Precisely. Nothing is so bad that enough people just stop paying for it so there must be enough of something for these people each round. Still, it seems to me the returns on the store and TLP (reselling old content) are the major profit centers for them. Dedicating significant resources to each expansion is riskier. Hopefully, they are just hugely preoccupied with what is in store for the 25th anniversary. There are bright spots, looking back on this year, they are trying to make changes. Their path to change leaves much to be desired, still, totally on brand.
It's almost like they need an event where people could express their disappointment (and passion) in person.
Oh my. Then this feature is really worthless to them! Someone explain to me why TLP's will want to buy this xpac ? First year that I saw a post saying how to get a refund. I have to wonder how many private messages was received to prompt that post.
I haven't bought an expac for quite a few years since I'm on a TLP. The only reason to buy them for people like me is to get the bags/mounts/illusions, and to me at least it's definitely not worthe minimum of $70 to get the intermediate version which has the bags/mounts/illusions (some of which don't work on TLPs anyhow.)
I just did red all the questions and answers and don't get the concept. Please team Darkpaw, if you would answer just one question: What is the purpose of Alternate Personas ? Why do you add them to the game, beside the usual purpose of creating more revenue and adding a bonus feature to sell more expansions ? What are the benefits for the players ? It just looks like another half-baked feature as it is so complicated, limited, and puzzling. Most players do expect a simplier game and not a more complicated one. The second issue is the inventory and the inventory space. Do you expect that the players do carry around a half dozen equipment sets for alternate personas, beside different mercenary gear sets, and that they will like to swap whole gears sets with every persona swap, item by item ? Augs and lore items do make the whole thing even more complicated. So far it seems to be a mule feature for only very special situations like tradeskills, ports, buffs, quests, factions (easier access to more classic items and quests), replacing retired classes, and adding missing classes to an account. Or to add a needed class to a raid or an experience group. It would had been a cool feature if the players could had added a lower level version of their PC as an alternate persona, on the same account with the same PC name, similar to shrouding down, but exactly that is not possible because of technical issues.
Have to say .. what i'm reading on it. Its a feature that if you ever decided to reroll a different toon. You don't have to redo all of the old content for the achievements and such.
More guilds probably run a officer awarded system over DKP these days, Most DPS classes are highly capable in group gear if played right and then you only need key raid item slots to maximize DPS since everything else will be minimal gains after that and there's been plenty of rot gear unless your guild has high turnover rates. Although I forget to check if personas share same currency? If so then you can bank extra raid currency to buy gear for that persona too.
Since I was only looking forward to 125 and new zones etc, the Persona is just a bonus feature that may find a place at some point in time. For some it may be a primary motivator, or a diversion from the regular efforts, it could also be a novelty that loses its luster. The good news is that we still have the expansion itself to enjoy.
Let's say I'm a wizard. I want warrior or sk persona. If I understand correctly will have to re-grind evolvers, a cloak, and in LS a necklace. Lol.
It seems to me that the only use this is going to have will be for someone who wants to switch their main without having to redo things. Unhappy with the state of the Monk class? You can change to something else. May be good for that
I think it is their answer, or what they hoped would be an answer, to the inability to give us account transfers any longer so now we can juggle our characters around while keeping what they had similar to moving one with all his stuff. Kinda. Sorta. But not really. Do they even know?
Unless I'm not understanding lore groups and personas correctly, i think you can't loot a second tank cloak for your SK persona unless you delete your wizard's caster cloak.
It will destroy much of the nostalgia on TLP servers which might be the main reason why players do use those servers. APs are a TLP killer imo.
Only think is, you cannot, as all cloak evolutions share the same lore group. So if you have an evolved cloak on your main, you cannot loot the starter cloak at all.
The feature would be OPed if the players could swap their personas instantly and everywhere, and as often as they want. However it would be better to add the possibility to swap in all zones (everywhere) but with a limitation like a simple 15 minute cooldown timer or a "/camp persona" command so that it is not possible to instantly open that locked door or using a DRU/WIZ port spell, casting a 96% rez, etc. Your idea is also interesting. Soulbinders could also be used to allow person swaps in newer expansions.
Thinking about it some, it should be pretty easy to remedy that by just splitting up the lore groups like they did for epics. Kinda sucks for someone who wants to AP to a different archetype though if they have to level it up from scratch. A better way would be to retroactively merge the cloaks / RZ earring into one type or adding a convert option.
The most OP move I could come up with was to pop burns immediately before engage. I couldn't think of any recent group missions that would be all that easier from having a couple minutes of burns on some of your characters. I don't raid but what recent raids would be all that much easier with the kind of front-loaded partial burn you'd get from that? And beyond a burn start, what else would really be that overpowered with fast-swapping?
They could fix that by removing the lore group tag and adding a convert button. There are a few items in game that let you convert between an item for casters and one for tanks and one for melee, so it's definitely not unheard of.
