EQII Mechanics Overview and Upcoming Changes

Yeah what he said.

Whenever you think about class changes could you please remove (or make it avoidable) the stiffle/stun component of Conjurer Summoners Siphon
This spell is compleatly unusable at current state (even on ancient)

A possible easy solution could be PlaneShift .. which should work (but does not)

Can it truly be? Are Bruiser finally getting the HUGE correction its been needing for years? I think I'm about the only other Bruiser in HOF because they haven't seen any love in years (at least that are active). Really hoping this correction is able to bring the class to par!

Had a ponder over the implementation of augmentations to the handling of loot drops. Did post here, but decided to move to https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/augmentation-of-rng-a-quick-proposal.598561/ as I'd like a little feedback (but this would probably languish in the dark at the end of a thread people may not read).

To be honest, now you changed the system to the opposite side.
I did 3 times raiding a week since start of expansion, countless PQs and now I am on sit out,
for a players raiding 1 once a week or doing 2-3 PQs.
Not because they are better, but because i don't have luck on patterns, celestial items and recipes.

And you go further this way with unbalanced reward vs effort....

As an older gamer and someone that grew up with EQ1, Daoc, WoW, SWG etc i have only ever really dabbled in EQ2, i was in the original friends and family beta and as it was so vastly different from EQ1 i never really liked the game.

Over the years i have returned at various times to try it again, I played a Troub during KoS and actually raided a bit, then went off to other games, came back around the time they released the fae race, dabbled and again quit.

Came back around Sentinels Fate i think it was, again dabbled and quit.

I have a long history of ducking in and out of EQ2, mainly due to never really finding a class i was happy with, being at different stages in my personal life and other games being more appealing.

Anyhow recently i bought RoS, i used the free boost on a Warlock and suddenly realised i have absolutely zero idea how to play the class or the game at all. EQ2 is fantastic it now has enough content for me to explore for the next few years quite happily. However it is utterly rubbish at showing you what to do, where you should go, what spells you should use, Mercs, Familiars, Mounts, levelling up these features.. Spell ranks, Adornments, Tinkering, Transmuting etc etc... Unfortunately for EQ2 all these wonderful features which are massive selling features are so woefully advertised and poorly implemented in terms of guiding you to them that the average player picking up the game for the first time will not only not know they are there, they will never use them, or experience how great they are.

So anyhow i rolled a Warlock with the 120 boost had no idea wgat im doing and said ok ill level a Wizard from level 1, i joined a guild and this is where the game opened up for me, not from the game showing ne what to do, but from other more experienced players guiding me, while this is fantastic it is also fundamentally wrong, should there cone a time where these players are no longer playing this game is pretty much dead.

So anyhow i levelled my Wiz to 120, got a rough idea what spells were good and bad, but had no idea what stats i should be prioritising, again guildmates stepped in, decided i should probably look at my AA setup, again had to speak to other players about this. I started the RoS signature quest line and hit an abrupt wall, where i was simply not equipped to progress as i just died repeatedly, fine, i had decided to level my tradeskill as a Sage, again with the help of guild members and websites im on the way to 120 Sage, but i still have many questions regarding Adornments, and actually progressing my adventure gameplay, Familiars, Overseer etc etc.

I fired up WoW used my free character boost and got led into the game with clear explanations of combat, spells, tradeskills and other features, yes EQ2 is a thousand times deeper than WoW but this is your competition, FF14 is much like wow too, again your competition.

EQ2 its not too late to save yourself and cement your place at the top, you have the lore and history and content to ensure this, but you need to polish up your delivery of your product to make it easier for new players to enter and join the fun, not leave them, bewildered, overwhelmed and confused where and what to do next and especially not equip them on the way to join in when they get there.

Im here for the long haul, as i simply enjoy the many different ways of leveling and the multitude of classes, and because i have all access due to still raiding in EQ1, but you are missing an opportunity to really make the game shine by not making it easier for people to get into and understand EQ2 and its many features.

I hate doing heroics as the reward for them is not worth it and the gear required to do heroics is past what heroics drop. I also am very annoyed that after completing the sigline I cannot complete Solo's with my merc on every character. I should have enough gear from the sig line and side quests to at least be able to complete a solo in 30 mins.

I also really hope that class balance is not just a big nerf bat here and there but actually looking at making every class a viable player that every group or raid would need. There a just to many classes that their benefit does not outweigh their suck.

Had to laugh last night at raid. Killed a boss in Vex and two items were the reward for the entire raid force. So many expletives filled the air that I thought I was back in boot camp in the military.

Hello nice to see some points of our posts have been heard.

But 2 things are still missing :

1 When Warlocks Decimation gets back its instand Cast Ability ist the Replace for Apocalypse so should work exactly the same way and Mechanic.

2 When the totaly out of order Pet Damage from Summoners will be fixed, the DPS of Summoners is totaly out of order since the Pets have benefit from the Addorns set which increases DPS of quallyfied pets ???

Summoners do like the Double DPS like a Wizzy and Warlock can do after the change with the nearly eqauly Base Stats.

