General gameplay, transparency and rng madness!

From my understanding, games that allow "casual players" to obtain BiS (best-in-slot) or raid-level gear tend to utilize a very steep RNG mechanic. The concept is frequently referred to as "chase loot." From the perspective of raiders (and heroic players on EQ2), if you want to guarantee yourself raid gear, you must raid. I believe another poster here has said the PQ loot is also undermining Heroic-level loot.

As a suggestion or solution, I think they could lower the RNG of PQ BiS loot (<.01%) but make the items tradable/attuneable to create a thriving broker market for those items. EQ1 already does this with tradable raid-level chase loot (offset by 1-2 expansions in raid stats; latest iteration called "Ice Encrusted").

Or, PQs could only drop BiS nonvis items such as earrings, rings, necks, waist, and charms in the future ala 'Brilliant Earring of Alliance' (CD Wind/Water PQ) and 'Horseman's Hallow' (HH 2020). These items could drop at a higher rate or be tradable. This would be a happy medium.

I think devs - from any game - have to carefully balance and curate itemization to reward all levels of play (i.e. solo, heroic, raid).

Hear hear, well said!

well said!

Great post and reflecting my and many others feeling about the current state of EQ2. It feels like we are all playing "RNG Quest 2"! We always had RNG in EQ2 or MMO but not to this extent, its out of hand right now.

In the past EQ2 has rewarded us for the "effort" we put into the game. This usually mean time spent or difficulty of the content completed. Right now we are all at the mercy of RNG loot box and it really demotivating. One person logs in and kill a PQ mob and they are reward with celestial BiS item and another person has killed the same PQ mob for 100 times (this is a actual case with one of my guildies) and they still have not got it! How is this not demotivating for the person in question? This is really bad game design.

In past EQ2 rewards good gear for large amount of various currencies. As Ryve says in the main post, why not go to system like this? The developers can control how many items comes the game very easily and people know exactly what they need to do. MMO players like to set long terms goals and achieve them and loot for fixed currency is great way to do that.

A well thought-out and written post like original post comes from someone who really cares about the game and I hope the developers take look and have the courtesy to reply to it.

I totaly agree with the OP. Nothing to add, well said!

Thank you for this post Ryver.
I totally agree with you.

Great job Ryve!

I hope your well thought out and constructive post gets more traction with the developers than those of us that have gone before you.

I absolutely agree. RNG and grinding is killing the game, lack of content, boredom and class imbalabce as well. Some people probably still enjoy runing around, trying to catch a carrot on a stick, but I'm not one of them: if I dislike sometihng, I do not do it. And right now I can't find anything enjoyable in the game.

On the subject of PQ, I would like to tell you again what I test myself on Thurgadin. PQ patch every day if it is possible and people are there, since patch I have made 149 PQs and not seen a Celestial part or the Fabled parts. This also shows how RNG can be, and that the drop rate was not increased as stated.

It's not as if I were testing it with one character, but rather have several available, and what I totally see as being pissed off is when neither weekly pling doesn't work or you get 10 copper as a reward, depending on the time, whatever the hell.

You feel drawn to the table because you don't know if others feel the same way, on days we are happy when there are 10 people at the PQ, sometimes there are significantly more, but the players also lose interest in such things, often is our server a ghost town or the group game is completely broken what was still flourishing in BOL.

And again on the topic of Balance Daybreak should also remove the Bukwark, that would help many new tanks. This unnecessary mechanics we don't need in the game never existed before and is useless. On the subject of class balance alone, it would take two three strong devs who have the idea to take the time with classes to improve spells and AA skills.

And also the topic with runes before you do an RNG, let people buy runes with learned coins + status all good. Even the blue runes if you are out of the raid, but please understand we have newcomers and returners in the game and because old content is no longer running. You should get the chance to buy them at the currency dealer with SOLO tokens, so you can develop and start a group game alongside the gear.

