I absolutely hate Overseer as it made the main game even more worthless. Its the same stupid grind as the daily tasks from the Teek brothers in PoK. Since a long time I (only) do Overseer missions two times a day and after this I lack the motivation to do anything else and log out. Overseer is still very time consuming when playing on multiple accounts and about all players do this. Most of its rewards should be integrated into the main game instead: Gain more mercenary experience by killing mobs and doing quests. No need for extra player character experience at all. Put the Overseer ornamentations into the tribute and anniversary shops. Increase the drop rate of the tradeskill items that could be gained by Overseer. Ornamentation dispenser ? I never grab them.
I like that I can use overseer to get XP back from a rough raidnight. I also like that I can get old collections from it, when hunting collections the old way, there is always one annoyingly rare shiny that takes hours to get, Overseer is a lifesaver there.
The perk for extra experience does work to boost the exp you get from Overseer. One thing I don't understand - why do you get more Merc exp with the regular experience option than you do with the merc-exp-only option?
I may not be an original player, but I was around (not on this account) when Luclin was new. The 'new' XP thing is a return to the old Hell Levels, and while I'm not surprised there's people upset, and people chuckling about it, I see one thing that's dramatically different from the old days. It used to be that you could go wherever you found xp-giving mobs that you could take on, and get decent xp (except eventually Bloodfields, since it got the XP nerfbat). But now, if you want decent xp-per-kill, you need to hit new content, which may well be too hard for you to hit because it's tuned for stuff you don't have yet. So the hell level is doubled up by expansion-based xp nerf. This makes a source like overseer a very precious thing if you're not a boxer, and not in a guild that does XP grinds in your level range regularly. Particularly as many quests are designed to require a solid group in order to do them. Not an at-level-range player and their merc. Quests that everyone else did years ago. So no, Overseer isn't unbalanced, it is a /balancer/ to counter a difference source of imbalance.
I think the Collect items should be easier to obtain. I am lucky if I can get a collect item 1 or 2 times every few days It takes 4 of them to make a full collect. There are this many collect category in each expansion: ROF - 66 COTF 40 TDS 42 TBM 27 EOK 32 ROS 32 TBL 37 TOV 36 COV 33 Now each of those collect category have 2 or 3 sub category and then each of those have around 7 or 8 actual items to collect for that sub catagory. I blew thru over 400 little geodes which made about 100 baskets to turn into collects. They did not stretch far.
I don't think overseer was meant to replace collection hunting completely. What I did was to gather around 6/8 of each set, and then use overseer to finish them off. Getting the first six shinies in the traditional way, is not that bad tbh. Of course, if you have patience you can get them all through overseer, but as you said, that takes a looong time. Unlocking that TBL tabard is still a lot of work...
I don't know about anyone else yet, but for my toons that can not do ToV/CoV yet, once they hit 110, it 100% overseer to level. I still go out and grind, but that all goes towards AA. The level grind post 110 is just a pain (not talking about quests/missions and such in tov), plus the amount of AA post autogrant is just insane.
For one reason, because the situation as you state it is not always true, only sometimes. You can start running Overseer at level 85. Check the values at 85, and you will see that you get more merc XP from merc quest rewards than you do from regular XP quest rewards. By quite a bit. Once you get above level 100 (I don't remember exactly what level), the situation reverses. That's because merc XP is derived from regular XP. Since Overseer XP rewards are fixed, regardless of level, you get the same 1% (as an example) XP reward all the way through, but at 115, that 1% is much, much bigger than it was at 85, so, since merc XP is derived, you get a lot more of it at 115. The Merc XP rewards are also fixed, so 1% at 85 is still 1% at 115. But that 1% at 85 is a lot better than you'd get from derived merc XP from a regular XP reward. The merc XP quests are fine, as long as you remember they are mainly targeted at people who are still below level 100, who want to get merc XP more than they want regular XP.
You're confusing "hard" with "tedious, unnecessary, frustrating, and just plain un-fun timesinks". My beef with the Overseer tradeskill material option is that they haven't yet made it include all the expansions.
it seem for me that regular xp killing mobs from level 111 and higher is very small, and could be more generous
Overseer is ridiculous with exp rewards. It is the most viable leveling path from 88+ for the time invested. I still play the game and do what I want to do, but not for exp. The only time I look how much exp I am making is when I complete overseer quests. I am using overseer to level characters on 4 accounts - and I will add, frenetically. Because this is something that feels stupid silly and totally overpowered. The exp should come from playing the game. But playing it, well there is no exp reward there. I never think, maybe a half hour here in zone x (solo/molo) will get me 10% of this level. You could make similar assertations about the daily quests. Which I also use and again are totally off balance in reward for time. I just genuinely wish they would reward people for going to a zone, making a camp with a group, pulling for an hour and getting better rewards. Overseer, Daily Quests, they allow solo, or even not doing anything - progression. Raising exp for mobs rewards actually playing the game. If this was their considered choice, the only conclusion was for the purpose of bring the player base up to the same level to play (and buy) in the current expansions as groups. And I have to say if that was the reasoning, definitely working.
