Should I Commit To Phinny

I am a returning player from many years ago and considering returning.

I watched Ragefire come into existence and then fade to Lockjaw.
Then I watched Lockjaw come into existence and then fade to Phinney.
Now, Phinney is the place to be. These are my uninformed observations.

What I am wondering is as I ponder returning to Everquest is this:

Is there a new TLP server coming around the bend?

I don't want to commit to Phinney with time and $ if there is a new TLP server waiting in the wings as has been demonstrated by the previous, recent, 2 TLP servers. It would be a shame to leave toons stranded on old TLP servers.

I would appreciate your considered opinion if I should jump in now or wait?

I realize this will require some speculation but I value the considered opinion of you, the loyal, knowledgeable, long term fans of the EQ franchise.

Thank you for your comments.

If there is another server waiting in the wings, there will probably always be another server waiting in the wings. I'd personally be very surprised if there is anything else new any time soon though.

When did ragefire fade into lockjaw? I don't remember lockjaw as ever having more people/raid guilds than ragefire.


I would put my money on phinny as having some staying power.

I can't see what kind of server they would offer that would draw people away from the existing TLPs except for the people who always roll a new server.

Ragefire/LJ is pretty much Fippy 2.0 with faster raid respawns and buffed raid targets.

Phinny is the same but with added instances of raid targets for guilds that just want to do scheduled raids and a restricting box policy.

Only thing I can see that would be a draw is a Phinny 2.0 server with no boxing restrictions and a higher exp rate, that started in AT LEAST Velious. Or maybe a Combine style "beat everything as fast as possible and unlock all the expansions at breakneck speed" then start over after XY days.

Neither of which I think are likely to happen this year, with Dev resources being switched to focus on the next live server expansion.

I don't think the Devs are focused on the next Xpac yet unless their timeframe is weird this year. Feels like current focus is making sure Phin bugs are dealt with now for the timeframe they expect to need for the expansion dev work.

I think they'll be transitioning to xpac stuff soon though, once they hammer out Velious/Luclin here.

Once they get those ironed out, and depending on what they decide to do for PoP (crossing fingers for AoC's, but not MotM), they really can let these servers coast for awhile; Phinny for those looking for a faster track, presumeably many of these guilds/players are in it for the long haul, and RF+LJ on the slower track, so even if these guys bail after PoP, they are still living servers through probably the end of 2017.

Post POP they still have to do instances for GoD (Ferubi, Riwwi, Kod`Taz, Yxtta, Qvic, Txevu), OOW (WoS, RSS, RCoD), maybe a Stoneroot instance in DoDH, few DoN zones, Theatre of Blood in POR, some crap in TSS, and some crap in SOF if they want to have an agent of change for _every_ open world raid mob. Oh yeah and those LoY raids. Plus revamp hate, revamp VP (oh god yes, wassup aged left eye of xygoz) and some other zones that i can't think of.

They have a lot of work to do probably, hopefully the server is successful enough to justify it.

No, they don't need to do all those. The vast majority of those are not necessary for progression nor do guilds really need most of them to gear up for anything. Especially with instancing on all the raids that really do matter.

Gates needs a few things instanced, especially Txevu. Oow doesn't need anything instanced. DoN needs no instances -- 100% of the raid content is already instanced. DoDH needs Vule (and Keleborn to get to Vule) and that's it. PoR could use some instancing but the server population will probably make it all unnecessary by then. LoY does not need to be instanced -- no one will even bother to do those raids except to check the "we did it all" box. The vast majority of TSS open world raids are unnecessary for progression and drop crap loot, no need to instance those. Same with revamped VP.

Really, once we are past GoD or DoDH they could let it go as is and we'll all be just fine.

We'd all be just fine if they never had Agents in the first place, too, it's a game. They sold the server as "go raid whatever you want whenever you want", so far they've had agents of change for basically every raid target. Pretty good chance they stick to their guns and make everything available to everyone for the remainder of the server, regardless of how much anyone cares.

Devs don't tend to devote extensive resources to the progression servers past the first year. I'll call it right now, once we are past PoP or maybe GoD there will not be any more agents of change for open world content. Guess we'll see who's right, but I just don't see them putting in the resources once the content can no longer be effectively cockblocked.

I doubt Phini will be high population or even medium past PoP.

