EXP Rates on Phinigel

Exactly! I mean how can they even dream up such insanity?

Dude, you can't raid Naggy/Vox when you are over level 52. So much for that plan. You raid them while they are current, or you are out of luck.

The issue is not simply relevance. PoTime was still "relevant" all the way into OoW for many guilds due to the ease of gearing up newer recruits, but by then it was almost trivial and not at all anything akin to raiding it once you'd just cleared the elemental planes.

The experience is completely different, and that's what brings so many of us back to this game when new progression servers launch.

You can in the raid instance version. Or at least you could on Test.

Ah, it's Ms. Conspiracy Girl. Hi, Lucy! =)

Ok whatever. I guess you convinced yourself the unlock schedule isn't fast anymore too?

Funny how my reading comprehension managed to fail in a way that exactly fits with both the faster unlock schedule and with the slower xp. And doesn't even require an evil and elaborate conspiracy to trick a few early subscribers out of a one-time subscription for a few bucks.

One thing I think some people need to keep in mind with all of this. Let's estimate a casual play style guild gets people 46+ after 6 weeks of leveling. They spend another 2 weeks learning how to survive the boss fights (mitigation buffed is quite a bit tougher than your old 32k bosses). There's 8 weeks preparing. So now that leaves them 4 weeks to gear. You get 1 raid every 6.5 days. So you get 4 kills to try and gear 50+ people. Why 50+? Cause it'll take that to defeat these revamped encounters. So put the whole exp nerf aside and remember that you will not have time to gear your raiders. On another note, PoSky takes some time to gear from as well. You need to farm isle keys, farm quest pieces and some of those pieces are very rare while some are really common. Personally I've logged A LOT of time in PoSky from June-November clearing it a few times weekly, some days we'd farm most of the day. Out of all the time I spent there I've seen 1 warrior haste belt piece drop, and 1 monk tear drop for haste belt. As a guild I think we had 3 drop for Monks and 2-3 drop for warriors total out of 5 months of doing it. So, with 84 days and a much slower exp rate..... Good luck ever getting to spend much time raiding in era. You may finally catch up when the server opens Luclin since you will remain lvl 60 until PoP opens. I assume most casual guilds will be progressing through Velious while the top guilds are finishing up in Luclin.

I like the XP rate as well, it's just a shame they paired it with an auto-unlock setup.

This XP rate, plus a slower unlock, would have been the perfect TLP.

I'm starting to think this was a brilliant plan to nerf XP gains while making the community happy about it.

Step 1: Determine lower XP rates that support marketplace purchases and longer subscriptions
Step 2: Set XP rate lower than Step 1
Step 3: PR damage control
Step 4: Relent against popular demand and 'upgrade' XP rates to what was determined in Step 1.

So to clarify. In one swift move. Daybreak has done more to recreate classic Everquest guild dynamics on our server, then on all previous progression servers combined.

I am just fine with this.

See you guys at fifty!

I do think they will increase the XP rate on the server at some point--at least for the early levels. I really don't have an issue with slow XP once the you've hit a benchmark of at least level 10 or so and you've got some interesting spells/abilities/camps. But spending my entire evening last night killing bats and beetles and not getting to level 4 was a real boner-eraser and I cannot imagine ever rolling more than one toon on this server at the current rate.

Wrong.

He's objectively not wrong. People are already leaving.

Totally agree. I played beta / original EQ and whatever XP was like in those days (I have vague memories), there is no way I would continue playing long-term on Phinny this rate. Better to let nostalgia remain.

Looks like you've made your choice. Go take a look at the other TLPs hopefully one of those fit your bill.

Well that depends how you read it. If we're being picky, he would require every single non-hardcore to be driven away to be right.

[QUOTE]What is so different between the actual raids in Velious and Kunark? Maybe things are different now. Back when I did it, you could basically turn on auto attack and go make a sandwitch for most encounters. I think the tanks and healers were the only ones required to push buttons.

Occasionally there was a really hard strategy like standing near a wall to avoid AoE from random_dragon_01. I think pulling was probably the only part that required real effort. The rest could be overcome with numbers and gea[/QUOTE]

Well, yeah, I mean as far as EverQuest is concerned it's all pretty trivial mechanics wise when compared to modern WoW raids. But Velious is when we start seeing things like flurry, rampage, adds management, complicated pulls, wave based encounters, positioning concerns (AoW corners, Vindi semi circle to pin on wall, AoEs as you mentioned, although most people do Vox like that too), and was truly the birth of raiding culture in EQ. It's also when the we really started having a sort of raiding tiers with loot that improved accordingly, instead of completely haphazard itemization. Start with your armor farming, then hit the lower tier mobs like Vindi, getting some of the other easier stuff, then the city kings (Dain, Yelinak, Tormax), clearing some of Ntov, eventually doing AoW and then waking the sleeper and all that jazz.

Up until then, its just a handful of random to kill. Some people could argue Sky is a 'real' raid, but if memory serves me correct it was technically Kunark content in terms of actually being raided in the old days.

TLDR: Velious was when raiding became 'the thing'.

So the answer for "casuals" who can't spend 40+ hours a week on Phinny is to join the poop-socking raids on RF/LJ, along with the high value camps that are botted 24x7. Sounds legit. Thanks!

Well join phinny. I'm casual and loving it. Haven't heard a complaint from anyone I know that is going to play less than 20 hours a week.

Heck I haven't heard a complaint from any group yet I've been in.

If you don't like the current options feel free to play another game no sense in trying to play a game you hate for (x) reason or (x) rule.

The appeal of phinny is re-living the old game with modern instancing. If I wanted to beat my head against the EQ wall there are already tons of time-sucking avenues to do that. I'm not looking for another full time job or dealing with guild drama to compete for high end achievements.

If this is what the community wants, then I'm totally happy for them. I just don't fit into that scheme.