Just completed Tactical Observations for the earring quest. Previously I would kill wurms in the GD mission to level up the earring. I can clear the wurms in about an hour with myself and my box bard, netting around 6% XP previous. I imagine for the next XP leveling I will get around 4% or so, which means doing it this way will take around 25 hours or so approximately. After that I do the next quest, and then I believe I have another 100% XP leveling of the earring before I can do the Kael raid thing. People have said it takes around 30 mobs at that point for 1%, so I am thinking if I continue to do the GD wurm mission, and I get 2% in an hour, then it will take 50 hours or so to max out the earring. Which means by leveling up the earring in arguably one of the two best ways to do it, i am potentially looking at 75 houra to do this the quote/unquote best way. If i do an hour after raids on Sunday and Monday, and spend three hours on a Saturday... I am looking at four months before it is complete. Now. I have played EQ for 20 plus years. I am well aware of EverGrind in some aspects of the game. I am well aware that not everyone can have everything. I get all of that. For the first time that I can remember, I am looking at 75 hours and thinking... wow. How many games can I finish and complete during that time than killing the same 30 wurms in GD 75 times? What else could I do.with those 75 hours that are more productive and beneficial to me? I rambled a bit. I am at work and am bored. But I wonder if anyone has ever been in this situation, where analyzing how much more time is involved to do something in EQ reaches a point where you say what I am thinking? Is it really worth it? I will probably end up doing it anyways. And maybe it won't take 75 hours. But that seems like such a mountain at this point that I am not looking forward to climbing...
Nice post . However the last part is the part that the devs only see .. that you will do it anyways .. this is why nothing changes with the XP and why past content xp gets nerfed usually to move peeps into the newest best expansion and XP is great . Although this ToV xp sux (word of mouth) cause I havent played in it yet .. but I hear its a real grind fest.. but the devs know you will do it .. sad but true ..
and now ask yourself, why people start to bot.... I don't want to justify that but I am not surprised because this is not a game, this is wasting time in stupid mindless repetitions which only harm the wrist... I am at a stage of the earring, where my motivation to grind is nearly gone... When numb time sinks replace game play then something goes into the wrong direction...
I haven't played in awhile, but I think I started the earring quest. The quest line just isn't appealing and like you said it's a significant time investment, but it's for a minor gain. I could be motivated for a really unique clickable effect or really cool looking visual item, but some extra stats are kinda bleh. I'll just get some upgrades from a later expansion that are close enough. I'm glad there's grind style quests for those that enjoy doing them or getting all the Heroic AAs, but it's not something I find worth my time.
It doesn't take near that long. Fastest is soloing it, if you're a class that can do so efficiently (paladin, sk, etc). 6-7% an hour on the final level. But a decent group hitting velks does really good too. My boxed group has terrible dps, 4 people and 2 mercs, and I still was getting 4-5% an hour easy in velks. The velks mission I mean, I was camping collects for a couple alts while I was doing the last earing level.
Oh, and if it makes you feel better, the stat gain from going to the raid version is almost nothing. Its really more for the checkmark/achievement. So you can just ignore it and let it happen.
well, it's arguable that this isn't a 'minor gain' if you max it out and aug it properly. it's actually a pretty significant gain as compared to dropped stuff. it'll be best in slot for a couple of expansions i would imagine, maybe upgrading the augs as new ones are made (if new ones are made). but more to the point... welcome to min/maxing. the effort / time investment for 'gains' goes up exponentially the closer you get to being maxed out. if you're not willing to put in that kind of time investment to eke out another few hundred hp/mana on an item, that's cool... but consider in that case that you're not the intended audience of the last couple steps in the earring.
