TBL : the most stupid and absurd extension

Curious as to when you ran through this expansions, I did a lot of my stuff pre patch on 18th December when there were very high resists, bard was having mez break almost as soon as it landed, so mez wasn't a lot of use at all, ranger was reporting root wasn't landing at all. Unfortunatly didnt have anyone to tash or malo, if that is what the group game needs it needs to be rethought, not all groups have chanter, shammy or mage. I need to run through some of the earlier stuff since the patch on the wizzy, but right now I'm finding beast a lot more effective and fun to play in this expansion. I thought it was the class maybe it is actually the changes they made.

Group through Smoke trials was SK, Cleric, Druid, Ranger, Beastlord, Wizzy (me), although the time we did Cliffs & Glory the beastlord wasn't on so we had a warrior. Like I said they proberbly would have done it quicker without me, my resists were just too high.

Early experiences stay with you and sometimes it takes a while to change an opinion after things have been altered. Beastlord is definately having an easier time.

As for not needing a beefy tank for Fight Fire, it comes in handy when you don't have CC, he just tanks all the final 4 while we dps them down till inactive, switch mob, rince and repeat. Group what time was Warrior, Cleric, 2 beastlords and 3 rogues, was evil DPS lol.

As I said we are having some fun with group make ups.

I unfortunately had to take the first entire week off missing raids an everything .. So sadly.. I ran threw it all an finished 11:20:24 on 12/16/18. Which is absolutely thee longest its ever taken me to complete a new expansion once its released.

If I knew how to post screen shots I'd show you. As it is, you may send me an in game tell {t Rath.Whullf any time =)

My grp typically was War, cleric, sham, Wiz, ench, wiz. 2 of which are in fact in RoS (or were) trade skill armors .. and very much lower then 170k hps raid buffed..

I did however ask you in my last post as well. What is an "optimal" grp when it comes to smoke trials ? And what would by your definition also like wise not be an optimal grp ?

Last i checked, on your server (every one really) there is an abundance of tanks - and certainly in your guild.
The issue (especially for the likes of you) is not really "a lack of [insert_class_or_function]", it is at most "a lack of players playing outside of raids" (or, to quote "the other camp": a lack of good ones) perhaps.
Of course it helps to make friends with them instead of doing the opposite, then perhaps some of them might actually group with the "non-key-classes". .

I agree, a server merge would not help with the issues people are having with TBL. Not because of any of the above, but because imo the issue is with certain design decisions rather than player-numbers.
If a wider range of tanks could "properly" tank the stuff thrown at them, people would not need to be looking for the beefy ones (and they'd have a much harder time alienating enough to cause grouping issues). Same thing with healers - there's not too many "good ones" that can carry a sub-optimal char through the contents. (and same goes for DPS too, need good ones in order to kill stuff in a timely manner, e.g. most of the above-mentioned trials) .
The good flock to the good and those are not having too much of an issue, in either finding groups or conquering their way through progression. The rest looses out, and that is the design flaw's effect.

I found that yes, i can "beat" this expansion's group content, with the right people.
I found too however, that someone "lesser" than me or my friends has a VERY hard time to get anywhere beyond Stratos.
And i found that even us raiders are extremely limited on who or how many we can "carry through". (as said above, it was a huge difference between us doing the pickup group and the later group with 4mains and 2boxed ALTs).

Bard mez doesn’t break early. My guess is you have bellow on the target(s).

Also, here are a few Tash clicks options for bards that help quite a bit and are great for pulling (pairs very with fade).

I read this many times not, not sure if it was just you or many like you, but this might help you:
*Take your sceenshot and upload it to somewhere that is giving you an URL for your pic (basically any picture-posting site)
*post here, press button insert/edit image, insert link and copy/paste the URL from that site into the dialog box.
Easy.

oookay.
This claim i have an issue with - i cannot believe it.
Do we agree that cohort's is lower than RoS tradeskill?
If so, then the above cannot be trua as one of my casters has a mix and match of many cohort's (because the account was silver and i hadn't upgraded all to scale touched, or some Selrach's was missing to do so) and even that character, a silk class lacking many augs and HP-related AAs, gets to 170k with JUST CLR and BST Rk2 buffs.
So add the Rk3 and full raid, then you are easily way above 170k if your chars are in RoS tradeskill.

