280 AA Boost Bauble?

Regolas wrote:

I disagree. When the AA came into the game, which BTW was AFTER some of us had been playing for some time, I got the impression from the way it was being presented that it was an option, not mandatory. It was not until they said that we could not progress past 90, that it seemed to have become mandatory. This puts those of us who were already playing and had progressed quite far along at a large disadvantage. I never worried about getting AA until after I reached cap because it had never been presented as being mandatory. That means two of my three level 90s have been unable to progress because AA was never my focus. So I'll be happy to use whatever help I get. I just wish it was more than two. And if someone else doesn't want to use it, don't. Won't impact my game in the least, and my using it won't impact yours, which means you have no say.

d1anaw wrote:

You had over 5 years to get over your 'large disadvantage'
The argument that a person has completed too much has never made any sense. AAs have been around too long now to keep using it. You didn't miss out on that much by being max level at the time they were introduced.

daray wrote:

First off, love the comment...
Secondly it already has been said plenty just can't find the post that said about wanting one per character and not 2 per account. Heck they've even made a post asking to get rid of AA all together and going to prestige.

feldon30 wrote:

Which is the exact reason I'm raging. No AA = less to do in game or in endgame overall. Not sure why people feel taking things OUT of the games is a good thing when it just gives us something to do? Why do we want the game to end so quickly that we pay for monthly then whine there is nothing to do?
No AA, no factions, no access quests. Level to cap, do dungeons, raid. Sounds like every other MMO to me. Keep taking timesinks out of MMOs why wouldn't I just play a console RPG?
The same thing I keep repeating on the boards and the same thing I'm trying to make developers understand. Players will ALWAYS ask for things to be easier in games. They always want things dumbed down and things made easier/faster so they can get their "carrot" faster. Point of an MMO is to keep that carrot nearly unreachable, otherwise why continue paying your company money but maybe every expansion if that? When the developers listen to the community and continually make things easier we've seen what happens to the game then haven't we? That OTHER game... But when it's challenging and offers plenty of content, reward, and satisfaction for completing goals the game only grows and grows. Reaching that 280 aa mark is one of the rewarding challenges and imo should have had AA milestones the whole time in the game. Say at 70 required 200aas to press on (random number) and so forth and so on. Not sure why developers aren't copying what made the other game so rich instead of copying what made the other game start to fall off lol. It's just so silly to me. You have business majors in your company along with master software designers and yet you can't see this?

salty21db wrote:

I have never seen AAs as something you earn at endgame but something you need leading up to endgame.
Even 3 years ago, what raid or serious grouping guild would take someone with less than 240 AAs?

feldon30 wrote:

Leading up to? I mean as a min/maxer myself I agree with that but most people just grinded/plvled to cap and didn't even bother with AA's just to do endgame at cap level then realized how much it failed and went back and grinded them. EQ1 had so many it was near impossible early on to even think about grinding them first (when the slider went in).
Sure raiding/guild grouping would require a certain amount (unless it was a desperately needed class which I had seen before) but not everyone was in a serious guild or raiding. Not to mention if they had needed a certain class they would have taken it or had someone level it up and grind them through AAs. When you went to pug it was a nightmare with lesser AAs let alone poor gaming skill of players since NO MMO actually requires you to think to level anymore.
Again wanting/asking for LESS things to do. How is that good?

So I've dabbled a little bit on and off with the game, never sure whether to take it up seriously or not. Finally took the plunge 6 weeks or so ago with two toons. Since I could tell in game that no one ever groups with anyone until end game content, I asked a lot of questions about how best to prepare, as a new player. Universally the answer was two things: 1) don't get powerleveled, because you won't know your class, and 2) get your AA's along the way, because no one will group with a lvl 90/92 with substandard AA's. So, with both toons, I constantly set the slide way to the right, grinded AA's when I could have leveled, and have approx 260 AA's at lvl 70.
Now SOE comes out with this. One giant FU to anyone who worked on AA's along the way. If the goal is to attract/retain new people to the player base, this is a giant shove in the other direction.

