I love the expansion! I hate that its not accessible to most! (reqs & zones too hard)

^^^ This. It seems to me the OP was discussing the basic gear requirements to accomplish a T1 heroic that are not available from Sig line quests like it was in previous expansions. Hence, there are few players LFG for heroics. Nobody is asking that the zone itself to be made easier.

Running PQs (public zergs IMO) over and over for gear and infusers, solo zones over and over for coins, gathering, crafting, etc., etc. is not challenging at all. It's a grind. And if that is what is required for raid zones, so be it. But T1 heroics used to be designed as entry level grouping zones where players of different classes learned to group and play as a team and you didn't have to research third-party websites or use third-party programs to figure out how to complete them. That is the heart and soul of EQ and other MMO. Why take that away?

And since we are on the subject of difficulty, I don't think EQ2 is that difficult at all anymore. It's all about grinding for the gear that has the stats to beat the mob. EQOA was much more difficult than EQ2 despite the fact that each class only had 10 abilities to use. There was no ACT and very little UI information to tell you exactly what was going on in the fight. You actually had to have skill and organization to defeat the more difficult mobs.

So, please, lets dispense with the long-winded lectures about how hard things need to be when they really aren't hard at all.

I would suggest you make friends and form your own steady group to do heroics, and not worry about the randumb players out there. For many of them, the faster the run is, the better it is and that means if you don't meet THEIR criteria, you are scum and not worthy of running with them. Form your own group and play to have fun. Yes, the fights will take longer... yes, more deaths... but if you win, does it really matter if it took 90 minutes but you had fun or 44 minutes 22 seconds and it was a chore every nanosecond? You decide which is more fun for you, and I hope you find it.

Hard is one thing; doable, perhaps, maybe even fun, for those who want a heavy-duty challenge (not I /shrug).

Grinding isn't. Ever.

Uwk

In T1 the fighter casts Bulwark of Order and it only hits the tank. In T2 if the tank does or doesn't cast Bulwark - either way, Chaotic Barrage II gets applied to group members too. It's like it's ignoring Bulwark (possible Bulwark's only been programmed to prevent Chaotic Barrage I?)

We dont have this problem with at least 3 different class tanks in any T2. You might want be 110% sure and record a video of it and start a bug thread.

I don't think so. The TL;DR version is "get your Resolve to 1060 and Potency to 60K and the rest of the stats will come as you do more advanced instances".

Then I have lots of explanation for how to get the resolve and Potency up enough to do T1 heroics, and there's lots of tools for this that don't require cash or plat.

If you want to "get gud" as they say, then yeah, you do have to at least have a general understanding of the various stats, pursue infusing, reforging etc.

I didn't even touch on Excel spreadsheets for calculating spell/CA efficiency/DPS to build a better casting order. Search the forums, there's a couple recent ones out there for, I think, warlocks that could be adapted for other classes.

I will say that the funniest EQ2 stories I have arose from really bad PUGs that we look back on and laugh about now.

Back in Rise of Kunark, we were in a Sebilis PUG, and the shaman would. not. cure! When confronted, she airily told us IT TOOK TOO MUCH POWER! That expansion was ALL about constant cures.

One time in Kingdom of Sky, we were trying to get down to Den of the Devourer. We were clearing so we could pull whatever the name is that's in the cavern outside the Den, but another group deliberately trained a bunch of trash onto us. The shadowknight tanking for us FD'd our whole group and we lay there wondering what had happened as the enraged bugs ate the other people.

Somewhere in the midst heading down to visit Nagafen, the PUG's tank wasn't holding aggro at all. Finally, we realized that he wasn't taunting. No voice chat then, so we all struggled in /gsay to explain what a taunt was and why he should use them. He argued that if it didn't do damage he wasn't gonna use it. We insisted, so on the next pull, the tank runs forward, targets the mob, then does /em taunt...

Meneltel is with me and we have the same group of friends that are like minded. We play to have fun and we have more fun if we are partnered or grouped with people in our circle.

That's the thing.

Why exactly do I need to use a third party program, which by the way, does not show any of my currently played characters? Instead of being able to find this information in game?

