Correct their are unfinished portals that should be updated probably mid year with new content (yay!) Staggering content like this keeps masses happy.
In regards to your 2nd point, it's not just painfully obvious... it's flatout stated when you complete the xorbb group mission that the rain of fear is just beginning. For those of you wondering, this is the lore you get for killing King Xorbb: "You have defeated King Xorbb and saved Norrath from his vengeance. Lupex, who left as mysteriously as he appeared, has absorbed the power of the crystal shard and disappeared. No one, not even Thistlebrush, knows who or what this creature is. Your instincts tell you that you have not seen the end of this matter. The true reign of fear has yet to begin." My thoughts: #bristlebane rising up from the plane of mischief in 2013! (could be wrong though)! Also *thumbs up for the lore text not calling it "Rain of Fear" (being serious)
See casuals, the thing is. When they mudflate the gear, then they have to mudflate mob dps and hp. They have guidelines they must follow in regards to player power and npc power. So you will tank good against prior content but against current content, better gear will not make it easier.
I'm a casual and mobs seem to die ultra fast. tier 2 named mobs are so easy they dont even feel like named mobs to me, it reminds me of SoD and house of thule named. The only named mob in the entire expansion that has me worried (and i have not attempted) is xolok the blind, other than that it almost feels like the named mobs in this expansion die *faster* than the tier 4 alaris named.
Oh i don't care about the gear at all, i'm unimpressed with the gear mostly but i think it's better to hold gear back than continue this massive course of mudflation. My post was mainly just to chime in that i think the named and mobs in this expansion even in tier 2 are way easier than tier 4 alaris (which wasn't super hard but wasnt super easy either) Though when tier 3 goes live group gear will basically be on par with tier 3 raid gear from alaris (not counting AC) so I think the mudflation is still somewhat in effect just delayed. But no, a few extra HEM won't make a difference.
RoF is EQ jumping the proverbial shark. Full expansion price. No new spells. No new AA's. Down to 9 zones of which only 6 are new. Stagnated group gear (for a yearly expansion) If they really do plan to release delayed content (AA's, spells, zones) it would be in SoE's best interest to disclose that (and to disclose whether it's going to be included in expansion cost if it will be) because after only a couple months of VoA content and less than a month of RoF content, we appear to have actually hit the bottom. If SoE isn't interested in giving the devs the time and resources to deliver even a semblance of content, it's time to walk away.
I'm glad we're at least gonna get new spells and aa's in the next few months, but yeah it was disappointing to not have that stuff at launch. Gear is literally the least important aspect of a new expansion's power boosts to me. AA's >>> spells >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> gear that's the order of what i look forward to in power boosts. Spells potentially boost power better than aa's do (depending on class) BUT spells are mostly copy and paste and rarely have anything unique or cool to look forward to, that's why i like the AA system, it's nice to see new cool abilities pop up in the game (best example that comes to mind is bards lure of the siren song from alaris). I'm anxious to see what new abilities end up making it in the game in the AA system in a few months.
Here are a couple of examples of the two "best" items we got yesterday in Xorbb. We already had the VOA equivalents. It tried to be as fair as possible here. I averaged the stats, mod1s and resists, then averaged the perentage changes of those and AC to get an overall average delta for the items. I'm sure someone will argue that the resists and mod1s don't matter, if so, why are they just making people react negatively by reducing them? First the tank face with Anger effect: Stat VoA T4 Item RoF T2 Item % Change Name Façade of Ryken Petrified Mask Slot Face Face Classes Tank Tank Req Level 95 98 Effect Echoing Anger Echoing Anger Click Form of Endurance X Form of Endurance XII HP 2003 2229 11.3% Mana 1950 2059 5.6% End 1944 2144 10.3% AC 115 122 6.1% Avg Stats 1965.7 2144.0 9.1% Avg Mod1 30.4 23.1 -23.9% Avg Resists 44.4 44.0 -0.9% Overall Avg -2.4% Now an all/all belt with caster/hybrid leaning stats: Stat VoA T4 Item RoF T2 Item % Change Name Excrucidator's Black Silken Sash Gruden's Bone Girdle Slot Waist Waist Classes ALL (casterish) ALL (casterish) Req Level 95 98 Effect Click Expanding Mind V Expanding Mind VII HP 2009 2059 2.5% Mana 1961 2206 12.5% End 1960 2009 2.5% AC 106 108 1.9% Avg Stats 1976.7 2091.3 5.8% Avg Mod1 32.7 22.9 -30.1% Avg Resists 43.0 43.0 0.0% Overall Avg -5.6% This crap is not worth playing for IMO. Edit: Sorry about the formatting, it was a nice HTML table when I hit submit.
