Tears of Ascension and Ascension gating new players.

If they're really interested, send them to TLE. They'll be on exactly the same footing as everyone else.

This is exactly the problem I am having since I came back a couple weeks ago. I am mostly decked out in T1/T2 raid gear, at 600 resolve in raid, have the 28.8 PG potency adorns. In previous expansions I would be competing for the parse already, maybe not topping but at least doing ok. This xpac I am dead last still, below the healers and tanks. I'm doing 100m while the other dps are over 1b. Why? Because my ascension is only level 3 and my deity potency is only 7. This game isn't about skill anymore, nor even gear. Its about how much time you can throw at it grinding.

This is what I did too. Still plan on trying to get my main up slowly, but I forgot how much better the game was in the beginning. It took a lot more strategy and planning, not instant reaction like it is now. Cast times took a while, heals only heal for a fraction of tanks hp, cooldowns are longer. Its not constant insta-gib, full heals from 10%hp, etc. I wish it would lock at each expansion for a year...

T1/T2 raid gear is mostly garbage. It is useful for boosting resolve if you need it.
What you want is the gear from your epic quest (and so yes more ascension levels needed) and the better gear from the heroic zones.

I cannot begin to explain itemization in the KA expac. We often joke "that potency is missing a digit"- a nice piece of gear with 130 or so potency. It's a joke- no one in their right minds would wear that on purpose in this expansion. Other piece have upwards of 1200 potency and no real downside. With a full set of those you will see yourself on the parse even before you finish you epic.

A way for people to catch up is needed however. I came late to the game, and over the "unlimited ascension weekend" I made something like 23 ascension levels, on two characters, for a total of 46 or so levels. That was a fantastic event- but should be a regular thing. It is needed to catch people up to the point they can raid and not feel like walking resolve buffs.

rain how many hours a week are you able to play..just curious..

At this point I sat reduce every level to 1 mill xp each and unlock it for everyone.

Its not challenging, its just a time sink and halfway through xpac we need bodies who can play even if they have to swap toons.

This isnt some new game with tons of people playing, let people adapt quickly.

open the gates!

right now, I got a part time job, so a relative lot probably. but I played when I had a full time job too.

but I'll also admit, I don't go out to bars, I don't go clubbing, I don't go to the movies. when I'm not working, I'm at home. online gaming is my 'vice' as it were. on workdays even when I had a full time job, I could put 4-6 hours in game. on weekends or non-work days, I can put in considerably more.

I go to work, I come home, and I game. repeat that cycle. occasionally sprinkle in a dinner out, probably for a special occasion. and no, I don't have kids, and am not going to have kids. if I want to watch a movie/series, that's what netflix is for.

so yeah, even working full time, I put in prolly at least 4+ hours a day. and it's prolly why I got like 5 alts all at high end working on things.

and I know in Eq2, 4+ hours is apparently the 'you have no life' mark. but in Eq1, 4 hours was barely a few level's worth of experience. 6 hours could be only a few kills in a raid.

and I'm sure someone here will say I got no life. well you might be right. I choose to spend my time when I don't HAVE to deal with other people (work) in Norrath. or on Youtube or Netflix.

This is my feeling also. I waited for a few months to buy the expac because I haven't been real pleased with the direction the game has been going, and I was kind of on the fence. I came back when Kander started talking about working on class identity issues, etc.

However.......i regret buying it, and after about 30 days, i cancelled my sub because I just didn't feel the desire to log in and play anymore.

(1) A very small expansion that is short on content and high on busy work.
(2) Ascension: This would have been a neat idea if the spells were more class, even arch type specific. Instead you have everyone running around launching the same nukes.....not for me.
(3) Epic - Grinding old content, especially sig lines? I could have dealt with this i suppose, but coming back late...made it difficutl to actually get stuff done, because, it was too time consuming to find groups to get the higher level updates.
(4) And now, this trend of running pg grind fests (leaching even more players out of current content) to get bis items, and, incentivizing people to TLE servers to get more bis gear for live servers....
(5) Time gating - This does not work for returning players. This was a dumb idea.
(6) Tithe - I suspect the underlying reason for the "challenge" of applying account wide tithe lies with the 10 click cap on point accumulation. I dont get this. Just remove the stupid cap - who cares???

