Evolving shoulders in Tower of Rot turn into Bloodstained Shoulders?

With the introduction of Sol A and Mistmoore Hardcore heritage we saw a best in slot back piece and a best in slot ring dropping as the random zone rare. This was in a group setting.

Shortly after the release of CotF, entire sets of the previous tier raid gear was introduced as zone wide rares in group content.

Did anyone stop to consider the possibility that this evolving item was intended to drop as a rare from group named? Most people seem to be assuming it is not intended.

Farm thousands of CotF NPCs for a good shot at a previous tier raid drop - or in the case of the shoulder slot, kill thousands of NPCs to level the item?

Rather that screaming and stomping your feet, maybe you can add something constructive?

If this item is intended, what can be done to justify the item? In the cast of T4 RoF raids items in CotF zones as Rare zone wide drops, what could be changed to make this more acceptable?

1. Adjust the chance for the item to drop from Tower named.
2. As with the Alaran Tear, make it so only CotF NPCs will level the shoulder item.
3. Add some kind of negative effect to wearing the piece, in addition to the current effect of zeroing out the stats of that slot while evolving it.

Come up with a creative way to justify the item and let people have fun with it.

It's not just groupers that will have access to it, it's the raiders, and also the individuals that do both. Adding these raid items to the game have added a great deal of excitement and fun to the game for myself and friends I group with. Even though we have killed many thousands of CotF NPCs and yet to see a drop, we are ever hopeful. I like the idea of the evolving item. For those that always seem to be unlucky with drops, it is almost like a reverse farm with a guaranteed item at the end. I do agree that some changes should be made to how the item is acquired and leveled though.

I don't think these shoulders are as common as some people imply. Admitedly I only spent 2 'hardcore' days in the tower of rot and didnt play much outside of that (been a bit busy) However in that time we managed to kill around 25ish named mobs total in the zone. We saw one pet proccing sword drop and 0 evolving cloaks. Obviously RNG is a factor but i'm guessing the cloak is somewhere between a 1 in 20 and 1 in 50 droprate from named mobs.

Lots of people thought it might have been intentional... but based on Roshen's reply, I'd guess it wasn't intentional.

Edit: Removed misinformation.

MM ring = RoF T4 raid wiz/mage ring

So it is... didn't realize they'd just photocopied the ring.

And ACoF is the t4 monk and ranger back I believe.

Yeah, just looked that up too... I thought they were both in between T3 and T4 at the time. I'll go stand in a corner.

"Look into it"

isn't

"this is wrong, we'll get it fixed".

Just means checking to see the intent. People were putting words into the text that were never spoken immediately.

But I agree, it does appear it may have been a mistake since no one could immediately say yes this was intended.

Anything outside of patience is just player speculation.

Edit: Also, ask yourself why the devs have started to add these aspects to the group game? And how that change will impact the game and, if you are a raider only, how this will impact you indirectly. We are suffering with smaller and smaller content releases. Adding these elements into the group game (in a controlled way) can greatly increase the enjoyment for people who simply don't have the time to raid. Added excitement in this game = longer subs and continued interest. That eventually increases revenue and possibly more $$ set aside for new content design. It may seem cheesy dangling the carrot in front of the group player, but nothing adds more excitement than a Gold Rush.

Tearsin Rain said,

OMG!! can I like this post a million times? I salute you! If everyone was more like you, we wouldn't have this issue.. That's the main trouble nowadays.. everyone is too busy worrying about everyone else and what they are doing.. to do anything for themselves.. people always want to get in other peoples business..

The problem of worrying about what other people are doing or getting from their personal time is a problem in general life, not just in a game.

Add another chase item to the raids, this was the raid chase item for this expansion. Though it is a bit late in the day to add a new one unless it has at least double the drop rate this one had originally.

11 hours ago Roshen posted that the EQ dev team was aware of the issue, and was looking into it.

I don't really want to start any debates or issues, but I am curious why it is taking so long. Maybe there is a lot more to it than what I am thinking, but to me it is more of contacting whomever created this item via email/text/phone call/teepee smoke screen and asking-

"Hey EQ dev, is the final result of this evolving item supposed to be the Bloodstained Shoulders raid item?"

Then the response of "Yes" or "No", followed by communication in this thread by Roshen.

I completely understand the lack of communication on a holiday weekend- we all were *hopefully* enjoying ourselves with friends and family. But it is now a work week, and it has been 11 hours. IMHO this should have been nothing more than a 10 minute thing. But the fact that it is taking so long makes me believe that either-

(a) It is intended, and they are trying to prepare a generic statement that will not anger many raiders who spent 1200 currency and/or high amounts of DKP for the shoulders that can be gained from molo/duo kill of a named...

(b) It is not intended, and they are trying to prepare a generic statement that will not anger those who have already evolved this item and are under the presumption that they are wearing Bloodstained Shoulders

But the bottom line for me is, why is it taking so long? What other issues are there than the basic yes/no question?

I am going to run around in circles in PoK, and I *demand* best possible raid gear for my time and effort. Obviously the only thing that matters is how many hours you put into the game, not what you do. My running around in circles shouldn't effect what anyone else is receiving. If anyone is bothered by me receiving the best raid loot in the game from running around in circles in PoK, then they are merely being all high and mighty from a soap box.

I do all my circle running in the guild hall, and demand equal rewards for my circles and figure-8s as anyone else getting rewards for running in circles in other zones.

Trying to be constructive here. Let me think of a nice way to put this.

Raiders posting here have repeatedly denied that they're just in it (raid game) for the loot. This reaction, this outrage, this "slap in the face," is all because you're afraid another dog might get a bone even though you have a whole carcass. Make up your minds.

Don't act like raiding is so energy intensive. Half of the raid carries the other half. Your four hours, 3 nights a week doesn't give you special status anymore.

Maybe for some guilds. I take it you don't have first hand experience in the matter since you're pretty much attacking a good chunk of people in this post of yours for some reason.

Because communication is an interesting beast, and because responding without a dev team consensus on that yes or no question and a good understanding of what to do next is NOT proper communication. In the customer relations world, sometimes "We're looking into the issue" really is the appropriate answer for hours, if not days.

Raiding isn't just about loot, there is more to it, we like a challenge but not when that challenge is lag, we enjoy bringing down the bid bad guys together. I've seen more issues over loot than any other part of this game. You know how exciting it is as a group player when that item you want drops, that is how it is with these shoulders and raiders. Yes initially there is excitement over finally beating a raid and getting achievements, but once you have it on farm the only thing to look forward to is what is in the chest. Raiders need to upgrade gear so they can beat the next raids, this has never been truer, just look at the PoWar raid. Not forgetting the risk V reward for doing raids V group encounters.

Loot is apart of raiding, we have chase items the same as the group game has chase items, even if we don't personally get one someone else has and the raid has got stronger because of it. Putting raid chase items in the group game really makes no sense. IF and that is big if, this was intentional I'd like to hear the devs logic for it.

If it is now fine to put raid items in the group game, can we have the group augs, heros forge, purity augs, etc put in the raid game? It seems only fair that raiders shouldn't be forced to do the group game to get these group items, when groupers aren't forced to raid to get raid items.