NDA Lifted .. Beta tester thoughts / observations pls

To the 35 raid guilds that have not beaten Pillars
In the infinite wisdom of the Dev's, in the last 2 weeks they've suddenly decided to take away 12 raids from you, and move the raid zone ToV difficulty from VoA T2/T3 to RoF T1.5
This leaves you with pretty limited options with regards to progression in RoF as there is now no overlap of content. This is a pretty ballsy move by the Dev's and is the first expansion to do this.

your incorrect. Meljeldin, Bane of Giants 248/30 from NToV raids is the best wep in RoF atm for zerkers

its just a really small upgrade..

I stand corrected - i missed that one.

Well, I'll probably be suspended from the boards if I give my REAL opinion (mostly playerbase issues)
The Good:

- Those hand mounts are awesome looking.
- Can't wait to check out the tree house.
- Every class gets some type of boost
- level 100!

The bad:

- Man some of you players have become cry babies...I don't know if its frustration or what but holy crap. Many classes got dps boosts this expansion, and if you didn't get what the next man got Nerd Rage City and it's important to note it because thats going to be what shapes development for the next year. From the issues of ToV and gear and now the dps debacle it's pretty clear that if some players in this game don't get their way on everything they become the biggest whiners in the world. L2Compromise.

- AA's....we need a DATE in which this will be out. I know....you can't give one, but really you NEED to. The fact that this is even an issue is bad, real bad. We've pushed out a new expansion and 5 more levels and there's no real progression other then gear this time. My class has like 100 or so AA upgrades, but what about the heavy play timers? What about those who are max aa'd? What will they do once they hit that roadblock....I'll tell you what they do, they play OTHER games. We need this as it keeps people playing, and with the state of the game it's in (we know, you know) We NEED a date on when to expect aa's. Many people are refusing to purchase RoF until they find out when more stuff is coming out, and I can't blame them.

- This game is somewhat splitting off from what it was 10 years ago, and it's segregated a major playerbase. The offline banking can be nice, but this is a major feature; and you're locking that feature behind an expansion priced way above it's current value. I think this needs to be unlocked to ALL players, and seriously look at what you will be charging for people to use the cursor option.

Piestro, you really have to explain how you believe this is the case. I play a Wizard, and maybe we're the most affected class, but the difference between a focus that decays at level 90 and one that decays at level 95 when you spend most of your time casting 94 & 95 spells is anything but insignificant.

There's definitely a disconnect here between the devs and the players...casters will typically (almost always?) prioritize focuses over stats because they ARE important. Yet if, as you indicate, they make no difference, then why not eliminate decay since the playerbase at large is opposed to it?

Endaar

He did what he has done before, he tried to put out a fire, but used gasoline instead of water.

I was really interested in this as well. What became of it?

Regarding "new" vs. "upgrades to existing lines" of AA's and spells, I'm not sure what is to be expected at this stage of the game. Anything truly innovative is bound to cause all sorts of problems with class balance and scripted events both old and new. In some respects, character development has sort of run it's course save getting "bigger and bigger."

Remote buying would make it much easier to enforce a monopoly on items though. I'm referring to illegal scripting/macroing. I hope adequate checks will be in place to combat this.

I think this is an important note that has been left out when asking for new AAs and spells. There comes a point of saturation when changing or upgrading current abilities is really the only way to add content and IMO we're already there in EQ. Especially when it comes to active abilities.

If that's the case (I'm not really sold on thinking we are there yet) then why would they think people would be interested in paying the same price for expansions still?

They don't seem to have a problem removing skills/abilities that set classes apart from others to satisfy the masses. What I'm getting at is, they could put something in place of that now since according to that logic EQ is at its threshold, and also according to that logic they made room for something else by removing something

I am just not sold on the whole UPGRADES ARE THE ONLY THING THAT AN BE ADDED THEORY. There are plenty of great minds down there that can put their heads together and come up with more stuff for classes or even a new class that could be very much set apart from the existing classes. I dont want to hear how there are already so many that it all blends together, I've read plenty of books in my day, and there are plenty of creatures that have yet to be introduced that would go along with the story line of EQ
Heck, since VOA introduced some aliens you guys opened up an entire new horizon of possibilities for classes and abilities.... instead of upgrades to current stuff with VOA we could have all studied some of the aliens techniques and had a whole list of new abilities...
It's not to late you could make an alien based class that ties in , tons of new stuff is still out there and can be incorporated into EQ and make an expansion much more worth $40

A couple things I wanna add. My initial impressions of the expansion were pretty low / I was mainly upset over the fact that Shaman and some other classes were not getting upgrades to certain major spell lines (though i believe these spells will be added soonish after launch). I also was disappointed by the lack of new AA's *more will come later* (i don't blame the devs for this though as I realize they had some pretty harsh time constraints and some things are just beyond their control.

1. I can say with utter certainty that no matter what initial complaints people may or may not have about RoF - the expansion is better than Mists of Pandaria for WoW despite EQ having a smaller budget, smaller dev team, and less actual TIME to design the expansion. Blizzard Devs can pretty much hang their heads in shame.

2.Despite my initial negative views of the expansion early into beta, honestly the content started growing on me after a couple weeks and I did find several genuinely enjoyable aspects to the group game, there is pretty much something to do for every type of player, something that Veil of Alaris lacked.

