Changes with the February Update: Developer Updates

Swarming in instanced zones causes lag on non instanced zones.

Just wanted to throw out a specific alternate idea. If auto granting AA is the main hang up for folks I would recommend lowering it to Prophesy of Ro at most. that's roughly half way through all expansions since AA came out in Luclin era. People would have generally the needed but slow/boring/grindish AA in CA and CS etc, and folks would feel nearly as hurt about the AA grant.

I don't mind some help for folks to catch up this is a very large big game to catch up on, but it wouldn't feel like were giving away the house so much, and people with that level of AA should be able handle the game content and continue to AA while it still feels like a challenge.

UF level AA grant just seems like its taking away ONE of the parts that make EQ special, that being that it takes time, and that adds to the reward.

Well just today a guildy learned of this. He had just hit 4k AA at 100 this week. Now he feels like what he earned is given away an he feels silly for trying to earn them.He logged out not a happy camper. So that feeling of earning is gone cause its just one check box away now.An you would be a fool to work for it when its free right?

Others see the game being nerfed down an less fun for them.Some see this "fix" as silly because low end game is easy mode even with out twink gear because of mercs. These mass of returning players who can not catch up no one seems to know of. They have Stealth of Players because no one knows them that I know at least. My guild helps our people get back into the swing of things. But some want to play eq the way they used to then get mad that it does not work that way any more.This change will not keep those players.

An just because there is always nerfs does not mean those are good in any way.Every time you nerf you lose players.When you buff you gain them.But hey I only know that from playing for 11 years an watching people quit.Then watching them return when their class is worth playing.

Then you have people like me that think the whole server lag problem is silly to. I have been in zones with people puling the whole zone an no problem. Heck if it is a problem that causes other zones on that server to crash just move the zones people swarm in to the same physical server. But that would be to easy.

An for some it does come to a point nerf after nerf finally breaks the camels back.Seriously the irony is many of us this weekend was talking about how fun eq has become. Now those same people will leave if this all goes live.

Does that help ya understand them? Im sure ya may just go why that is silly on all points.But then again that is what they think of this whole thing to.Their opinion matters even tho some would say they do not.They are paying customers.For now at least.

Piestro,

Character1(85/4000) is penalized relative to Character2(85/0) because the 85/0 toon can xp to level 100, use their low AA bonus to buy all non-grant AAs, then enable the grant and get another 5000 AAs.

The same is true of Character1(100/4000) and Character2(100/0). If you have not spent any AAs, you are in the best position to gain from this proposed change.

Not sure if it is why but a developer said something to effect of granting them with a checkbox is the same as making them do something for the AA. But it is not because it would be earned some easy way, but earned.

A lot of people say it is more work to make the Exp bonus bigger than what is happening, is that true?

Would really appreciate a response to that ? Ty

Well in fairness to any story. 5% Forum Rule isn't the only thing people are judging on.
Been top discussions in guild chats, guild forums, vents, skypes, facebooks, general channels, for days.
I'll grant you those unhappiest are more vocal
and
I'll grant you I personally highly doubt its majority that wants to quit ((Id bet big against this))
and
I'll grant you I even would view its suspect (though not necessary inaccurate or accurate) to say the majority is upset.
Long as you grant, that a change of this magnitude is taking on a life outside this forum

"1. Defaulted off
2. When you switch you get all you are the correct level for at that moment (up to a max of level 85 and uf or previous)
3. We're tweaking our content release model. So it's a hard question to answer, and we always wait for the official announcement anyways. Elidroth is asking about new AA, these are for a potential release before the next expansion. Hope that helps. "
Piestro



Looking at you number 3, is it possible that no additional aa's were in the works prior to shelling out additional money for a new expansion but may happen now?

And for the rangers arguing melee vs bowing using discs with full support etc. Not all raid rangers get optimal dps groups and length of time to kill boss mobs can vary by guild and raid content, its an apples to oranges argument.

