Cazic Thul is requesting a server merge

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Emperior, May 5, 2019.

  1. Avory Augur


    You know it's funny as I was thinking much the same thing. I didn't want to continue on and chance offending people and turning this into a troll thread, so thank you for your reply structured as you did.

    If someone were to play their toon with my set-up on their computer I have no doubt many people who play Rangers that can't keep up now would suddenly be much better. As you said it's a lack of maximizing, and I admit I'm not as maximized as was in the past because I don't even slightly care anymore, yet I can do just fine when it matters because the base is there... not much changes going forward but a lot changes when you start from far behind.

    Triton has a great Ranger team and we all help one another, I take no credit for being as capable as I can be because while I discover many tricks on my own over the years, so does our team of Rangers, and they/we openly share this information with one another.

    EQ is an incredibly complex game because of the shear amount of content in gear and AA alone. The majority of players simply can't sift through all of it as there are very few resources out there to aid in setting up your toon up at every level of play, casual VS casual raider VS raider VS hard core raider.

    Again, just my thoughts.
  2. Allayna Augur

    There was no insult. I’ve participated in, led and assisted to lead open raids on Xegony for years. There is no comparison between casual and hardcore. I was simply illustrating some of the differences in my experience that make the difference between winning consistently and winning occasionally.

    I’ve noted in several other threads that I think individual based emotes that are raid wiping are not a great tuning mechanism. Lag, LD, etc can essentially wipe a raid force after 15-20 minutes of effort from 54 people doing what they are supposed to be doing.

    I’d rather see: X person fails emote and 30 feet around them Y (could be DD, DoT, melee or spell slow, need for a follow up mechanic, like cure or die, etc). We could go into a whole other thread about how casters are disproportionately disadvantaged with regards to emotes. (Cast times, lower hps, “stand and cast” mentality.)

    I think enrage timers, like many have posted, don’t do much to end game raiders and put mid tier at a huge disadvantage. If anything...beating the raid AFTER enrage should reward you....let’s say another ornament drop, nothing game breaking.

    If I could improve upon one aspect of raids....it would be what Sanctus touched upon, that if T2 is unlocked, we can do any T2 raid. There were a lot of instances this year with just one target, (Empyr and GMM being the exceptions). Empyr inexplicably stopped working as intended this year and as a result the Generals were not able to be raided.
  3. BellyLaughs New Member

    PST and Hawaii high end raiding is just about to leave this game. Need a blood transfusion. Not just "we still have technical issues with server merges". THIS IS 2019 AFTER ALL? We cannot change servers as there is no PST evening raiding save for one server left in EQ.
  4. Cicelee Augur

    No one is stopping any PST player from joining Ne Cede Malice, save for $25.
  5. Lisard Silly

    TL;DR: i got carried away, my b.
    1. I like TBL
    2. My response to EQ is easy
    3. My opinion on how to fix the raiding gap without adding more dev work
    4, 5. My advice to the OP (hi emp!) Casual / smaller raid guilds/teams that are struggling
    6. #Icare.


    1. TBL is my personal favorite expansion out of the past 10 or so years (When was HoT? man i loved HoT!). an expansion, even with how small they have become finally gave us raids that utilized your entire force and tested your raid teams ability to utilize all its players as well as rely on your full raid. Finally a expansion of raids that did not get absolutely destroyed and carried by the top 10 people in your raid team. A expansion that required every player to pay attention and there were actually detrimental raid wiping things that could happen if you did not (Balancing, silence, virals, Endurance/Mana Depletion, ae DT's, MEPHITS! to name a few).

    2. Yes EQ is very easy for Many people as well as in concept but there are many many intricacies and knowledge one has to learn / understand to reach this point, but to reach that one must have more then GINA and Discord. you need to learn how to press your buttons, when a good time to press your buttons is and in what order to press your buttons. you need to know what your buttons do and how they stack with other buttons, you need to know what other classes buttons do as well and how their buttons apply to your buttons and vice versa, and that's just to play the class you chose to play. those who just show up to raids with GINA and Discord typically are a corpse all night or they are on the bench because all they brought was GINA (which they did not listen to) and Discord (where they talk super loud about nonsense during critical moments in the raid). this is why i LoLed so hard at that comment.

    3. In keeping the spirit that EQ should be for everyone, it comes down to the developers really. We can make umpteen page posts about what should be or shouldn't be as well as give our best examples and ideas but none of it matters unless the devs have the time and green light to add content for the Older/Casual player base that is tank endure spank for an hour then open a chest with loot, much like NTOV was in RoF expansion. The other option that wouldn't require creating a whole different raid(s) is to take a page from LDoN and add Hard mode (which would be the current raid progression we are seeing, and have the T2 gear or the super amazing tradeskill gear in there) and then doing a easy regular mode with slightly to extreme gutted mechanics with all T1 loot. this would most likely be the simplest route and least amount of time required from the devs that would make everyone happy. Now your old timer casual whatever you want to label them can do the content start to finish, and your higher end guilds could do the progression feel good about their team work and dedication race. everyone's happy and you dont have to go to extremes.

