Heroic level 85 characters ETA SOE?

What would give you that impression? (If it was the part about the lottery, I don't even play the lottery - so the likelihood of winning a lottery is right around zero percent.) I haven't even used the Touch of the Steward baubles that came with the CE of Chains of Eternity - on any of my characters. On my main, I earned my mythical well before Sentinel's Fate launched. Neither of those is indicative of a person that enjoys "recieving things for nothing." [sic] So if that is what you "see", you might be well advised to consult an optometrist.

Just because I choose to do things the hard way doesn't mean that I hold any rancor for those that don't. I don't require any special recognition to set myself apart from those that choose to follow a different path than my own. If I were to require that recognition, that would indicate a lack of self-worth. (I'm not saying I'm the best player in the game, I'm not; but I know enough about myself to identify the areas where I can improve and, if I so choose, I can improve them.) Someone starting at level 85 doesn't threaten my ability to do my job in a group - only my degree of skill and dedication to learning the intricacies of a given class can affect that.

I've already explained what you get from it. You get experiences that the new people can't match. That doesn't necessarily mean that you should get a ribbon or title that tells people you are special because you started a character from level 1 as opposed to starting at 85 and working your way to 95.

Imagine this scenario:

Player A starts out at level 1 .
Player B starts out at level 85.

Player A primarily solos until around level 90 - at which time Player A gets into a Skyshrine group to work on AA.
Player B primarily solos until around level 90 - at which time Player B gets into a Skyshrine group to work on AA.

To the Skyshrine group, there is no appreciable difference in the two players. Neither one has much experience in a group setting. The only real difference is that Player A has had more time to get used to getting all of the loot. (And, perhaps, has a transmuting skill that is considerably higher than Player B.)

Regardless which category you fall into, if you devote time to learning your class, it will pay off. Once people see how well you play, your reputation will improve. Conversely, if you spend your entire time just grinding and not really learning about your class, it will show in your group performance - and your reputation as a player will suffer accordingly.

That is really the crux of the whole matter - it doesn't matter how you start, it just matters how you end up.

And again I get blind sided by that messed up can't edit thing.

did you file a bug report at Firefox - seems like the version you are using is broken - how hard to go backwards is it, don't care for Firefox at all

What purpose would there be to putting up such a wall on level 85 boost? I'll say from the perspective of someone who's rolling his first character, it's not that fun to level right now. I made a paladin on the PVP server first, got him up to 15 or so. I never saw another person, not even once. It was a ghost town. Global chats were totally dead. So I deleted him and rolled on the highest population server I had access to. Guess what? Same crap. Global chat is a little busier, but I haven't seen a soul out questing. I've been in the dungeon queue since I hit 20 and I'm now 35. Fifteen levels, probably 30 hours spent in that dungeon queue. Hasn't popped me in one dungeon yet. Every open world heroic quest designed for 3-6 players must now be painstakingly solo'd or skipped. The game obviously isn't functioning as an MMO below a certain level, it just isn't and you can't argue against it.

The nonfunction of the lower levels only serves to put an unreasonable entry block to newcomers to this game seeking an MMO experience. As it stands so far the sub 85 play appears about as good as a really poorly designed single player beat 'em up. An MMO isn't built on veteran players alone and an MMO isn't built on noobs. You need a balance to maintain a healthy community. Right now the entry into this game is so poor the community simply has no chance to grow. Offering newcomers the ability to play the game as an MMO greatly affects people with mac level characters, but only postively. If you can claim that a healthier population balance of noobs to vets isn't something you would enjoy then you simply shouldn't be bothering with MMOs as you are missing the point. You'd probably be happier in Skyrim.

In the past week Freeport at least has been swamped with new and returning players. The EQNext anouncement seems to have stimulated the EQ2 newbie zones.

That's funny, because Freeport is where I rolled because when I looked at the server population meters at east coast prime time, Freeport was the highest pop server on my list of available servers.. If what I'm seeing is called stimulated then EQ2 is really in dire straits. I've been meticulously combing through zones clearing every quest I can find. I cleared Frostfang, then Antonica, then Butcherblock, almost done with Enchanted lands, and plan to move onto Zek tonight. I've been playing at varied hours, mostly late evening east coast US. I haven't seen a single player legitimately questing, not even one. I've seen a few people flying around grabbing collectibles and resources, but literally not a soul out doing the heroics or quests in the zones. It's just plain dead. This can hardly be called stimulated.

8:30 AM on a Sunday.../who in Frostfang shows 37 players. For EQ2 that IS quite populous.

EQ2 is a barren wasteland pre level 90. While I dislike "Heroic" toons immensely (slap in the face to all those who've taken the time to level) maybe it will bring in fresh blood ( I doubt it, but we'll see).

