Trust me, ya'll aren't alone in poking the bear regarding the current state of things inside Norrath... but despite everything, I'm still plugging along and having some fun. I thought I'd just jot down some of the good experiences I've had thus far, not to detract from the ...well you know. One of my favorite eye-candy spots so far is that mushroomy area in the Coast. I'm hoping to beg / plead / whine my way into having one of those tentacled monstrosities as a mount someday... You have to admit though, despite the aging graphics engine behind the game, some visually stunning areas can still be created.. I've certainly /never/ had an issue where the art or animations were so skeewompus that it detracted from my "immersion" feels. Luclin doesn't really feel... cut and pasted from another zone either. It feels "new". Shinies everywhere! I like that I can pluck up shinies (whether I need them or not) and then go sell them for a little bit of status. The nodes.... they don't all look like little piles of poo, so I don't feel like I'm working the scooper at the rear end of a parade. Epic 2.0 reward for the questline! Yay, I don't have to march through some old content to get my stuff on the 900 alts I have. Quick travel baubles in Seru. Now, this is a mixed blessing - Those baubles would be better served if they were really heirloom (they're marked heirloom, but you can't share them across your alts). Also, why open them up for use after I can already fly? So - to tweak this feature - I'd make them available (heirloom) and open them up a little earlier in the quest line. I do, however, find myself using a lot of them to scoot around quickly. Overseers. I'm on the fence about this too. Granted, its free loot for clicking a few icons and whatnot, and more often than not, I'll get an extra rare I needed without having to go dig one up manually. I like that. It's like, they *almost* had a home run with this....but whoever decided to load the loot tables with the stuff we need should be flogged with a wet noodle. Recipes / etc - those should be rewarded through other methods - tradeskill timelines, tradeskill public quests..even adventuring. But to hide them in some "mini-game" inside the game we really want to play is kinda meh. Batallion Buffs.. I dig this. Now, before we all get up in arms about pay to win, as a subscriber I get a free 500 dbc per month, so I can unlock them without spending an extra dime. For old folks like me who've already had an army of fluff mercs in the ranks, its a little extra bonus. So, rather than have 'em rotting in the barraks, they can contribute... something. Overall - my experience this expansion has been good. Then again, I really came in late-ish so most of the live-beta testing bugs were worked out... /shrug.
And another thing! How awesome does it feel to loot some red adorn from a random overland named mob, or some random solo dungeon? It almost takes away the sting of having all of my previous (labor / time / etc) orange adorns torn asunder and rendered useless.
I agree with much of what you say about BoL. Unfortunately, the bugs are mind-boggling and many still persist which makes playing seriously frustrating.
Although you have some valid points, my RNG factor is not up there alongside yours. Don't want to hijack your thread so just leaving it at that.
Aurelian Coast is probably my favorite Overland Zone of the last expacs. The Heroic/Raid Dungeons are probably only matched by the Kunark Ascension ones in design.
@ttobey - A guy like me would pay well on /marketplace for a clean wire-hilt rapier that matched similarly with the low level parrying blades.
Zedd really, really, really wants one of those tentacled mushroomy things. Its now on the official list at number 23.
My fingers are still crossed on hoping to see those cute pink and purple pegasus in other colors That aside... The good things... I love the artwork... And quite frankly I have been having a blast with the new expansion... Yeah don't always get good stuff from the overseer, so I only use the characters that have the better RNG... My daughter got a nice 165 resolve cloak yesterday and i got 2 mercs... If I need harvests I use my characters with the crappy RNG lol... I liked the signature line and the story that went with it... Now have to wait for the next expansion to finish it... I love the rewards from the achievements, the gear is really nice and so are some of the runes... Its also nice that the dropped quests are repeatable and you get the shinies repeatedly for your alts or guildies... I bought the nice expansion on a couple of my accounts and I love all the stuff with it... The house is a little big, but figure it will be good dumping grounds for all my alts... This is an awesome thread... Thanks Zedd for starting it... Nice to see the good things out of BoL... And some things I didn't know about... I am still figuring out the merc buff... I have gotten 2 red runes so far from solos... I loved that... I know I have alot more to go, but thats okay... I have been running to the end of the overland zones, seeing if there is a way to peak off into the distance and see the dark side of the moon... If anyone finds it, post a pic please.... oh and I really like the new guide quest with a merc... Hes pretty good...
The artwork is probably the best part of the xpac for me. I haven't run into any areas that make it hard for me to distinguish objects which is a nice change. While I appreciate that there are probably lots of players who enjoy zones like Lavastorm, all the red and black, and lack of contrast, kills my eyes. So far, I haven't had any of those problems with Luclin. I've also enjoyed the sig line up to the instances. I'm sorry I won't get to complete the line but maybe the next xpac will let me know what happened at the end of the story. It is sad that some of us, who really enjoy EQ2's artwork, may never get to really appreciate Luclin in full because of the flying restriction. The detail of the artwork is truly amazing. We were still at the rather clunky graphics stage, when I was working with constructive solid geometry modeling, so seeing the detail, that can be accomplished today, is mind blowing.
I still have not received a VIII rune nor any of the rare items from mission crates this entire xpac....yet? but only 2 out of 8 overseer missions gave no reward this time. Things are looking up.
But he can!!! He can start a campaign for one and set up parades and rallies and things over in Look and Feel!!!
