There are guilds seeking scouts. So scout joins guild and raids with them. Great performance, hardcore player, johnny on the spot with combat mechanics and strats and he/she is hardcore on bettering their class by putting in the time and effort. But none of it matters if that scout is trying to compete with scouts that have the ethereal war runes and they don't. It's so massive that guilds should change their recruitment thread to "Any scout without ethereal war runes need not apply". Please do something with itemization to help bridge that gap. Thank you.
I have my runes so I'm personally OK. That said, I simply don't understand why they removed the quests. IMO, they should have just removed the "waves" of drop chances and left the quests in place and eventually updated those quests into new KA zones. OH...in before "you can still kill hundreds or thousands of named mobs in contested and maybe get a rune" or "you can farm the keys until you not only quit the game but take a baseball bat to your PC in frustration and get a chance at the rune" crowd.
I couldn't agree more! Every archtype had good war runes. But the scout ones will make or break them during a recruitment process.
No, not every archtype had good ethereal runes. For priests, if you're not a shaman, there is no reason to use the ethereal adorns. The problem, however, seems to be with the guilds. If you've got solid players who are doing a great job, that should be enough. 'Requiring' people to have things they can't get isn't a game problem, it's a player problem.
Requiring best in slot, and a means to get those best in slot items is just good raid leading. Ex. Requiring debuff earrings that are an expansion old to increase RW DPS. Personal falls, RW rises. There are ways to get these runes, the coins are now heirloom, and if you weren't farming them when you had the chance, do the WORK to get somewhere. "Coach" - Koj Edit- being a good raider means working hard to be the very best.
doesn't change the fact that the method to obtaining the eth runes either needs to be changed to be more obtainable, or a lesser version should be made craftable to bridge the gap, there's a difference between working hard, and watching your hair grey out farming for those runes
Alternative: nerf all of the runes so they aren't so game changing. it's really hard for Devs to achieve class balance when things like this are in game.
i disagree with the nerf, because the people that did do the ethereal event when it was around should very well be rewarded properly, and nerfing that reward is kind a shot in the back, i don't believe they should be nerfed, but i also don't believe returning players who came back to KA because they thought it was going to change things and be better, should be screwed over so royally, raid leaders only wanting scouts with eths, will also likely extend to heroics not wanting non-eth scouts as well due to the laziness of most players and their lack of desire to perform mechanics but rather just blow things up and move on and not care about their fellow players.
and I'm of the opinion if you weren't here for the summer event, then you'll just have to bust your *** with key quests and KP contested. the runes are there. you chose not to be involved when it has been obvious for at least what? 2,3 years now? that they do ethereals during the summer, that end after summer. You left the game, you SHOULD be at a disadvantage. you don't have an 'easy' way to get the runes, but they are there to be had. Go and get them.
I have to agree with Rainmare on this one, I spent a good portion of my summer grinding these coins just so I could have my character in a good position dps wise. I would hate to see them being handed over to new players just because. You have a few options albeit horrible horrible options but they are still there. If you don't like it play a different toon until next summer and hope they make Ethereals this easy to get again. The only real classes having the unbalance issues are Rogues, Predators and Beastlords. There are still plenty of other classes to play if you so choose.
You assume too much. Some people were here all summer and did the grind like everyone else. What happens when "X" player is tasked to fill a scout role for the raid? Not bad enough that they lose out on their deity grind? All the ethereal jewelry and cloak has been upgraded. The same should happen to the war runes. Those that had the old ones have gotten their use out of them. With that said I'm of the opinion that I would hate to see them get nerfed. If anything, a new set of war runes should be introduced that is similar in all regards. But make them have 10% less stats than the summer ethereals. I think that's fair for everyone.
if your raid leader is forcing you to switch mains, then I'd say your raid leader needs to have the stick in his rear removed first, and if they are making you main switch, then they should also put in the time and effort and help you get your rune. take a group and run keys. run them as a group in the heroic zone, have everyone run thier own in solo and hand them to the person switching mains for the 'good of the raid'. run that person in your off raid nights through KP contested. if I'm going to switch my main at your behest, then you better be willing to help put in the effort to get the things you think are 'Raid requirements'.
