Changes with the February Update: Alternate Ability Grants for Gold Members and Ability Changes

this could be their way of easily, slowly but surely, sunsetting EQ. Letting the players down easy.

If beaming mages had been handled months ago none of this would be an issue, apparently we all must suffer. I'm really sensing some raging child syndrome here - The mages lose their toy, and must smash all of the other kids toys to keep things "fair"

" just remove Rogues and berserkers beeing able to decap and assasinate on ripost and let that be the end of it, make beam hit 10-20 targets, let headshot be the way it is, and make riposts of SK epic only heal for half or something, still good but not useless... "

Agree.
The AA thing is problematic in that people will be getting AAs that are not only unwanted but detrimental to their class. Anyone who kites in raids or groups or even pulls for groups does not want silent casting, PERIOD!!
Lessening the agro created when we need all we can get is not well thought out. Perhaps giving the amount of AAs that you would have from the point you suggest and allowing us to place them would be better?

The rangers have been hit hard enough when it comes to headshot

My 2cp worth

Instead of auto granting all aa's up to a certain expansion, why not just give a flat rate each level to spend? ie. 50aa's awarded with each level, starting at 51 and continuing up to level 85; this will give a person 1500+ aa's at 85 which is perfectly fine for that content; should the person decide they want more than that, they can grind out more aa's the old fashioned way

The amount of aa's awarded per level is adjustable of course, but wouldn't this be a way to achieve both the speeding up of aa advancement AND enable some feelings of accomplishment by not handing everything over on a silver platter while also giving the person an opportunity to learn the character, specializing the toon, whatever

Please don't Nerf the characters! Many people have been playing this game since EQ first came out, and had to work hard to get AAs and the special ability that a char can do at higher lvls. Why not just pay and add more CPU and memory... Just upgrade your Equipment to support the game. Don't punish people that have learned how to play there characters in other ways, that takes skills to do. Some people have spent a ton of money on this game, buying station cash, and the new expansions one at a time as the game progressed since some have been playing from the very start of the game. Now anyone new to game can just get the newest expansion and they get all the older ones too.

So, please don't NERF the characters, people have worked so hard to get them that UBER and now your going to take that away?? To Swarm pull, head shot, and ect is something a class works towards doing. It's shows how much progress they have gotten over the years playing the game.

Just upgrade your equipment, and add more CPU Memory, or put ever zone on it's own CPU Memory.
Please just support the game as it is, and leave things alone.

I am sure a lot of people will try out the new EQ Next game. So, please don't destory this game... PLEASE.

Hit the nail on the Head here.
You completely disrupt the class and how it works. even to the point of making the class almost unable to survive any encounter, let alone something in a raid. I play all classes but druid (don't judge me, just never got the taste for them, except with Ketchup). I can see the affected abilities. This nerf is basically taking EVERYTHING that they told SKs why they were not getting better increases in abilities / skills and giving the middle finger to them. You do this you better rebalance the whole class, cause you will have killed its playability in almost every encounter. (point of fact, I have been playing my chanter and my necro for the last 6 months as my current mains, before anyone thinks its just another SK griping).

Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees.

Mages have long known what other classes were doing. You think server lag comes primarily from a few mages beam kiting over dozens of SKs, berserkers, etc. swarming in instances and open zones? SoE has parses of these events. They even threatened you guys before when they said that mage beam kiting isn't the only swarming going on & that it isn't even the highest exp gain...

Of course you were going to be punished along with the rest. Just because mages were doing visibly what others were doing less visibly, doesn't make the impact on server load less. It was obvious to all who the bulk of swarmers were just looking at the people advertising PLs...

I left Everquest around 10 years ago and got rid of my old account after playing religiously every single day for 4 years. I just recently made the decision to try coming back to Everquest. I have a gold account and have been pretty satisfied. UP UNTIL THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. I left this game the first time because of nerfing and I will damn sure leave it again. (Not that anyone cares.)

