I Surrender

From my experience, the mobs are tuned to hit (and not get hit) based on a "threshold". Once you hit that threshold (be it AC, mitigation, or a combination of things), mobs become trivial. The stat difference between raid and group gear is so huge that yes, one piece can push you over that threshold - especially if you were already close (had all the group gear you could get).

I dunno...gear only really matters for Tanks + melee dps weapons.
For everyone else it's nice to have, but usually no hard req.

When i look at weapons, the difference between group and raid ones has always been too big thou.
Let's face it, usually in a raid you have to work *less* lol.
The system doesn't really work, everyone knows those slackers who totally suck on raids but will still be much better geared than a group player who worked his butt off. I guess there's no better alternative, but i will never agree with those who say Raiders are the Elite. I met a ton of casuals / groupers who all had much better knowledge of the game than many Raiders.

I agree that gear is most important to tanks. But I also think that tanks are the key to any group (whether you're with other players or boxing). I know there are people who play with pet tanks, but that seems more rare to me. And also...that raid-level enhanced minion is a huge increase over any group-geared, right?

The tank dictates the speed you can pull. The tank dictates what you can pull. The tank is the "bottleneck", if you will. And yeah, I know that a real-life healer can pick up some of the slack for a poorly-geared tank. But my point, really, is that anybody (especially tanks) with a piece of raid gear has a much easier time handling group mobs than one who is only group geared.

^^^This and only this is true in this thread.

He traveled in the future and acquired gear.

Nice gif!

Raid gear from ROF is better than TDS T3 group gear (which you don't even have access to when you are starting TDS). The devs have to make new content "challenging" for everybody, not just non-raiders, so "group" content will always be very difficult for non-raid-geared players to complete.

My tip, if you are having trouble finishing TDS/TBM group content: 1) join a raid guild and get raid gear, or do open raids. I didn't want to do it either, but I'm glad I did. Besides the new friends I made, it also helped raise my skill level. If you are only playing by yourself or in the same circles, you are almost certainly missing something.

In my experience, I definitely wasn't going to finish TDS (or even CotF) without some raid-level gear. EQ just isn't developed for single-players (or even pick-up groups) to finish current content on their own.

Shield of Dreams perhaps?

You're risking your life and the lives of others. You must remember that driving a power steering car without a functioning pump is *not* driving a car with manual steering, you're having to work against the hydraulics in the power steering system.

There's also a liability issue involved. If you were to get into an accident, and it was discovered that it resulted in your negligence to keep your car in working order, there's a good chance you'll get taken to the cleaners, I wouldn't count on insurance covering it either.

shhhhhh...

sorry...shhh to the shield. Yes, to don't drive a hazardous vehicle. No, to it being a hazardous vehicle just based on the fact that the PS pump is out. Might be hazardous, might not. I'm much more frightened of the person with the cell phone in a perfectly functional vehicle, myself.

1. So they don't try to respond to people who complain that there is not enough content? IC.

2. If they were only in it for the money wouldn't they make casters highly gear dependent and sell super focii in the cash shop?

Yes they are a for profit company and therefor in it for the money. BUT if you sell value you get repeat customers. If you totally ripoff you get to talk to Attorney Generals. SOE/DBG has been in business for awhile.

I'm a Warrior. DBG could allow us knight primary 1Handers and 2Handers and it would not matter. We'd still do 1/4th of the DPS of a DPS caster. You're talking about perhaps 3 melee DPS classes while casters are pretty gear independent.

Like many Raiders for me it was Beta (gained nothing for my main). Did group content required for transportation, access to xzones, acess to raids at release. Raided 5 day a week until expansion beaten (negative exp). Currently 3 raid obtained pieces. 3. THREE. A diligent non-raider would rightfully freak out if that's all they had at this point.

Found time to max AA. Raiding for hours each week before having ANY time to make headway in group content.

Raiders have it easy? Lol.

How were the non raid PoW drops when they were new? How were the group content ultra rares? Lemme tell ya group gear does not top out at group end tier.

A falsehood three different ways.

1. No they don't. See Gribble HA's. They don't even have to make it challenging for a brokeback amoeba.

2. It's designed so group geared players can beat it. Raiders get most of their rewards in raid content thus it does not matter if group content is easier for them. It should be. We do all of our stuff PLUS your stuff just to maintain in the game.

