Serious problem

[Styl]

<DIV>Well, I have to say, the time is drawing near.  I played EQ for 5 years.  Played EQOA for 2. And started playing EQ2 on release day back in Nov of 04.   And EQ2 comes up seriously lacking.  I remember how excited I was waiting for release.  I couldn't wait to get into the game.  The 1st few months were fun, reminded me of when I played EQ for the 1st time.  Even raiding was a blast at higher levels.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>But lately its seriously has come up lacking.  The combat changes were great IMO in reguards to a swashbuckler.  They improved us alot.  But the content of the expansion and the loot came up very sub par.  It simply sucks.  They are using the same graphic's for armor that they have used sence release.  There is no new weapon graphics.  Hell my lvl 50+ Advanced carpentry are still not in game.  Almost a month after the expansion.  And I won't even get into Adventure packs.  Only reason to do bloodlines was for the server wide message.  I mean seriously has any high end guilds been back there in the past 6 months.  At least you got decent loot for doing the Splitpaw hard version.  It made it worth going back.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I wanna wipe 10 times to a raid mob, beat it on the 11th time, and go [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] over the loot it drops.  Instead, I go...hehe...go figure, same old crap.  THE LOOT IS FREEKING HORRIBLE.  You don't feel rewarded for the time you put in killing mobs.  I'm mean seriously you get 2 groups together and kill an x2 and it drops a piece of legendary gear.  (Btw we killed this guy over 6 times.  And the loot was EXACTLY the same)    No T6 rare, no nothing.  1 piece of legendary.  Thats not even an upgrade for ANYONE not even the noobies to the guild.  Ok....no problem.....drive on.  So you go kill Meathooks, an X3 mob.  You realize that is 18 people you have to get together to kill something.   Guess what.   Yup 1 piece of legendary gear.  Thats not even a freaking upgrade for ANYONE!.  No T6 rare...nothing, nada...crap.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I have seen no reason to push to 60.  The loot is horrible, the fun factor has reached 0.  I'm not saying i'm leaving just yet, but I'm serisouly hanging by a very fine thread.  I have seen may of my good friends leave, simply because they are bored out of their mind.  I've tried to stick it out, but i'm afraid my time is drawing near.  We are running  people through our guild like I have never seen.  Just to try and retain a high end raid force.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Unless this game has a drastic overhall, I give it less then a year.  Hell people can't even find groups below level 30.  Thats how much the playerbase has dropped.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I Expect they will start server mergers, much sooner then they did with EQ1.</DIV> <DIV>Here is your chance.  Please prove me wrong.  I'm not sure how much longer I can really hold on.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>And yea, I know...don't let the door hit me in the [Removed for Content].</DIV>

[Ethelwo]

You do know of course that the SoE lovers are going to spit poison all over you for this post, don't you?

[Styl]

You know, thats why sony needs to really take to heart what i'm saying here.  For the simple fact that I am a "EQ FANBOY".  EQ for 5 years, EQOA for 2 years, and EQ2 sence release back in nov.  When you start loosing people like me, your EQ Fanboys....some serious changes are needed. 

[Ethelwo]

<P>I have a history with SoE products too, but thats not enough for them. Those who make this game are players too, so they make the game they want to play and not a game for everyone.</P> <P>I played Eq1 for 3 years, then I played SWG for a year, I played this when it released until just a week or two ago. I've had such a bad experience with this game, I think I'm done playing MMORPGs. If all we have to look forward too is this kind of game management in all future MMORPGs then the industry is dead as far as I am concerned.</P> <P>I looked at my fabled helm the day before I quit, and saw that it was wearable at L43. I then determined that even before this CU it wasn't obtainable until L50 at earliest. This game is broken in ways the development team refuses to address. The loot available does not match the level required to obtain it. This game is far from balanced and it all shows how mismanaged it really is. My L43 fabled helm should be obtainable by a L43 player shouldn't it? Well it's un-obtainable to a team of players at that level. Those are the facts. This game is way broken and the combat system was the least broken of them all.</P> <P>In hindsight I am relieved that I no longer play this game. I get that feeling that Frodo must have gotten when the ring was finally destroyed. I am playing other non MMORPGs now and have discovered that they are way more immersive, and when I fail at something I can replay it until I win. I like feeling like a winner, thats why I play games in the first place. The game of life doesn't give you that winning feeling very often if at all. Who want's to be a loser in a game?</P>

