ROK info from Fan Faire

[Nayurayne]

<p>This was all just said from the EQ2 VN Boards. Alukan is the one who originally posted this so cheers to them for remembering it all. I just copied and pasted. </p><p>Without further ado, info from the VN Boards. Once again curtosy of Alukan</p><p><i>* You will reach Kunark by boat. When asked about druid and wizard ports the dev literally said OOPS ... he had forgotten all about that <img src="http://media.ign.com/boardfaces/1.gif" border="0"> * Sarnak were discovered by the Spiroc in a deep lab and accidentally woke them up 50 years ago * Two of the racial abilities of Sarnak are Dragon Breath (they breath fire) and Super Jump ... I guess they can jump far <img src="http://media.ign.com/boardfaces/1.gif" border="0"> * Metrics of SOE show that folks hate grouping to gain XP in overland zones so nearly all mobs in overland zones will be solo mobs * There will not be an increase in AAs .. so if you are already level 100 ... no change. But he did say that you can store two templates of how your AAs are allocated and swap back and forth via an item in your house. So you can have a Raid setup for AAs and a Solo setup for AAs. * New mounts and titles for increase in guild level ... examples were a Rhino and the glowing dog things in Neriak . * There will be no new Heritage Quests since all the work needed to make the 24 class Epics. Class Epics quests will be like the Sword of Destiny style. You can get the first version of the Epic via grouping (the Legendary version) and to make it Fabled, you need to do Raid. * 3 new gods will be brought back ... Bertoxx ... Karana ... The Tribunal. There will be one more god release via a Live Update between now and the expansion release. * The current gods will raise in level and so will the loot they drop. * Raid progression is linear ... there will be 3 entry level raids and it will grow from there. All raids will be persistant. As a matter of fact all instances (even group instances) will be persistant. * Timmorous Deep will be level 1-20 and then all other zones will be level 65 and up. * The Sarnak starting city is now Evil (not neutral as originally released). * Mounts will be available that will go faster than any that are currently available. * Chardok zone will have the bottomless pit. * There will not be any 3 group raids ... there may be a couple of 2 gorup raids but the devs clearly don't think they bring much to the game. * There may or may not be contested mobs. The devs don't feel they bring much to the game for the amount of development needed to create them (eg, less than 1% of 1% of players will fight them). * Veeshans Peak is one of the raid zones ... currently has 11 named with Trakannon leading them. * Exiles can level past level 70 (not sure what that question was asked for). * There will be some Raid progression that requires you to have completed Raid Zone A before you can progress to Raid Zone B. Not everyone in raid will need to have completed the first to progress to the second. * Zones are huge ... the Kylong zone is 3 kilometers by 4 kilometers in size ... that is over twice the size of The Commonlands. That one zone will have Field of Bone, Kurns Tower, Lake of Ill Omen, Swamp of No Hope, Karnors Castle. * They have a new graphics ability that allows the look of the area you are in to change as you go from one part of a zone to another. So field of bone can be hot bright sun overhead and the swamp can be very dark and dreary. </i></p>

[AbsentmindedMage]

Oh that is great information.  I wonder which God will be coming back in the update before the expansion.  Maybe Bristlebane?  EDIT: nevermind it IS Bristlebane.  <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Hollywood]

There are so many things wrong with this I don't know where to begin... <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Josgar]

<p>Whats wrong with it?</p><p>Missed the panels today.</p>

[Hollywood]

<cite>Josgar wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Whats wrong with it?</p><p>Missed the panels today.</p></blockquote> Not wrong as in inaccurate, wrong as in [Removed for Content] are they doing to this game?

[Josgar]

<cite>Nayukhuut wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>This was all just said from the EQ2 VN Boards. Alukan is the one who originally posted this so cheers to them for remembering it all. I just copied and pasted. </p><p>Without further ado, info from the VN Boards. Once again curtosy of Alukan</p><p><i>* You will reach Kunark by boat. When asked about druid and wizard ports the dev literally said OOPS ... he had forgotten all about that <img src="http://media.ign.com/boardfaces/1.gif" border="0"> * Sarnak were discovered by the Spiroc in a deep lab and accidentally woke them up 50 years ago * Two of the racial abilities of Sarnak are Dragon Breath (they breath fire) and Super Jump ... I guess they can jump far <img src="http://media.ign.com/boardfaces/1.gif" border="0"> <span style="color: #ff0000">GOOD </span> * Metrics of SOE show that folks hate grouping to gain XP in overland zones so nearly all mobs in overland zones will be solo mobs * There will not be an increase in AAs .. so if you are already level 100 ... no change. But he did say that you can store two templates of how your AAs are allocated and swap back and forth via an item in your house. So you can have a Raid setup for AAs and a Solo setup for AAs. <span style="color: #ff0000">GOOD</span> * New mounts and titles for increase in guild level ... examples were a Rhino and the glowing dog things in Neriak . <span style="color: #ff0000">GOOD</span> * There will be no new Heritage Quests since all the work needed to make the 24 class Epics. Class Epics quests will be like the Sword of Destiny style. You can get the first version of the Epic via grouping (the Legendary version) and to make it Fabled, you need to do Raid. * 3 new gods will be brought back ... Bertoxx ... Karana ... The Tribunal. There will be one more god release via a Live Update between now and the expansion release. <span style="color: #ff0000">GOOD</span> * The current gods will raise in level and so will the loot they drop.  <span style="color: #ff0000">GOOD </span>* Raid progression is linear ... there will be 3 entry level raids and it will grow from there. All raids will be persistant. As a matter of fact all instances (even group instances) will be persistant. <span style="color: #ff0000">GOOD </span>* Timmorous Deep will be level 1-20 and then all other zones will be level 65 and up.  <span style="color: #ff0000">GOOD</span> * The Sarnak starting city is now Evil (not neutral as originally released). * Mounts will be available that will go faster than any that are currently available. <span style="color: #ff0000">GOOD </span>* Chardok zone will have the bottomless pit. * There will not be any 3 group raids ... there may be a couple of 2 gorup raids but the devs clearly don't think they bring much to the game. * There may or may not be contested mobs. The devs don't feel they bring much to the game for the amount of development needed to create them (eg, less than 1% of 1% of players will fight them). * Veeshans Peak is one of the raid zones ... currently has 11 named with Trakannon leading them. * Exiles can level past level 70 (not sure what that question was asked for). * There will be some Raid progression that requires you to have completed Raid Zone A before you can progress to Raid Zone B. Not everyone in raid will need to have completed the first to progress to the second. * Zones are huge ... the Kylong zone is 3 kilometers by 4 kilometers in size ... that is over twice the size of The Commonlands. That one zone will have Field of Bone, Kurns Tower, Lake of Ill Omen, Swamp of No Hope, Karnors Castle. <span style="color: #ff0000">GOOD</span><span style="color: #ff0000">!!!!!</span> * They have a new graphics ability that allows the look of the area you are in to change as you go from one part of a zone to another. So field of bone can be hot bright sun overhead and the swamp can be very dark and dreary. <span style="color: #ff0000">GOOD </span> </i></p></blockquote> Overall, I like the features that they are adding and I dont really see how it would be messing the game up... Some of the stuff may seem bad... but once you get it you realise that its not all that bad anyways.

[Iad]

No heritage quests.... <img src="/smilies/e78feac27fa924c4d0ad6cf5819f3554.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[BarkerGaming]

Bottomless pit? that aught to keep me entertained for a good year.

[AbsentmindedMage]

<cite>Iad wrote:</cite><blockquote>No heritage quests.... <img src="/smilies/e78feac27fa924c4d0ad6cf5819f3554.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></blockquote>So, there are plenty of hertiage quests in the game.  I would rather they make the epic class quests enjoyable and diverse than spend time on coming up with more heritage quests.  Besides, there is nothing to stop them from putting in a heritage quest for the 70-80 range after the expansion goes live through a live update.   They have said that the updates would be bringing in more content.  This seems to be true given what they have given us (e.g. Neriak) and what they plan to (e.g. new deity to worship) I am a bit confused on the comments about the 3 group raids and 2 group raids.  I do not raid much but I thought raids were almost exclusively 4 group with a few two group.   Is it saying that they are going to try to make the raids 2 group or make them all 4 group.

[ZeroRavesOn]

<cite>Nayukhuut wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>This was all just said from the EQ2 VN Boards. Alukan is the one who originally posted this so cheers to them for remembering it all. I just copied and pasted. </p><p>Without further ado, info from the VN Boards. Once again curtosy of Alukan</p><p><i>* You will reach Kunark by boat. When asked about druid and wizard ports the dev literally said OOPS ... he had forgotten all about that <img src="http://media.ign.com/boardfaces/1.gif" border="0"> <span style="color: #ffff00">Whatever</span> * Sarnak were discovered by the Spiroc in a deep lab and accidentally woke them up 50 years ago <span style="color: #ffff00">Whatever</span> * Two of the racial abilities of Sarnak are Dragon Breath (they breath fire) and Super Jump ... I guess they can jump far <img src="http://media.ign.com/boardfaces/1.gif" border="0"> <span style="color: #ffff00">Whatever ... but it reminds me of the promised (and so far not delivered) revamp of old world races' traits, that was mentioned when it was pointed out that fae had better traits than any previous races.</span> * Metrics of SOE show that folks hate grouping to gain XP in overland zones so nearly all mobs in overland zones will be solo mobs <span style="color: #ffff00">Whatever</span> * There will not be an increase in AAs .. so if you are already level 100 ... no change. But he did say that you can store two templates of how your AAs are allocated and swap back and forth via an item in your house. So you can have a Raid setup for AAs and a Solo setup for AAs. <span style="color: #cc0000">No New AAs = Horrible, but we already knew it</span>; <span style="color: #0000ff">Keeping two builds saved = good</span> * New mounts and titles for increase in guild level ... examples were a Rhino and the glowing dog things in Neriak. <span style="color: #0000ff">Good</span> * There will be no new Heritage Quests since all the work needed to make the 24 class Epics. Class Epics quests will be like the Sword of Destiny style. You can get the first version of the Epic via grouping (the Legendary version) and to make it Fabled, you need to do Raid. <span style="color: #ff0000">Bad, since that means that your character is only getting one really in depth quest.  I bet that there are way more people who did the HQs that didn't necessarially apply to their own character than people who will have more than one level 80 character.</span> * 3 new gods will be brought back ... Bertoxx ... Karana ... The Tribunal. There will be one more god release via a Live Update between now and the expansion release. <span style="color: #0000ff">Good, but the specific Gods will be nitpicked by anyone whose favorite God from eq1 wasn't brought back yet</span> * The current gods will raise in level and so will the loot they drop. <span style="color: #0000ff">Good if this means that the Avatars will get entirely new loot tables with the launch of Rok ... Amazingly Horrible if existing gear will be scaled up (as currently speculated on other forums)</span> * Raid progression is linear ... there will be 3 entry level raids and it will grow from there. All raids will be persistant. As a matter of fact all instances (even group instances) will be persistant. <span style="color: #ffff00">Potentially good, but depends on how it is implemented</span> * Timmorous Deep will be level 1-20 and then all other zones will be level 65 and up. <span style="color: #ffff00">Whatever</span> * The Sarnak starting city is now Evil (not neutral as originally released). <span style="color: #ffff00">Whatever</span> * Mounts will be available that will go faster than any that are currently available. <span style="color: #0000ff">Good</span> * Chardok zone will have the bottomless pit. </i><i><span style="color: #ffff00">Whatever</span></i> <i> * There will not be any 3 group raids ... there may be a couple of 2 gorup raids but the devs clearly don't think they bring much to the game. </i><i><span style="color: #ffff00">Whatever</span></i> <i> * There may or may not be contested mobs. The devs don't feel they bring much to the game for the amount of development needed to create them (eg, less than 1% of 1% of players will fight them). <span style="color: #ff0000">HORRIBLE; Contesteds are the best way to have a multi-dimensional challenge for raiders, and are a great opportunity to show zone lore for non-raiders (ie Barakah and Siyamek as a good blend of these)  Beside, it just makes sense for huge monsters to exist in the wild in addition to in their lairs.</span> * Veeshans Peak is one of the raid zones ... currently has 11 named with Trakannon leading them. </i><i><span style="color: #ffff00">Whatever</span></i> <i> * Exiles can level past level 70 (not sure what that question was asked for). </i><i><span style="color: #ffff00">Whatever</span></i> <i> * There will be some Raid progression that requires you to have completed Raid Zone A before you can progress to Raid Zone B. Not everyone in raid will need to have completed the first to progress to the second. <span style="color: #ffff00">As before, depends how it is implemented</span> * Zones are huge ... the Kylong zone is 3 kilometers by 4 kilometers in size ... that is over twice the size of The Commonlands. That one zone will have Field of Bone, Kurns Tower, Lake of Ill Omen, Swamp of No Hope, Karnors Castle. </i><i><span style="color: #ffff00">Whatever</span></i> <i> * They have a new graphics ability that allows the look of the area you are in to change as you go from one part of a zone to another. So field of bone can be hot bright sun overhead and the swamp can be very dark and dreary. </i><i><span style="color: #ffff00">Whatever</span></i><i> </i></p></blockquote>No contested is something that is troubling for the raiders among us.  Granted, only a small share of people are raiders, but they are also some of the most ardent fans of the game, and are the ones that are less likely to just migrate over to the next game.  These statements are too vague to pass judgment on, but they do not sound encouraging. It really makes you wonder what their master plan really is, when you think about the Combat Revamp that has also been mentioned.  Where are they trying to take the game?  And who do they want playing it?