3. Difficulty is not always as a result of gear. There're are also group events with raid like mechanics that nonraiders have protested are too difficult. Toooo Muuuuch Thinking!

Surely some raiders didn't analyze a situation, hand out tasks, coordinate things, and pull it off smoothly. Display a level of EQ professionalism non-raiders are not generally required to display.

IMO it's a good idea to join a guild where people support each other and where you can construct a group unlike the one you usually field in order to take on an atypical event.

Check the Raid guild Progression Chart. We'll likely end up:
50% listed but not really current content riaders
of those remaining:
25% Grade A
50% Grade B
25% Grade D

Non-raiders are also subject to a range of outcomes. EQ is a giant sorting mechanism and you end up where your put yourself.

Over the last 3 "expansions" since gutting the staff and resources, how many players would you say still think Everquest "expansions" are a value? I laughed aloud when their last poll asked that question.

We got 1 new zone in 2 variations, 4 duplicated/updated zones for our $35-$140/account. The game might still be a value if you have Kronos stockpiled, play to max everything and roll a lot of alts, but you think that's the majority of the playerbase at this point?

"Let's face it, usually in a raid you have to work *less* lol."

-Comment deleted, no one cares-

I think you've been raiding long enough that you don't have perspective on what it's like to not have any raid gear. I raid now, but I remember what it was like, because it was only 6 months ago that I gave up on current group content in group gear.

I'm only going to reply to your questions directed at me:

Thanks for "telling me" about the "ultra rares", which cost more than $40 each (when converted from pp to real $). I have done a lot of DH HA and all but one task of CotF content, on 3+ toons. And I saw one drop. One. And PoW...not sure how many non-raid geared players were really able to reap the benefits of that content.

2) I'm not sure what you're saying here. Since you are not a group geared player, you don't seem to have any experience with being able to beat "it" as a group geared player. Or did I misunderstand? There is a lot more to this game than raiding, and if you think that is all that matters, then why are you in this conversation at all? It doesn't matter to you, so go raid.

I'm pretty sure your #1 and #3 contradict each other?

Anyways, the point is that many purely group-geared players have a tough time beating the group content. If that weren't the case, we wouldn't have 12 pages of people talking about it.

I would argue 100% of those still willing to pay $0.60 a day for the entertainment DBG provides. I would also argue 100% of those who would not be happy if DBG could no longer provide any entertainment.

"My father, the former Secretary of Finance for Nigeria was given your name as an honest person." <- ripoff

The Broken Mirror <- Not a ripoff.

How many? Considering the PoWar named were open zone and you could bring more than a group to bear? I imagine the 25% of the non-raiders who are superior.

They wouldn't argue? You'd claim that after they argued for Gribble (which never should have existed in the first place) be continued when you were beyond level 100? That the initial TDS zones were "Toooo Haaaard".

Forgive me, but the 25% of the non-raiders who are inferior always argue. They argued Old Man McKensie missions where your were shrouded (not your real level or real gear) were too hard.

Battleaxe, maybe I misunderstood on your 1 and 3. Maybe you weren't just telling us that some things are really easy for you and that everybody else is dumb and doesn't think enough. Good for you!

I'm telling you that my, at the time, group geared Ranger could solo Gribbles. Enchanters, Beastlords, Mages Pet's, ... could tank them. You can't argue that DGB MUST make content challenging for all players when they made content not challenging for any players.

AND they've made content that was challenging - not because rthey required superlative gear but because they required clever play.

Given that non-raiders and raiders have beaten both I guess that would make those that did smarter than those who did not. Good for us!

With non-raid content (sometimes, not always) designed to be challenging for non-raiders some will finish extremely early, some will do well, and some will fail badly - and blame raiders for their results. It's an EQ tradition for as long as I can remember.

Oh my, Batleaxe. I think I see the problem: Nobody is blaming you at all. Some people (not you, I'm sure) take things so personally that it makes them start acting like a rude teenager towards everybody. In fact, I'm guessing the OP wasn't thinking of you at all when he posted, and maybe didn't even want your opinion on the matter. So don't feel obligated to chime in.

I'm just kidding - we're all here to epeen anyways!

I have exactly 0 motivation or reason to see non-raid content be too hard for the majority of non-raiders making an honest attempt (6 players at the keyboard operating 6 toons and giving them their full attention) to beat it.

I do however have every reason to not want to see non-raid content be so easy that it's a trivial loot pinata for everybody compared to the actual hard road to hoe presented to raiders.