T2 raiding - Please Sir, can we have some gear?

Heya,

Was thinking recently about the T2 raids and further progression after listening to my guild officers cry into their beer after a really rough SoH raid. For the record, my guild, Eden, clears T2, yadda, yadda and is trying to gear up for T3 progression with raiding 3 nights a week (okies, sometimes we work on Trakanon one of those nights)

I feel that progression is being made into a roadblock for us by the sheer lack of decent T2 armor and jewelery being dropped, as well as the doublecast neck requiring such a ludicrous amount of shinies. (Shinies are good, but when you need several hundred for one really worthwhile item, perhaps the balance is a bit askew)

To put this into perspective, T2 armor goes for about 300dkp for us - which is equivalent to 12 raids worth of raiding for a guildie, and because the drop rate is so low on the stuff that price hasn't ever gone down

We've ran around the heroics, getting almost all but the slackest of our raiders their Magic Flying RamPonies, we crush the t1s with accidental pulls, and we grind 99% of the t2s under our iron shod booties with ease, and what do we get for it?

If we're lucky 2 bits of t2 armor and maybe 1 or 2 decent jewelery items per raid. In raids where we kill 5 or 6 of them

It's demoralizing - you check raid guild progression and no raid forces except for the ultra-dedicated ones seem to be progressing all that much at the moment. The BiS neckpiece is basically unattainable unless you buy Kronos and the armor and gear you need to upgrade is dropping at a pittance rate even if you can munch through T2 names without pausing

For us raiders, progression, personal advancement and meeting new people and killing them in interesting ways is, I believe, the focus of our fun.

Don't get me wrong, I love grouping, especially in this expansion, but now I feel my entire raid force is starting to progress at a glacial speed and our personal advancement as a raid force has slowed to a crawl due to the paucity of worthwhile drops

Personally I think the recent rune rewards for levelling up your character as well as having the cloaks and belts available at highish prices on the merchants was well and bravely done. These are big steps in helping players enjoy the current game meta more easily and should be rightfully applauded

And since the developers are obviously interested in reducing roadblocks at this moments in time......

1) Could I please ask that they increase the T2 armor and jewelery drop rates?

2) Also, could I please ask that we have the option of buying a good quality doublecast neck that isn't best in slot but is good enough to actually help raiders and non-raiders progress?

I know it's difficult to balance rate of progression versus content, but I want to have both fun and a challenge in raiding. At the moment I feel like instead of fun and the hope of progression that we're having continual gear grinds that are starting to become tedious and little chance to progress due to a low gear drop rate, and that is not fun.

the meta necklace is not unobtainble by any means , ive trioed monolith alot of times after the tank script went away and we did it enugh to get 4 people all the shinys from that place and did all the other zones for other shinys as a trio
t2 armor needs to be a guarented drop by every t2 named though and perhaps the ability to buy t2 armor mold with raid currency
Also you can go to FG and do the quest for the glowing black stone and buy the DC necklace on live , now its not meta collection stats but its still pretty good

Kind words Semisus

I agree totally on the t2 armor drop issue and will most definitely look into the Fallen Gate Glowing Black Stone quest idea - even though I think it's definitely not ideal to have to faff around levelling up a toon on another server just to get one piece of gear

Yeah lately T2 armor pattern and decent jewelry drops became rare event
I for myself would love to have more drop rates. If I remember correctly we have seen raid nights without a single armor pattern drop from 4-5 nameds or even more nameds, cant be certain atm...
And for the jewelry the drop rate is even worse imo. There are a few more i need and one of them I have seen drop once all 4 months and others I have not event seen drop. And dont get me wrong we farm them whenever zones can be reset...

I think you are focusing on out of reach items and losing sight of the actual areas where you can make huge gains immediately.


Is everyone 1100% casting speed?
Is everyone using 3 x 7% DC adorns from proving grounds?
Is everyone using intellect potions?
Is everyone using cybernetic powerlinks?
Is everyone using thorns?
Is everyone using snacks?
Is everyone GM lvl 10 ascension?
Does everyone have minimum expert 101-110 spells
Is everyone max craftable infuser infused - this one people seem to think is hard but its so easy
Is everyone helping low dps performers with their AA's and overall set ups
Is everyone using minimum a fabled familiar?
Is everyone using the correct food? i.e. stormwrought stew should be used if under DC for meldrath. People using matron cobbler is a mistake if under DC. Any other food is mistake as far as I know
Is everyone using the correct drink? Tincture of the storm / strategist smoothie. Pretty sure ANY others are a mistake


If the answer to any of the above is no, then I would stop thinking an increase in the armor drop rate or a DC neck will push you over the line. Outside of raid you need to start thinking as a team and helping those that are poor performers achieve better numbers. Yes a few extra bits of armor will help, but less so than you think. There are much bigger gains you easily can achieve now.

