Disappointed

caldera they did nothing but change resists.. caverns changed the last mob to give you more of a clue as to what to do.. so in theory if people couldn't reach a DPS threshold.. then how do they now with the same gear.. the answer is resists are lower.. making damage minimal to groups again so people can just stand there and slow burn without keeping up with heals.. I hear high resists are needed for raids still, but I haven't raided high end stuff so wouldn't know.. but SOE"s whole point of going back to resists is gone and its pretty much back to where it was with TOV, plus a little bit of scripting to figure out is all.

It's pretty normal for SoE to make content super hard on a new expansion then nerf things down as they watch the player base drop off. We got lucky with the last expansion it was incredibly fun, easy and had 1 super challenging zone with great rewards. As for me I have officially deleted EverQuest 2 from my laptop forever. I don't have any plans on buying AoM or returning. After playing AoM test/beta and realizing that the new heroic gear simply increased my current HP by 400k and my same proc effects by a Rank +1, I decided that the level of difficulty and dangerously low server population wasn't going to be worth playing or buying this new expansion. I do appreciate all the joy this game brought over the years and the 10yr puppet raids at the end, but I wanted to leave the game with those good memories and not spend this final year grinding 8months in an expansion I really wouldn't enjoy on a server with barely anyone on it. I hope SoE makes tons of money off of whoever is left playing and can finish making a really amazing EverQuest Next.

The main problem as I see it, is most players don't have regular groups now. I used to, and if I still did, I imagine I'd be loving these zones. In a PUG I wouldn't even bother.

When you're playing with a regular group, you know what they're going to do / cast / say / step, even sometimes before they do, it just makes it so much easier.
When you wipe you don't emoquit, you work stuff out because you know you can. And if you do fail somewhere along the line, you keep going back until you wtfpwn it.

You could get a group with same armor/spell ca quality as 'Gaealiege and friends' that still couldn't do the zones, because they don't have that rapport with their group mates, and aren't willing to go the hard yard to try.

Anywho, I think the current zones are too script heavy for your average pug group. Unless you're very lucky, and get 6 players with half a brain that know their toons, they're going to give up before the zone is finished.

So, lay off the jumping through hoop scripts for the 'most' part.
Give more clues about the hoops if we must have so many scripts.
Introduce challenge mode in some / all of the zones, for the groups that want to be pushed.
Introduce more x2 raid zones like WoE and that one in SF, whatever it was called.

Hit the nail on the head. I am on Everfrost server and the number of players has dwindled down so much. I have also "lost" my regular group from the previous expac and I think its due to my class. Pugs can be scary or just take so much time, that there is no reward, worth that amount of frustration or time.

I don't mind scripts, but some are difficult. I think SOE is forgetting that their player-base is aging and passing the point where scripts are fun and heading into the "omg I am too old for this" kind of play

None of the tranquil zones have overly difficult scripts. The few scripts there are can easily be figured out by reading detriments (which every player after 1 year or 10 years should know how to do), reaching npc/narrative chat or combat logs, reading buff package on the name and just communicating it out in either group or voice chat from there.

I personally don't see a sense of accomplishment in blowing through zones with turn and burn encounters. Anyone with the proper gear can do that.

Glad to hear you're having a great time in this expac, Gaealiege. I'm just sorry to hear that it will be your last expac in this game because the next expac, EQ2: Return of the Playerbase, will be so casual-focused in order to save the game from extinction that I'm sure you will dismissively wave your hand as you walk away.

If that's what happens next expansion, I will absolutely abandon the game without a second glance. I'm not certain about the dismissive wave though.

if soe can make a challenge mode on a couple zones next month or so that would fix things greatly,give them slightly higher drop rate on rare items and make the common drops a tad better maybe even just throw a gem in them to make things easier and faster for the devs and take a couple of the needing to click strats out of normal mode fights or give a dps/aoeblock/good heal check to avoid most of the script on the normal mode stuff if that's not already there soe can't change the server pop issue very easily this game is old and this happens i don't blame soe for it i just enjoy the work they are putting into the game. i would enjoy slightly tough overland nameds though just a tad above what a merc can solo to stop some campers i know you'r busy soe with next and the like so just do what you can, this patch i think is good but now a challenge mode for the hardcore and intermediate players would be great.

You got to be kidding? Tanking T3 zones with a beastlord? Are you sure we all talk about the same zones. Each of them have x2 last named with lots of scripting to follow. I know the only one beastlord who were top parsing warlocks wizards and other damage mages the last expac when BL were cimpletely forgotten. He would parse 5-6 mil easily on names in ToV heroics and only my charmed pets would be able to compete with him. but boy was he squishy. So please stop misleading the forum.

