expansion is tied to progression. Progression I can no longer participated in because I have hit names I can only dps to 90%. In essence this is locked content. Daybreak just got greedy to collect the money from the non-raid players? What is the game plan to force everyone other than raid players to F2P? Is the idea to squeeze EQ down to one active server?
You could fit the last three expansions inside underfoot with room to spare, it's kind of pathetic. Speaking frankly I wouldn't surprised if the business model is to push the majority of EQ players toward constant TLP servers, they have huge cash influx and maintain high populations, unfortunately the rule sets they are putting out / people are voting for are garbage. People vote for 6 month lockouts and the server is a ghost town in a month.
Brad Mcquaid once said that people appreciate what they work for, but "working for something" and "something not working" are not the same, TBM is atrocious and still have massive group playerbase bugs (gear, content, mob scaling, missions locked behind needed huge dps numbers etc) - We are almost two weeks into the expansion and the gear and augs are STILL not working properly, and it's hardly worth even stepping into if you have anything less than raid geared toons or a group of real people that are intelligent. Both of which are rare to come by outside of a few guilds.
TBM mobs hit for less than TDS ones did, except a few particular types in CoD and CoS, which hit on par with TDS T3. TBM named so far (I haven't camped the Hunter yet, but killed a few that got in the way during progression tasks) are ridiculously easy compared to TDS T3 or even some T2 ones from Caverns. You get insane amounts of group currency for doing missions that involve killing 8-10 mobs and hailing the NPC. You can buy a full suit of TBM group gear in 2-3 days. What the heck is the OP complaining about?
You aren't exactly correct is this issue, yes melee damage is relative but the spells and effects they use are not. Also the rewards are not on par, essentially across the board there is NO reason to go from TDS T3 group armor to TBM group armor unless your only focus is mods, you lose base stats, heroic stats, AC, mod2's - the only thing you gain are focus effects which they claim are broken and will be toned down. None of it is prestige however, so I'm guessing this content is meant for free players or something, I'm not entirely sure. There are group named that can melee for 52k+ on an 11500AC tank buffed. With disc running it's more like 37-39k and somewhat manageable, but still unrealistic. I mean fright/terror/dread/draco are "raid mobs" and only hit for 10-15k more than that. I have a paladin that has full TBM gear and TDS off pieces. He has around 102500hp unbuffed, and a bit over 9k AC - He gets around 120k buffed and 12kAC with proper buffs and he has been killed in two rounds with a disc up. They hit faster, have higher heroic stat checks, and definitely strike through defenses more often (32-38% in TDS depending on tier 50%+ in TBM) all for gear you can't actually equip because it's a downgrade. It's a poorly itemized and poorly constructed xpac, probably one of the worst i've seen since the splitting of OOW/GOD Fiasco, content seems tuned for players level 110, as does the gear....but there was no level increase, so none of it makes sense. What normal group of players do you think can do the Anashti Sul missions (life, decay etc)? 3 million damage in 20 seconds on coffins from players in group gear? Tanks that can withstand teleports and summonings OOR from heals etc? It's unrealistic. If they tracked stats on who completed what I would be nothing less than astounded if no one but raid geared players have completed most, if any of this content.
Paladin/Enc/Bard/Beast/Necro/Sham - I sync burns with beast, Enchanter knows how to burn also. Enchanter runes (and poly runes from nuke) - they are all played near maximum capacity and certain mobs simply run over the group. Furthermore this is the only expansion since TSS (when I began my boxing adventures) that I have not been able to do the group content due to the insanely high DPS thresh-holds set forth in the missions, or ridiculous mechanics that punish non-raid tanks/healers or people with lower than 120k+hp buffed. It's actually two people playing these six characters, we are dropping three of the support classes and going wiz/wiz/wiz/enc/sham/pally - it seems the only way to progress in TBM is class stack and burn things, even raid geared players are having serious issues on some content.
Yeah never had any problem with the Darkened Sea, but TBM just seems a bit silly in parts. Its obvious it was just tossed out without much of a beta. I'm currently stuck with Defenders of the Faith mission (12 mobs in 5 minutes is a bit to handle in group gear), and also Feather in the Wind (3 mobs that are linked and typically high resist to mezes = instant death. Oh well, I'll take a couple months off and hit it back at the start of the year after they fix some of the bugs. If its not fixed in January, I can't complain because 16 years and 22 expansions is a darn good run. It might finally be time to hang it up and finally stop playing.
Well, look at Absor's anniversary mission from Grounds. Some people working on the game currently have no clue of what's possible in group gear.
They way I did Defender of the Faith was set up facing south in the center circle. My group is Ranger/Enchanter/Wizard/Druid/Cleric Merc/Wizard Merc. The Ranger would go out and pull the first set of mbs and then the enchanter would mez everything else as it circled around once. Only lost one "hero" that way. I medded up by keeping the last mob mezzed and dropping hate on the rest. Boy was I surprised when the two guardians in the center went active and toasted me. Luckily the event did not reset.
Are you sure you have looked at all the augs on the vendors? I don't see how you can lose heroic stats compared to TDS T3 group gear.
I also had problems with the feather mission. The 3 mobs were linked together with incredibly high resists, so without a real tank its pretty much un doable, unless you burn it down quick with high DPS. As a Bard / Cleric Duo, that's just not doable.
You have smoking some good stuff if you think TBM is casual/group friendly, and I am not talking about the f2p.
TBM is ridiculously easy for groupers compared to prior expansions. Complaining about a few buggy missions? Really? They are bugged. Just like a lot of the expansion. So yes, the only way you can power through something like Anshati decay mission is raid level dps, but that is a bug. If you think this is hard, I guess you didn't do grouping back during VoA or the second release zones of CotF.
I just looked at TBM group gear on my alt. With the proper choice of type 5 and type 9 augs, it's just below Arx raid gear. TDS T3 group stuff is not even close. Whoever said they lost some stats compared to TDS T3 group - must have been looking at a wrong vendor. Check out the one in PoHealth, not the PoTranq one.
Are you sure about that? AC values for everything I saw were a decrease or wash. Certainly wouldn't say it's a step below Arx *raid* gear either. Can you list one of the combinations you put together?
gonna toss this out there having done beta in less than better group gear on my chanty ... things are doable if you rethink your normal play. if you think the ony way to pull is calm/paci and thats always resisted do you have a chanty that can mez pull? sometimes you have to use a different concept w/same player mix to win.
Actually Tower of Rot and Argin-Hiz were quite easy for me to box. Tower of rot required moderate DPS with the ability to keep mana up and to play intelligently around mechanics. A good missions in fact. The decay mission straight up requires raid DPS. The coffins for Lady of Life straight up require raid dps. As far as VoA goes I never had an issue there either, though I do seem to remember a paladin that boxxed stuck in Pillars always trying to finish during his night shift. Maybe you remember how frustrating it was? Or maybe you're so out of touch with un-tuned content now it doesn't matter.