I'm sure the epics will either match or beat the runes but it is unfortunate the gap will exist in the mean time. The reason the summer ethereal event was so popular was because the other means were just so boring and mindless (ie not fun in the slightest). Having the event continue on is hardly 'handing them out' since it would take exactly the same amount of work, if not more if they changed it to KA zones. It is unfortunate the event didn't just continue on, just using KA heroics instead of ToT with some additional new loot as well. I've never seen heroics being ran so much in my entire time of playing EQ2 for some 10+ years. The way this last summer ethereal event was done needs to be done year round for most of the heroic loot and updated along with the content. EDIT: another consideration for the devs; even if the epics do meet or beat the performance of the eth runes you may be pressured into 'nerfing' the epic quest to make it much more available or casual than you would like since it would be the new means of closing this gap.
So, what you're saying is that if someone didn't grind the way you did, at the time you did, they "SHOULD" suck, and no one should want them to raid in their guild ever again. .. Oh no, wait, they should raid, but just raid lower tier instances so you can be a super hero and outparse them all in pugs. If they don't like it, go grind KP. As for your snide comment against raid leaders who "force" ask people to change mains to keep their raid or guild together have sticks in their ears? Are you kidding? You remind me of a child who got their popsicle, and you're angry because the other, less fortunate ones want to get one too. I've seen similar behavior in small animals like rabbits, and dogs etc. In my opinion, you're an extremely arrogant individual. With these ethereals, asenction XP caps, etc. live server is "hardcore only".
They really should just keep the currency going so people that are new can obtain these runes , we want to keep them playing not discourage them because there class can't compete with out the runes the more ppl playing eq2 the better .
no harm in allowing ethereal currency to continue being rewarded, maybe allow the runes to be sold for a very high amount of status so the currency isn't worthless to the people that participated during the event and already earned their stuff.
No, what I'm saying is, it's plainly evident, and has been for YEARS that ethereals come out during summer. if you jump ship, then yes, you shouldn't have an easy way to just jump back in with super powerful items. if your raid leader tells you to switch mains, rather then work with what he/she has or recruit a new player, then yes, I think they are being a bit demanding. however, if they want you to switch to an alt that doesn't have these apparently super duper important runes, then yes, they SHOULD put it the effort to help you get equipped to the standards they expect. don't demand I switch mains, and then complain about not having things I didn't have to time to get the easy way. don't tell me to hop from my say, wizard, to a dirge, then then ***** and moan if I can't do the damage or hit the numbers that a dirge in the force with the runes can. You needed or wanted me to switch, then you help me get the runes that you think are so god awful important, and don't complain that I don't have them. it's not on me to outfit every single possible toon I have in ethereals on the off chance my raid leader MAY need that toon. I got the ethereals on the toon I actually play. and busted my *** doing so over the summer. you want me to hop mains but demand those runes? then you better be willing to help me get them the hard way.
The bigger difference this summer is that the runes are now fairly common and extremely powerful. The fact that they are equipped by a large % of players forms a new baseline, especially for dps and even more so for scouts because of the way reset/fervor effect chains. Thus, without them, you are far behind the average player with them. The ethereal weapons last year and previous years were rare drops. Only a handful of people had them. Yes, some really hardcore guilds preferred players with ethereal weapons but you could still parse well without them. And if you REALLY wanted them they were often for sale. I appreciate that it took some time. It took some time to get that jewelry too and now its obsolete. Just like every other item you are likely wearing that took some time and will be replaced this expansion. My suggestion is to add them to the merchant and at a fairly steep cost of Sovereign of Rile and status. OR offer a mastercrafted versions that takes a lot of the new blank runes. If they want to continue to ensure the ethereals are best in slot runes then offer a fervor rune that does 90 fervor instead of 100 to at least reduce the gap in dps. (similar to how they provided Deception I as an alternative to Deception II in the last expac).
