Game is headed into wrong direction

I think the problem with the Original Post is that it generalises far too much.

Yes there are issues with Group Content, there are issues with Raid content - overall they are fine (apart from the Raid Lag issue) as far as I am concerned.

Those issues require that you think about, and highlight the specifics of why something is not working as expected or in what ways it can be realistically improved.

Ranting in a generalized way only serves to illustrate a general lack of happiness with what EQ provides you.

The raids are not weak, many of the players on Live are just a lot more relaxed than I remember them being a decade ago they don't seem to have as much of a sharp edge to their attentiveness, skill, reaction speed & ability to stay focused as they used to, maybe that is in fact related to how old we are all getting, I know for sure that the developers have to start taking into account just how ancient its playerbase is growing, EQ isn't quite at the games for Centenarians stage yet but it certainly is headed there.

Raids are currently hard capped, are you proposing removing that cap?

Well the thing is, you need 50 warm bodies.

Not every guild is able to do that.

If you got full raid, its smooth sailing.

However group content.
full group of 6 people.
Nope, some of it will not be doable.
GET GOOD GET GEAR GET AA GET THIS AND THAT

Meanwhile raids, all you need is 50 warm bodies and pretty much its smooth sailing. 15+ guilds will finish it right away.

Not 1-5 Best of the best finishing right away.
15+ guilds finish it just as quick as the best of the best, its that easy.

are you testing any of the new content?

No, he is struggling to beat CoTF HA's at lvl 90. Because, as he claims, those are way overpowered and are unbeatable.

Dear DPG, please keep making hard group content. Without hard group content the rest of the game, as much fun as I have going through it, is kind of pointless in terms of stat gain for me.

I just started CoV and am unable to beat The Crusaders, everyone says I need to get CoV gear. This is great! I'm enjoying the leveling/gearing process way more because I know it's driving toward achieving something I can't presently achieve.

Apparently you haven't been following the OP's progress (or obvious lack thereof).

Meh, I'm a grandpa and I wouldn't have taken offense.

the point is, the ad hominem attack as a first reply, with zero contribution relevant to the thread, game or forum, in a thread on "This game is headed in the wrong direction" is, these forums heading in the wrong direction.

Abusive is as abusive does.

I played Phinny through to Live 5-boxing in group gear. I never raided so 100% group gear. Sure, some missions were hard. Some were undoable for me. But I just skipped the ones I couldn't beat and moved on.

Nothing is stopping you(well you gotta preorder first.. ) from copying your char over to beta and test the new expansion. You can run a betabuff command that gives you levels and relevant equipment.
I am sure the devs would like your feedback on how the game plays for a casual grouper.

Yes, this is a sincere suggestion!

The raiders who find the group game too difficult for themselves, they suck and are bad at the game. There's plenty of people in raid guilds who are not terribly good at the game but they show up and follow directions.

Just because someone raids doesn't make them good, and in some ways raiding can be easier than grouping because people are using voice chat, someone is in charge and there's some people in the guild who are amazing at the game. You might not see these bad players in the top 3 or how ever many guilds but once you are out of the top of the top there's probably some players who are just not good in your guild.

i think everyone survived the horrible attack, but it was a close call....

I have a serious question for you, what about the groupers who want difficult content but can't make a time commitment to raid? Groupers do have 20 years worth of content to choose from, some players want more challenging content that takes use of all the gear, aa, achievements, evolving gear, and game knowledge that they have what about them?

Not all raiders get to complete all raid content in era, why can't that be the same for groupers. Some "casuals" have a max level character with almost 0 game knowledge where they play their character at somewhere between 30 and 50% of their potential. Are we talking a no child left behind policy here?

I think there needs to be content for everyone, there needs to be a entry level low mechanic raid and a hard raid that not everyone will beat. There should be some easy group content with coin rewards, if that means the mission currency should be on a repeatable kill quest add it there. I believe that there should even be a couple daily quests in the newest expansion that are soloable and give some currency. That would also probably help build grouping in the new expansion. There also should be missions that people find difficult.

You are preaching fact and making outlandish claims based on zero experience of your own. You are frustrated that you had a bad day in EQ. It happens to the best of us. Stop trying to change the world when you should be trying to change yourself.

Humorous is as humorous does.

+1

To be real though, abuse is abuse and inapropriate to game discussion and generally immature form.

You would be surprised how many people in the gaming community at large, DO have issues with mental health. Denigrating someone on a forum is also denigrating them in real time by the comparison.

The R word Re___ded for instance did not used to wordfiltered. A grown up awareness of this social (or rather, anti-social) use of rhetoric does have real life consequences for some readers.

Maybe instead, grow up and form a real argument for or against a topic. There are a lot of things it was cool to say in high school, that society has moved away from.

I am beyond perplexed that the OP has not advocated for BIG BAD BOSSES!

While there is so many people out there who do have genuine mental ilness there is much more people who do, say or act very very very stupidly while being in good mental health. Should we be as forgiving to them as we are forgiving to mentally ill ? Or is it still ok do denigrade stupid words and acts of healthy people?
Or should we all hold hands and sing Kumbaya every time some uneducated, inconsidered, inappropriate, self-centered genitalia-like-head-shaped rectum-orifice can't keep his hole-under-his-nose shut?
(Did I use nice words from politically correct vocabulary right? And should I be less genter-specific in my imaginary insults? )

Perhaps we should not battle windmills (Yup, Muguel de Cervantes Saavedra reference) and become more real in our conversations.

This 100%

I could understand if he was in era, trying the Crusaders mission. Had a legitimate group of competent players, and couldn’t complete the mission after 5-6 tries. Then as a community we’d attempt to help.

Have you tried this? What’s are you doing at this stage? How’s your DPS? Are you following this mechanic/emote? How’s your gear? What’s your burn order?

But! This is the kicker…he’s low-mid 90s, and not experiencing anything outside of CotF HAs. That’s the extent of his experience. And nothing against that…but he’s here talking about something that he knows nothing about. That’s why I dubbed him the Karen of EQ. He read a post online, and took it as fact and acts like the leading authority on the matter when he has zero experience.

And he took a quote from right after release before the multiple nerfs and tuning stages on it and acting like it’s the current iteration and that it reflects the entirety of EQ

I’m a coal miner, but let me find a quote concerning nuclear physics in the 90s and pretend to be the expert on the matter and that that’s how nuclear physics is today.

Edit: I have reached out to him personally, asked him if he needed or wanted help. That I play on multiple servers and a multitude of characters ranging from all different levels….he’s ignored that (didn’t even get a no from him, just flat out no response), and then he goes and posts this thread?

I can see the OP point myself obviously not all will agree.

Perhaps we could have missions (that are not raids) just for raiders that groupers wouldnt need or expect to likely succeed in that way those could be harder without directly affecting groupers? But that would require more work/content by devs.

The current missions that the OP was not happy about arent they they basically the group version of the raid events? So this is the reverse of my suggestion above.