EQII Mechanics Overview and Upcoming Changes

Discussion in 'General Gameplay Discussion' started by Caith, Feb 19, 2021.

  1. AvenElonis Well-Known Member

    On Madjul - I try to run groups - if I can find a healer and regen. I can generally find dps. (Tank here)
  2. Louly Well-Known Member


    I caved and resubbed hoping against hope things will get better. And I am still foolishly hoping they will fix the mercenaries. And yes I have rediscovered Rift too and liking it very much.

    Still I'll keep playing EQ2 but honestly I'm just not sure why right now.
    Mizgamer62, AOE1 and Rarkevan like this.
  3. Vellox_EQ2 Member

    Funny - they used to run customer satisfaction surveys - I think they realize they don need to ATM

    I don't think they actually play the game anymore - tho I think if they do it must be Swash / Sin / Mage as they didn't get shafted or maybe they forgot to load ACT and see the results of the amazing re-balance of classes

    Was shocking to see PQ gear that was better then T3 Raid gear amd then the "smart" plan was to suddenly make it unobtainiom

    My latest surprise was that as I raided past T10 surprise packages to T11 on the silly RNG dude, I could no longer roll the dice for a celestial neck I wanted and managed to lose the roll on many multiple of times, and ONLY have the opportunity to roll on T11 items that I already had prior to getting shut out on T10 surprise packages -

    Does anyone understand this - inquiring mings and all that rot.........
  4. Vellox_EQ2 Member

    Oh - and one more head scratcher - I spend all this time / TS / Raiding to build the cool little item - Sceptor on Illumination only to get yelled at in raid because the item that is supposed to be a damage item seems to heal the Bosses in some encounters - I mean - WTF
  5. AvenElonis Well-Known Member

    @vellox_EQ2 didn't make sense to me either.
  6. Carribea Active Member

    the only thing i am getting out of this 5 page thread is that nobody in power per say responds with explanations....seems they don't really care how people feel and that more might leave....perhaps that is what they want...shut it all down by getting every one to leave......my yearly subscription was up last month, i switched to monthly, that way i don't loose to much money when i get to fed up....the game is turning into a mess, try working on making things equal for the classes and i dont mean by nerfing the ones that do better......spell/ability drops are pretty much non existent.....what am i saying chest drops from regular mobs don't happen either....if by some chance you get lucky and a chest drops, the stuff in it is usually not for the class you play....i do hope the devs will answer some of the questions and concerns that were raised in this thread.....but i have my doubts....i just don't get a "they care about how we feel or think" vibe.....here is to hoping they prove me wrong and stop trying to make changes nobody wants and instead make some people would love to have....HINT....that be a good way to keep your remaining customers happy.....JS
    AOE1 likes this.
  7. Benito Ancient EQ2 Player: Lavastorm Server 2004.

    So I think the goal of Celestial PQ gear was to "augment" those items with the items you get from other sources. In other words, the devs likely did not want/expect everyone to be fully Celestial PQ geared. A few pieces of Celestial PQ gear would give you a stat boost or leg up (while casuals play casual and raiders do raids).

    I've suggested making the PQ items tradable (beyond Heirloom). If people really want to be fully geared, they'll be able to buy pieces (with other PQ drops, Krono, platinum).
    Melt likes this.
  8. Zishan Member

    For Bards could Rhythmic overture/Victorious Concerto have their damage output increased. Currently not worthwhile to use and it's a final ability in bard tree. One would expect it to do more considering it requires skill to charge up and use as it is.

    Troubs had elemental and arcane cures taken away, wondered if a single target cure could be added on an item with a long cool down even. I'd rather have a cure than none.
    Melt likes this.
  9. Mercychalice Well-Known Member

    I haven't run heroics in probably 2 months. There's never anyone on who wants to run them any more, or if they're are, they're all in very tight, timed controlled groups that keep to themselves. I've not seen PUGs yell out in...2 or 3 weeks? At least? Also, if the nerf bat murders the assassins, I'm pretty much done with the game. Unfortunately, there is little to no enjoyment in the game atm for me. I've done the sig lines, and I have absolutely no desire to harvest constantly, and I dislike doing PQs over and over with no goal to apply those coins to If I could have bought the celestial gear that supposedly drops from them, I would have done them more often for more alts. There's not any unique gear I'd particularly go out of my way for, and quite frankly, every time I've logged in that's not raid time, the game has been so empty I could hear my footsteps echo. There's just...nothing to do. Since the sig line's done, the quests are done, and so I have been as well. Raid is the only reason I've been logging in if we're honest. I also disagree with the removal of reforging, and the lack of... really, anything...tradeable that is worth the buy, except kronos. which I just can't justify spending hundreds of dollars on, especially since money IRL is tight atm. I also dislike the lessening of placing items for purchase on merchants (gear, jewelry) that came from zones. I would have much preferred having a goal to work towards. I'm beyond quite tired of relying on RNG in difficult to obtain groups for items that are rare, especially the ones that have stats I wish to see on my characters (I can't be the only person sick of getting block chance chain for a pure dps class...) I've just not really felt enthusiastic about playing this year.
    Bhayar, Mizgamer62, Leetch and 3 others like this.
  10. Tanto Done, finished, gone.

