Since coming over to TLE, what I thought was the "spirit of the game" hasn't really panned out. 1. I thought leveling was supposed to be a wall of (somewhat) difficulty. More people would spend time leveling, hence more groups. Asking a few questions in general reveal that either folks do the slow grind, or (many folks) use exp potions and can go from 1-70 in 6-7 hours. If you have XP potions, then it's just a point of how much you want pay to level. 2. The familiar hunt is heartbreaking. I've seen 1-2 reanimated hands on 5 accounts I cleared for TLE, but have small bags full of boom burbles and other duplicates. No mechanism to exchange 3 of one type into something more useful. You can certainly purchase best in game though... same with the Best in-game mount and illusion from what I hear. Want potency? Need to head to marketplace... 3. Bot-armies. If I move to the main Freeport or try sneaking around in upper end areas, it's just bot groups of people in clusters. Seems like guild folks PLing others, or perhaps they have their own bot army. Takes the wind out one's sails when you try to clear some of the quests in Kaladim, only to be perpetually steamrolled by farmers and PLers. There are more...alot more... but it'd be a wall of gripes. I'm not telling TLE folks what they don't already know. So....what's the lure of TLE now? Slower content to delay the grind of ascension and Epic 2.0? Closing off zones like the planes where folks can do public quests? I want to keep my sub, as the early EQ2 was indeed fun, but this road looks like it's going to just another way of grinding and fighting issues that plague MMOs... What keeps you playing?
What keeps me playing? Nostalgia and sharing the experience with my son. TLE is just something I'm doing till Pantheon or some other game comes out. Is it a cash grab at some level? Yes, the entire game is now, but they've got to find a way to keep the doors open in a shrinking playerbase. Do you need a familiar to play? No, not at all, you can do everything in game without one. Can you compete on parses and be competitive with players without buying one? No, not really. As far as the XP potions, You can level 1-70 buying two potions. With your free station cash unless your making a ton of alts, you don't 'spend' anything to do that. The XP curve started extremely steep on the server, and it was needed to gate the limited end game in vanilla and early expansions, as more end game is available thru more recent expansions and the level range is higher, players will lose interest if the xp curve remains too high. The reality is, if you made the XP worse, I'd play less, as I wouldn't bother to make the alts I have, and a big part of what keeps me playing is maxing out my alts as I wait for the next expansion.
I was ignoring as much of the cash grab as I could...turning a blind eye so my wife and I could play together. Sounds like the same fond times that you have playing with your son. It's getting to be less and less of something I can ignore now. Everything is cash for anything. The chase for bags was somewhat amusing. Course you can buy 24 slot bags. It's like TLE was supposed to be hard, but...it wasn't. It's only hardmode if you have financial apprehension about shelling out cash. It's even more important to do now if you have to catch up or want an alt to play in the level 70 game. You've confirmed my suspicions. I suspect others will too if they post. Feels bad man, I was looking forward to being "home".
I don't know man, Im a EU player and don't play much during the peak hours but still I find it quite easy to fill up grps to do dungeons for lvling, with the exception of finding a tank for some reason. As for the cash grab yeah, I did buy the CE xpac for the mount and familiar, it's a one time cost for a familiar and mount for all my characters so I consider it worth the money but still I would have preferred if they didn't sell stats or spell upgrades for RL cash. I do not feel the need to buy xp pots like I did on stormhold server, if you stick to EoF zones the lvling feels almost perfect imo. Bots are a problem yes, it's very very annoying watching them occupying the contested zones. If they wanted to bot and stay in instanced zones well that's fine but when they are occupying contested areas they are a cancer to other players.
Playing a tank is more work than other roles, add on to that many players for some reason think tanks should be the group leader and form pugs. Also if you play a dps or util role, you can leave a group at your leisure and they will continue... if you play a tank and want to leave, the group is probably going to disband.
I disagree about tanks being more work. Priest is the most work imo, U have to keep tank alive and cured, quickly be able to switch to a dps who might pull aggro and keep him alive but also make sure u have enough heals for tank and while doing all of this u also want to contribute as much dps as possible. While tank only pull mobs and beat on em, unless ur a monk, then u will have tsunami to press too
Tanks are expected to know the entire fight and guide the efforts of the entire party, whether that's a six person group or an entire raid.
What keeps me playing on the TLE ? Simple. The friends I have made in guild on this server. Really if it was not for the friendships formed and how our guild pulls together, I doubt I would still be playing on this server. I find the xp is fine the way it is ( without using potions that is), the difficulty is decent, at least for the magority of us ( I know many will disagree but a good chunk of people in guild did not get the mount and familiar from CE PoP, and do not spend tons of cash on the game). In reality it just comes down to enjoyment of the people i group and play with.