I can understand removing lifetap procs off ripostes on targets that are not my current target as that is one of the main contributing factors that allows an SK to swarm, but removing them from ripostes on my current target as well renders our Shrouds, Mortal Coil, Soul Abrasion, Touch of the Cursed, Riposte increasing AAs, and SK epic COMPLETELY useless. A huge portion of our ability to tank/off tank (our primary class purpose) comes from being able to self heal off the pittance of damage we do. No riposte procs means solo tanking even single dark blues without a healer merc will be virtually impossible. Taking away procs on ripostes of my current main target, will take my already pitiful DPS and cut it roughly in half.

As for swarming in non instanced zones affecting other players, that can be fixed by making older content instances solo obtainable like "Forgotten Halls" and "Hatching A Plan" are. If i could get instances like the "Lost Notebook" solo, I would happily swarm in instances instead of zones like PoFire. If the pathing calculations are bringing the server to its knees, that means the code should be refactored to be more scalable and degrade gracefully. If i pull 50+ mobs and run around, lower the frequency of pathing checks per mob as the swarm size increases and allow them to warp along the path vs running it. If they warp on top of my head so be it, something like swarming should be dangerous anyways. Don't punish the players for sins of coders past.

The other problem with trying to nerf swarming, is that short of adding mobs that summon at 100% health to every zone, or auto booting a player who is on more than a certain threshold of hate lists from the zone, you cannot stop us from pulling a swarm. Just because we can no longer actually kill the mobs we pull doesn't stop us from pulling them. Any class with a fade ability of any kind can still pull an entire zone and run around in circles for 5 mins, fade, rinse and repeat. Nerf our classes to the point that we can no longer function in any reasonable capacity (i.e. we are no longer having fun), and we can randomly pull swarms at will to keep your servers' CPUs pegged (i.e. no fun for you either). Fix the inefficiency in the code that makes too many corpses in a zone or too many moving mobs a problem instead of removing the current primary functionality of classes like the SK.

The lag is how you die on a "swarm" as a rogue. Rogues rely on counterattack for their massive trains, thanks to knives return strike, you can fire an assasinate on a riposte, use counterattack riposte disc and almost every hit becomes an assasination.

If you make the zone lag....you'll see the mobs lag in the distance....a few seconds later you're dead..the mobs will have warped around you and into the back of you and your disc is only frontal and only lasts a couple of seconds.

If you pull 80% of a zone, you'll start to see warping, mobs will have trouble following you, and they'll start to pop on you. The warping also doesn't stop, it lags the whole zone until that train doesn't have aggro any longer.

I totally agree. They say it maybe costly, think of how many of us have been playing since release. How much money we put into the game through subscriptions. The fact that they say the hardware isn't the issue is a line a BS. Like i asked in an earlier post... If there is nothing wrong with their hardware, are they going to be running EQN on the same garbage they are running EQ1 on, obviously they are having all kinds of issues if that cant even keep the chat service up and running. It's almost like clockwork every day at 4pm eastern it starts going down. guess we can blame the mass killers for that to.

Bronut forgive me for not using the forums enough to know how to quote your assumption that I am someone new to the game.

I started in June 2000 and took one year off after the Big Sony Hack. Still I have 5 characters at level 100, (ranger, SK, monk, necro and beastlord.) I have over 1500 days played, plus 1258 on the trader before they started offline trading (my electric bill loves that!) In excess of 43,000 AAs earned (not counting glyphs).
I do not feel I am owed anything for the time I spent leveling up, or earing AAs, or developing all the gear, or raising 5 Master Artisans. In truth, I have probably spent enough time just shopping to have made a few more 100 levels.

Everyone have fun with the game and good luck to those who no longer enjoy it.

Shimmerleaf and the gang

What is the endgame here? Does the team feel these changes will win more new or returning subs verse what they will lose?