[StoneySilen]

They gave a great reason why no Contested Mobs: <i>(eg, less than 1% of 1% of players will fight them)</i> In fact the contested Epic dragon in CL, I only seen once in two+ years.  Why have him if he is that rare? Anyway if you want more updates by Alukan take a look at the original thread from VNBoards here: <a href="http://vnboards.ign.com/eq2_general_board/b22210/103994815/p1/?18" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://vnboards.ign.com/eq2_general...03994815/p1/?18</a>

[Wildmage]

<cite>Nayukhuut wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>This was all just said from the EQ2 VN Boards. Alukan is the one who originally posted this so cheers to them for remembering it all. I just copied and pasted. </p><p>Without further ado, info from the VN Boards. Once again curtosy of Alukan</p><p><i>* You will reach Kunark by boat. When asked about druid and wizard ports the dev literally said OOPS ... he had forgotten all about that <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><b>)</b> [i] * Mounts will be available that will go faster than any that are currently available. * Chardok zone will have the bottomless pit. * There will not be any 3 group raids ... there may be a couple of 2 gorup raids but the devs clearly don't think they bring much to the game. * There may or may not be contested mobs. The devs don't feel they bring much to the game for the amount of development needed to create them (eg, less than 1% of 1% of players will fight them).  </i><b>Valid points.</b> <i> * Veeshans Peak is one of the raid zones ... currently has 11 named with Trakannon leading them.  </i><b>Booooo...I wanted Trakanon to be ridden by Venril Sethir in a ring event</b> <i> * Exiles can level past level 70 (not sure what that question was asked for). * There will be some Raid progression that requires you to have completed Raid Zone A before you can progress to Raid Zone B. Not everyone in raid will need to have completed the first to progress to the second.  </i><b>Well this better not be a sign of them repeating some of EQ1's mistakes of having expansions where all the content required you to finish raids to incrementally experience content for that way likes the stink</b> <i> * Zones are huge ... the Kylong zone is 3 kilometers by 4 kilometers in size ... that is over twice the size of The Commonlands. That one zone will have Field of Bone, Kurns Tower, Lake of Ill Omen, Swamp of No Hope, Karnors Castle.   </i><b>YAY</b> <i> * They have a new graphics ability that allows the look of the area you are in to change as you go from one part of a zone to another. So field of bone can be hot bright sun overhead and the swamp can be very dark and dreary.  </i><b>YAY, wonder if this means they will start merging Qeynos and Freeport sometime...</b> <i> </i></p></blockquote>

[Dragowulf]

<cite>Nayukhuut wrote:</cite><blockquote><p><i>*Snip* * Two of the racial abilities of Sarnak are Dragon Breath (they breath fire) and <b>Super Jump</b> ... I guess they can jump far <img src="http://media.ign.com/boardfaces/1.gif" border="0"> *Snip* </i></p></blockquote> So the jump that Scott did really was their racial ability?  YAY!!!

[Dragowulf]

Lets see, I took the liberty of putting all the stuff on the vn forums and compiled them into categories for yall. took a while. enjoy EDIT: BTW i found these <a href="http://vnboards.ign.com/eq2_general_board/b22210/103994815/p1/?18" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">here</a> <u><b>Legends of Norrath card game:</b></u> <i>* The new game that is being released (Legends of Norrath) is a built in card game that is linked to both EQ and EQ2 (think Magic the Gathering but Norrath lore). You can challenge other players (even across games .. eg EQ guy can challenge an EQ2 friend). Starter packs are free. You can buy more packs OR get them as loot drops (depending how patient you are). As you win, you can accumalate real game items that you can use while in game(Cloak of Water that gives safe fall and water breathing), XP potions, mounts, etc.. So think of it as the modern version of Gems that you can play when bored that can give you real items. * The new card game will be hitting test any time now with expected formal rollout at the end of August. One point that was made is any items you get in beta test you can keep after beta ends! He must have meant that you can keep it on the Beta Server though he didn't specifically say. </i> <i>* Cards and entire packs will drop as loot from mobs. Cards will be sellable on the broker. The claim items will not be though. * Check out <a href="http://legendsofnorrath.station.sony.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://legendsofnorrath.station.sony.com/</a> ... I want to win the beer stein that teleports you back to the bar of your home city !!</i> <b><u>Gameplay/Mechanics/Engine/Graphics/MUSIC: </u></b><i>* You will reach Kunark by boat. When asked about druid and wizard ports the dev literally said OOPS ... he had forgotten all about that </i><i>* The new skeletel model system looks nice (we have nostrils now!!) but still far away from release. Does look neat and a lot more realistic.</i><i> * Zones are huge ... the Kylong zone is 3 kilometers by 4 kilometers in size ... that is over twice the size of The Commonlands. That one zone will have Field of Bone, Kurns Tower, Lake of Ill Omen, Swamp of No Hope, Karnors Castle. * They have a new graphics ability that allows the look of the area you are in to change as you go from one part of a zone to another. So field of bone can be hot bright sun overhead and the swamp can be very dark and dreary.</i> <i>* After Kunark, there will be a new Map system to replace what is in game now. Will come in two modes ... full screen high color mode and a permanant mini map. They are working with EQ2 Maps to coordinate compatibility. * There will be an all new adaptive music system for combat. It will be dynamically created as you fight and will change as you are winning or losing as well as how long the fight is and how hard it is. So no more mundane looping music. They gave two examples ... one where you win a fight and one where you lose. Sounded very nice! </i> <b><u>Lore: </u></b><i>* Sarnak were discovered by the Spiroc in a deep lab and accidentally woke them up 50 years ago </i><b><u>ZONES/MOBS:</u></b><b><u> </u></b><i>* Two new zones are planned as Live Update Releases ... the Shard of Fear (group based zone) and the Shard of Hate (raid zone)!! </i><i>* Metrics of SOE show that folks hate grouping to gain XP in overland zones so nearly all mobs in overland zones will be solo mobs</i><i> </i> <b><u>Quests: </u></b><i>* There will be no new Heritage Quests since all the work needed to make the 24 class Epics. Class Epics quests will be like the Sword of Destiny style. You can get the first version of the Epic via grouping (the Legendary version) and to make it Fabled, you need to do Raid.</i> <u><b>Spells/RACIAL TRAITS/AA:</b></u> <i>* There will be changes to spells that will reduce the number of individual spells classes may have by combining similar functions into one icon; eg, if you have two debuffs they could be removed from game and replaced with a single spell that does both. Intent is to reduce the icon clutter (eg, 5 hotbars etc). Still lots of questions on how concentration slots would be affected and hate gain if multiple debuffs get sent in at once.</i> <i>* The progression for new spells in Kunark will change such that all spell trees for a class will be upgraded in the 10 levels to 80 (no more waiting for 14 levels). Also upgrades for some of the ancient abilities from DoF will be introduced where appropreiate. * The topic of player cast power drains came up and how they are worthless now. The dev responded that unfortunately the power drain concept is just one of those things that didn't quite work out the way they had hoped. As people may recall, at the release of EQ2, you could neutralize most named mobs by draining all their power ... thereby trivializing a lot of content. Well in response, mobs now have nearly limitless power pools. So the dev mentioned that as time goes on, any player spells or CAs that have power drains in them would be replaced with something else. No ETA given though. * Two of the racial abilities of Sarnak are Dragon Breath (they breath fire) and Super Jump ... I guess they can jump far * There will not be an increase in AAs .. so if you are already level 100 ... no change. But he did say that you can store two templates of how your AAs are allocated and swap back and forth via an item in your house. So you can have a Raid setup for AAs and a Solo setup for AAs. </i><b><u>Items/Armor/Weaps:</u></b><i> </i><i>* There will be 3 sets of armor for all classes as part of the Kunark expansion. One legendary and two types of fabled. The top tier fabled will have abilities embedded in it that is only useful during T8 raids; such as the ability to avoid the crit damage mentioned earlier ... since only raid mobs will crit, will only have a value to raiders. Basically they are trying to make fabled armor more unique and powerful without overpowering base content. * Mounts will be available that will go faster than any that are currently available. </i><b><u>Guild HALLS/GUILD: </u></b><i>* New mounts and titles for increase in guild level ... examples were a Rhino and the glowing dog things in Neriak . </i> <i>* Guild Halls are now being actively worked on with completion sometime after Kunark ... say first Quarter of 2008 * Guild Halls would be islands placed just offshore from Antonica and the Commonlands. They would be instances so I imagine they will work similar to how apartments work, you click on something and enter your guilds own hall. * Exile based guilds in PvP server would not have guild hall ... concern is that Exile guilds on PvP already get the best of everything ... no desire to give them even more of everything. * Guild Halls will be HUGE ... bigger than deathfist citadell huge. Courtyard ... over 40 rooms can be unlocked and purchased. There will be two initial themes of look and feel. One very stately and following the style of Qeynos architechure. The other would be more foreboding gothic look. * As your guild levels you can get more rooms (I imagine like how you get more bank slots in guild bank) and your guild can choose what that room will function as ... ideas include ... Guild Vault ... Mender ... Brokers ... Crafting Supply Merhcants ... Binding Rooms to call to ... rally points to launch to raids to ... the devs want folks to post ideas for rooms on the forums since they have a ton of rooms to fill * There is customization to a degree for the halls ... banners ... statues ... your guild crest (from the cloak) on things ... etc. * Will probably be able to get your first guild hall at guild level 10.</i><i> </i> <b><u>Gods: </u></b><i>* 3 new gods will be brought back ... Bertoxx ... Karana ... The Tribunal. There will be one more god release via a Live Update between now and the expansion release. * The current gods will raise in level and so will the loot they drop. * The other god that will be appearing between now and the Kunark expansion will be Bristlebane ... devs mentioned something about one of the miracles involved droping anvils on targets head </i><b><u>Raiding/Grouping: </u></b><i>* Raid progression is linear ... there will be 3 entry level raids and it will grow from there. All raids will be persistant. As a matter of fact all instances (even group instances) will be persistant. </i><i>* There will not be any 3 group raids ... there may be a couple of 2 gorup raids but the devs clearly don't think they bring much to the game. * Veeshans Peak is one of the raid zones ... currently has 11 named with Trakannon leading them. </i><u><b> </b></u><i>* There will be some Raid progression that requires you to have completed Raid Zone A before you can progress to Raid Zone B. Not everyone in raid will need to have completed the first to progress to the second. * Two new zones are planned as Live Update Releases ... the Shard of Fear (group based zone) and the Shard of Hate (raid zone)!! </i><i>* There may or may not be contested mobs. The devs don't feel they bring much to the game for the amount of development needed to create them (eg, less than 1% of 1% of players will fight them).</i><i> </i><u><b> Misc.:</b></u><u><b> </b></u><i>* Timmorous Deep will be level 1-20 and then all other zones will be level 65 and up. * The Sarnak starting city is now Evil (not neutral as originally released).</i><b> </b><i>* Chardok zone will have the bottomless pit. * They will be adding a new functionality to how clothing works. They are going to add a new layer of clothing that will fit over top of your armor so that you can control how you look regardless of how unmatched your armor is. This can be turned on and off. * One dev commented ... "wouldn't it be cool if the cities were all one zone"! * Tik Tok language is not in game and was never intended to be. Found that strange but that is what they said. * Ventrilo or Teamspeak will not likely ever be built into the game ... why waste resourses when folks already have something they really like. * None of the raid / heroic zones will be scaleable based on raid numbers or level. Takes just as much effort to do that as make all new zones. * They would like to have a new character slot with expansion but can't promise since character slots are also tied into the Launcher and such which controlled by another division of SOE. * Characters will not be sitting in chairs. The base code to scale body sizes and chair sizes just isn't there. Not like SWG where it was in there from day one. * All avatars will be on the same timer like they are now (even if more are added). * Rare item shinies for collections are not working out the way they wanted. Rares are too rare so probably won't repeat what they did on that with EoF for Kunark. * If for some reason the Sarnaks are changed back to Neutral city, their class choices will be based off the Evil choices. * One dev liked the idea of tintable furniture for rooms but tintable armor will never ever make it in game if he has any say </i><i> </i><b><u> PVP: </u></b><i>* The topic of PvP came up and how to keep new folks joining the server from immediately getting slaughtered as they hit level 10 by the overpowered twinked level 14s with a billion AAs. Basically the dev said he was aware of the problem and is trying to think of ways to help such as making it easier to get purchased armor faster at lowest of levels and the AA cap was put in based on a players level. One thing he said they would NOT do was force players to level. Just not going to happen. Basically he said the PvP community needs to step up and protect the new folks.</i> <b><u> </u></b><b><u>Launcher:</u></b> <i>* There will be a new launcher system that will replace the launchpad allowing you to easily launch any of the SOE games you own. There will also be background patching while you are not playing. So if you havent played for a while, when you log in, everything will be up to date (think of how MS Windows does the auto update thing). There will also be linking of ALL you friends lists (past and present) for all games allowing you to see who is online (even if on another game). You can go invisibile if you don't want to be seen online by your friends.</i>

