Changes with the February Update: Developer Updates

Lets see... 2008 they noticed and hear players screaming about how bad the AA leveling had become. So they gave a boost to help players get AA's..... 5 years later that bonus is again increased because in 5 years the amount of AA's more than doubled and the amount of the EXP bonus was just not enough to catch up players and to create a fair system..... Now 2 years after that... its been determined that while they thought the Bonus would work they admit it didnt and the climb has just been getting worse. So they decide to cut the mountain down a bit by creating a base camp halfway up.

Not sure your point was made other than showing us a timeline of why this is needed..... Years go by and things change. Everquest is still in no way close to being like all other MMO's... that is a sad and lame excuse and one that does not hold up. EQ is still the hardest MMO (other than Eve) out there and one of the largest in content. It has a strong standing to keep that up if we can keep old school players longer than a free month every now and then... and autogranting AA is a great resource to entice those players to stay.

I see this as a best of both situation. I can go and get my AA's the old way or I can get them granted. Now if they cheesed out the experience where I was getting 1AA a kill I would not feel any sort of satisfaction. It would make it feel even more like a chore than it is now. Also it would actually lead to level shock and cause a lot of frustration.

As you can see this is something that they have been adjusting as the game has grown. This isn't a knee jerk reaction. Although I like some of the suggestions of a epic quest line to achieve to give players a tutorial of skills of their class. It's a necessary evil to try and create that stream of new/returning subs to keep up with the people who are leaving as life moves on.

Difference of opinions on how. If the intent is helping lower and new toons there are better ways to go about it. You take anyone that offers a viable option that isn't just handed to you as bad. More then 50% of your AA just for dinging level 85 which can take one day is not helping its hurting them as they will be just lost further down the road when content is less forgiving. Just as rare old school named popping every 20 minutes with every rare item isnt progress its self greed.

Players need a way to speed up the curve a bit more, players need information and knowledge passed along a bit better. Some players WANT other things that fit into their current happy mold.

And what's the problem with raising the bonus instead of giving a crap ton of free ones? Oh right, if they sell you a heroic character at 85 it can't do crap without AA.

That's all I see here, just another variation of the exact same post I've seen over my fifteen years of playing Everquest, except Rollen, Aailin and even Furor wrote them better.

I understand your concept. Personally, having put huge work in to gear to increase arrow output and proc rate I naturally would prefer to receive some benefit, be it ever so humble, for that investment.

For instance, the fastest bow lands an arrow 10% faster than a standard bow. It's not a hard camp, but it is what I called 'character building' in a prior post. The next fastest bow, which should be in the middle, is a 1/100 drop from a 1 in 3 or 4 PH spawn. That's at least mildly character building.

The Prescient Fleeting quiver adds about 20% bow overhaste. It takes 2 (!) High Quality Lion Pelts. These drop in exactly one zone in the game, from the coveted Highland Lion. They are a semi rare spawn, and they drop the pelts in a stingy manner.

I won't go into the boring details of hDex augs, as those have benefits other than proc rates, but suffice it to say that one would like to think that with some extra effort a Ranger could make at least a modest improvement in any given facet of their game, including this one.

I think they did this because if they do drop in Heroic Characters... those will come with gear and AA's... people will and would have complained about the Toons and alts they have not being viable and how they still have to work theirs up.. while new people or people wanting can just buy a character with the AA's.......

About the changes to shining armor...
I dislike having to cast it every 9 min on different tanks, I hope this change doesn't make me have to cast it more often than before in normal non swarm situations...

whats with this upcoming chat with devs on thursday? is there any point attending?
i mean they already announced the patch and what is doing and many people have already spoken against it for various reasons
will attending this chat stop or change anything.

/facepalm
I was explaining what I thought the other poster meant. I was not stating that it worked like that. My post even says that it was a way to explain what the original poster had asked.
It has been stated it will affect one of the two AA counts in the Alternate Advancement Window. There is Assigned, and there is Spent. These can be different ( for example, the AA you receive from gaining your epics), and act differently to the counts, and your AA achievements. I forget which was stated in this thread.

can someone break down exactly how a brand new account no money no friends goes 1 to 51 in 12 hours and then how they get to 85 in a month with no help? id find this useful information

I would like to know as well.
To put in perspective to my situation I am a returning player on a new account. I checked played on this character when she was level 77 and 1300ish AAs. Character was 106 days old with 34+ days played.Yes that is a crazy amount of time played and I myself was shocked when I saw it.
Play style is following the Hero's Journey as much as possible except for a few of the mini raid events which were impossible to do at the time since there were never any groups in Stone Hive for example. This was also done boxing an SK and shaman so many of the time sinks (9 failures on that silkfang pack final combine and uncounted subcombine failures in Mesa) might have made it take a bit longer.

Not going to happen!

I believe I asked if there was a firm date

no firm date shooting for next week

If you really want a easy game where everything is handed to you......Go play world of warcraft!!!!!

We don't need to "go" play world of warcraft...it's being brought directly to us!

Okay tons of stuff and lots of rants , here is my views. No one is taking anything away from anyone with the aa grant. if you have, like myself, earned them all , done them all the hard way , endured the hell levels , and still come back kudos to you. The new system is designed to bring you new opportunities to meet with new people in everyquest(insert crack if you prefer). People who wont' have to go beg for a powerlevel since they dont have a ton of plat, or pay a third party, cause who after all realy trusts them to deliver, or wants to risk being banned. For a lot of players it offers the opportunity to make a new Toon at a decent level who can immediatly group with their current high level toon or toons. I myself am looking forward to this opportunity. As far as someone getting something for free or easy who gives a darn. Most of you concerned with this probably, have never made a group in your EQ life without people or toons that you were not already associated with, weather it be guild memeber or friends or family. As far as the nerfs/ adjustments, well so it goes. Saying its not fair I cant exploit the game to my liking anymore is just tough tiddlewinks, enjoy the fact you were able to for so so dam long with no repercussions. Live on Evercrack may the Gods of Norrath Bless You.

I'd like an answer to "will they get the AA achievements" ?

I won't be happy if they do, unless Eldroth puts in a substantial amount of AAs for wizzy in the next AA update and by substantial I mean bring us up to the same AA count as rangers. I won't be happy if a feebie ranger can have AA achievements 2 - 3 K short of what I have worked for.

Sure give the AAs away, but they should not get the achievements, they achieved nothing, they were gifted.

What is the point of achievements if you just get them for logging in:? May as well scrap the whole achievement system.

You are so far from the truth you have no idea, as avmatter of fact not only do i put random groups together on the reg but i also do pickup raids on povar because with the new way sony releases these expansions now Triton raids 2 days a week n we have all current targets down so to keep entertained because i honestly have nothing left to do on my main or my 2 alts in group content or otherwise, so dont assume you know what we do because you have no idea.