lol.. now I see that the expansion started only a week ago... and I thought it started around end november / beginning december.. I expected the first guys have run through it... Have read through all - reminds me on Ykesha - this xpac is really small.. even the usual Partisan/Mercenary tasks are not fully done - like having left half of the stuff. Perhaps it will be upped in 6 months, who knows... I ask myself if a L110/111 crew with TBL/TS-GMM-Kombo can do some Named or if they need level up. Seems I am a bit early with my questions. And mobs have been smoothed down quite a bit compared to the first beta. I remember being onerounded with a ToV raid tank on first day. This does not seem the case anymore. Increases the playability Thanks for that.
There was a bug corrected in uhh, late November that heavily reduced the melee damage. Since then the content in ToV has been of modest difficulty. I was able to bring a TBL group geared team and, fresh off the griffon, beat the toughest group content in ToV without much difficulty.
I really liked the first EW and GD missions since they were all unlinked. Then I started working on Crystal Caverns and it is the definition of what I hate about quest lines. Everything is based on Andera Velmist - Invading Ice. Its all linear which means that you can't find people to help jump in the middle of the quest arc and since there are a 6+ sub quests the mission takes quite a long time. For anyone who gets ready to do CC - be prepared for 6+ hr of running around the same areas of CC.
Pro: Easy mobs makes this accessible to non-raiders. There is no super hard mission, so even groupers can be reasonably expected to complete all 4 missions. No progression means that if you see a person LFG, you can invite them to join you in the zone you are hunting, and they can probably work on similar tasks as you. Con: This expansion may be too easy. Too easy means the more skilled players are more likely to get bored. Exp design is the worst of both worlds. Those with connections can get to 115 very fast. Being in a good group can take a just dinged 111 to about level 113 after running the 4 group missions. Those with limited connections will spend forever trying to get to 115. Exp loss after dying repeatedly in raids may cause issues as the exp loss after a death takes a long time to recover via grinding.
I don't know how people are going to manage this level range when there aren't groups available for quests/missions/whatnot but I love this expansion so far, only other negative is I can't use any of this T2 loot before I finish grinding and that's kind of a bummer
Not sure about easily completing all missions but completing ok though haven't done that yet.. The most highly skilled players always get bored. Agreed on the exp loss for those raiding. Personally as the expansion gets older and groups for doing the exp rich first time achievements dry up for those playing catch up I think increasing the exp of mobs would be a good idea.
I think that's something the devs most certainly did not take into account. After the initial rush (a month or two) to finish things, when pick-up groups and task adds are an option, casual players and people who are late to the party, or don't have guilds/friends to help them through it, are going to get discouraged by that miserable grinding xp. They may quit, cancel their subs, or (even worse for DBG) skip the next expansion entirely if this is the direction they choose to go in from now on. I would much rather see them either give out a reduced xp reward as incentive for replaying them or boost the per kill xp.
Wow. I get tired talking out of both sides of my mouth. You seem to do it with relative ease. How can an expansion be both too easy and too hard in the same post? Each 'pro' point has a 'con' counterpoint! I want to address the skilled players comment because I think it's completely unwarranted and off-base. I have the ToV expansion almost completely done. Kaput. Finished. Just have a few collections to grab. I am THRILLED about it. I am just enjoying myself at this point. I can work on other quests, Hero's Journey, finish off Epic 2.5, I have lots of anniversary tasks to mop up....Old collections, hunter's, etc. I have limited playtime. Work, kids, projects, etc all conspire against my EQ time. Finishing this expansion quickly gives me more time to focus on all the things I didn't have time for because I was grinding progression. This is great! I get why you said what you said. And for some, you might be right on each point. I am just not one of them.
