8th Coldain Shawl Quest blocked intentionally?

Would like to get an official confirmation about this quest.

Loremaster Solstrin gives the Coldain Issue Kits. Items are being dropped. General Bragmur is also in game. The only thing being blocked is Meg not giving Etching Tools.

Is it intentional or bugged? Can we get an official response from a dev?

Thanks!

From a march thread and from Fippy/Vulak, they made the 8th shawl Luclin era on purpose and that's the end of the story, kinda like how human BD cultural or the 9th necro skullcap are GoD era because reasons.

Considering this may be the only item many casual players will access in Velious that has FT, this is far from overpowered considering dozekar, CT, Tunare and vulak drops. In particular Vulak Robe.

Players who have access to top end drops, this shawl doesn't change the fact they can get in excess of FT10 with certain gear selections and there isn't much difference between FT10 and FT13.

There's zero argument for extended buffs being OP'd in any capacity in this era. At all.

I cannot think of a good argument why the 8th shawl should be excluded other than... reasons. Aka we messed up and don't feel like going back to fix it.

Yet they will go back in and search EQMac to repair SG or put deluxe toolboxes in.

7th shawl is in game and has FT1.

Lot of perfectly Era-Reasonable gear that got taken out for "reasons".

Like all the St quests, 8th Shawl, etc.

The ST quest rewards had click effects not available elsewhere in Velious. The 8th shawl's focus is stronger than EE3. They're not so much overpowered as just out of era. Personally I think the ST quests should be bumped up from POP unlock to Luclin, and the Shawl bumped back into era. The shawl buff is only strong for avatar I believe; the good heals over time would still need AAs for an extra tick and beastlords are foolishly not in yet.

But nevermind that their is insanely OP easy to get loot in Velks Lab dropping. 30 AC range item for a scrub group? No problem, lets leave that in. Hard to accomplish 8th Shawl that is not OP considering what you need to do it for it? Let's leave it out.

The shawl was intended for more casual players. You don't need to be a raider to get your tradeskills up, the shawl walk doesn't require much when you look through the lense of what raids use.

For casual players, the shawl is the epic of the expansion for all casters.

I mean, clicky rezz wasn't OP'd in Kunark? But a FT3 EH item is in Velious?

Put in the etching tools.

In same slot, ODS > 8th Shawl except for fights lasting a long time...or during downtime. Thus it's usefulness isn't THAT great. Just like the cleric clicky isn't overpowering...it's just a time/mana saver.

As a cleric, ODS is virtually useless on a CH chain.

Other classes that may change.

Same goes for Remedy / DL fights; where foci can drastically change your mana consumption.

I'd still put a crystalline torque in my neck slot and use a shawl for now when using remedy / DL.

For a non-raider, I suspect MP3 would hold more value as very few spells are excluded from benefitting.

So I suppose what I'm saying is Crystalline Torque + Shawl (7 or 8) > ODS and any non-raid neck item.

There are other MP3 items. Not so much EE3 on Priests. Fact. There are only 2 EE3 usable items. One is a neck and one is a face that begins dropping after the Sleeper is awakened.

taking into account that base in-combat mana regen is equal between the 2 examples below.

on a ch chain, 10 mana per minute (shawl 7) is near useless too, except, you know, on those fights that last 40 minutes plus (where you've regenned the mana for 1 extra ch). 30 mana per minute (shawl 8) is a little more palatable - fights just have to be over 13 minutes long to make it worthwhile.

Since ODS has 25 mana, it's almost always better to wear over 7th shawl anyways (that doesn't have any +mana). 8th Shawl gives you 25 more mana. Thus, in the end, with 8th shawl, fight would need to be more than 12.5 minutes long for it to be worthwhile over an ODS anyways. And none of that takes into account wearing a neck with mana on it either)

So, count up how many of those fights you expect to see anytime soon, and then see if doing the tradeskill grind (with cost) is worth it over farming an ODS.

