Empires of Kunark info stream and expanion packs

Familar Keyring: Self explnatory

No level increase: mentioned near the end of the stream and when asked about level increases in the future the answer was basically well it takes almost a full year just to do a level increase. So not looking good there for the future unless they do a lot more with aa.

Preorder bonus: an Iksar statue and getting into beta

Tradeskills: They mentioned there would be some trade skills but nothing on how many or such or on what level.

New spells and AA: They said there would be some but again no details

Gear system: When asked about the type 5 and 9 augs and the way they gear worked they said they said they wont be doing things the way the did in Hate and Fear and that the level scaling raids were something they didn't see much out of for the work involved. So they sort of answered the gear system.

Zones: 7 new zones

Raids: 8 raids

Port spells : Not brought up at all but they are doing the same thing as in TBM the second tier expansion option has a personal teleport to the expansion and the third tier expansion option includes a statue that I assume can be placed in guild halls for anyone to use.

Most of the stream was running around showing the new zones.

That is the basics if I have missed anything feel free to add it..

Livestream link (you can click it on and view the saved video)

Expansion info on the three tiers of the expansion being offered

So basically the time spent on the new gear system and the scaling raids seem to have been completely wasted from what I can see. Which was pretty much expected.

Interesting that they say just doing a level increase can take up almost a year of dev time. I guess that is based on current dev personpower. (manpower)

Thank you for summarizing the livestream for us, Corwyhn.

I don't really understand the huge push for another 5 levels... you're going to get the EXACT same spells, with some miniscule naming difference, and trivialize a ton of content that isn't trivial now.

They did say that instead of the 5 extra levels, the new focus AAs would add the power you'd expect from a new copy and paste spell, and that there will be around 10,000 new AAs for each class.

Prior to the live stream I heard that a lot of aa would be added but I did not hear 10,000 aa in the live stream if they mentioned it I missed it.

Maybe you can link where they mentioned 10k aa per class. Not doubting you at all I just never saw the post about it.

When I first heard about the lack of level increases I did expect they would focus advancement through aa and that it was the reason for the aa consolidations we went through.

I guess some people missed the beta forums while they were up.

Yeah I never knew they were put up in advance and that anyone could access them. I tried before making this post and it said I was not eligible. So I assume that if I am not in a raid guild that was invited or haven't preordered I can't access them.

"10 000 new AA" is a bit of a misnomer since almost all of those are going to be just more ranks of the same old same old. With recent merging of AA it the cost per rank has gone through the roof.

Most of them are genuinely new focus AAs for your current TDS spells... but sure, they are just additional ranks of current AAs. I'm sure your nit picking will bring substance to this thread.

What's the risk of trivializing old content that people are sick and tired of. What it does do is make it easier for people to go back and finish a thing or two without needing to find others to help. Perhaps to do an older raid with a single group to get a missed clickie, chase item or rank 3 spells. To let some of the less solo/molo capable classes camp some wanted group items (augs, powersources, etc) without help. The level differential opens up some spells/abilities that have hard level caps. Allows for things like decap/headshot/assassinate to work.

Is there a description of these AAs anywhere?

Every AA for every class was listed in the beta forums. Lots of emphasis on spell focus AA. A few new things per class as well. Some looked promising. And the obligatory additional ranks of things that most people could care less of. What I did not see was the cost per rank.

7 new zones and 8 raids is just pathetic. Didn't Kunark have 20+ zones? Talk about a missed opportunity to bring life back to the game.

That's what I thought too, so I went ahead and preordered the expansion and I still don't see the Beta forums and going to a link that should take you directly to them says I can't access them. I can however log into the Beta server.

And RoK covered a wide range of levels. I'm not surprised by only 7 zones. It's on par with the past few expansions. And with how they do tiers rather than make zones get harder (and better rewards) the deeper you go, most zones are wasted anyhow. Look at TDS. The t1 and t2 zones were useless once you got through progression.

The 8 raids is my concern. That's not enough to keep people going for the next year. TBM has been a bore for at least six months. The only thing keeping most going is sense of guild obligation and waiting for this expansion.

There will still be power creep from stronger gear and the new focus AAs that will make all your main spells/discs stronger. This just removes the need for all the (surely significant) hassle that comes with increasing the level cap, which puts more dev time into content. I appreciate that considering how small the expansions have been lately. Makes me wonder how tiny this Kunark expansion would have turned out with all the extra time spent adding levels.

There are about 3-4 new spells for each class. There is an "Alliance" spell type that all classes get, these generally have conditions to be met and then do something (like triggering a bigger nuke).
Clerics get a targetable AE Heal that triggers on hits.
Mages get a Claw of the Flameweaver equivalent, though the true power of this is Gambit refresh and I didn't see one for Mage.
Bards get a charm up to 103 (i know they already can do this, but this one gives a whopping additional -30 MR check).

I didn't look overly hard, but I didn't notice any new AA's for Warriors, or extensions of the old ones.

How about mercs that are still at TDS power?

Cost per rank for everything is pretty extreme. A few start around 10, but quickly get into the 30s and up to 100AA per rank. The new "Synergy" spell addition is 100AA per rank at rank 1 and costs a total of 1K AA to max at rank 10. The foci for all the TDS spells/discs/etc end up being a few hundred each to max as well.

Generally speaking most classes only got 1 or 2 AA for their class tab. Most of the stuff is concentrated in the General and Foci tabs.

The 8 new raids may only seem underwhelming if you're already farming ALL of the raids in TBM. We're still stuck having only competed 2 out of those 10 due mainly to dps as well as militant mechanics. Hopefully with a serious boost in all classes dps etc., we'll have access to the rest plus the 8 new ones!

Just point of view I suppose.