Since TDS, content in EQ has been getting progressively easier. I think it's time we got another PoW-level difficult zone to cater for the hardcore players. Is there any chance of this in EoK part 2? It seems such a waste to have this megacomplex game and to stop releasing challenging content to cater to that portion of the player base. This has been the dullest year when it comes to going out and grouping. In TDS we atleast had the timetrials, and perhaps the final group mission. In TBM, we atleast had demi decay hero and sul hero missions. EoK is pretty much without a difficult achievement/mission. Prior to these expansions, we routinely had some challenging content in each expansion, in the group game. Most hardcore players are either autobotting in FM hoping for rare drops to sell, making their umpteenth alt, or just logged in idle to chat. We need something to make the game fun again in the downtime between raids. Off the top of my head, what about a Karnors Castle, mobs worth roughly 15x reg xp, as strong as EoK named mobs (So the named mobs would need to be alot stronger, requiring multiple groups, just like PoW). (And trains/CC/pulling would actually become relevant in such circumstances, particularly if area's were packed). With useful clickies akin to the ones from PoW.
I got the impression that the next expansion would be heading north towards Charasis, but man a hardcore version of Karnors for next summer would be awesome. I only made 2 new alts this year!
I think this is a great idea. I'd love to see KC again. And considering its reputation back in the day, having this be a PoW-level zone would suit it quite well. The only question we need to ask ourselves now is... do we train left or right?
I dont see KC as the right choice for hardcore. The content itself was never difficult. What made it tough was the trains, and you dont need PoW level difficulty to make trains. Charasis would be a better choice imo.
I would love to see Veskar 2.0. That was always a fun zone and not used a lot at the time due to the mob difficulty the farther you progressed into the zone. This would be doable like plane of war because the zone is segmented into areas they could block area progression in this zone with doors requiring keys
i love to see a hardcore zone or tier for the next exp. on the same level of play as POW. But do not do it by disabling class stuff. They made POW hard by taking stuff each class can do in ever other zone in the game and turning it off. different skills/aa couldn't really be used or not letting pet classes tank names(i could have seen them giving names some sort of extra dps bonus on pets, but pets should have been able to tank names if even only as a back up to the main tank). POWar was great idea but the way they did it made it a crappy zone.
While a tougher zone could be good, a zone that is a grouping zone for raiders only is not a good idea.
They have traditionally released 'some' group content that is unbeatable for 99% of the grouper population. Causing groupers and raiders to team up all year to do fun stuff. I just want something, anything. Could point to RoF, VoA group missions generally, compare them to EoK. Deliver the message and a few achievements back in SoD were a nightmare for most groupers. The great thing about having content that is difficult like that, is it causes people to need to go out and group and meet people, which is what really sets EQ apart from most other MMO's.
However they have a budget where they do consider what to do And then what has most value. To develop for a tiny fraction or to develop for most people. For most POW was not a place they went, so from that point it was waste of resources. For some EoK end zone were hard and they went there a bit. For others FM/LCE/SW were the best. So what to make or not to make. If I were DBG I would make product for most people, since that sells most. Basically, DBG IS a business, which lives of selling its products to most people, and they got Xk customers. So lets say DBG can choose 2 directions, 1 for the hardcore, or 1 for the middle way. Each Group stops if they dont get what they would like. hardcore is minority, maybe 5-10%, and middle ground 60%, and other are rest. If 1 of those Groups might stop, I would rather have hardcore to stop, than middle ground, since that would be biggest revenue loss, and I doubt most of the hardcore would stop due to that. Also looking at history, biggest exit of EQ was on GoD, when it was too hard.
No we do not. As i see it, you want a zone for raiders only. PoWar certainly was such a zone - and even with open raids done last year there, people in full TBM raid armor were dying and wiping still. That won't bring people together, but achieve quite the opposite. I also find it quite disturbing that you equal "hardcore player" with "raider", when in fact raiders get it easy due to their gear. In my book, a group-geared player playing 5days a week for 2-4hours is far more "hardcore" than any raider logging on SUN's and MON's for his guild's farming raids. It was remarked elsewhere the last few days, that PoWar is empty after "the raiders" got what they wanted, despite there still being good clickies to be had from there. Don't you think there's a reason for that?
Wasn't PoW originally made for the PoP expansion? I think what it is and the resources spent on it might be watered down for this debate depending on its original design and how complete it was when repurposed.
I spent most of my playing days as a group geared player, and i loved the challenging missions/achievemnts, some i would beat when it was current, some i would not. The odds of beating the challenging missions improved if you managed to find that 'badass cleric' or 'big bad dps, or tank!' (Or a few of them!), but in many cases was no guarantee. Having challenging content to keep you active in the group game all year is a plus. Throw enough groupers at PoW content and that can be beaten too. Someone remarked? Gosh. From firsthand experience, I had many a great time in PoW with groupers and raiders alike, for about 2 years! And while PoW was a thing, we had ToR2, Burnout, and later, the TDS timetrials for Dredge/Thuli/Arx. Plenty of exciting things to log in and do.
It was PLANNED for PoP, but never implemented until much later for whatever reasons. When it finally was released, it was hard, so much so that guildies that were around at the time still don't want any of it again. And even during TBM when i got my CoP4-clicky from there, it was still challenging. (not for a full raid, mind you, but a smaller/open raid and certainly for a group). Now, several expansions later, a group-geared player might think about going there but well...
True, was on the shelves for number of years, and thereby never part of an expansion, It came out as a bonus, anniversery thing. When it was released people hated when raidleaders did wanna raid there. And if the raidleader announced it in advance, you could see the number of people logging on dropped on that day. In that case, the raid rewards were too small compared to the Investment. Basically, the raid should have given out rewards that were 1 expansion higher than normal. So if an item in that present expansion gave 3000 hps, and NeXT expansion 3500, then PoW rewards should have given out 3500. If I remember right, only reward worth giving were augs, and they were in 1 lore Group, so you could only ever get 1 aug. The normal zone did have the best click items in the game, still are, and the best shield aug. Worst thing of PoW, was the too big amount of flagging/faction, and removal of abilities from pets, the deaggro stuff and such. Rest of it were rather cool. I think if devs went and reduced the faction stuff by 2/3 and less flagging, make aggro/pet and such normal, then the zone would be a renewal, and people would come there.
Grats you then. Looks like you are one of only a few. Whenever one enters PoWar on AB, he finds himself alone there unless he brings someone with him. Not just now, but since JAN2015 at least, outside of the occasional open raid to there. I would say that speaks for itself, on how much "fun" there is to be had. Don't you?
Sounds like an issue with AB : ( Assuming you are correct. Some servers, such as cazic or xegony are quite decent for grouping.
This is true for a great many zones on many servers. I do not think this is something to weigh when deciding whether or not to create content. Look how much money they are making on content (TLP) that is mostly irrelevant to level 105 players.