[troodon]

<cite>Dragowulf2 wrote:</cite><blockquote> <b><u>Quests: </u></b><i>* There will be no new Heritage Quests since all the work needed to make the 24 class Epics. Class Epics quests will be like the Sword of Destiny style. You can get the first version of the Epic via grouping (the Legendary version) and to make it Fabled, you need to do Raid.</i> </blockquote>Oh please let the SK epic be Greenmist.  If I can't have it as an HQ, please as an epic!

[Miss_Jackie]

No more than 100 AA'S? *sniff* Boo!

[Armawk]

Please Please let the map system not be useless like the one in LOTRO for example (or from my play of that game I found it so).. where the minimap is not zoom or adjustable and is too close to be any use, and the full map is not windowable, has no detail, and is too far out to be any use.

[Seiden]

wow, the card game seems like a rad idea. I would like to see gameplay of it.

[Aven Elonis]

<p>Quote - <i>"There may or may not be contested mobs. The devs don't feel they bring much to the game for the amount of development needed to create them (eg, less than 1% of 1% of players will fight them)."</i></p><p>This makes sense to me, if only due to it is true only 100 to 200 people on each server will generally have the time, energy, call lists, etc to do them. (Of course all the hard core raid guilds will have a different opinion on this one, but really no surprise there.</p><p>If the lack of contested is off set by having to complete Raid Zone A before going to Raid Zone B, then that seems to be a better use of resources.</p><p>And no, we do not do contested, unless we happen to stumble across them on the way to a raid zone . <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> <u><b> </b></u></p>

[SLoPPyJoE]

<cite>Dragowulf2 wrote:</cite><blockquote><i>* There may or may not be contested mobs. The devs don't feel they bring much to the game for the amount of development needed to create them (eg, less than 1% of 1% of players will fight them).</i><i> </i><u><b> </b></u></blockquote> LAME! contesteds are some of the best raid content not to mention add some sort of real competition between guilds. Anyone can kill instanced content.

[Hardain]

So all of our 57+ abilities are getting new versions with RoK? Or atleast most of them.

[Ruut Li]

<cite>Nayukhuut wrote:</cite><blockquote><p><i>* You will reach Kunark by boat. When asked about druid and <strike>wizard</strike> <span style="font-size: x-large"><span style="color: #ff33ff"><b><u>SORCERER</u></b></span></span> ports the dev literally said OOPS ... he had forgotten all about that <img src="http://media.ign.com/boardfaces/1.gif" border="0"> </i></p></blockquote><p> Druid = fury&warden, both can port</p><p>Sorcerer = Wizard and Warlock, BOTH can port</p><p>Just some basic knowledge of eq2 ports, your welcome.</p>

[Cusashorn]

The new god is Bristlebane. Developers mentioned something about dropping anvils on the target's head.

[Faelgalad]

<p>So, after level 10 Levels, getting my Epic Weapon, is nothing to do?</p><p>LAME! </p><p>Not sitting in chairs?</p><p>LAME</p><p>No Erolissi Marr?</p><p>LAME </p><p>This is a nice Raider-Only Addon.  Is there any reason for increasing to T8? I mean, 10 Levels of Spells and new Equipment, that's not such an kick for playing. </p>

[Norrsken]

<cite>Faelgalad wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>So, after level 10 Levels, getting my Epic Weapon, is nothing to do?</p><p>LAME! </p><p>Not sitting in chairs?</p><p>LAME</p><p>No Erolissi Marr?</p><p>LAME </p><p>This is a nice Raider-Only Addon.  Is there any reason for increasing to T8? I mean, 10 Levels of Spells and new Equipment, that's not such an kick for playing. </p></blockquote>So, had we gotten 3-4 hq, probably something you could finish within a week, or at the msot a month, you would hav eliked to sit in a chair to have something to do? im fairly certain erolissi will come at a later stage. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> And, well, of course the raiders will get their fair share. But Idoubt there is going to be nothing BUT raid content.

[AbsentmindedMage]

<cite>Faelgalad wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>So, after level 10 Levels, getting my Epic Weapon, is nothing to do?</p><p>LAME! </p><p>Not sitting in chairs?</p><p>LAME</p><p>No Erolissi Marr?</p><p>LAME </p><p>This is a nice Raider-Only Addon.  Is there any reason for increasing to T8? I mean, 10 Levels of Spells and new Equipment, that's not such an kick for playing. </p></blockquote>Well, you do have 3 more deities to select from, you have a new race and place to live, and more quests.  Hopefully, they will have  a lot of quests take place in the overland zones for solo players and when a person doesnt feel like or cant find a group.   The expansion is suppose to have 1-20  and then 65-80.   And the level increase is in everything not just adventure but also tradeskill and guild.   So, I do not think it will just be "a nice raider-only addon".

[Themaginator]

people can complain about anything huh

[iceriven2]

Aven Elonis wrote: <blockquote><p>Quote - <i>"There may or may not be contested mobs. The devs don't feel they bring much to the game for the amount of development needed to create them (eg, less than 1% of 1% of players will fight them)."</i></p><p>This makes sense to me, if only due to it is true only 100 to 200 people on each server will generally have the time, energy, call lists, etc to do them. (Of course all the hard core raid guilds will have a different opinion on this one, but really no surprise there.</p><p>If the lack of contested is off set by having to complete Raid Zone A before going to Raid Zone B, then that seems to be a better use of resources.</p><p>And no, we do not do contested, unless we happen to stumble across them on the way to a raid zone . <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> <u><b> </b></u></p></blockquote> I like this idea too, but 100-200 ppl is too large per server.  only one guild on each server tends to kill contested. so thats 30 ish ppl that have access to contested on each server.

