I see mixed emotions about ToV. I just want to let the Devs know that I, and literally every single person I know, think this is the absolute best expansion in years. Many people who went inactive that I know have specifically reactivated their accounts due to this expansion. It is not a cake walk, but it not overly easy. The gear is great, the zones large, and all in all, a blast to play in. The TBL model caused many friends to quit EQ, and this expansion is bringing most of those people back. A++
I think some things could have been handled differently. Having no meaningful zone progression is something a lot of people would disagree with, but given the uncorrected mistakes made with TBL progression, I think ToV is the right thing to do. Ultimately I want the highest populations possible. People make the game. Also, the character models are pretty great.
Seems okay so far. Starting to see posts about pet tanking not working in some spots, so a little worried about that.
I like it so much I bought it 33 times! PoSky was a really cool zone in the sky, Stratos was...not. Falling off those walkways especially trying to box was miserable. Smoke was miserable. I agree, ToV is a good xpac.
I love it because its Velious, and undead. 2 of my favorite things. What I do not love is how easy it is to tank. I also do not love how many missions it takes to buy one type 5 aug. I am going to be awfully bored of doing those 4 missions. This seems like the timesink replacement for the Stratos Fight Fire mission.
It's decent. Velious is cool, the artwork is great, and I think the static zones are very enjoyable (I do wish there was one new one). Happy with the level cap increase and AA work as well. Overall it's too easy for what I enjoy, but I understand making a more accessible expansion after TBL. I do think there's a lack of content. A lot of my guild is completely done with Champion, Paragon, and Challenger. I know we push through content pretty fast, but this is definitely the fastest I've seen that happen for this many people. I really wish that Avatar of War presented more of a challenge, or at least I'd like a challenging conquest achievement or two to work on. Hopefully the TS quest gives us something to do. I really don't love a lot of the raids in this expansion, either. They'll be fun to beat once, but like a lot of the TBL raids they will be unenjoyable to farm. If they aren't tuned up at all when they go live we'll also blow through those too quickly, which will be disappointing (again, accessibility is fine, but one challenging raid would be nice).
My biggest complaint so far is the way they decided to do exp. Putting the bulk of xp on the achievements and making the xp gain per mob kill next to nothing is...idiotic to be honest. Those achievements are one time things...then you're stuck with mobs that give nothing but crappy xp. If people want to get their xp via grinding...let them. I'm cool with beefing up achievement xp a bit over what it has been in the past, but saying "this is how you level now" is just a slap in the face. Stop forcing people to play this game the way you think they should be playing it...that's a sure fire way to drive away the casual players. I thought it was a lesson that DB learned with TBL...I guess I was wrong.
I haven't done ToFS but the missions are a cakewalk. First thing I did in the expansion was beat them with my TBL group geared level 110 team. Pretty disappointing. As for the rest of the OP, it's the first week, let's give it a couple weeks before declaring it the best in years.
I really really enjoy the fact that achievements yield as much experience as they do. It was that way in Rain of Fear and really rewarded the folks who put in the effort to do progression. I’m a fan. I like the expansion as well. Took me just over 24 hours to hit level 115 and finish all the quests (minus the bugged EW ones). Wish there were more than 4 missions and more difficult challenger achievements, but I’m comfortable with what was served up. The luminous restless ice is also super nice!
I'm loving it so far! I find the difficulty well balanced. Casual groupers can kill mobs, and even T1 named with full groups. The missions are hard, and have some interesting mechanics. I dont think many of the casual groupers will go beyond the first one or two missions for a long time, so the majority will still have things to work on for a good while.
So far it's been enjoyable. For moloing I think it's excellent. 20/40 million hp's in a mob is sweet. We'll have to see how much sustaining power this expansion has for the long run. Only time will tell.
I get stuff done anyways but it's nice things not having pre reqs when you group with random people. You can just tackle what ever task you want.
Time does not matter as much to someone who is perma afk. If anything, they'll profit from it. I don't care for this expansion at all. I don't mind the grind, but the lack of real content to consume, doesn't complement the grind. When devs try to make EQ into something it's not, it's going to fall flat with the players.
Yeah well if they end up /afk grinding for 2,000 hours instead of 48 that opens up a lot of exposure.
There's a difference between nothing and minimal. Say 5 of the zones were open access from day 1, and all 5 zones had to be completed to access the 6th zone, but each zone had independent progression, then there would some "meaningful" progression but little to no barriers to entry for almost the entire expansion. The problem with progression in the past is that it has been very linear in an open world game. TBL was the extreme example of why this is bad. A non-linear progression is a good way of doing things. It is still possible for the Devs to change it. A 7th all-new zone that can only be accessed after the previous 6 zones are completed would be great, especially considering that the ToV zone progressions are not really tied together. You can do GD first, or last, it doesn't matter. I know that wont happen, but it's nice to dream.