Those are completely rhetorical questions which I know the answers to, not directed at you, who I know are only trying to help us to overcome the EQ2 developers deficiencies at explaining it in game.

You give me the information I need and I so much appreciate it.

It's working for me 100% of the time as well on a Berserker.

Ease of use, and extra data provided in tooltips. Convenience. The fact that you can click a stat and it highlights which items have that stat.

To make your character visible to the Census data that third party sites such as Dragon's Armory and EQ2U use:

Character Window >> EQII Share tab >> EQ2Players Options >> check "Enable EQ2Players Updates" >> Click "Send an Update" button

You can use

Character Window >> Stats I

Character Window >> Stats II

There is some info in tooltips, and you can experiment to figure out the data Dragon's Armory provides empirically. It's much harder to figure out the imbuing stuff without Dragon's Armory, but again, you can get it empirically.

Thanks. I answered the specific points so that others would also know the answers.

We had one since, forever. The problem is the make up is no longer feasible for CD Heroics. So our group is no longer. Our group had hard core raiders and casuals - now it is nothing. Our group has had no problems doing the last 2 Expansion Sig lines and then starting the heroics, until now. When our tank left, I stopped playing my DPS and started tanking and we added another friend. We have flown through zones because they were not a challenge and died countless times trying to figure out new strats. We did decide our fate and had no issues with whatever was thrown at us, because it was all doable. That all went out the window with CD, they have decided our group make up, and if your group of friends does not meet their group make-up - you can't group. We don't mind grinding for gear to make up the new "floor" for stats. We don't mind them changing how they do stats, making all our work last expansion for naught. We can over come those, we can't overcome forced group make-up.

i'm gonna challenge you that with a healer and a tank in that group make-up, t1 heroics can be done easily and most of t2s with some perseverance after some class-mechanics re-learning

i rolled a tune on the TLE server to get the inheritance manastone as suggested...
then I subbed a second account there and haven't been back. I do miss my 9 master crafters though... I don't really want to delete them, but I need slots.

ps. your PHDs in EQ2 were well earned
and in that vein, with a shrinking market for experts at level cap, more low level expansion content.... might infuse the player base

4 scouts a tank and a shaman do not work in the zones. No amount of perseverance and re-learning will help. Nice try.

The zones are not hard. It's the pointless longevity of it. I don't people think anything is hard, it's BORING. This whole copy and paste lied about revamp of a system is just boring. As far a heroics you can half of t2 anyways an go into raiding t1 then come back to it later. It's pretty much just giant zones with bad use of space and quest that send you halfway around the world to click one thing etc.. rinse repeat and you will never like it as long as nothing good is presented. Nothing new has been introduced to this game since the real Mythicals.

sorry your experience was negative. which zone(s), pray tell, and what failed you. your group decided to take on the handycap of awkward makeup, so i guess time to step up to the challenge. that said, we've had several groups succeeding that fit this description. with some wipes, and much anger vented by the shaman about the healing changes making it an intense experience to solo heal - sure, but succeed they did after getting that out of the way.

it will certainly take more prep to succeed than before with this setup, namely power if troub is not one of your 4, but your statement is factually false nontheless unless you roll with 4 dirges with Journey ascensions and expect to succeed. nothing in the easy heroics requires a mage and you have basically the combined power of voltron with 4 daggerstorms. if all else fails, switch zones, come back later.

Twisty, if people have to choose between playing a toon that they have fun playing but that will not work in this expansion without major upgrades that will be hard to get if you cant get groups and playing a new class to level and gear that will work with groups to get things done, many will decide to play a different game without these limitations!

i'm not sure what you're saying - whats the message? you want to be able to zone into a solo zone with more than 2 people like we have been in last 3+ xpacs? cause i been soloing heroics in 1st week pretty standard in previous 3xpacs. i guess we disagree and i view it a _fun_ change. dunno why you concluded current state of things dictates you can't have fun playing a toon you enjoy

Not to mention that requiring balanced groups benefits the utility class players that get sidelined on easy content.