I remember after the free transfers lockjaw having more population then ragefire but for a lot of casuals when phinny got announced it becames the server that casual wanted even though it was fastest unlock that casual would have preferred.

Initially Ragefire was an absolute cesspit. There was no way that server was ever going to maintain a population that size. Personally I couldn't hop off that server fast enough and I used the free transfer to grab a few SC purchases that could be traded to other toons on my account.
Lockjaw (for the most part) was a much better experience for me but it sucked when the rotations fell apart.
When Phinny launched I didn't want to start over and lose more SC purchases but, there was rarely content up in Hate (box armies) There was rarely content up in Fear (box armies) etc etc...
It seemed the majority of single account players left for Phinny, as did the 2/3 boxers so I felt I had no choice but to go where the majority of my type of player went. I made some friends on LJ but there was too much 6/12 boxing going on.

We have 2 servers that you can box to your hearts content on. Neither seem to be doing so well.
We have 1 server that you can "Truebox" on which seems to be doing a great job of maintaining a population.
Players can just write off the open world content drama and do their own thing. It seems that Daybreak are learning that the "red" experience of open world content is not a good thing when it comes to maintaining subscriptions.

Two issues with Phinny are the faster unlocks and slow xp.
I agree that RF and LJ are too slow on unlocks. Players leave after a couple of months and then return for the next expansion.
Phinny is too fast for me to be goofing around on alts if I want to keep a level/AA caped toon, which is kind of a shame as I like to alt it up for tradeskills.
The benefit of slow xp is that those who do choose to goof around, are not thrust into the drama of end game content.
Regarding end game content, that's just something that DBG needs to get a grip on. Charm gating, training and other forms of stupidity that run players off. Only DBG can fix that and stating that they have faith in the players to fix their own problems, is just brushing off the responsibilities that this consumer would expect from a company.
Another issue would be the economy. With instanced content there's really no need to be spending huge amounts of plat/krono to gear up. I have a hard time paying somebody else's sub for 2 months just to add 1 int and 25 mana to my shoulder slot, I get by just fine on cheap loam gear.

Of the 3 servers Phinny definitely has the best chance of maintaining it's population past POP. Instanced content is what's keeping this server from imploding. Got to give Daybreak credit for that one! Took lots of crying and whining but even the naysayers are playing on Phinny now, and seem to be enjoying it.

I don't expect a new TLP server in the near future, after all the SC spent on XP pots I doubt that players would be willing to abandon their characters again for a fresh start.

So in closing, if you want to box, and box using 3rd party tools then you have 2 servers to choose from. If you want to single account 2/3 box on separate comps then Phinny is your option. Nobody knows for sure when the next TLP is coming out but it would have to be pretty awesome to lure Phinny players away.
Maybe they should make a pvp tlp if only to entice the Red99 players back to EQ. I wouldn't play on it, happy where I am!

Just out of sadistic curiousity, what's the class makeup on Phinny? Is it any different from LJ / RF where it was 95% casters (Mages, mostly), 4% Monks, and 1% other?

By the sounds of it, grouping is far more enforced encouraged due to the XP penalty system, but does that still preclude classes such as ROG, RNG, WAR, etc.? They were very difficult to find groups on RF / LJ at the time due to their weakness in classic, so I'm curious if that's changed on Phinny?

It's pretty varied, there's some clumps - ENCs are the most noticeable one - but for the most part there's a healthy mix of all sorts of classes.

PAL is about the only thing that seems truly rare.

I'd add Rng, Rog, and Wiz to that list. Not as bad as Pal, but still lesser played.

The server has a ton of Encs, Mnks, and Necs. It has surprisingly few Mages.

not surprising when mages was nerfed to hell and back a few times... they are pretty useless... their pets do no damage to raid targets, their nukes doesn't land and if they do land they are still crippled to hell with motm.

Well, started up here, and within the first 24 hours all I saw in LFG channels were "Rogue LFG" (levels 4 all the way up to 50+), with the exception of one low-level Druid LFG and one mid-level Warrior.

So if there's a shortage of Rogues, it's probably because nobody will group with them :/

I main a rogue and surprisingly if i zone into a dungeon i don't have much difficulty finding a group looking for dps. Of course much easier for a tank, cleric or chanter.

I have a blast as a Rogue, once in awhile it's a slow to find a group but at that point I just build it myself.