Changes with the February Update: Developer Updates

Yes it does diminish my game. See my post no 1095

Also it blew my mind to see a ranger do a 550,000+ point kill shot! I think that is excessive.

hum ya you didnt read their updated post on this the lvl cap may go up but the damage will be the same so basicly a lvl 100 will do about as much dmage twice a minute if the proc goes off as say a mage who dosent crit. with their big spell

Silly question, but why not do both options under two different AA lines?

Utilize one as a means of clearing out the true grey con fodder. As an added bonus to prevent swarming, treat it as the wizard disintegration spell from the olden days, and obliterate the XP entirely, that way it cant be utilized for PLing. (Loot poofing as well is an item for some debate.)

In contrast, the version which works on higher level characters could simply be treated as a variation of the Pally Slay Undead series of AAs. (Hitting humanoids or other restricted mob types instead of undead.)

uhm if you recall from oh say 2002 aa's where granted as earned at lvl 51 since then they have increased the earned xp toward the aa's to cause them ta be earned slower if you earned aa's today at the same xp rate as back in 02 u would kill one mob an get 10 aa's so how exactly is it a bonus curve when it is in actuality a negative.?

I am happy with the granting of AAs. I'm so tired of not being able to fight anything other than light blue trash with my level 87 main. I don't have the time to grind out 4000 AAs and would like to explore some of the new zones without getting slaughtered.
Hoping to do more exploring soon!!

Getting Free AA's?? Um, up until this change one had to actually DO something in game to earn an AA. Now if by "free AA's" you are referring to someone who sat in a zone while someone else did the work, yep, those folks got plenty of "free AA's".

coming form myself who has played for over 13+ years This doesn't diminish any ones game. Its no different then in real life when at work you can work there for years getting raises. Then the job changes the min start out pay to make it so a new hire get the same as you. You lose nothing form it.

I think I can summarize this as you feel like it would be harder for raid guilds or end game guilds to weed through players that have not ground out the AAs so they do not know their characters and thus are not as effective of players (apologies if I mischaracterized this, let me know if I missed anything).

1 - This still does not diminish YOUR accomplishments. You still gained your xp through grinding and can still be proud of that
2 - This is an issue guilds face today with people who are PL'd up to a level but they don't know how to play their toons. This is largely remedied by minimum AA requirements, application periods, evaluation periods, etc where new players aren't considered full members until they demonstrate their proficiency in their class or are brought up to a comparable level to the remaining members. These techniques would work regardless if someone is PLd or auto-granted AAs.
3 - A returning player may not want to be in and endgame guild (and certainly likely won't have the skill set to do so), why is raising the bar higher a bad thing?
4 - Most endgame guilds require DoN progression and MPG trials for resist AAs, Pie has already said these wont be granted, so you can easily weed the auto-granted players out and when they group with the guild to get the progression, their proficiency in their class can easily be determined.

Again, at it's core, auto-granting AAs does not diminish your accomplishments. You may feel like your pride is hurt that you had to work for something; I prefer to take pride in working for what I have without allowing what others have to make me feel like I'm less of a player.

I accept and await the changes to AAs. I am a long time player and do not feel the need for any entitlements because I did things the way I did over all the years I played. There have been many changes over the years that have made EQ not as hard for new players, defiant, aa bonus exp, exp pots, tradeskill (sigh) upgrades, maps(omg), mercs, and on and on and on. I would guess that all of the player base uses most if not all of the things that have made the game not as hard. For everyone that thinks this is the end EQ think of all the "easy button" things that have been added over the years that really sucked doing the hard way (hand drawn maps and anything tradeskill are what come to mind for me). I look back on the things I did old school with a sort of nostalgia, but I also know there is no way in hell that I want to do those things again. Thanks to all the devs for taking the time to let us know the coming changes. And to anyone that misses me , aim better .

What happens when you are stripped of your abilities to perform your job? Find a new job that's what

I think the EQ makers need to realize we all want this game to continue for years to come. If you need money, ask for it. Hold special events. For example, Only 40 more new subs until a Double Exp Weekend. Only 20 more expansions buys for a one week in game event. The options are endless. Some of us just need that feeling we are helping and you may see some pockets open. I am still shocked they don't have a premium sub that has special perks. We have some of the most loyal base players out there.

Given the requirements and the changes they should probably work on level cap -1 mobs and be instant kill because you're nerfing the ppm by a huge amount.

As is you're giving rogues a dps boost, zerkers a dps boost, and nerfing the ranger option to be almost completely useless and making pulling slightly more annoying than it has been for the last 15 years. I'd say we lose out quite a lot in the end.