[Winter]

<cite>Dragowulf2 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Nayukhuut wrote:</cite><blockquote><p><i>*Snip* * Two of the racial abilities of Sarnak are Dragon Breath (they breath fire) and <b>Super Jump</b> ... I guess they can jump far <img src="http://media.ign.com/boardfaces/1.gif" border="0"> *Snip* </i></p></blockquote> So the jump that Scott did really was their racial ability?  YAY!!! </blockquote><p> <span style="font-size: medium"><span style="color: #ff99ff">They scrapped Super Jump if I remember correctly from the panel - reason being it looked really funny or something like that, just didn't work out.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff99ff"><span style="font-size: medium">Lockeye and I talked about racials and the old concerns when Fae first came out. He mentioned that they do hope to add unique racial abilities to all the races so as to make them all desirable in their own rite. The only racial ability he mentioned to me for Sarnak was an ability to control their weight under water (? - did I hear that right, Lockeye?) or something like that. Like being able to jump out of water and so on and so forth. From the multiple things I heard though, I think it is safe to assume that the racials for Sarnak are still being decided upon to some degree.</span> </span></p>

[ke'la]

<cite>Miss_Jackie wrote:</cite><blockquote>No more than 100 AA'S? *sniff* Boo! </blockquote> The choice what new AAs or New lvl cap as it takes just as much time to make a new lvl cap as it does to make AAs

[ke'la]

<cite>SLoPPyJoE wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Dragowulf2 wrote:</cite><blockquote><i>* There may or may not be contested mobs. The devs don't feel they bring much to the game for the amount of development needed to create them (eg, less than 1% of 1% of players will fight them).</i><i> </i><u><b> </b></u></blockquote> LAME! contesteds are some of the best raid content not to mention add some sort of real competition between guilds. Anyone can kill instanced content.</blockquote> Accually there will be atleast 3 new constesteds as the 3 RoK gods WILL have avatars, and the current gods avatars will be scaled up to T8. The Devs want to keep the Avatars as THE HARDEST mobs in game period. Also the way I heard it on contested, other then gods is that there where not going to be alot of them.

[ke'la]

<cite>Hardain wrote:</cite><blockquote>So all of our 57+ abilities are getting new versions with RoK? Or atleast most of them.</blockquote>If the CA is of the type that normaly upgrades...such as it has a fix damage number or the like, you WILL get a replacement. If it is a percentace one such as Amends or Tsunami then you will not get an upgrade as they don't need it.

[ke'la]

Ulvhamne@Nagafen wrote: <blockquote><cite>Faelgalad wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>So, after level 10 Levels, getting my Epic Weapon, is nothing to do?</p><p>LAME! </p><p>Not sitting in chairs?</p><p>LAME</p><p>No Erolissi Marr?</p><p>LAME </p><p>This is a nice Raider-Only Addon.  Is there any reason for increasing to T8? I mean, 10 Levels of Spells and new Equipment, that's not such an kick for playing. </p></blockquote>So, had we gotten 3-4 hq, probably something you could finish within a week, or at the msot a month, you would hav eliked to sit in a chair to have something to do? im fairly certain erolissi will come at a later stage. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> And, well, of course the raiders will get their fair share. But Idoubt there is going to be nothing BUT raid content. </blockquote>seeing as how overland is going to be nearly complety Solo Content I would have to agree with you on that. Besides just because they said no HQs in the expaintion does not mean that a) there will not be post expaintion HQs(infact they way they where talking about it to me made me think they already have one planed but did not want to accually come out and say it) and b) HQ is only one type of long quest, there is also Signiture Quests wich they did not say anything about 1 way or the other. However, being that 1 of the overland zones is going to be 12 square Kilometers I seriously doupt you will run out of things to do solo. Also being that they are all about big LUs I am certain there will be stuff to do in the LUs that fallow RoK, I mean they are adding a new god soon.

[Zabjade]

<span style="color: #00ff00">I just wonder about the Monk Mend line heal was our last mend and we haven't had an upgrade on that ever and it has been grey since KoS</span>

[Maroger]

<cite>Dragowulf2 wrote:</cite><blockquote>Lets see, I took the liberty of putting all the stuff on the vn forums and compiled them into categories for yall. took a while. enjoy EDIT: BTW i found these <a href="http://vnboards.ign.com/eq2_general_board/b22210/103994815/p1/?18" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">here</a> <i>* The topic of player cast power drains came up and how they are worthless now. The dev responded that unfortunately the power drain concept is just one of those things that didn't quite work out the way they had hoped. As people may recall, at the release of EQ2, you could neutralize most named mobs by draining all their power ... thereby trivializing a lot of content. Well in response, mobs now have nearly limitless power pools. So the dev mentioned that as time goes on, any player spells or CAs that have power drains in them would be replaced with something else. No ETA given though. </i> </blockquote>  No wonder coercers are WORTHLESS <img src="/smilies/e78feac27fa924c4d0ad6cf5819f3554.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Most of our spells are power drain spells which means we SUCK as these spells have not been fixed!!

[Alukan]

<cite>Winter wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Dragowulf2 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Nayukhuut wrote:</cite><blockquote><p><i>*Snip* * Two of the racial abilities of Sarnak are Dragon Breath (they breath fire) and <b>Super Jump</b> ... I guess they can jump far <img src="http://media.ign.com/boardfaces/1.gif" border="0"> *Snip* </i></p></blockquote> So the jump that Scott did really was their racial ability?  YAY!!! </blockquote><p> <span style="font-size: medium"><span style="color: #ff99ff">They scrapped Super Jump if I remember correctly from the panel - reason being it looked really funny or something like that, just didn't work out.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff99ff"><span style="font-size: medium">Lockeye and I talked about racials and the old concerns when Fae first came out. He mentioned that they do hope to add unique racial abilities to all the races so as to make them all desirable in their own rite. The only racial ability he mentioned to me for Sarnak was an ability to control their weight under water (? - did I hear that right, Lockeye?) or something like that. Like being able to jump out of water and so on and so forth. From the multiple things I heard though, I think it is safe to assume that the racials for Sarnak are still being decided upon to some degree.</span> </span></p></blockquote>Thanks for the clarification ... I heard that from another player but never heard it direct so didn't include it in my info.

[Alukan]

<p>Heh ... first time I have logged on as this name (multiple accounts)<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>But figured it would help to tie to my original thread on Vaults Network where I normally lurk.</p>

[Computer MAn]

ke'la wrote: <blockquote><cite>SLoPPyJoE wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Dragowulf2 wrote:</cite><blockquote><i>* There may or may not be contested mobs. The devs don't feel they bring much to the game for the amount of development needed to create them (eg, less than 1% of 1% of players will fight them).</i><i> </i><u><b> </b></u></blockquote> LAME! contesteds are some of the best raid content not to mention add some sort of real competition between guilds. Anyone can kill instanced content.</blockquote> Accually there will be atleast 3 new constesteds as the 3 RoK gods WILL have avatars, and the current gods avatars will be scaled up to T8. The Devs want to keep the Avatars as THE HARDEST mobs in game period. Also the way I heard it on contested, other then gods is that there where not going to be alot of them.</blockquote>Except that is just 1 contested as Avatar's share a spawn timer. So essentially with new Avatar's we have no new contested.

[Wrapye]

<cite>Maroger wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Dragowulf2 wrote:</cite><blockquote>Lets see, I took the liberty of putting all the stuff on the vn forums and compiled them into categories for yall. took a while. enjoy EDIT: BTW i found these <a href="http://vnboards.ign.com/eq2_general_board/b22210/103994815/p1/?18" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">here</a> <i>* The topic of player cast power drains came up and how they are worthless now. The dev responded that unfortunately the power drain concept is just one of those things that didn't quite work out the way they had hoped. As people may recall, at the release of EQ2, you could neutralize most named mobs by draining all their power ... thereby trivializing a lot of content. Well in response, mobs now have nearly limitless power pools. So the dev mentioned that as time goes on, any player spells or CAs that have power drains in them would be replaced with something else. No ETA given though. </i> </blockquote>  No wonder coercers are WORTHLESS <img src="/smilies/e78feac27fa924c4d0ad6cf5819f3554.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Most of our spells are power drain spells which means we SUCK as these spells have not been fixed!!</blockquote>I wouldn't call coercers worthless based on that... The issue with power drains has been present since LU13, 2 years ago, and the enchanters have been griping about it continuously since.  One would have hoped that the devs would have turned their attention to this sooner, especially now that coercers need to actively generate hate.  If power drains get replaced by something else, it needs to be something that will generate hate for coercers.  We have four spell lines that have power drain as a component.  That the devs don't yet have a plan what to replace power drains with yet is very disheartening and disappointing.  There are several reasons that enchanters are one of the least played class in the game, and impotence of power drains is one of those reasons.

[ke'la]

<cite>Zabjade wrote:</cite><blockquote><span style="color: #00ff00">I just wonder about the Monk Mend line heal was our last mend and we haven't had an upgrade on that ever and it has been grey since KoS</span></blockquote> It is a percentage of total health so techinicly its never grey, and just like the Pally Amends its never going to get an upgrade from the point its currently at because if it would quickly become way over powered as you can only go up so high with %s

[ke'la]

<cite>Maroger wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Dragowulf2 wrote:</cite><blockquote>Lets see, I took the liberty of putting all the stuff on the vn forums and compiled them into categories for yall. took a while. enjoy EDIT: BTW i found these <a href="http://vnboards.ign.com/eq2_general_board/b22210/103994815/p1/?18" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">here</a> <i>* The topic of player cast power drains came up and how they are worthless now. The dev responded that unfortunately the power drain concept is just one of those things that didn't quite work out the way they had hoped. As people may recall, at the release of EQ2, you could neutralize most named mobs by draining all their power ... thereby trivializing a lot of content. Well in response, mobs now have nearly limitless power pools. So the dev mentioned that as time goes on, any player spells or CAs that have power drains in them would be replaced with something else. No ETA given though. </i> </blockquote>  No wonder coercers are WORTHLESS <img src="/smilies/e78feac27fa924c4d0ad6cf5819f3554.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Most of our spells are power drain spells which means we SUCK as these spells have not been fixed!!</blockquote><p>And it looks like they are not going to be instead they are going to be replaced with something that is accually useful...eventually.</p><p>as for this point "There are several reasons that enchanters are one of the least played class in the game, and impotence of power drains is one of those reasons." This is infact one of the main reasons I stopped playing my Illusionist, there are others but this was a big one. </p>

[HellRaiserXX]