[Rijacki]

And then the flip side.  There are a lot of us who were getting bored and were even considering leaving (and some did leave because they were bored) but LU#13 gave them new life in the game.  I switched which character I adventure with because I am having heaps more fun with my 1st character, the one I had mostly shelved to crafting only. For each person who says the changes broke everything, there are many more who are saying they love it.. but not all of them post on the boards. <div></div>

[Chate]

<DIV>I fully understand what he is saying, for I too am having a hard time logging in now adays ... cause of bordem.. this game really lacks some fun as far as i am concern ...  Same ole mobs, same ole armor .. same ole weapons ... not to mention all the work i put into my mystic just to have her suck in groups now...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>We all look alike ... no diversity .... loot drops suck ... half the time I can't even use the drops .... and almost everything in maj'dul is non tradeable .... would be nice if I could pass it on to my other chars on this account ...  Right now I as well as alot of other peeps I talked to are all playing this game till a game we are all waiting for comes out .... if by the time LOTR (for me) comes out, if this game does not improve for the better, with soloers in mind as we as those who like to group ... I am gone ....  Would be nice if some of the drops contained some house furnishings that you can interact with ... that would be diff .... and have the mobs drop diff stuff .... not the same thing all the time .... How bout rare dyes that you can actually use to dye your armor .. and other rare dyes that you can actully due your weapons with ... how bout some dyes while i am at it, to dye the walls in our houses even .... how bout a barber in game to change our hair styles ans color etc.... SIMPLE!!!! How bout furniture we can actually sit on, sleep on ... how bout FIX all the bugs in this game.... alot of the tear grifter quests are broken ... How bout read all the great ideas i have seen people here post on what they would like to see in this game .... and then implement some in patches ....  that would keep some of us happy, by also getting rid of the boredom of (been there, done that) ho hum what to do now .... not everyone likes raiding .... give us something else to look forward to besides that .... well enough for now ... i let others knock me down now .... hehe laters  ... maybe</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>And I Don't care if the door hits me in the [Removed for Content] .... <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV>

[some_perso]