Because I don't see it. This is a 15 year old dated niche game. The niche being its depth, raiding and difficulty have created an amazing player base with all different play styles. With them all pretty much agreeing easy is not what this game needs. That's what has kept it going all these years. The team seems to be losing sight of this more and more. Stop listening to the jump ship instant gratification types that want all content levels and aa right now. Those types will be gone if they get what they want or if they don't. If you start making all old raid mobs pop every 2 hours or grant people every aa from uf or continue to water down all content you will instead lose a dedicated player base. That otherwise weren't going anywhere. Very short sighted to say the least. Stop wasting time on stuff like this and churn out a reasonable amount of current content and fix major issues and you will gain and retain at the same time. You are not competing with wow or newer mmos they are trying next best thing this game stay smart and play to your niche and strong points.

Dear Dev Team, I say "dear" truly, as all of you do want Everquest to continue on another 15 years. I do have a couple comments and suggestions(one of very very many expressed here)

1) I agree that there needed to be a balance on instantly killing mobs. I also want to re-word what some of you have said in a way some players aren't getting. Nerfing the proc rate of headshot, decap, etc for older low con mobs (say 85, I don't know the exact level as I play none of these classes) allows those abilities to be INCREASED to affect mobs up to 90, 95 etc, even effect some mobs in current content. The danger was the high proc chance, not the ability itself, and thus with a proc nerf these abilities can be ten times more useful in much higher content.

2) Beaming and swarming needed to be nerfed. Period. I disagree with the extent the cleric is and greatly with the SK (considering the SK abilities that are subject to nerf greatly reduces their effectiveness to to tank certain situations that make them unique tanks in said circumstances)

3) The most controversial part of this announcement is the AA, from people claiming it trivializes all the time and effort and sense of accomplishment it brings(I have to agree with them and my fellow guildies) I would like to suggest an alternative thought:

Something like this--> the play station 1 first comes out, first generation. Everyone has to have it, must have it, will pay anything for it: work over time pinch pennies the lot of it, and you finally finally have the console and are thrilled, proud even. Several console generations later, its gathering dust unsold on a shelf.

Does this mean it was a bad device, valueless? No, but it isn't the "in thing" anymore. People will still say it was a great console STILL WORTH PLAYING. To those people(including me) seeing AA given for free is like seeing a business giving away free old play stations. It diminishes the memory.

As a guild leader, and an open raid leader for years, and a practical person...I do see the need for people to catch up on older AA...but don't make it valueless...put it on sale like any business would do. Don't give away the product, make it MUCH cheaper.

Try this on for size and tell me what you think. Have every AA, and all subsequent ranks up to UF era, cost 1-2 AA max per rank. Your not giving away the product, but your trying to "move it" like a business, and there by getting folks caught up quicker the "current". And to people sensitive about their time, we need to realize that some adjustments need to be made after something has been around so many years and the original game design can't predict how the game would act many years later.

Even throw in a small perk...reverse previous trends, reward people for that time, INCREASE AA gain as you gain more AA, every 1000 AA they gain 10% additional AA, until it reaches a cap of 10k AA you make 100% AA bonus. The only way to make money is with money. Gain AA to gain more AA quicker.

Reward the time and hard work with the bonus, assist those that are behind to help them catch up, and respect the memory of the past.

Thank you for your time.
Dreekenail- Guild Leader of the Ancient Dragons- Saryrn/Bertox server

I don't care about folks getting AA's up to Underfoot or a free 85 character.. if it gets more follks to play the game more power to them... BUT the nerfs to the cleric's Shining line is uncalled.. Now I wont threaten to quit or such over it... but I do think this nerf is a kneejerk reaction that should not be done,..,

But to the 10million posts about folks saying "ill quit if they give folks aa's or levels".. come on man,.. calm down.. does having a bunch of new level 85s running around hurt you? I rather them be level 85 then level 1... ,less stuff they will bug me for.... I been ,max AA's for a long time now and the fact that they will give aa's to new players automatically could make me care less... it does not effect me or my experience of eq.. I enjoyed getting most of my AA's *minus the useless ones that I don't use/benefit from*... so I think the only people really getting cheated would be the folks gaining all thee AA's when they wont know which ones to use or how to use them cause they were given a few thousand AA's all at once and not given the manual on how to use them.

anyways I have no real point.. just wish you guys left our Shining line of spells alone.. but oh well.. like all the other nerfs in the past I might not like it.. BUT I am sure I will be able to live with it.