I love this game, it is "the one" for me, the MMO I keep returning to, the one I just can't quit. Even still, I did not buy the PoP expac. I tried to return to the main servers after a very long break for KA and it was so lonely. I spent an entire month doing solo pre-reqs to be able to do the signature adventure and tradeskill timelines and then I had even more solo grinding to look forward to in order to level my ascension. By the time I'd put 2 months in (100% solo) and finally had enough potency to meet the minimum requirements for T1 dungeons, it STILL wasn't enough. The ONE group I was able to get into spent 45 minutes clearing trash mobs in a dungeon before wiping after a 30 min fight with a boss because we ran out of power. We all met the minimum requirements for potency to get into the dungeon but it wasn't enough to kill anything. It was bad. I didn't even bother starting the epic 2.0. KA overall put a real sour taste in my mouth and I almost uninstalled. But then they announced a second TLE server coming out! I had mostly missed out on Stormhold, so I hopped on for FG. So this is where I live now. The lower level expacs (through SF) are my favorites anyway, so getting to do them again has been a total blast. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I knew the 1-50 grind was going to be rough so I stocked up on exp pots for that. I had a few left over to level a second character. It helped for sure but is totally not a necessity. If I have a few extra bucks at the end of the month I might buy a LoN pack or two because I like the fluff stuff. I'll just save my plat and buy a better familiar off someone else, not going to bother trying that RNG crapshoot. None of these things are game breaking. At least they are not offering TLE character boosts like they do on the main servers. There's going to be bot armies/multiboxers in any mmo that allows multiple clients to be open at the same time. This has existed since the day EQ2 launched and it's not going to go away. Krono are more harmful to the economy than bot armies.
have I used them? yes, when I was raising my first and a second raid main in a hurry from 55 up. do I normally use them? no not really, because the xp is decent now. all my other 7 toons I've been raising the normal way and with no need for pots. it was my choice to raise them quicker because I wanted to raid during current content. i'll agree raising familiars sucks, I think I've seen 1 fabled, maybe 6 legendary, and the rest treasured and that's between 9 toons since they gave us the ability to raise them. treasured is crappy xp, but it will still raise it by 100 when you feed them to your current familiar. raising an ethereal familiar is a lot more difficult than one of the fabled etc ones. did I buy the familiar and mount? yep, I raid, adventure, and deco. I also have live toons. this again was a choice, it benefited me on both live and fg. I've seen the armies myself, so I will agree there. you don't want to spend money? that's fine, it is your choice and I agree they geared things towards grabbing money from players... but it is a matter of choice. as dimek said, roughly half of our guild and that includes raiders, didn't buy the mount/familiar and they get along perfectly fine without them.
Well as much as I hate to say this, I agree with Dimek. Having met so many awesome people in my guild I can't imagine playing anything else. I never really leveled up with pots, all my DC gets earmarked for house stuff/progress pots. I didn't buy the collections edition for the shiny mount etc and I leveled fine. Having missed a lot of the leveling experience I love running the old zones and can't see me going back to live for anything other than decorating.
I play on this server because it does take more effort as opposed to live. I am glad they fixed the xp fubar... I have to agree .. Botters are a scourge, they're the reason that live had several random spawn points for named mobs, i'd hate to see how DBG would implement that on TLE (unrest etc) and I really don't think they are able to, maybe some other open space mobs, but either way botters are still an issue that wont go away. Lastly, the familiar thing is the worst idea I've seen in a while... and now back to my alts... Cheers!
This is exactly where I am after a few weeks of returning. I am also I big fan of the older xpacs and never played the game to be a top end raider (although I have been in guilds doing that at one time). My wife plays and always offers to help and join me, but she’s much further along than I am Epic 2.0 and Acsension and factions... There really is no help in the grind, LOL. I think this has convinced me to make a new toon tonight when I get home on this server. Just like many other games that I’ve wiped just to start fresh for the experience all over again. It’s the game I enjoy, not the top end content...the friends and guild mates I’ve enjoyed throughout the years, the social aspect. Thanks Firecracker! See you in game sometime!
Haven't had that since eq1 and KA killed this game for me. Tle is further back then I want to be though
You don't any longer. It used to be possible in Echoes of Faydwer with the expansion-based bonus experience and a potion or two. That's gone now. You can only get bonus exp in Timorous Deep (1-20ish) and Kylong Plains and beyond (68+).
