Possible wide ranging nerfs and AA autogrant incomingFollow

I read the dev posts. Didn't bother too far in the O-board posters, as it was quickly devolving into a waste of my time.

Hilights:

They are most likely going to autogrant ALL AA up to the last 4 expacs, to all gold subs, from now on (so it moves as they release new expacs). You will have to be the level to use the AA of course still.

Beam swarming and related lag-causers are being nerfed.

Not clear: is there any point/way in "doing AA" before last 4 expac content? Sounds like no. So they are moving Live servers along to an entirely new model really, and furthering the case to streamline low level content into much fewer zones.

Also not clear how this hits prog servers. Not much point in progression, though 4 expac worth of lag isn't too bad if they retro it back so GoD going live grants all the Luclin AA... might actually help re-entry players be motivated.


I do have to say... it's the longest, most well thought out dev set of posts I have ever read from EQ.

Major nerfs to PL techniques before they start selling auto-85 "Heroic" characters? Who could guess?

Also noteworthy: PLing was a major way to get plat and then buy in-game kronos to sell for real cash. This will put a major crimp into that and right before kronos start giving "All Access" membership levels rather than merely EQ Gold membership.

My personal take on the nerfs is that they went a bit too far with some classes that did not cause the latest lag issue. Such as the Shaman Lingering Sloth/Apathy/Fatigue line. Or the Berserker Decapitate line..Clerics have had their Shining Rampart line nerfed and SK's have had their Lich sting/Epic effect nerfed so that it will no longer proc a return heal from repostes. I suspect this will also affect tanking hard content- including a single target or w/one add. But the class's melee mitigation may be adjusted to compensate for that (so I read somewhere in that and/or another related thread).

Typical of SOE in that instead of making an incisive operation with a scalpel to remove the tumor, they used a 18 "machete to remove it instead and affected other classes that did not pull 200 mobs and cause this latest hyper lag scenario.

The AA grant is not a bad idea but 4000 to Underfoot may be a bit too much imho. I'd Rather they bump up the bonus to AA from 1000% at 0 AA's to 1500% at 0AA's and extend the range to maybe 5000 - 6000 or so. At least we would still have to technically earn them.

Oh well, exciting times in game and on the forums...Time for some milk and cookies as I want to see the new movie (EQ-Forum Madness) when it premieres..Oh it has started already ! lol.

Edited, Feb 5th 2014 6:26am by hexeez

Nerfing exploitative power-leveling while auto-granting AA when leveling up is a clever way to kill two birds with one stone. I like it. Mind you, SOE encouraged the practice in the first place. They are simply fixing what they broke.

Grinding AA has always been a major factor in determining player commitment - and those who did commit were rewarded - either by peer esteem or slotage in raids.The changes being considered don't change the L100 raiding game. Those people are still committed to raiding and valued by their peers. What it does change is how money is exchanged among players and SOE. Player provided power-leveling services will lose prestige and earning power and that shift benefits SOE. I don't see that as a bad or negative thing.

Thumbs up for SOE.

They're not handing out free level 85 characters. They're handing out level 85 characters that cost (supposedly) $35 or so. They need to make it worth the price tag to get people to buy them. And given the number of people willing to spend kronos (i.e. real life cash) for powerleveling, there must be some market for that sort of head start.

They apparently just closed the thread over there - after 97 pages!

Done and done. This is a huge win for the community and SOE.

My silver account shaman is level 75 with 870aa. It will be still be 870aa after the update and will continue to earn AA by grinding it the old fashioned way. No harm, no foul.

EDIT: https://forums.station.sony.com/eq/index.php?threads/changes-with-the-february-update-developer-updates.207587/
EDIT: I have the distinct feeling SOE had already planned to include the option to opt-out but withheld it as a bargaining chip, if true, that's a darn smart strategy. heh.


Edited, Feb 6th 2014 9:07am by Trappin

How do I begin this post: To those who called me out about my last post when I said "5 different stories from 5 different SoE Dev's is the beginning of the end" a was blasted by some so called elite post writer's that seem to have all the answer's without listening to other's. Well the 2k Station Cash Issue went down the crapper and I said that was the beginning of the end and EQ 1 would be dead by Dec 2014, in a push to Everquest Next, I got flamed. Since that has come and gone "forgotten" issue, for many month's I foresaw the Nerf's coming. I agree some are blatant act's that take away other player opportunity to utilize these zones and it does effect other zones "pathing issues" as indicated by the graph. Some nerfing could have been regulated to those specific events. I disagree with the entire revamp of character abilities when many player's are playing by the rules and honestly earning their way thru game content. I have a Level 100 Mage but I don't pull entire zones for cash to PL another, I never use the beam spell..... Limit it to 6 mob's and that closes that problem. I have a 100 Ranger, I headshot within my three box group or in group settings, I do not sit in Ferrott at the pyramids and headshot massive pull's of lizard's, Not my style. I have a 100 Monk and I do not abuse his abilities I play him like any other character of 16 I have. Why can we not solve Individual class problem's and not revamp the entire system. New player's... get off your butt, stop complaining and get up to speed with the rest of use. Why should the foundation of EQ 1, that have been here many years be flushed down the crapper because of a few player's manipulating the game. BAN their account's after a stern warning to stop. DO logical changes to player character's taking our abilities away. which will push player's away. When that happens many of us will be finished with EQ, because EQ Next isn't our cup of tea. I truly hope something comes from this post, besides rants and negative comments, This is the ONLY online game I have ever played and when EQ ends my online gaming days end. Mr. Smedley and the developer's please rethink of a better way that this can be controlled and solved. Thanks for listening and have a great day !

Bring back bard AOE kiting!

From https://everquest.allakhazam.com/wiki/eq:Magician says Beam - The beam line is similar to the PB AE line in that it has no practical limit to the number of mobs it can hit. Instead of firing in a small area around the caster, it emanates in a cone arc from the front a short distance away. It also has great damage/mana potential.

Examples: https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/spelllist.html?name=Beam&type=mag&level=1&opt=And+Higher&action=search
http://raidloot.com/Spells.aspx?name=beam&class=Mage

If you know about other beam type spells (Rng / Dru Vineleash root) same target type: 44; a frontal narrow cone. with unlimited targets as long as in range.

Yther Ore.

Edited, Feb 7th 2014 5:46pm by Yther

Fair enough but then the obvious answer is "Yes, there was a demand for this" since people were paying for PLs. Both things like beam/decap groups and paying into be in mission turn-ins and all the rest of it. SOE is just taking all that outside demand and creating an internal way to profit from it.

Thank you for that, gbaji. Sums up my feelings pretty well. I bolded parts that I feel especially strongly about too. I'm also a casual player and the 'race to 100' crowd is what started the swarming / server lag problem to begin with. The ones taking plat to power level others also share part of the blame.



Edited, Feb 7th 2014 7:08pm by zirumkin

Oh,,,,so what a Drakkin BW should have been.