All classes Flaged as DD should be able to do realy colse DPS if have same Base of Stats the only thing which should increase DPS is Spell Quality and Skill of the player behind the toon but never a totaly miss calculated Proc or Item in the game it self.

And the Gear Account flags are NEEEEEEEEEED no one of us is able to get Respective and Playable Stats on alts and this is ruining the whole groupe play.Matter fact is that nearly 95% Pic Up Groupes are done with Pic Up tanks and Toons so we should be able tio equip them fast and not get apice of gear here and thier and here and thier .

Same on the Reforging if cut of our abliitys to get the stats we need by reforging stats are horrible and we have no chance to fix it because thier are no Addorn to refill them and the snacks are no option anyway aslong as they are not useable on auto consume.

And the recovery stat was not the mechanic or the reason of lags.

MMORPG = you are going to have to interact with other players. A good guild is a treasure!

I suggest asking in General chat "Who is the best Wizard on this server?" Note the names, and see if you can look them up on EQ2U. EQ2U will let you see their gear and AA etc., so you can figure out their build. Note that raiders will be making somewhat different choices about AA because their gear may be providing stats that you may have to get from AA. If they don't have their profile public, then contact them in-game and say something like, "When you have a little time, can I get some advice on wizarding/my gear/best adorns/etc." Be nice, they may be in a group or raid and you'll need to find a time when they're not busy to chat.

Anyone can figure out the best builds, though, just using a Guildhall Training Dummy, Advanced Combat Tracker, and trial-and-error (that's how the experts got to be experts!)

Another thing that makes a big difference is the cast order of your spells. I personally use an Excel worksheet to calculate the spell efficiency (Google documents and Open Office will give you Excel-like tools if you don't have Excel). Someone figured these out a long while back, and since people were reporting spammy issues with the download site, I popped the calc worksheets for Wizard and Warlock in my Dropbox so people could get to them. I add my Ascensions into the list as well. It will need some editing for current spells. You fill it out by gearing up and self-buffing, then open your Knowledgebook and Examine each spell, and copy over the values shown to the worksheet.

You might check out the RoS Gear Guide, and not just the top post, there's a guide to blue Resolve adorns later and some info about getting additional blue stats from snacks and old Incandescent adorns.

@Caith,

I've come to disagree with the stance that further engagement times lead to better results and satisfaction for the player. Being that I started playing Cities Skylines again after a year of constantly playing EQ2 in my opinion proves you wrong. I cant simply gear up my alts with gear by purchasing them with coins I've earned. Everything is just RNG, and nothing about this is fun.

100% agree with this post.

Most combat arts are useless. Our Auto-attack damage was made useless which was most of our Damage/Hate generation. Now we have to reply on Proc's for our highest DPS. Just does not seem right. Empyral Incineration 30% of our damage? Really? Daring Attack (scout proc/buff I believe) 2nd highest damage. Fierce combat (SK/Pally?), Crypt's Revenge (Dirge?), etc... all in the top 7 of a Guardians parse. Across the board we need our combat arts improved by 50-100%. Or change Focused Offensive to grant 200% chance to recast single combat arts, the current 50% is useless.

Remember, Flurry is useless, DPS is useless, WDB is useless, 95% of our combat arts are fillers...

Also, under Warrior Strength line
Executioner's fury increases flurry by 100% if under 50% health? REALLY?
Executioner's Fortification increases flurry multiplier by ..1 up to .08 IF UNDER 50% Health...REALLY?
No one is going to take this line. If we are under 50% health something is wrong, and as noted above, Flurry is useless.

The named turtle "Mayofdir" in the Savage Weald and the Zelmie "Captain Terrasque Kel'var" in echo caverns have been known to one shot people.

Over the last few years we have iterated over several itemization and general progression methods to find an optimal balance of effort to reward, and we have found that while many of these methods satisfy a portion of that equation to some extent, they fall short in others. The most consistent metric to measure the success of each method is the amount and duration of engagement. While methods such as a direct purchase of an item with tokens are less random, they reduce engagement time as a whole. We’ve found that from a new content release to a reduction in engagement the most dependable method has been simple straight forward drops.


I strongly feel that you may be getting some bad signals from your data here. I do think engagement time is correlated with player satisfaction - when that engagement time yields steady, incremental progression. Token-based systems or fairly reliable incremental upgrades satisfy this. That element was broken due to several major reasons: removal of infusers, and removal of reforging, and RNG.

In raiding environments, RNG is less of a factor because there's a much higher probability that someone can use something that drops. If that probability gets less and less, then it's usually markedly difficult to motivate people to go. But in heroic content, it's not at all unlikely that you can beat difficult content and get nothing valuable if drops aren't usable, and that probably is greatly exacerbated by the removal of reforging.

Things which on paper would seem to be upgrades are most emphatically not if they mean dropping below stat caps like cast speed, reuse, etc. Without reforge, we have no way to deal with that beyond hope for the right type of item to drop. It's kind of soul crushing to constantly get items that are probably intended to be upgrades but have no value whatsoever. Random example - chain items with tank stats, which no one can really use. The removal of infusers also removed an arguably satisfying avenue of small, incremental progression.