I'm not talking about myself I started on the PVP server at that time, I did all the PVP servers and then switched to PVE, I play some classes like Swashy - Furie - Zerker - SK - BL - Pala - Conj - Dirge - Monk i loveto test Toons Mechanic, im a Oldshool Tank `` I help a lot peeps in many Addons and gear it out on my old Tank Batista '' and i see many changes in the Game too, but for now the game goes in one directionI see us players as being critical and disrespectful.

Why I use these words, I feel as a player I'm not fooled by Devs when you tell us the class balance over the years and things will get better.I also see this point when it says we have to do a `` hotfix '' to fix things but to break other things see PQ's the alleged drop rate.The name Daybreak makes sense, maybe it would make sense Everyday is A Breaking Day, lags bugs Expolits Everything is there, but nothing has been fixed, even things where players have been addressing for two to three years and are writing Discord in the forumor what's going on in the minds of developers and why you have to react like that. The community of players is there to work together to find solutions together and to give advice what others may not see.


ps: sorry for the long Text, But that had to be said and I lost a lot of good friends in the game because of this development because they lost the fun because people changed things through their pride and ego without communicating with players.

Sorry for some bad English words is not my main language , but hope you can understand the meaning behind it

If Darkpaw wont listen, maybe its time to go over their heads and talk to the new buyers instead?

Thank you so much to everyone continuing to add to the thread and share your story & frustrations.

I completely agree and share those frustrations and the disheartening smack of rng-madness and yet more friends and guildee's leaving the game because they are just so fed up.

Another suggestion that was raised to address class-balance (I think it was over discord) was to create a class round-table with a few 'expert' or seasoned players of each class to help shape and drive class balance in line with what is actually needed from the player perspective. This would be fab!!

Please stop making these big decisions behind closed doors - please please please engage with the player community at some level. We so miss regular updates or even insight to where the next focus is or upcoming changes. I'm not saying everything is shared but a bi-monthly/monthly bulletin or the likes would go A LONG WAY to begin to address the poor communication.

You have an awesome player base who WANT to get involved, they want to help solve problems or suggest new ideas! The vast majority want to see effort and engaging content to earn those lovely rewards they don't want a loot piñata, they don't want a lottery. They want to work with friends to earn things, to grind and quest together. A clear, obtainable path to the reward. Use them before you lose them

Eloquently written Ryve, agreed on all points, let hope they listen!

I think the world of mmorpg's is at a transitional point in time with other titles such as New World, Ashes of Creation and Pantheon around the corner, but i still believe Everquest is good enough to stave off competition and in fact attract new players but DB's performance and service hasn't been up to scratch recently. I myself have had various back and forth through petitions on various issues over the last 6 months (returning player after 7 years away) and i get the feeling they just don't care, the sooner we get the new buyers in the better and hopefully they listen to passionate players like yourself and take this game to where it deserves to be.

Interestingly, chase loot drops are 1 in about 10,000 kills on EQ1. A specific chase loot drop would be exponentially rare (1 of 50 items by 1 in 10,000). However, they are tradable and can fetch up to 6 Krono each (25-45 Kronos for pet earrings) at peak.

EQ Magelo tracks chase loot drop rates (located at bottom of each item):

https://eq.magelo.com/quick_search.jspa?keyword=ice encrusted

I suspect the EQ2 PQ drop rate is probably along the lines of 1 in 100 to 1 in 500 which is generous compared to EQ (and I suspect other MMORPGs such as WoW).

I think the ultimate solution is to make the PQ Celestial loot tradable/attuneable. Players will able to sell each item for a Krono or two. This would also generate game revenue.

I am describing the chase loot model and effects of RNG on MMORPGs with EQ1 (same company) as the case study.

I am proposing a solution: make the PQ Celestial items tradable (but maintain rarity). Players can make a few Krono or trade some PQ Celestial items for other items. This has already been the case with 'Dragonsoul Barding of the Potent' from Dragon Attack 2019 and 'Horseman's Hallow' from this past Halloween.

You may disagree with my opinion (i.e. for obvious reasons, you may not personally want itemization balance or curation) but using tired tropes - when, in fact, any objective observer will appreciate my point - is not constructive.