    4. As for the original post about server merges, I believe Cazic-Thule is a very healthy server. CTA is hitting hard times as a raid alliance my advice to you is advertise CTA, adjust your raid times (theres a whole entire untapped well of EU/PST/AM (EST)/Graveyard shift raiders out there looking for the opportunity) so they dont fall on the same days as SR / RoTE / Freelance / Veteran Crew. SR has dropped to just sunday/monday raiding until BETA starts up for the next expansion, I'll spread the word around and maybe we can hook you up with some hungry raiders looking to poke stuff (our raiders also have strong primary alts that would be able to do what ever content you have in mind without having conflicting lockouts)

    5. as for the other guilds/alliances out there struggling to form a raid or beat that boss mob. my only advice is communication, talk with others, talk with your raid guilds/teams, recruit not just on your server but across all servers, dont be afraid to poke around in the Top 10-20 raid guild because they are "further ahead" you would be surprised how many top end raiders that have umpteen alts across the game they would love to help/raid with. most top end guilds raid sun-wed. Leaving Thur, Friday, Saturday wide open these are the most open raid times in the world, as they are the days the top end raid guilds have all their important raids on lockout. and lastly poke around the different servers maybe talk with some of those other open raid teams, its only 25 dollars for a server transfer, per person, you could transfer which ever team has the lower pop to the other teams server and now have a full thriving alliance.

    6. this whole topic kinda hits home a little bit, I learned and grew my game play by being apart of many open raid alliances in my 19 years in EQ from Fennin Ro server to now Cazic, this is where I learned everything i know now about my class and the game as I progressed from khasel to the original CI raid team to being apart of the creation of freelance on to IR back to freelance and Team Dragon, with many a casual guild in between to where I am now, the Leader of Silent Redemption. This is where many top end raiders learned and thrived for many months / years till they finally progressed to their raid guilds they are in now, so I feel just as conflicted as you guys are now wanting a server merge because we dont want that presence in the game to fade away due to lack of numbers, its important to Everquest and the community that we dont lose these raiding outlets. I hope you guys take action and adapt to the situation, and not wait for something like a server merge to happen. it most likely wont, unfortunately. Good Luck and dont give up!
    Cailen and mulila like this.
  6. Scornfire The Nimbus Prince

    If you guys want to post your teamspeak info (Or set up a Discord server :p) we can pass it along and wrangle a few people for Tuesdays at least, maybe Wednsday too if you swap from Thursday. Alot of us like to raid on our alts, and RL permitting are quite content to raid 6-7 days a week lmao. Poor Lis up here is down to 1 day a week right now due to work, the poor mook
    Cailen likes this.
  7. Brohg Augur

    well, $25 or leveling a new character. Several FV expats have been compelled by their isolating origin to take this route. Works out fine, competent players can be contributors in a few weeks then fill in all the extras for return to demigod status over time
  8. Wijimoto Journeyman

    People often want to move their alts and mules along with their main. not to mention boxes. I'd love to see a package of discounted Character Transfer tokens for sale in the marketplace, say 3 for $50 or 4 for $60, heirloom.
    Metanis likes this.
  9. Ratbo Peep Augur


    Said the leader of one of the two top 10 guilds..... :)
    -R
  10. Ratbo Peep Augur



    Bull$hit. I know all these people as individuals. I won't say there was no communication - but there was NO COLLUSION!!
    Warpeace likes this.
  11. Ratbo Peep Augur

    Thanks for the reply but something has to give.
    Making the new expansion very un-box friendly drove away many of the boxers, their MAINS were usually casual or semi-casual raiders.
    EQ is not depopulating due to age but DECISIONS.
    I told you all years ago that if you keep tuning everything for the top 10 guilds - soon that's all you'd have left. It's coming to pass.
    I'm been on CT since '99. And I'm losing interest. Most of my original guild (from Air Warrior 1st) is now in Star Citizen. Shall I join them?
    -Rat
    BlueberryWerewolf and Yimin like this.
  12. Ofearl Slayer of all things Stupid

    How is TBL un-box friendly as you put it?

    I run the worst setup for a box crew and I still manage to play there and beat crap.. even added a 3rd priest(cleric)! So here you have a raid geared Paladin, group and raid rot gear druid and shaman, added in a cleric, sometimes I run 2 dps mercs or load up a friends account or two. I rarely focus on more than two accounts. I press buttons and set up hot keys for heals/dots etc, no programs or anything. Good old fashion button smashing!

