Well, this just made my expansion launch awesome! =)

http://u.eq2wire.com/item/index/330589995

Umbrial chest drop from one of the timed quests in Thalumbra (key quest).

I just sat here dazed for a few seconds, and all I could say was "holy wow".

Thanks Daybreak Games! =D

wow grats. makes me want to do those quests every day now.

Is there a writeup about all timed quests and how they work?

There are 10 timed quests at: http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Terrors_of_Thalumbra_Timeline

Is the Umbrite chests 100% mythical? Or is it just a chance?

Just a chance, got http://u.eq2wire.com/item/index/3335614258
last night from an Umbrite chest.

Maybe there will be a comparable bow from the last raid mob in the xpac heh. So far T1 and T2 raiding is useless compared to these overland rewards.

I'm 100% jazzed on this whole timed quest and key/chest idea.

Back when mythicals started dropping in chests in heroic zones, you always had to /random to win the item against 5 other people. In a PUG situation, you had mages rolling on scout gear so they could pass it to an alt. That or you had people needing on the item, just so they could sell it on the broker.

Doing a timed quest to get mythical rewards is great. Most of the time you get a gold key, and you'll get legendary. Sometimes, you'll get a plat key, and you have the chances of getting a fabled item or legendary item. I've already gotten the same fabled chain shoulders twice from a plat chest (and you could put them on the broker). A ranger friend of mine also got a tanky chain set of glovese, which he traded me for the 2nd pair of chain shoulders that I had gotten. Since I was the scout tank in AoM, I'm assuming there will be a few raid fights that will need my tanking skillz yet again. I'm already starting to get a 2nd set of gear for myself.

As far as getting mythical from a umbrial chest, I was really shocked that happened! I know my ranger friend had gotten an umbrial key, and ended up with the ring that was linked above (http://u.eq2wire.com/item/index/3335614258).


I noticed there are new mythical hats (duck-themed in name), so I'm wondering if those are also from timed quest chests.

You can do the timed quests every 4 hours after you've done it successfully. If you fail on it, you can redo it in 15 minutes.

I'm having a good time with doing these quests. I only knew about 7 of them, so now I have 3 more to try out. Sometimes, the shroom one bugs out and the "cap" ends up under the ground. Would be nice if there were a few extra caps on the ground instead of the 10 you need, just in case the cap ends up under the world and you can't click on it again.

Also, the red, yellow, blue "flame pit" mobs could have a brighter color aura around them. People with low end machines cannot see the "glow". Likewise with the sparkly shroom caps. They can be hard to see in the murky water.

I'd rather see top end gear dropping in chests that comes from the individual player's efforts and skills vs. it dropping in a heroic zone and everyone just needs on it (in PUGs). Also, if I'm grouped with a bard, and another DPS scout, I'm having to roll against them on scout gear. Tank gear defaults to the tank. Healer gear defaults to the healer. Mage gear defaults to the 1 mage, but I'm always having to random against 2 other scouts. This timed quest concept just keeps the greedy needy people from grabbing stuff that they can't use. It makes it fair and balanced for people who put the effort into their toon (this is coming from someone who ran groups all summer long for an ethereal, only to see 0 scout ones, a few tank ones, 1 healer, and several mage ones. - i also had to /random against 1-2 other scouts in my guild-only groups).

Want a chance at good loot? Play your class well, go do timed solo quests, get stuff. I love this concept!

Skill has very little to do with and a whole lot of RNG. Same problem with the Ethereals, btw. This entire idea of BiS or near BiS being gotten through luck or brute force (crazy repetition of easy content for low RNG, botting or other extraordinary resources) is getting really tiring.

Making exceedingly lesser loot drop from raids and heroics just to skirt PUG's really doesn't make sense. There are so many ways to solve the problems you bring up. They've been successful in MANY other online games and MMO's and that don't encourage people to avoid multiplayer content. Class restricted NBG, token vendors, personal loot chests upon dungeon completion, smart loot, etc.

I don't see why being able to work towards a goal is so heavily discouraged or outright prevented while 'playing the slots' is given huge rewards. Not even superior effects are gained through harder content, jsut higher green and blue stats.

Although I commend them on cleverly putting such powerful Prestige (subscriber only) items within arms reach of much more casual players 'encouraging' them to pay for a sub.

I"m all for best in slot items dropping in raid zones, but that time has passed. Everyone wanted to wear fabled, so fabled is now easy to get and mastercrafted/legendary is just not like it used to be.

I refuse to PUG, because of all the horror stories of needy greedy people swiping good stuff for alts or to resell. At least with these timed quests, it is me vs. the timer. If I can't do it, then it's on me to either get better or figure it out. The people who 6 box are reselling shinies and eths.

Anyone else having problems that a great deal of these quests can only be done 1 time? They are not repeatables? Over half I was only able to get them once and then not able to get them again since I 1st did them.

Duck themes hats I believe drop from duck zones. Another nice addition to the game.

