Missed this whole expansion years back and was wondering if they are ever going to open it up ? If not, about how long to solo whatever requirements it takes to get in ? TIA. Happy Hunting
"Zones with key or flag requirements will now unlock themselves automatically when later expansions open (on standard and progression servers). Meldrath's Mansion and Crystallos zones are now unlocked on standard servers." — Patch Notes for April 13, 2011 According to the schedule announced in the April 13, 2011 patch notes (above), the following expansions should have their locked zones unlocked: In April 2013, Underfoot unlocked. In April 2014, House of Thule unlocked. In April 2015, Veil of Alaris unlocked. In April 2016, Rain of Fear should be unlocked. In April 2017, Call of the Forsaken should be unlocked. In April 2018, The Darkened Sea should be unlocked. Since it is 2020 and you say The Darkened Sea is not unlocked (Thuliasaur Island is part of TDS), then I'm going to assume that this schedule was changed. Does anyone have a link to the SOE/Daybreak announcement of the change?
TDS is unlocked, sort of. You can do the raids without progression, but islands themselves still require the progression arc.
Getting to see "Dino Island" was a real motivator back in the day to get my group flagged thru TDS. Recently a friend of mine levelled up and I wanted her to see all the TDS zones. I think it took us a day, and not a full day, to flag her all the way to the final zone. And we didn't even hustle. Do the work... enjoy the results!
I'm not sure where your schedule came from. I looked up the above-cited patch notes on Zam, and while their post includes the quoted text, it makes no mention of a scheduling rule going forward. I have long been under the impression that group flagging is unlocked on Live only through CotF. A cursory search turned up nothing informative. Of course if it was me, I would have stopped unlocking group progression at HoT, but that's a separate issue. If the intent was to apply the five-year in-era rule, something which Prathun used in other contexts, then TDS group progression flags should have unlocked last year when ToV launched.
The entire TDS expansion is molo-able at level 115, including the challenger achievements. You can even get the group-missions solo, without bothering with "group-dummy-members". None of the group-missions have "solo-unfriendly" mechanics.
lol obviously you havent done the progression your not gonna get through it all in a few hours i know i did the whole expansion on my ranger funnest expansion ever for me and i hope it stays locked people seem to be lazy. And i like it since not many people were in the zones. I enjoyed the Ha's would do thal,dregmar and arx was great xp til i maxed myself out on everything. Andarriel
Yea i love it i can do ha's with just my ranger and merc i think it should be like that everywhere. Andarriel
I think they should keep all progression locked from CoTF on up .. it might cut down on the bots in the higher tier zones .. plus you get a sense of accomplishment from doing them .. at least I do ..
There have been discussions on the forums since the "expected" opening of TDS based upon Fanra's schedule. I think at one point, whoever was moderating the forums then checked and said it was not opening at this time, but it might change in the future. Since that point, I do not believe we've had another official response. TBM was also not unlocked (as you still need to do the mirror line to get into decay) and I don't recall ever seeing a thread asking about that. EoK has no locked zones. RoS would have the next one, VP, but I haven't really heard a clamor to unlock that (technically should be done April 2021 based on schedule). The progression is not hard, if you have done it before. Going in fresh, even with the guides available, is still a bit of a pain (and makes progression longer). While getting OTHER toons to Arx Mentis isn't bad once you done it once, it's a bit disingenuous to say that it's a couple of hours for fresh toons, and certainly not at level. The reason that it's disappointing the unlock hasn't occurred is that EQ has always been about being able to explore all the zones (eventually). These are the first non-raid zones that you simply cannot enter at some point. We'll have the same issue with TBL in a few years (assuming the game continues with expansions/level increases). Will really be disappointing to still have to do a Smoke trial to run to Empyr at 125. But it doesn't seem to be a priority at all.
Slight correction: in one of the last missions in arx mentis, you will need a detect-trap spell/ability, if you want to beat the time-trial-achievement. Maybe that "AAAA"-thingy you can get by collecting junk in deadhills, is sufficient? Otherwise you might need help from specific classes...
So, just because it took you a long time means it will take everyone else just as long? No. It took me 5 hours to do TDS this past October. Not all of us stink at playing EQ.
Here in Commiefornia, they are locking us down for at least 3 weeks. Unlock everything Merry Christmas
A couple of things regarding TDS progression: Not everyone is going to wait until 115 to do it, so it won't always be something people can "sleepwalk" through in 5 hours. 115 is 10 levels past the content's max level and each slot will have more than double the hp/mana/end of in-era gear. Anyone 115 that hasn't already done a large chunk of the TDS progression is likely just bored and waiting around for the next expansion and is therefore finishing up trophy/Hero's AA/achievement AA since there is nothing left in ToV they need. Personally, I like to do progression when mobs are at least still dark blue Clayton Teek's daily HA bonuses include HAs from the locked zones. All other HA bonuses he offers can be done without progression. (You just need the beginning of progression done for TBM to get the mirror to do those HAs.) I don't care that much either way, but I just wanted to point out these things as someone that has done some of it with alts between 101 and 110 this past year.