I feel sorry for the casual raiding guilds, since this update made all the raid encounters they clear obsolete. Now they're stucked with FTH and couple of old AOM progression mobs that drop few pieces that are better than solo/heroic stuff.
Why feel sorry for them? This gear will give "casual raiding guild" an edge on DPS checks, and survivability allowing them to progress through encounters they have struggled with in the past. With the exception of 13 raid forces world wide, Alter and Power are untouched by all. Plus all the tier 3 encounters leading up to these two zones that many have not yet killed, and one or 2 targets many have not yet killed in the distillery. IMO that is a fair amount of content. http://progress.eq-raiders.com/
Many raid guilds who have not cleared AoM have better gear now than the guilds who have killed it when they first did so. I agree the casual guilds are the ones who are screwed. Everyone clears these zones for the hope of a couple drops 24 people can use and casual guilds take like 2-3x as long to clear stuff. That has to be brutal.
I am glad we have you around, I really am. With you being a prime example how not to understand a valid point and always ready to swallow everything with a smile what he gets shoved down his throat. And btw: the term "lame" is even older than "fail" - especially you should know.
and when they finally defeat some of those encounters there is a high chance of getting loot that's actually worse than what they got from solo/heroic. Great risk vs reward scheme if u ask me.
The problem is most of the hard encounters require more then just gear. I can't see an average casual guild beating Ritualist or Construct in the nearest future. And as Breta said now they have no reason to do the mobs they can kill either. One smal zone ( FTH) to clear and then wiping on some road block mobs. Not much fun to my oppinion.
Well, make that few armor pieces rare and maybe equal to 2gemmed red gear and it is all in line (mostly).
^^ This... We are a casual raid guild that was getting close to being able to kill that lag infested spider and her adds in HHC. But now with the forearms that are dropping in heroic and advanced solo why bother?
The only piece that i've seen so far that is an must wear is the forearms, if i put the boots/gloves/shoulders on my fury i lose too much ability mod to make this gear viable. Although making the necks effects on jewelry is kinda interesting, the 6.5% Magical DR and potency ear is excellent.
Ok my first mistake.. "casual raid force", a poor choice of words to be sure. Lets change gears.. Active raid forces not in the top ten/twenty that raid from six to twelve hours per week. Basically any force made up of players who raid on a set schedule, plus has the time to play for a at least a few hours during the week outside of raid. High chance? RNG is a small factor in regards to raid loot. There is still some very relevant jewelry/weapons from a number of the tier 3 raid targets. Plus as Gninja stated "Some yes, but not a full set of gear better than what you can get in Aom/RC." You will not be able to fully gear a player through the Fabled zones. You will still be able to utilize the purple gems and red conversion stones for the pieces of armor that do not drop in the Fabled zones. -Am I alone in enjoying the actual encounters over the loot? I know forums tend to be representative of a small portion of the player base, but surely someone else has to feel the way I do! True.. If a raid force is not willing to learn/execute a script then they have no hope of defeating it. Exactly what would you like the developers to add for these teams? With the exception of the top WW raid force in EQ2, every other raid team has progression that can be made in AoM. This new gear will give them an edge to make progression. http://progress.eq-raiders.com/ Sorry ...Once again - Am I alone in enjoying the actual encounters over the loot? -Bottom line is there is content out there for people to run if they want to challenge themselves. Will some of the gear from AoM/Rum be inferior to some of the new fabled gear? Yes. Will all of it be inferior to the new fabled gear, No. I find if your playing purely for the gear that drops and not the enjoyment of defeating the encounter leading up to it with your friends you will be disappointed most of the time. Gnomad ~ Crushbone
I'm sure the tanks would still like the nice ear from the mob. There are also a few other nice jewelry on this mob that's still viable. Just because one pc of loot is rendered obsolete doesn't mean the rest of them were.
This is a partially loaded question. I don't see how one can claim to be enjoying the "actual encounters" by needing equipment over an above what was intended for it. For instance, there is no difference in clearing old raid zones like Pera for godfood than there is doing an advanced solo. You just snooze your way through it. Second off, AoM doesn't really have enjoyable encounters, since it is the easiest expansion they have ever released. There are maybe 2 that takes any real effort. Rumcellar and FTH are beyond a joke for any self respecting player looking for a challenge.
My friend just looted these on his Paladin (pretty sure heroic zone). I want them as well. I was tired of running AoM and RC. The ethereal "event" was a bust so far, so I'm happy to have something to do again where I can get upgrades.
Not sure why anyone is complaining. This is a fun little content push. A nice bonus bridging the gap to the next campansion. You're not upgrading your Hat or BP. If you've got purple gem gear, your pants are probably safe too. Forearms are a clear upgrade slot for everyone, but left side upgrades are **not a big deal** in the scheme of things, and don't drastically change the balance of power. High-end raiders are only upgrading a slot or two outside of the new raid gear. 1) I've run somewhere between 10-15 heroic zones, about about as many solo zones. I cleared the challenge raid zone and the non-challenge version. I have one upgrade so far: a pair of legendary forearms, from a solo zone. I'm ok with that. 2) People in red gem gear may look at some of the other pieces as upgrades. For them, they could maybe swing upgrading 2-3 slots. 3) **only** the forearms slot is seeing a **significant** upgrade. 4) The jewelry itself is an interesting mixed bag. Some pieces are pretty cool, but players will have to think out new combinations. 5) The raid charms are cool, the cloaks are cool (just like the rum cellar belts are cool) Overall this new content push is fun. Requires a bit of thought and patience and trash can't really be steamrolled (aka mass pulling) without significant risk. I like it. Anyone who is throwing a fit @ this stuff must just want to complain. tl:dr: Content push good, give constructive useful feedback, cause complaining without suggestions is just a morale sink.
The biggest 'difficulty' is really for the mid-level raids. They don't have purple gear and the solo and heroic gear just trivialized most/all the armor drops in reach, lowering motivation to try to push for the next mob... when people know the armor will be worse then what they've gotten (or will get) from heroic or solo content.
