A flawless buff for doing h1/2 like last expac instead of starting at raid/h3 level would have helped casual players and people that play alts out for groups. It would have made them more viable for content instead we have crickets majority of time in our lfg channel .
It's true this expansion has taken many of the players to the far reaches of their patience with the game. Its sad that the game cannot decide once and for all, which stats are important and which ones are fluff. But this constant oscillating between stats each year to "slow down the players" is rubbish. Any new players, if there even are any, would need a playbook to know which expansion for what stats were important. The crusader wards were OP for a tank, but they would have been appropriate on a healer. But instead of adjusting the wards for just the tanks, all wards were smacked with the bat and everyone took 12 steps back. A tanks primary ability to heal should not be a defining ability, if so give some love to the Guards and let them have a comparable heal / wards to the crusaders. Maybe even cool squire like the SK's I feel we need to heavily invest additional time in the testing on the test server before these types of changes go live, and allow us to copy our toons there so that we can directly test in real time gear. To little time on a very small population does not represent the game as a whole. If we are going to continue to have such a terrible gear itemization then we deserve to have reforging back in the game. It allows us to fix the gear choices that are provided, as well a healthy plat sink for the game. The same over cap bottleneck needs to be removed permanently, they should remove all need for OC items so that what ever stat you have, is what you have. I also have played since beta and cannot explain my frustration with what used to be an amazing game.
I've been ill, but this expansion's grindiness and ridiculous heroics doesn't increase my longing to get back in the game, either. I've got Contested gear, raiding would give satisfaction of killing All The Things, but not gear improvements. I'm hoping the next batch of content released will be a smoother progression from the solo lines to H1, thence to H2 etc.
I still can't figure out if they are just trying to slow the high end raiding guilds down, or just don't know that the content wasn't fun and why it wasn't fun. The high end raiding guilds will beat an xpac regardless. It doesn't mean they will enjoy the content and hang around. You want people in game.. stop making the game so unfun that people log out. That's what is happening.
I hated this expansion in general. I did the trade skill stuff. And I got half way through the adventure time line on my Channeler and couldn’t bring myself to do the rest. It was just so…eh to me. I have not done raiding or anything like that in years, so I can’t speak on that. But I really liked VoV. This one just bored me.
^^^ Well said! EQ2 Devs throughout the years, bloated the game with new-fangled ideas like tithing, resolve, adorn system, ascension, hell even potency ... throwing everything at the wall to see what would stick. Ever buy a new Windows PC, like from a box store? The Bloat-ware is insane. EQ2 is like that, but you can't uninstall the bloated parts. I'd LOVE to do H1's, but have never ever grouped ... despite being /played at launch and current main is /played Dec 2006 It's just too confusing to figure out what stats / adorns / links / scrolls are needed just to participate and this expansion was even more difficult to get to the H1-ready threshold. I could have had a great shot at running H1's this time, if I'd only had 1, one, piece of a mere 415r from the music box random rewards. Just one. I did get a 415 from the rng music box nightmare, but it was for a completely different class than my main. Lol grrrrrr...... Log in. Have fun. Feel accomplished. Log out. Every Expansion is an opportunity to fix these broken things. Why don't they? - Sheyn
This expansion is completed for solo players by the first zone of Buried Takish'Hiz . In my opinion, this is somehow wrong. The zone is open, but you cannot quest there.
If that's true, I'll be amazed if EQ2 gets more than one more expansion. It sounds like they've literally given up even trying. Such a shame, but hey, maybe the IP could be bought by another.... actually nah forget it. Nobody is that dumb.
I've been thinking about coming back. I generally only come back to complete questlines for the xpacs i've been out from then somehow end up raiding again LOL. With regards to EQ2 bloating with stats having played for so long it would be really really hard to fix because they would need to remove all the bloat systems then rebalance content right from the beginning to the latest. It would however probably make the game better if they remove all the extra stats they added after launch and set a per xpac increase in those stats. When you have to chase int, agi, str etc again instead of wondering which combination of some obscure stat is important it would at least be easier to play. EQ2 needed a stat crunch for years and resolve was really just a bandaid.
It's been clear for a long time that resolve/potency/fervor etc stat system was designed not to enrich the player experience but to simplify the job of itemisation and allow the dev team to be smaller. You have to wonder about the integrity of any creative-type "professional" who would willfully decide to reduce the quality of the product they're making for loyal paying customers, effectively asset stripping their product for the benefit of a few suits in a boardroom. Personally I'd have brushed up my CV and jumped ship when that decision was being pushed. But then, we don't wonder, we know the EQ2 dev leadership is spineless and incompetent and should have been replaced a decade ago. They've not succeeded in improving any area of the game really, they've driven the quality down and the player numbers have followed. That will be their legacy in the eyes of anyone who was a fan of this game before they got their hands on it.
I think if you started next expansions promotional advertising with the words “ Stat crunch” and “Simplification of statistical character mechanics” there would be players banging down the door .
Why Dev bashing only? Riddle me this ~ why do the top Raiding Guilds eat expansions like its candy? Someone, somewhere, must really, really like it.
Community. For some reason I like the people I play with. Also dumb hope that the next expac just might be slightly better than the last
I had to chuckle at your last line. Word on the street is that this is how "insanity" is currently being defined.
All I know is if the next expac is like this one I won't be saving pennies and going without food, heat, and gas for the car to pay for any more of them. I love this game, I really do, but CD and now RoR are nothing but pain and suffering. So frustrated that I have a pounding headache after playing for any time at all. I like to be challenged but back-to-back deaths (with the best gear and food a solo player can have) is beyond annoying. This is becoming a job; I don't work for Daybreak/Darkpaw (or whatever their proper name is this week) and want to play (definition of play is a fun enjoyable distraction) not endless grinding and stupid hard quests. The content is so small anymore they should change the name, it's not Everquest it's Evergrind or Questless. *sigh* rant over. My apologies to the wonderful Devs, I know they are doing the best they can I'm just so frustrated.
Well after multiple deaths again on another character, I have determined this must be their new plat sink, a tortuous way to slow us down, and another way to make extra money using revive instantly for DB cash.
It's funny, a friend of mine and I were on the EQ2 emulator they have going and it must have just started because there were dozens of bugs, (ha! kinda like when the game was first released!) and a grindiness to it compared with today's live servers, but it felt more...like home I guess. I love this game, my friends are always trying to get me to quit, but I just...it feels like home to me. But more and more like Twyla said, they just want to give us crap we don't want or need for gear in dungeons and make us grind out for the rest/good gear. I love that we get status for doing these dungeons but sometimes it's just so frustrating - like when they even announced the THIRD epic, I literally, outloud to no one said, "What in the actual ****?! Another one???" Come ON!!!! Some of the timelines and names and stuff are fun. This one, epic spells (which I didn't even bother doing) and timeline just DRAGGED.