I think a lot of people will be initially annoyed by not seeing instant upgrades to certain abilities or no cool new flashy aa's but I do think there is enough to work with in the expansion that its worth sticking out and at the very least giving a shot for a couple weeks to see if the other things to do in the expansion change your mind. I'm guessing this is the last full blown expansion we get and that EQ shifts to more staggered content / marketplace DLC releases in the future but who knows.

Keep in mind ROF isnt here to completely obsolete VoA, VoA from my standpoint will still be mostly used content.

Because this game still cost money to develop and they know a majority of their audience is going to buy it regardless of the anecdotal data being passed around on this forum and others. Even if it turns out to be true nobody will buy this expansion don't think for a minute these people wouldn't flip the switch to the off position in a heartbeat with little to no warning.

The issue with this one I see:

This (and well, every expansion since TSS) has offered nothing for any new player that comes to the game...at all. There is no push to bring new players in, and the ones that are recruited by current players have no choice but to push through older content in order to get to the level where they can come to RoF. This is a big deal, as through actions they set in stone that their aim is to not bring new players in, but to give content to those who have the gear to play in this content (not everyone does for that matter). SoE employees keep telling us that in order to make new content for the game, new ideas to shine, that they need to put items in the marketplace for real cash (hero's forge, new mail delivery system, etc.) but yet there is no attempt what so ever to bring in NEW revenue. EQ is starting to fall out of what would be considered an MMO (in aspects of offering alternatives to raiding and gearing) and fastly finding itself in a dungeon crawl type of game. There HAS to be options for people, there HAS to be a reason for NEW players to come to the game. We really need another TSS type expansion and fast or there will really be no reason to put out content for DLC, competition is fierce right now and it sorta feels like SoE is bleeding out the money from EQ and using it to promote all of it's other games (you see the budget PS2 had?!?! Yet the stuff in RoF is the best that could have been done?)

Jesus, I can't stand comments like this. Can you or someone write out a full explanation as to why you still have focus degradation in this game? Why do you think we're so persistent when we keep asking? It must be so critical to the gameplay, because each year all we get is, "We have decided not to raise the focus level." ... then you go to say asinine things like this that contradict what someone else at SOE said.

Anyway, back on topic.

The good:
-You like content, you got it. More content. New zones to explore, and old zones to continue a new era of past battles.
-Spell upgrades. Even though they are mostly copy and paste from current spells, some got better improvements than you would expect.
-More AAs. Upgrades to already existing lines, but I think most still like those. (unless you're like a ranger)
-Two tiered content. I think this has a lot of potential to be better than the 4 tier system.
-Chapterhouse and Vile Oak look good.
-Old weapons are making a comeback. Sell dat nostalgia!
-New powersources, purity augs, and the removal of the chest aug.
-/bazaar from anywhere, buy an item from anywhere and have it mailed!

The bad:
-You said you did like content, right? 4 of the zones you've already done. Basically paying $40 for things you've done before. Revamping old zones is GREAT! But this is the kinda stuff that I would expect more from an anniversary or seasonal event. Something that my monthly subscription money goes towards, not my expansion money.
-Some line of spells didn't get upgraded. I play a beastlord, and we didn't get an upgrade to our maelstrom line. Going to get reworked 'in the near future.'
-No new AAs. I don't think its as terrible as others may say it is, because personally I'm pushing a 5th hotbar with macro'd abilities and I don't really want more things to spam. However, what I do want is upgrades to activated AA abilities that have fallen off the truck along the road. Those Spire AAs you stopped at SOD? Bring them back! Rework some old ones to be viable today and make them worth clicking again!
-Grelleth's looks terrible. (someone take the brown paint bucket away from that guy) Valley doesn't have a lot of detail either. Regardless, you're playing EverQuest, lets get real that graphics aren't going to be the high selling point, but I do think more effort could have been put into zones.
-Focus decay.
-The new broker mode is disappointing as I'm sure many wanted to be able to setup a trader and play a different character on the same account. I knew they would go the offline route, because they would lose subscriptions with bazaar mule accounts... or the technology just isn't there yet.

The ugly:
-You get less every year, yet still pay the same price.
-More promises and IOUs!

I got other gripes, but I complain enough on the forum and in game as is.

Yes it still costs money. Will they shut it down? No. Even if they did it's not something I would lose sleep over. Games fail all the time because they stop putting in as much effort as they did when it was released.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is a prime example of why this game is like it is now. People working for SOE have very little clue as to how this game works and the social dynamics of guilds, groups, raids, etc.

The ONE set of people that are never harmed by focus degradation is the one group this guy singles out as the only ones that are bothered by it. Genius.

Focuses certainly make a difference. Focus decay makes a difference. In general though you just use the best piece of gear with the best spell you have to get the best results. There is an edge case where it's technically possible with someone going from rank III to rank I spells and raid focus to group focus could be a slightly better off using old spells with old focus for a couple of days, but those folks will be in new raid focus soon enough with rank II and III spells anyways. Wizards are probably the most impacted.

For everyone else just use your best stuff and don't worry about focus degradation. Normal play makes it pretty irrelevant. When you get gear upgrades they are upgrades. When you get spell upgrades they are upgrades (although probably slightly less efficient until you get new gear).

That explains nothing as to why you keep the focus decay in the game...