I am very disappointed with the TS quest reward in RoS. http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=131463 After Artisan Prize? I mean would you do trade skills for it on a new toon? Add EM 24 to it or something, for now i pass.......
So you are disappointed by an earring that for group players is almost 1k hp better then group gear, that when upgraded to the raid version is the best ear in game at 7k hp?
1) I'm for sure not passing on making the best earring there is. 2) I kinda empathize with OP? It's a pile of stats, a real monster, but it's not doing something special. 3) lol EM 24
They're way over emphasizing tradeskills. Something the vast majority despise doing. They already gave an incredible reward with the update to the Artisans. To continue rewarding the minority that actually enjoy tradeskills with best in slot items is just stupid. The aug should be by far the best stat aug for years and that is more than rewarding for those that enjoy (or suffer) through the mundane game play that is tradeskilling.
I think this really emphasizes the fact that the group version needs a bump in stats. The raid version has over 100AC more (137%) than the RoS raid earrings. For only 1 extra step (the drop). Group version needs a bump in heroics (so it's better that Golden Soldiers Stud) and around 5900 hp/mana/endurance imo. AC is fine at 266 tho. It's 1 slot. It you are going to overpower it on the raid version, then overpower it on the group one also (and it still not better than the TS/RoS raid ear).
You can buy all sub-combines You only have to do the kills, collects (can be traded) and the actual like final combines. There are various bypasses in the previous TS stuff too to make it much easier.
They’re not overemphasizing anything. You just happen to dislike tradeskills. The vast majority, contrary to your opinion, are indifferent to tradeskills, not caring one way or the other. Some will do, some can’t be bothered, but its less about the tradeskill system than their choice to do them or to do something else at the time. And of course some hate and some love the system, but most don’t really care much about tradeskills. One lone quest chain is not an emphasis on tradeskills; much less an over emphasis on them. I might have agreed with the idea that there was an over emphasis on tradeskills this expansion, due to the sheer number of recipes added, but not due to the lone quest line. No one was complaining about Aid Grimel being an overemphasis on tradeskills, nor Eron’s jewelry, not even the three shawl lines. This is just one more being added, nothing more.
So you are saying artisans prize is amazing and worth it from how I read your post. This requires tradeskilking of course. So the toon would probably have high tradeskills.... So yea of course making the best in slot earring from a very simple quest (which you can get drops from bazaar if you are too lazy to go out and adventure) is totally worth it. As it had been said there are those that love tradeskills, those that are indifferent and those that hate it. Play the game as you see fit, but if you want best in slot in all slots and min max your character you have to tradeskill, do the group game and do the raiding scene. Having tradeskills be an active part in our end game is good as it adds more things for everyone to work on. Otherwise you’d be 100% done with everything eventually and you’d put EQ on the shelf until more content is released. PS I am pretty indiffferent to tradeskills now but have previously been on the hate side haha
Yes, the tradeskill items are typically best-in-slot. Unlike other BIS, these BIS last for multiple expansions. My BIS raid gear from EoK, which took several weeks / months to acquire, is now entirely obsolete to the new gear in RoS. This earring seems to be good enough that it would outlast the next expansion, but probably not good enough to outlast the one after it. Other BIS, like the Shawl aug or the Artisan's Prize, survive for multiple expansions. It's a large amount of effort to get these, but once that effort is spent you don't need to grind it out again for years. In fact, it's probably less effort to do this (and other) BIS than it is to group / raid grind year after year to continually replace them. The fortunate part about the Artisan's Prize is the secondary grind (300+ TS) can be done any time and with any level of effort, and you get near-immediate results. Not all best-in-slot items need to come from the same grind. Type 3 Augments: 1 Raid (Eyes), 10 Group Type 5 Augments: 1 Raid (Nathsar Diamond), 1 Tradeskill (RoS lore group), 7 Group Type 7/8 Augments: 2 Tradeskill (AP, Shawl), 2 Raid (Anniversary, Eye), 16 Group Non-Visible: 1 Tradeskill (Ear), 9 Raid (Ear, Neck, Face, Finger, Finger, Shoulder, Back, Waist, Charm) Primary / Secondary / Range: 2-3 Raid Visibles: 8 Raid (Head, Arms, Chest, Wrist, Wrist, Legs, Feet, Hands) My counts might be off a bit, but my point remains the same - tradeskills take up a small portion of BIS gear. And even within these groups there are secondary groups: Achievements (Nathsar Diamond, Relife Adornment), rare drops (Type 5s from TBM like Hypocrisy), grind drops (Type 5s with coins), merchant bought (Type 3s). I agree - tradeskills are hated by many. But at least you have more control over obtaining these than you do with others. How many times do you need to tell someone NOT TO STAND IN THE BLOB ON THE DRAGON RAID? How many hours did you spend grinding out kill after kill of trash for a chance at a rare type 5, only to have one finally drop and it be the wrong one?
