With the release of Kunark

What are you looking forward to most?

The launch of TSS.

kronos inflating so I can justify quitting

Not doing Kunark for the 4th time in 4 years. Have fun guys! See ya next year!

Doing 6 Monk epics

Laughing at forum posts complaining about various things that don't work correctly or are a minor problem that really doesn't matter.

God, Yes. I'm looking forward to getting into the fun stuff. Although after what, 9? months of being level 70, I'm just looking forward to having new stuff to do that isn't OoW Don DoDh or PoR.

I'll start playing again in velious, kunark is my least favorite xpac

Kunark has by far the best non-raid content of the whole unofficial TLP timeline (classic->PoP). The dungeons are so cool and so thematically different, and much of the loot is relevant even to endgame raiders. There's also a lot more one-group content than in any other era pre-PoP. Classic is forgiven for its small scale, but I was always disappointed in how little relevant higher-level group content there was in Velious and Luclin. With no level increase, I suppose they just didn't find it necessary to add more.

I think Velious ruins something and sets a trend that wasn't healthy for the game: suddenly, raid loot invalidates pretty much 100% of the non-raid game, and if you aren't a dedicated endgame raider, you are basically nothing because raid gear is so vastly superior to whatever you can get without raiding. That's somewhat less of a concern on TLPs since DZs allow everyone to raid if they have the time--but back in the day, and on a certain project we all know about, I think the game took a big turn in the wrong direction after Kunark.

I say that even as someone who is a dedicated raider when I play. Even though I'm one of those who get full raid gear, I still think it's a huge blemish on the game that they turned Everquest's itemization into a series of vertical tiers that fully dwarf the ones before them. I think it was much better when even a hardcore raider needed items from non-raid content because raid loot was more of a trophy than a simple measure of mathematical progress. Nobody in their right mind would say that raiding isn't worth the trouble in Kunark, yet any given class' BiS consists of all manner of dungeon loot, quest rewards, and even planar armor in some cases.

So I look forward to great dungeon content that contains rewards which will remain relevant all the way through the expansion. After all, we spend only 5% of the week raiding. Kunark is basically the last time that dungeon content feels properly rewarding for somebody who also raids with high attendance. As soon as we get to Velious, any gear you have that didn't come from a raid boss is junk that needs to be upgraded, and I don't like that.

I love Kunark dungeon design, but you should really consider playing the game in TSS+ if you believe this!

Preserving like a chaste virgin my The Overthere faction.

But new things terrify them! "The unofficial TLP timeline" ends at PoP They don't want new content, they want to kill the same mobs, farm the same items, and raid the same raids as they have multiple times, and think themselves great.

Fun fact: more people are playing post-pop tlp than pre-pop tlp.

That actually changes after TSS. Group level gear from SoD onward starts to compete with Raid gear of the previous xpac. In addition augs are removed from raid loot tables and are found on dungeon named. So exploring dungeons SoD and on is quite rewarding. Its just that awful streach from Vel-TSS where group gear is so bad compared to raid gear it doesn't feel worth doing.

Nah. Making maxed TSS raid gear requires farming powersources from named in group content. Also there's a lot more relevant augs to farm than in level 70 content.

<3 -Crixx

Why the hostility? It's an undisputable fact that TLPs see a massive drop-off after PoP. As such, the unofficial timeline is classic->PoP. 90% of players only care for that. I don't understand your irrational need to insult me for my awareness of that fact. What a bizarre, toxic mindset to have. Perplexing, to say the least.

At any given moment there are more TLP players in post POP content than there are players in Classic-POP.

Mischief TB Aradune Rizlona Mangler Vaniki population > Yelinak by a wide margin. How is that possible if "90% of players only care" for classic-PoP? Is it, perhaps, youre talking out of another hole besides your mouth?

Facts of life.

(newplayers + general channels)
aradune=200 players online
rizlona=339 players online (full boxing server)
mangler=163 players online
mischief= 675 players online
thornblade=146 players online
vaniki=253 players online
yelinak=1,085 players online

(more accurate than channels, but boxing disallowed)
project1999 green=669 players online
project1999 blue=612 players online

mischief ruleset is more attractive than the expansions so I don't consider it apples to apples, and channel population isn't accurate, but the number of people who opt out of channels should be roughly the same for each server

My numbers:

Aradune = 1200 players online
Rizlona = 14000 players online (in all fairness, 50 of those are mine)
Mangler = 850 players online (500 of those are in the four top guilds)
Mischief = 1250 players online, and in decline
Thornblade = 146 players online (hey, you got this one exactly right!)
Vaniki = 600 players online (500 of those are in the four top guilds)
Yelinak = 2500 players online (including 1250 Krono farmers)

90%? I don't think so. Check your chat window settings; I don't think you're seeing all the relevant channels.

what chat channels are you looking at? only auto-join channels have any value

going through the class channels instead gave 930 for yelinak, which is way away from 2500