I believe new expac zones are a challenge enough for progression. Till I got my lvl to 100 and better resist I for example couldn't molo AS zones. Finished a sig quest on my alt (note that my main raid toon is a source of ferrins and gear for alts) in solo zones first. Now I am getting with alt in AS. Not easy for enchanters. Only my raid toon can withstand a beating in t3 zones and it thanks to our exceptional zerker tank.

If you don't verdict some names in T3 zones you get achievements and few ferrins for it
I hope Kalika reads my post too. Impossible to reply to both posts. Sorry! It's actually fun. Try it guys. It was like wow! I got an achievement. Yay!
Didn't want to be unrespectful (or is it nonrespectful?), on a contrary. Just wanted to let you know if you didnt try it yet.


I think it was a nice move from devs to add it to a game. Kudos to them!

No one is misleading this forum. The beastlord Colossus on Butcherblock server has in fact tanked these zones. We've cleared all the T3 zones with our paladin. Every member of our group is fully heroic geared. Not a piece of raid gear among us.

Sanguine Fountains and Inner sanctum? Really? Kudos to him then. Post an ACT parse please. Without it it's just a talk not a walk. Thanks.

No, he hasn't tanked Sanguine Fountains or Inner Sanctum yet. He could guaranteed tank some of Sanguine Fountains. He has tanked all zones other than those. You were quoting me when I was responding to Fire about the tier 1 and 2 zones. He has tanked every single one which means the nerfs were quite dramatic.

Got it. Thanks for clarification. It sounded though like you were talking about t3 zones too.
Then as people proposed here. Don't bother with t1 or t2 zones if you are all outgrown them. Just stick with t3 or Oss contested. There is a challenge in them indeed.

For me as a chanter they are interesting b/c i can try my CC and interrupts. And as I said a challenge enough for a good geared toon. Would like to get a cyan adornments eventually.

He tanks Ossuary contested as well.

My problem comes in when you suggest that we should just stick to 3 zones. Do you think that three zones will hold us over until the next major content update? I doubt it very much.

Casuals don't have more than three zone either judging by your replies from other threads. Two zav's and barely falls.
You have BS Yel Jack and heroic event. Oss three zones including contested. 2 HH and 2 Ssra temples so get your numbers straight.
I would stop whining in your place. Want a challenge? Go one group trash in raid zones. Plenty of hard fights. And plenty of opportunities to try different classes for tanking.

I am not disappointed in AoM. I agree with others thpugh that there is no clear progression in it. Only I remember was it Kander who said that progression is not in zones but rather in a zone from a name to a name. I think that is what he said.

We just tanked Sanguine Fountains with our beastlord last night. So no, there's only two zones that are difficult now. Inner Sanctum and the Choir event. That's it. Every single other zone is balanced toward casuals.

My arguments in other threads revolve around casuals not wanting to do anything to mitigate the fights. They want to zone in with gear that may or may not give them stats they need, ungemmed, unadorned, not reforged, unrefined, don't know their abilities, don't know mechanics, don't want to move during fights and still win. Just because the fights in Brokenskull, High Hold, and Ssra Temple aren't tank and spank doesn't mean they aren't incredibly easy. It just means that the average casual isn't willing to put in a drop of effort. Every zone other than the T3 zones is catered to casuals, particularly after the handholding nerfs.

Falsely handicapping yourself for the sake of argument is just ridiculous. I've clearly explained and indicated that we HAVE ALREADY created a false handicap. We are tanking with a beastlord. A scout. At what point do you devolve down to "Well don't use your combat arts if you want a challenge!" That line of argumentation is a reduction to the absurd. All false handicapping is a reduction to the absurd. Fights shouldn't be catering to the bottom of the barrel. No one deserves a participation trophy.

You are taking a team of players who play together on a regular basis, who know their class, have good gear and your beastlord friend is probably all defensive specced. Take another BL you don't know and see how it goes.

*edit* And you know, you keep using the word "casual" when I think you should switch it to "bad player" there is a large difference between the two. A lot of "casual" players do know their class, are fully adorned, listen and learn strats. They might not be allstars like you and your gang, but they do know how to play.

Bad Players are Bad Players and SOE didn't make the changes for them. Because Bad Players won't clear any of these zones regardless of the changes.

You could also have the choice like in chains of eternity of just 3 manning/womaning the easier zones if you want higher difficulty and better chance at loot. another choice is go raid when you are able and go play something else or craft/quest till you raid again.

I also like the idea that the "casual/not-casual" line keeps moving to be "anything I don't currently find challenging with my well-equipped group of friends in a tank-heal-heal-support-dps-other group setup."

Fortunately, per their first response in this thread, the devs aren't being influenced by this.