Every time you say that something "was never all that hard" for you + friend, I feel compelled to clarify that you play TWO MAGES plus more boxes, so you + friend is not just 2 chars as somebody might have assumed. It is very important to put things into proper context, don't you agree?
MOST of these missions in rof are not hard. many are rather easy, a toon and a merc can do quite a few of them. (without raid gear!) having a few challenging missions is good. there are easy missions and harder missions (none are impossible or require raiders or perfect groups or anything but a few people that can play their class) every single one of these missions can be done by group players in group gear if they know how to play their class more then turning on auto attack.
Pretty sure the SHM/SK is a player who switches between the two or 2 different players who get switched out. Thus making it still 6.
I am pretty sure you are correct. Which leads to the question, how did they get the shaman and SK though all the missions as a group?
If you look at the group, the 5 he listed make up a solid group that could get through any mission most likely even without a 6th. Pretty positive that group could handle any group mission with either SHM or SK in there.
Then why switch between the two? Also, could this be done for all missions in group gear with either group makeup? If so, just how many groups do you think are out there, in group gear, with either of those makeups?
Why does it matter? Maybe it is the same person who plays 2 toons? Or 2 different people that he/they play with depending on who is on what night. I have no idea how many groups with group gear can do the missions, but I do know, from the responses above, that there are indeed group players that have done them. Some of them are indeed quite a challenge, but the hardest part for some of them is figuring out what to do or not to do. I think there can be changes to make them slightly easier that would keep them challenging and fun.
The shm/sk I mentioned is indeed 1 player, 2 separate toons/accounts, that he does swap between depending on which character needs which task or which class would serve the mission better. In fact, the entire group plays together only occasionally, usually at least 1 player is missing, so we add a merc, a boxed toon, or another player. Not that any of that really matters to what my point was, which is that none of these missions are difficult for raid geared toons that know what they are doing, how the mechanics work, and that all actually have a real person behind each toon, playing to their fullest, which is what someone attempted to imply. The thing is, IMO, what some people want to be 'tuned' to group content, is the ability of 1 player, boxing three toons with 3 mercs out to be able to accomplish the mission without much trouble. I think making some missions difficult enough that a player in that situation can't, or has a very difficult time accomplishing them, is just fine.
I'd be curious to see aa counts by level that the devs shoot for tuning content with. EW 2 is a first tier group mission, so a balanced group of 92nd to 95th with how many aa? The way a few are tuned, I'm guessing close to max (or at least have all but worthless), and, really, would you want a 92nd group with an average of 300 aa accomplishing the same goals of 100th level players that are max or close to?
I was able to do all the missions with group gear... Grell 2 took a bit longer then the rest but with a good group setup and team work you can make it. EW 2 was hardcore aswell and took me 2 days compare to my 2 weeks with Grell 2. Chapter 2 took me 2 weeks aswell with new group each time was hard to learn how to play together wich is all about that mission. RoF is much more easier then VoA if you ask me. I am more then happy with missions/tasks RoF had to offer me. I personally had a blast knocking my head doing them after 4 years break. I am fully raid geared now and doing these missions again is not the same feeling, lots less to care about It is very hard to satisfy everyone, let say even possible... maybe we could get a normal and hard mode with different loots table. Loots were barelly a upgrade any how from VoA with my group gear now its just good for my tributes.
I have never done anything with the commander that goes to the barracks never lost. The only losses were because of the one who doesn't go to the barracks dying. Granted I have not done the mission since before RoF came out, but it is fairly hard to lose. But yes , the players do have to take some kind of active role; but it really is minimal.
So Test patch notes came out and nothing said about these. Has this been forgotten about or just had lip service paid?
Thats funny Chandrok. I have mentioned ample details in petitions about events like Eviltree 2, about being pushed through the wall after being mantrapped, gave the location of where it drops me, screen shots and the fact that it is repeatable. I lost the mission oh about 20ish times in a row, before finally completing it, due to being knocked through the wall and our group wiping. I feel as if that was LUCK though, as it was the only time after learning the Molars that I didnt get knocked through. And oh yea, my response, was the standard people are still beating it, no mention of the fact I sent the proof.
These missions are fine for groupers. They don't have strict class requirements, except maybe for greleth2 needing 2 tanks, but maybe a mage pet will work, never tried wouldn't be surprised if it did.
I think all of the group content is hard these days, I've been playing eq since 1999 just after release and I've quit on and off etc, I have not raided since DoN , so it's been a while, but was a hardcore raider until then. My playtime is limited and I 3 box, I'm not an idiot and can play the hell out of my classes. But for a casual player it's just too hard in current eq. My 100sk in voa raid gear and t2 rof grip gear, with 4kaa has problems tanking in rof, all defence maxed etc, so I shifted over to my necro as a main, and we get hit with the pet nerd obviously aimed at Mage pets. Because nec pets are nowhere near as powerful. It's extremely hard to do progression and I get by with the charity of old friends in raid guilds here and there barely. Never in eq has it been so hard to be a grouper . They clearly know its difficult to get complete group make ups, that's why they made Merck, so why do they keep thinking that everyone has complete groups . Most of my playtime is me and a a couple of pals who play necrosis and mages , usually do some continent, with difficulty They seriously need to boost the level of group tanks, and tune raids according to that for the changes, not screw groupers because of a few guilds.
I have never seen an issue with ew2 I think it's more placement and execution. Grelleth I can completely understand though
Some people are totally out of touch with the state of the game. I'm a long time gamer and have played EQ for 14 years. I'm an amazing gamer, there I said it, I'm top tier. I am the best tank I know. I am the best healer I know. I am the best melee and the best ranged dps that I know. I study game mechanics as if it were my job to do so. I top every parse. I am world class. The alpha you have nightmares about. The missions mentioned in this thread are definitely overtuned because they're balanced for players half as good as me, and not the other 99%. That's that. They shouldn't be balanced for the best gamers in the world, such as myself.
