Last time I checked Sisters was not the ONLY raid in that expansion that dropped Rk. 3 spell turn-ins. So, invalid defense there. I'm pretty sure a lot of people DID care about those Rk. 3 spells when they were current and put a lot of effort in to get them, thus, posting about it now is fair for discussion. Your spell book OCD issue is not a good argument for "unlocking" the content. Again, if your class received a significant boost from having older Rk. 3 spells I could see a legitimate reason to invest time into this. Aside from Necros, which you are not, I don't think you receive any sort of boost. Anyhow, people DID offer you an alternate method aside from freebie-mode, raid old content. I also think a quest/tradeskill route would be an easy way to implement it without adding tons of spells to vendors or some such. However, I must now automatically side w/ Axxius as he posted GC. There's no arguing with that.
I know a lot of people did those raids when they were current, I'm one of them. However, when they were current I usually did not loot runes until the classes that had better spells (or more needed spells) had all looted everything they needed. (I'm sure a lot of other people did the same.) Sometimes that meant that we had moved on to newer content before everyone had all their rk. iii spells. I picked the sisters event simply because it was an old event that cannot be done solo and will never be able to be done solo. Just as a response to the 'well go solo the raids' posts. And no, noone offered an 'alternative' method, they simply stated the only method. I never once stated that I would be getting any sort of boost from these spells. I simply said I would like to fill the gaps in my spell book. Much like how I have maxxed Bind Wound, and Begging. They also have no real use.
I am wondering, someone told me once that there are not enough pages in the spell book for him to scribe every spell, and he had to delete some to scribe new ones. I have so many holes in the spell book, I don't get near the end, so I have no idea. If you would, could, run out, what then? I understand the desire for completions, so I am curious if this might ever become an issue.
For a pure casting class that may be a problem. Doubt anyone hybrid will ever have that problem. Personally, I still have over 40 blank pages.
Ya, was a mage mentioned it last I recall, having to delete some old spells to make room. But I thought maybe they did something to change that, or... something.
So many things wrong here it's funny. a) There are no rank 3 spells in the DoD expansion. Ranked spells started with the TSS expansion. b) The only spells in DoD that required raiding to obtain were 0-2 class-dependant Ancient spells. b) Other than some groupable quest spells, DoD spells are the same as OoW spells, so the easiest source of ancients is probably Anguish. c) While it's true that there's too much to do to SOLO the sisters event in dreadspires, it can be grouped.
I have pretty close to every spell... And I'm no were near full too I donno, might be a chanter only problem.
"Rk.3" Spells Luclin - http://lucy.allakhazam.com/itemlist.html?searchtext=Ancient: : The top of that list, not the ones that start with Spell or Tome. Should probably just make them tradeable, if someone levelling up finds a spell in Baz or gets one from a friend/main they can use a slightly better spell or two. GoD - http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=2866 : Atleast two (Bard and Zerk) are still used at Level 100. Having the Chaos Runes be tradeable would be handy, the last time the Zoo or Cyno were contested mobs was most likely Vox server but why do 2 classes randomly get that hassle. OoW/DoDH - http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=2927 : Ancient spells on that page, enough sources and most probably get them while getting their own or someone else's Orb for 2.0. Even some uninstanced sources so you don't need to wait until Level 85 to get a Level 70 spell or two if you have a max level main or friends. TSS - http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=3629 : Few uninstanced options so if a spell/song/disc is deep in a list if will take awhile even if no one else contents the open world mobs. Once again Vox was likely the last time this was much of an issue. Think it's just melee discs and Druid Mammoth still used at Level 100 and Final Stand (War defensive) never got a Rk.3. In keeping with raid spells it's a non-issue as any raid guild can get a bunch of Glowing Obsidian Rune for anyone easily as it's likely someone in guild or atleast friend of someone in the guild can request the instance. Might even get a High Elf or Shroom illusion while grabbing the Runes. If at Level 85/90/95 a Druid "should" have the max version of a Level 71 buff or melee "should" have the max version of a 71-75 disc then Glowing Obsidian Rune "should" be available by an alternate method from an expansion that introduces that level. TBS - Priest - http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=24782 Hybrid - http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=24781 Pure Melee - http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=24780 Int Caster - http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=24779 : Not sure if I missed a vendor of it only War get more than 1 TBS spell among pure melee. Vinelash Cascade combined with Balreth is Zajeer's kick in the genitals to the player base on his way out the door. Not addressing this issue in 6 expansions since is pathetic. Timmy the Ranger is dead and Tommy the Ranger can't refresh snare WHY WHY WHY?!??!?!?! This is the first expansion where tradeable raid spells has the issue of someone being able to buy unlimited copies although the issue that all Level 71+ Rangers having Nature's Entropy Rk.3 creates eludes me. Don't think