The real Phinny exp difference

be careful saying that, people on Vulak used to say that...now there is no one left to play with.

Telling people to just quit is much like an eye for an eye, everyone ends up blind.

Here's the difference:

In 2000, casual guilds were behind because the game mechanics were only known to a select few, most players had no idea how to play their class, and there was competition over every single raid boss.

In 2015, casual guilds are behind because raids are actually complicated, events often take quite a while to learn, and players need to be pretty decent to succeed (a real thing, given you have exponentially more abilities at your disposal and fights are more reaction and execution based than they are attrition).


Meanwhile, on RF/LJ the only thing stopping you from being able to raid while playing only 15 hours a week is competition over open world raid bosses (which is not always a guarantee).

Once these servers hit expansions that have mostly instanced content, even that limitation will disappear. Plenty of people will raid in-era with that kind of playtime, and no one will act as though it's some sort of heresy that they're doing so without first making the game a full time job.

Yea well people would say on the blue servers too and they're still around. Vulak should of never opened in the first place. The people saying stuff isn't what caused it to become a vacant server, it was doomed from the beginning due to SOE listing to people complain about not being able to log in and apparently one particular guild that caused a lot of issues.

I disagree with this and reason being is that it didn't happen on Fippy, the casual guilds where always behind simply because they where casual. When PoP came out the hardcore guilds rushed through it all and only raided time, by the time GoD came out the hardcore(and euro) guilds where still the only ones raiding time.

I won't be playing weekends usually. During the week I can mostly work (including 1.5 hour drive each way to and from) and then play EQ in the evenings. I have other real life things to do on most weekends.

If that's too casual, then as you said, I'll be in a different game.

Shh your logic is not allowed here.

What's funny is it will work like this on this server also. Some casuals have no problem realizing they are casual and just do what their play-style allows them to do.

Kunark will come, the hardcore-semi hardcore will rush to complete it, casual guilds will still raid old content while leveling entire time and then move to kunark content(that requires level 55+) when they can. People in these guilds will apply/join higher guilds if they find themselves with more time while the casual guilds recruit new players or players that decide they want to try raiding.

The cycle of EQ raiding, Lion King would be proud.

Even with all the complaints about xp I still don't think getting to max level is an issue. Based on the numbers posted here it seems like the "Casual" time played to reach lvl 50 is going to be somewhere around 150-180 Hours.
Assuming you play 3 hours per night. (Or 1 or 2 hours per night and a ton of the weekend), you should reach 50 within the first 2 months. That leaves an entire month to farm planar armor and join the pickup raids for instanced naggy / vox that we all know will happen.

Give the server a chance guys. . .

Even if you are a casual player there is no reason you can't kill Vox, Naggy and Phinny at least 4 times...and go on more hate / fear gear raids as you could ever desire... Be honest, how many of you can say you've killed those targets in your casual guild on Ragefire / LJ? Let alone that many times before Kunark released.

You're discounting my entire post because it doesn't apply to a server that wasn't time-locked in the first place?

The key thing you're missing from your own post is: (and euro). The only zone truly instanced in PoP is time - there's still competition over everything else. In order to have a chance at spawns you either have to put in a ton of hours or play when others aren't able to field the numbers. Add that to the fact that casual guilds were already behind coming into PoP, and there's no way you could expect them to catch up before the next expansion was unlocked.

You don't even need 50 for planar armor and/or naggy/vox. I'd say the only place 50 is required is Sky and maybe CT/Inny(iffy on the last two, I bet a raid of 46+ could do it easily).

I still disagree, because the content on Fippy was far easier, casual guilds still didn't get much in to PoP when they could have. Also because the content was easier anyone could of done it regardless of how behind they where in a previous xpac, you could of done RZtW in velious gear if you wanted to, he was literally a speed bump, in fact everything was. Casual guilds still stayed casual, that's just what they did. Even GoD when there where mutiple instances and everyone could of been on the same page, the casual guilds stayed casual.

Yea I did. It was rough. i was pretty low level (heck im just now mid level).

It was crowded but doable.

