What are your experiences in ToV as a casual player?

Again. I stuck around for 21 years to play Everquest not Overseer. I don't want exp given to me by Overseer.
And yes I know I am giving up an advantage by not playing Overseer. That isn't what I want from my EQ experience.

And what if you aren't doing one account? Grinding exp was acceptable for 20 years. I enjoyed grinding my exp. I don't think it is too much to expect that the game allow that mechanic to be a reasonable way to get exp

Daybreak expects to make money off Overseer through marketplace purchases. Take away grinding exp and put in another method that will make them more cash Makes sense from a financial standpoint whether it is new money or just monthly dbc being cashed in they get to put it on the profit side of the ledger.

In general I accept and approve of new ways for Daybreak to make more money. That is good for the game. This isn't one of my favorite ways they are doing it but I can accept it.

I am enjoying the crap out of ToV.

What I enjoy the most is the overarching sense that something big is about to unleash....

The more money DB makes off Everquest the longer it will stick around. So yes DB please find ways to milk this cow and many of us players have given you ideas to take our money...please consider some of them!

OK, I was just gonna let this go as a "different strokes" kinda thing, but had one more thought, perhaps worth sharing (you'll be the judge, I guess )

So, first point.... You can't grind any more? Is that correct? I don't think it is. You can certainly still grind your way to 115, there's nothing stopping you. As long as mobs still give XP, you can grind your way as far as you want.

So, next point... You know this. So, what's the objection? That it takes too long to grind to 115, correct? As it stands now, it'll take X hours to grind to 115, skipping the quests/missions/whatever, and you feel it should only take Y.

So.... can't you just do enough Overseer quests to keep it to "Y" hours to grind to 115? Then, you get your wish on how long it takes to grind, and I'll bet real money you'd only need to do Overseer quests once every few days to keep on the pace you want. Practically no time at all.

And for the people who think it should only take Y/2 hours to grind? They can do Overseer twice as much as you, and they get their wish, too

My main purpose is to show that, with very limited resources for EQ, wanting the game to behave differently is all well and good, but probably is not gonna happen. If we can use the tools available to approximate what we want, then go with that. "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good".

The grind still exists. I was 115 well before I finished the expansion. My boxed shaman hit 115 in March having only completed one ToV mission and no quests.

You can definitely still grind. It's just slower.

Group only player. Came back in RoS middle somewhere. Finished group game on ToV in a couple months. Finished earring. Finished on necro and geared her up from Hero.. BORED. Was praying for a GMM style break from the tedium in ToV but it hasn't materialized. 2 nights a week is all we play and we've finished the expansion on 3 teams of toons and are half through another. Please, please give us something fresh.

Its very simple. Prior to ToV you could grind levels at a certain rate. That changed dramatically. Why is that so hard to understand? For many years we could grind at a reasonable rate to 115.

Now Daybreak has decided that killing mobs won't be the primary means to get leveling exp. Instead it will only be progression or some mini game that they hope folks will spend daybreak cash on.

Have I complained there is no fast way to get to 115? No. Not at all. I am well aware of Overseer. I am well aware of the progression missions. I would just prefer to able to see a reasonable increase in leveling exp through grinding. If that offends you I am sorry.

I would simply like to exp the way I have for 20 out of the last 21 years. Telling me other ways to exp makes no sense as that is NOT my point.


You seem unable or unwilling to see it from my side of things. Not sure what else to say so I guess I will just keep repeating myself.

Agreed with Cowyhn, 110-115 is pretty fast with achievement experience but the regular experience per kill diminishes the traditional gameplay loop. Relying on so much achievement experience works well at the expansion start, but what about now when populations have migrated away from ToV or the next expansion? The number one complaint of this game is lack of groups, and grouping doesn’t improve as an expansion ages.

Yep that's the only good thing I can say about Overseer it might make them more money.

You misread me, I'm not offended at all. Just a bit mystified. You can spend 20-30 minutes a week on Overseer, which I'm willing to bet is way less than the amount of time you spend grinding. And that will result in you leveling at about the speed you think is right.

And I'm not saying the grinding XP rate shouldn't be what you like. I don't care either way. But, I'm just trying to show you that, with very little extra effort or inconvenience, you can get it to 90% of what you want. Hence, the well known quote "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good".

