Locked out zones ToV

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Dwimmerlaike, Nov 28, 2019.

  1. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    That was back in a time when there was small upgrades in gear and there were plenty of zones to do at that level.

    They still had 4 zones to play in v the 1 we had this time round. Having 4 unlocked zones this time would have been a huge improvement
  2. Laronk Augur

    I think if all of tier 1 was unlocked and you didnt need smoke trials to get around it would of been better received. By the time you're able to actually go to static smoke you don't need to go to smoke.
  3. yepmetoo Abazzagorath

    Untrue. When PoP came out they instituted a level con range change and once you hit 61 there was NO WHERE to level except in PoP worth anything.

    And the open PoP zones were horrid experience.

    It took several months for them to change that, and make exp tolerable outside of the elemental planes.
  4. Velisaris_MS Augur

    PoP had four open zones for everyone. And a lot of the locked zones had alternate entry quests that didn't require raiding and could be done during the course of normal grind sessions (I think most involved just collecting drops from mobs).

    I think a lot of people would have prefered something like that rather than those f'ing Smoke trials. Unless it's a raid/ending zone, I firmly believe locked xp zones should have alternate entry quests instead of requiring progression. Give people a choice...do the easy entry quest just to be able to enter those zones and group with friends/guildmates, or do all the progression to get the rewards that come with it.
    Yinla likes this.
  5. Narlee Scholar

    The intention is for all of the ToV expansion zones to be available at launch without the need to complete quests or missions in order to access additional zones "deeper" into the expansion content. Tier 1 raids will be available 1 month after the launch of ToV, Tier 2 one month after that, etc. You will not need to complete any previous tier raid content prior to attempting the next tier once it is unlocked.

    The questing and raid specifics are more clearly documented on the beta forums.

    Additionally a lot of people have been spending time with feedback and Deebeegeepip has been working with groupers daily to tune the group content to be easier and to still provide a reasonable challenge. Playing in ToV should be a very fun and exciting way to level from 110 to 115.
  6. Tharnkiss Journeyman

    Forgive me because I do love this game. However I'll believe it when I see it. Surely I can't walk in naked at 110 and start in the expansion. So what is the gear requirement?

    Can I progress in my GMM/Conflagrant gear? Or do I have to first get to 115 because I don't have TBL gear.

    Like I get what your saying and I just got to hope that your not tuning that first zone assuming that we all have Tbl tradeskill gear with full groups. Because that's just not realistic.

    If it is truly how you describe then I should be able to start in my gmm/conflag gear and level through the expansion.

    I guess what I am trying to say is define easier, and please don't make the head attunable so that I have to beg other people to get it. All I want is a decent starting point with a progression path that's possible...

    Let us look at what that attunable gear got us in ROS. It allowed casuals to get gear and then go back to frontier mountain...

    You say easier... The OP is asking for possible...

    Sadly easier doesn't mean that it is possible. You say that playing in Tov should be a fun and exciting way to level... All we are hoping for is "possible" lol... With reading your post, it doesn't give me a warm fuzzy that it will be "possible"
  7. HanktheTank Journeyman

    /shrug fyi the beta buffed toons are in tbl tradeskill gear. So I don't think your GMM/Conflag gear will be good enough.
  8. Tarvas Redwall of Coirnav, now Drinal

  9. Tharnkiss Journeyman

    Lol so like since Tbl wasn't "possible" and this is tuned for TBL GEAR... It looks like I was right to be sceptic...

    Why would any non raider buy that expansion when it is quiet obvious from reading that post that the zone will not be doable.

    It is upsetting to see the dev post something like that. I guess he likes to ROFL at us groupers? That's just sad... 8(
  10. Elyssanda Bardbrain

    Actually that post is missing information from another post.. yes, it is tuned for 2 (yes TWO) players in GROUP TBL gear, not raid gear and 2 mercs. So a group with more players in worse gear will be ok.

    I've been running around testing it as 2 differently geared bards. Molo. My maxed out AA/Raid TBL geared bard can decently molo non-named with my cleric merc. My non-maxed AA, hodgepodge group geared level 110 bard in some GMM, couple TBL group pieces, couple conflagrant level pieces with not nearly enough augs for ANYTHING (like I think her augs are TBM level) can fight for a little bit before dying, moloing with her cleric merc.
    I do have a Betabuffed bard also,m but honestly, I haven't gone out with her to test anything more than the port griffons from Nro to EW and back. I've been checking out zone issues and /bugging them or flat out telling whichever GM I can find awake and in game more.
    code-zero likes this.
  11. Tharnkiss Journeyman


    I appreciate your testing and work; reading it thou it doesn't change my perception of it. Now if you told me that the tank merc could actually tank a named. Then I'd be interested to hear more. From what you describe it sounds like people in not so perfect group gear will still struggle just to survive on trash.

    Changing the group from 2 people and 2 healing mercs assuming that 1 is a decked out tank? Yup because all of us non-boxers have those ideal conditions. Or is it 2 people any class with a healer merc and tank merc?

    This thread is only about the first zone. The dev piped in and said that one could experience the whole expansion... We all know that's a pipe dream With the post from beta comming into this thread it still isn't changing my mind... 8( Adding 1 person and a merc to a group does not change the gear that the group is wearing. I remember when LDONs came out. You could go out with a healer, ranger, rogue and complete a mission... The bard is a plate class so it sounds like the tank will be discing the trash.
  12. Dagum Elder


    Sounds to me like you don't even want to play the game. You want everything just handed to you while you watch mercs do your work. What class are you? Are you a tank that hasn't farmed his tank augs? I think you should stay in frontier mountain longer, farm some AAs, and actually earn the right to explore in the new expansion.