I hate posts like this so much. other mmo's aren't more complex, they're garbage. the zones in eq are so much more complicated, the top layer is a labyrinth, the bottom layer is a labyrinth, there are named mobs all over with place holders so you might not even see them the first 10 times you go through. 2015 mmo's have raid "dungeons" that are straight lines through 5 bosses and then you get 1 out of a possible 9999 different weapons that no one knows the significance of nor cares b/c it will be replaced by your next weapon an hour later. you don't go deep through a dungeon in wow and camp a sweet item for hours - you run a straight line through everything clicking that 1 spell you use and another couple when their cooldowns wear off. oh yeah, I just love managing COOL DOWNS - the "mechanics" of every modern mmo. ridiculous. here I play 4 songs in succession, switching between instruments just b4 each song ends back to dual wielding when the next begins, switching targets b4 a mez song ends in order to keep w/e I need asleep to prevent wiping, pulling 1 at a time with a harmony style song, switching the songs themselves up depending on whether or not I'm up against things that stun or deal certain types of dmg, trying to keep 1 mob charmed, it's exhausting and I must have like 120 actions per minute at least (clicks and button presses).

the spells and mechanics in this game are so much more varied and interesting than other mmo's, the classes are UNIQUE whereas other mmo's you're basically a straightforward healer, dps, tank, or even more straightforward support. the skills in this game are more varied and numerous. I play a bard, maybe there are some classes that are just straightforward and simple that I'm not familiar with playing efficiently but if there's a game half as good as this point me to it pls.

And based on estimates from people on the boards and calculations I did, that the range you need to be in to max level before Kunark.

1. I think Ragefire/Lockjaw spoiled those that don't play much.They could go to planes farm raid gear.They even try to have a casual day in sky.If we check before tlp 3.0 Combine/sleeper i was there if you wanted to raid in era you had to play 8hrs a day.From what i heard Fippy/Vulak xp was the same as we have on phinny atm.So they have seen the Eldorado with Ragefire/Lockjaw and now daybreak decided ok not normal to be able to raid and play 15hrs a week and put the xp curve back to what it was in previous tlp and of course when you see all those big gear and you can't have it anymore unless you play more you have a withdrawal. Personally i see every time i play people who would be considered casual play enough hours every week to achieve it and i think many people gonna be surprised by how many casuals are able to follow expansion by expansion and i can see a healthy population to at least Planes of Power.

You can. Maybe not the first game which is mostly leveling and not raiding, but for sure in kunark, velious, and luclin, pop, etc you can be high enough level to raid in era


So now are you changing your complaint to you should be able to do100% of everything while playing a miniscule amount of hours in a game literally titled EVERquest, not couplehoursaweekquest.

No way does this game survive another year. The new expansion is the most horrendous release ever of an expansion I have seen in video games and the progression servers purposely exploit and punish the casual gamer(their most important customer). Well atleast the community will be much better without the krono to take advantage of.

But what you fail to realize is that phinny will lose players like all servers do and it won't gain players because this exp penalty is impossible once the main pack passes the first 50 levels. They either need to turn on an exp bonus like they have for AA's for low levels or institute a heroic character system to let new players join right into the action on a progression server. Nobody shops for the previous seasons clothing its unbelievably stupid to accept this model where the casual is punished and new players are abused. Nobody will join a progression server already in progress with a MAJOR exp penalty with nobody to play with for 50 levels.

yeah nobody will join, that's why the chat channels are full with 120+ in enchanter channel alone at 3 in the morning. "TBM is the worst expansion of any videogame ever" lol, oh yeah and look, the sky appears to be falling.... "NO WAY DOES THIS GAME LAST ANOTHER YEAR." ROFL.

Let's ignore for a moment that my point was about EQ in 2015 - not other MMOs in 2015 - and consider your words at face value.

You clearly haven't played enough MMOs to make this sort of judgment. Even just something like Guild Wars (2) invalidates your entire argument. Zones are complex, even maps don't show everything, and the game actively rewards exploration. In addition, classes are varied, don't fit at all under normal archetypes at all, and weapon/ability swapping is a core mechanic for optimal play.

The problem is you're using the bard class as your primary source here. The other EQ classes not only fit under your "straightforward healer, dps, tank... support" complaint, but are far more simple to play. They have few relevant skills (that is, before a dozen or more expansions kick in, and most people on TLP have quit), and spend most of their time autoattacking or medding.

He is also propping bard up to be a lot harder and better than it is.

Let's be completely honest here. BRD have krap DPS, you don't have to switch your instruments as much as he is saying, and twisting songs now days is ridiculously easy with melody.

The bard back in the day? Twisting 3-5 songs without melody? Now that was something!

Capable of being a body on a raid? Sure, but not effective without cap or proper AAs, or group the high level areas for appropriate gear, so not competitive. And like I said, 15 hours a week shouldn't be considered too casual to cap out without XP pots or bonus weekends in 6 weeks on a 12 week release cycle. I'm not worried about it now, though. I see DBG isn't interested in what keeps the healthiest population of the server. I gave up and I'm on to other games.