Changes with the February Update: Developer Updates

If having an under-leveled, under-AA'd, under-geared character is winning ... then sure, pay to win.

I don't understand why Sony doesn't just make all the Alternate abilities from base to UF cost 1 aa point each. With the exp bonus it is easy to get 500aa fairly fast. It's even faster when you are not paying 12 aa for a single upgrade. Autogranting AA is a really bad idea.

And I don't understand why SOE would do that. Autogranting AA's is a really good idea.

If they change the base to UF cost to 1 aa point each, it would affect EVERYONE in EQ, not just the people who are getting the AA grant. They would have to redesign the AAs meaning that all the AAs you have worked for would be nullified. The achievements that you and I have worked for over the years would be reduced to very little. You really don't want that any more than I do. The auto grant will allow the newer players to at least have a little boost to their character. EQ is now being designed for the top level players, even the revamped zones are for the top levels. The grant allows the new players a chance to catch up a little quicker so they can enjoy the newest zones and play with their friends a lot quicker. I really don't see anything really bad about that. Only the truly "elite" will want the new people to take years to catch up, after all, it took some of us 12-15 years to get this far, right? smh

I'm a little confused on the auto-AA thing. Does that mean when we have auto AA's they will be chosen for us? Or do we get to pick and choose which AA we want to use it the points for?

You get them all.

Not really. You get pushed out of the exp bonus with a bunch of AA that are nice-to-haves at best and useless at worst, and still have a few thousand AA to grind out to really be effective in the end game. Only now you are getting 4-5 AA from the dailies instead of 30. Instead of a long ramp up, you now have a straightaway to 85 and then a brick wall. If the point is to get people back and let them rule in HoT, then this change will be very effective. If you want to get people to 100 with the critical AA's for their class, then I am not sure this will do much to ease the frustration except maybe postpone it for awhile.

Making the old AA's cheap lets you pick and choose what you want while retaining your AA bonus for your critical lines on the run to 100. Besides, 30 ranks of CS for 30 AA is essentially the same thing as an auto grant. I think they are way past worrying about people's hard work grinding out these AA 8 years ago. Games age and have to adapt.

Ummm the AA grant is not a compulsion. its a choice. there's nothing stopping you from burning away your AA exp bonus grant on good AA's that are useful, ignoring all the ones that are worthless (or will be auto-granted anyway) then triggering the AA auto grant to get them all once your bonus is gone. A new well thought out character, properly lvled and given points scores a massive advantage.

You made my point. It will probably turn out that the most efficient strategy would be for someone to grind out levels and 2-3k of the most critical AA (including some that would be auto granted due to prerequisites) and then take the grant to fill in the rest. However, that doesn't seem to be their intent. They want new and returning players to take the grant, catch up quicker, and not be overwhelmed by the choices. The blanket grant will absolutely help to an extent, but the road after the auto-love stops will be much harder and create a wall that I fear most won't bother to climb, especially with the little investment that they put in.

I find it interesting the way so many of the folks seem to find the AA issue more important than the nerfing of toons. 8 years ago I started my Rogue. I didn't know it was a Lame toon to start. I just felt it was the one that suited me best.. I didn't know it was hard times. I watched my friends soar in level, and I was always moving at a snails pace. I did lots of Raids, but I found that raids were ment for the few. No loot. No exp. Just alot of work. To be honest I did get a couple of minor raid pieces that there were better found on the market. A couple of times I got close to max level, but the expansions always made them higher, and no easier for my Rogue. Then can yet one more expansion, and I said that is enough. I quit for many years. Durning that lax time I remembered zones, and friends till about three years ago after a major change in RL I decided to visit the old home. The Game had some major changes since the old days, and I found my Rogue was not quite as Lame as he used to be. So I worked hard to get to level 70. Got most the AA's to that level, and made the mistake getting PL'd to level 85. Er well that was not my intent. I just wanted more AA's Anyway Before that I was just starting to have fun with my Rogue. Well now I was Lame again, but that was my fault. Somehow I ended up in Looping Plains where I ended up doing all the quests, and killing over 5K Gobbies, and toward the end that got to be fun, but it was time to move on, and the Mech Fort was totaly Lame. The Steam Factory was beyound me and my friend, and there were always folks PL'ing in FM. OGH took forever to finish bunch of lame quest there, but then it started to come easy. I met some friends who taught me about Dailes, and would take me to the Grounds, and VoL. Gosh heady days. !00 AA's a day for many weeks. My friend thought I was crazy for working on my AA's, and they went on to be level 100, and me a level 88. I am not sure when it happend, but I started to run out of useful things to spend AA's on, and so I would level. Now I am a Level 92 Rogue with 5.2K AA's. No more useful AA's to spend at this level so it is time to move on, or it was maybe. Gosh my Rogue has been so much fun over the last months. I have not been some super Rogue, but I knew my limits.. I have not done any kind of PL'ing other folks, or mass killing for loot. I have just been me. Well now SOE you tell my toon is to powerful. You tell me you have to limit what i can do. You tell me you are going to extend what I can to do to level -1. Bah I think that is a bunch of nonsense to make me feel better. I Tell you what SOE. I am a Rogue! I have always been a Rogue, and it is a Rogue I will always be. After all this time and work if my Rogue is not not fun anymore then to hell with it. I give it up!!!! I won't be a Shammy, or a War, or whatever toon you decide to bless. I will just be me as I have always been.