Would be nice if the earring had something unique to go with it, even if just for flavor. Something that helped combine chances ala Artisan's Prize would make sense. The thing I'm wondering is how possible is it for my boxes to do the Cresta quest line with basically zero tradeskills?
Well, what is preventing you from doing tradeskills, except yourself ? EVERYONE can do tradeskills, without exception. There are then some WHO got an advantage by having done tradeskills years ago, before prices went up, before there were the new aug and such, Before there were any new stuff like today, but people still did tradeskills then. Could you have done that as well ? Sure, but then there were no big rewards, only expenses, and only use were culturel stuff. And even if people did the tradeskills then, they still had the massive Work of getting from 301-350. If you still think it is something people get for free, then take a look at the requirement for it. I would guess, this is a guess, that you have to do something like 15k different combines. Then you have to farm for the ingredients, I cannot say how long, but try to look at the recipes and calculate how long it is, probably 1 month or farming, doing it like 14-24 hours a day, is it still just a give away ? No. Does this cost zero Money, NO, it will cost a big chunk of Money, where Research probably the most expensive, while, some you can farm fairly cheap. BUT hey, it is up to yourself, do you wanna do tradeskills or not. Are you willing to pull out a month or more off your calendar to do tradeskills, in the time, you cannot do anything else but tradeskills, and cannot farm your equipment/achievements/progression ?
Guys, when there is rare TRASH drop that's better then main TS quest reward, stat wise, effect wise i wont USE IT and i love TS. Second: why would people add raid links? I was talking about none impressive group earing with bad effects and stats.
I'm pretty sure you can do it, but not cheaply. Like some pointed out, you could buy the ingredients, then use a potion from the Market Place when doing the final combines. Unfortunately DB recently increased the price of the potion for 1000 SC to 1700.
I could not agree more. I freaking H8 tradeskilling and feel that a muli-camp alternate method of getting similar stuff is in order. Tying player power to tradeskilling (like brick-wall DPS checking) is not what EQ was ever about for the most of it's history. -R
Would I do trade skills for just this one item? No. But, there really shouldn't be an item like that. The Artisan's Prize was really an exception. The RoS quest is more inline with previous trade skill quests. It is a Best-in-Slot item, but not by a game breaking margin.
Earliest tradeskill quest I can remember was in Velious, next was Luclin, then PoP, cant remember if there were in any before SoF which brought us Erons. More recently we have had Shawl, Artisan and now another earring. Tradeskill quests are very much part of EQs tradition a lot of the time being best in slot or very close, yes not every expansion but every few years. Having something required differently isn't a bad thing adds to the variety of things to do.
What kind of success rates are folks getting on the final combine for each earring step? I failed the Skyfire combine 6 times now. It's no big deal, just wondering how unlucky that is.
Limited resources to creating new items / recipes / quests TS items were good enough to stand up for a few expansions without needing to be replaced Cycling various methods of obtaining BIS items (TS one year, epics another, chase loot another, anniversary tasks another, etc.)
