Tedious repetition. What happened to EQ2?

I bought the new expansion to give live server another chance and it confirmed my fear that nothing had changed in Darkpaw's approach to the game. I bought the new expansion, used my level up token and put my new gear on. But for some reason that gear is not the gear I need! You have to go to the latest expansion starting zone, unequip your garbage gear you were given and pick up the good stuff. Is anybody awake at the wheel at Darkpaw?

Stat inflation is hilariously terrible. I have to sit and stare at two items for a minute to see if one is better than the other because I am not 20 years old anymore and its easy for me to transpose numbers when im staring at 10 other 8-digit numbers. 32k potency, damage parses in the billions, broker prices in the millions. Good grief. What the hell happened?

Panda quests - Using fast travel to zip around old zones to click on various things that pose no challenge is not fun. It is tedious and a waste of my time but most of all it is not fun. This should not be in the game especially when it is considered a necessary task.

Familiars - Leveling up familiars is slow and also poses no challenge to me. It is tedious and a waste of my time but somehow familiars are a necessary component to current content.

Mercs - See above. Since I am only 125 and will not be advancing any further I can't say how well mercs function in current content. Without a merc old content is decidedly trivial but with a merc its definitely a joke. And yet we are expected to log in and keep our mercs trained for a buff later on for use in end game. This is tedious, not fun and a waste of my time.

Mounts - Not sure what more can be said about this other stellar game mechanic. Utter waste of time and is bereft of any entertaining value.

AA/Adorns - Managing AA and adorns feels like its a second full time job. We have the regular adorns but also green adorns that I have to, shock and surprise, level up as well which on its own wouldn't be a big deal for me. But its just another example of how fun has been extracted and replaced with tedious repetition.

I was also told there was more to research and chase but by then I was not of any mind to continue on live. Darkpaw does not care about my concerns because they very clearly are not catering to anyone but the shareholders and hitting those daily metrics. Maintaining the integrity or spirit of the game is not a priority or even a consideration as far as I can tell. That seems to be enough for some people and I genuinely cannot understand why that is, but I'm glad one of us is having fun. I tried to go home again and found out everyone had moved without leaving a forwarding address.

The game doesn't have the dev team size that they used to before 2013.

Resolve is the only stat that matters on gear. Higher resolves = all stats are higher than the last piece of gear.

Everything else takes time to get reacquainted with. Familiar, Mercenary, and Mount booster potions aren't terribly uncommon from the Overseer mechanic, especially the daily.

And yes, a real conjurer's trick, which entangles you in a whirlwind of great nonsense.
No matter the size of the team, no kidding, you have to stop, it's their decisions, their additions. We're not going to pity them either.

What you're describing is similar to venturing back to the city where you have fond memories of growing up, only to find that despite your best hopes, it has aged poorly. Most of your friends have left, and most of those who remain dislike what the city has become, yet can't bear the thought of leaving their investment & memories. Most of the qualities that made the city enjoyable are gone. You are left looking at a rundown city, that is barely holding itself together with bird poop and duct tape. Despite carrying the same name, it's not the city you remember, and never will be again.

As for EQ2, it is just a hamster wheel, a literal time sink, and each expansion is evidently the most that the small Dev team is capable of producing. This is EQ2's fate, there is no sign of anything turning around or improving. If you enjoy EQ2 as it is now, great. If not, there are plenty of other options out there. Hoping for any meaningful change is futile.

Its the most expensive western MMO to play with the least amount of content to do and the content the game does have you need to do so many times you will end up hating the content (farming H3 for an adornment & chrono dungeons).

Welcome to EQ2 since 2018.

I believe it was Thomas Wolfe who said, "You can't go home again."

EQ2 basically died after level 100. I don't know what the game beyond that point actually is, but it's definitely not EQ2 and holds absolutely no interest for me either.

I've *never* minded grinding (in EverQuest or in EQ2) because it keeps me busy and focused on whatever my goals are, but it seems to me, with the last few expansions (and with BoZ in particular), that 'the grind' has been taken to an almost sadistic extreme. No thanks. Eighty percent of my toons do their thing in pre-RoK zones now (where they're all level-locked), and the two that I have that are 125+ (which I boosted using the boosts obtained from the last 2 expacs I purchased) primarily gather shinies and occasionally help the others with clearing yard trash that's too high for them to take on their own.

EverQuest II is a sad ghost of its former self, and is being turned into more of a cash grab for its current owners with each new content release.

You know, even though the dev team is small - they seem to make a small fortune (or should) with the way the game is at the moment. It's so PTW it's insane.

Yeah. Totally. Its' *really* insane how PTW it is. The Marketplace is just filled with gear that players have to buy to have any sort of advantage. Totally, yep. That mount and those familiars on the marketplace that turn you into a literal invincible god can only be accessed by your credit card. Yep. Right, for sure.

/sarcasm

It's only P2W if you genuinely think you need to be the best and you're a Whale who's addicted to the research potions you might get from the crates.

In a way that is true, but I’ve seen so many people say that they can’t play with out certain things. And considering the fact that the broker charges ridiculous fees, I still feel this is true. You pretty much have to buy at least a krono to keep up with prices. Just saying.

The scope of P2W has never been universally agreed upon. It means different things to different people. Your opinion is just that, an opinion. As is mine. We could ask 10 different people, probably get 6-10 different answers.

For me, outside of a base subscription fee, when the easiest path to achieve a goal involves purchasing a benefit on some form of cash shop, it is pay to win. That includes paying for experience boosters, research boosters, and also premium expansion packs. Anything beyond cosmetic, being that it provides a gameplay advantage, that costs additional money, speaks for itself.

A number of years ago, I engaged in a discussion with a vocal Pro-RMT supporter, and successfully had them admit their position is that using a credit card to immediately bypass 6-9 months of effort/time in current content, at the start of a level raised expansion, is perfectly fine, and not P2W. I knew that I would not change their mind, but the hilarious absurdity was on full display for anyone else reading.

Do you remember back in the day when they were talking about doing RMTs that they promised that nothing would have stats? I argued that it was just opening the door and their promises would be broken, and so here we are.

I remember. There were a range of promises being made to placate concerns.
Let's not forget the famous "LON is not a slippery slope" from Smed.

I remeber on ror.
I needed 5 resolve, to go to h2.
Despite all the convoluted combinations possible. It was infeasible .
Only purchasing the premium mount allowed me to do so.
When it comes to calculations, they are strong and know very well what they are doing.
Pushing the frustrated player to feel his wallet, not wanting to wait for mid content, without any real security that it will be more accessible .
Some will say that they don't have to, that it's your free will. But what insidiousness is their systems.
That's the intelligence of it, making you believe that you have control over your game, while directing you towards a very specific objective.

100% agree. i was excited to come back to eq2 but there nothing to do but hunt shinies , do overseer ...and hope for reduction pots. check research and log out. what the hell is going on with this game. why do any dailies as the rewards are not worth it. change your game day break. why would anyone play this boring repetition

If you don't boost and just level up from 1, there is some fun gameplay. 100+ levels are the pits unless perhaps if you are raiding.

I like the panda quests to get the free prestige houses. I did learn things about zones I don't frequent.

It's gratifying to see that somebody else gets it.

Sadly, many apparently do not.

Although I'm sure there are others who do grasp this marketing ploy and just don't care, perhaps because they don't mind spending their money accordingly.

I'm so disgusted at being spammed with clumps of grass and chess pieces from the VoV tradeskill dailies that I've stopped doing those entirely. It literally is not worth the time it takes to do them.

It's no wonder VoV zones are mostly deserted whenever I'm there.