Doesn't that vary from trial to trial?
I have tried 4 now i think. and "high DPS" is true every time, whether we talk melee or ranged would, imo, depend on the trial in question. Also, for everything but trial of three perhaps, CC helps - and ENC is best for that. Yes one can ghetto it with SHM or RNG or so in many cases, but well.. ENC makes things look easy and are also good DPS, so that one is imo a "must".
Casters, espcially WIZ, i personally consider more of a burden, because they lack the endurance for a longer fight in most cases (not so much for trials of 3, wending ways). NECs loose out (where i like their base-dots to keep regen down, mechanics like the cyclone trial render them kinf of useless) unless we are talking "alliance only" really..

There's 10types of bards - those that can play their class well and the others
Too bad too many are more of the /melody bot type.
But it is true once more: ENC > BRD in this context, for most group-makeups.

RoS Trade skill armor is what my entire box army used at the time of launch an some are actually still in it as we speak they will remain in the RoS grp trade skill armor's until they get the new armors.

And yes, Anyone's alts can run threw Smoke trial's with less then 200k hp an survive. Its called knowing how to use your toons abilities as required. And stacking them if also as needed. An leaving nothing alone every aspect of all available AA's / disc's / stacking capabilities. I know I've done it.

For instance I know raid lvl wizard's who don't stack their self runes on themselves in grp content thinking their raid level stats are going to always be enough to get threw even the harder content.

I've yet to run my wizard squad threw the content as of this post. I've plans to run them starting soon as possible. And yes they are in RoS grp TS gear.

I don't usually post but this expansion is THE LAST STRAW for me.

I thought RoS was harder than necessary but overall a good expansion, even if only 3 raid guilds can complete it.

TBL, is far harder at a group level. With mainly EoK raid gear it is barely doable in the starter zones.

So either Daybreak wants to drive out players and fold EQ because of not sufficient players, or the game designers need to give their heads a shake and balance it out in terms of difficulty.

But seriously Daybreak do something - either tell us EQ is on a wrap up timeline and we will find something else, even though many of us do not want to and hung around through thick and thin so far, or rebalance TBL.

Oh and do it soon before the second option won't halt the exodus from EQ. It's easy to check by looking at your player populations on each server, which are down again on non-progression and RP servers.

Anthirian Nifesedge.

You're right about that, in fact in my (vast) barding experience, it doesn't even break on its own, once you land it and keep it active... ever! Either with the song, or the AA, once you land the mez, and keep singing, or even stop singing, as long as you don't start another song, and it will never drop unless someone breaks it.
The tash thing too, I have several clickys for that AND we actually have songs for that too.

People keep posting this... but get real.... if they wanted to shut the game down, it would be shut down. They wouldn't "drive players away" so they could shut it down. /boggle.

This expansion is supposed to take a good part of a year to get through. There will be deaths. How many have Essence of the Dragon, group? or earned the tooth of the overking and helped at least three others get the tooth, and died on those attempts. I mean, group one needs tooth, you help. die die die die, finally tooth, then someone else, another group LFG's for tooth, you jump in, die die die, they get tooth, etc. Sure it can be bought but its actually a fun event, challenging too especially if not raid geared. Of Course certain Troll SK's, or certain Beastlords with group gear that can raid tank the Maestro at 105 for enough time to get all the MT's back up, or certain Bards can make it look easy. Droga is like the old Droga, Lots of DB's at 110 level to crawl through and get back exp that you lose attempting the TBL stuff. What was it, Mission in empyr, - the place after smoke something with a prisoner and we had to spawn a advocate or something. 3 mages with mercs, and some cornbread. Died, died, died, then we figured it out on the last try, the AE was a killer at first- mercs were useless and die faster. Last time, mercs didn't die. we were ok, and we kept cornbread.

A slight misunderwstanding perhaps, but if you re-read the above, i was not contesting this.
The 200k HP mark came from someone else, and the claim was "try to get them over 200k, it makes things a lot easier" (.e.g. by surviving falling off stratos).
I also did not contest your claim that group geared chars can (at least with raid-geared help in some places+functions from my perspective) get through the expansion at all. i only said they have a much, much harder time and that in my experience for the most part they need to be carried through by raiders.

The point i contested was specifically the claim you made that your RoS tradeskill geared chars have less than 170k fully raidbuffed.
I went on above explaining why i think that what you said there is simply made up, i even think i can "prove" it - and in a scientifical sense i already did by providing the one needed example (silk class in less than RoS tradeskill exceeding 170k with only RK2 CLR and BST buffs - far from fully raid buffed, far from RoS tradeskill gear) that disproves your claim, unmasking the exaggeration (by downplaying the gear of your ALTs) there.
In extention though, with one claim of yours (that you have made in a tone of absolute certainty) being easily proven to be an exaggeration, that leaves me unsure again on just how much of your posts is true and how much is made up to fit your propaganda/agenda of the day.