Then perhaps I can say it from a groupers view: Pro easy: - Parts are easy enough that a casual group can do it - despite the beta insta-killed me with ToV-raid gear, this time I could molo with my not really uptodate merc a very small amount of mobs in EW - that brought me to pay for my box crew and this could kill even named from the start - there is a balance between corpse runs and wins, not like TBL having more loss through wipes than wins in the first couple of tries - you get as a casual motivation to play and pay Pro hard - some mobs are really nasty and wiped the group in a couple of hits - some named are definite not only a challenge - perhaps I can do them at 115 but if you pull and the first sight is an insta-kill and the second shows the whole group down is really a surprise - because of complete different danger levels in the same zone and the jump from T1 to T2 there is not really a safety granted as long as the expansion is still in exploration - if you know what mobs doing hard then it makes really fun to get killed by 300DD/DoT named - a real challenge (and i witnessed some for hours to get the permaspawning guy in Great Divide down - which my group was successful in the first try) So if I look at others who are at the limit then I must say this expansion is the first for ages which does only slap me in the face in a nice wipy way... because I see a chance perhaps to beat some of the mobs in the future - but best: I can work my way up and slowly get better gear to manage to do that. I have no clue how missions are and only touched a bit Velks and Frozen Tower for the kill quests. To give real contra at moment is a bit early and I am not sure how XP works at higher levels (still 111/112). At 111 I could do 20% in a day in TBL/RoS. So not that bad even XP went much faster in RoS/TBL times. Here a another Pro Pro best: - all T1 are non-prestige and tradeable for alts - THAT is the real nice thing - the expansion feels like a DLC for TBL -> buy it, gear up to 115 and try TBL again to finish it and get the Conquest achievements... because the gear in TBL seems not really so outdated compared to ToV. If I have my first missions and L115 perhaps the Pros change - but I don't think so.... It was good advise to buy it.
is there any realistic way to level without doing the progression missions? I don't want to finish the expansion in 30 days just to be able to be level 115. This expansion (with the group gear requirements) seems completely like a 1 path to the end only. Seriously no exp in the older expansions? Or none for redoing quests in ToV. This might be the exit expansion for lots of people. What are they going to do for the next 11 months?
I got to level 115 by doing all of the mercenary and partisan quests, some collection sets along the way, and the EW mission. I haven't done the other three yet. Without that lone mission it would still be doable, it would have just taken another day or so. A lot of my experience was just from killing/camping named for augments, etc.
This is the restart expansion. I wanted to quit at least for a year because of the last two expansions. Now I decided another round and there is enough to play around: a) gear up main and alts on ToV TS b) max out TBL evolving gear (after they are hopefully bugfree, rare achievement lock issue still present) > which means max out the most last expansions c) max out Artizans prize d) max out AA (which is interesting, because xp flows low at 115) -> perhaps max out AA in every level first to have it easier -> perhaps AA comes with b) and the collections e) if not done above - get all the conquest achievements and the nice augment adds in TBL f) get achievements done (to do old raids solo or in a box is a challenge by itself, or start organize old raids) I am sure that I find some other things if I think about it a little more... You have done all? Then I recommended getting your life back and explore the real world a bit
its early way too early imho to claim what is or isnt ToV But to honor the the thread i will !!! Feels a bit too soft to me, very limit to zero replay value and if had make a claim it would ToV is a sugar rush. Super smiles at first most are happy.. but in 3 months will we have broken smiles? i dont know but if you thought summertime low was slow.. this summer im freaking out. Yes and Yes maybe a no or who knows ? answering imagine questions and forming opinions is kinda pointless.. did i level in forumquest? Happy new years hope be around next few years.. both me and eq.
Maybe it's just pain tinted glasses but I remember RoK leveling to be as painful as grinding mobs for XP ToV. I distinctly remember basically being happy with getting 1/25th of a level at level 59 in a solid night of playing EQ. I'm sure if I had my six box setup it would've been a totally different story.
I will never ever forget being at Chef camp in Sebillis at level 59.99, in a chain pulling full talented group with no downtime, taking 100-120 minutes to get that final one percent to ding into 60. Granted this was 2000 or 2001 when hell levels were truly Hell levels, but that one eats the cake.
can totally just exp and level, i am almost 114 and haven't touched a quest, but i have grinded with pots at times and i have tried to die as little as possible i was hoping to save quests for 114-115. i have been doing hunters achievement as i leveled.
Because there is zero interesting to buy. oh, level 97 of class AA x which is 0.000000000001% improvement from level 96 and costs 10 times as much ?
I couldn't disagree more. The reason is simply because I have been playing EQ a ton since ToV launched, and have earned a lot of aa as a result.
