Dirt Encrusted Key - the death of grouping

Discussion in 'General Gameplay Discussion' started by Regolas, Jan 28, 2016.

  1. Regolas Well-Known Member

    I watched someone yesterday claim hundreds of keys.

    Basically they got all the heroic loot I've got through doing the heroic content, in a matter of minutes.

    I think these keys are a stupid idea and only encourage being on your own and not interacting.
    Laiina likes this.
  2. hwy101 Active Member

    On the flip side keys are the only way for me to be able to make any decent coin. In a long time. Master sage and max adorn not making any for me these days. Not saying you right or wrong. Just mho and 2cp worth. Hang in there Ranger.
  3. DoomDrake Well-Known Member

    Lol no - not by 100 miles platinum keys no match to heroic loot ... the only fabled pieces you can get from platinum chest is relic armor and mythical altar. Relic mean - you can have only ONE relic piece of all gear ...
    I'd say loot from platinum chest are on the par with better portion of loot from AS (read main stat around 380).. I yet to see any piece of jewels or any weapon that I'd consider worth to equip even on twink compare to loot from heroic and for the most part from just AS.
    The only worthy piece of loot from plat chest is mythical altar that make you miracles cost less and give you better version daily buff
  4. Regolas Well-Known Member

    Well as the difference from legendary heroic and fabled heroic is pretty minimal, I think my argument still stands.

    I was watching legendary items such as furious barrage ear, etc come out. Plenty of decent items. I know they're easy to get items from the heroics but the issue is it's even easier to farm keys, so many flock to the path of least resistance.
  5. Rainmare Well-Known Member

    first, the platinum chests only give jewelry, altars, and the relic armor peices. so you can wear 1 relic amror peice at a time, and if your not wearing your sig ring, or a class cloak, your doing it wrong. most people just mute/salvage the relic armor.

    I can do 10 keys in 20 minutes, tops..every 3 hours. it doesn;'t get me any actual armor, and trust me there are MUCH better things in heroics. the Jade ring of the one who speaks being a good example. or lacerator. or the will to live for tanks. class cloaks. there are other fabled items that are better then you'll get from the plat chest.

    the only items that don't really have a 'comparable' so to speak item are the Umbrite keys. the Golden Ring of Combat is REALLY nice. so the the portmandeu, and the mythical ranged is indeed, super cool.

    I do heroics. and frankly the only reason I have to do keys on any character is just for the mythical ranged, or the altar. that's it. everything else gets muted/salvaged, cuase either i have better from heroics, or I'm wearing it from heroics already.
    Scalo and DoomDrake like this.
  6. azcn2503 Active Member

    I partly agree with OP. I find myself farming keys so I can simply sell them and buy whatever I need from Auction chat, since the majority of items that come from the keys themselves are garbage. I find the plat way more useful.
  7. captainbeatty451 Well-Known Member

    I think it is spectacular that there are numerous ways to get decent to good gear this time around. Crafting your thing, but you still like doing dungeons in groups on an occasional basis? Mastercrafted armor is great, especially when visionary. love to solo? gear is easy to get. Want to make platinum? Sell some dirt keys.

    My guild grabs tons of keys for either platinum purchases or loot, and we still love doing dungeons as well. It's not like you can get every item from a chest that you can get from a heroic or raid dungeon.

    For me, this expansion has made all parts of the game that I partake in, fun and accessible... and alt friendly.

    Bottom line, I like the key quests both for plat and for the chance at something nice in an umbrite chest. And I really enjoy just about all aspects of this expansion. I hope the next one is very similar, but with more care taken to itemization and stats.
    Scalo, Kittybock and Sigrdrifa like this.
  8. Sigrdrifa EQ2 Wiki Author

    You cannot get a full set of heroic gear doing Dirt Encrusted Keys. I deliberately sold a few kronos so I could have cash to buy keys, but I still run the key quests themselves.

    The actual ARMOR you get is pretty much only from gold keys, which are the advanced solo level loot. The platinum keys have a couple of armor pieces, that are RELIC, so once you get through the signature quests and have the ring, you are gonna get rid of that. And since my key-mongering character is a conjy, all the armor I get is cloth, which means that I can only actually fully equip two of my alts who are also casters with a set of advanced solo gear and one piece of Relic armor.

    Let's look at the actual rewards from the platinum and umbrite keys.

    The plat chests offer earrings, finger rings, wrists, one-handed weapons, shields, bucklers and symbols. Some of these are not completely awful, and got passed around to alts.

    You also get some very nice altars from platinum chests, and I'm still working on getting a full set for all deities in our guildhall. I understand that all the altars except Erollisi Marr can be placed in homes, which does me no good ATM since the RP for my whole guild is based on being a shrine for a relic of Erollisi, so all my toons worship the Goddess of Love.

    Plat and umbrite chests may reward pieces of relic armor for chest, forearms, hands, or shoulders. You can wear ONE piece of relic gear only, so these are useful only to alts who do not yet have their signature questline ring.

    The umbrite chests have a spectacularly unspectacular loot table. You can get a charm, Pandora's Portmanteau; a finger ring, the Golden Ring of Combat, and then the shining prize of the whole lottery, a mythical ranged bow, wand, or thrown weapon. The mythical wand is the sole and solitary reason I still put a lot of effort into the keys. The mythicals are NO-TRADE, so once I get the wand on the conjy, I'll no doubt turn over key duties to the next alt.