So, at the end of the day, I'm sitting there on my tank (of all classes) spamming lfg for long periods without any hope of playing my 2 toons (both of which i really enjoy playing), I'm evaluating all these factors and realize, this is just no longer the game I fell in love with. It's a long, long way from the playing experience I used to enjoy.

Might come back later, and I'll keep an eye on the forums to see what develops, but for now, nah. Used to be I couldn't wait to log in, but, you know you are done when you can think of 12 different things that are more appealing than logging in to play.

Edit: I wish there some was way to make Holly, et al understand that people who play EQ2 don't want to play EQ1 in a different skin. If we wanted to play EQ1, we would be playing it. Sadly, this game seems to be morphing into that slow, grindy, tedious experience - which is great for people who like that, but, I played this game because I don't like that kind of playing experience.

1) They've got a skeleton crew practically working right now. this is what they can do given the time and resources they have. hell Ttobey is the ONLY animator for Eq2. 1 person. to do all the animations.

2) the 4 ascentions are interchangable. depending on what you do you may want a specific one. they are based on various 'damage types' like for example, a Necro would prolly love thaumaturgy, while a fighter would prolly prefer Geomancy. they problem is that the nukes themselves are super powerful, so people ignore everything else. just pick he one that hits hardest, rather then how the buff for example might work with your class abilities.

3) you shouldn't have left then. Sorry, I got no sympathy for the people who up and leave for months or years, then complain when they have to do older content for things like Epic weapons. Virtually every bit of content outside of KA is soloable in KA gear.

4) This one I can agree with. gimmick servers and the PG is annoying.

5) everyone had to go through the same thing. Quit fussing. again, you left, you didn't come back when everyone else was grinding this out. that's on you, not the devs. it's not thier job to make everything mindnumbingly easy so you can leave for 3 years and come back and jump in like you never left at all.

6) I imagine the 'challenge' has less to do with a cap, and more to do with getting it to work across accounts with various amounts of tithe on various characters, without nerfing the higher one and without breaking the lower one. I think the cap could be upped to twenty, but I don't see a problem myself with having to occasionally choose to spend it, or having to work on other toons if you want them to be decent.

and this ain't no where even close to Eq1. in EQ1 the 'poor' amount of content you're complaining about could still last months just working the sig line becuase of the rate of xp, level loss, corpse runs, etc, etc. when you have to sit at the edge of the greenmist caves and pull thsoe flaming orbs to your group for hours at a time to gain 2-3 levels, before you can even start your first quests, then you can complain it's being like eq1.

you don't spam LFG on a tank. you MAKE groups on a tank. Tanks are the defacto group leaders. join a guild, make friends, go to PQs in the game world and if you join the raid groups or such in the PQs ask those folks if they want to do other things after. be a bit more proactive then 'spam lfg'.

They should add a Veteran Bonus to Ascension for each character that has completed all 4 Ascensions. Like 20% xp increase just like the Veteran bonus for having a max level character and cap it at 200% also.

1. I know they have a skeleton crew. Not sure what your point is. I don't care if they have 1 person or 100. The end product either works or it doesn't.

2. I could also care less about ascension being interchangeable. It's class homogenization,.

3. Wasn't asking for your sympathy, or anyone else's. So we're good there?

4. Real life happens to many of us. In any case, I waited because I didn't like the direction the game was going. Hoped back in when I got some new information, game isn't fun, for me. Simple as that. If you this k It's fun, great. I don't claim to speak for you or anyone else, just me.

5. Didn't say the game was ea1, 1, I said it feels like it is morphing into the same kind of experience.

6. Thanks for the tip on tanking, only been tanking for years I as a member of one of the largest guilds on maj'dul. On many, many friends lists, but gosh, I didn't realize I was going about it so wrong. Thank you!


P..s. sorry for any annoying typos, on my phone, and well, phone.