Can someone msg me when EQ decides to crunch hit dmg down about 50% and allow casual players to enjoy some of the newer content? I don't understand why a game that wants to receive money excludes a huge portion of its player base from it's content. There are other ways to make game play exciting and challenging.
Damage seemed to ramp up for intro zones starting around CotF and TDS, and with the exception of RoS, seemed to stay consistent for those tier 1 zones from my experience. What “newer content” are you referring to? And what is your current gear looking like? All of the latest expansions have had crafted/tradable gear for the expansion that allows you to tackle said content PS Quake is this you?
The problem is that 1) They wanted to hurt/kill swarming from Tanks, so they beefed up mobs significantly 2) At the same time they boosted Tanks mitigation power significantly So these pretty much canceled each other out, but non tanks suffered because they got nothing, hurting pretty much all non traditional group make ups
DPG is also shifting the balance in the latest expansions. TBL (GMM) orcs are 6-8 million HP and are hitting 30-35K per swing ToV EW Ghouls (easiest T1 trash) have 20 million HP and hit 40-45K CoV Tier 1 trash has 28-35 million HP and hit 45-50K Now ToL trash has 50 million HP and hits 50-55K Meanwhile, weapons did not keep up. Here are BST h2h best expansion weapons with augs: Technicians Ring Gear (GMM) - Dmg/delay ratio 10.17 https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=160643&aug4=152183 Velium Infused Katar (ToV T3 Ts) - 11.61 ratio https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=163552&aug4=163574 Velium Threaded Katar (CoV Ts) - 13.22 ratio https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=165552&aug4=165574 Trash mob HP went up 4 times, and ratio went up from 10.17 to 13.22. Weapons do not keep up with mob HP in group grinding game. And if they boost player dps by much (well, they MUST boost wizards' dps just to be fair) then they will trivialize some content and game will become unbalanced in another direction. I liked ToV expansion very much, very nice balance of quests/grinding. And Rallos Zek earring quest is awesome - forces to do all the expansion questing including even obscure quests like ToFS keys collection. And reward/effort balance is very good. CoV is much more dull, just the farming for enough "purple brick" ores is the only enticing activity in there. I say - more of ToV plz, and stop with this mobs-on-steroid nonsense, let them grow cage-free.
I don't have any numerical evidence of this to show, but my opinion is that ADPS has increased over the last few years. I think DPG wants people to group, so they're making groups stronger, increased XP bonus for grouping and making progression more valuable (in ToV at least). The problem is that the playerbase is still spread out, people are "locked" into their existing social cliques, box groups and too many of the most capable players are on missions where they can get type5 augs. What they really need to do is take a page from Guild Wars 2 and have revolving "daily" zones in the end-game that provide massive benefits for playing in them. If they did that where each day a different zone in ToV/CoV had: A daily quest that provides type5 aug currency / XP / ore 50% XP bonus 50% increased named spawns Named mobs dropping type5 aug currency (that isn't shared between the group, as in, everyone gets the same amount whether they solo it or group it) You'd see a consolidation of players in those zones, making it easier to both find groups and to finish progression in those zones for casual players.
Ok, let's do the math. Say, for doing O.M.A.D. once it's daily quest the group gets rewarded with 45 Frostone Ducats (same as Griklor mission for conversation sake), and now Crystallized Velium Ore can be bought for 225 ducats (5 quests total). O.M.A.D. takes about 2.5 hours to do it 5 times, so 6 characters can buy 1 ore each, while Griklor is on 6 hr timer with 2 ores in the chest, so your idea would be about 5-6 times more lucrative. And I look at those numbers and ... fail to see the insentive for me. Because all I need to do with Griklor - play for 20-25 minute total, grab two ores + some sellable stuff and log off, watch Netflix or something. I can do that 2 times a day (once before work in the morning, once after work), that's 4 ores per day. 5 days per character, about 3 months to equip my entire herd of alts. And the expansion is a year long. In my opinion, making daily quests/zones more profitable as currency, XP , ores does not address the problem of "too many of capable players are on the missions". Those people will still do just missions. I think there should be more content doable only (or preferably) by grouping with real people. The difficulty is to come up with enticing reward which needs to be repeated. In LDON there were a few unique augments and ppl did those missions repeatedly to earn the currency for those, but once bought the motivation was gone. Decaying bonus items, perhaps ? Like power sources, but more variety. Say +Dodge % augs, or +Attack %, or +Spell Damage etc. When augs which would decay with use/time and need to be bought again by repeating group tasks in those zones. And make a mechanism to entice more live people grouping. O.M.A.D. is a nice example - those mobs drop the quest items equal (on average) to the number of player characters on the hate list, so the "collect 10" goes faster when mobs drop 5 items, instead of 1 when you molo. And let's say stackable +10% Dodge augment of type 21 (fits ornamentation alot) wrist only. Which will go poof after so many dead mobs, or playtime or fight-time passed (whatever mechanism is used in power source or similar). And sell those for the unique group quest only currency from the "daily" zone mechanism . Just talking out loud.
That won't work after the first couple of months once players get max level and AA again. They will once again return to doing quests/named that they want/need. A 50% increase in named spawns in GD isn't going to get me the aug that drops in WW (that drake hates me). Also many prefer to do the missions as it gets them away from the idiots who like to take named they didn't spawn and the people talking rubbish in ooc that follows.
Sure. I wouldn't want the daily zones to be the best choice for all player's current needs. But imagine if you were a player who couldn't kill Pastletlith or Miscreation themselves. Right now you either have to form a group to go camp it, which can be difficult, or kill PHs and then beg for what is probably a mostly empty zone to help you kill it. If "something" can be given to consolidate the playerbase into rotating around different zones you'd be able to schedule when WW is hot and utilize the increased density of players to help you kill that mob. This isn't a novel concept or anything, it's how a lot of people play other MMOs, including Guild Wars 2. There are currently some difficult named mobs I am unable to solo in it, but I know when that zone is hot there are a large number of players that are available to help me spawn / kill that mob.
Now the other side of this coin....you and everyone elses and their mother all schedule for when WW is hot, and now you no longer can get the camp you want because of the increased density of players. Set scheduling can and will lead to perma-camping. We've seen this all too many times over the years with coveted items. Hell, some old world mobs are still on perma-camp (or were before AoL) from content that is/was 15+ years old Not disagreeing with you. Just playing devils advocate
Yep. The other major downside is that when a zone isn't hot, it'll be a ghost town. If you are a weekend warrior who needs help grouping in a zone you might need to wait a loooong time where you can play while a zone is hot.
Making a zone a hot zone, doesn't automatically mean everyone will get a group (we still have a lack of healers and tanks). And once you get a group, it doesn't automatically mean you will find a free camp. WW without being a hot zone sometimes there is issues finding a free empty camp. Picks help but are often not worth it when you get in one and it shuts down after 45 minutes.
