It's funny the way the goal posts have shifted, first it was about grinding being non viable, now suddenly it's about the group gearing situation. - If I cared about myself only, I would advocate that grinding should be the best XP, I don't particularly like doing the quests on my alts/boxes, and in fact I have *not* done them, even the ones I've leveled up to 120, because I prefer grinding. It would be personally better for me if grinding was the best and fastest, I'm just pushing back on the idea that grinding isn't viable at all, and I think it's better for the health of the game if questing in the new expansion is the premiere way to level. Grinding is far easier for raiders than it is for non raiders. - No raider in this thread or any thread that I've seen has advocated that the group gear should require 120, so bringing this into this discussion does nothing but try to muddy the waters because you knew that you were unable to back up your claims. - I don't believe anyone except for the "anti quest" brigade has made any claims that this was to stop botting. - The faster XP goes, the faster raiders shift to "log on raids/overseers and log off", so by making the grind faster for the people in this thread, you'd actually be making this *worse*, not better. If you wanted us not to do that, you should be advocating for it to take much longer than it does.
After a healthy amount of TOL I would say it is an ok expansion. I can only really compare it to ToV/CoV <And I like to compare it to ToV since they are both Part 1's>. Zones: Luclin is big which generally means people will like certain bits more than others. I found ME dull. UP at least has a little flavor in caves etc. Shadowmoon is a pain. Ka Vethan is a nice touch up but lost some flavor with the removal of traps and emotes, Basilica was alright, not amazing, but not horrid zone. Vex Thal is boring. Bloodfalls is really nice, like the blood rivers and mix of Vamp/Akheva shouting at each other through the zone, probably the best zone of the expansion. Also putting the zone inside Castle Mistmoore - A++. I like it when the game reconnects some old world especially when it makes sense, it also provides TP classes a nice unique niche. Quests: Some are neat, the escort quest didn't bug out for us <Test server>, and was a neat little throwback. Some of the quests have neat little bonus dialogue like the sacrifice questline when you try to spam click the same body. The Akhevan quest that requires each zone is a nice touch. Some get tedious - shadowmoon valley feels like they want to keep you in a boring zone that is a pain to run around in as long as possible. If your going to make quests long at least put it in a fun area. Missions: Shei - Your farm mission, not much to say. I guess one nice touch is at least for our DPS/group makeup it is actually better for my wizard to swap off the boss and nuke the heal adds rather than ignore them as 10% of shei's HP is generally worse outcome for us. The mez adds are a neat touch that makes the fight not as faceroll as Zlandicar. Aten - I like the boulder mechanic, not a huge fan of the goo blind mechanic since it basically just casts once and then goes away. Why even make it a mechanic? The Silence is well handled as its controlled by a player. Bloodfalls - I am at a loss for this whole mission. It feels so at odds with itself. The mobs aren't any more difficult than any other mission, yet we can literally stack them inside a dot with no penalty to the players. The final boss mechanic is totally bugged <ATM>. The AoE mechanic that curses your HP total can be so easily burned its a joke. Either this mission is totally bugged out or I just can't figure out what the devs wanted out of it. Oubliette - I know many won't agree, I think this is the best mission of the entire expansion. The mechanics are fairly clearly laid out - Lamp Spawn at X -> Move to Y - Lamp Spawn at Y -> Move to X, and even if you touch them a little its not instant death. The DA/Silence golem could probably be toned down to 1/2 members of the group or at the very least cut down to 15 seconds. When it hits you, well, you just end up twitting your thumbs. The final end "Cutscene" is a nice touch, and feels more like a "final" mission than Bloodfalls is. Overall it feels ok. Bad Parts: Some of the sad parts is that zones like the new TOFS in ToV or new Dragon Necropolis carried over their old charm while being updated with new graphics and mobs. Such as the keying process and mirror room of TOFG or traps spawning in DN. Here seems to have updated the zone graphics, models, and forgot all the other stuff that went along with it. Traps were a big part of Akheva and so was the random emote messages. Old Vex Thal would have mobs respawn as shades <I can't recall them doing that in the new zones>. Here is hoping that if they do a part 2 with Griegs end they reintroduce a working version of the illusion side of that zone. Would probably be a highlight. Or a working <Even if instanced> "war" system.