Fulkitcher Weave has an upgrade and I think Pyre of the Fallen is used on Evantil Molars and if Necro pet nuke gets changed Balreth would become by far the most tedious raid in EQ. SoF - http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4404 : Half or so of the spells are a repeat of TSS, right down to minimal uninstanced targets. The other half is like TBS headed by Circle of Divinity Rk.3 - http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4527 and includes various ungraded spells or atleast not upgraded until the Trout of Zomm AA. Again it comes down to at what point "should" a Cleric have a the max version of a Level 80 buff without having mindless tedium in Hills of Shade and if there is any benefit to having people farm Bimbalicious for some melee discs, Necro DoTs or whatever in 2013. SoD - http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4659 : Half or so of the spells are a repeat of TSS although there are no uninstanced targets. Farm 16% Overhaste in Tower, get whatever Runes you want/need. The other half is led by Twincast which probably never gets upgraded although the absence of either an eye gouge worthy Balreth raid or the raw tedium of each person getting the Rk.3 spell needing to be able to request Scorn means it's a fairly simple sweep of raids up to Tyranont to get everyone in the dz the non-Rune Rk.3 spells from SoD. UF - http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4959 : Not many spells, pretty trivial to get with max level players provided someone can request the raid and you are within 15 levels of max level in the game. Thule - http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=35726 : Pretty trivial to get with max level players provided someone can request the raid and you are within 15 levels of max level in the game. Having a really easy raid http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=5282 that has a reasonable chance to drop Level 90 spells avoids an issue that is coming up. Alaris - http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=38160 : Pretty trivial to get 91-93 spells, even 94 is reasonably accessible off Beasts provided you do some Alaris raids from time to time so a decent number of 3+/5 books in the guild. 95 is purely pass/fail, if you can farm Sep 1-2 you can grab ~4 a week easily. If you can't, very few guilds will gain the ability to farm those raids in the future. tl;dr - The spell distribution system is a mess. The main fix is making spells/songs/discs so Level 100 players aren't using GoD spells. Take old spells, double the mana/end cost, raise the level to cast by 10/15/20 and stick them on an expansion appropriate vendor. If the CRT program has any value, identifying the ones that are still used is really trivial.
Ideally the entire spell system would be revamped in the manner of EQ2 where spell lines are simply upgrades of themselves and it wouldn't matter that you missed out on rank 3 of JoeBobs Amazing Audacious Firefountain Rk.III five expansions ago. And yes, this means they wouldn't have to balance around people casting 5 ranks of the same spell line to do far more damage than they envisioned. But I think a bigger issue than "I want to collect all the pokemons" is old spells that weren't upgraded but are still used that are stuck on old raid content. Dead spell/disc lines that are still in use could at least be made attainable outside of those old raids. Otherwise it seems a waste of time.
Maybe I'm a little biased, but I wouldn't complain if they were made researchable, maybe to an expansion behind the current levels that are sold in PoK. Sad that they completely overhauled research, and then just tossed it out for 95% of its uses.
I've always wondered why this wasnt done at a 10 level gap. 10 Levels being the logical because Rank1 Level 100 Nukes/Heals > Rank3 Level 90s in every way and form. so always made me wonder how a level 100 caster could manage to cast level 100 rank1 fire spells but couldnt cast a weaker level 90 rank 3
Maybe make the runes themselves researchable instead of the spells, that way not so many new recipes needed ?
What I find troublesome is that most NPCs run around casting rk. 3 spells. How is that fair!? Slightly more unrelated is seeing mercs with rk. 2 spells. I really don't think my merc is spending the meager 100pp I pay him to go to the bazaar to buy his spells, especially when I am too cheap to buy them for myself. No real opinion on the topic other than research does need a purpose again.
That's a great idea to cut down on work, particularly since all classes can research now, but most are restricted, so you end up with multiple versions of the same spell to account for the different people combining them. VoA was the first one to do this- clearly, the Alarans in Pillars were raiding Sanctum Somnium. Sneaky aliens.
I like the idea of research. The other way is a problem for me. I'd have to get 9 spell drops from SoF raids to get the one I want. It would be nice if we could at least get a choice of spells when we turn in.
Alra was there to steal Cazic's essence when we stripped it from Morell. Being a god of magic, ali couldn't miss an opportunity to learn some spells and teach them to alis followers.
Whether they make the runes researchable or the spells, there will be one component to each Rk. III recipe that can only be acquired in the raid instances. Having research create the turn-in runes instead of the spells would simplify the drops. For spells it would require Rk. III paper to be dropped. The rune recipes could just utilize something like a raid ink. One new raid ink per expansion vs one new raid paper per level. Whether the raid dropped components are No Trade or not would depend on how SOE feels about people who have never been in a raid instance in their entire lives running around with old Rk. III spells.
