Why is the game's direction "Wussification"?

Most F2P get 30% more xp than my gold subscribed toons because I set my AA slider to 80%.

I listened to the whole keynote, she NEVER said it was for sure going to be available as a first character. She merely said "it will be available to everyone, FOR FREE".

As much as I would love to get excited about itemization it is one issue I just can't. SOE has a fairly poor track record on this issue so I am far more inclined to play it as a wait and see thing. I really do hope for the best but most of my experience on this has ended in disappointment.

Interesting but unfortunately I still got it wrong on my first read and post in this thread. That being said, Fedlon if you are reading this maybe you should update your article accordingly if this is true.

I've played since '08. They've done more to try and work with the players in the last few years than any other time before that. People left because they're generally funny about any kind of change. Some still can't wrap their heads around the idea of paying less to continue playing. They won't do it because it violates their morals or some crazy excuse like that (as well as the perception of SOE as some demonic entity hell-bent on ruining your life).

Why give people a bunch of xp potions, when they can come in and immediately see where the real action is? Let's face facts. There's no discernible difference between the gameplay at the low levels and at 85. You quest, you kill named, you run dungeons. The only thing that's missing is you aren't being spoon-fed your abilities.

SoE Live EQ & EQ2 Keynote:

The first half is EQ, but if you skip to the 31 minute mark, Holly comes on. Watch it, then decide for yourselves.

I've been playing since launch. You seem to confuse your OPINION with dogma. Not everyone has the same viewpoint. And exp potions aren't going to substitute for time invested in a character/class, learning that class, accumulating the skills, little things along the way, that color one's experience of the game. So be it. Let them start high and figure out things at the lip of the pit instead of the bottom.

Clever! I foresee a lot of hard falls in the future

Maybe you could share your suggestions on how to keep new players in game when soloing to 90? And its not an issue that an instant 85 will be as good and experienced as someone who has played all the way up, I still do not think that the solo experience gives any worthwhile skills for grouping. But regardless. You can as a guild train an instant 85 and show them the ropes and have a reasonable chance of success and an active guildmember in the future, and that is what this is about. To sit in splendid isolation at level 95 is IMHO boring.

Honestly I have no better ideas, that doesn't change the fact that being given a level 85 toon and having never played the game will result in embarrassing moments and high levels of frustration. I dare say perhaps even more frustration than trying to grind to level 85, though the frustration won't be as long lived.

People don't learn their class anymore leveling. That concept died in Sentinel's Fate. Soloing doesn't teach you how to play your character in a raid or group. 85 is as good a place to start as any these days. The fabled dungeons serve as a good starting point for those new to the game - the mobs are easy enough and strats simple enough that pretty much any random assortment of tank + healer + 4 warm bodies can do it. Once they learn their stuff they can graduate to harder zones. I just hope the new dungeon finder really is an improvement and doesn't shove brand new people in to something like SG CM.

Yes, there are going to be people who have no clue what they are doing. But there are plenty of people like that now. Anyone who's done SS recently would know that.

Because by the time I rolled my 9th alt I was sick of doing the same zones and quests.

Eventually you just want to roll the toon and get into the new content.

Free players get EXACTLY the same amount of xp as subbed players. True, their AA slider is locked at 50%, but no xp is lost, it is just converted to AA (which is needed to level past 90 anyway). Many subbed players push their slider over past 50 to 75 and such anyway.

QFT, just join some random SS group to see the "skill" level of new players in action, Tanks who don't even know what a taunt is and so on.

Either way, given that the game below 90 is broken anyway, not a bad idea to start at 85, saves SoE the investment of fixing the sub 90 game.

SKWOR, I agree. SOE has a craptacular record when it comes to itemization. Look at Hollys presentation. When she was introducing Heroic characters she said that they came with their own itemization and that the game itself was going to get new itemization itself as part of a new reveal today.

Its Holly I am hopeful for. She knows how borked gear is and hopefully they will reveal how they are going to fix it. I did remember a rumor they will bring back 3 stats to the game again like it was prior to this single stat (I'm too stupid to figure it out) crap.

At first I was like WTH. After thinking about it, though, it might not be a terrible idea. But I hope that existing characters between 1 and 85 can just pop to 85 also (of which I have several), rather than having this limited to new ones.

If I've learned one thing over the decade plus I've spent in MMOs, it's that time spent playing is irrelevant if people can't be taught or don't want to learn. I've known people in both EQ and EQ2, who have played for at least a year (and as many as 14) and still don't know how to play their class properly.

Wrong -- leveling gives you a chance to learn your spells better. If you get just about all your spells at once - you will never learn any of them well or how to use them efficiently. Also you will miss some of the best zones in the game -- I still think Kunark has the best zones in the game and none of the new zones or expansion can begin to match the quality of Kunark. It has been all downhill since Kunark and it looks like it is about to hit rock bottom.

Never? Are you serious? I guess I should stop playing my other characters then, because I'll never learn how to use all their abilities. I'll switch my main back to Warden, since he was the only one I leveled legit and so the only one I can ever hope to play effectively.

At first I was unhappy, now I just don't care after thinking about it. If someone wishes to get to max level, they will just get a PL and start at 90 with crap gear. So let them skip it and if they wish they can go back and do the other content on a different toon. Already everyone is funneled to max level so just skip the stuff in the middle. Yea, they will not know how to play their toon but they will either learn of solo or leave the game.