However if we are going to be able to headshot dark blue mobs, just tune the proc to our 2 bow spells based on spell refreshes, remove the chance from bow fires, and it give us the ability that works in and out of melee and wont cause issues with pulling or huge agro spikes having it proc just as the main tank engages. Regardless of how the ranger uses it, its available and doesn't pigeon hole one to bowers or meleers.

Ruven

you should have been in general chat over the last few days

I think this week is the exception to the 5% by far do you not agree sir???

Yes but where and how do rangers/rogues/berserkers pull enough to cause hundreds of mobs at once to have them constantly have to recalculate pathing. All 3 are dead when their defensive disc wears off the ranger might live slightly longer but with that many mobs it will be a dead ranger in the end. I understand we currently have classes who can cause that problem I just don't see it being those 3.

You should probably tell your guildie he will likely still benefit from this. I'd put money down that a substantial chunk of the AA he has is not included in the grant, and a substantial part of the grant...he doesn't have. So he will come out ahead in some areas. At the very least its good to keep guildies' morale up hehe.

And here's another excellent reason not to bother going past 4000-7000 AAs once you have paid the one-time fee: diminishing return on AAs!

I'd need some knowledgeable person for precise numbers but I'm willing to bet that, on very expensive AA lines like Combat Agility/Stability, the ranks added past Underfoot grant a only a ridiculously tiny advantage compared to what you got for free!

There is no real advantage there for Toon 1.

First of all, it is incredibly foolish to even take a toon to 85 (much less 100!) without getting *any* AA's at all. Cumulatively speaking, AA's offer an incredible amount of power to a character - a tank at 100 without any CS, CA, AoW, SB, SS, ISS, etc. would be hopelessly weak. A healer at 100 without any AA's would be poor competition for an Apprentice I healer merc. A DPS at level 100 without any AA's, well, would be in a better position than a healer or tank without any AA's, but that's really not saying much at all.

Second, if anyone is (sorry, but I've gotta be blunt about it) dumb enough to take a toon to 100 with 0 AA's, there's not much, if anything at all, that can be purchased without getting some of those granted AA's. That's due to pre-requisites. Your level 100 tank with 0 AA's is going to need all of the granted defensive AA's before he can start working on the non-granted ones. Same thing with a healer and the healing AA's, and a DPS with their offensive AA's. Toon 2, in the above example, will already have knocked many of those out. Advantage Toon 1, you say? Toon 2 already has the AA's that Toon 1 would be looking to buy! Advantage TOON TWO for already having what Toon 1 is lacking!

If people still think it is a problem, though, then kill the Low AA Bonus. Immediately.

You've never seen a Berserker or a Rogue gathering large trains of mobs to decap/assassinate? I'd invite you to come watch me do it sometime.

Each rank is only supposed to be an incremental increase. That is by design as far as I know.

Nice nerfs on SKs, it won't fix anything though. Anyone who was hell-bound on swarming only needs to spend a little while on a cleric box to cast shining rampart on themselves. And this would work for ANY melee type, not just SHD.

Perhaps now that you are nerfing our leech abilities you can finally give SHD a bone in other ways, we have been gimped beyond belief for years ever since you bestowed that accursed 2.0 on us.

what about leadership aa

While the Red named folks are here and answering questions:

Is EQ1 getting Heroic Characters or not?

Note: Choosing not to answer is going to imply something leaning more toward a yes than a no.

On an aside, what I think would be super fantastically awesome is if, in fact, the flurry of "New Members" who signed up on the SOE Forums to comment about these proposed changes actually stick around and become a part of the community. The more player feedback that is given, on whatever in-game subject, the better we can make the game.

There will always be the trolls and dissenters. I like to think that the majority of people actually have constructive things to say. Heck, it's 4000-ish posts in three days already just on one post (albeit several different subjects). Just think what else we could accomplish with more relevant feedback!

I do not know if this has been proposed or how feasible it is but would it possible to change the AA bonus so they are not used up by AAs that are auto-granted? By doing this, the problems mentioned above go away and there would be no benefit of resetting your AAs to 0. For myself, I have an 87SK with approximately 3000 AAs, if a majority of the AAs I already have are going to be autogranted that would mean I could get back my AA bonus due to the auto-granted AAs.