Bottom line is I hate it. It is a pita zone to get around with unmezzable and see invis mobs. The old way, it made old worlds useful. I can't think of the last time I could farm faction to benefit current expansion. I thought it was a good idea. Goro/OT required farming for faction in EOK, VP in old world zones. If they were to make one change, I think losing 20 faction per kill instead of 1 would have been more reasonable. Maybe just 1 for trash mobs, 20 per boss. As it stands now, once your faction goes KOS, there is no way to raise it again.
They should change the "hard" named back to getting 2 rolls on power sources. Right now the zone lacks a compelling reason to return. Many got "chase" items/hunter/progression done while the zone was easy mode, and those people have no reason to return. The only thing the zone is mildly good for is group loot from the "hard" named. That said, the loot isn't different from any other zone, they just drop more. I don't think that's compelling enough to make many endure all the SI mobs, large aggro radii, CC immunities, etc.
Group quested items that become best in slot with a raid diamond? Creatra’s earring, the OT hammer now that the knockback is gone...and the BiS charm... I see reasons for groups to go in and wreck their faction for those...but then never return once they have it. Oh, I’ll add this....key mobs that have PHs...wth, if people have to kill endless PHs...of which there is only 1 per...and you need 9, plus the drop from the Skyfire mission...at least when the “named” spawns give it a visible drop... Otherwise, make it a set mob on a timer, no PHs, the key mob is either up or not...much like other EQ Key/Flagging quests. Nothing like a fabricated bottle neck....or 9.
There, i extended your statement and agree - i hate the whole expansion On the faction though, i think that should have been done from day1. This change in itself makes this zones that much "harder" (read: more of an effort to get from one loot pinjata to the next). And yes, i think the partisans/hunters/collectibles and the special quest drops are "the" reason to still go there if one doesn't have them already. Be happy that you were there to experience the easy-mode, and stop complaining already imo. Makes me smile every time something like this happens to see who's posting what on such "nerfs". The keying itself reminded me somewhat of the VT key, which was a bottleneck "par excellence" back in the day. I say "somewhat" because what took me years back then (granted, i wasn't even trying to perma-camp it for "my turn" in line, but certain shard droppers were perma-camped or just ultra-rare by themselves that you could camp them for a week without pause or a dropper-spawn) "only" took me weeks now. Still, the PHs and some placements in the middle of a bunch of mobs that make you require some help is bad in itself. As i said from the start, intended imo to delay us, to "make the expansion last" somewhat longer. Back in the day though, it wasn't "the key mob is up or not" - well, not in MY old days at least; that part you were referring to came much later. All in all bad, bad (not to say ) design...
VT key is a poor comparison imo because lucid shards had multiple trash they could drop from, on the opposite end is the new VP: there is 1 mob, with X number of PHs per key piece. 1 mob per server...and you need...9.
hmm... really? It's been quite some time, but i recall the goranga scout or what it was.. only ONE mob in ONE place to drop that one, with a really bad dropper to PH ratio. Same with at least two other shards, though it'd been too long to remember the details. Anyways, i felt reminded of camping my lucid shards when i had to do the RoS VP key, though i had less issues all in all with this than with the VT one. I am with you though on that it should be better farmable - a while ago i said i'd have prefered it to be farmed in instances at least, to allow for parallel farming of different groups, rather than the forced sequencing we have, and in static zones to boot.
Any of the three goranga scout camps in Maiden's Eye can drop the Lucid Shard, just the one closest to the DSP zonein is the easiest one to get through and also the least likely to force you to traverse a mix of live and dead mobs.
VP in its initial state was ok. Now its a total bust. I keep hearing an end keyed zone should be hard. Right, should also be rewarding. VP's rewards are just the quests/achieves that can't be got anywhere else while the bonus with charms used to be nice, though I saw that changing up once the zone became populated (which don't see that happening now since no one I've met likes VP. the closest thing to like I have found are people redundantly telling me ya vp should be hard end game zone.....). Keyed zones in the past usually marked a whole new level of gear that you had access to once completing the key. The VP gear is the same and the items that are different aren't really a whole lot better than other options. End game zone should be end game... but in RoS we got to end game with all the other t2 zones, no need for repetitive gear from VP. The quests are the only benefit. I talk to more and more people, after the change, that would rather their experience in RoS end before getting to VP. Showing how bad of a zone VP is, fostering no interest while putting a rotten cherry on top of a poorly made expansion.