Simple. When Overseer experience is easier to obtain than doing missions that are over our heads, it will be the preferred path. You want to make people group again, bring back group bonuses and let us do our older missions for experience. Nobody likes beating her head against a wall for 3 AAs.
Overseer goes not grant any AA. It can give someone xp to catch up on levels. That should be making everyone happy. Your returning friends can realistically play with you sooner. I have a hard time believing those that are maxed out care. And if you aren't, you should take advantage of it.
People grouping is a social thing. But they can group AND overseer. They are not mutually exclusive. And what older missions can you not do?
I think what people are often missing most myself included is simply being able to make camp in a variety of places molo or grouped and kill stuff with xp gains that make it a productive use of playtime all the way up to and including current expansion content. Adding missions and daily tasks helps but it shouldn't replace the fundamental gameplay so many have enjoyed for many years in this game. Overseer is no replacement for playing the game. Overseer is just another monetization feature not unlike perks except it is cheaper. Like all things monetization based though, have fun starting Overseer from square one to help catch up with zero agents aside of what the tutorial gives you. How to fix this? Buy packs of agents of course. It is worth noting it takes quite a while to even max out Overseer so you get the highest amounts of xp such as they are even if you do buy agents but that sure helps. Before someone tells me you don't need to buy agents. I know that but do you really believe that many people don't? Nobody needs to buy perks either but it sounds like they are pretty popular around here. Just to clarify, Overseer was never designed for or intended to be a catchup mechanic for anything from xp to crafting. It was designed as a perk to make money which offers just enough value to hook the fishies in. Period. That said, Overseer is anything but game breaking. I find the very idea of that quite humorous.
As long as the exp grind from 111-115 remains terrible, Overseer is not unbalanced with the exp rewards (gonna assume 116-120 is gonna be the same garbage game design). The entire 111+ exp debacle is due to the Devs wanting people to use their newly created content. Like I said in another thread, make the rewards for doing said new content BETTER, and people will do them. Grant group currency for repeating quests (not a 1 time thing). Grant a piece of gear for completing quest series (able to choose a piece of T1 gear for completing all Merc tasks in a T1 zone, etc). Camping PoK for exp through overseer, because the exp is better than going out to actually play the game, is braindead game design. Do better. Increase mob grind exp already, your experiment is a failure. Do not continue this for ToL, for the love of Rallos Zek.
I expect most folks want something they can log in and to do for 30, 60, or 90 minutes and at the end of that time they want to have some sense of 'progression' towards completing a goal. Going from 114.90125 to 114.90314 over that 30 min grind is not satisfying.
Misconception. The experience grind isn’t bad. Mob grinding is bad. Taking the route the devs have laid out before you for this expansion is fine (although not favored by everyone. But as the saying goes, you can’t please everyone). They did increase the gains. They wanted people to actually do the quests. And they upped the rewards for said quests and the achievements that come with them. They wanted people to experience that content (quest lines and missions) aside from just mindlessly grinding (I don’t mind the mindless grind honestly), and as a result, upped the experience tied to that route. Although, I wouldn’t be opposed to them offering a decent non vis choice for completing Mercenary or Partisans quests. Doesn’t have to be superb, but a nice stepping stone would help incentivize people. As others have already mentioned multiple times when it comes to overseer, you can do both. You know that right? Going out and grinding while utilizing overseer is better than either path on its own.
Mob grinding and Questing require similar effort (questing is basically killing mobs with a purpose behind it). They both need to be equal in exp rewards at a minimum. Like I said, add different incentives for people to actually complete the quests (such as group currency and gear). Doing so would make it easier for the more casual players to get these quests done, as many more people would be doing these quests more often due to the better rewards (might even revitalize the PUG scene a bit). Leaving the biggest rewards for missions are fine (larger group currency rewards, chest loot/T3 ore, big 1 time exp boost, unique item for paragon). As far as Overseer goes, the exp rewards for it should NOT be greater than grinding exp on mobs. Grinding mobs requires more EFFORT than clicking a few buttons. This kind of game design is bad and dumb. Yes you can do overseer and grind on mobs, but again I emphasize, grinding is much more effort, and should be rewarded as such. Making the changes I keep talking about would just make Everquest more fun. Would make all the zones more alive with player activity, instead of people just running missions for type 5 aug currency and calling it a day. What it really comes down to is what is better for the overall health of the game. The current status quo isn't it.