Too many stats, people complain. Not enough stats, people complain Your over all average is skewed. Who cares about non heroic stats and resists when you are at the cap regardless. Those two need to be removed from the average for a fair look.
The people who complain about to much stats are the ones that wear raid level gear and play 8 hours a day and want enough content to last a year, even if that means they need to farm for a week to get a single loot upgrade. The vast majority of players that have a busy real life want to get things down a lot faster which is why expansions like HoT was so popular. My feeling is this expansion will be popular because it will allow the vast majority of the casual player base to catch up with gear and AA's, because lets face it very few of the casual player base got into even T3 or T4 Voa gear. Now if the majority of the casual player base was already wearing Voa T4 gear then this expansion would have been in real trouble, because the stats are not enough to make it worth paying 15 dollars a month.
Have not bouht the xpac because was waiting to see if the named had the same difficulty as T4 VOA. Can anyone provide some input on named difficulty? Will not pre order abd purchase expansions where I can not progress in gear and content.
Named so far have been a complete joke while Ive been messing around in T1. At 95-96 the ones ive killed in crystal caverns, east wastes and shards landing have been no more difficult than VoA T1, some even easier. I wiped on 1 named in CC because he calls for help, and because of where I was fighting he called about 20 adds. 2nd time i pulled him to zoneline and he had no help /dead
The only stats I care about are AC, HP and Heroics. My Warrior is group geared, and everything I've looted in RoF T2 has been an upgrade by around 200 hp and some AC each slot. Most have been equal hAgi and better. My only concern is some of the attunable items are too high imo. An AC200 shield and 2200hp legs are some of attunable items I've gotten off trash mobs. So there is no "need" to go farm gear, when you can "farm the Baz" for something *almost* as good.
tier 2 named (current end game for the time being) can be tanked easily with a single cleric merc. There might be a couple rough named mobs like xolok the blind but 99 percent of them are a snooze so far. It's easier to kill RoF tier 2 named at level 95 than it would be to kill alaris tier 4 named at level 100 lol.
It's been a pretty disappointing run so far, aa weren't ready for the launch and the gear upgrades are underwhelming (less than 10% boost in most parameters from t4 VOA to t2 ROF. Heroics are mostly flatlining. AC is more around 5-6% boost.) The content is neat and I like the idea of old lore getting revisited even if it is obvious that some zones are getting copy-pasted with new mobs and loot. When exploring Shard's Landing, it is clear that there is more content either planned or envisioned. However, I don't remember any verbal agreements that there was more content on the way as part of this expansion set. Which to me screams either some sort of nickel and dime DLC or leeway into the next expansion. Either way, I can't see the current content lasting anywhere near the 1 year cycle nor do I get a feel that my exploring this content is very rewarding in terms of character strength, which is a disappointment.
What people are saying, when a group tank already buffs out to 90k hp, what is another 200 or 300 h/m/e going to do for you, it is not worth the plat to change your gear. Even if they increased the strength of the names the gear is to weak to make a difference between a win or a lose. A group tank can sit out this expansion if he is already wearing T4 voa gear and he would have the stats to handle the next expansion a year from now.
No where have they said that there is additional content coming for RoF other than AA & spells. This story line has been on going since HoT so there is nothing to say we will not have to pay yet again to further this story line. Until we get an announcement saying otherwise RoF ends with Xorbb and T2 is the highest gear there is and the only group of players forced to gear up are casters & hybrids.