<cite>iceriven2 wrote:</cite><blockquote>Aven Elonis wrote: <blockquote><p>Quote - <i>"There may or may not be contested mobs. The devs don't feel they bring much to the game for the amount of development needed to create them (eg, less than 1% of 1% of players will fight them)."</i></p><p>This makes sense to me, if only due to it is true only 100 to 200 people on each server will generally have the time, energy, call lists, etc to do them. (Of course all the hard core raid guilds will have a different opinion on this one, but really no surprise there.</p><p>If the lack of contested is off set by having to complete Raid Zone A before going to Raid Zone B, then that seems to be a better use of resources.</p><p>And no, we do not do contested, unless we happen to stumble across them on the way to a raid zone . <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> <u><b> </b></u></p></blockquote> I like this idea too, but 100-200 ppl is too large per server.  only one guild on each server tends to kill contested. so thats 30 ish ppl that have access to contested on each server. </blockquote><p>Im sure there are a lot more than 100 people on a server who would like to do contested but cant simply because they are overpowered by the top guild. That doesnt mean they dont try, I know of servers where 5 guilds will be at a contested "attempting" to kill it.  Problem is there is too few contested and their timers are so predictable that its not hard for one guild to lock them all down, plus for the most part contested mobs arent extremely hard to kill which makes it even easier since some guilds can do them without even a full 24man raid.  Put more contested mobs with really variable spawn timers and youd see a lot more people taking part in them.  Instances get boring because there is no clock against you, you can take as long as you please to complete them, whereas contested offer a much greater sense of urgency.  If youve ever killed a contested when there is several other guilds there pulling as well, the adreneline rush and sense of achievement when your guild emerges victorious is like nothing else this game can offer.  Without it, it becomes mundane and repetitive. </p><p>Heres an idea for any devs listening.  There must always be a struggle between good and evil.  Why cant there be the same struggle among the gods? There are three camps among the deities: good; evil; and neutral. So have three avatars capable of being up at the same time. You are going to redesign their loot tables anyway so have seperate tables for each camp and keep the unique item present with each avatar. If theres one guild that constantly kills all three so what, those guilds will have already done everything possible by then anyway and will just be collecting loot, just as they were in EoF. Those top guilds would have completed every encounter in game easily 6mons into EoF if it wasnt for some avatars seeming to not even exist. </p><p>I know there are a lot of players who wish they could kill avatars, but are blocked by the top guilds.  Instead of removing that aspect make it broader, make more spawns, x2 mobs and x4s.  Make it so the top guilds have to work their [Removed for Content] off keeping them all locked down and with a good chance that they wont be able to. Fresh into RoK, 2 guilds have lvl 80 raidforces-one being the previous xpacs #1 guild, 2 contested are up, which do you kill? Obviously not the same one, so you have two guilds working on seperate encounters, say they each kill their respective mobs.  Now each guild has an advantage over the other should the contested they killed ever pop again. Contested loot gets spread over multiple guilds, competition is promoted and I guarantee the game will be more fun for anyone wanting to test their mettle in the contested arena. Just having instancing will make the game dry because sooner or later a good portion of the players who raid will have completed it all unless its extremely hard, which isnt SOEs style, so the game just becomes repetitive.  At least with contested, even if youve done them all, theres still the competitive aspect and rush that comes from outpulling another guild.  Broaden the contested field to allow more people to participate and it will add a lot of spice to the game down the road. </p>

[Zabjade]

ke'la wrote: <blockquote><cite>Zabjade wrote:</cite><blockquote><span style="color: #00ff00">I just wonder about the Monk Mend line heal was our last mend and we haven't had an upgrade on that ever and it has been grey since KoS</span></blockquote> It is a percentage of total health so techinicly its never grey, and just like the Pally Amends its never going to get an upgrade from the point its currently at because if it would quickly become way over powered as you can only go up so high with %s</blockquote><span style="color: #00cc00">Doesn't mean that they can't add other effects to the Mend line faster recast more effects cured...</span>

[Cusashorn]

<cite>Zabjade wrote:</cite><blockquote>ke'la wrote: <blockquote><cite>Zabjade wrote:</cite><blockquote><span style="color: #00ff00">I just wonder about the Monk Mend line heal was our last mend and we haven't had an upgrade on that ever and it has been grey since KoS</span></blockquote> It is a percentage of total health so techinicly its never grey, and just like the Pally Amends its never going to get an upgrade from the point its currently at because if it would quickly become way over powered as you can only go up so high with %s</blockquote><span style="color: #00cc00">Doesn't mean that they can't add other effects to the Mend line faster recast more effects cured...</span> </blockquote> I'm with you on this one. I wish they'd give us an upgrade to heal. The developers said that it's the last in the line, but even if they don't increase the healing amount, they could at least let us remove stronger counters of poisons and disease spells and stuff.

[Besual]

<cite>HellRaiserXX wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>iceriven2 wrote:</cite><blockquote><b>Aven Elonis wrote:</b> I like this idea too, but 100-200 ppl is too large per server.  only one guild on each server tends to kill contested. so thats 30 ish ppl that have access to contested on each server. </blockquote><p>Im sure there are a lot more than 100 people on a server who would like to do contested but cant simply because they are overpowered by the top guild. That doesnt mean they dont try, I know of servers where 5 guilds will be at a contested "attempting" to kill it.  Problem is there is too few contested and their timers are so predictable that its not hard for one guild to lock them all down, plus for the most part contested mobs arent extremely hard to kill which makes it even easier since some guilds can do them without even a full 24man raid.  Put more contested mobs with really variable spawn timers and youd see a lot more people taking part in them.  Instances get boring because there is no clock against you, you can take as long as you please to complete them, whereas contested offer a much greater sense of urgency.  If youve ever killed a contested when there is several other guilds there pulling as well, the adreneline rush and sense of achievement when your guild emerges victorious is like nothing else this game can offer.  Without it, it becomes mundane and repetitive. </p></blockquote> Usually the hard core raiding guilds are going for the contested (I have nothing against such guilds) and the top 2-3 guilds will control the spawns. I guess these hardcore guilds will have a tight roster; let us say 30 people each. 3x 30 = 90. Yeah, about 100 people per server will enjoy the contested mobs. <b>Would</b> more guilds attempt to kill them? Sure, but  they won't get a chance.

[NikkiT]

<cite>ZeroRavesOn wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Nayukhuut wrote:</cite><blockquote>* There will be no new Heritage Quests since all the work needed to make the 24 class Epics. Class Epics quests will be like the Sword of Destiny style. You can get the first version of the Epic via grouping (the Legendary version) and to make it Fabled, you need to do Raid. <span style="color: #ff0000">Bad, since that means that your character is only getting one really in depth quest.  I bet that there are way more people who did the HQs that didn't necessarially apply to their own character than people who will have more than one level 80 character.</span> </blockquote> </blockquote> Actually...your character is getting 24 in depth quests I think since the class Epic quests are going to be group/raid quests. You won't be having 24 quests in your questbook, but you are going to help others with many more than your own epic quests.

[Geinoch]

Still no neutral city =( I was really hoping for that one =(

[Illmarr]

<cite>Geinoch wrote:</cite><blockquote>Still no neutral city =( I was really hoping for that one =(</blockquote> I was also, but given the history of the Sarnak from EQ1, it really did not make sense for them to be neutral. Maybe one day.

[Leatherneck]

Ilmaaaaah@Lucan DLere wrote: <blockquote><cite>Geinoch wrote:</cite><blockquote>Still no neutral city =( I was really hoping for that one =(</blockquote> I was also, but given the history of the Sarnak from EQ1, it really did not make sense for them to be neutral. Maybe one day.</blockquote><p> Actually it does.  It makes more sense than them buddy-ing up with the evils.</p><p>I wouldn't think of it technically as "neutral".  More like Good, Evil and Sarnak.</p>

[Cusashorn]

Noctew@Valor wrote: <blockquote><cite>ZeroRavesOn wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Nayukhuut wrote:</cite><blockquote>* There will be no new Heritage Quests since all the work needed to make the 24 class Epics. Class Epics quests will be like the Sword of Destiny style. You can get the first version of the Epic via grouping (the Legendary version) and to make it Fabled, you need to do Raid. <span style="color: #ff0000">Bad, since that means that your character is only getting one really in depth quest.  I bet that there are way more people who did the HQs that didn't necessarially apply to their own character than people who will have more than one level 80 character.</span> </blockquote> </blockquote> Actually...your character is getting 24 in depth quests I think since the class Epic quests are going to be group/raid quests. You won't be having 24 quests in your questbook, but you are going to help others with many more than your own epic quests. </blockquote>That doesn't mean that YOU, directly, will be given the entire story and all the dialogue of the other epic quests. Only your own.

[ke'la]

Ilmaaaaah@Lucan DLere wrote: <blockquote><cite>Geinoch wrote:</cite><blockquote>Still no neutral city =( I was really hoping for that one =(</blockquote> I was also, but given the history of the Sarnak from EQ1, it really did not make sense for them to be neutral. Maybe one day.</blockquote> It accually has NOT been desided yet, infact the dev only stated that it is Evil "This Week" and also said they have even toyed with making them good. The desision on if they are good, evil or neutral HAS NOT been deturmined and does keep changing. As far as the Sarnak of EQ1 go, well they don't apply AT ALL, and the PC Sarnak are Differant, and acually only have a history going back about 50 years. I personally think based on the limited lore they have talked about with the Sarnak Neutral is the best way to go, especally if its the kinda Neutral that the Swiss where in WW2, caring only for thier own well being and not getting involved in the Wars between the other Empires(they have enough to worry about with the Iksar and Aviaks breathing down thier necks.

[Nayurayne]

These are not the sarnak from EQ1 though. The player sarnak are geneticially altered and have only been "awake" for 50 years. Heh for all we know the true sarnak could still be evil but I see of no reason why the player sarnak can't be neutral.

[Magnethjelmen2]

/sigh Dont remove contested plz, and dont remove the "spam" of our spells/combat arts. This [Removed for Content] is what make EQ2, EQ2. Imo you are turning the game into World Of Warcraft 2.0. Why dont you just make a new game tbh? The reason why I play EQ2 and not WoW, is because EQ2 is waaay harder to play, I dont want carebear mode, I dont want it to be easy to get nice items, I want the game to be hard so you can get satisfied when you obtain something nice. If you think that you will get more customoers by making the game look more like World Of Warcraft, then I think you are wrong. If you want more people into the game, then make some comercials for crist sake. Here in Denmark where I live, alot of my friends dont even know what everquest 2 is, all of them know what WoW is. And ffs make it easy to get the game, make a bundlepack with all the expansions. And make it avalible in the god [Removed for Content] stores!!!

[RoXx]

<cite>Nayukhuut wrote:</cite><blockquote><p><i>* There will not be any 3 group raids ... there may be a couple of 2 gorup raids but the devs clearly don't think they bring much to the game. </i></p></blockquote> [Removed for Content].. why? on some servers its actually tough to get enough people for a x4 raid. Plz merge EU servers if you wont make any x2 raids.

[Gwen]

Eboz@Splitpaw wrote: <blockquote>Here in Denmark where I live, alot of my friends dont even know what everquest 2 is, all of them know what WoW is. And ffs make it easy to get the game, make a bundlepack with all the expansions. And make it avalible in the god [I cannot control my vocabulary] stores!!! </blockquote>I couldnt agree more, another example, a french friend of mine orderer EverQuest2 online (Because he wasnt able to find the game in french stores ... EQ2 is IMPOSSIBLE to find in french stores, no stores have it), and he was said he will be delivered around january 2008 ... so he buyed WoW, because he found WoW in stores and it was available now. Dont underestimate the impact on the customers of a giant paper orcs bunched with game box ... really ...

[jarlaxle8]

Gwen@Storms wrote: <blockquote>Eboz@Splitpaw wrote: <blockquote>Here in Denmark where I live, alot of my friends dont even know what everquest 2 is, all of them know what WoW is. And ffs make it easy to get the game, make a bundlepack with all the expansions. And make it avalible in the god [I cannot control my vocabulary] stores!!! </blockquote>I couldnt agree more, another example, a french friend of mine orderer EverQuest2 online (Because he wasnt able to find the game in french stores ... EQ2 is IMPOSSIBLE to find in french stores, no stores have it), and he was said he will be delivered around january 2008 ... so he buyed WoW, because he found WoW in stores and it was available now. Dont underestimate the impact on the customers of a giant paper orcs bunched with game box ... really ... </blockquote>Same in Switzerland. Can't find it in the places I've looked. i'm the only one I know in RL who plays EQ2, but I know about several who play WoW. And have no idea that EQ2 exists...

