Hunting dailies completely eviscerated the sub50 game...

I have to babyrage about this, because these dailies have just turned the entire game into a horrible boring chore. Since everyone now has a dozen level 50 alts, they/we feel compelled to do this crap on every character, every day, becoming trapped in this monotonous routine... lest they fall behind on completely absurdly overpowered equipment.

No longer does anyone have time to play sub-50 alts... or even games outside of EQ2... nope, it's just this hunting daily, over and over, every day, until the next expansion unlocks. And knowing that it's coming again in the next expansion just makes me shiver and want to stop now.

There are a number of ways it could be made better, but since the system seems to already be years old, there's no point in exploring ideas that will never even be considered... I just want to complain.

Yep.

On one side of the coin, what else is there to do with 4 month unlocks in the expansions that don't have 4 months worth of things to do? Might as well get upgraded to the maximum capacity.

On the other side though... lengthy dailies become tedious fast and isn't actual new content. Not a fan of this strategy to keep people playing at all.

I'm an advocate for faster unlocks personally, but EQ2 is gonna EQ2. If you're afraid the customer is going to get bored and leave then look into that. Dailies are like using duct tape to fix something. It's great at first but the issue is still there.

How you feel about them (conceptually as a game play mechanic) is one thing and of course you're entitled to your opinion. But they are not "lengthy dailies"; the quest will generally take you about 20-30 minutes to do (perhaps 30-45 minutes if it's Everling), adding a bit more travel time if you don't have a druid or sorcerer in the group. It's not like you're forced to do this for hours every day unless you have many alts you feel compelled to gear out.

I feel the complete opposite way. Hunters and Bloodlines came and gave me and my friends incentive to log on the game again for a few more weeks. Then there is a new Path of exile league August the 19th to keep all of us happy and busy until desert of flames unlocks!
The server had double exp for quite some time, id be willing to bet that the majority of people lvled the alts they wanted during that time.
With each new expansion more ppl will lvl more alts as classes get new cool toys to play with. Im guessing you are going to see a lot of rogues and monks lvling next expansion for example.

Well instead of sharing "feelings" I'll share a real example. I login, where normally I can do whatever I want, I'm forced to chase after this vendor time sink game with overtuned gear.

1. 30 minutes to find a group - Not everyone is in guilds of everyone running these, half of my guild has enough time to raid log and play maybe 1 or 2 other days, they've already given up on hunters. This includes the time for everyone, after you've formed the group, to finally get off the broker and start cluelessly looking around for a portal they knew they'd need for the last 15 minutes.
2. 1 hour in nek2 - if you have a group that can competently invis through, and is willing to skip named it's half that time, those aren't givens though.
3. 30 minutes Bloodlines target - no porter, evac back to nek2 and run to bloodlines. Don't get to experience any of the new content because you're just going to invis past it everything.
4. 30 minutes Lavaborn - everyone has to recall, get ports to LS, pulled into an instance for the most boring fight you've ever seen against a giant lava elemental that has as much HP as trash in nek2.

So that is almost 2-3 hours on 1 character, now I have to do that on my alt as well? And then repeat every day?

Anyone who thinks that's a good gameplay loop should go sit in the corner with whatever crayon eating game designer cooked up the idea in the first place.

This isn't a decade ago where EQ could look at login analytics and try to boost daily logins like it mattered, this game is on life support and the only thing that matters is player retention, and systems like this does not help in retaining anyone just because you call it "content".

If everyone has a dozen level 50 alts, what do you expect them do be doing sub 50?

At least your honest.

Thanks for the read, I needed a laugh this morning!

1. Join a guild or make 5 friends. Complaining about needing to group up in a MMO is beyond absurd.

2. Buy some invis totems, it takes 20 minutes to do Nek2. You still get to kill 6 or so names. IF you decide to full clear that's your choice. Also it's only 1 out 3 days for Nek2.

3. Bloodlines takes 5 minutes. Call home, Maid for the Mist.. etc. If you want to experience the content and full clear you can make a group for it. But you don't get to complain how long the run takes.

4. Lavaborn takes less than 5 minutes, If you have 6 people and non have an evac, druid port, or sorc portal, sorry. Make a better group. Or spend 50 cents and buy the evac consumable.

So it's about 30-40 minutes once a every 3 days, because the other 2 days it takes about 20 minutes.

I think the hunter quest is designed for good players/raiders because of its time cost if you're not. If it's taking three hours to do you're either a bad player or you're playing with bad players. In both cases the hunter quest can work to remedy the situation by encouraging players to develop their skills in the interest of saving time or for good players to find some new colleagues to run the quest/raid with.

As I said, I'm in one but it's not a no lifer guild so most log in twice a week for raids and maybe 1 or 2 other days at most, none of them are interested in even doing hunters anymore after seeing what's required day after day.

As I said, it can be done quicker if invis but average players aren't going to have a group that has group invis and doesn't screw it up repeatedly, or non-invis willing to even buy totems. And you're talking about a 20m run from zone in, there is the time of group to get there, pull everyone in etc.

