This does sound interesting. At this stage of the game I do not see a problem with them selling it as a perk either.
While that sounds great for the people who are able to complete that achievement I think there would still be a large number of players who won't have it and would still afk in those places for buffs. And of course you would have players who have it but don't have an available merc slot for it or don't want to use a slot for it. Edit: Actually thinking on this further it is likely this would only really work for max (or max level - one or two levels) characters. As most people are afking for the best buffs in those places unless the buff merc gave those buffs regardless of level people would likely still afk. I would think that a buff NPC that could offer a wider range of buffs then a merc of the same level as the player would be a better solution.
But then what would I do with my 10 other accounts who are my buffers? The Hero's Journey category only covers up to about level 85 unless you mean the ENTIRE listing of all the category there are: ie each expansion, all the collects etc. If that is what you mean then it would be impossible for anyone not raid helped or geared to accomplish that. Keep it real for all players, not just the upper class.
Where in my post did I say anything about each expansion? Calm down. What's unrealistic about Hero's Journey completion? Make that tier buff equivalent to each level-appropriate section of Hero's Journey for those who are lower level. Want to unlock the next tier of buffs? Complete the next section of Hero's Journey. Once you complete all Hero's Journey, you unlock all buff levels. The problem isn't being inclusive or not. The problem is people want something for nothing.
Thats the thing... lvl 1 with lvl 46 buffs vs 120 buffs is functionally no different... there is no challenge difference. You can already get 120 buffs at like 76? or something. Even if it did matter, do you really think lvl 1-70 should be more challenging?
But you didn’t do it as you admit in your post. Now, you’re expecting other people to conform to the way you want things. Your post history shows that you advocate for player freedom, but Buff NPCs shows that you want to restrict players.
Actually no. I am just saying there are ways to solve the problem. I guess what I am saying is lets make buff bots so buffs become totally meaningless. Then lets just remove buffs and give everyone the bonuses. Eventually once we have whined DB into doing this with everything we end up with all gear all buffs all bonuses all mobs dead all gear and the game is over. Grats you won EQ? My history shows I defend the little guy where reasonable I just don't think this is reasonable. That is all you can infer from my history of posts. Fact is I don't as much disagree with easy button arguments with hardcore players just the how extreme we are against them. I like the game to be tuned to the average player not the player who won't leave PoK without being heavily overbuffed. P.S. if you really go through my posts you will see me say many times that the things I say are MY OPINION. If you don't like my opinion you can try and change it with logic. Any other way you protest my opinion is probably useless which is fine I am willing to trade posts on the subject ad infinitum (not literally). D for effort but keep trying.
There is a fine line between tuning the game towards the average player and just giving so much away progressing in the game becomes meaningless. I am in favor of players buffing players because I think it strengthens community spirit. Players helping players generates positive feelings. Lets not forget we have already been given many Easy Buttons. Everyone got veterans aa, everyone got the leadership abilities, they made all buffs RK III level and remove buff ranks so group players could cast the best buffs same as the raid players. You res at the NPCs in the lobby, you res at the NPCs in the lobby free no charge no res tokens needed. Etc etc.... Thing is you have to be careful. The whole change to NoS armor ore is because we get too many Easy Buttons they have to make something else harder. Its possible the messing with grind exp was part of the same thing.
You didn't make any suggestions, and instead launched yourself all the way down a slippery slope: Really? What's the difference between a Buff NPC doing buffs and random player doing MGBs? You already demonstrated that players aren't going to do it, because you yourself stopped doing it. You're not on every server, every day, every minute. Really? Leadership abilities aren't easy buttons, they're UI/UX functionality (HoTT, Inspect buffs, Mark Target, etc). This all comes down to you feeling replaced, because you established your self-importance around buffing people.
Do I, as a player, think 1-70 should be more challenging on Live? No? Does a developer, trying to maintain some challenge in their game, think 1-70 should not be trivialized on Live? Yes? Don't take assumptions I am making about developers as my own personal thoughts. Thanks?
How are those levels challenging anymore? Most advice I see says to get a merc and rush through them.
I have a suggestion. Lets totally revamp the spell system so all we need is a single spell that just levels up. Then we don't need 800 different spells that all do the same thing. Or.... we could just play the game that's been around for this many years and not try to fix an old system.
class discrepencies between the level the class gets a spell vs other classes, like ENC - Swift Like The Wind - Lands level 1 SHM - Swift Like The Wind - Lands 46+ like KEI This is silliness. OK, so the SHM has to wait more levels to SCRIBE it, but why then punish lower level potentiial recipients from one class over the other? There's zero net gain in this policy, no encroachment on the non hybridized class ability, they get it later. That's the penalty. Your spell is too powerful for your intended target, unless some other class casts it, is not.
Level bands for buffs doesn't bother me. But what would be nice? 2 things, first you can cast any buff on any character level, but it scales down. IE a 120 can cast 120 haste on a level 1. But they get the spell from that band, so its only 5% instead of 40% or whatever. The second would be permanent buffers in the guild lobby. They would only cast rank I spells, and you could build credit with either PP or Krono. Deposit it, hail them, get X or Y buff. Just my 2 copper of course.
For new returning/players getting them to the multiplayer part of the MMO right away seems like a better strategy. For existing players, this is just more quality of life. The difficulty of the lower level game can already be tweaked by a number of choices, this change would not diminish anything that is not already.