I agree that the raid loot table is boring. Solo content should never give better rewards than raid gear. All the raid stuff has the exact same procs as the solo and heroic stuff, but with better green stats. I'm disappointed. We need more mythical and rare drops to be common (or increased drop rate) in raid chests.

I love that you said that. My batteries just got charged. Thank you. But have we not seen them because they are too rare (like the class cloaks)?

For me, it's not reassuring at all considering the items we've seen so far.

Here's an example of how minimal gear upgrades have been going from the easiest content to what is some of the hardest encounters this game has ever seen.



Here you can see the the minimal upgrades we see in gear.

Starting from Warsmith armor we get in Heroics, to the Clockwork set we get in Bhoughbh's Folly (the x2 raid zone) to Ashenfell armor we get in Tier 1 and 2 raid zones, and Ancient Captain's Shoulderguards we get from Captain Graybeard/Ashenfell raid encounter (which is a Tier 3 raid encounter, and very difficult to beat)

Even with the Infusion system you guys have designed for this expansion, and something that has failed to gain my attention to begin with due to overwhelmingly complicated mechanics involved with the Infusion system, I personally see no reason to upgrade my gear past what I get from the x2 or Tier 1/2 raid zones.

Looking back in history and raid itemization, there is nothing that foreshadows that you have added some other magnificent shoulder armor piece in a currently unbeaten encounter (which 3 of them remains in the current expansion after 1 week of the expansion coming out). So those Ancient Captain's Shoulderguards are the best shoulderguards we will be able to get, and they are about a 2% stat upgrade to what you can get from the previous easier raid bosses.

This problem can also be seen in other items as well, like jewelry.



Here we can see what is hands-down the best earring for all classes to wear. Gives 660 potency to an entire group when 6 people are wearing them at the same time.

Yet, the stats are almost minimal upgrades going from one end of the spectrum to the other. Upgrading from the Event Heroic Furious Barrage to the Tier 3 raid earrings is around a 2-3% stat upgrade. The only thing that's a considerable upgrade are the resists, and honestly, if you already have the Resists to get the Tier 3 raid jewelry you won't need to get anymore. Any resists you get over the resist check amount just gives your healers a more comfortable time in raiding.

So, to me, there is honestly no retention rate of raiders with the current form of itemization due to the underwhelming upgrade rate we're currently seeing in game. If you can clear the game with x2/Heroic gear, there's no reason to continue doing the raid encounters because it won't increase your potential by a considerable amount. And with the infusion system, you can make x2 gear become so much better than the Tier 3 raid gear, and seeing as how much money and resources are required in investment on any particular piece of armor/jewelry, you would not want to upgrade new pieces of gear when the ones you already have are maxed out already and better than anything you can pick up.

What truly has made a difference so far in this expansion, are the procs we've seen that increase a raid's potential DPS by exceeding margins. So any items any player will want to get would be Furious Barrage, Early Advantage and Brotherhood of the Underfoot proc items among a couple select others. Anything else is salvage fodder or temporary items until you get the items that are desired by every single class in a raid.

In summary, I don't see a big reason to continue raiding past getting geared out from x2 and tier 1 and tier 2 raid gear. Once you complete the Tier 3 encounters, you can easily call it a day and cancel our subscription until new content eventually gets released. The way we've always had it before in the past is that end-game gear is a big gap in stat upgrades that will make EVERYBODY want to get and will be necessary for future content. I just don't see this happening with how current itemization is being handled, specially since last expansion's end-game gear was quickly replaced by the first pieces of gear from entry-level questing in this current expansion.

Keep us interested, keep us coming back for more, and keep us continually wanting to upgrade our characters and it will make this game much more enjoyable and healthier.

Also, not sure if this is a bug or not, but the Armor Crates we've been seeing that are dropping from Raid Mobs are missing 1 of the three choices of armor we get.



We have three choices for gloves, and this crate is clearly missing the third glove choice, which is the WDB/DPS glove.

Also, saw the same thing with pants last night:



Missing the AE Auto and DPS pants on that crate.

Also, Relic items don't count.

Personally, Relic items completely take away from this game what was once what made this game so great.

Relic items have the stats that any EQ2 player would want to wear in any and all slots of their Character Sheet, yet being restricted to only 1 of these items means you're taking the carrot on a stick away from players to continue wanting to play as we've had in the past.

If you remove the Relic Tag and shuffle those relic items into progression, then this game, in my opinion, will go back to being as awesome as it was in the past.

And if you want to keep the Relic tag around, then make Relic items with truly unique procs that only the Relic item has. If you just copy/paste procs from other items and just increase the base stats on the item, then it just makes the item uninspiring and bland and you are just better off wearing the same item with lower stats and exactly the same proc.

+1

The easiest fix, in my opinion, is to increase all procs on raid drops. There needs to be more of a distinction. Either that or start putting more myth/ethereal/prestige stuff in raid chests. It just feels like there's no sense of accomplishment with the current raid loot table.

This conversation deserves it's own thread. Sorry for sidetracking this one.