Changes with the February Update: Developer Updates

Oh, please!

Why do you nerf the "shining" line for clerics?

My arguments:

• Paladins and druids also have similar spells that proc heals when being attacked. Clerics were the "masters" at it being the only class that didn't have a hit limit count on them. By removing them you are putting them at the same level.
• As others have pointed: Clerics will stop using them in raids and groups. Having to renew them from time to time on everybody is just not viable.
• As a lvl 100 cleric I can tell you this line of spells doesn't allow you to "swarm" anything in a viable way. When I got the first version (and following upgrades) of it at 89, 94 and 99, and even at 100 with better gear, I was never able to "swarm" anything that wasn't low-green or gray. Better find a group or try higher lvl mobs with your tank merc.

If you think about it any level 100 character can pull a horde of gray mobs and just survive with their own regen due to high ac, avoidance, mitigation and level difference. The shining line isn't bringing much of a difference there. Yeah... you can kill a horde of gray mobs... cool... who can't?
I have seen people swarming: the old sharkerpaging, mages beaming, monks, warriors and zerkers using riposte disc (I never saw rogues but I guess they also can), SKs with their life-stealing skills but I never saw clerics swarming with this. I guess all who tried gave up due to the low profit you can get from it. Same I did.
Seeing you are going to nerf it anyway... Here are some ideas to nerf it but keeping it "balanced" so clerics still have the coolest self-heal proc buff:

• Make it land only on players in your same group/raid. It's a functionality already in place for other spells and this way lower level players can't use it to swarm mobs around their level on their own and if they are grouped with you they don't get so much exp... killing mobs that con gray to a higher lvl cleric in your team isn't very rewarding and doesn't grant AA.
• If you are definitely going to add a limit of uses on it, please, make it better than the paladin and druid versions: noticeable higher count limit or heal amounts.

Keeping its unlimited aspect has many benefits in group/raid situations. If you nerf it in a way that makes it not rewarding at all for swarming you won't have any problems. Nobody will use it for that.
Thanks

Well its a sad day for me , im a sk who don't swarm for plat and have worked hard for 4 years on my skills .I have got my self my own play style which includes swarming any mobs which add ,I am more than pissed of with soe and have been for few months now all they seem to want now is u to open your bank account more and more for them .The game has changed so much in the last 12 years for me and this is the final cut .Good bye everquest im glad you have ended my eddiction I can take the money I pay fpr my 3 accounts and play something better .

I still don't understand how HS and anatomy are broke...

Simple fix, Make HS decap and assassinate have 10 second timers. (minimizes swarming) then make decap humanoid only same as HS and assassinate... Problem solved.

WTF is wrong with you sony....


Looks like I'll go silver with the changes, and not bother paying you anymore. Then take my warrior OR monk and go to t4 (that's right, better exp than grounds where decapitation is SUCH a problem) and go swarm 15-20 mobs a pull because you AREN'T nerfing any of their abilities to do such... GG

Turn it into a farce all you want, the fact is that without this pride, as misplaced as it may be, very little would have stayed for that long in a game that was already obsolete 10 years ago.

The vast majority of those who will benefit from the AA gift will be boxing. Bringing new friends to EQ? Give me a break.

Now with all those posts.

Question for the DEVS.

Have you considered treating the disease and not the symptoms ?

First diagnose the patient (EQ).

Symptoms: Swarming/beaming (PL alts).

Why does people PL alts, when did people start to PL alts so much that it gives peaks ?

Has that been the last 2-3 years, or 1 year or last 6 months ?

If the last 2-3 years, then it might be a general problem.

Last 6-12 MONTHS, then it might be that there is too Little to do.
- Something that many has said about CoTF.

So better treat the disease than the symptoms

Why the big uproar over giving old AAs out for free? This is how all MMORPGs operate with respect to equipment already. All the HoT gear you probably worked hard for is now essentially worthless. Games are about having fun while you play them. The 12 AAs I worked my butt off to get during the Luclin era help me at the time, and that is the return of investment I got, and all I ever expected.

Indeed... my response is the same:

Regardless of how the changes end up, I appreciate the dev teams efforts to dialogue with the (often recalcitrant) player base on these changes. Hopefully future big changes will also be discussed.

Getting AA's has not been a problem, don't see the point in ruining the game. Simply if you don't know how to get them quickly with out swarming then you don't know how to play. Giving people that don't know how to play aa's will not solve your problem.

Anyone taking bets if the population goes up or down in one year? I mean we can look at what it has done over the last 10. The developers seem to know what the paying population of ever quest wants.

I play causal, I work more then full time, and have had no problems getting aa's.

I'm not pretending I will leave yet, but I will make no bones about it, when a new mmo comes out that is harder then this one I am out. Sorry, ya'll can cry about the curve all day, but that is what keeps me here.

It seems like it is an attempt to future-proof exploitable effects, there is no upper limit to the amount of healing it can provide built into it. There may not be a clear way to exploit it now, but there might be two expansions from now. It can be cast on others too, which makes it more likely that some exploitable combination would emerge at some point.

