I have not played much the last few years. I always played on PvP servers but was not a hardcore PvP person. PvP just made things a lot more interesting. Essentially I stopped when I got to the Great Library and needed 5 to 10 minutes to kill each mob. Maybe a week ago my 110 illusionist managed to complete the access quest for the moon zones. Those were some tough fights in the access quest, especially the named toons that drained power. But I got through it. Since then I have raised seven of my 110 crafters to level 120 and also raised my illusionist to adventure level 120. Only two of my crafters can fly. Raising the first crafter to the cap was hard and confusing. It got easier the second time and a lot easier when I discovered the rapid travel option with the third toon. Raising each toon after that got easier and easier because of experience bonuses. Then I spent most of my money (200,000 plat) on recipe books and discovered I can no longer make master-crafted spells, not for levels 111 - 120 anyway. This is disappointing. I discovered the overseer system, which kind of seems like a lottery. Maybe I get better spell recipes that way. Having raised seven crafters to the cap I decided to try raising my illusionist to adventure level 120 and thought I would take a crack at the signature quest line first. On maybe the fourth quest it was heroic already and I picked the solo option. Here I experienced something I never imagined. I have almost never raided. But this quest turned into something that I imagine is what a raid is like. I managed to complete the quest but needed 4 to 5 hours to do it. It was virtually 4 - 5 hours of almost endless combat. Incredibly my toon never came close to dying. Somehow he fought for over four hours almost none stop and took almost no damage. I was so numbed by the experience I actually started listening to a sit-com on a streaming service in the background while I pressed buttons. My illusionist did this with apprentice spells from this new expansion and mostly free starter gear and a merc with only maybe seven pieces of gear. He did gain a level and did get four pieces of useful gear in the process. I will probably continue to play for a while. But I will probably try to join a group for the signature quests from now on if they are like the last one. I have not figured out yet whether the crafted gear might be an improvement over the free gear (I saw a post here that said it is if you use experimentation and refined material). My illusionist does have recipes for mastercrafted gear, but not spells. I also felt a little odd about my illusionist using a crossbow. I discovered the Aim stat and that is now at the cap. Although he ran out of bolts long before he finished the 4 - 5 hour quest described above. I did make him some adept spells afterwards. I do not know whether they will help because he did have some masters from earlier tiers.
As a Conjurer I found survivability in armor and gear with +% to health and adornments... and if you have him, the gathering goblin is flat-out, the best healer I feel, specially if he is capped at level 20 and sitting around 200k potency. The cost for "Shadow Sage" books has dropped by a good amount, from millions each to, sometimes under 50k each, depending on level of course. I still need a few myself and will not pay much for them. Crossbows for mages never felt right to me either, once I found a wand, I stuck with it even if it had worst stats... I believe I finally got my hands on a level 120 one, and I'll keep it without ever going back to a crossbow.
Hello and yes Cragfire you ran into open dors at my Opinon this should be Fixed because its not the way of EQ2 or Any other MMORPG i have ever played that mages are forced to use a Ammo using Weapon. The worst thing is thier is no way to get the 2h 130 CB addorn on an Wand or Staff in ranged slot but on a cross bow it can be added thier is no logical argument why this should be like it is. Make Wand able / free for adding the 130 CB Timed addorn or erase this abillity from crossbows for fairness and our own free mind to use a wand or a bow. 2nd big issuse is that once again all Scouts and other Melee based classes clap hand because they are able to take benefit from Ability DC and Flurry by 100% and all who are using Spells 95% or more are screwed becasuse or the lose or Spell Double Cast and flurry is not working on most Mages exept Illu or Coercer. Mage is ranged fighter so 10 meters ore more away from mob MAX melle DPS is done with the Main and or 2nd Hand weapon so 5 meters or mor close to the MOB, so find the FAIL in your picture. Exept the Rangers BOW all Ranged weapons do not the same amount as the Melees doing so for mages Melee is not an option. Its a matter fact that Ability DC didnt take place in the Mechanic same way as Spell Doublecast did before and in my case as A DOT DD it makes a huge difference in DPS if a DOTs Primal hit which is quiet the highest one double or not. In the first time Spell DC was implemente it only works on spells so all classes which have no spells dont benift from it. So get the differences between Casters and Melees back in game and stop making all Equal and some classes Powerfull as sh...t and some are srcewed to be nearly useless in the case some classes tke beneift from 2 DPS mods and one only from one. Flurry for Scouts / Melee Classes CA Based Archtyps Spell or Ability DC only for Casters and mostly Spell Based Archtyps And Ability DC for AA Based things and Ascensions ONLY!!!! that the way it should be. Helfiren
