Interview with Lead Designer Akil “Lyndro” Hooper on Game Update 63: SKYSHRINE

I can imagine the sale of ExpPots booming as the altaholics like me feel the need to get the never played classes up to 280. I've gotten my Mystic up to 230 so far in a week, but it's cost about $100 including the double SC. After I get him up there it will be the turn of another.
At 1aa per 10 minutes all it takes is real world money.
Tell you what SOE, turn the poop XP on back in Chelsith and we won't complain as much, we can just AFK while our mercs level them up. I get the feeling that those saying this is a good idea were hard at work in Chelsith when the exploit was possible

If you are level 90 with less than 200 AAs, you can gain AAs incredibly fast. It doesn't have to be a Double XP weekend and you don't have to go into current tier heroic dungeons. You also don't have to raid.
Mentor down and run EoF, KoS, or RoK dungeons. With your level 90 armor (you can get a full set of Thurgadin by hailing an NPC, or Ry'Gorr with gems), and mitigation, mobs shouldn't even be able to damage you, yet you should be able to just about one-shot them. Take a merc if you like. You don't have to "grind". Just run these dungeons periodically for fun, plat, and experience as well. Just run your favorite ones once a week and you will earn 10-15 AAs a week just from this.
EQ2 has more solo content than ever, if you include every level 1-70 named, overland zone, and dungeon. None of this content requires raid gear to clear, it's already trivial even when mentored down.
Now, do I agree with this requirement of 280AAs to get Prestige levels? I think 280 is a bit steep. The bigger problem is some people will run the Skyshrine content and not realize they aren't leveling, and then later on when they have 280AAs, they will have to grind to level to 91 and 92 since they've already done the Skyshrine content.
At the very least, there should be a red message at the top and in chat: You have less than 280 AAs and so will not receive adventure experience for completeing quests here. Heck they could really make it clear by putting a red outline around all quest givers in Skyshrine until you have 280 AAs and when you try to talk to them, they just respond with:
I sense a lack of experience about you. Come back to me when you have wrested the knowledge from powerful enemies.

Hi! I am a casual player. I have attended exactly 2 DoV raids. I usually play between the hours of 11pm to 6am EST. I am in a casual guild that mostly focuses on low-end heroic content like Rime and early Kael instances.
My main was created on launch day, long before AAs came out. I have completed over 1,500 quests for which I did not get AA experience. I can't stand grinding, and rarely am I able to force myself to do so for more than about an hour at a time. And even then, only on double exp weekends.
HOWEVER, my main character has 320 AAs. Two of my 90 alts have over 300 AAs. I have 2 more 90 alts with over 280 AAs.
AA experience is not hard to get, even for a casual player, and even without grinding. Even if you have a lot of alts, and even if your character was created before AAs existed.
GU63 content is designed as additional progression beyond the existing Velious content. This content is designed to be challenging, even for people who are well-equipped and have over 300 AAs. If you do not meet the minimum requirement of 280 AAs, this content is not meant for you. You have not reached the level of progression at which this content is relevant. You need to work on earlier parts of the progression before you are ready for the GU63 content.
Note: the solo quest series in GU63 do not require level 91, so that content is available to you. You will likely find this content fairly difficult, however, as it has been designed for more advanced characters. IF you can complete it, you will be rewarded with excellent gear that is better than anything you likely have access to, unless you buy SLR. You will need to be content with this for a while, because frankly you have no business in Skyshrine heroic content if you have less than 280 AAs.
I am tired of people claiming that playing casually somehow restricts them from being competent players. I have played this game since launch, and I have never had the opportunity to raid regularly. I generally am forced to wait for a level-cap increase to experience raid content and sometimes even the most difficult heroic content. I am the very definition of casual, but I still know the details of EQ2's mechanics, I pride myself on having well-optimized, powerful characters, and I understand when certain aspect of the game are not targeted to my play style. Finally, I understand that in order to experience all aspects of the game, a player is required to put for some minimum amount of effort, and if you have not done so, you simply have not earned the right to advance.
Setting a minimum number of required AAs to level past 90 is not an insult to casual players. There is nothing stopping a casual player from exceeding that benchmark, as I and countless friends of mine can easily demonstrate. It is simply a way to force those who refuse to take responsibility for their own advancement to get out there and earn their way into the new content. Good intentions and an amiable attitude are not enough to succeed in the higher-tier content--you have to actually pull your weight and earn your place. Perhaps if more casual players took pride in their characters and strove for excellence rather than adequacy, "casual" wouldn't be considered a synonym for "lazy" in the common EQ2 vernacular.

