Changes with the February Update: Developer Updates

That's pretty much what WOW does with older expansions on a regular basis: replace Elite mobs with regular ones, eliminate faction requirements, make group quests soloable, etc. It makes old time players, who had to do it the hard way (in the snow, uphill, both ways) cringe a bit, but it certainly makes catching up and leveling alts easier. However, (a) they have a much larger user base and (b) they don't have nearly as many expansions to re-tune.

It may not have been a Howitzer but, it was definitely more like a steamroller than a bat.

Nerfing beams I completely understand. Being able to deliberately lag out the zones/servers in order to kill current content yellow and red con mobs needed to be fixed. ( Though, why the lesson wasn't learned with Wizzy beams is still a puzzle.) Lower the level of mob that these spells can affect while also limiting the number of mobs allowed.

The cleric nerf just creates another problem. Splitting a single buff into 2 separate buffs when some classes have buff slots at a premium is confusing. Using the song window for the short duration part or allowing more buff slots may be good solutions.

Zerkers are being over-nerfed. Remove the ability to decapitate any mob that doesn't actually have a head. (no snot cubes, oozes, etc.)

Ranger headshot should work on more mob types. Again, requiring a head. (no snot cubes, oozes, etc.)

Rogue assassinate should work on more mob types. Since it's triggered off of backstab, mobs with actual backs should be viable. (no snot cubes, oozes, etc.)

SK's can't mass swarm anything above light blue mobs unless they have a death wish. Limit the procs to accommodate 12 mobs just like you're doing for beams. This allows for current raid content as well as not nerfing SK's into oblivion as main tanks. Limiting the procs to 5 or 6 mobs, almost completely destroys SK's as AE agro champions that is almost required by the recent raid encounters. You deliberately create swarms in raid content, then nerf the people able to initially cope with and control them. This just seems counterproductive.

Please add a timer to auras since they aren't actually permanent.

I said this exact thing a few days ago.

I have read some of this thread and I'm not sure it this has had a reply. " giving AA " verses "earning AA " would be viewed very differently.

I also said, providing AA's for older content will reduce the value current players believe they have invested and increase the likelihood old player will move to EQNext. SoE is tired of carrying this dinosaur and is angling to move its old customers to new content. reducing the value of their characters is their passive/aggressive way of getting it done.

I'm looking forward to EQNext, but if its a short on story, or the quests have a question mark above the quest givers head, you can bet I'll be right back to playing my ' nerfed all death ' ranger

What level do those show up ? And I haven't bought the most recent expansion. My highest level character is 62.

Not sure what those reasons are. Can you help me to understand?

If it's the logistics of calculating how many AAs everyone can get, is it possible to just fill in all unfilled AA Underfoot and below? Then the difference banked?

If the reason is making new players and veteran players equal in game play ability, then maybe the difference can be placed in tradeskill AAs?

...and at the annoyance of repeating myself... Is Headshot damage being increased?

Just because you gave a suggestion, does not mean its better than the aa auto grant.
Just because you offered an idea, doesn't mean it doesn't have holes in it.
If you suggestions has holes to pick in it, wouldn't you rather *someone* point them out? Or do you prefer everyone shuts up?

I would rather take an AA autogrant than almost every idea offered so far.

Do I think some of the ideas are great? Yes. Do I think some of the ideas would have a solution more elegant than the AA autogrant? Yes.

Do I realize that many of the ideas would require a huge overhaul of the system and cripple their ability to come out with new content? Yes. If it comes down to revamping the catch up system ( vs a quick AA autogrant ) or new content, I will always pick new content.

That being said, I think tying AAs to a simple " explore the zone! " achievement system is just as cheesy as the autogrant, and are effectively the same exact thing.

Reworking every single progression task system from 51+ could take quite a bit of work. Throw in the fact often these can be un-molable ( is that word? ) at the appropriate level..whats the point?

You want people to experience Everquest like you did. I get it. Unfortunately that can only happen under very very rare circumstances. Wanting a person to molo through content lower level than them ( because you most likely will not be soloing through current content with a merc after a while ) is NOT the same experience you had with a full group when that content was current. It is nothing similar.

I have no issue with a person sitting there AFK getting PLed, so by default I can have no issue with an AA autogrant. If I did, I would be a hypocrite.

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=5553 Hero's Journey

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/qgen/ Can use the in-game Map Zone guide to determine zone level

http://everquest.wikia.com/wiki/EverQuest_Wiki

Im a veteran of Prexus, had to re-create after the wipe. That said, if the catch up game is that bad you may as well delete everything. Reboot from vanilla eq and delete all the work and effort your veterans have put in, its what you're doing anyways.

That's easy. Rangers. The class with the most total AA's needs the most be truly be effective in level 100 content.

Yeah I didn't feel comfortable as a raiding ranger until I had over 7k AAs. That covers the basics in defensive, DPS, utility, and healing.

This. *Any* group should have these effects in full for a full group.

I love how you keep beating around the bush, imo its like he said you keep commenting on everyone else and bringin down their idea to make yourself feel better? The facts are the idea of giving AA to everyone is crap it should be earned, point blank! IMO best option is increase the aa xp bonus to something stupid n keep it consistent till 6k+ making the "HILL" that much easier to climb without handing out xp that so many of us worked so hard for!

I second this. Those auras can be really annoying.

Increasing experience gain is a perfectly logical solution. When the game first started, max level was 50 and it took quite a while to get there. Now it's double that, plus thousands of AA. If we still leveled at the rate we did in the beginning, THAT would be a real mountain.

excuse me Dev master sir, but im hoping that I get this question answered. When the AA grant is given, what will that do to Vitality exp from Fellowship? Will it be treated like earned exp and deducted, or will it just be an auto AA grant that works outside fellowship? Im partly asking because nobody else has and that nobody at EQ might have thought of it and therefore code for whatever the decidsion is about it.

heh and cuase my chanter has a full AA bar and 3 regular bars filled up

Auto AA's just seems like EQ Welfare. If you didn't earn it, you probably don't deserve it. If I work my off to earn 40k in any given amount of time, I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't pissed if the new guy below me was Auto-Granted a 40k bonus because he didn't have the advantage of working there as long as I did. Granted, that's an extreme example, but the principle is essentially the same and that's probably what pisses most people off.

People take their accomplishments very seriously, especially those that take an inordinate amount of hours and an undisclosed amount of money in subscription costs to achieve. To water down those achievements without adequate reward or compensation is nothing less than a giant middle finger to those who feel this way. It also does nothing to quell the vociferousness of those same people.

Well, it is more like 6500+ aa's to anyone level 85, my sk now has 7100 aa's. It is live on test now. I still think this is way overboard.

It is broken on Test though, Elidroth and them said all AA up to and including UF (so level 85, basically), but on Test it is currently giving all AA up to and including HoT (level 90)

Current max for a monk is 9750 aa n that includes all the crap aa's like innate n stuff like that but with that said, Monks need to be almost max befor they can honestly even set foot in a raid n honestly think the will be a asset to the guild they are raiding with...

Sorry for remaining off-topic. Perhaps this could be moved to a new thread in a more appropriate forum, but until then, here goes:

I just recently started using my chanter bot more, and Amplifying Aura is one of the aura's that can end early. I think it's because it has counters, but at least on the non-chanter players under the aura, the counter remains more or less constant until the whole aura fades. I suppose there is an issue about being able to count hits to the counter from other players, but I honestly don't know.

However, because this particular aura has a worn-off message, an audio trigger is easy to write for it, which solved the problem for me. It's all the aura's that lack worn-off messages that I would like to see tweaked.