    Now, I’m not saying it’s not challenging but I’d assume if you could box in RoS, you can do it also. Learn what your crew can and cannot do.
  13. Maedhros High King

    Doesn't make what I said any less true.
    Bear in mind that I field potential recruits from all stages of development on this server, and many of them are very forthcoming with whats going in whatever guild or raid alliance they play with.
    I do wish all the open raiders and alliance raiders well, and will be happy to assist with strategy advice or general raid advice as always.
    Nevertheless, my assessment that there is a wealth of lower tier/casual/alliance/open raiders that are all spread out among several teams and should consider merging is 100% spot on.
    Yinla and Lisard like this.
  14. Morthakia Augur

    I beat the whole expansion with my box crew, just as I did RoS. That said:

    Having a raid geared tank is the single largest factor in determining if content is doable. It doesn’t matter if the rest of your group is in conflagrant gear, the mere fact that you have a raid geared tank makes your group more capable of doing content than even the best geared group characters.

    That said, the mechanics of TBL are SIGNIFICANTLY less box-friendly than other expansions. Smoke trials are the perfect example. Trial of the Cyclone is a huge PITA for a boxer as it requires splitting the group with a constant DPS check. Trial of Ashes requires you to constantly move your whole group to avoid the fireball. Ouch. Trial of Wending Ways is just super annoying for everyone, but particularly annoying for a boxer. The Speaker’s Amphitheatre wasn’t so bad, but what a nightmare it is to port up a part of your group to one platform at a time. Trial of Three is reasonable, but does require you to move your group quickly or you die. Then, of course, there is just simply moving around Stratos — another boxer nightmare.

    In addition to challenging mechanics for boxers, the shear amount of AEs from named is super painful. A few named have a “rain” spell that utterly destroys a group that can’t move quickly. “Hot Foot” is another super boxer unfriendly ability that requires you to run away from the group and back in the middle of the fight.

    While all of these are definitely surmountable, they are much harder mechanics that were faced in prior expansions (in my opinion).
  15. mystic37 Journeyman

    I had to respond to that post. SR/ROTE is needed to be successful? FL is just fine. There is a reason people do not raid...…. Egos like yours on full display... is a turn off to those of us that have been raiders somewhere in the 20 years we played. Back in the day, wearing that guild tag meant consequences for those acting like total to the rest of the server population. Getting in general chat and being an . Getting on forums and acting like you somehow are better than the rest is insulting. Training people on expansion releases because your guilds alts needs items... and having a guild officer tell you "If I did not see it, it did not happen" is what happened. There are a large number of legendary raiders on the server that now box their way through expansions. You scream for server mergers when you have spent years pissing on the people on your own servers and the only way you end up surviving is a merger... new blood right? FL just keep doing what you are doing! You don't need another guild tag telling you how to do things.... those same people could give a crap less about anything or anyone but their own glory. And before ROTE jumps on me with their total lameness....I will not blame the entire guild for the actions of some of their members (you do have a few decent people).... but when their own officers are involved in the training of camps they want, from lesser geared players... and then go into general acting like asshats….I am not sure how they expect the population of the server to act. Being in a guild used to mean something... when there were standards for player behavior.... gone are the days of guild reputations over loot. Now, as it stands.... "just look the other way" If you do not see it happening or acknowledge your guildmates are acting bad, then you tend to become one of them..... and they tend to get overly zealous about attacking you on a personal level, instead of dealing with the issues at hand. It is not a server population problem on Cazic. It is a no standards while wearing a guild tag.... that leads to the situation you are in now.
    Yimin likes this.
  16. Odiiusx Elder

    I find it hard to believe that Cazic Thule (or any other) server doesn't have 54 more like minded people in the same ability group and time zone(s) to be able to combine and make a guild that cant beat current content. You are one of 2 servers that have already proven it can happen these days with the creation of Rote. If it really is only coming down to Leaders/Officers not wanting to lose their power(as stated somewhere above), then they really aren't good leaders to follow in the first place. Now, if it comes down to either "I don't want to leave my friends" or "I have been in this guild forever and don't want to leave", there is nothing saying you cant add your friends to your fellowship and play with them like normal, outside of raid times.

    There are always options, even if they are not your favorite.
  17. Yimin Augur

    Maybe you can all come to PoVar we have low numbers here also ! We still have one major raid guild and an alliance of two smaller guilds raiding TBL ... :)


    YiMin
  18. Salinae Old Cranky member

    FWIW Ratbo we live in a dictatorship in ROTE. Maedhros is the decision maker he calls the shots and takes the burdens for our failure and never takes credit for success. He has depoliticized our guild. I will say this for the time i have been there we have not have officer ragequits, drama, pretense ect. If you up you get told dont up. He is patient and kindly He does have a very strange obsession with Crocs though. We log in play the game rez the rangers (a lot) and its no sweat no whispers and everyone knows where they stand. The new boss is boss.
    Maedhros likes this.
  19. Salinae Old Cranky member

    I am all for a server merge, but that isn't going to make bad players good players.
    If I am grouping with someone and they ask whats Gina, and they have gear that is just wrong for their class having more people like that together isn't gonna get the big raids down.
  20. Cambella New Member


    The Stockholm Syndrome is real with this one

    Ps. you have plenty of drama, like everyone else, what a weird and unnecessary (and inaccurate) claim