The Case For Buying The Next Expac ... Or Not

So, this expac the level is increased to L 105. That much I know.

I used to buy 6 expansions back in the day .. recently I have been buying one for my raid toon and that's it.

Many previous expansions had at least one Wow factor that lead to .. gotta buy it, so I did!

I am waiting for an inspired expac that will take me back to buying the expac for my 6 accounts and going gold with my 5 silvers.

Is this the one?

Or will I be wandering around ROF with my alts for another year?

I would appreciate your thoughts on why the new expac is the one ..... or not.

No one can answer this until the NDA gets taken off

As an enchanter, I'd buy TDS for things I cannot talk about alone...

Yep, once the NDA is lifted, we'll hear things.

As a necromancer, I don't plan to buy TDS due to things I cannot talk about ... yet

My question is directed to information that is public. I wasn't looking for anything that would violate any NDA.
Thx.

I can go to the movies 3 times and not even buy popcorn or soda, or I can have an expansion that I'll play in a lot more than 5-6 hours. Easy decision for my one account. I don't box.

Unless you are boxing 6 accounts this is relatively cheap entertainment. A 160 bucks per account (9.99 x 12 + 40) a year seems pretty doable to keep on going until you get tired of it enough to quit for good.

They also , and not secret info it was in a dev post , they're looking at a sub plus expansion pay plan which I assume means your sub cost would go up and be allowed to use the expansion as you pay it off over a set time period. So that might be a "reason" to purchase this expansion. Having the level cap go up "may" be a reason as a grouper might be able to do content easier or with fewer box's or friends than in the past. As a guild officer we're looking at the level increase as a way that might help us beat some raids that we can't at this time, so if your in a guild that "might" be a reason to purchase the expansion. And those are just a few things off the top of my head I can think of.

I plan to buy TDS. Maybe. Because I don't have CotF and the trivialization to each expansion by the next one with the model they've been running the last few years means that if I don't have TDS, I may as well be a leper. I've learned this from having come back after several months away and coming back without CotF... finding company to do stuff I want to do is nearly impossible.

Thanks to severe, attenuating mudflation with the newer game model... designed to largely trivialize each prior expansion... I cannot operate in RoF (except for having about an 80% chance to kill tier 1 trash before it kills me) without some manner of near-trinity group makeup. As a largely non-raid-geared Berserker (some T0 and T1 RoF raid pieces), I can't tank most RoF content, so I'm at the mercy of tanks, healers (or well-developed healer mercs, something I can't have without CotF) and perhaps debuffers or other DPS. I can't even decapitate this trash because, while the Decap change was independent of CotF, they've tied Decap ranks 4-6 to CotF, so I can't buy them.

Since I need a tank and a healer to do anything I want to do, and any decent tank and healer would rather be in CotF content for various reasons... I'm effectively a pariah until TDS comes out.

This is actually a rather new phenomenon for me. I've taken breaks before, but this is only the second time I've come back and the new content was so mudflated that I couldn't dive in without help (the first time being with VoA). Every time before then, I could step away, come back and the new content was still evenly inflated enough to still provide entry content even across a couple of expansions missed.

So, at this point, if I don't want to continue to be a pariah soloing lamely along in two-year-old content (because I bought RoF, so even if the free game moves up to include RoF I don't gain anything), I MUST buy TDS. Otherwise, the server population, herded along by this one-track, content-deficient, grind-heavy non-open-world content they're feeding us, will leave me behind once again.

Bleat or die.

The main reason to buy TDS is that the scope of the expansion is much bigger than CotF, and probably ROF too.

In a reddit ama a few months ago, Smedley said the next expansion was going to be bigger. I heard SOE took on a lot of employees to make a bigger expansion out in the limited development time they had.

This expansion is roughly the same size as ROF was on day1. I'll give TDS a heads up over ROF since 3 of the ROF zones were recycled velious zones, and barely modified at that. However, TDS pales into comparison to VOA, and every expansion SOF-VOA (when the 1 yr dev cycle started.)

It seems to me that ever since they switched to the staggered content model, they were constantly behind in development. They seemingly got caught up with TDS and I'm optimistic that the 2015 expansion will be the first proper expansion since VOA.

Smedley's definition of bigger may differ from players definition of bigger.

Bigger means more content-alternative content. i.e. faction grinds, currencies and evolving gear instead of more zones or quests.

... if I had to guess.

I'd like to make an observation to those stating TDS is a small expansion. TBS consisted of seven zones and Solteris (End raid zone).

1. Barren Coast
2. The Buried Sea
3. Jewel of Atiiki
4. Katta Castrum
5. Silyssar, New Chelshith
6. Thalassius, The Coral Keep
7. Zhisza, The Shissar Sanctuary.

and Solteris - End raid zone.

Now, it seemed like there was a great deal more, but many of the additional zones are in fact simply instances of parts of the above listed zones with unique zone names.

TBS consisted of two tiers.

I really enjoyed the expansion and, in my opinion, the difficulty was very well balanced. The content kept me busy for most of the time it was the latest expansion. It had a really good quest progression and also some progression rewards like the Skeletal Hand aug.

Without breaking any NDAs . . . Information that has already been released . . .

TDS will consist of eight static adventure zones . . . so, we are already ahead of TBS, as Solteris was a Raid zone. If they add anywhere near the number of instanced quests and some sort of progression, TDS could very well be larger in scope than TBS was.

CotF had seven zones, but The Void, Bixie Warfront, and Dead Hills were not static adventure zones, which really only left us with half the number of zones included in TDS.

Just wanted to point out a few things many people seem to miss.

The only issue I have with buying expansions close to a new expansion release, is the fact that expansion purchases are all inclusive. I really want to get CotF right now for two of my boxes, however, it would be really stupid to do so. In four weeks I can buy TDS for them and get CotF included for free. This means I have to wait . . . . grrrrrr.

SoE really should come up with a way to deal with this end of year grey area.

Will I buy TDS?

Yes, I will.


Will I buy the one after?

That pretty much depends on the design of the group game in TDS. This is a make or break expansion for me. If SOE has continued down the same design path as they have in the last few, this will be my last expansion.

This will not happen. Most TBS instances were largely little tasks to do just for the sake of the hand aug and currency, not real "adventures", per se. The current model of expansions will likely give us one, maybe two, group mission instances per static zone and a raid instance per zone, and filler to force us to grind somehow in lieu of more zones, instances or actual quests.

The tradeable/craftable tier 1 group gear will all but trivialize CotF group gear in it's entirety, and it's end group gear will almost trivialize CotF T1 raid gear. The entry zone trash mobs will likely hit for over 20k after shielding and the game will move another step closer to requiring certain class combinations (such as virtually requiring an over-geared tank) to get anywhere in it.

I think the market for RoF T1 and CotF T1 will remain for sometime just because of ease of access unless a new TS version of the CotF stuff comes out that can be acquired at 100.

Good reply here. If this expansion can match ROF in playability and content, I will be pretty happy. I, however, still will not pre order expansions till I am sure it is playable as far as group game with actual group members which you will typically find. As by Johnny Panic's post, the numbers in the group game keep getting smaller and smaller.

Rykard
Paladin of the 76th season
Emarr