Dethdlr@Butcherblock wrote:

Loss of the max level bonus for one. That makes the aa gaining process even more difficult for alts. As someone that's played since release, I only just recently reached 280 aa on my main (my alts aren't even close). Checking all of the 90's in our casual guild, aside from my husband and myself, there is not a single level 90 among our 20+ listed that has this many aa's. And many of those members have been playing for over three years. As was suggested, require them to enter dungeons if need be, but not for the leveling process. This has been very deflating news.

feldon30 wrote:

So, let's say you have arrived at level 90 and have 140AAs (Seems to be a common number from watching my guildies hit 90) Also let's say this is your first toon at 90 or at most your second (also common in my guild)
You don't have vitality as you are playing it. The mobs in Seb are giving about 400XP per encounter because of no vilatity, no vet bonus. You are going to see maybe 2 or 3 AAs per week doing far more than one dungeon. A single run of HoF will net you just one AA without Vitality/Vet bonus.
They need 140AA more to move on, they can get one a week using your suggestion of just one dungeon.
GU63 is three weeks off. There are a lot of level 90s with low AAs on the younger servers. Even if your 15AAs a week were true Feldon it's going to take them 10 weeks of just dungeon running older content in order to be able to step foot in withered lands and not forgo the XP.

This is a ploy to sell huge numbers of XP pots.

The_Cheeseman wrote:

This is not about heroic content, this is about the overland quests for Altaholics and new players.
Sure we can do them at level 90 quite easily with a merc or a duo or even a guild group BUT if you do that overland content at 90 and without the 280AA requirement you will not get XP from them.
In so many months when these players get their 280 AAs (I see you are a vet so have had these years to do this) they will not have the quests there to finally level.
Not everyone is a 2005 veteren. There are a tonne of new players to the game. Every single one of these new players is about to be screwed over.
Want to enforce the 280? make it on the heroic content only, NOT on the overland zones. Put a gate on the dungeon door that simply says "You don't have enough AAs to enter this dungeon"

So for an example to those that think this requirement is penalizing you...
I just had a friend return to the game 2 weeks ago after a 2 year break. He had 180 aa and has refused several of my offers to grind out AA with him. He insists on just doing instances he can do by himself. So in the matter of 2 weeks, he is now at 287 AA!!! What's he doing you ask? Oh, just soloing easy instances mentored down a couple hours a night. He has no raid gear, just the quest gear from DoV with a couple rygor pieces thrown in. He's having fun just doing these instances and experiencing the content that is available to him, not grinding mobs in any way.
I don't buy this crap that someone cannot get to the required AA level by the time GU63 arrives. Face it, you are lazy, end of story. Sorry to break it to you.

Elomort wrote:

You paid 100$ for some potions so you could get few AAs? Don't you have any in /claim?

Also i wouldn't mind if the access to lvl92 would require you to have 300 or 320 AAs, it's not that hard to get like said before, and this game is easy enough without further freebies.

Faceless@Runnyeye wrote:

Used them getting from 60 to 90 (Freeport didnt have veteren rewards until a few months ago)
This toon is now 237, but another $20 to get those 7 AAs

Cloudrat wrote:

No, it doesn't. It merely says "you must play to continue". Unless your characters are being roleplayed as being in a vegetative state, or all you do is chat and harvest, -everything- in this game will net you AA. There is practically NO way to play that won't give you AA.
I would also like to ask some people in this thread to stop dragging the casual name through the mud. I am casual - I don't group, I haven't raided since KoS, my characters were created at launch (and thus "penalized") and I enjoy decorating houses and crafting. I never grind or do repeatable quests, and I also don't do Golden Path solo quests if I can help it, as all of that is boring to me. Yet I have two characters over 300 and several others that could easily be over 280 by the next GU if I tried (without spending any real life cash, jeez, some of you people are crazy).
Personally I am looking forward to another goal to work for, as well as the new content!

