So sof didn't last very long obviously only 2 new raid to farm, and 8 other raid that s been farmed to death already, people will be starting to go on break and guild will suffer (especially with summer coming soon). What s the more annoying is that we don't know what s to come and when (more or less) it will arrive. The gear in T3 isn't even worth getting over T2. Can we please get an approximate date for T4 release, or tell us how many month we have to wait for it, 2 / 3/ 4/ 5/6 month? Please do not ignore us.
Im going to guess that T4 will be released sometime in August. But that is just a guess. I will say that releasing ANY expansion add on during the summer is a bad idea. Attendances historically always drop during the summer months. So if your guild is suffering attendance wise during the summer, releasing a new expansion add on is most likely NOT going to remedy your situation. Why? For the simple fact that its summer. Those of us in raiding guilds all know about that dreaded summer attendance slump. Not to mention, with less folks always playing during the summer months, sales will be down as well (assuming we'll be charged for T4) - But this goes for any future releases during the summer beyond this incoming summer. With all of that said, I dont see how guilds will survive this current trend. Its going to be interesting to see what raiding guilds are still around this time next year. Or if we see some kind of power shift within the top 15 or so guilds due to the current trend. No longer is the raiding game in EQ about helping your guild survive the difficult progression grind. Now, its all about helping your guild survive boredom for extremely long stretches. We all know where boredom leads for raiding guilds........E.X.O.D.U.S
Staggered content releases are not an issue. It interrupted the top end farm mode for a weekend and I am sure even some groupers are back to their alts like they usually would this time of expansion. The real issue I see is the carrot being so small. Nobody wants to go after a gear update of 1-2%.
I think it all matters and is a problem. The gear being so tiny upgrade wise just compounds the issue(s) even further.
Is summer a problem for just the top end? Cause I generally haven't seen it in this guild or (very often) my prior guild. How many years/expansions back has it been since content actually kept the top 10-ish guilds busy for more than 3-4 months of the year? This isn't anything new. (Trust me, I'm not negating what boredom does on a guild.)
In the raiding guilds that ive been in, every time summer rolls around, it was like clockwork. Attendance across the board started to drop. Your 70% raiders become 30% raiders and so on. The main issue is, the new add on content is being beat the same night its released. This makes it feel like your guild never left the farm grind to begin with. Usually, guilds have that transition period going from farming to progression to keep things interesting. That is no longer the case right now. Its farm farm farm farm farm farm farm farm farm farm forever.
1% of the population? It isnt just an issue with the raiding game, what is being discussed is also an issue with the group game.
If you count hunter content. The group game has not been beaten by groupers yet. Doing every quest, named mob, and mission in group gear is harder *and* more of a timesink than doing every raid in raid full of raid geared players. Prior to Alaris this wasn't the case but ever since then it has been.
What I would really like to know more than anything is how fast T4 is going to come, we use to know more or less when new content was coming before, not knowing doesn't allow for planning when you could always do before. Giving a ballpark is well within their capacity, don't see why they won't tell us.
I hope that there isn't a T4. Just work on another mini expansion for Christmas. I don't need to reequip my toons every 3 months!! Maybe cone out with a new zone or two, but not another tier of gear. If you are bored with this new expansion already, then T4 will keep you happy for about two weeks.
My money is on August, as well, *possibly* September. An August release allows it to start after Living Legacy has ended and also allows them to announce the release at Fan Faire. The only reason I can think of for waiting for September would be if they only announced beta for T4 at Fan Faire instead.
I would go with July being the latest T4 will be released, Fanfare is the 3rd August this year, if we haven't got T4 by then I can see the developers being lynched. I'd expect Beta for T4 in June, which gives them just over a month to get things in order, that is assuming they won't be showcasing T4 at the Fanfaire. Hopefully we will know more after the Fanfare as to how they plan on introducing more content to EQ, thou with the vagueness going on I'm not holding my breath.
Shouldn't we be asking the question : IS T4 going to be released?? As far as I have seen, it's just a rumor. People speculating on release data of something that hasent even been confirmed.
one dev on beta has said there s more to come, the lack of any communication on this is really annoying tho since we have no idea anymore when we re going to get new content and it is impossible to plan anything, before you knew it was every 6 month, then once a year, now it's all secret.
They could continue releasing content for the next few years, a couple zones at a time, and put every bit of it under the Rain of Fear storyline umbrella. More content doesn't mean higher tiers. Saying there's more coming ... uhhh, well of course there is; the storyline hasn't reach any sort of conclusion yet.
I'm fine with tiny gear upgrades, assuming they are upgrades. Some of this gear is not an upgrade. I also think that while I'm fine with slowed down raid increases, I think the group gear, while not inflated as fast as it had either, could definitely use some increases over t2. Add 100 hp and a few ac and what not and it would be a lot better for groupers.