[Siclone]

Eboz@Splitpaw wrote: <blockquote>/sigh Dont remove contested plz, and dont remove the "spam" of our spells/combat arts. This [I cannot control my vocabulary] is what make EQ2, EQ2. Imo you are turning the game into World Of Warcraft 2.0. Why dont you just make a new game tbh? The reason why I play EQ2 and not WoW, is because EQ2 is waaay harder to play, I dont want carebear mode, I dont want it to be easy to get nice items, I want the game to be hard so you can get satisfied when you obtain something nice. If you think that you will get more customoers by making the game look more like World Of Warcraft, then I think you are wrong. If you want more people into the game, then make some comercials for crist sake. Here in Denmark where I live, alot of my friends dont even know what everquest 2 is, all of them know what WoW is. And ffs make it easy to get the game, make a bundlepack with all the expansions. And make it avalible in the god [I cannot control my vocabulary] stores!!! </blockquote>what are you talking about, since when does less spamming mean easier? EQ1 is the "hardest" or more cumbersome what ever word you want to use depending on your view point out there, and trust me,,,,there is no spaming of keys like eq2.  less spamming is a good thing...and does not mean to be dumbed down,,,,just another approach that will attract more people,,,,my #1 complaint when i first tried eq2 was it was to acradadish with two much button pushing... you can make the game even more challenging and let strategy play a role with less bashing of buttons mindlessly -----spamming buttons does not equal a challenge is my point--eq1 proves that

[Talz]

EQ1 combat was much more fun and challenging with twenty less buttons.

[Magnethjelmen2]

<cite>Siclone wrote:</cite><blockquote>Eboz@Splitpaw wrote: <blockquote>/sigh Dont remove contested plz, and dont remove the "spam" of our spells/combat arts. This [I cannot control my vocabulary] is what make EQ2, EQ2. Imo you are turning the game into World Of Warcraft 2.0. Why dont you just make a new game tbh? The reason why I play EQ2 and not WoW, is because EQ2 is waaay harder to play, I dont want carebear mode, I dont want it to be easy to get nice items, I want the game to be hard so you can get satisfied when you obtain something nice. If you think that you will get more customoers by making the game look more like World Of Warcraft, then I think you are wrong. If you want more people into the game, then make some comercials for crist sake. Here in Denmark where I live, alot of my friends dont even know what everquest 2 is, all of them know what WoW is. And ffs make it easy to get the game, make a bundlepack with all the expansions. And make it avalible in the god [I cannot control my vocabulary] stores!!! </blockquote>what are you talking about, since when does less spamming mean easier? EQ1 is the "hardest" or more cumbersome what ever word you want to use depending on your view point out there, and trust me,,,,there is no spaming of keys like eq2.  less spamming is a good thing...and does not mean to be dumbed down,,,,just another approach that will attract more people,,,,my #1 complaint when i first tried eq2 was it was to acradadish with two much button pushing... you can make the game even more challenging and let strategy play a role with less bashing of buttons mindlessly -----spamming buttons does not equal a challenge is my point--eq1 proves that </blockquote>I dont know, but I dont want it as World of Warcraft, i find that lame. I like the skill system as it is now, I like to have alot of buttons. I cant see how they can make it hader with removing skills, and making 2 skills into 1 skill. For me that sounds easier, and that is lame imo <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> On the other hand, I have never played EQ1, so if they in someway can make the game harder or at the same stage as it is now with another combat system, then I would like to try that, but I doubt it.

[Zabjade]

<span style="color: #00cc00">They are just removing the redundant ones and merging them, mostly buffs.</span>

[zerfall]

Eboz@Splitpaw wrote: <blockquote>I dont know, but I dont want it as World of Warcraft, i find that lame. I like the skill system as it is now, I like to have alot of buttons. I cant see how they can make it hader with removing skills, and making 2 skills into 1 skill. For me that sounds easier, and that is lame imo <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> On the other hand, I have never played EQ1, so if they in someway can make the game harder or at the same stage as it is now with another combat system, then I would like to try that, but I doubt it. </blockquote><p> I don't know if this is really contributing much to the thread, but in EQ1 you had a spellbook full of spells, much as you do now.  However, you could only have 8 spells available to you at any given time.  You had to essentially take a look at the encounter you were going into and figure which spells you would need.  Some classes had this easier than others (I found I didn't change my spells out much as a level 54 Necro) but every spell using class would swap out at some point.</p><p>I'm not sure if this is where they are going, or if they are just reducing the sheer number of spells/abilities through combining.  I'm not sure how I feel either way, although I do believe having EVERY ability available at once as it is now is less "challenging" than it was in EQ1.  However, I currently have 5 hotbars completely full not including my little-used tradeskill hotbar.  I'm sure there's people with more hotbars than I have (I've heard guildies who have all 10 in use and wish there were more...)</p>

[Tomanak]

Zerfall@Permafrost wrote: <blockquote>Eboz@Splitpaw wrote: <p> I don't know if this is really contributing much to the thread, but in EQ1 you had a spellbook full of spells, much as you do now.  However, you could only have 8 spells available to you at any given time.  You had to essentially take a look at the encounter you were going into and figure which spells you would need.  Some classes had this easier than others (I found I didn't change my spells out much as a level 54 Necro) but every spell using class would swap out at some point.</p></blockquote><p>How was this fair to the spell using classes? As a melee character Im not limited to 8 CA's per encounter, why should the spell user be? </p><p>As to reducing the number of hotbars, i dont see how this is 'dumbing down' anything. How is it easier to require me to push one hotkey to debuff attack speed and agility, versus 2 buttons that do the same thing? Whats that save me, 1/1000th of a second? Anything that allows me to reduce my on screen 'clutter' and see more of the screen is A-Ok with me <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> </p>

[Wildmage]

Zerfall@Permafrost wrote: <blockquote>Eboz@Splitpaw wrote: <blockquote>I dont know, but I dont want it as World of Warcraft, i find that lame. I like the skill system as it is now, I like to have alot of buttons. I cant see how they can make it hader with removing skills, and making 2 skills into 1 skill. For me that sounds easier, and that is lame imo <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> On the other hand, I have never played EQ1, so if they in someway can make the game harder or at the same stage as it is now with another combat system, then I would like to try that, but I doubt it. </blockquote><p> I don't know if this is really contributing much to the thread, but in EQ1 you had a spellbook full of spells, much as you do now.  However, you could only have 8 spells available to you at any given time.  You had to essentially take a look at the encounter you were going into and figure which spells you would need.  Some classes had this easier than others (I found I didn't change my spells out much as a level 54 Necro) but every spell using class would swap out at some point.</p><p>I'm not sure if this is where they are going, or if they are just reducing the sheer number of spells/abilities through combining.  I'm not sure how I feel either way, although I do believe having EVERY ability available at once as it is now is less "challenging" than it was in EQ1.  However, I currently have 5 hotbars completely full not including my little-used tradeskill hotbar.  I'm sure there's people with more hotbars than I have (I've heard guildies who have all 10 in use and wish there were more...)</p></blockquote>and that 8 spell limit is one of the main reasons I will not go back to EQ1.

[Dragowulf]

^^^Yeah.  For <b><u>ME</u></b> I think EQ is an obsolete game. But that is my personal opinion.  I'd rather button mash than just sit there. (I was a Warrior/Ranger).  Although EQ was fun back in the day.  I can never experience that fun that I had in EQ again.

[Talz]

<cite>Wildmage wrote:</cite><blockquote>Zerfall@Permafrost wrote: <blockquote>Eboz@Splitpaw wrote: <blockquote>I dont know, but I dont want it as World of Warcraft, i find that lame. I like the skill system as it is now, I like to have alot of buttons. I cant see how they can make it hader with removing skills, and making 2 skills into 1 skill. For me that sounds easier, and that is lame imo <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> On the other hand, I have never played EQ1, so if they in someway can make the game harder or at the same stage as it is now with another combat system, then I would like to try that, but I doubt it. </blockquote><p> I don't know if this is really contributing much to the thread, but in EQ1 you had a spellbook full of spells, much as you do now.  However, you could only have 8 spells available to you at any given time.  You had to essentially take a look at the encounter you were going into and figure which spells you would need.  Some classes had this easier than others (I found I didn't change my spells out much as a level 54 Necro) but every spell using class would swap out at some point.</p><p>I'm not sure if this is where they are going, or if they are just reducing the sheer number of spells/abilities through combining.  I'm not sure how I feel either way, although I do believe having EVERY ability available at once as it is now is less "challenging" than it was in EQ1.  However, I currently have 5 hotbars completely full not including my little-used tradeskill hotbar.  I'm sure there's people with more hotbars than I have (I've heard guildies who have all 10 in use and wish there were more...)</p></blockquote>and that 8 spell limit is one of the main reasons I will not go back to EQ1. </blockquote>What class were you and where was it ruining your game play?  You didn't know how to access PoH in a thread I just read so I am kind of curious.

[Xova]

<p>I'm a little late to this thread, but as one of the people at Fan Faire and in most of the EQ2 Panels, I thought I could confirm/clarify/backup some of the things already being said.</p><p>Contested raid mobs - there will be a few more contesteds, in addition to the new avatars. Not as many as players would perhaps like, but they will have some. They have to look at things from a design standpoint. Given the amount of time it can take to design a contested named versus how many players will actually make use of that "content", it doesn't make a lot of sense to expend more time and energy on them instead of instanced raid content.</p><p>Sarnak racial ability - the Sarnak get Fire Breath. They had Super Jump, but the developers said that the Sarnak looked awkward when using the ability, so they removed it for the time being. The idea is if they can't do it and make it look right, then they won't put it in. They also said that they will look into improving the other racial abilities, as well as fun spells.</p><p>Marketing/Product Availabilty - this was a panel that very few people went to. I did however, and I was pretty blunt with the people in marketing about the lack of attention to certain areas. I and another woman brought up the problems with the Station.com store, and how the all-in-one product is not available there. We also brought up the lack of availability for game cards, and the lack of advertising in major stores like Best Buy, EB Games, etc. A classic story was the woman who said she went to the Station.com store to find the EoF package, couldn't find it and went to several EB Games stores, couldn't find it, so ordered it from Amazon.com, and still had to wait 2 weeks because they didn't have it in stock. So those of us that did go to that panel did make it a point to tell the Marketing folks that they need to step it up in terms of marketing our game.</p><p>Heritage Quests/Epic Quests - the reason they did not add in new Heritage Quests was because they had spent the time developing the 24 new epic weapons quests. A new Heritage Quest may be forthcoming Soon™ but not in the RoK expansion. It all came down to design efficiency.</p><p>Combining Spells/CA's - They talked mainly about combining spells/CA's that buff or debuff. One of the main reasons they are doing this is because spell/CA's will upgrade after 10 levels - not 14 - with the expansion. But they don't want to take abilities away from players. So it makes more sense to combine some things. The other reason was to free up some hotbar space. I personally use 8 hotbars, and it would be nice to not have to use so many. Other people might not use as many as I do - it's fine. It all comes down to a preferential choice really. Freeing up hotbar space will not negatively impact those who already limit their hotbar usage, and it will benefit those of us that never seem to have enough spots. It's all good. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Hope it helps some.</p>

[Leatherneck]

<cite>Xova wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Heritage Quests/Epic Quests - the reason they did not add in new Heritage Quests was because they had spent the time developing the 24 new epic weapons quests. A new Heritage Quest may be forthcoming Soon™ but not in the RoK expansion. It all came down to design efficiency.</p></blockquote> I think it's almost criminal that the Fungi Tunic, at least, isn't going to be a HQ in the expansion, given it's popularity from EQ1.

