Devs, I’ve seen mixed reactions to some of the evolving chase loot in TBL. I would just like to say that I think the system is fantastic and I’ve really enjoyed the added incentive to go back and do old achievements. While the collectibles one was a mini nightmare and I’m dreading doing it on my alts, I do appreciate the rewards that it provides to folks who have been keeping up with expansions along the way. I would be a huge fan if this style of loot continued in the future to give purpose to my mindless slaughtering or old world zones or doing Partisan / Mercenary / Achievements in prior expansions. I’d like to make the following recommendation: Tie future evolving loot to full completion of full expansions. A necklace that requires Master of Veil of Alaris. A belt for everything in Rain of Fear. You get the idea. You can even make it so that the final tier of evolution requires completion of all the raid achievements in that expansion (which I certainly don’t have). My point: I love the idea of tying tangible benefits to the achievement system and hope that they continue in the future. Thank you!
I wish there was a dislike button. If you think going back and doing that stuff is fun, have at it. If you think "forcing" others to obtain BIS items by doing so is good game design...you're wrong.
I like the idea of evolving stuff for current expansion, I dislike going back and having to do ancient content. I really wish they evolved off all mobs in the current expansion and only the mobs in the current expansion.
Translation, I like raid level loot that is obtainable by killing light blue mobs from 4 expansions ago.
But your not forced to do it? Only if you want the BIS items which are by no means “needed”. I see no difference in “fun” going back to do all those achievements/collections vs. anything else in the game. And it’s not like you can say it’s stuff you’ve already done if you don’t have the achievements. (Besides the POP hunters possibly). Travelers I’ll give you is boring as hell but isn’t that bad. Granted i had all but POP hunters done for these items as i do most things as they come out besides old world hunters. But even that’s not terrible if you stay moving. If you just sit in one zone farming one named at a time for those than yes it is boring as hell. I just cleared 4-5 zones and circled around so was never downtime until i got down to 1 named in a couple zones and i finished pretty quickly.
I have only run Tempest Temple once — to get the collectibles — and I think this is a stupid way to level the items. I really wish they would remove it. I didn’t do it and don’t think it should be a viable path to gaining item exp.
Hence the quotation marks around the word forcing... Durrrrrrrrrrrr Yeah, I'm sure running to every zone in the game was a lot of fun for you, especially the LDoNs. I'm sure you and your guildmates were having SO MUCH FUN doing that.
I think getting folks out & about in Norrath is a good thing. EverQuest is big, and most players don't see it if they only go the popular spots. Maybe at some point LDoN's zones will be condensed to the 5 themes, but if not then it's a small cost to offset the really great sightseeing incentivized by the boots. It's a bit unfortunate they had to be efreeti themed is all. They could have been the ultimate jboots & clicked Cheetah
The answer is simple then. Don’t wanna do it don’t do it. The items are not needed. Never said it was fun but I’m not gonna and moan about having to do something trivial for BIS gear.
I’m pretty sure 99% of the folks who had to complete the travelers achieve for these items spent next to zero time actually sightseeing.
the fact that people are itching.. about a traveler's achivement as "holding them back" from actually getting the boots done .. #blowsmymind.. #whybotherplayingatall...
I am rather neutral on this idea as I think it has some good upside and some bad downside to it. The upside -keeps players playing longer while waiting for the next expansion or event to release -provides a path for all players to obtain good gear not just the standard raid path -It can provide a sense of nostalgia as people revisit old content they enjoyed -Raiders complain that there is an alternative to getting a great item outside of raiding -Casuals complain there isn't enough time to evolve the item and raiders tell them to git gud The downside -It further separates the hardcore from the casual as this is a huge time commitment -Makes it even more difficult for new or returning players to climb mount Norrath to be relevant -Just another time sink that might not be engaging for many -Forces people to revist zones and content that they might really dislike -Raiders complain that there is an alternative to getting a great item outside of raiding -Casuals complain there isn't enough time to evolve the item and raiders tell them to git gud These things are designed to be time fillers aka time sinks and I believe we will see more of them in the future for the simple fact that there is not enough developer time to make tons of new content so they tie in old content to the new content via quest paths to provide gameplay. It might not be engaging or fun for everyone but it keeps the subs coming in month after month so we can all race backwards to complete old tasks once the next expansion is released.
Y’all are crazy. The amount of whining is insane. People complain about tradeskilling to get a really powerful aug. Then there are complaints for best in slot items locked behind zoning into old zones. Others are complaining that TBL zones are locked behind killing/questing for progression (Smoke trials). It doesn’t seem to matter how rewards are offered, people complain. So to the questions above: Yes, I find it fun running through old zones for the travelers achievements that I missed over the years. Yes, I think it’s appropriate to force someone to go through Planes of Power and camp named in exchange for raid quality items (my server has formed public raids of up to 72 people to simultaneously camp most of the zones — took less than a weekend to get everything). Yes, I think completing progression for the most recent two expansions is a small price to pay for a best in slot ring. Yes, I felt a tremendous sense of accomplishment when I finished my collectibles in order to evolve my shoulders. This was a great way to tie reevant rewards to completing old content. It gave me a couple weeks worth of extra “content” that may have been ignored if the restrictions were not in place. And it made me happy to do it, because the reward will persist for at least another year. So if you don’t want to do it, fine, don’t do it. No zones are locked behind old world achievements. It’s simply loot — and loot that isn’t required to beat any mission/boss/encounter/raid. I bet it also required minimal developer time which is amazing given the amount of content it made relevant for me..
Traveler achievements are insanely easy to get with a fast mount. Even the LDoN's aren't that hard to finish. Park a friend at the ldon adventure npc and the rest of the group at wherever the instance zone in is and cycle through them until you get them all.
It's actually a little easier than that. Leave a toon at the LDoN Adventure NPC, choose kill the NPC (not count), hard or easy, and check on allah which zone this is in, most of them are there. If its a repeat decline, wait 30secs to 1 min and repeat.
I also really like the chase loot and would love to see it be a regular thing. There are a ton of different options out there, from completing expansions to doing old quests: http://www.paullynch.org/eqguide/guides/quests/ https://web.archive.org/web/20180815100233/http://www.paullynch.org/eqguide/guides/quests/ The coldain ring quests, Breakdown in Communication, Hero's Journey, Jonas Parrot are things I haven't done that I'd like to do, but it's hard to justify doing them when I don't need the reward. The only recommendations I'd make is: 1. Instead of releasing the evolving items and related prior-content requirements with the expansion, release it during the summer when there's not much to do ingame 2. Instead of making a BiS item that'll be replaced in a year or two, make something that is more of a permanent contribution to a character like the Artisan's Prize aug or Alaris Tear. It doesn't have to be as good as Artisan's Prize, but I'd much prefer a type 5 aug (lots of competition for type 3 slots these days) that offered something unique vs an item that I will inevitably replace in a year or two. Hell, just throwing heroic AA achievements on old quests would be fine too if a little less fun.
As someone who was away from the game for quite a while, it's hard to get excited about these only because the requirements are almost entirely front-loaded. I have the ring. I probably have done enough XP that it would be T3 or T4 if I had the prerequisites done. Instead all that XP effectively went to waste because all the prerequisites are needed for the first evolve. I would have liked to see each level add further requirements rather than needing them all upfront. It would have made this an enjoyable progression to work on over time. But so be it - they're not required items and for those of you that have enough time to evolve them, the reward is quite nice.