I think those returning after a break or just starting out have such a tough time getting themselves grounded.
My OP aimed to both help balance for continued players, it gives flexibility to earn account-wide rewards for efforts and unlocks and helps support those who enjoy playing alts, those who have to change to support their guild/raids or those feeling they MUST change due to heavy nerf-bats. (Queue BL's being parked in the dirt and the uprising of Wizards/Assassins).

The OP aims to both support the above and those new or returning, making catching up and more importantly being viable and able to enjoy the content a steady (but still effort-required) climb rather than the steep, almost impossible challenge they currently face.

Please do keep adding your suggestions or just a comment of support/like - I really do appreciate it!

To the OP, very well said, amazingly constructive feedback, and great ideas. I fear you, and most others in this thread care more about the state of the game than the actual people who have influence over the state of the game.

Also, I'm very pleased that I can condense my forum time and no longer have to visit the EQ1 forums but can get caught up to things there by coming here. <----- /s

Here is what I like. I LOVE the artwork this expac, very well done. The zones utilize space extremely well. Personally I love the heroics, with scripts. This is a game and should be challenging. I have enjoyed the raids so far, granted I'm on AB and our raid force is only on the second named in Shadweweaver.

Now lets talk about Alts. With the current population on server like AB, if we can't utilize our alts grouping becomes almost zilch. I am in a very good guild, but only 3 tanks maybe 4 of any viability. (2 raid tanks) This makes things hard. Same with Power feeds. Heroic zones are challenging, and most people I know aren't interested in taking along under geared toons. Most zones seem to take 2 healers, which takes up a spot for said under geared toon, especially with the need of powerfeed, which mind you i agree with. (the powerfeed, not 2 healers) So my suggestion would be some healer love. My main is a wizards, and my main alt is a paladin... yeah paladins... even with amends agro because of overwhelming dps is tough, not impossible though.

Lets talk about what is never going to be possible for alts. Catalogue quest. When we have to deal with 25 min respawns (over an hour per on the owlbear. in sw) and I have had up to 8 place holders pop. 10 hours today on 6 named... this is a bad design. here is the constructive part. make them 1 placehold.....then named... thats still a dang hour, per named, or get rid of place holders. Pretty please.

As has been stated before, I would love to see a redesigned groupfinder. I think that would help. There is another thread on that. Getting into groups has what has seriously soured my taste on this game. It just sucks.

Everyone talks about class balance, without really talking about what that looks like. They want it, but don't say what that looks like. My question is, what others think that looks like., My guess is that most people are only judging it on DPS. Which i think is wrong. DPS should be DPS and tanks should never out DPS a DPS Class. So we have Tanks, DPS, Support, Heals. For me i think there needs to be parity within those sets. And are scouts DPS? Not sure. I have waited a long time for wizards to be the flavor of the year. and even now necros are kicking my butt. To me, and I can only speak about tanks and DPS, but it would be nice to see if a DPS class had similar gear they would do do close to the same DPS. For tanks I would say it should more rely on things like agro and survivability, ands their DPS is similar but no where near the level of the main dps classes. . Monk are crushing dps right now verse paladin i mean its not even close

well iw ould say more but i must run

Hello everyone,

The maker of this threat has listed all things to one page which is discussed in other threats too but this hits the points i agree too.
Class Ballance was never done good because Devs only know tow (collors) black and white so the nerve things to useless or push them high in the universe.

But please good they shoult take of hands on things which worked for decate or at least the last 5 Expas like Accountflags for gear and adorns for example.

Next big fail they did is the change of the AA mechanic of Apocalypse line from warlock which IS AA not spell or anything and a AA Abillty Skill line shouldnt be changed anytime.

Decimation is the Replacement for Apocalypse so it should work the same way > 180 Stacks full INSTAND CAST on BOTH Spells.
The DPS numbers on Decimation were much to high so the nerfe of the numbers was ok but cut of the abillity to cast Decimation instand is NOT and all of us Warlocks want to have it back to insta cast if not the Spell is uesless.

Cataclysm effective Range was nerfed from 10m to 7,5m but no one of us got the reason why and beside this was absolutly
S°°°T idea.

