It’s good to see others recognizing the issue. I wish more of the community could understand how much of a problem this creates for Live and it’s future viability. DPG is dependent on returning players, but there’s no investment in getting them back into the community.
We are running out of elite and rare agents. All show available, but none are available. I wonder if they are out on those tasks that got lost and come back days later.
It was yet another well-intentioned decision that lacked foresight, the idea was to encourage players to get their level XP in the new expansion not the old easy one, there are some mathematical reasons behind that. However that solution does end up hurting the speed of progress for anyone playing behind the curve who cannot get groups, and it's a multi-faceted slap in the face to slow pokes too, not only are they not getting groups & missing out on all that juicy bonus XP they get, they get nerfed exp trying to catch up by levelling in older content prior to attempting the quests in the expansion after with the benefit of some additional levels. For years players could "go back" to the progression system once they grinded out some more levels on mob-grinding & get those done, ToV broke that paradigm deliberately so if you are returning or much slower than everyone else you get penalised in multiple ways. I don't think the devs deliberately said FU to people still catching up or returning to the game by way of the ToV XP model changes but those do end up being punitive to them. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
Just to summarize, the experience bonus for running quests and missions in TOL seem reasonable and fine. For those that want to progress more by grinding that method is underperforming. From a philosophical perspective, how long do you make a player wait before giving them a reward for their effort. Kill 10 mobs and get 10 AA and you buy an AA that costs 10 to get a reward. Or maybe you have to kill 200 to get that next synergy upgrade. However, how many kills are reasonable to get a level increase? If you set the bar too high, players get discouraged. Set it too low and they get bored. My personal take is it should be somewhere north of 200 mobs, and we should keep in mind that levels are not the only reason to earn experience in the game. Even after max level, there are still plenty of AA to earn to keep people engaged. But I do think that the dev teams needs to determine what is the point where slow progression becomes discouraging, and they want to keep the bar below that for players. I understand that leveling is going to be slower in an online game than a stand-alone game, however they can't just say something like we want players to kill 50 mobs a day, and there are 365 days till the next expansion, so we should spread things out so they are working on experience for the entire year. If you want players playing for 365, then you need more content. If not, then you have to look for other mechanisms, like raiding, to keep players returning throughout the year.
It was a deliberate middle finger to ALL players, it's just that new/returning players are going to feel the pain more than current players. Another cycle of this idiotic XP model is going to completely alienate new players; it may already be to that point.
The only players they hang with are raiders. Not the raiders fault at all but the devs end up with a distorted view of things for that reason. Raiders participate in beta hard and casuals not so much mainly because most casuals are not about "winning". Thats the problem most casuals are not nearly as driven as the high end raiders are. This doesn't make the high end raiders bad guys and it doesn't make the casuals bad guys. But it does distort the devs viewpoint in my opinion.
I just returned to EQ over the weekend and brought ToL on 3 accounts yesterday. My last expansion was RoS. They are lvl 110. My characters have around 25000 AA each. I brought all the ToV T1 visibles and non visibles for my Warrior, including shield. I went to CoV to WW first and died to a wolf I pulled up a 2nd healer merc...and it went a bit better, i killed the efreeti PH a few times, but I don't think even if i got the named to spawn I would have been able to kill it. And the hp's on trash was quite large and the xp i just didn't think was worth it (I'd spent the previous day in Lceanium killing spiders and getting my hotkeys set up). I then went to ToV thinking I'd start the questing and go through progression. I did You can't go Back alone, and i got up to the Reckless Rygorr....and he nailed me. I'm using fort/last stand (equiv), field protector and I'm wearing ALL T1 ToV stuff. I did buy a couple of taskadds for 500k each to get me to 111 (was like 50% xp each one). I see Overseers and GMM mentioned which seems to be a new zone, which I'll check out. Any other tips for leveling? are TBL zones good xp?
I'm not following, y'all seem to be heartily agreeing with each other that somehow a quest & story based model for leveling *favors* those raiders who are generally way more capable of slaughtering high volumes of trash mobs? If Just Killing Things were the way, wouldn't my sometimes special-seeming ability to hit my buttons and team up with others that hit their buttons advantage me much more?