(the above is in reference to the CH rotation comment obviously since CH isn't affected by any mana pres)

Torque - MP3 and no stats
Shawl 7 - +7 to stats, +1mps, no mana
Shawl 8 - +8 to stats, +3mps, +50 mana
ODS - mp3, +3 str, +5 sta, +3 wis, +25 mana
Velium BD neck - +65 mana

torque + shawl 7 = mp3, +7 to stats, +1mps, no mana
torque + shawl 8 = mp3, +8 to stats, +3mps, +50 mana (+20% duration - affects HoTs and buffs only for the sake of argument, no effect on CH or CH effects)

velium bd neck + ods = mp3, 3/5/3 stats, +90 mana

The only time torque and shawl could possibly be better, IMO, would be if you weren't at your int/wis cap and needed the stats from the shawl to get there OR on any fight that is longer than 12.5 minutes. That 12.5 minutes could be reduced a bit by bypassing the torque (since you're on a CH rotation) and wearing a neck with +mana. Shawl 7 is near useless since they fixed the combat regen of mobs (yay no more 1.5 hour long fights).

Thus, I'll argue that shawl 7 is useless outside of being necessary to do shawl 8 6+ months from now. Shawl 8 may, or may not be worthwhile still come Luclin - as I don't remember other mp3 or shoulder items that come with Luclin that could be better anyways.

The amount one spends (either in coin, krono, or opportunity cost (time)) tradeskilling up for the shawls (barring some stupidly lucky combine successes at low/no skill) need to be compared to the 2-3kr you could purchase an ODS from the auction channel or using the opportunity cost (time) to go farm one in seb).

Oh, and let's not forget the cost of the torque in the mix of things too. Just like ODS, you could go farm it yourself, or buy from the marketplace. But given there's not a lot of choices for MP3, and I think we all agree for casters, MP3 is a necessity (except on ch rotations that we also agree on), there's a cost involved. That cost for the torque, plus all the cost to do the shawls, adds up a lot more than the cost of an ODS in the end.

At least until Luclin

the 8th shawl was not released till luclin orginally if i recall correctly
same with the 9th and 10th ring .. but 9th and 10th rings are allowed NOW

cultural armor is totaly screwed up... and they are supposed to be allowed in velious but quite a few races, the enchanted and / or imbued cultural recipies do not work (im talking the 1st tier cultural, not the 40 hp stuff made with the blue diamond dust temper what ever stuff .. that is definatly luclin era)

crap ton of stuff dealing with tradeskills has been scrwed up or overlooked or just flat out ignored
in some cases blatently locked out with no logical reason

Wrong, the 9th and 10th rings were live originally when Velious opened. I think the 10th ring war might have been broken to start with but they were always intended to be in from Velious opening, and the rings were definitely completed in era, before Luclin opened.

The 7th shawl was in place at Velious opening too. The 8th shawl was added in Luclin as an afterthought because people loved the tradeskill/questing side of it, and wanted more! Also, FT3 is a little out of place in Velious - more a Luclin level item, so I can understand it not being added yet on TLPs.

The purpose of this thread is to get a confirmation from a dev whether Meg is bugged or it is intentionally to be this. I also petitioned. If the quest is not in, it should be stopped at Loremaster Solstrin, so that would be less confusing.

I don't see why Ft3 is out of place.

There's a significant amount of FT items introduced in Velious ranging from FT1 - FT5 (I think that's the int caster tunare secondary?). The rest are basically concentrated in the FT1-FT3 range.

Giving players access to a non-raid FT item within that range isn't exactly out of era or OP. Hell, the item doesn't even have 100 mana on it. Now comparing Vulak robe is unfair, but that things way more OP as a BIS until AHR (Luclin end boss) drops. Hell, tormax boots are BIS through all of Luclin and they have Ft2.

You're never going to sell me that the shawl focus is OP because it extends buffs. You're not killing content any easier because buffs last longer. A 3 hour Aego ain't gonna break your raid or group content one bit.

Let's call a duck a duck here. They messed up in their assessment of this era's content (deluxe toolbox, cultural combines, quest rewards like shawl).

Be nice if they fixed it. If anything in such a vicious raid environment, throwing casual players a bone isn't necessarily a bad thing. The raiders? Just something else to do between mob spawns.

According to she who must not be named, filthy casuals dont deserve a damn thing

Bump! Is there any chance for an official response about if it's bugged or intend? I petitioned, no response...

Its intended, there was dev responses about it for Fippy era.

Personally I like the mana Pres 3 item that goes into the range slot leaving you shoulder open.... There is also a healing 3 mask with melee stats I'd use becuase Dain cloak spell haste 3 is op Malo/Slow/BuffS/Healing...

Face Improved healing 3 NTov
Spell haste 3 Dain cloak
Burning affliction 3 wrist / belt
Extended range 3 Wrist
Extended buff 3 neck

That's a shaman itemization granted some of the items do not have the best stats but that might help your itemization