[ke'la]

Sugota@Butcherblock wrote: <blockquote>Zerfall@Permafrost wrote: <blockquote>Eboz@Splitpaw wrote: <p> I don't know if this is really contributing much to the thread, but in EQ1 you had a spellbook full of spells, much as you do now.  However, you could only have 8 spells available to you at any given time.  You had to essentially take a look at the encounter you were going into and figure which spells you would need.  Some classes had this easier than others (I found I didn't change my spells out much as a level 54 Necro) but every spell using class would swap out at some point.</p></blockquote><p>How was this fair to the spell using classes? As a melee character Im not limited to 8 CA's per encounter, why should the spell user be? </p><p>As to reducing the number of hotbars, i dont see how this is 'dumbing down' anything. How is it easier to require me to push one hotkey to debuff attack speed and agility, versus 2 buttons that do the same thing? Whats that save me, 1/1000th of a second? Anything that allows me to reduce my on screen 'clutter' and see more of the screen is A-Ok with me <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> </p></blockquote> The person was talking about the way it was in EQ1 with the 8 spell limit. You see the meleers there did not get a limit because there was no such thing as CAs from what I understand so they really had very few if any accually buttons to push at all.

[Gargamel]

<p>I absolutely HATE the idea of combining skills/spells.</p><p>I played a few other MMO's and actually though it was  a bug when I could only pull up one GIANT hotbar, with 10 buttons on it... I felt like I was playing a Playskool or ParkerBros product made for pre-schoolers learning their shapes.</p><p>I SERIOULSY hope they rethink this horrible, horrible, misguided attempt to over-simplify combat and eleminte the need for learning your class, and COMPLETLY DESTROYING the benifits that come from knowing it well.</p>

[Wildmage]

<cite>Talzar wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Wildmage wrote:</cite><blockquote>Zerfall@Permafrost wrote: <blockquote>Eboz@Splitpaw wrote: <blockquote>I dont know, but I dont want it as World of Warcraft, i find that lame. I like the skill system as it is now, I like to have alot of buttons. I cant see how they can make it hader with removing skills, and making 2 skills into 1 skill. For me that sounds easier, and that is lame imo <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> On the other hand, I have never played EQ1, so if they in someway can make the game harder or at the same stage as it is now with another combat system, then I would like to try that, but I doubt it. </blockquote><p> I don't know if this is really contributing much to the thread, but in EQ1 you had a spellbook full of spells, much as you do now.  However, you could only have 8 spells available to you at any given time.  You had to essentially take a look at the encounter you were going into and figure which spells you would need.  Some classes had this easier than others (I found I didn't change my spells out much as a level 54 Necro) but every spell using class would swap out at some point.</p><p>I'm not sure if this is where they are going, or if they are just reducing the sheer number of spells/abilities through combining.  I'm not sure how I feel either way, although I do believe having EVERY ability available at once as it is now is less "challenging" than it was in EQ1.  However, I currently have 5 hotbars completely full not including my little-used tradeskill hotbar.  I'm sure there's people with more hotbars than I have (I've heard guildies who have all 10 in use and wish there were more...)</p></blockquote>and that 8 spell limit is one of the main reasons I will not go back to EQ1. </blockquote>What class were you and where was it ruining your game play?  You didn't know how to access PoH in a thread I just read so I am kind of curious. </blockquote>Magician. yeah I never got to high levels in EQ1 I quit playing there alllllllllllll the way back in early Velious days, friends got me the anniversary collection started over from scratch.

[Magnethjelmen2]

<cite>Xova wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I'm a little late to this thread, but as one of the people at Fan Faire and in most of the EQ2 Panels, I thought I could confirm/clarify/backup some of the things already being said.</p><p>Contested raid mobs - there will be a few more contesteds, in addition to the new avatars. Not as many as players would perhaps like, but they will have some. They have to look at things from a design standpoint. Given the amount of time it can take to design a contested named versus how many players will actually make use of that "content", it doesn't make a lot of sense to expend more time and energy on them instead of instanced raid content.</p><p>Sarnak racial ability - the Sarnak get Fire Breath. They had Super Jump, but the developers said that the Sarnak looked awkward when using the ability, so they removed it for the time being. The idea is if they can't do it and make it look right, then they won't put it in. They also said that they will look into improving the other racial abilities, as well as fun spells.</p><p>Marketing/Product Availabilty - this was a panel that very few people went to. I did however, and I was pretty blunt with the people in marketing about the lack of attention to certain areas. I and another woman brought up the problems with the Station.com store, and how the all-in-one product is not available there. We also brought up the lack of availability for game cards, and the lack of advertising in major stores like Best Buy, EB Games, etc. A classic story was the woman who said she went to the Station.com store to find the EoF package, couldn't find it and went to several EB Games stores, couldn't find it, so ordered it from Amazon.com, and still had to wait 2 weeks because they didn't have it in stock. So those of us that did go to that panel did make it a point to tell the Marketing folks that they need to step it up in terms of marketing our game.</p><p>Heritage Quests/Epic Quests - the reason they did not add in new Heritage Quests was because they had spent the time developing the 24 new epic weapons quests. A new Heritage Quest may be forthcoming Soon™ but not in the RoK expansion. It all came down to design efficiency.</p><p>Combining Spells/CA's - They talked mainly about combining spells/CA's that buff or debuff. One of the main reasons they are doing this is because spell/CA's will upgrade after 10 levels - not 14 - with the expansion. But they don't want to take abilities away from players. So it makes more sense to combine some things. The other reason was to free up some hotbar space. I personally use 8 hotbars, and it would be nice to not have to use so many. Other people might not use as many as I do - it's fine. It all comes down to a preferential choice really. Freeing up hotbar space will not negatively impact those who already limit their hotbar usage, and it will benefit those of us that never seem to have enough spots. It's all good. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Hope it helps some.</p></blockquote>Thx for some nice details from Fan Faire <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Question tho. Those few more contested mobs, will they be "contested"? Or will they be instanced? About the Marketing/Product Availabilty. I really hope that they can see they are lazy about that area, and they need to step up <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Talz]

<cite>Wildmage wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Talzar wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Wildmage wrote:</cite><blockquote>Zerfall@Permafrost wrote: <blockquote>Eboz@Splitpaw wrote: <blockquote>I dont know, but I dont want it as World of Warcraft, i find that lame. I like the skill system as it is now, I like to have alot of buttons. I cant see how they can make it hader with removing skills, and making 2 skills into 1 skill. For me that sounds easier, and that is lame imo <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> On the other hand, I have never played EQ1, so if they in someway can make the game harder or at the same stage as it is now with another combat system, then I would like to try that, but I doubt it. </blockquote><p> I don't know if this is really contributing much to the thread, but in EQ1 you had a spellbook full of spells, much as you do now.  However, you could only have 8 spells available to you at any given time.  You had to essentially take a look at the encounter you were going into and figure which spells you would need.  Some classes had this easier than others (I found I didn't change my spells out much as a level 54 Necro) but every spell using class would swap out at some point.</p><p>I'm not sure if this is where they are going, or if they are just reducing the sheer number of spells/abilities through combining.  I'm not sure how I feel either way, although I do believe having EVERY ability available at once as it is now is less "challenging" than it was in EQ1.  However, I currently have 5 hotbars completely full not including my little-used tradeskill hotbar.  I'm sure there's people with more hotbars than I have (I've heard guildies who have all 10 in use and wish there were more...)</p></blockquote>and that 8 spell limit is one of the main reasons I will not go back to EQ1. </blockquote>What class were you and where was it ruining your game play?  You didn't know how to access PoH in a thread I just read so I am kind of curious. </blockquote>Magician. yeah I never got to high levels in EQ1 I quit playing there alllllllllllll the way back in early Velious days, friends got me the anniversary collection started over from scratch. </blockquote>Some things did really suck way back when.  My first character was a wizard that I deleted upon learning I would be staring at my book to meditate.  They changed that to allowing people to just sit but I was already loving my rogue and leveled it up.  I never had to switch out spells much on my magician but to each their own.

[Mirander_1]

Some people are <i>seriously </i>over-reacting to this whole spell consolidation thing.  We're not going to be reverting to the eight-spell mages and three-button warriors of EQlive.  Will it really so destroy the game to go from 50 spells to 35-40?  I mean, even if the devs really go all-out with this whole consolidation thing, and root out every single case of redundancy in the spell lists, the worst-case scenario would be spell lists being perhaps cut in half; if which case, people might be reduced to using only 2-5 hotbars rather than the current 4-9; still hardly a simple game.  And of course, the devs <i>aren't </i>going that all-out from everything we've heard so far; so what's the big deal?

[Wildmage]

Im more worried about the consolidation of any offensive effects cause that will make mobs resisting them so much much worse. not to mention more dead time for classes that don't autoattack.

[Thormiel]

<cite>Xova wrote:</cite><blockquote>A classic story was the woman who said she went to the Station.com store to find the EoF package, couldn't find it and went to several EB Games stores, couldn't find it, so ordered it from Amazon.com, and still had to wait 2 weeks because they didn't have it in stock. So those of us that did go to that panel did make it a point to tell the Marketing folks that they need to step it up in terms of marketing our game.</blockquote>I was in the U.S. on my vacation a couple of weeks ago. I visited 3 different Best Buy stores in three different cities in three different states and one Circuit City. They all had the EoF box on their shelf.

[Vonotar]

<cite>Thormiel wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Xova wrote:</cite><blockquote>A classic story was the woman who said she went to the Station.com store to find the EoF package, couldn't find it and went to several EB Games stores, couldn't find it, so ordered it from Amazon.com, and still had to wait 2 weeks because they didn't have it in stock. So those of us that did go to that panel did make it a point to tell the Marketing folks that they need to step it up in terms of marketing our game.</blockquote>I was in the U.S. on my vacation a couple of weeks ago. I visited 3 different Best Buy stores in three different cities in three different states and one Circuit City. They all had the EoF box on their shelf. </blockquote> I think the majority of complaints are from the non-US regions. EQ2 is dead in Europe, it doesn't exist in the shops, nobody is aware of it. I know stacks of WoW players and when I mention EQ2 they think i'm talking about the early EQ1 and wonder why i'm playing a dead game.

