Potion sales on Double EXP weekends

OMM's were more rewarding than T1 of the expansion that followed them - that's why OMM rewards had to be altered. Not altered by the natural flow of the game - altered by SOE intervening. DH HA's were no different.

Getting no experience in TDS? Well, I'm not about to tell people how to get better than 1AA in 45 minutes, but I assure you - that's not optimal gameplay focused on maximizing AA experience gain in TDS. 8P

Only thing that hangs the game is when soe cant make any profit from it. But as long as their is money to be made then the devs have a job. And if devs have a job then more content can be made

With yours and the devs way of thinking, then no one should be listening to classical music since newer stuff is available to listen to

Well battleaxe i hope you and yours enjoy the new EQ. More and more are leaving everyday, and i am one of them. Perhaps one day things will change back but i am not holding breathe. I have been having a hard time letting go of EQ but thanks to you i think i can. So THANK YOU for that.

So anywho, hope yall had a good thanksgiving a hope you have a merry christmas and happy new year.

Well, I'm not about to tell people how to get better than 1AA in 45 minutes, but I assure you - that's not optimal gameplay focused on maximizing AA experience gain in TDS. 8P

We'll I haven't progressed past Thuliasaur Island yet, maybe it gets better in higher zones, but the same was true for the HA there, 105 SK, 105 Cleric, 105 Wizard , three DPS mercs, we did the HA , killed the named , cleared much of the HA looking for collectables, found them by the way, .......... one AA set at 50% for the HA ......... 2% of a AA per kill

High DPS group smoking even and yellow con mobs in new content and hardly any experience to show for it.

I imagine devs understand that:
creating content that's the best way to gain experience forever
spells like Really Complete Heal which are superior to everything else and can't reasonably ever be improved

are development and gameplay deadends to be avoided.

Already let you know that what you were doing and how you were doing it does not maximize the rate of AA gain possible in TDS and that I wasn't going to tell you how to improve it (I don't even know how to get maximum. I do however know your approach isn't even close). Maybe someone will start a thread laying it out.

I frankly don't care. I'm doing TDS exclusively now (have been for weeks) and I'm at 23/150(????) stored AA and only that 100AA ability that doesn't do anything not purchased. As has become the custom every main I know will be throwing away (or refilling Glyphs) exp mid expansion or sooner.

I have noticed a couple of the complaints about low AA acquisition have mentioned a percentage of the XP going to AA. As an example, the poster several posts ago stated s/he allocates 50% towards AA and received 1 AA in 45 minutes of play.

It is has been analyzed and proven in the past that, in order to achieve the best results, one needs to go a full 100% of their experience into either XP or AA. When you start using percentages, the game seems to struggle finding the correct amount, and as a result you receive less.

As an illustration - mob gives you 1000 experience points. If you go 100% XP then you get 1000 XP. If you go 100% AA then you get 1000 AA experience points. However if you go 50/50 then rounding issues within the game could result in 400 XP and 380 AA experience points (not exact numbers just for illustration ) instead of the 500/500 one would expect.

Bottom line - to gain best and maximum results, go 100% of experience either way.

Now note this is from years ago, so maybe the game calculations have improved. I just remember a discussion about the rounding and the calculations long time ago...

I find the Thuliasaur HA or Group Mission to be amazing experience. I'm not sure how you're registering 2% per kill. That seems rediculiously low and flies in the face of everything I've ever seen there. And, well, I spent a ton of time there doing all the mercs. Last week in the HA, we popped lesson, had the mission done in fifteen minutes, and continued to clear all the Aviak and Giant camps just to keep it rolling. It was exceptional. Aside from the combine mobs inside the static zone, I get exceptional AA rates (especially from high-hp dinos in static.) I've never heard a complaint otherwise. Thuliasaur is where the experience starts to get good. As far as earlier zones, Brother's Island is a perfect grind spot in T2 that's very easy to unlock.

I can tell you, however, that as a person who abused Gribble to hit 105 in a matter of hours, you can get comparable, if not better experience, locking down any tower building in Combine Dredge. I'm gaining AA and experience at a quicker rate than I have in any other expansion. Its so bad that I'm 100% into my level, staring at the last ranks of Planar Wisdom, and trying to figure out what the hell I'm going to do for eleven months. To say there is a lack of grinding spots, or great experience in this expansion, would simply be incorrect. Its simply a matter of finding them. I really hoped they would increase xp modifiers in some of the other zones, though. Katta and Tempest are abysmal, and Caverns has too much risk and effort versus the reward.

The XP is out there, ladies and gentlemen. You just have to find it.

I've done the Thuliasaur HA twice now and got 9-10 AA from it. The groups I was in were also not the most expedient and it took over 90 minutes each time. That was a horrible return on exp/minute. I keep meaning to go back and box it so I'm not depending on a random group of people and see how far I can get the time down. Just not confident it will be worth the effort.

The big problem with experience not being good until Thuliasaur, is that a lot of casuals are giving up before they get that far. They're getting stuck in progression not finding people to help them get through. If you don't play regularly to have a good, set group, chances are you're not getting through progression.

Groups designed to tear though specific kinds of content always fare better than groups that are less well constucted.

TDS is not nearly as box team friendly as the Scouting Ahead mission from CoTF. I've been told (perhaps an exageration) a Druid can tank that mission. I know that a group geared Ranger could (since I've done it). I expect a Necro or a Mage could solo it.

If one compares completely off the charts content that could be the only exposure casuals have to EQ for a year to more normal content of course more normal content won't be as appealing to those seeking no effort/greatest reward.