Rift Lost its 2nd Hit after stuned and Hit the Mob first in CD no matter to do this.

BL was 3 Expas overpowerd and need to be grounded to normal DPS evan it was never planed to be T1 DPS.
Same problem we have now on Summoners the Adorn Set AkA the HP set which increases the Pets damage is totaly miss scripted not to say broken, the Summoners are same OP now as the BL was 3 expas a row so please fix this to normal damage output.
Wizzy // Assa // Ranger // Warlock need to press much more spells and work hard for DPS thier own > Summoners pest operating nearly withy press much spells and do DPS with out any button to hit from the caster.

Last Expa the Conjy pet does more DPS than his Master // Caster who comand it // on Necros pet it was the opposite necor does more damghe it self than his pet, NOW its seems pets are totaly out of any order.

Helfiren

Here is what I like. I LOVE the artwork this expac, very well done. The zones utilize space extremely well. Personally I love the heroics, with scripts. This is a game and should be challenging. I have enjoyed the raids so far, granted I'm on AB and our raid force is only on the second named in Shadweweaver.

Now lets talk about Alts. With the current population on server like AB, if we can't utilize our alts grouping becomes almost zilch. I am in a very good guild, but only 3 tanks maybe 4 of any viability. (2 raid tanks) This makes things hard. Same with Power feeds. Heroic zones are challenging, and most people I know aren't interested in taking along under geared toons. Most zones seem to take 2 healers, which takes up a spot for said under geared toon, especially with the need of powerfeed, which mind you i agree with. (the powerfeed, not 2 healers) So my suggestion would be some healer love. My main is a wizards, and my main alt is a paladin... yeah paladins... even with amends agro because of overwhelming dps is tough, not impossible though.

Lets talk about what is never going to be possible for alts. Catalogue quest. When we have to deal with 25 min respawns (over an hour per on the owlbear. in sw) and I have had up to 8 place holders pop. 10 hours today on 6 named... this is a bad design. here is the constructive part. make them 1 placehold.....then named... thats still a dang hour, per named, or get rid of place holders. Pretty please.

As has been stated before, I would love to see a redesigned groupfinder. I think that would help. There is another thread on that. Getting into groups has what has seriously soured my taste on this game. It just sucks.

Everyone talks about class balance, without really talking about what that looks like. They want it, but don't say what that looks like. My question is, what others think that looks like., My guess is that most people are only judging it on DPS. Which i think is wrong. DPS should be DPS and tanks should never out DPS a DPS Class. So we have Tanks, DPS, Support, Heals. For me i think there needs to be parity within those sets. And are scouts DPS? Not sure. I have waited a long time for wizards to be the flavor of the year. and even now necros are kicking my butt. To me, and I can only speak about tanks and DPS, but it would be nice to see if a DPS class had similar gear they would do do close to the same DPS. For tanks I would say it should more rely on things like agro and survivability, ands their DPS is similar but no where near the level of the main dps classes. . Monk are crushing dps right now verse paladin i mean its not even close

well iw ould say more but i must run

I just want to throw in my two cents here that the entire Fighter archetype is having extreme difficulty with agro management in RoS due to changes with the hate gain skill. I feel that the devs removed the hate gain stat from reforging because they want to give tanks a challenge, but they also removed hate transfer components from a lot of tank buffs. My monk's Tranquil Vision buff *ALWAYS* had a 5% hate transfer ever since the start of the game itself. 5% isn't too much in the grand scheme, but it's still enough to keep a wizard's agro down while they let fly the nukes, or to help the monk become an off-tank by granting a 5% agro buff to another fighter.

RoS changed Tranquil Vision to give deflection and reposte bonuses to the monk regardless of who they gave it to, and now I find myself having to CONSTANTLY fight for agro control with a group wizard who has a -20% hate gain and is always staying at an agro rate of around 93 to my 100. No more threat gain mechanic, and this was never mentioned in any patch notes.

From what I've heard of other classes like shadowknights and berserkers, they have seen similar changes.