Oh btw you can decide whatever you wnat. I can can decide where to spend my money

I feel the same way about my class - SK. It's what I do, who I am. They're messing with all of us but the bottom line is, you'll still be who you are. Trust me. Change is how games evolve. There was a time not so long ago when all I needed to do was cast disease cloud.

I wonder if we will get the AA /ach and anything else that comes by it.

Most of us are waiting till it comes, we don't want to spend on any below underfoot. I am sure many are doing this or going straight experience.

Hopefully this comes this week the patch, so we can get it over with and find out what's / what with the AA's

Seriously?

Will we really care about all of this when we're 70? This is a video game- it's not life.

PLAY ON, and who really cares about the details? Some do, perhaps, but consider this https://forums.station.sony.com/eq/...ght-on-veturika-the-spirit-of-norrath.208023/, or a guy named Hinanthewiz on Bristlebane who has a sad story, but helps everyone he comes across. Venting about an autogrant is miserable compared to real life. Get some sun, go outside, and who really cares about how anyone else gets AAs.

Cyri

How to solve Swarm problems (or at least put the power in the hand of the players) no nerfs! In fact you can restore classes back to their Original states (bard swarm, Eshaker swarm).

A: Anyone who gets more then 12 mobs on their Agro list (non-raid flag, and not green or grey raid flaged) and their life totals are under 80% is Automaticly flaged for pvp for all levels for until 10 after they lose agro. While pvp flag enabled they cannot camp, or zone (but the can still /q which won't stop people from killing them)

B: Once a player has been flaged a server wide annoucment goes off telling everyone so-and-so is cuasing Swarm lag in said zone.

C:Enable all instances that have players with said flags to be open to the general public even if said instance has its full 6 people load (I know u can add more, how else do GM's get in)

This would place the power of the game back in the hands of the players, only if players themselves refused to enforce the rules would you have to take steps. I would like to think that each player community would be more then happy to nail rule breaker's to the wall then have their classes nerfed.

You're sorely mistaken if you think a petty 12 mobs is enough to cause server lag. You are far off. Way way off in numbers.
There is no debate, if 12 bunched up mobs lag anyone then it comes down to the player's processor and graphics card not up to handling the load; a very insignificant load meaning that person's resources are subpar and completely irrelevant to what the servers are able to put out.

Your B: point is just plain idiotic for like 6 different reasons that you didn't even bother to consider. Did you give any thought as to use-cases before proclaiming to the world that someone is swarming when they in fact were not?

dude, 12 is the number SONY is giving for the most that can be hit by beam attacks, besides why would anyone (other then to swarm) need more then 12 mobs on them at any one time? I never said 12 mobs would cuase server lag.

Ok point them out to me plz. TELL ME in what situation a person would have mobs at over 12 mobs at 80% or less life on them chasing them around and the person in question NOT be swarming? did you even read my whole post? or you bothering to stop and think about it first?

this is a rough draft of an idea, contribute by pointing out the flaws, not insulting me for stupidity.

Please create a Veteran server for those us us that don't wan't anything to do with this free AA/heroic character crap to transfer to. Better yet, create one that this new NGE only applies to. You're now well on your way to making this a game that will be mourned like SWG and once again SOE, you will be remembered and loathed for it.

They did that once before, or something similar I believe, with the 51/50 server, or whatever it was called. I don't know what ever happened with that because I wasn't interested in it. I would love a veteran's server to transfer to, but I get the impression they're past the point of caring. They've offered the opt out which has kept me from immediately cancelling my accounts, but I think I'm fast losing interest altogether.

Those that think "heroic characters" and aa grants are a great idea don't understand why others should care, and by opting out, theoretically we are unaffected. But I am affected, whether I opt out or not. For me, it cheapens the entire atmosphere of the game, in the same way that someone running around with a moronic name or something cheapens the atmosphere of the game.

Back when the second Diablo game was huge, I used to spend a lot of time on there. For the most part I would avoid public games, and I would never trade with anyone, I would only find all my own gear. There were some pretty elite items that would take a long time to find, I would maybe find one or two in a year's time playing. Those same items were being duped and cloned by the thousands by other players who were using various cheats and hacks. Players like myself were pretty much completely alienated from the community at large, as the majority of players had no problem using these things.

This feels very similar to me, only sanctioned by the dev's .

You could always do a /testcopy in the game, and go see the changes on your character on test right away. I did that with my alts just to see how I looked after the change.