Maybe it's just a pragmatist vs a perfectionist perspective. Anyway, sorry if I upset you. Just trying to help you out, given the game in the state we have it. That state being, it is what it is, and when you can find a way to make things a little more how you like it, take it, because the devs don't seem to ever make the changes we'd like to see.

Safe travels

PS - also, you don't have to spend any DBC on Overseer, it's completely free. You >can< spend DBC if you want to absolutely min/max it, and make super fast progress with it. Which wouldn't be you. So, no DBC needed.

Overseer is ok.
I don't like it, at all, I don't even use it, but as long as it's not mandatory for progression, and as long I don't need to use it, I'm fine.

But I don't want to see it linked, from near or far, to the progression, like the garrison or the stupid follower missions were or are on WoW.
I'd have prefered some real content, and dev time and resources spent on something else, but well, if some people like it, whatever.

I don't hate the users, at all, I just don't like this kind of game, and I don't play (and pay) a MMORPG for that.

This expansion for a solo player is honestly a grand time sink, and frankly you will become very frustrated. Many folks came from the prior expansion, maybe in raid gear, most probably not. As a tank, you'll suffer and wonder why the mobs trash can you. You'll initially look at pet classes and they seemingly will take way less damage and you will feel less viable.

As you raid ToV content and get geared - you will go back to the content and begin to say "wow, this is a lot easier" ... but even still, as a solo, or even 2 boxer ... you'll never quite be on par with needed DPS and capability.

The point I am making I guess: The quests are long, unnecessarily difficult (looking at you sprites), and really does require some grouping to be efficient. What worries me the most with this expansion is the move away from traditional grinding for experience. I spent two hours with a buddy yesterday on my bard nonstop trashing mobs in ToV and got 3% experience at 115. Eh.

I'll say now as I am raid geared a decent bit and AA's approaching 30k the content is a lot easier but hell if I didn't get a few grey hairs along the way lol. This game needs to keep the grind aspect for simple players. Most don't run box teams, and if they do, its on a smaller scale.

For me? After the mess with TBL, ToV is the way to go as a casual. It is nothing special and really small but the easyness to get gear regardsless if you hunt it or if you buy it is nice for everyone who does not hunt the latest raid gear.
The missions are hard but with a bit work they are on the limit to get cracked. Grouping works, soloing/moloing surely better than in TBL (even that makes little sense in group gear), the mobs have some surprises and challenges (thinking about the look in my face pulling a mammoth for the first time in full HD including the suitable death), the levelup to 115 gives a bit more power to beat the older expansions or have at least a chance to complete TBL somehow (at least the missions, merc and partisan). I am always happy with a level up because I am always somehow lost in older expansions which are too hard to complete.

Bad thing:
- worse xp ever if not questing (which is no real problem, as long as AA are maxed at 110)
- worse xp ever if making quests in silver/f2p out of an accident (looses all AA because the darn quest have no reward windows, so only xp is given and AA are lost - older quests have a reward window and paying gold status allows activating these earned AA after having done the quest)
- the usual bugs at the start (e.g. missing collection items)
- the usual botter problem esp on AB makes ToV sometimes not worth playing anymore

Good thing:
- good quest xp compensates the bad grind xp
- good gear from scratch even with a silver account when boxing for supporting the main
- the usual bugs at the start (e.g. permapop of some named)
- easy for a casual or grouper to start

So all in all it was worth the money and a cool way to bring a character to a upper limit to have fun or boost them to have now fun in older content too which was not playable. Rough challenges in T2 named (e.g. ToFS) or the missions make this epac not boring even after some months. The only reason to stop playing ToV and going back to old content is the darn wellknown botter who permacamped in ToV all the time, But even that seems to be taken care of knights in white with the power to ban or suspend the dark side.

I think TOV is great! TBL really beat me down as a casual grouper. It was nice to see Nameds I could handle instead of that Meratas (sp) deathmarch names. The earring quest is FANTASTIC! Love it, not so excited about having to finish hunter to get it done and collections was a pain but doable. The only gripe I have is make glowing spell gems drop more. I should not kill this many nameds and still not have all my 115 spells for the 3 toons I play most.