You are totally missing the point about leveling exp and AAs. We are higher level now, it takes more exp to do so. AA exp hasn't changed much. So new mobs give a lot more exp, but it takes more to level. If you change that then 1 of 2 things happens. We get a silly amount of AAs/kill or AA exp gets jacked way way up to a point where ForumQuest complaints are now about how it takes so long to get any. We can't have things both ways, just play the game and enjoy the ride
Not if you reduce how much XP is required per level, which is what is being asked for by those who understand that mob kill xp is fine its the amount of level XP required per level that got jacked up to stupid levels. We can't have things both ways is a tacit capitulation.
I'm not sure if the people complaining about grind xp played during Kunark. It took me at least 5-8 hours of nonstop XP grinding for each level in Lake of Ill Omen, Frontier Mountain, and Dreadlands. This was when you could easily find a pickup group. The current grind XP levels matches early-mid expansions but gives you the bonus of Overseer XP and Achievement XP. Should we go back to the later era of grinding Gribble HAs or literally burying oneself in ST? No, many players are too old for that.
The hilarious thing is.. Tappin is saying groupers can't do it. Groupers are doing it. Benito is saying people don't play many hours a day so they can't do it. That's a load of crap too. They're doing it. Neither of them really know how people play EQ yet they make up the vast majority of the posts on this thread.
It took a long time, but you also didn't have thousands of AA to grind after. After you hit 60, that was it for exp needs. Original EQ was worse than that for exp needs, took weeks to get on hell level sometimes. Now you still have thousands and thousands of AA to get also, so getting to max level is the start, not the end. I would LOVE a gribbles for 115-120 or a ST, just a way good place to grind mobs for decent exp.
As fun as this mission is with the movement, people already move into a room and kill so they don't have to do it. The "strat" is the fun part, not what you need to work around.
Hardcore players? Sure. It is nearly 2022. The game is nearly 23 years old. 1. Who the heck has 5-10 hours to play each day? With family and work obligations in this economy (uncertainty and inflation), it just seems like a poor set of priorities. 2. Many individuals are physicially and mentally old. In gentle terms, we do not have the stamina or patience to stare at the same set of mobs for hours on end so we can experience a new class.
You do realize that Gribble XP wasn't great (it took weeks to gain levels but offered OK AA XP - devs hated the perceived abuse). ST (dungeon bonus xp) was an anomaly that they will never reintroduce.
My playtime is like, the one hour i get on weekends (and christmas holidays...) Before my kids wake up. I hit level 120 a few days ago.
Rogues and Rangers are absolutely sick this expansion, for group content. 1.4-1.6m sustained DPS over several hours. Get one for your exp group and you won't be unhappy.
I did some overseer. I don't enjoy it but the time vs benefit is hard to ignore. I did all the missions before hitting 120 but haven't finished progression yet. I haven't done anything special with collectibles. The whole leveling convo is funny to me because I'm mostly looking at hunter as the long pole in the tent of "finishing" an expansion and I'm going to be level and AA capped long before i finish hunter. Probably.
You're trying to speak for everyone. Just like Tappin does. There are a ton of 120's on my server, in guilds that do not raid at ALL - not even on our casual raids. And there are raiders that are NOT 120. Quit trying to speak for the entire population.
I’m not speaking for the entire population. Where have I implied or said that? I’m merely stating my opinion with facts that the devs have found the right balance. Look at where the game is today: 23 years old with an aging population. We need to be pragmatic and adapt to keep this game alive. Do I want easy mode? Of course not. I used to be a min-max elitist but I realize people have real lives to live. EQ2 and WoW went crazy on min-max grind and they are now having problems (player satisfaction, population levels).
Out of curiosity, is it somewhat common to see people trying to put together groups for ToV now? I'm not talking about task adds/carries, but actual people working on progression. I haven't played in a while and I'm trying to get a feel of what it would be like from where I left off.
It’s pretty empty, and you could probably get someone to solo the missions for you. If you don’t hop into ToL, before March it’ll be pretty deserted. Anniversary should get a little bump of interest, but otherwise expansions become ghost towns by their 3rd month.