I strongly urge you to rethink this position. I have never been more engaged in more recent years in heroic content than BoL's system, and the new approach is killing my motivation completely.

Why are Swash and Brig still 2nd class citizens? You realize you have Four T1 DPS Mage classes, and only Two Scout classes for T1. Debuffs?? That's what bards and chanters are for. You keep making these classes garbage! How is it fair to have four T1 mage dps and only 2 scout? (I dont care about Beastlords they came later). It's not fair and I'm not paying another dime over my sub, nor will I buy any other premium this or that until the class I've played for 10+ years is addressed properly! I will speak with my wallet this time, and I hope the others who are passionate about their class will as well. You need to bring Swash/Brig up to spec once and for all. Otherwise nerf summoners, cause they were once the T2 mage class and look at them now.

I don't know if you should laugh or cry when you read the changes from the devs or if you can still take some seriously there.

It can be so difficult as a company to deal sensibly with its community and talk about which changes are made or which changes should be made, no, bones are thrown back like a dog and only talked about the bush.

I'll give you an example for items, we learn every addon coin for rewards from heroic Raid Solo or PQs. But what really useful things can you buy for nothing to improve your character, why is simply because the one who develops it with little understanding approaches the matter has no thoughts and plan just does what throwing it away does not bring anything. A good example is BOL I have around 200,000 coins lying around but couldn't do anything with them because there is no dealer to do something with them.

Here would also have been an opportunity for returnees or new players to buy the runes in blue with this coin so that they can get into the game, because Fervor is missing what is needed according to your status with DPS. This is also the reason why you have so many problems with your game, it is simply due to too many unnecessary mechanics that you have brought in over the years instead of concentrating on the essentials and keeping an eye on it.

The point is just make stats that really are, did we use Fervor or Bulwark in the past, no why is it necessary to have these values today. You tripped yourself up and made your own life through unnecessary programming that would have saved you time and maybe even today players would be happier and the mechanics would be much easier to control.

- bring back easy stats (Reuse-Casting Speed-Pot-CB-Multiattack-Haste- Hate Mode - AB Mode - ABD and if needed Resolve)
- player stop testing your things, start testing yourself some of you have played EQ2 yourself so these things should be in mind
- make Items great again, let peeps buy stuff for learned Coins
- make return and new players not hard to join the game, and dont milk the peeps with real money out
- Communicates better with the player base that's what I miss the most
- Class Balance look at all classes dont nerve the toons in the End look the AA-Specs - spells and find a good resolution at all

And now a point that is close to my heart, since your main focus is more on Discord, please also show a little respect for players there. If players criticize you or give you a little fire, you should accept that, because whoever makes mistakes must and should have the balls. Sometimes people are banned unnecessarily or spoken to in a very dismissive manner, you do in Discord as if you are the kings what you all forget but there is that we players finance your job without us players, the company would be gone, you would be without a job. Respect deserves the one who also respects his community, otherwise there will be a bang at some point and the barrel explodes. Accept it if people criticize you from time to time or say that there are mistakes in order to learn from both and to find solutions, or give them a private message and ask what the main problem is and you can come together sensibly think up a solution.


@kander I once listened to the Kanders Candor Season, which was funny that you had to laugh yourself at the story with lags in the game. Here I am wondering whether you, as the chief designer, should actually work on it together with the team, or should you also know why it is, because this is also one of the main tasks of a chief designer and the connection to the IT area. These errors with lags are not only known to the add-on, the last of those add-ons it got worse, here too you did not move your community although they gave you examples of what it could be and what could help to reduce it.

21k supps is enough to buy stuff hardware and programm a game, and thats not enough marketplace race potions +++is a lot of money. Still Game works with Directx9/32bit System no one makes updates more for the stuff we life in 2021.


Nevertheless, I wish everyone stays healthy and the family and every now and then takes a little more time and criticism to heart.

It's great to see you supporting the community and explaining how they can provide info to address the solo over names

It would be really great to have a comment, or see you address the concerns raised in this thread and similar floating around. As Lead Designer, you are best placed to provide us all important information and general steer on what's happening, how you and the team are taking on board our constructive feedback, what's possible or what can't be done.

An update, an opening of the door of all important communication and a peek at what's on the table would go along way right now.

Thanks,
Ryver'Fish

Having read or reviewed almost every thread on these forums, I can say that 95% of the posts are centering around the same themes Ryver'Fish has identified in his/her post. It's the same themes articulated over and over again across these threads.

I would suggest to Dream/Kander that it might be a good idea to use these as the subjects for future pod sessions. Come to the session with some time and thought given to the "concern area" and be prepared with some specific things being built to resolve the issues. Do what you want to do, but I would encourage not talking about "lofty goals." Let's stay focused on reality and what actually be accomplished in the next 9 months of this year and what might get pushed out to the future.

When your house is on fire, you main concern is getting it put out, not on listening to the Fire Department saying "if we only had a couple of hydrants closer," or "we're planning on replacing our ladder truck next year." Focus on solutions that can be done this year. Have an end of year for what/where may happen next year.

Food for thought...thanks for reading.