    Yet Dreamweaver says the population numbers are up, the game is busier than ever and the majority of players are very happy. So don't expect anything to change, they think they're doing great!
  11. Mezaka Active Member

    I'm going to have to agree with Mercychalice here, there just really isn't much left for a player to do unless they either have a clique of friends to run things with, or, happen to have the RNG go in their favor. PUG's are non-existent, unless it's the do the PQ's, and even then, half the time, the PQ mobs just have the timers run down.

    This game is just not fun anymore, and like many others, the only reason I stick around is to not let the raid force down. Even then, in raids, meh. Pushing the same heals and cures over and over again is boring - and unlike previous expansions, where I could test the limits of the toon I'm playing, can't do that this expansion with the way the raids are scripted and the 'return to basics.' I'm sure that the devs are doing what they can with the resources they have, but grinding is not fun. What are we even working towards?
  12. Sigrdrifa EQ2 Wiki Author

    Yup. I can't bring myself to grind solos for the remote chance of a green adorn to drop. OTOH, I've gotten a lot of novels out of my "To Be Read" stack...
    Quillyne, Mizgamer62 and Zynt like this.
  13. EmJay Well-Known Member

    Well, I raid three nights a week and will MAYBE log in the other four days to see if there is anyone on to talk to in guild or any groups going on with my raid members.. Nine times out of ten, I log back out in about ten minutes. The game is a ghost town unless I set up a group in advance to do weeklies or something. The internal program sending them their population numbers is very obviously broken just like so many other things in this game in the last couple of years. Daybreak has no credibility with me anymore. I see things with my own eyes.
    Mizgamer62, Zynt and Flatline like this.
  14. Bhayar Well-Known Member

    They're using their RNG tables to generate the population reports of increased players. If there's an increase on Maj'dul, I'm not seeing it either. And one only has to look at these forums to evaluate whether the majority of players are "happy." Most of us posting aren't happy players. And you're not seeing a whole lot of new posts, so even the feedback is dying down. The only thing getting constantly new posts is the "Bugs" thread. Nuff said. Voice Chat Matters!!
  15. Tanto Done, finished, gone.

    The thing which stands out for me is the overall lack of activity on the forum. Yes, forums are out-dated now, but still, you'd expect more than there is, even with Discord being there. It's shockingly quiet.
    Tkia and Bhayar like this.
  16. Bhayar Well-Known Member

    Yeah, I was noticing the same thing--especially in the last couple of weeks. Not only is the game devoid of players, so are the forums.
    Quillyne and Tkia like this.
  17. Benito Ancient EQ2 Player: Lavastorm Server 2004.

    There is a silent majority playing the game.

    Activity on the forums has been reduced because the rules have been clarified (through threads from last month): (1) everyone has a right to express their opinion on here, and (2) if you try to suppress someone else's opinion, beware of consequences. So the best course of action has been not to engage if you do not have a merit-based argument or counterargument. (When people - of any side - write with personal opinions, assumptions, anecdotes, innuendo, subjective analysis; there is really no merit to question). This has resulted in a sort of armistice or reprieve from the usual drama on all sides ("critics" vs. "apologists").
  18. Melkior Well-Known Member

    This is conjecture. I have no more evidence to present than you do, but I do know personally at least 6 previously very active people in 2 guilds that have stopped playing recently. I'm not going to pretend that's 'evidence' or statistically significant, but it's a trend in my personal circle.


    Again, there's no real evidence of this being the case. I'm an engineer by trade, so I look for data to piece the story together, not put out a story and try to fit the data to it. It's hard to quantify why people are not posting. But historically people at least post questions with a pretty good frequency. Lately many of the sections go several days with no new posts or replies. Generally I have the feeling that low volume means less interest, but again I'll admit that's a feeling not a fact. The only fact I can present is quantity of posts are down significantly. That is disappointing (to me) if nothing else.
    Amybelle and Breanna like this.
  19. Benito Ancient EQ2 Player: Lavastorm Server 2004.


    Fair enough. People can take a break from playing for a variety of reasons: many due to circumstances in real-life. With the COVID pandemic, likely reasons are people may be "burnt out" on gaming in 2020 and are looking to shore up their current financial situation (uncertainty of unemployment benefits, soaring real estate costs). Or, with vaccines now available and spring/summer 2021 approaching, people are actually venturing out of their homes (e.g. going to work, gyms, restaurants, etc).



    Reactions (hype and criticism) tend to come in waves. We are currently in a lull. This is the feedback cycle: new content launch -> bugs -> praise and criticism (opinions) -> bug reports -> dev response and fixes -> more praise and criticism (opinions) -> lull -> new content launch. Rinse and repeat.

    People will often reframe longstanding opinions and grievances with contemporary content and game design. This time there is limited interaction between "critics" and "apologists" therefore the decision tree inevitably leads to a fading out or lull. People on the EQ1 forums refer to this phenomenon and conflict as "ForumQuest."
  20. Melkior Well-Known Member


    I've been around the forums since launch, and I agree with you about the general pattern. However, I think there seems to be more to it than just cyclical ebb and flow. If you think of the normal pattern as a sine wave (periodic increases and then decreases over time) what we are experiencing appears more like a damped sine wave. In other words not only are the values increasing and decreasing over a period of time, but the peak values are also decreasing. If I had more free time, I could probably plot the data to prove this by going through this years forum posting frequency and comparing it to last years and the year before that. Anyone know of a handy internet tool that does that automatically? That might be useful.