I like that you are active and at times are or at least try to be helpful. i just have an issue with so many of your posts because of the half-truths or outright exaggerations wher eyou feel they help your demagogy, sadly.

Since i am fairly certain that i know which bard is the one in question, i would daresay that not "everything bard" is known by every bard.
And you have a condition up there, the "and keep singing".
Also, i was told by bards that their AE mez has some longer cooldown, which means that if the tank does AEagro (sometimes it is hard for us to keep the fingers off roar/dragonstrike) it can cause some of the issues Yinla described. And if some AE broke mez? i don't think i have experienced that, but i would not put it beyond our Devs either. I wasn't around the week Yinla experienced her problems, so all i can really say is that PERHAPS bards might just not cut it (when compared to a "real" class like ENCs in this case). I for one avoid using them when i can, unless it's a friend or his ALT.

I'll give you that I was off . My wizard right now raid buffed in RoS gear here on rathe right now standing in lobby is sitting at 187,323 hp. And as I've proven .. (which was the point in the first place that you clearly missed) it is absolutely a viable play style to bring player's to the table in trials / other zone's grp missions who are not close to 200k hps ..

If only they would stack every thing available to them for survivability which is alot considering wizards get self runes, an can still get more runes yet from Chanter's among other tricks .. I can only lead a horse to water, I can't push your toons button's for ya lil buddy.

And as of yet at this point, I've not yet had time to run the wizard crew threw. I will once I am finished with my zerker crew. And as you know when done with them I will absolutely be posting about that as well.

Yes and no. Who knows, really?
There are many different stakeholders in any company.
As long as revenue exceeds investment, controlling is usually happy. Management might still be unhappy if ROI is below x. And then there's the Dev's who might seek greener pastures...
What you describe is the management point of view, and i agree there.
Also, it would be quite unwise to communicate a shutdown-roadmap when you just sold lifetime memberships...

I have, however, witnessed quite a few design decisions in the 4 expansions since my return during TBM and also witnessed their effects.
For TBL, we have had quite a few long-timers retire and i see many complaints/difficulties in general chat.
While the retirements cannot usually be "blamed" on single expansions, the complaints/difficulties certainly can.
Complaints come from having difficulties (beyond one's capability or endurance, whatever) and difficulties lead to frustration.
Its usually that frustration, building up over time, that leads to retirements. And one thing's for sure: i see a LOT of frustration.
What i witness is a slow but steady "bleedout" - the recent guild-merge on my server (AB) is a testament to that and the less ignorant among us are not blinded by the numbers of their guild or the influx of new apps from folding other guilds but see each retiring player as the loss that it represents.
And therefore i can't blame people for their conspiracy theories or dismiss them as easily as you seem to be able to.

I personally just want to say thank you for making me go to old school zones to waste my time.

"clearly missed" when i acknowledge things in my posts? who is missing what?
No i wasn't missing the point you were trying to make - i just state that there was no need to prove anything like that, since it wasn't in question.
The 200k HP remark that you refer to, i think you missed something in that post: the "make it a lot easier" part the guy making that post was making. He did NOT, and noone else did either, claim that 200kHPs are NEEDED.
The one guy who did post anything like "x HPs are needed" was in the range of 170k HPs at which point THAT poster found that his chars were finally able to survive certain (stacked, iirc) AEs.

So you see...
The issue isn't me missing things, it is you not reading thoroughly and posting prematurely.

Thanks for admitting, after seeing the proof, that you were exaggerating though.

More like ball parked it.. as alt's they exsist only to further the agenda of the main. Not the other way around.

You may call it what ever you like. I being the one who said it just clarified it explicitly for you to better understand .

And I am not a board warrior, I happily admit when I am wrong. As I have. Can you / have you ?

Lol, nice try! Apparently you're ballparking more than just your chars HPs.
If you had read my posts, in this thread and elsewhere you'd know the following:
a) i am rarely "wrong" since i tend to post what i KNOW - otherwise clearly marking it as my opinion/estimate.
b) there are examples to your challenge, revealing this attempt of yours for what it is...

As i said, nice try. But so try harder!
And when commenting on stuff, try to make sure you post correctly, that leads to shorter threads as posts pointing out where you are more or less obviously wrong and leading after a too long exchange to the inevitable admission of having been posting wrong by your would not be needed; those tend to derail entire threads, sadly.