Proposed QoL Epic 1.0 Changes

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Bobbybick, Mar 23, 2018.

  1. Bobbybick Only Banned Twice

    Hi my name is Bobby and I cheated at Everquest.

    With that out of the way I would like to discuss changes to the Epic 1.0 quests to better accommodate the large server sizes that servers such as Coirnav and potentially future TLPs bring.

    Having wrote many of the new quick guides and checklists on Allakhazam last year and from personal experience playing through Kunark on both Ragefire and Phinigel I -think- I have identified the majority of the bigger issues that persist with the epic quests, and have some relatively small suggestions as to what changes could be made to alleviate them and create a more enjoyable experience for the playerbase.

    NOTE: I have not addressed "griefing" issues as there are way too many places where players can interfere with other player's epic quests. That is outside of the scope of these proposed changes.


    BARD
    - Kedge Backbone now has a low chance to drop from any mob in Kedge Keep. Phinigel himself still drops it at the current droprate.

    (Bards have enough crap thrown at them with their epic that throwing them a bone with one of the bigger RNG pieces seems fine. Phinigel will still be the primary method of obtaining the backbone but the option is there to just kill zone trash if someone gets really unlucky.)


    Cleric
    - Zordak Ragefire in Nagafen's Lair respawn timer changed to 3 hours.

    (There are some griefable turnins in the Cleric epic but would require a lot of changes to cover them all, omitted.)


    Druid
    - No changes


    Enchanter
    - Vessel Drozlin in East Cabilis respawn timer changed to 3 hours.
    - Verina Tomb in Neriak Thid Gate respawn timer changed to 3 hours.
    - The One Key groundspawn in Overthere respawn timer changed to 30 minutes
    - Lost Scroll groundspawn in Dalnir respawn timer changed to 30 minutes
    - Book of Charm and Sacrifice in Plane of Sky respawn timer changed to 30 minutes
    - Wraith of a Shissar now spawns inside of the Plane of Fear Agent of Change instance.

    (Enchanters compete with Shadowknights for who's epic has the biggest bottlenecks currently. Enchanters certainly win for quantity. These are mostly all QoL changes and reduce people staring at a wall waiting for something to appear for hours/days.)


    Magician
    - No changes


    Monk
    - Targin the Rock and Raster of Guk spawn chances increased drastically.
    - Red Sash of Order no longer drops from killing monk guildmasters.

    (Obtaining the Robe of the Lost Circle the "intended" way should be a viable alternative to killing Brother Zephyl in Rathe Mountains or Brother Qwinn in South Karana. Currently it is ridiculously more time-intensive simply due to the extreme rarity of Targin and Raster. Bypassing the entire Red Sash of Order subquest by killing a trivial level 35 NPC doesn't make a lot of sense.)


    Necromancer
    - No changes


    Paladin
    - No changes


    Ranger
    - No Changes


    Rogue
    - Founy Jesthands in North Kaladim and Tani N'Mar in Neriak Third Gate will now always spawn with their Stained Parchment pieces.
    - Eldreth in Lake Rathe respawn timer changed to 20 minutes. Eldreth no longer despawns when giving players the Scribbled Parchment.
    - Book of Souls groundspawn in Plane of Hate respawn timer changed to 30 minutes.
    - Yendar Starpyre in Steamfont Mountains respawn timer changed to 3 hours.
    - Jagged Diamond Dagger no longer drops from Renux Herkanor
    - Cazic Quill no longer drops from General V'ghera
    - Gigantic Zweihander will now always drop from either Karg Icebear or Martar Icebear

    (Removed some noticeable bottlenecks but increased the overall time required to complete this epic by now requiring rogues do both the Jagged Diamond Dagger and Cazic Quill subquests. Gigantic Zweihander is ridiculously rare in its current form, adding it as a guaranteed drop from a very rare(Karg) and semi rare(Martar) mobs ensure this doesn't become a huge bottleneck now that rogues must do the Jagged Diamond Dagger subquest.)


    Shadowknight
    - Marl Kastane in Toxxulia Forest respawn timer changed to 5 minutes.
    - Caradon in The Hole respawn timer changed to 3 hours.
    - Lhranc in City of Mist respawn timer changed to 3 hours.

    (More bottlenecks removed. Marl Kastane could alternatively not despawn when giving/being given quest items and changed to a non-combat NPC but this "seems" easier to implement.)


    Shaman
    - No changes

    (There are still ways to "cheese" the factioning requirements for the shaman 1.0 and skip a large portion of the questline, but outside of adding in a bunch of new items to the earlier subquests required for the later turn-ins I don't see an easy way to correct it.)


    Warrior
    - No changes


    Wizard
    - "a broken golem" in Plane of Fear respawn timer changed to 6 hours. Still no longer spawns in Agent of Change instances.

    (This removes the only big bottleneck while still requiring Wizards to do at least some of their epic in an open world zone.)
  2. qweasy Augur

    Making the bard piece from Phini easier but the item that 20x rarer stays the same?
  3. Bobbybick Only Banned Twice

    The only issue I see is that the Staff of Elemental Mastery: Water is an actual piece of gear, and one that is fairly sought after in classic, whereas the backbone is a 25pound weight that sits in the bards bank until they are ready to do a turnin.