I actually like these changes.. Only thing i would change is auto-grant lvl 80 and over. (you can still group up to a 30 lvl range)

Was the warrior No Time to Bleed pre-nurfed for this? i would like a discussion to carry on for this change.... i think most warriors would rather have the duration time made sustainable (time) and would trade hit counters for that ability..

Thanks

And if that happened at work I would hand my notice in same day and get another job. At work I don't expect someone with little or no experience to earn the same as someone who's successfully done the job for a decade. Ditto EQ.
In EQ people are cheesed off for exactly the same reason; as others have said, just as in your work analogy, it makes them feel their expertise, hours put in and experience is undermined and unvalued.
What we are trying to avoid here is people leaving surely?

But that doesn't address the issue - see post 1095 which does

TO ANY RED

Would you please at least acknowledge some of the compromise proposals pertaining to the AA grant? It's obvious that many vets feel like we've been hung out to dry. What's wrong with lowering the overall cost of AA lines and benefiting everyone? It would be appreciated by new, returning and veteran players alike as well as possibly improving subscription retention.

You're doing the AA grant as a POSSIBLE source of short burst revenue. Why not consider lowering AA costs as a possible way to KEEP some of those burst subscriptions and maybe having them turn into long-term subscriptions. The plus to it is that people won't be granted 5 - 7K AA's for free then realize that they suddenly have to start paying 18 or more AA's per lvl of a given AA line. The bonus to this idea is that it also makes the vets feel like WE'RE getting something too and possibly stopping a mass exodus of veteran subscriptions caused by feeling unappreciated and ignored.

Now, about that nerf bat again... It's not a steamroller. We get REALLY upset when you flatten us with it. Think more wiffle ball and less steamroller.

Mages beaming 80 - 200 yellow and red con mobs and DELIBERATELY lagging the server so they could line thier pockets SHOULD be nerfed. It was an exploit that was allowed to continue for far too long. The lesson SHOULD have been learned with Wizzy beaming when it caused the same problem.

Nerfing Clerics like you're doing is just silly. The ONLY time I've mass-killed anything was/is to farm tradeskill stuff. I've barely started my tradeskills so, I'm back in Kunark AE'ing lvl 35 mobs. This is theoretically another source of server lag and yet, the root cause (crappy pathing and coding) isn't being addressed.

Shammy HoT proc in NO way compares to a direct heal proc. Why nerf it?

SK's have admitted REPEATEDLY that Mortal coil is what gives them the ability to swarm. While they may have contributed to server lag to a small degree, why mess with the epic to the detriment of thier raid and group tanking ability?

Rogues assassinate ability affects less than 1% of the current mob types because it's limited to humanoid only. They're not the cause of server lag. Raising the lvl on it doesn't help much at all. It sure as heck won't come anywhere near balancing the class as far as dps goes unless you open it to more mob types. Reduce agro generated.

Rangers are currently geared more towards melee dps. pull just about that many. They're not the cause of server lag. You're limiting wizzy and mage beams to 12 mobs... Well, headshotting rangers usually only. Open up some mob types on headshot and bring it back in line with decapitate. Reduce agro generated.

Zerkers pay WAY less AA's than rogue or rangers to do way more damage on ALL mob types. Again, how can you decapitate something that doesn't even have a head??? Bring thier cost and mob type more in line with rogues and rangers. Reduce agro generated.

Mage and Necro pets can tank better than SK's, Pally's and Warriors. I remember an exploit not long ago (expansion-wise) that allowed Mage and Necro pets to tank a raid mob. That's just wrong. I even have to heal a mage pet less than I do a live tank because of thier damage mitigation. Strengthen the tanks or nerf the pets.

Raid mobs and, to a lesser degree, group mobs have been allowed to power up in HP, AC and damage mitigation a LOT faster than our tank types have. Tripling or quading mob stats every expansion has gotten out of control.

Fix the dang chat server!!!!

Elidroth,
It still hasn't been addressed as to whether HS and assassinate would work on more than just humanoid...can we get a possible or no way from you please and thank you.

None, but grey kills are the only things the abilities were supposed to work on as designed when they were added. Just shut up and be glad you're keeping some functionality, and this is coming from a 15 year ranger.

Elidroth, there have been a lot of suggestions to the effect of attaching progressive achievement rewards for EARNED AAs - ie opposed to auto-granted ones - that reward players who choose to grind out the AAs themselves, but which does not create a frustrating bottleneck for players who just want to catch up to their friends. To me this looks to be, while not a mutually satisfactory solution, at the minimum one that mitigates the complaints about how you are giving away all this hard work for free.

Is such a scheme being considered by the team?

I would like to see something on this, Elidroth. It's not really fair that the zerker version of the instakill works on all mob types, unless you're planning on restricting decap to humanoids with the new version of the ability.