Jrt66, It's not really a giant FU, unless you think every player on over 280AA has been screwed over. I have 3 characters at 92/320, and many people have more than that. I doubt very much they think it's a giant FU. You have got to experience the game how it's meant to be played. Now, if you decide to level up another class, you can take a shortcut. But everyone should experience the game once how it's intended. Now if they gave this 280AA to every character, that'd be different, but it hasn't even hapoened yet so all those people with 280AA or more have got to experience more of the game than those without.

salty21db wrote:

Why aren't you playing EQ1 instead of complaining about changes to EQ2? EQ1 is clearly the game for you. Or maybe Vanguard.
I fully expect to find these AA baubles in the Marketplace the day CoE launches. Are you going to pop a vein when they are for sale?

jrt66 wrote:

I've also done the AA grind. I don't want to ever do it again.

ZachSpastic wrote:

I would most likely quit.
Also I use station pass and I play EQ1 as well as EQ2. I primarily play EQ1 however on progression servers...Fippy atm. Just hate to see a good company go the same route as every other developer and make MMOs into a dumbed down pile of mush.

salty21db wrote:

Raging? over a video game? Seriously? There is always SOMETHING to do. And if you honestly have done EVERYTHING in the game on every character you have, then when have you had a life? You likely mean something YOU want to do. And I hate to break it to ya, but this is not your own personal game. There is plenty to do, even at max level. I find it highly unlikely that anyone, or at least anyone with a job and/or family has done absolutely every quest, every instance, every dungeon, every zone and every tradeskill on every character.

I like the idea of the AA barrier for instances. I'm also fine with players being destroyed by solo trash mobs if they've decided to not actually level their character. Balance content around people that care, and give people that care a way to see if the people they are grouping with also care.

d1anaw wrote:

Ohhhh a personal jab, kinky. Family of five actually, house of my own at 23, two cars, etc (all earned on my own also without any college /gasp). So yeah I'm quite fine in the real life department. Sorry to sadden your hopes of belittling me.
Regardless that lame excuse of "I have a real life I couldn't possibly be good at a game or have done most of the things in game" is pretty tired and used. It's also exactly as I stated, an excuse. There is plenty to do in game over and over and over and over and over again. Do it on one character then do it 10x over, wonderful. I'd rather reach a goal of AAs where it is different on every character then farm the same shinies on every character .

salty21db wrote:

So what makes you think that EQ2 should be nothing more than a copy of EQ1 with different graphics.

Juggercap wrote:

Decided to not actually level their character? If you had actually played this game you would know that leveling is not a problem and that AAs are not levels. AAs have nothing to do with whether or not you "care".

ZachSpastic wrote:

What a wonderful notion....

ZachSpastic wrote:

To actually level your character, you need to level your AAs as well. If you care about your character being able to perform at a high level, you care about AAs.

Juggercap wrote:

Not really.
The fact that people make it to high levels with insufficient AA for groups means that they level quite well without AA.
The biggest annoyance for me are the level restrictions on solo content, and now the 280 AA requirement for leveling beyond 90. I've been leveling a new toon, about the 7th or 8th to get above 70, and have been bored with leveling locking to grind AA. If you try to do it proportionately, a level 30 with 90 AA or a level 50 with 150 AA or level 70 with 210 AA completely blows away the solo content. Like one shots even cons, and probably has excess AA that they aren't even allowed to assign. I gave up trying to keep AA proportional to 320/90 when I had about 70 AA that I couldn't assign, and got really, really bored with quests being too easy. I got blocked from getting quests in Tenebrous Tangle, Kylong Plains, Moors of Ykesha, Greater Divide, and Withered Lands, and by the time they let me in, were trivial. Well, not allowed to do Withered Lands quests yet with my 89.6/227 AA new toon, but so bored I'd rather read the forums and post here.
They should remove level and AA requirements for solo quests (and improve visual indicators to include information about the quest level and type)(I would like the "don't show feathers for out-leveled quests" flag to allow an option to set the level range you want to see)(I don't want to see the Hole group Mark quests, which no groups are doing, while I'm soloing the Paineel quests), and instead gate content intended for groups.
Instead of having a 280 AA requirement to level beyond 90, they should just put a 90/280 AA requirement for the group zones that are designed around that requirement.
Edited note: and no, I won't waste a 280 AA bauble on this toon.

salty21db wrote:

And just because YOU don't want something and YOU think something should be done a certain way does not mean you get to impose YOUR demands on everyone else. I pay money to pay and as such I have as much right to play MY way as you do. Too bad if YOU don't like it. If you don't like it, then quit, or don't use things you don't like. That's what I do when I don't care for something. But you don't get to decide that the rest of us should not have the option merely because YOU don't approve of it.