I think their approach to solve the problem is flawed though, if it is not reliable, it is not useful for its intended purpose. Spell effects can clearly make checks every tick, roots, mezes, viral spells, so, just make it refresh a set number of proc counters every tick. This way an absolute maximum of healing per second could be set without affecting any of the other attributes of the spell such as duration or proc rate. I would think a similar approach could work for the shadow knight epic proc and mortal coil.

How many important AA are you four expansions behind on?

If you are a tank, would you let combat stability and combat agility stagnate - or would you grind out the extra 20 levels on each? How about on other AA critical to your class? How many casters are currently letting their DPS-related AA sit at UF levels?

I can see very casual players who get maybe ~15-20 AA a month might be put in a position where they will get AAs via autogrant before they can earn them, making AAing pointless. I don't really know any players like that, though.

I is one of the few useful spells Clerics get, and now they want to make it more or less useless, I have never heard of or seen a Cleric swarming with or with out SB.

^^ This

You guys have to realize they have to do something to stay somewhat competitive with other online games. Sony Corp itself isn't in the best shape right now financially. They're selling off the PC business and may end up having to do the same to other areas. If that affects the online games, EQ may go away. The nerfing issue, at this stage I don't care anymore. One way or the other. I've read a lot of cry baby and "i'll take my business elsewhere" posts on here, and some decent well thought out posts. But the overall line is, if they don't get the subscription numbers up, the game will go away. That's just business. All this time and emotional investment you have in EQ won't matter if the game goes away.

That being said. I quit raiding around PoP. I quit altogether with Discord. Played EQ2 for a few years, quit, came back to EQ2 and became a raider. Grew really bored with that game, it's very limited in content. I came back to EQ around July of last year. I love it now, it's a totally different game. But, I've seen many many old schoolers come back within the last year, only to play a month, two, maybe three months and grow frustrated and quit. It's a very different game than it was years ago. In many ways it's more entertaining, but it's not as social as it once was. The reason, not that many people play like they used to.

I think the instant 85 and the AA idea is fantastic. You should advertise it with the anniversary, and aim it at old players who quit umpteen years ago, but are curious and want to play it again. Giving the option of having an instant 85 or upping an old toon to 85 and granting much needed AA's for that level to even survive content, would help a lot in retaining these new players. Old players will , but EQ is like an addiction. Sure, they'll stay away a few weeks...some may even keep a rubber band around their wrist and slap themselves with it anytime they think of EQ... but they always come back.

Bottom line, you need new accounts, new subscriptions to keep this game going. Getting new and old returning players back would be a good thing as Martha would say. Keep adding cool stuff to the SC store as well, like some decent designed helms for God's sake!

You are correct, only posting to voice they what they have done is dumb, the update is already done, it takes time to make these kind of changes, it didn't happen over night. They only posted this so they could try and say they cared as they ruin the game. Look at the last 10 years of EQ or even longer,they know better then us. Once again I am here because nothing harder has come out yet.

I don't thank you, I pay you.

If this AA grant goes through, then they should at least reduce the outrageous cost of the current AA's it is totaly crazy.

Clerics and shining stuff.
IF Devs think it is overpowered, then please create a cleric with all AAs, best available gear and go swarm sowewhere. After this discuss about it, and find where "overpowered" is. I am not able to find anything like this. You can get more xp in valley with caster merc than trying to swarm as a cleric.
As for casting this buff on others for PLing - does it really hurt that low level toon will get xp faster? If yes, why do you want to introduce "4k AAs for everyone"?

I'm kinda indifferent - I really do not care how players achieved their level and AA's - and let's be honest, the past months a looooooot of players have been PL'ed via mass swarming / beaming whatever, general chat was full of "WTB PL" ... if you really think giving AA's for free like SOE plans to will prevent players from learning their class - you seriously think any PL'ed toon learned more? No matter how you achieve it - via opt in or via PL - if you are interested in the game you play, you learn it - if not, you leave it. Today's MMO players expect to get everything instantly and easy-mode. This is the complete opposite of most of the EQ players, because we want challenge, we want thrill. But this is not 1999 anymore, and we're no kids any longer. We're grown ups, and yet do some of us behave as if someone would steal their paddle in the sandpit. NOTHING prevents you from playing EQ the way you are used to it, but it gives new players a chance to keep up. I asked myself (pretty lazy player, I only have my main account and no alt at all) how realistic it would be to start EQ now from the scratch - leveling to level 100 and achieving 8k+ AA's, farming all the gear and augments etc...uhm, seriously: no way. Now, seeing the chance of getting a level 85 char with some AA's shortens the bridge to all the other players a lot - and gives even the veterans and lazy players a chance to "try something new" - without all the hassle of leveling up. So it's kinda neat.

What is worrying me more: EQ got boring. Once you're Level 100 and max AA, there's not much to do in current content. Of course it is fun going back to old zones, working on hunter, achievements - but if I'm on par with current content, I wanna play in it! It started with VoA, got worse with RoF and now reached the edge with CotF 1 a / 1 b. YAWN. Give us AA's, give us Levels, give us content.

Devs/GMs
Would like to say, good job on the work you guys do. I love this game and will be around till the end.

Keep it up! Just because some folks overreact doesn't mean they speak for everyone!

30 aa's off a daily, you can do so easy with a merc, in less then an hour every day. AA's are not a problem for anyone. If you only get 15-20 aa a month you are not a causal player, you don't play.