Ok, I think we should define group geared, for all you min/maxers out there, pop a tank merc... Does it handle the content? No? Then for us filthy casuals its going to suck to try and do. So far there have been a handful of missions/tasks where the tank merc just won't cut it. That said, I'm going to go back to TDS and finishing gearing my merc and maybe I can handle it, but as it stands now with no merc gear (except for CoTF claim item) it just isn't doable. The named content just eats him for breakfast after my spire and AAs get burnt on the cleric. I guess I could level up a wizard and just burn it down... or I could actually group with other human beings... but man haven't socialized in EQ since Underfoot, I'm just not sure what to say...
The group missions which people are mostly complaining about has 0 to do with pulling/static zone issues. That is trivial and always will be despite whatever changes they throw at us. There is almost no CC/pulling/utility required in group missions.
With merc gear (no secondary slot on tank) and max tank AA mine has been able to tank every merc/part/HA and named up to and including Crypt of Sul. Actual missions? Absolutely not. If you're trying to molo this stuff and have no DPS *at all*... yeah, you'll probably fail. Merc tank can handle most of it but just not with 5k DPS.
I don't know you and you obviously don't know me. I raided VoA with Triality from start to finish and certainly wasn't working night shifts, or had any problem boxing pillars as the 4 year old achievements on me attest. If you can box the Bayle mission in Rot you can box the broken missions in this expansion. So get good or wait for them to fix it. As to VoA, I was talking about the 12 man group missions and the named mobs with messed up mechanics that were not group friendly.
Bayle mission in RoT had 0 dps requirements unless you are talking about the absolute end where you kill as they spawn (which was still half of what a raid group DPS would have been) you barely needed 65k sustained DPS to finish it...that was one decent player, you controlled and killed while keeping a tank alive. Missions in TBM are flat out raid level DPS checks. How exactly is that 'get good' ? Furthermore if you argument really is 'There were overtuned and bugged missions before and people dealt with it, so you can deal with it now' that's absurd. Things should be challenging but not impossible. Some of these missions are flat out impossible for group players, the fact that raid geared people in some of the best guilds are having repeated difficulty is evidence enough of that. It's like saying because I was sentenced to have my hands cut off for thievery in 1100AD (heck even Saudi Arabia still does this) everyone should get their hands cut off until the end of time for it. Are you serious?
No, my point that I've repeated is the very simple: IT IS BUGGED/BROKEN! Henceforth, the entire position of the OP that this expansion is only for "uber" players is garbage. Either power through the broken stuff, or wait for it to be fixed. Its not intended. It isn't a conspiracy against groupers. The expansion is easy and intended to be easy. What isn't easy is broken.
No argument here, the gear across the board is a direct downgrade from TDS - The expansions hardly worth stepping into unless you care about achievements at this point.
If you have access to augs others don't please post screenshots, I've seen the augs from completed group content, they are in no way an upgrade from TDS and nowhere near Arx raid level. I'm thinking maybe you unlocked a tier of raid augs? Either way, there are no group 'upgrades' from the vendors and aug combinations to anything from TDS T3 - some of the open zone named drops are slightly better, depending what you're after.
I made 2 TBM group armor pieces for my Enchanter: boots and bracer. Took off the type 7 aug for pure stats. Ignore the type 13, this is without power source. TBM group ENC boots: TBM group ENC bracer: How can anybody be unhappy about group gear like this?
My alts have no raid win flags. Are you not able to see the Resplendent augs on the vendor in PoHealth? My ENC has all group progression done, although I'm sure he was able to see them after doing just the Demiplanes and PoHealth.
Read the post above, I labelled out the exact stats for TDS t3 and TBM max level augs. I'm not even sure why i'm responding anymore, if you took 5 minutes and made a piece of gear with augs and checked it against TDS gear there is no argument. You are the only person on the entirety of the forums to even suggest otherwise. You appear to be the only person who cares about inflated HP. You lose Massive AC, you can no longer cap MOD2's (Avoidance, Accuracy, Shielding etc) You lose Clairvoyance, Spell damage, Heal amount (as evidenced by your own post) You also lose secondary heroic statistics in favor of one stat. For certain classes who cares? for some classes, it's a major issue.
Axxius is either trolling or giving deliberate misinformation or both, he even thought he was slick changing the armor from modified to unmodified. The gear he is showing you are the stats for level 110, not level 105. The AC, mana, Endur, MOD2's, Secondary Heroic's are all worse. Depending on the value of AC per class and how your gear is stat'd you can lose as much as 200ac in one item. The stat losses vary but there are no gains to be had from TDS T3 > TBM. Why he is even trying to prove otherwise is beyond me, you can compile exact item stats on EQresources and compare them directly with TDS T3 gear. You lose across the board. Not sure who did the items this expansion but they were definitely not scaled properly, or even given statistics to match previous group gear.
Umm... You care about Spell Damage? Clairvoyance? Do you even know what they do and how much (or rather little) they matter? You will take 65 ac over 1004 hp? I don't know what class you are playing, but for Enchanter this TBM stuff is awesome.
Go LOOK at those actual items before you spew accusations like that. I don't know why the rec level on those items is 110, probably a data error. But they do have those stats.
Log into your character, the armor is MODIFIED for level 105 (because you are NOT level 110) in your screenshots you clearly clicked that off to show level 110 stats. I'm done responding to you either way, your reasoning is ludicrous at best. The gear is in no way an upgrade from the previous expansion.
If you don't know another explanation, it doesn't mean the one you know is correct. I didn't click off anything. I made a screenshot of the items without equipping them. Do it and see for yourself. And stick your silly accusations. Those are not 'lv 110' stats. Those are THE stats. Lv 110 is a bug, it prevents those stats from showing right now, but will be corrected in the next patch, as Riou noted.
