It should be 110. They should keep heroics 10 levels below max so its easier to catch up. The real game is 110+ that is where all the players are and the best experience for new people will be.
I don't think there should be heroic characters at all, and instead they should create a streamlined leveling path for new players, that walks them through the game to level 110 (and RoS AAs should be autogranted without a subscription). Level 100 heroic characters don't make sense, since you're putting them into a leveling spot where you grind to level, instead of the new quest-to-level model from ToV & ToL.
Please make this level 110. At 110 a player still will "want" ~20k AA and everything you could imagine "gifting" a 110 player will need replaced in three levels, grouping at 110 will still be difficult so getting the much needed augs and gear will be difficult but even more so the progression needed to level will also require groups, again difficult but not impossible like 100 is.
Agree on others with making it 110. Level 100 seems already outdated; player had asked for increase in heroic level long time ago. Also sounded like this implementation is going to happened later this year. For the financial sense and practical playability 110 should be very good.
Level 110 Heroic Character Autogrant all progression up to and including Empires of Kunark Start the Heroic Character in The Ring of Scale Overthere zone Complete set of Torment of Velious tier one visible armor Faded Snowbound, this will require minimum effort as it is copy paste for each class and rename it Heroic Class Armor. You can do the same for the Non-visible slots. Included renaming of the items for you since that seemed to be a complicated process. Ear: Tiny Medicine Pouchx2 (Heroic Earrings) Pet Class Ear: Shivery Earring of summoning (Heroic Earrings of Summoning) Charm: Crystal Powder Pouch (Heroic Charm) Face: Dripstone Mask (Heroic Mask) Tank Face: Maniacle Demon Mask (Heroic Mask of Anger) Ring: Ring of the Condemned Deadx2 (Heroic Rings) Neck: Web Encrusted Necklace (Heroic Necklace) Range: Lost Stein of Dain Frostweaver IV (Heroic Stein of Adventure) Ranger Bow: Frostbite (Heroic Bow) Shoulders: Icicle Drape (Heroic Drape) Melee/Tank Belt: Windchill Hide Belt (Heroic Girdle) Caster/Priest Belt: Narandi’s Cummerbund of Potential (Heroic Belt) For weapons you can: Casters: Glacial Crystal Tip Staff (Heroic Caster’s Staff) Priests: Mender’s Shiver Staff (Heroic Priest’s Staff) Knights: Immense Ice Slicer (Heroic Knight’s Sword) Zerker/Ranger: Lament Maul of Restlessness (Heroic Maul) Monk/BST: Orc Herbalist Staff (Heroic Fighters Staff) Rogue: Freezing Rainx2 (Heroic Daggers) Bard: Bone Chilled Spearx2 (Heroic Spears) Warrior: Bloodmaw’s Axe of Miseryx2 (Heroic Axe of Rage) For augments For type 5 Augs for simplicity just give all the classes 20x Topaz infused Velium jewel (Heroic Augment of Survival) and make them Non-prestige. Suggest stamina for all classes to just give them a bit of survival out the gate For type 7 augs for simplicity just give all the classes 15x Dour Blue (Heroic Dour Blue), obviously removing the lore tag and making it Non-Prestige suggest this aug due to it covering 2 stats that cover all classes in the group game Dex (Defensive/dps) and Stam (survival) I dont suggest Wasting time with Weapon augments as those will most likely be the first thing New/Old players upgrade either immediately(bazaar or whatever) or by gameplay Throw it on the Marketplace for 5000 Daybreak Cash (45 dollars). thats 75 dollars from a new/returning player if they decide to keep playing beyond the free to play content and buy the expansion, or at the least 45 dollars for a new/returning player who wants to play, can jump into somewhat relevant content with familiar feel (Ring of Scale expansion as noted above for starting place for new heroic).
While I believe more players are tolerant of selling a level 110 Heroic Character, there's going to be a vocal minority calling it Pay-to-Win and expecting unlimited free grants at Character Select to counter the Pay-to-Win perception. To anticipate their argument, they will argue (in hyperbole), "The only way to level is Overseer and now Daybreak is selling preloaded characters for real life money. How is that not Pay-to-Win? How is it not a money grab?" (Not my position; just foreshadowing the critics who may even support 110 HCs currently). To a lesser degree, you'll have another set of folks grumbling about any Heroic Character priced over $10. The distance from max level gives the game some breathing room and mitigates any Pay-to-Win perception.
I think level 100 is the easiest one to make for the devs, gear-wise. Just deliver him naked(with rk1 spells/tomes up to level 100) in ETWK in front of the group gear vendor and give him enough Marks of Valor to let the player buy his own outfit with augs of his own choice. The devs doesn't even have to add any new itemization at all! Level 100 is also a good level to start working on heroic AAs, and get a taste for the progression based game. CotF is a good expansion for "returners" imho. They will not be able to join the endgame right away, but I don't think that is the goal with heroics.
