Changes with the February Update: Alternate Ability Grants for Gold Members and Ability Changes

Wowsers. I wondered why this thread was so long... anyway as someone who has played in EQ since May, 2004, I have no problem with these auto AAs.

What I would find helpful is more details on the AAs. Which ones work well together, by character class. Which ones are good solo/molo ? Which ones are good for group support ?

SK stuff is a little heavy handed, but eh. Love the AA thing though, might get a few of my friends to play again. ^^

To those whining about how we should walk uphill both ways in the snow you did:

Me being one of them, that was a reply to someone asking why I wanted them optional.

What heroic characters are those. Just wondering, because I can't find info on them.

Try playing a Rogue/Zerker. Headshot is superior in everyway, because you don't have to go mono e mono with the mob and can kill at a distance, along with snare and root. HS needs to be nerfed before /decap.

As someone with 40k AA plus between main two toons the grant doesn't affect me but is somewhat scary from a content perspective. What's to stop with even more gear handouts? Augs? Quest rewards? Skill points (after dumping in 800k to research last night, I'd be pissed if they auto granted that at 100, for example!). Whole thing is a slippery slope.

What about a passive, DoN style AA for folks who ground it out or choose to do so still? Could toss a some stats, saves, heroics, HME etc and still give people a reason to progress their toons, but gives them something to do at 100. As it is being proposed, a class needing 3800 AA to max because everything else was auto granted is going to run out of things to do fast! That should be just as much of a problem as catching players up, imo.

It's clear it's a SOE priority that the path to the end be hastened end as much as possible and I don't like it but understand. What about what happens when the player gets there? Rof + 2ish zones isn't going to keep player attention indefinately...

Well i think giving people AA's for nothing is a horrible idea, I have played this game since it all started, I always return , because i know that i can pick up and work on my character that i have spent years in building up. I put in alot of work , and for you to just give people what other have earned takes away all the pride of something hard earned. It is called EVERQUEST , meaning questing forever correct, so people should not be given anything , Heck you have already made this game 4000% easier than it used to be. what is the point if you dont have to even try , and then to make it worse , everytime an expansion comes out you are going to give aa's again. that is just silly , there would be no point in gettin aa's , just wait for next expansion and bam got them all. Well myself and my friends have played for a long time , and all of us will be done with this game if these changes happen , Sorry to say it but after 15plus years i will never come back and never spend another dime.

Heroic characters will come fully geared in probably non prestige gear for 85 That's about it and again its 85 who cares.

link please

Pay to win? Really when all your getting is a lvl 85 toon? Even with 4k AA (most junk) a lvl 85 toon is far from win.

they would be better of just setting a limit on how many rampage can hit and how many the beams spells would hit.

Just go look at EQ2 Heroic Characters. That is the template we will see fully geared with AAs. Again though if its 85 or even 90 who cares.

Simple solution, make HS not work when a mob is rooted.

They both have advantages, with a rogue or zerker you can kill multiple mobs at once, via riposte, you cannot kill more than one mob at a time with HS. With HS you have to go through every mob, and kill it.

I don't like it. I do have a gold acct, however, i rarely use it now because I prefer to play my 2 silver accts. I will never be able to max up my aa's for this reason therefore, those characters i play will never be able toprogress to where they can can be helpful in a raid guild if i ever feel i would enjoy it.

Well I would be against that in EQ, since it will further cause a drop in newbees. Even though I'm in favor of AA changes.

But ppl like Axxius are saying that as if they're in EQ1, which isn't the case, just to muddle the waters.

I don't have the time to make a big post, however, I have a couple things I want to say.
I completely agree with the changes to Beaming or Swarming.
I am 100% opposed to auto granting all those AA's.
If they want to help the new players catch up, change it to quicker AA xp until 5 or 6kAA's or something. Giving us the choice where to put the points is what helps us. Auto granting abilities that we wouldn't use or actively do not want is awful.

The end is where it's at. Have you tried to get a group at any level below 90ish? Non-existent. What's left? Grind for days or get a PL.
Sorry but the prospect of grinding for weeks (or months depending on your time and $$ you spend on PL services) to get my character up to play with the cool kids is not an appealing thought.

They're coming to EQ soon go read the producers letter.

I quit EQ1 being in the top guild on my server back in 05. Some old EQ friends told me about this and I couldnt be happier. I made a lvl 1 toon and couldn't take it. Being able to jump back in is very nice because I miss the game, not the grind from lvl 1 again

I remember this same kind of argument when the store went into EQ. People assumed this was a money grab and soon they would be selling raid gear in the store thus making those of us that worked hard for it compete against the mighty old Visa with people who couldn't be bothered to work for it.

I expect if they did do gear handouts, etc, it wouldn't come close to impacting raiding players, or maybe even grouping players.