In TBL you got four items and had to Grind them out. The big issue was to get level 2 you had to go do a list of tasks first. With ToV the "Ear" I feel was very well done. You could do some Ts for a bit. Do a bit of questing. then grind. It was well more balanced and better at breaking up the "grind". As for the time it takes to grind people did have it maxed in under a month so it is doable. maybe not by everyone. In truth I like that aspect. The Earring is a reward for the effort put into it. in the old days people patch worked their raid armor because very few if any had BIS. With all of the changes to ToV and the influx of gear, it nice to have one slot that show effort for those that have completed it. If people don't finish it they are rewarded for the parts they have done. Keep in mine that doing this quest offer more then just a BIS ear. 1st the ear will still be BIS a year from now. 2nd it opens up Power Sources = How many hours did you spend in other Exp grinding to get PS's? The fact that by doing this quest your able to craft them if a fair trade off for the Hour you would have spend grinding. 3rd you get a upgrade proc aug. 4th your about to craft your type 19th. Again something people spent hours on in TBL to get the ones they wanted are now crafted and easy to get. So year you may be spending hours grinding your ear but in truth you would be grinding anyways.
What you describe is far from one of the best ways to level the earring. The earring quest is easily my favorite part of ToV. I think they did a fine job with it.
OH! This reminds me. I never finished hunters in EoK/RoS in TBL. Just didn't care. Guildmate found out and was "wtf are you doing" and did a chunk of EoK for me, and kinda shamed me into doing it. So while I had the other 3 evolvers done, I did the hands during ToV. My hands were finishing about when my ear is, and this can give perspective: The final level of the TBL evolvers takes MORE exp than the final level of the Rallos Zek ear. I got that final ear level started right before I got to the last level of the hands, and the ear finished and the hands were still like 75% or something. So its easier than the TBL ones.
GD Mission rinse repeat gives a steady, easily calculated time frame of how long the quest will take. 2 boxing in there is very far from the best you can get as far as exp goes. Some friends can not only make the exp faster but also makes that time go faster with conversation. I didn't find the ear any harder than the other 4 evolvers but that's my experience with it.
I will bite. I have been told by numerous players across multiple servers that the three best places to XP the earring are- 1. Dwarf caves in GD 2. Wurms in GD mission 3. Specters on TOFS sixth floor If I am missing something, feel free to share if you are so inclined. Also I don't have an issue with the quest. I do enjoy the lore and the story and the format. I believe the quest allows players to experience all the expansion has to offer, which makes developers happy since all of their content is being experienced. I also understand accept the grinding of XP. I am just saying this is the first time I can remember when I looked at something and thought/felt that that mountain was just too much. And this is someone who has the majority (not all) of things for a magician that is worthwhile and beneficial.
I thought the quest was cool and I would do the earring for my alts as well but I cannot justify spending time grinding after each task. If people have afk crews grinding, it's not a problem to do on 5 - 6 characters. I don't leave my toons afk so alts won't have this item maxed.
I fully evolved each earring step within a day or 2 at Tizmaks caves in open world GD. You want highest possible volume of kills. It's honestly an easy quest that's a bargain for risk vs reward.
I am at that point all the time.... I ask myself "why am I playing this game still" I have other hobbies, I work a ton, I have a family. Plenty of other things to keep me busy. There is a certain nostalgia this game brings that I have never felt before.. except maybe for a pretty girl that was in my life at one point or another. If you can swing it just roll with it, or finish your ear and take a month off.. or take the 3 months to work on the ear. Lots of options here to not burn yourself out. Best of luck Cic
Start from the beginning. Why do you want to max the earring in the first place? If getting the next level will have no impact on your gameplay then you've done enough. Don't worry about doing more.
The main issue, from my perspective, with the earring quest is that the release was delayed so a lot of us couldn't even start working on evolving it until we were already finished with group content and finished with needing experience for anything else. It made the grind feel very meaningless. I understand this was due to issues in the quest and wasn't necessarily a planned thing, but it definitely did not help. Frankly, I think with the addition of quest and achievement gates on the progression, the evolving experience requirements should have been halved overall.
I feel you. For me, first it was stopping the Artisan's Prize at 2100 hme. Now, it's the earring and I'm on the final step. I believe I've spent about four hours to get 2% or so. There aren't any good grind spots that I enjoy, they all feel like a slog, and sadly I feel rather defeated that I haven't completed it. You are not alone.