I get to complain about whatever I want, you sure do. And 5 minutes is another one of those times you're pulling out of thin air.

Sure in an ideal group of guildmates ready to roll and know what they're doing - guess what Zenji, there are other players besides you in this game that experience things differently.


I was posting an actual timeline of events instead of pulling times out of thin air like you and others continue to do.

If that really is what your daily experience is like, then I can understand why you'd be frustrated. But the problem you're describing isn't a game mechanics issue, it's a people issue (not logging in, no evac available, not using invis totems, etc.). Perhaps the solution is to find some different people to play with on a regular basis.

Few months down the line the remaining players will look around blaming the low pop on SL being too long and not mundane time consuming gameplay loops that were added in decades after release.

So you're saying my problem is that I should NOT group with casual players and instead isolate myself in a guild full of people who have run this content dozens of times?

Who is this daily even for if not casual players? Was told it's NOT a catchup mechanic? Then the only purpose of a merchant full of clearly overtuned gear is to keep the top few dozen players busy getting overtuned gear to complete content they already have no trouble clearing? Dumb.

I personally have had more fun with a guild struggling to kill vanu 2 full weeks than previous TLE of not even remembering the fight it was so easy. That's difficulty that I chose, this dumb daily mechanic has nothing fun involved in it, it's just a timesink.

I'm saying the opposite of "isolate yourself". I'm saying expand your group of friends in way that will help you better accomplish goals in the game and hopefully enjoy it more.

it was successful at making people want to do more than just raid log. Now i'm logging in 20-30min each day on my main! The fact that i don't really want to is irrelevant.

i know i could totally just not do them and ignore the absolute best gear in the game right now, but that doesn't feel good either.

Zenji isn't pulling times out of thin air - that's how long it takes to do them with just a little foresight and about 10 20s Totems of the Chameleon (if you aren't an invis'er). And we usually put together a group of anyone who is looking to go, not always an 'optimal' group.

One day we had Tank, 3 druids and 2 swashes. The next tank, druid and 4 necros. We didn't even know the 4 necros - and we still were able to do the zones within Zenji's timeline.

Some of you truly know a lot about the game, no doubt. But you do often come across sounding arrogant as hell.

"We know the game backwards and forwards, which includes all the trick and twists to getting it done and gear"
"Of course, everyone is 50 by now, how they could not be"
"No new players really play this game"
"No one plays for fun and if they do well fine, they can just solo everything and have fun by themselves"

Hunters is different on Varsoon, then Kaladim and if you did not have time to jump in right out gate and get them groups for whatever the access stuff was- Bloodlines and Splitpaw" Good luck finding groups to catch up on that.

Yes if you know the right folks it can go quick. Lol but would those folks openly let you into their group if they thought you would slow them down? Not likely, besides why would you want to feel bad because the folks around you think you are dirt cause you not as "GUD" as them.

Believe it or not there are indeed many folks not 50 yet, they joined the TLE hoping to experience the game "You know questing, Heritage quests, casual playing". You do need groups and help to finish these and there are definitely far less groups then just before the "Hunter Rage". Try putting together an XP group even, see folks trying to fill just one group in Gen chat for long times.
My point is not that you upper folks should not be grinding away on dailies or whatever, but please do not pretend that there are no other types of folks playing.
If/when they leave (they will because they feel unwanted and irrelevant) please do not pretend this does not impact you and your gameplay. Lost revenue does not help anyone.
Many of the things Wiegraf says are true- I myself dont have more then 20/30 mins straight to play most days-due to RL issues. Use to easily find a group or a few folks in a zone to get an update for HQ or difficult mob. Not so much anymore. Im realistic- I know I will not have the time to earn the coins or even to have the right class for a prismatic from a pick up raid. I am finding it less and less fun to log in, the odds of finding a small group that is not running hunters is getting slimmer by the day.

Enjoy your gaming, but please remember "There are two sides to every coin"

I was in a group yesterday...3 mages and 3 druids...I was a little nervous about Icy and Kodan, but we just blew through it all without breaking a sweat. People are good at doing these quests efficiently, Everling is the only one that might cause any issues.

If there weren't hunters quests no one would be running instances, let alone outside of guild.

low population will hit around SF probably, not sure anyone is worried. the only ones worried about population succumb to their own vices and quit earlier than most everyone else. blame yourself if you aren't satisfied with end game activities, find something else to do. or take someone else's advice, find new friends to play with.

There's also been prismatic pickup raids like 1-2 times a day everyday... lots of people doing lots of things.

This is obvious bull****, considering there was no shortage of instance groups the day before this debacle went live.

As a matter of fact, prior to hunting dailies, there were groups of all levels, at all hours of the day. In a flash of light, that is all completely gone.

Bad correlation there. Immediately before Hunters started, there was a double XP bonus that ran for weeks. That ended, and people stopped furiously leveling alts. The drop in grouping / leveling activity is far more attributable to the end of the XP bonus than to the introduction of the Hunter dailies.