YoDu
12-25-2005, 06:43 AM
Hi, What's a 5-month absence between friends? Holy <diety> what else could have changed? I feel like a newbie again. Pardon me, but I don't like wading through the dev comments. I rolling with a lev 30 templar and am wondering if someone could clue me into what the state of the game is at this point, vis a vi: * Shards - Are they gone for everyone, or just me because I have not signed on in a while as a 'returning from the past' perk? * I had AQ armor. I guess the old con-system for gear is gone? My gear was mostly lev 21 or so (and I'm lev 30) and previously it worked fine. Not so much now, I get smoked everywhere I go at equal or 1< level mobs (esp in Nek). I geared up to lev 30 nearly every slot and spells to Adept 1 (master 2 on the freebie upgrades). Do I have to repeat this for each level? This put me out 30 or so GP to upgrade from 21 to 30 gear and spells (had weapons in the bank)..It'd be a real heartache to maintain this rate for each level (30 -> 31, etc). How long can I hold onto this lev 30 gear? Lev 31 gear con'd red to me on the broker, so I assumed I could only use up to lev 30. Am I wrong? * Is the Star-system for the message boards gone? * Is it my newbie bonus, or is tradeskill exp as easy as drunk sorority women? I made two levels refining junk. * My walk pace seems faster than my prior run pace. Has SWG infiltrated EQ and I'm on illegal drugs, or.. has the walk/run speed been drastically increased? * I figured that icons above friendly mobs' heads indicate quest givers/quest finishers/etc, but it seems really inconsistent. Case in point, the "Christmas" or whatever festivities going on : I understood I needed to visit a lottery giver (another new item, but relatively minor considering the other changes) which I found --- but no icon above the his head nor icon on the map to indicate this was an "it" mob to help in a quest. This was in NQ at the tavern. I'm confused why this person did not have an icon over his head, and am assuming it's "just" a bug. * Solo'ing is now do'able, after I figured out the right combination of spells to cast. It's pretty fun, too, but kinda slow. Back in the day, I couldn't slow anything (been here since launch, just play casual), then all the overland stuff changed and I could solo a group of giants (lame.. templar solo'ing giants.. too much) then I quit. Now I'm back and it seems ok -- is this SOA saying, "ohh so happy the quitter renewed his account so let's make things easy for him" , or is this the new solo system? To wit: I can solo single mobs my same level or 1 level above (with aforementioned new gear and spells) or groups of mobs a level or so below, and can solo groups of heroic mobs 4 levels below me (approx). * What happened to /stopeating /stopdrinking? I can't stop anymore. I'm eating a 4 hour food, and can't stop when I'm popping into a tradeskill instance. -- I know you don't care, but I feel like stating -- Did SoE decide to make a game out of EQ2? It's actually fun, wt<something>? No shards, lots of exp, solo'able? No one hated me when I was distracted, and didn't hit the right buttons, and our group wiped in RoV? No one had much debt, and no shards to recover? Basically, I'm confused. This is not last year's EQ2, and I'm not sure if it's just because I'm being handed favors because I'm a returning player, or if this is the new game. Thanks much.