I agree with 110. It is a good expansion that uses questing to progress. It also just makes the most sense to place heroic character upgrade along with F2P ToV upgrade. More people to group with is better for player enjoyment.
An easy way to manage heroics is to just give them a vendor with anything they could want on it. For a 110 heroic, it would have all of the ROS armor on it. I'm new, I don't know what I am doing, oops I destroyed my armor and augs, I just go buy a new one at no cost. Making it so a heroic gets a vendor to buy anything they need armor wise permanently solves the heroic problem. When the next expansion launches, and autogrant moves to the TBL level, all heroics then are 115 and get an TBL vendor. Simply flagging these vendors heroic would made all heroics fully scalable immediately. I think a great way to manage it would be to put the vendors in a flagged zone, so all heroics zone into the game the first time in that instance, with heroic tutorial NPCs, and can go back anytime to get anything they need. Give them a heroic AA to get there, or whatever. Anyone who got a 110 heroic and hasn't leveled during the expansion can simply hail and get their missing levels and spells, just like on beta. It's a one time implementation that makes heroics permanently relevant. Heroics being 1 expansion ahead of autogrant is probably good. So Autogrant RoS AA, go to 115 with a full Rk1 spell book and a vendor to buy TBL group armor. Start in an instance with a popup as to how to buy armor and augs and tutorial NPC to easily get that window to pop up again. Very little dev time past implementation required.
Wait no more. I almost always respond to posts in the same tenor as the post I am responding to. Your posts so far have been the very epitome of what you accuse mine of being. So I guess you're looking in the mirror.
100 is fine. Get tov taskadds and be 109(might require xpbonus weekend) then get 111 and get ToL taskadds, equip tradeable ToL gear and off you go. 110 is really pushing it. I'm just glad to see the boost to a progressable level out of the box rather than having to level 15 times first, the first 5 without a top-level if you can find one. 100 will be viable for at least 5 more expansions too, until max level is again over 30levels above, and even then, taskadds will likely still be feasible stopgap(I'm unclear if taskadds can be done over the 30level spread though)
Heroics were added March 12, 2014, at level 85, per Fanra. The active expansion at that time was CotF, with a level cap of 100 per Zam. TDS launched shortly after raising the cap to 105, per Zam, immediately depreciating the value of heroics. Heroics have continued to remain the same price, while level inflation has always been active, yet remaining the same price, meaning a continually depreciation in value to players. That is why I keep hoping for scalable heroics. I would love to see heroics scale every new expansion. I rambled about it in post 32, but simply put, allowing players unlimited access to an expansions armor and putting in a heroic vendor for that armor, means the devs never have to deal with the heroic updates again, except for unlocking the next heroic expansion vendor. No tuning is required by the devs. Players buying heroics simply gear themselves as they see fit. Level wouldn't matter anymore. Heroics would always be 3 expansions behind while autogrant would be 4 expansions behind. Keeping it simple that all heroics are flagged the same, prevents people waiting out an expansion with a level increase. All heroics have access to the most recent heroic content. Hail for a level and spell book update. Maybe just put the spells on the vendors and let players "buy" their spells. Whatever makes it so the devs updating the heroics on the next expansion launch is almost 0 effort. (PS: Give heroics L2 spells)
I would love a 110 heroic. I would make another mage. I have enough old gear to make a pretty nice mage out of the box.
Your reasons looks good, but I'd be concerned with the start zone/Expansion. RoS had horrible T1 zones, the dots from the mobs in OT are overpowered and the drakes in Skyfire are a death sentence. Might be better to use Gnome Memorial Mountain as the start zone. It is far easier to deal with especially if players are not 100% up to speed with their chosen heroic class and the mobs have a lot less dots/mechanics. Basically it is more player friendly. Could add augs to the quests/missions to improve themselves the same as they did with 85 heroics. Further thoughts on a 110 heroic Starting a heroic char at level 110 even if they grant everything upto and including RoS. TBL - Still need to do quests/mission for heroics (named?) - major pain - might want to consider adding to a level 110 heroic. TOV - AAs are autogranted, Quests/Missions/Named for Heroic AAs + might want to do earring COV - AAs, Quest/Missions/Named for Heroic AAs TOL - AAs, Quest/Missions/Named for Heroic AAs That is a fair bit of content to catch up to max level players. The heroics aren't due to go live until September which only gives them a max of 3 months before a new expasion gets launched which adds to the mountain of things to do to catch up. When level 85 was launched it was 15 levels to the max, we didn't have such a mountain of AAs to do and we didn't have heroic AAs to achieve. As much as I love CotF and think it would be a good start point, IMHO I feel it is too far behind the current player base.