I think you're taking it a bit too personally. A slap in the face would be 95, max aa, myth, avatar gear, a few k plat, all achievements... you get the idea. This level 85 character business does nothing to diminish anyone's own efforts.

My pre-90 experiences have been completely different.

My current main was rolled this past March. I spent the first few weeks with him unguilded. It took some work to find groups, but I did find quite a few to go through heroic dungeons with me.

Then I joined my guild, and that problem went away. 9/10 times I can find a group when I'm looking for it. If you know how to play your class and you take the time to keep your toon upgraded as you go, people will notice and you will get more groups. Everyone can get at least (7) fabled pieces for their toon just from running Dungeon Maker, which gives excellent gear up through the 80's of level. My main can farm over 1500 dungeon marks per hour. 2 hours and that's enough marks to get all (7) of those fabled pieces for a toon for an entire tier. I have 9 toons that can make everything I need, but if you don't, then you can get expert/master upgrades for your toon as you go from the broker, as well as any other gear pieces you need. Getting money early on is even easier now if you have a gold sub and do the daily objectives. Alternately, any guild should be able to make you basic handcrafted stuff at least - if not, then find another guild.

Truthfully, I'm more accepting than many others - I've played with people Level 50+ that still have some empty gear slots, but if you can't spend a few hours each tier to get decent upgrades (and by decent, I mean at least handcrafted that's within 10 levels of you), then you shouldn't expect people to just jump at you for groups. It's not that hard to find people - it's a social game. Make friends, show them you know what you're doing, and they will group with you again. And I play on Guk, supposedly one of the most dead servers out there, and low-level grouping is not dead here.

The game does not begin at Lv 85, or Lv 90 - it begins at Lv 1, and some of the older zones are much more fun than anything that came out in CoE. I believe that everyone should be able to play their way whenever it's feasible, but depending on how this is implemented it could totally kill the early to mid-game for people who actually do want to experience it. And it was the earlier expansions that gave this game acclaim and made it shine.

I think the problem also lies with mentoring, any higher level character that mentors is astronomically broken and one shots everything. So you may have guildies that will group with you but whats the fun when everything dies instantly?

That's not a group experience, its not an MMO experience, just being powerleveled. I played the game at launch some of the lower level content is great but only when you are facing the content as it was intended.

My characters are on CB but I rolled a fury on Freeport to see if there indeed was a surge of new players. In 35 levels I found 1 group and had 1 dungeon finder pop consisting of 1 person the other 90% of the time was spent doing the same thing as CB.... soloing.

TL;DR theres no difference between 1-95 and 85-95 when it boils down to it. If they want to experience the zones chronomance down.

/who just gives you the zone. You have to do a /who all. And then you don't get everyone.

He says that neither he nor anyone else deserves anything special for doing it the hard way and you want a 95 toon in fabled gear, and HE enjoys receiving something for nothing?

All I can say is lay off the jumjum cider.

I think this kind of experience happens more than people realize. The game isnt dead before 90, and in fact, i've seen what seems to be a surge of new people lately in open chat channels.
Its probably just that the data shows more people leave the game before making it to the end game than leave after. So while the low lvl game is not dead, SoE doesn't want to lose a single dime they dont have to.
Maybe its good for business, i dont know. But I think its bad for the game.

Something our guild really likes to do is run Dungeon Maker dungeons. They can get boring if overdone, but they do not suffer from the great deal of brokenness that the mentoring system has. A well-geared and upgraded Lv 20 can still contribute significantly when grouped up with a Lv 90.

If Sony wants to cater to high end only , Then maybe make a split game where those that like and want to play high end only can zone in and have to stay in those zones.Leave the low end zones for those that like to play low end and for new players. The way it is now so many high end players mentor down and mass kill the low end .There for lower lvl players and new players have to take whats left. One of the reasons this and other games are dieing is peeps get to high end and raid everything so many times they lose interest. And the new players are being messed with by high lvl players the new just quit and try a different game. This game will be dead if they can't get more new players in and keep them.Sooner or later everyone thats playing the game will get bored and quit .We need new players to keep the game on line. Also if I wanted to play WoW I would have never sold that account.EQ2 needs to stand up and do something different

They don't have to do any kind of split game or anything. Nothing is happening with the low end zones. They don't have to be left for anything. This isn't about catering to the high end, but providing a player experience that puts people in a better position to actually have some interactions. New players would be great, but you're not exactly going to draw them in and keep them in with the existing level gap they have to traverse.

You can still rest easy knowing that you put in that hard work, or you can get over it cause its a video game and nothing has meant anything for quite some time

those unwilling to traverse that gap won't be here long anyway. Anyone who finds leveling to be 'hard' is also going to have a hard time coping with lvl 95. SOE needs to quit catering to the single hotbar crowd.