Laurion's Song: Only 2 Missions and 8 Raids

I'm curious how other raiders and, especially, non-raiders feel about Absor's recent announcement that Laurion's Song will only have 2 group missions and 8 raids (4 missions and 9 raids has been typical since ToV, before that the count varied, but was generally more than 4/9).

I personally am most upset by the decrease in raid events, but group-only players got hit much harder. Even with increased currency per mission (as currently implemented on beta), this decrease in content variety seems bad.

Thoughts?

(here's the link to the announcement, if you have beta access: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/laurions-song-raid-list.293153/#post-4252717)

The decrease in raid events is only bad if the raids are also boring. If they are interesting, no one will really care. But probably even if boring, raiders that raid one day (or slow two) will be happy they can finish content faster.

The lesser missions are a clear indicator that the developers don't give a poop about the group game. We've actually known that for awhile since all missions post-TBL have been scaled down copies of raids, with zero new ideas. But this is the first clear indicator to group players that they just don't matter to developers.

Raiders are going to keep buying expansions regardless (or obviously quit). Groupers have been silently supporting Live raiders for years now, buying expansions with less and less content for true group level players. We'll see if this move finally gets groupers to hit pause on either expansion purchases or subscriptions to where DPG will take notice.

As a grouper that Open Raids, I'm certainly delaying my purchasing decision.

Less content, same price...amazing deal!!

Still worth it to get the expansion level 125 plus this unknow persona thing!

It's laughable. I expect Absor did all 8 raids this year and didn't train any of the junior devs to do any raids, which means he will spend 8 months in 2024 making 8 more raids and we will again see raids limited by Absor's personal creativity (which, while impressive, is limited by being the perspective of a single person).

I'm sure there are devs on the team right now who would like to make a raid and have fresh ideas and perspectives that we the players AND Absor himself would benefit from. This is not even mentioning that amount of time Absor would free up by having someone else do a single raid.

Disappointed with the missions. I don’t understand how it could be hard to copy the base zone and spawns, then make a mission where you kill 30 orcs and a tank and spank boss spawns.

Why do they have to be the lite-version of a raid?

I like having the missions be scaled down versions of the raids. It often lets us explore how the raid mechanics work before going into the raid itself.

For those who don't do the beta raids this can be very helpful.

Pip got pulled into doing spells and items to fill in for Aristo when he is out, I'm guessing thats part of the "things" (and also guessing some other implementation efforts have been taking more time). If I remember, Pip is part of mission/raid implementation, so thats probably a reason why a cut was made.

i've seen talk of refunds and chargebacks from some people. i know dbg has a no refund policy, but with expansion features such as personas having no timeline in sight, fewer raids, and fewer missions, i wonder if dbg will do right by customers that feel they should be granted a refund and not face the repercussions of a chargeback if they feel their preorders are now not justified by what we are receiveing in the expansion.

It's fine, compare it to GW2 End of Dragons expansion,
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2:_End_of_Dragons
GW2 expansions don't have much if you just consider mission/raids/zones.
4 zones, 4 easymode strike raids, 1 open world meta people raid.
Quality is better than quantity.
Also, comes with get siege turtles, jade tech, skiffs.
So basically 8 raids vs 5 raids, how many zones? More than 4?
Now when it comes to actual game improvements that is where I am looking at.
Such as GW2, when they do, Siege turtles, Jade tech, Jade bots, and Skiffs.
What is EQ doing?

Many of you forget this is not just a raid game, a fighting game.
It's an RPG. Hows the RPG aspect?
FFXIV became popular due to the RPG aspect.
WoW is even known for the RPG aspect as well, but FFXIV is doing it better.

How is EQ's RPG aspect?


Remember the old days the RPG aspect? Other games do it now.

Laurion Song, Laurion Inn. Is it going to capture the RPG aspect of the game, the nostalgic aspect back the old days of vanilla EQ?

So how is the level exp going to be distributed with a whole 2 group missions?

EQ has been with us for over 20 years, and every year when an expansion pack comes out, I console ourselves by thinking that a real expansion pack will come out next year, but in the end, DB only says plausible things.
It's a pity that it seems to be causing users to leave on their own.

I am not going to complaint on the 2 group missions, since I have only able to complete 1 mission starting from ToV. As long as I can slap some named around that would be good for me. That would keep me going for a while.

Hopefully they do not have too much of cluster F mobs around the named where I do not have time to clear them for respawning. It would be nice to have some relatively safe spot to pull mobs, etc. Design team is somehow notorious for not leaving an empty spot in some camping ground. Sometimes making the roaming mobs cover every inch of the ground, where they will eventually sneak around and kill few of my cloth toons, LOL.

You need to get a better source.

Absor carries this game on his back. Without him, the game would have died a long time ago.

so..why exactly should I pay the usual price for less content? 2 missions and 5 levels? not worth it lol

4 missions per expansion was bad enough, but i got used to expecting that bare minimum, but 2? get out of here

2 Missions is very disappointing, 1 less raid isnt such a big deal.

Also have to consider the heroic AAs. I haven't checked yet if we are getting an increase on those, but if we are, by how much and how will we get them. They have been tied to mission achieves for quite a while, I wonder if they will tie it to content completion as well.

Should make getting all your mission coin augs a chore this expansion with only 2 missions, unless they give double the coin on win.,

You really need to drop this raider vs. grouper garbage. An awful lot of raiding players the group game too. We get just as annoyed by the lack of group content as anyone else. Two missions is extremely disappointing.

It was long before TBL when missions were scaled down versions of the raids as well.

No matter how you slice it, getting enough coin to swap out all your type 5's is a chore.

Hopefully they balance the time sink a little more in favor of the players this expansion.