    So Dirt Encrusted Keys are not stopping folks from grouping, or even from running advanced solos. I do the advanced solos still trying to fill in a set of "ToT starter armor" for my assorted alts. When I have time and know I won't have interruptions, I run heroics to get the conjy better armor. People who haven't had the Excess of Real Life™ I've had this past year won't have the interruption problem, and will be running heroics as they normally would.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone and Iskandar like this.
  9. Sylke Well-Known Member

    A bit an overreaction, don't you think?

    The list of "decent" items from the sub-Umbrite keys is rather small. Once you've opened a few, or actually start running Heroics, the only use for Gold and Platinum keys is for salvage materials for infuser crafting, unless you still need the altars.
    Iskandar and DoomDrake like this.
  10. DoomDrake Well-Known Member

    Difference comes not from basic stats but from effects and somewhat from blue stats...
    Frankly I give you 1 thing - gear that you get from gold chest/platinum chest if on the par with loot from AS and make you running AS - faceroll but that's all about it...
    While I do agree that raid loot not necessary better then heroic (some btw is!) heroic IS much better compare to AS ... in the basic stats you'll get about 30% gain (with heroic over AS) but most importantly effects on jewels and weapons
    I did run gazzilion time AS and the only item I ever seen with Early Advantage is shield for plate tanks from Stigians - otherwise you bound to either do groups in BB or... spend gazzilion hours completing meta collection
    Other effect - Essence lich - yes you can get this from AS as an ultra rare drop from boss in KP Ill Seen Temple (Rend) - still better have it on secondary and on ranged have something else. Jewels ... well .... you won't see uplifting critical from AS/chests, you won't get salvo ....best you can get from AS/chest firm stance or uplifting power and oh yeah furious barrage
    I'd argue thou about relic armor pieces ... YES you do want to use it and no you will not use you Signature ring or class cloak in solo or group environment (cause they crap if you are not in x4 raid). Plus you won't use the ring once you get 100M status and will able buy relic from loyalty merchant - personally I am going to buy belt.
    If you compare raid quality loot it's again another step up over heroic ... yes it's less stat gain but more about effects that you will NOT get from heroic ... like hammer that reset every ability on 30s base or kerafim rite clicky
  11. Kittybock Well-Known Member

    The keys are super helpful for folks returning to the game and gearing alts. I still run a few here and there, to see if I'll get the Myth. I think it's great to see folks out doing these over and over. I'd actually buy more to go for a chance at the Myth, but buying/ selling them on AB is such a Thing, that they've hit that price point where you go..."hmm, nahh."
  12. Wurm Well-Known Member

    99% of the gold key rewards are good for one thing only, making infuser mats.

    95% of the Plat key rewards are the same thing.

    And of the two Umbrite keys I've gotten both rewards ended up being salvaged as well.

    So OP you are slightly over reacting.
    DoomDrake and Iskandar like this.
  13. Carni Active Member

    The keys should have come from completing heroic instances, maybe 1-3 per run. The way they've been in the game now has only made me stay away from EQ2 except for raiding, thank goodness for GoG and Steam =)
  14. Estal Well-Known Member

    [IMG]


    The one on the left drops from a trivial heroic zone, the one on the right comes from platinum chest, so not really making grouping obsolete.

    [IMG]

    Another example, the ring on the left is a reward for advanced solo missions, the one on the right comes from umbrite chest.

    Of course there are the ranged items and the altars, but the rest of the key stuff is pretty meh.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  15. DoomDrake Well-Known Member

    Ring of immolation seems to be very rare ... I never got one and run over gazzilion AS missions ... earring of searing glass somewhat more common - got 4 of them
  16. Tharrakor Well-Known Member

    Ring of immolation and golden ring of combat are both horrible. The meta collection reward from AoM, mithril ring of amplified power is still better.
  17. Wurm Well-Known Member

    No it's not. Unless losing that 4% mit on the AOM ring is game breaking for you
  18. Avithax Well-Known Member

    Lets look at this a different way. Between all my alts I have been able to sell enough keys to buy enough gear from auction to be on par with entry level raiders after taking a break in AOM.

    Keys are a currency connecting the wealthier players who are in search of the mythical items from Umbrite keys with the returning players who left once they found out DBG violated SOE's promise to include adventure packs with the cost of the AOM expansion and put a price on Rum Cellar.

    The total lack of a game economist hurt the game a lot with the recent NPC exploit but I still think that returning players have a chance because many of us benefited from keys selling for 1k+ each so the injection of key farming turns players time and efforts into a marketable currency.

    A currency they can use to either gamble and roll on uber gear or sell over time and buy the gear. Either way, you wind up with more players in heroics once they gear up. Healthier, bigger population of competent players equals easier to find heroic groups,
  19. Tharrakor Well-Known Member

    Amplifying effects 1 vs amplifying effects 3. In 24 ppl raid where u can get the maximum it might not matter, but with heroic loot I'm talking heroic content, and I'm telling you, golden ring and immolation are both horrible in heroic content.
  20. Regolas Well-Known Member

    The one on the right actually comes from Bar Brawl last named I think. A commom drop that's not very good but still, it's heroic loot. Weapon Betrayer is rare Howling Gate drop, and maybe from others too.

    I still believe keys contribute heavily to reducing grouping appeal. You can only do so much in a gaming session and most want to get a run of keys first. And not only can they get a BIS item or two, but also all the common heroic loot also, much easier than actually killing the heroics that drop them.