<DIV>"And then the flip side.  There are a lot of us who were getting bored and were even considering leaving (and some did leave because they were bored) but LU#13 gave them new life in the game.  I switched which character I adventure with because I am having heaps more fun with my 1st character, the one I had mostly shelved to crafting only.<BR><BR>For each person who says the changes broke everything, there are many more who are saying they love it.. but not all of them post on the boards."</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>That is a good point Rijacki, there has been much added with this last expansion.  I mean if you mainly enjoy the single groupable and solo stuff this game is still fun.  However I think alot of us (not that I really know what you prefer to do in this game) play with the intention of getting awesome equipment and pristege by taking out the hardest of content.  Like what usually gets me going is the concept of some sort of long term goal I want to acheive, at first it was build up my guild, then it was get everyone to push on Heritage and do single group instances, then the greater goal of becomeing raid capable.  All the while I know of all the raids and raid mobs my guild could do, the promise of the challenge of taking down Darathar, Zalak, and maybe even the contested t5 is what kept me going.  I worked out alliances, got the majority of my guild started on primatics, equiped with wyrmsteel, etc.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>However as soon as the revamp and expasion came out that whole motivation has been slowly decaying away.  I mean I accepted the fact we'd have to relearn our classes to get good again, and that the t5 stuff would be a little more trivial since 50+ people would be helping.  But instead my whole guild's been stone walled in its progress, the only progression we can really make is levels...  I didn't have high faith in SOE b4 but it never occured to me they'd drop the ball so badly as too just brake all non expansion raid content.  We're talking about a major part of the game here, raiding, and they never thought it'd be important to balance those mobs when they rebalanced adventuring?  I thought the major point of the revamp was to make it so these raids wouldn't be trivial, but for some reason they never used them in testing!  </DIV> <DIV>So now for the past several weeks I've attempted to raid with my guild and the alliances I've made with 2 other guilds just so we could get 24ppl and all we do is find out that said content is either broken or too hard to be worth our time.  We tried shard drakota and they own'd a 50+ raid (however I think they fixed this now but I haven't had a chance to test).  We did Anvilpaw and MG drakota a couple times but my guild doesn't care about a lvl 40 peice of fabled gear from these places anymore, there all like 52-55 now.  Drayek being hard and require a 50+ raid just makes no sense, especially if you can only raid once or twice a week and he doesn't always drop metal, and Angler perhaps is worth a shot, but I'm still of the rut of getting awesome lvl 42-45 loot for my lvl 50-55 raid party.  Even Prismatics don't seem as awesome, cobalt has a better dmg rating. (Not to mention Darathar still sounds broken).  I think alot of us might be really dissapointed to have this huge aspect of the game just shut down on us.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The expansion does little to fill the gap for me.  Getting Maj'Dul faction maxed is kinda interesting but nothing more than a new gate spell and house really.  Guild lvl 40 will probably yeild even less fluff than guild lvl 30 and getting guild lvls isn't even hard its just too tedious to be worth it 90% of the time.  The only low 50 raid stuff I see is Broog and Meathooks which were both huuuugggggeeee dissapointments like the OP noted.  I just don't see what to aim for.  As a guild leader my guild already has the organization to raid but no real need too until were closer to 60 and things are worth the effort (in DoF that is, I still hope to get us prismatics).  I mean our only guild objective right now is to gain lvls assumeing there's stuff worth raiding at 60, I somehow doubt it will be as diverse as the t5 raid content for a long time.  If there was a heritage or something I could sink my teeth into I'd have something to go for but right now it just seem I can look forward to a grind.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Like I said the game still has alot of good one group content in it but alot of us play to raid.  We don't want the mediocre one grouped treasured loot, we want the awesome fabled gear for the hardest mob in the game.  Having all of that just dissapear is demoralizing.  Now the options are just to wait for dev's to fix it (and here's where SOE coulda stood not to have such a bad reputation, if I could trust them this wouldn't be such a bad option but when you pull a jedi you can't be trusted at face value), grind to lvl 60 (I'm running a casual guild here, not some FoH clone), or quit.  </DIV>

[Ninusar]

<P>Stylin i agree completely.  Seeing as killing some of the hardest mobs in the game seem to be pointless something needs to change.  However you cont do this without getting most (NOT ALL) of the casual and solo players to scream bloody-murder.  They will say its not fair that people who play alot more and grp/raid more get stuff thats that much better than thiers.  That its not fair that he is a lvl 55 Monk and cant solo near as well as his "friend" who is also a 55 mnk but equiped with raid loot.  then soon after you will get the all famous post.. This ISNT EQ1 its EQ2 its ment for casual gamers and Soloers.... if you want some UBER toon go back to EQ1.  So you see no matter what SOE does they are screwed.</P>

[Croa]

<DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Ninusar wrote:<BR> <P>Stylin i agree completely.  Seeing as killing some of the hardest mobs in the game seem to be pointless something needs to change.  However you cont do this without getting most (NOT ALL) of the casual and solo players to scream bloody-murder.  They will say its not fair that people who play alot more and grp/raid more get stuff thats that much better than thiers.  That its not fair that he is a lvl 55 Monk and cant solo near as well as his "friend" who is also a 55 mnk but equiped with raid loot.  then soon after you will get the all famous post.. This ISNT EQ1 its EQ2 its ment for casual gamers and Soloers.... if you want some UBER toon go back to EQ1.  So you see no matter what SOE does they are screwed.</P><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Well for a start they could put loot drops on the mobs in soloing areas. So far I have had a total of maybe 4 chest drops since DoF released. last night was my first in almost a week and it was some horrible weapon not useful for even a lvl30-35 character. That's my biggest gripe with DoF.  I like the way a lot of the quests work and the city is interesting, but I have yet to get any items (loot or quest) worth the time/effort/risk.  I'm lvl52 now and still using mostly lvl40 armor since there's nothing better except T6 rare at 2-4p+ each piece. I don't think there is even a shield better than a T5 rare buckler. The T5 has something like +8wis/+12int and the T6 common and rare both have stats completely different.  At least the T6 crafted weapons are nice. T6 jewelry seems decent as well.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Of course then there's the fact that I've already explored all of Sinking Sands and almost all of Pillar of Flames. Is that it? Two new zones in a full expansion?  and if Zek wasn't enough.. tons more orcs in the Clefts zone which is more like a dungeon anyway. The Shimmering Citadel is cool I must say, but again it's not really a full zone. I just feel like DoF didn't add much to the world.  I do really like how Sinking Sands is designed, but I've just about worn it out now.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>anyway I strayed way off. I mainly meant to say that the problems are not a hardcore/casual thing. The lack of loot is felt across the board and definately I see a huge loot problem right now as a casual addict (play a lot but usually solo/small groups). I love the combat changes, BUT the combat changes have nothing to do with the expansion. Period.  Why? Because you still got the combat changes regardless if you purchased DoF or not. </DIV>

[Kizee]

<DIV>I agree.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The loot in this game is lacking.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>My biggest gripe is that if a guild gets 2- 4 full groups together to kill a "epic" mob then it should ALWAYS drop a metal chest with UNIQUE items. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It seems foolish to have the epic mobs drop a wood chest that any [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] trash mob can drop.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I don't know why they strayed from the loot system of EQ1. At least in that game you knew you would walk away with some useful drop.</DIV>

[Potterguy]

<P>Very nice thread. These are genuine concerns, and I think they are being presented in a non-emotional way. There need to be long term goals established in the game. </P> <P>Raid mobs, especially contested ones, should drop fabled loot, appropriate to the tier of the raid every time. Would Bilbo and the Dwarves gone after Smog if there was no loot in the lair except an old chainmail bp, that was less nifty than the armor they could buy from smiths back in the Shire?</P> <P>People are not going to gear up, and organize guilds and raid forces for nothing. As long as I can solo effectively, it should not matter to me if a raider has a chance at better gear than me. Going back to the "Hobbit" analogy, the Proudfoots back in the Shire probably wouldn't expect to get the same loot killing wolves as Bilbo might expect from slaying Smog.</P> <P>And yeah... why don't they change the appearance of some of the armor? Different colors can't be all that hard.</P> <P> </P>

[Styl]

<DIV>You all seem to be on the same page that I am.  However it seems my fine thread, was a wee bit finer then I thought it was.  I canceled my account today.  Hopefully it will get through to the dev's and they make a better game for the rest of you.  I wish you all luck, and hope things serisously improve.</DIV>

[armus5]

<P>I've always said EQ's biggest problem was the lack of variety in loot. Being a mage, this was very apparent when I couldn't find anything better for my character after lvl38.  Now with DoF there is some good stuff but for the most part, it just gets sold. Raiding in this is also extremely hard and the few big mobs we have been able to kill have dropped crap. I'm not sure if the people working on new stuff is also the people who should be fixing the stuff they already made  or not. At this point I'm not sure we even have people working to fix stuff.</P> <P>SOE, we like that you want to add more to the game, but we'd rather have the old stuff working perfect first. And personally, I'd love for someone to just acknowledge our requests.  This silence crap is the biggest load of {Insert your own explitive here}</P> <P>Armus</P>

[dr4gonUK]

<P>/agree with OP</P> <P>Good post.</P>