DamselInDistress wrote:

You might see it as laziness but I wish to run all those 90s in my signature through GU63.
You know Damsel, Just in those 90s I have 540 levels and about 1,200 AAsFor this toon though are the only ones i have bothered buying. I guess, with a level 90 guild that i have to keep grinding writs for to help pay the rent... and doing it all in 14 months...
Yeah, lazy.
As far as the money part goes... I get paid well in my job, this game is a little entertainment for me on the long night shifts I do. It's cheaper than taking a family to see one movie neh?

Would you like to take another swing hon? Your first attempt was a little wide of the mark.

You know, it didn't bother me before when I had maxed out my aa and level on my main and then had all experience TOTALLY WASTED because there was no place for it to go. Now, I find myself resenting that they had no mechanism to save up the extra experience to apply to when they increased AA points available. I'm not quite sure why I resent it as I have well over 300 aa points. But this aa gating has inspired the resentment over wasted experience. I earned it by doing quests, etc., but got no credit for it. *shrug*
Personally, if they are going to do this they should just do AA gating through the entire game. The problem is you level too fast to have max AA points at the end UNLESS you adjust the slider. Which you can't do if you are f2p. I'm not f2p and I do adjust my slider to gate leveling to obtain aa over levels on my alts. New people may be f2p and not be able to gate their leveling or just not know they need to. I envision people leveling too fast with too little aa to play end content now.
I'm looking for a silver lining but I don't see anything good over just doing aa gating at the end.

feldon30 wrote:

10-15 is dreaming, when you mentor down the mentor hit is HUGE. It's even slower than grinding sebelis. And for those of that had over 1000 quests done before AA was introduced, including every heritage there was etc (because we liked doing that sort of thing) are even further screwed.
And it appears to me that 180 to 181 takes nearly THE SAME XP as 309 to 310. The 'curve' is whack, and their are definately some hell levels in there.

Enever wrote:

There has been more content and quests added since AA then before it. There are TONS of characters that were created before AA that are now maxed, and there are even more TONS of characters created after AA who have max AA.
That is not an excuse at all. If you don't have characters at the AA cap it is because you do not WANT to have characters at the AA cap. Plain and simple.

Raknid wrote:

I completely disagree, there hasn't been enough content to make up for the over 1000 quests we lost before aa was introduced. And characters created 'after' get the benefit of doing those we were 'cheated' out of receiving benefit.
The AA has been built on the repition of missions over and over and over OR grinding.

Cyliena wrote:

You purchased the oppurtunity to earn them if you meet the requirements, yes.

Elomort wrote:

If you think that was a swing you misunderstood me.
This is a game we play to have fun. Pay for levels is definitely not fun and it makes no sense when leveling AA is so easy anyway. You mentioned spending a week and over $100 to get 230 AA ?What exactly did you do in that week ? You sacrificed your entertainment and spent a lot of money for nothing,
Your entire post is a massive failure and it doesn't stand up however you look at it. Yes I did say laziness and incompetence because this is what you've just displayed. If you think about it you'll realise it wasn't a swing and it wasn't wide either.
I don#t really care what you make in real life. This is a game and this whole pay to win attitude is disgusting, not to mention totally un-fun.

Marketplace sales must be flagging on XP Potions. I foresee an increase in sales.
This move will further ostracize people and separate the 'lower' class (non raider) from the upper class.
The DAY of GU63 launch THE PlAYERBASE WILL REQUIRE level 92 to do anything in game limiting grouping. In an MMO, anything that limits grouping is bad.

CoLD MeTaL wrote:

Don't think you have to worry much about limitations anymore. SOE is all about that.
What do you need groups for anyway ? You want xp ? Solo is the way, You want plat ? Again solo is the way.
The whole game is a solo feast so much that it can hardly be called a MMO anyway. It's a solo game with some occasional group / raid

CoLD MeTaL wrote:

And the majority of those quests were so low level as to be completely insignifcant compared to what was added since.
They have reset the POIs and named kills, so the only thing that is lacking from before is the AA from the quests, and as I said, those 15 quests from the Sewers, 25 quests from the Ruins, 30 quests from Wailing Caves, do not amount to much compared to what has been added since. It is very likely that a few level 80 quests offers more AA than all those combined.