    That said, I wouldn't be opposed to the Water staff getting the same treatment as the Earth/Fire Staffs and becoming an extra possible drop off a particular trash mob once Velious hit.
  4. Nolrog Augur

    I assume he was talking about Quill's cloak, not the staff.
  5. HoodenShuklak Augur

    What did you cheat in eq
  6. MaxTheLion Augur

    That frog claimed one too many Lamp Posts.
    Duder likes this.
  7. HoodenShuklak Augur

    So basically this is a cheaters guide to fixes that Eq needs?

    Let me make a note of that...
  8. MaxTheLion Augur

    Not sure why you drew that conclusion. These are an option of fixes to problems people have mentioned ad nauseam. Seems like valued and constructive criticism to improve certain aspects people are not happy with and I hope your future posts contribute as much.
    Duder likes this.
  9. Barudin_Phinigel Augur

    Yeah, I'm not sure why that is what you took from this. Honestly, these are well needed and fair changes that should be made.
    Duder likes this.
  10. Darchon_Xegony Augur

    Venril Sathir's Remains should spawn regardless of whether VS is currently up and should have a respawn of 3 hours.

    During Kunark VSR isn't too bad with several picks popping and closing regularly. But after Kunark it's tough because killing VS requires much more of a force than killing VSR does and the VS window is so small you have a narrow period to grab VSR.

    Also if we are going QoL, Mighty Buff should be removed when you are 4+ expansions beyond that content. It's dumb that they retain mighty buff forever. It's only really necessary in era and maybe 1 era past.
  11. Catashe Augur

    Someone playing a SK on Coirnav Bobby? lol while I fully agree Marl's timer needs to be lowered.. Like 3 hours like your other suggestions.. 5 mins is alittle bit of a overkill and yes I know they need to turn into him like 3 times but even lowering it to 3 hours is a huge improvement
  12. Rovell Elder

    I support these changes.
  13. jiri_ Augur

    Quill's cloak isn't that rare a drop; I think I've gotten four in five kills. It's just finding the right placeholder that's the issue. Once you've got the particular placeholder cycle figured out, you can sit there with Track and a timer and spawn Quillmane reliably.
  14. jiri_ Augur

    Fully agree with this.
  15. Vandir Lorekeeper

    I fully support all of the above proposed changes.

    I also am perfectly fine with standardizing all epic spawns at 3 hours max (as Catashe said, 5 minutes is overkill).
  16. Critt Augur

    Eh Eldreth does suck but only for the first 2 weeks of kunark the rest of your changes for Rogue are bleh....Rogue epic is overly easy but they pay for it when 1.5 comes around with what I can only think is the most tedious of the 1.5's.
  17. Bowdeen Elder

    Change: All epic mob respawns are 2 hours, just like the Chardok Royals.

    Fully support all of these changes though.

    #PreventSlittingWristsOnEpics
    HoodenShuklak likes this.
  18. Farore Journeyman

    I'll have to disagree with most of these changes. The only ones I could see being absolutely necessary are the enchanter ones, the SK ones and the wizard ones. Most other classes despite dealing with some tedium, still do not suffer their epic as much as these three classes. Even bards don't have it that bad since Phinny becomes a groupable mob in Kunark which can be spawned via AoC.

    Guess I kinda question which way your bias is leaning because you included very detailed information on SK and Enc in your note yet completely ignored some of the worst things about mage epic (ie - pegasus cloak, various staves, etc).
  19. JustPuttinThisHere Lorekeeper

    I'm kind of torn on your Phinny suggestion.

    On the one hand, Phinny is a push over and can be done with 6-8 players during classic if you bring the right classes (ench required). So even if you and your guild are more casual hitting 50 later in the game, if you split the instance raid and designate people to ML pieces and stuff it could work without depending on OW.

    On the other hand he drops 3 4 class pieces and I imagine that sometimes people roll up to Phinny without a bard, or without a mage or without a wizard and then one of them drops and that's quite a waste or a PIA to hold and . I remember we got a mage staff early in Agnarr and had to yell at a mage guildie online to come loot it. Also groups will farm OW just to sell LR/MQs.

    Another Phinny change to consider would be that he always drops at least 1 epic piece and none of this 3 rods of malaisement BS. This would motivate people to pop instances far more if they -knew- it was going to be worth their time
  20. jiri_ Augur

    I don't see what's wrong with the Mage epic, which is one of the ones I've done. I know the staves are both problematic, but both are also loot that gets used. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with Quillmane, either. Like it or not, Quillmane's rareness is the key feature of the mob, and once you understand the method for spawning him it's not that bad. Isolating the PH is difficult, but that's something that one tracker can do. If you change Quillmane to always up, 2 hour respawn, you might as well just completely remove that step of the epic, as the mob itself isn't really that difficult to kill. Could you elaborate a bit?