Excellent post. Further to all this, the best advice I can give to the OP is to have your most knowledgeable player/s in your guild go through every single member of your raid forces gear and setup. I'm in a top guild now, but back when I was in a casual raiding guild, I'd notice the same people dying over and over and when I checked their setup, they hadn't even speccd for deathsave and other must-haves for raiding, and our raid leaders should have been checking that themselves. When I switched guilds, I knew I would have to be fully optimised and just by going through my own setup, I added another 5k potency just from ironing all the little things out. One or two nice pieces of loot will add barely anything to any toon compared to optimising everything else and using the right temps, food etc. The new expert gear will help with resolve checks, but you have to bear in mind that the new 32/35 heroic resolve gear has much less potency than their raid equivalents, so should only be relied on to plug holes in resolve checks for the short term. My current resolve is 771, from rocking all t2/t3 raid gear, and it's probably doable to get to that resolve with expert heroic gear now, but the potency deficiency will be huge so don't let your raid force fall into the trap of thinking that because their resolve is sufficient, everything else must be.

You know i see what you guys are saying , but yet going through a raid night killing t2 mobs with absolutly nothing to show for it is depressing , getting tons of weapons / flurry cloaks / tank stuff isent really fun
The armor should be a guarented drop for every named

When you start on T2, those mobs take FOREVER to kill, even if you can kill it. I understand this speeds up as people's gear increases in quality, but some of that low drop rate is just that T2 is slow going at first.

I got some big boosts by levelling my ranged weapon to Planar Level 10, and spending plat to do deity infusions on everything. When I get a wad of plat, I infuse some more until each item is maxxed out.

Is everyone GM lvl 10 ascension?

I really love that line, you should probably change the following in your post:

Is everyone using minimum a fabled familiar?

Is everyone using an ethereal familiar boosted to level 10.

Also remember to have all your raid force to activate theire Goblish Skull Earing. And to have a good rotation of de-level and mitig debuff ascension spells.

Remember that if you don't have a decent number of player who have p2w it is hard to advance quickly on T3, and it's only the begining of the dps checks. The power of the skewer on a raid dps seems necessary for some targets.

But at least there are some new items in Soh/experts with the same debuff.

T2 armors are a nice but you could do T3 with only heroics equipments fully boosted, and there are some new very nice upgrade in SoH and experts.

The new buyable cloak and belt are really welcomed to increase a raid dps as the doublecast drop rate is so low - or we have been extremly unlucky so far.

Then jewellery is still a big issue, as only a very few are a real upgrade in raid, and there is no doublecast neck so far.

Level 10 ascension is not an absolute requirement but I would aim for expert bare minimum. Lvl 10 familiar is stupidly expensive and only available via large amounts of money. So yeah its only a requirement if you have too much money to burn. Ive only ever seen one person with a higher than level 5 familiar so yeah

Hmmph,

In what part of my post was I asking for unsolicited advice about min/maxing, consumable items and other trinkets?

I'm asking for an increase in the drop rate on T2 armor and T" jewelery, not asking for condescending advice about how to min/max the raid force. We do do some min/maxing already but we're also not hardcore or P2W

Unfortunately, Dannni has some of his alt toons in my Eden (He left our raid force after deciding we weren't hardcore enough for him, which is fair enough), and he does know that we don't have 24 hardcore players who can Pay To Win, so I suggest he goes help min/max someone else

The actual subject is about the pathetic drop rates on T2 armor and jewelery and that I, and perhaps others, believe they really should be improved. I would appreciate it if peeps could please stick to the topic

Not everyone can buy their way to success and it is far harder and slower and more boring when half the raid drops are going to alt toons and random rolls in the current tier that we're clearing for upgrades

People shouldn't be passing on jewelry just because it has mit on it, if that's what you mean by 'tank gear'. Extra mit will help with survivabilty and the most important stat on gear right now is potency. Losing auto-attack stats to gain potency is more then worth dumping some auto-attack stats for mit (or even block).