    Everquest is a group game. If your not willing to group with people or box then you will be stuck buying the gear from those that put forth the effort to do what is required to explore the new lands. If all your friends have this crap gear; then I suggest you find better friends.

    The GMM nerf should be a lesson to you. Stay in Frontier mountain and don't come out until mom and dad say you can.
  13. Ratbo Peep Augur

    The GMM gear got nerfed? Missed that one entirely - nerfed how?
    -Rat
  14. Dagum Elder

    GMM was used as a bridge that actually allowed groupers to get gear that would help them get to do tbl group stuff.

    Then they nerfed it to be more challenging. The gear stayed the same.
    Ratbo Peep likes this.
  15. Allayna Augur

    IDK....

    Soldier of Air > Fight Fire > Any 1 smoke trial > (at this point flagged for days to get to Empyr) Prisoner's Dilemma > Palace of Embers > (at this point flagged for Aalishai) Brass Palace > (at this point flagged for Esianti) Key to the Kingdom > Contract of War > All Hail the King > Royal Visits > Tyrant of Fire (at this point flagged to request all T1 raids) > Enter Mearatas (at this point flagged to enter Mearatas)

    Or

    At any point do Strange Magic and campfire to get the traveler achievements for each zone. The ONLY zone that actually requires that YOU personally do progression is to get access to static smoke....so shinies, merc tasks and hunters, hunters don't even need access and shinies can be purchased. So literally you feel slighted because you didn't have access to 1 zone worth of merc tasks without doing a little work?

    Was it convoluted, yes, was it overly difficult, no, to hear people crying about it a year later is a bit much. They could have left it all locked like it was in beta....or they could have left it so no campfires or banners could be used like in TDS....

    ToV has been scaled back quite a bit since beta launch. Test it out for yourselves...better then forumquesting 1 year later about how you are.
  16. Corwyhn Lionheart Guild Leader, Lions of the Heart

    You can level up and get some tbl gear before going there assuming you get the expansion to get to 115. Its pretty usual for them to tune things to gear from the previous expansion.
  17. Dagum Elder

    This is the a-typical I did it just fine in my raid gear. Thanks for buying the port lamp from me so you could get into the zones...

    The thing is you say try it out. These people are thinking of not buying it at all. I don't blame them either. Honestly if ROS unlocks for free to play I still see them in frontier mountain.

    You bring up a great point about tds... It's locked and people just avoid the content all together.
  18. Corwyhn Lionheart Guild Leader, Lions of the Heart

    I don't think any of the sites ever explained the path to progressing through TBL other then the straightforward one. People not in raid guilds or large social guilds could quite literally not get the memo on this one. And you might say "go to the forums" thing is they were used to progression being a certain way so had no idea there was a more indirect way to do it.

    I think TBL was a bit overtuned but that wasn't the main problem. They had a standard progression path that was too hard for a lot of groupers and the non standard one was unknown to folks. It eventually purcolated through the grape vine but I think there are still folks out there that don't know about.

    And if they had left TBL without those backdoors it would have been even worse so I suspect that wasn't much of an option. As you have mentioned they did not even listen to the feed back of yourself and other raiders who said it was overtuned for casuals. And the devs really took the lazy way. Instead of tuning it properly to group players they left in all this campfire stuff. Shouldn't have been needed in a properly tuned expansion.

    And strange magic still isn't something the average groupers knock off to get access.

    For good or for bad a weakness on the casual side is sharing strats and info. Good raid gets make this a priority, then there are lesser raid guilds, then there are large casual guilds then smaller casual guilds then folks out there in their one player guilds.
  19. Corwyhn Lionheart Guild Leader, Lions of the Heart

    Mission not gear ;)
    Ratbo Peep likes this.
  20. Allayna Augur


    So far in ToV:
    EW mobs hit like pansies
    Great improvements to consolidation/simplification (more geared towards casuals imo) spires for example.
    Dropped gear, tradeskill group gear, dropped raid gear, and tradeskilled raid gear.
    Upgrade to shield aug.
    Upgraded PS.
    Upgraded Type 3s, don't think they're in yet though.
    Pretty expected and some appreciated upgrades to spells/aa lines.
    0 locked out zones - 1 zone with keying for different floors
    0 raids on launch - pushed back 1 month from launch
    0 raids requiring group progression - this will lead to a LOT of buggy group content, most raid guilds just aren't putting in the effort to test these missions/quests due to that. There's too much content for the EQ playerbase at large to EXPECT the raid guilds to figure out all the quest lines and bugs.
    Did I mention the mercs?

    /GU A lost mourner in 70s, 21483k @306906 | #1 A fearstone enforcer 11899k@170.0k (183.1k in 65s) [55.39%]

    That was no adps....just pally MOLO.

    Brings up another point. The EQ playerbase has expected to be spoon fed the content via step by step walkthrough a la eqresource for years. Where's your sense of adventure?
    I will say some of the nastier mechanics are still in the T1 zones and not found in dungeons. Something that would probably be brought up if "casuals" tested the content.


    I probably have 18-20 toons flagged for Arx zone. It's not difficult and for years held the best PS in game.