RoS indoor zones are not bad xp at 110, and I would suggest that you max out key AA for your toons before moving to next lvl. 25k AA is quite low. which classes do you have, and do you have Gamparse installed? It is key to track dps, so that you have an idea of whether you are doing the righ improvements. 3 toons at 110, you should aim to go over 500k dps on a Lesson Burn (meaning that you group kills in Gamparse, and look at performance for your Lesson period).
Hello Support & Devs, I would like to send a request to fix a spell name. I have played a Cleric for almost 22 years now. Ever since level 60, Clerics have had the "DI" line of spells, Divine Intervention, and so on. Now, after over 20 years of play, you have named the latest "DI" spell, Divine Mediation ("DM")? I truly believe this is a very large oversight and this has negatively affected gameplay in a huge way for Clerics. Changing a Clerics "DI" line of spells after 20 years is truly unacceptable and has put a very negative connotation on a longstanding understanding of what "DI" means. Using "DM" makes no sense. "DM" is Dungeon Master, or Direct Message, it has nothing to do with a Cleric's Divine Intervention of providing a lifesaving opportunity. For one thing, going from Divine Intermediation (LVL 112), to Divine Mediation (LVL 117), is not a great choice on the face of it. But losing the “DI” consistency is terrible for Clerics and all serious raiders. I say this with all sincerity, it has truly affected the game for me. “DI” means something, everyone knows it, there is no doubt in what is taking place when you hear, “DI incoming on <character-name>”, or “DI Fired”, or “I need DI”. Changing this to “DM” is terrible for everyone in the game. It holds no true understanding, no immediate recognition. And if this means in 5 more levels it’s going to change to some other “DJ”, or “DB”, or “DX”, or “DC”, or “DD”, or “DL”, it will have no meaning at all. “DI” is “DI” and needs to stay “DI” forever in EverQuest. If you are struggling with more names for this spell, here are some that will help you get through the next few expansions: Divine Interposing Divine Involvement Divine Interceding Divine Interaction Divine Interference Divine Impinging Divine Infringement Divine Intrusion Divine Invasion Divine Incursion Divine Infiltration Divine Involution If you need more, I would be more than happy to help. I am not someone who would request a fix like this unless it was something I truly felt very strongly about. This has had a very negative effect in the game for me. Of course, we are still calling it “DI”, but the fact remains that due to this name change, this spell has lost its meaning. Please, please, PLEASE, change the name of this spell back to a “DI” spell. Lifelong Player of EverQuest, Auntiem Auntiem
Once you hit 111, you won't gain significant xp from grinding...they've made every level from that point on a hell level, which means you need RIDICULOUS amounts of xp to get through them. The primary way to level is to do the progression in ToV (and now ToL), with support from Overseer and collections. I'd grind in RoS or GMM to max out all of your AA, and work on the progression in EW and GD. The merc tasks are pretty simple, but can't be repeated for xp. The partisan tasks in GD aren't that hard, so you should be able to finish that and get some nice xp. The tasks in CC/Rygorr Mines aren't that hard, they're just annoying and stupid since you have to do them in order. You can also grab a mission instance in GD and clear out the wurm caves. They're not that tough and you don't have to worry about getting swarmed or anything. Also, if you see anyone offering task adds...for anything that you haven't done yet...take them.
Aah darn, you're not the first one to have this issue. You're talking about the platforms surrounded by shadow? If you turn your camera, there are bridges that extend from them to the next platform when you click them. When you fall off, you are sent back to the central platform of that floor you're on. It could definitely be made clearer... because I agree, jumping sounds horrible.
The system favors raiders and cliques, you’ll always be at an advantage regardless. The points being argued that once you’re outside of those situations then your progress becomes limited. As the game progresses forward ToV and ToL become empty, which constrains the flow of players from 110 to level cap. It creates an untenable situation, where Live guilds are going to be choked off of players for end level content. Grinding out mobs, while trying to find groups for progression has to be a viable solution, where people feel excited about popping Lesson each day. It’s already bad enough to get anyone to push pass level 70, and this just ensures that anyone past 105 will disappear.
This sums it up well. "lesson burns" are exclusively for AA grinding now, using them for levelling XP is utterly futile.
And? Why should new content be aimed at new, returning, or lower lvl characters? There's 2 decades worth of content they can use to get to the new content.