BTW Please Add Perfected Augment Distillers to the marketplace!!!!

Thanks 8)
CaRnon

Clearly, you've never heard of revenue.

Ok so the pulling of mass mobs is the issue...
...and if these mobs are not Killed but pulled anyway you still have same problem...
...so ALL of the above is to discourage peeps doing this, this is NOT a true fix...
...just Kicking the can a bit so to speak....

Set a auto mem wipe / debuff on more than 20 mobs.... (what ever the number)...

As for the AA issue, boost the Give away xp for aa....

And in all seriousness, if we play this game for over a decade work up and its now being (CENSORED) on by the powers that be from SOE and their various departments then it stands to reason this will happen in ALL Current and Next MMO's....

BIG Thumbs down on all fronts. I think this is a horrible idea that will make me re-evaluate if I want to keep my subs on 3 accounts. There are so many other more pressing issues with the game that should be addressed FIRST. Universal Chat and a generally half- expac should be the issue at hand.

I just came back to EQ after an extended hiatus. I've recently been working to get enough AA's and be of the appropriate level to tank current content as a SK. After reading the "changes" that will be implemented, I feel there is no need for me to log-in, ever again. Why should I (or anyone else for that matter) be given AA for nothing? Yes, EQ has many AA's, however between dailies and hot-zones, it is NOT HARD achieve a desirable number of AA's, achieving being the main point. This new "Auto-Grant" lets players achieve nothing.

Nerfing Lich Sting is UNACCEPTABLE. Knights rely on MC and LS for tanking in raid situations. Had you "developers" ever played EQ, you would fully understand Lich Sting is all but useless with a single target of current content. Tanking multiple targets is why Lich Sting is still a survivability tool for SK's to this day.

If you wanted to serve this game and community well, you would instead increase the AA cap for silver members.

There have been many "Doom and Gloom" posts over the years, but never something this bold. Quite frankly its not surprising. The quality of content is lack-luster and the game is dying a slow death, what you have done here is added fuel to speed things up. I was interested in EverQuest Next, as it seemed to offer many promising features, seeing this, I've lost all interest in an SOE product.
Enjoy your "game".

My opinion on the AA changes:
First off, sorry to those that I can't relate. My highest AA character is still under 1k AA.
But, I believe I can understand the frustration. I have played many MMOs and had a lot of times where everyone was upset. But, I like to look at the bright side of things.
The new AA changes mean that any alt you feel like powerleveling up you can already have a lot of AA in the bank, therefore making it easier to get to high end content(something I have never done and would like to see). While this is upsetting to those who 'had to progress the right way' there, changes need to be made to a game that is growing old. It happens to every game, and will continue to happen. (Though I think an AA xp boost for the first ~3-4k AA is a better option).
But even if they were to hand out an xp boost to early AA, people would get upset because something that was once difficult became easier.
Pride yourself in this: You grinded those AA BEFORE the patch that 'killed eq'.'
If that's not enough for you, well, sorry, changes happen, you need to get used to them.

I personally(imagining that I had ~7+ lvl 100s with thousands of AA across the board and tons of grinding time) think that I would embrace this patch anyway. For all of those classes that you haven't fully tried, just PL them up and give them a go! Now that it's easier to progress a character, you can try that character you've been considering making but didn't want to put in the time.

Again, trying to address the problem people see:
Yes, they are handing out free AA. Would it be better if it was disguised as an xp boost instead toward aa?
Would it be better if instead they made it so as long as you had a lvl 80+ character you could create a new character at 60 with 2k AA?

Point being, they are going to make it easier somehow. If this is reason for you to quit, then I can't understand you, but I think you should leave.

Games require change as they grow old.