On Kander's Candor Episode 9. you mentioned to keep working on the Scepter Quest. Sorry but this may sound funny but what is the scepter quest and where do I get it
They were talking about the new quest Binding to the Dark (link to Wiki). It is a very long quest that involves collecting various shards that can drop off of any heroic or raid boss. The final reward is the Scepter of Shadows and a best-in-slot green adorn. Very few people have it yet, and many people have already given up hope. Still, we should be seeing much more of it with Ethereals getting people back into heroics. It's insanely good if you can make it to the end.
Saw a few shards drop in Experts over the last couple of days. And the drop rate is definitely higher in raid now. I think you'll see more and more people finishing it over the next couple of weeks.
As a filthy casual I assumed I would never get this. Since I have never seen a drop, I think my assumption is accurate. The login post, "The Scepter Awaits" was just the game taunting me
If you examine the contents of the 'reward box' from the solo and weekly missions, even the solo drop quests, you see the cauldron looking thing (quest starter? or related somehow?) as a possible reward. However after well over 500 of these reward box (400 of which gave infusers) I've yet to see it, and seems that even if by some miracle I did get the starter, would need to raid to finish it. So yeah. Seems its really not an event/quest for anyone that doesn't raid. Its a shame there's not like, a lesser version of it for folks who can't deal with the raid schedule culture (or at least perhaps, a longer path to work to the same goal). The login message is indeed annoying if its something completely unobtainable.
Right. Here's the thing. Firstly, the Scepter of Shadows is the key to Vex Thal. Vex Thal, in EQ1 was the apex raid zone in Luclin, and only really good players managed to get there, and even better players managed to farm it. It was unforgiving, brutal and hard. Not for casual players. So far, the only-for-raiders thing is fitting the bill. If this is the key to Vex Thal and it's going to be anything at all in this mold, then you won't be needing the scepter if you're not a raider. So I don't know why you're getting worked up about it. Also, the rune you get from the quest is superior to the runes which drop in raid currently. Are you suggesting an item of this power should be hanging from a tree for you to pick? However, no, it's not only for raiders. You can get all the shards from heroic zones if you work at it. A guildy of mine has finished it and he did a good portion of it by soloing heroic zones. If you want to do the quest, you only have to up your game a tiny bit and join normal-mode heroic runs. And there'll be loads of them right now because of the ethereal event, and most people have figured out that the experts are a lot of work and not necessary to get the required number of coins (for what's visible on the merchant currently).
Yeah I'm not entirely sure who the audience is for experts. They are pretty much only doable by high end raid geared people, and the gear is absolutely not worth it at all. I laughed when I first went through one because of the buff that brings you to 162k potency, because I was at 190k and it was still absolutely ridiculous. I'm definitely not running 12 of those a week.
Combat mitigation is an idea that just sucks the fun out of the game. It makes Diaku challenge just painful, and it makes the experts more of a grind than they need to be. But they're basically the same as challenge mode, with a little more mitigation I'd guess. I don't think you need to be a top raider to do them, but you do need a patient and skilled group. And you probably do need as much potency in the group as you can muster. Auto attack and pets fair well here. We cleared all 12 zones with strong guild groups in about 3 hours I think. With a fair bit of screwing up and dying. The trash is tougher than the names. We died far far more times from making mistakes with trash than with names. As for the loot. Well, I passed a few pieces down to an alt I use for our alt raid. I also got some fairly nice rewards from the expert weekly. Generally 190 resolve stuff, but some 195. You also get the sweet 205 resolve head piece for killing all expert bosses, so it's worth doing them all at least once. I've done all 12 twice on my main and once on my alt. It's long, but when it's done, it's done. But yeah, you get enough coins from normal mode we think, to not need to do this if you don't want to. Personally I want to get all the flurry gear before I put my feet up.
Yeah I was able to clear them, but I can imagine them being very very painful for lesser geared folks. There were a few in particular which gave me problems (ssraezha).