Jeez, all of our mages are taking cloth gear that's "tanky" in that it's MIT gear, at least until something with more "magey" stats drops. Survivability seems to come first, then later the other stats.

Going on with T3 mobs, mages are going to be happy to have some of that 'tanky' gear with mit.. it makes the difference between surviving and dirt-napping on some fights.

Doom you said you feel progression is blocked because of T2 armor drop rates and shiny necklace. I say progression is blocked because you are turning up with a knife to a gun fight and offer advice to help you kill the mob. Its not min/maxing, its utilising the mechanics of the game to help you succeed. But no problem, sounds like you'd prefer to blame anyone but yourselves for your woes.

Everyone who is ahead of you on progression is just P2W. Thats what you keep on hearing in the echo chamber right?

T2 armor drop rates are 100% to increase the time taken to gear up a raid force and therefore extending the life of the content, it doesn't stop in T3 either after killing the spider last night it dropped one pattern and a muteable shield, I personally think drops could be doubled easily.

Indeed, it does seem like a content extender.

Unfortunately, it's just frustrating and boring, and not fun

That's what EQ2 has become. *shrug*

You dont need T2 armor or the black slots for meldrath. Its minimal difference between T1 and T2 raid armor and will not make meldrath much easier for you. Low armor drop rates is only a content extender in that you need all the black slots for T4 mobs.

Hello ,

Checklist done by Danni is a hint you should follow, i am not evan a Hardcore Raider but i have my stuff ready and got Myhtical Neck and Epic 2 and 98k pot solo and all other Stats for T3 and more.
But i spend like 40KK plat since PoP was launched only on my main and i have 8 Toons in complete, 5 ready until T2 raid and 3 Ready for T3 by spending amount of free time, but thier are Players who wann raid and dont have one Ready to t2, but wanna reach the Appels with much to short arms.
Ka and PoP aret anymore for casuals raiding is going back as it should be , content for the GOOD and Highend Players and not for every NOOB despered Houswife Raids.
Sure the road blocker mobs are kidding a bit but they are not a unbreakabe benchmark for Raid Forces with discipline and players who play as force to reach success.

Steps:

Equip Check
Infusion Check is it Max Plat infused / max infused
Is Resolve mark Done 695 minimum
Do all have nearly 93 up to 100K Potency better solo or in Raid
Are DPS Procs and Charms used which could increase Fervor or Pot before Pull
Is Gear reforged in usefull stats
Are all of you having level 4 Battleground Addorns addorned or better the craftable Level 5 from PoP
What about all the Damage and Dot Increasing Addorns from PoP which could be looted and bough.
Does everyone use or have the Class Addorn from KA Expac and the Fervor Addorn.
Some Classes did a mount lower DPS without the Class Addorn for Example Conjuror / Briga / Asassin / Wizzard
How many Resistences and Physical Mitigation do the toons have.
ASC Spells under Level 10 on Grandmaster and all Spells or CAs over level 100 on min Expert or better.
Pot Buff From ASC Class min Expert or Higher.
How many DC 220 Recomanded for T3
Which Familiar is used.
How is your Fervor are all in raid using Heartbound and was it recindled before pull Meldrath.
Do have all players the Mount from the 48 Crafter Items out of the 4 Heroics.
All Members are clear about thier Jobs an how the Script runs.
Is the Raid / ASC setup ok to many equal ASC Classes will lower the DPS From Raid because of No Combos.
Is everyone useing ACT and the ASC Combo Plugin or a similar Programm like Pars Share.

All in all raiding isnt made for players who log in only for hitting collored Buttons, its a kind of sience and a material War now.
And hit me if i recall it, had many players who had those illusions in KA too during the last summer Ethernal Event and i ll tell you i had many groups id liked to quit from the start because of the point i saw stats on players and asked my self how could a player be selfish like this and increase pain on others by haveing a gear and stats for the trash tin.

On some Groups i was DPS NO 1 with my Guardian Tank in Deffstance for giving you a hint how bad the rest was, sometimes the healer was on NO 2 in DPS and i dont want this anymore.

So ask you self do i have the time to get my stuff ready or should i better quit raiding or at least playing as ultima Ratio.

Helfiren