Group missions are not new. They are not something well beyond the capability of anyone who is not hardcore. ONLY Scouting Ahead passes the casual muster? It's a rare group mission that casuals through great effort can overcome? I don't think so. I think many casuals have thier Epics. Perhaps not this new definition of casuals - people who sit outside of OMM or Gribble for 2 years. But casuals nonetheless.

I submit that players who can't manage run of the mill group missions and instead suggest only exp giveaways like Scouting Ahead are properly tuned aren't casuals - they're least effort content experience farmers. Not slower less hardcore progressors in a character progression game. Not progressors at all.

EQ is not a solo game. People progress better if they have a social network that provide others to group with and gain experience, loot, and other achievements. Nothing prevents casuals from joining family/casual gulds and forming the needed network except a desire to change a Massively Multiplayer game into a console game-like experience.

All of which is not a good case for leaving CoTF HA's alone. Instead it's iron clad proof of exactly why they had to be modified.

They didn't encourage progressing.
They didn't encourage forming a social network.
They didn't encourage strategising.

People had a year to get exp and loot from cuttency using SH HA's. Given that opprotinity it's time to put that stuff to use playing the wider EQ.

I wish I was as cool as Battleblade!

After a year of easy DH HA's you think a second year is reasonable? I think after a year of no contact practice its time to put on the pads and play the real game.

IF someone wants to argue that this or that TDS mission is overtuned for average group geared players I (not that I matter - devs do - I don't) would be sympathetic. But arguing DH HA's set the standard and that kind of effort/reward should be perpetually available without any need to progress - I disagree.

Devs have allowed people to do a random assortment of HA's as a daily task. It ends doing Scouting Ahead endlessly. Its not progression however and I for one think its better for the game to have double exp benefitting those doing current normal content to those doing monster missions or flipping easy previous expansion HA's.

Considering I was 105 in hours and max AA on day 2 I can't say I really care Battleblade. 0 cares are given if someone wants to chase the gnome all day so to speak.

I am a bit miffed my alts aren't capped yet, but whatever it'll happen before the year is through.

I think the more important question is how did those things in their pre nerf for actually affect your gameplay? Gribble didn't stop me from grinding out my war aug, or the other cap on my to do list, the only thing it did was make pling my alts/boxes a saturday/Sunday instead of a week or two.

I have never seen any noticeable drop in exp or aa acquisition when using percentages so the drop, if any, must be very small. I am going to suggest that this is no longer an issue.

Can you point out who is making this argument? I don't recall anyone doing so.

Allow me to expand your question a bit to
"How have CoTF HA's being such good experience for so little effort and continuing to be so initially when the max level cap was raised to 105 negatively affect your gameplay?"

They made fewer players available to do other things in CoTF.
They made it less likely for boxers to be looking for a random live tank.
They demanded attention to make them scalable that I'd rather have seen put in raid content.
A set of content being the best time/reward payoff at level 100, 105, 150, 200, ... is not good for the game.
Their expansion long overheated time/reward calls into question all more reasonable rates of experience gain even in subsequent content.
When they were changed and Daily HA's added bugs were introduced which diverted attention away from fixing things like Trophy of the Seafarer.
Time used to curtail their abuse but to create Daily HA's would have been better spent on dusting off 1-TDS Tier 2 raid not finished and not released and perhaps finishing it.

Every whoopsie has negative consequences that percolate throughout the game. Setting the lockout when you entered one, having a three hour lockout, and having the quest givers respond with "I have nothing for an adventurer with your experience." once you reached level 101 at release could have addressed many of the issues before they became issues.

And it would have allowed double exp days and exp potions to still work in those HA's since you wouldn't be able to back to back flip a single HA.

The constant walls of repetitive text don't need any relevance to the topic at hand, quoted posts, or a view held by anyone in the conversation. Look at who you are responding to, and realize the only winning move is to not play.

Luckily there are very few players as you are describing. Yes there are some that can't do group tasks designed towards raiders but that's not the same thing. And as for "least effort content experience farmers" that describes most hard core raiders. They know all the tricks and best methods for getting exp as fast and as easy as possible. It wasn't just casual players doing Gribbles it was all the raiders too. So with casuals and raiders all wanting to do the easiest exp you are simply describing almost EVERY EQ PLAYER IN THE GAME.

I care about the health of Everquest and that relies on keeping most of the playerbase engaged and happy including the more casual players.

I really hate to see you set up straw arguments then shoot them down and dumping all over the casual players with comments that clearly show no respect nor care for this part of the playerbase. Worrying about just your part of the game and having tunnel vision and not understanding the game from a variety of perspectives hurts the game.

Luckily the Devs actually know this they just sometimes handle it in a manner I disagree with. Also luckily I think they have a bit more respect for all of the player base then you are showing. Using over simplified examples to disparage casual players won't help EQ.

The whole reason we had Gribbles missions in the first place was the attempt by the devs to also cater to the more casual players. Personally I think those missions were overly easy and that other missions were overly difficult. I think they would have done better ensuring more missions were of a medium difficulty level and none were too hard for the average player. You are never going to properly give raid geared toons challenging group missions without hurting group players. And that's assuming comparable game skills which isn't always the case.

Raiders get to enjoy a challenging raid game and as many of them say the group game is just there for them to exp up and fill their aa so they can get back to raiding. That's cool and they deserve a good raid game to play. Group players deserve a good group game too. And we ALL deserve a healthy game that will be around for a long time.

If you don't have a convincing counter argument, attack the poster. GJ.

‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’ I think the same goes for foolishness and so I continue to tilt at windmills.

You can't counter arguments that consist of word salads and sentences generated by a Markov algorithm.