[Vonotar]

<cite>Mirander_1 wrote:</cite><blockquote>Some people are <i>seriously </i>over-reacting to this whole spell consolidation thing.  We're not going to be reverting to the eight-spell mages and three-button warriors of EQlive.  Will it really so destroy the game to go from 50 spells to 35-40?  I mean, even if the devs really go all-out with this whole consolidation thing, and root out every single case of redundancy in the spell lists, the worst-case scenario would be spell lists being perhaps cut in half; if which case, people might be reduced to using only 2-5 hotbars rather than the current 4-9; still hardly a simple game.  And of course, the devs <i>aren't </i>going that all-out from everything we've heard so far; so what's the big deal? </blockquote> 50 spells??? *stares at knowledge book and wonders where they are hiding* OK, maybe 35-40 unique spells, sure they can trim a couple. especially the ones gathering dust in the corner of my hotbar which appear to do only 10% of the damage of my best spells with no other perceived utility/benefit.

[Dragowulf]

Over here in the L.A. area, I cannot find many boxes of EQ2.  If a store has EOF, it only has 1.  Very rare to find though.

[Xova]

<cite>Mirander_1 wrote:</cite><blockquote>Some people are <i>seriously </i>over-reacting to this whole spell consolidation thing.  We're not going to be reverting to the eight-spell mages and three-button warriors of EQlive.  Will it really so destroy the game to go from 50 spells to 35-40?  I mean, even if the devs really go all-out with this whole consolidation thing, and root out every single case of redundancy in the spell lists, the worst-case scenario would be spell lists being perhaps cut in half; if which case, people might be reduced to using only 2-5 hotbars rather than the current 4-9; still hardly a simple game.  And of course, the devs <i>aren't </i>going that all-out from everything we've heard so far; so what's the big deal? </blockquote><p> Agreed. I think people are missing the main point. Right now, our spells/CA's upgrade every 14 levels. That means you could be in a new tier and still conceivably be using spells from 2 tiers ago. They are changing this so that our spells/CA's are upgrading every 10 levels, so our spells/CA's will upgrade within each new tier. That means one of two things - either thay have to remove some spells/CA's -OR- they combine them. Now, which would you prefer? To lose some of your spells or CA's? Or to retain them and have some of them - mostly buffs and debuffs - combined?</p><p>Offensive spells were not going to be combined. Some buffs and some debuffs will. That's it. No need to panic or act like the game is being dumbed down. You'll still have ten hotbars to fill up with whatever you like. Just now you'll have a little more room on them to add in other cool things.</p><p>In regards to the contested mobs, my understanding from how it was phrased at Fan Faire was that they would be in the open (hence the reason they're contested.)</p>

[Mirander_1]

Vonotar@Butcherblock wrote: <blockquote> 50 spells??? *stares at knowledge book and wonders where they are hiding* OK, maybe 35-40 unique spells, sure they can trim a couple. especially the ones gathering dust in the corner of my hotbar which appear to do only 10% of the damage of my best spells with no other perceived utility/benefit. </blockquote>Heheh.  Granted, I over-estimated, but my point still stands.  If the devs make the logical consolidations, I expect to be able to go from using 4 hotbars down to 3 hotbars on my main, which seems an acceptable change to me. 

[Vonotar]

<cite>Xova wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Agreed. I think people are missing the main point. Right now, our spells/CA's upgrade every 14 levels. That means you could be in a new tier and still conceivably be using spells from 2 tiers ago. They are changing this so that our spells/CA's are upgrading every 10 levels, so our spells/CA's will upgrade within each new tier. <b>That means one of two things - either thay have to remove some spells/CA's -OR- they combine them. Now, which would you prefer? To lose some of your spells or CA's? Or to retain them and have some of them - mostly buffs and debuffs - combined?</b></p> </blockquote>OR they simply increase the number of new spells you get at each level.  Sometimes I get three new spells in one go.. sometimes just 1.

[roces9]

Just a small concern here, but I play a 70 Troubador. If you don't know, one of our biggest spells is something called Precision of the Maestro. Its a temporary group buff that gives you a +Int and adds a proc of like 350 to any hostile spell. This can make up a good 10-12 % of a mage's DPS in a raid depending on class, zone etc. What I'm concerned about is my benefit from this spell. As of now when I cast PoTM I get rooted and dazed (no auto-attack). But I can cast all of my hostile spells to get the proc and make up some of the damage I lose from being dazed. So if I hit PoTM when facing a multi-mob encounter I can just toggle my 4 AoE debuffs and my 1 AoE nuke to almost continuously proc 350ish on every mob. This is hardly an uber tactic, there have to be 3-4 mobs for you to make up the DPS you lose from being dazed, but a lot of Raiding Troubs use it in groups, raids and I'll even do it solo. So what happens if they consolidate some of my AoE Deubffs? Troubadors everywhere will be left hight and dry if we only have 1 or 2 AoE Debuffs to cast durring PoTM. This is hardly a game breaking issue, but I'm concerned none the less.

[Gargamel]

<cite>Xova wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Mirander_1 wrote:</cite><blockquote>Some people are <i>seriously </i>over-reacting to this whole spell consolidation thing.  We're not going to be reverting to the eight-spell mages and three-button warriors of EQlive.  Will it really so destroy the game to go from 50 spells to 35-40?  I mean, even if the devs really go all-out with this whole consolidation thing, and root out every single case of redundancy in the spell lists, the worst-case scenario would be spell lists being perhaps cut in half; if which case, people might be reduced to using only 2-5 hotbars rather than the current 4-9; still hardly a simple game.  And of course, the devs <i>aren't </i>going that all-out from everything we've heard so far; so what's the big deal? </blockquote><p><b>They are changing this so that our spells/CA's are upgrading every 10 levels, so our spells/CA's will upgrade within each new tier. That means one of two things - either thay have to remove some spells/CA's -OR- they combine them. Now, which would you prefer?</b> </p></blockquote><p>Well either that or I guess they could do the normal thing and just squeeze the 14 skill rotation into 10 lvls starting at 70, by giving an extra spell per lvl every once in a while.</p><p>I really cringe to think of all the content, encounters, old quests, or raids, or even class-to-class balance and the months it would take to 'rebalance' all the stuff again.  If you don't think there will be unseen consequences to this 'fix', I'd ask you to read some history of earlier combat changes.</p>

[DMIstar]

I'm a bit happy for the condensing.. I for one want new spells but atm.. .Im useing nearly 3 full hotbars atleast on each mob .... have another 5 filled up This is kinda insane on button Mashing .. soon my hand wont work i swear lol. I hope they look into more then just buff and debuff.. Spaming a ton of things on raids is starting to get more repetitive.. I liked EQs in a way that you had to think on what you needed.. going to need and how to use what you had. Hear its everything is right there lets button spam =P

[TaleraRis]

<cite>Talzar wrote:</cite><blockquote>Some things did really suck way back when.  My first character was a wizard that I deleted upon learning I would be staring at my book to meditate.  They changed that to allowing people to just sit but I was already loving my rogue and leveled it up.  I never had to switch out spells much on my magician but to each their own. </blockquote> I switched quite a lot as an enchanter, and adding in the spell sets that we could swap in and out was a godsend.

[Xova]

<cite>roces9 wrote:</cite><blockquote>Just a small concern here, but I play a 70 Troubador. If you don't know, one of our biggest spells is something called Precision of the Maestro. Its a temporary group buff that gives you a +Int and adds a proc of like 350 to any hostile spell. This can make up a good 10-12 % of a mage's DPS in a raid depending on class, zone etc. What I'm concerned about is my benefit from this spell. As of now when I cast PoTM I get rooted and dazed (no auto-attack). But I can cast all of my hostile spells to get the proc and make up some of the damage I lose from being dazed. So if I hit PoTM when facing a multi-mob encounter I can just toggle my 4 AoE debuffs and my 1 AoE nuke to almost continuously proc 350ish on every mob. This is hardly an uber tactic, there have to be 3-4 mobs for you to make up the DPS you lose from being dazed, but a lot of Raiding Troubs use it in groups, raids and I'll even do it solo. So what happens if they consolidate some of my AoE Deubffs? Troubadors everywhere will be left hight and dry if we only have 1 or 2 AoE Debuffs to cast durring PoTM. This is hardly a game breaking issue, but I'm concerned none the less. </blockquote>Actually, my friend (who is a troub) cornered Lockeye (spells/CA dev) after one of the panels about PotM and how frustrating it is to be rooted/dazed during the spell. We suggested removing the root effect so that you could still move about and auto-attack. He was receptive to the idea and said he could probably do that. We also suggested giving Troubs a spell similar to the Dirge heal "Oration of Sacrifice", only making it a power transfer instead. So the Troub could transfer a small amount of power to an ally at the cost of the Troub's power (or health). The Troub would be stifled for the duration of the spell, but it could be toggled off early. He was receptive to that idea as well, so we'll see. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[ke'la]

<cite>Xova wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>roces9 wrote:</cite><blockquote>Just a small concern here, but I play a 70 Troubador. If you don't know, one of our biggest spells is something called Precision of the Maestro. Its a temporary group buff that gives you a +Int and adds a proc of like 350 to any hostile spell. This can make up a good 10-12 % of a mage's DPS in a raid depending on class, zone etc. What I'm concerned about is my benefit from this spell. As of now when I cast PoTM I get rooted and dazed (no auto-attack). But I can cast all of my hostile spells to get the proc and make up some of the damage I lose from being dazed. So if I hit PoTM when facing a multi-mob encounter I can just toggle my 4 AoE debuffs and my 1 AoE nuke to almost continuously proc 350ish on every mob. This is hardly an uber tactic, there have to be 3-4 mobs for you to make up the DPS you lose from being dazed, but a lot of Raiding Troubs use it in groups, raids and I'll even do it solo. So what happens if they consolidate some of my AoE Deubffs? Troubadors everywhere will be left hight and dry if we only have 1 or 2 AoE Debuffs to cast durring PoTM. This is hardly a game breaking issue, but I'm concerned none the less. </blockquote>Actually, my friend (who is a troub) cornered Lockeye (spells/CA dev) after one of the panels about PotM and how frustrating it is to be rooted/dazed during the spell. We suggested removing the root effect so that you could still move about and auto-attack. He was receptive to the idea and said he could probably do that. We also suggested giving Troubs a spell similar to the Dirge heal "Oration of Sacrifice", only making it a power transfer instead. So the Troub could transfer a small amount of power to an ally at the cost of the Troub's power (or health). The Troub would be stifled for the duration of the spell, but it could be toggled off early. He was receptive to that idea as well, so we'll see. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> </blockquote>As far as Trubi's go I would not be suprized if the "Consolidation" that happens for you will have something to do with the what 10 Consintration buffs you guys have.

[Aimor N`Velahr]

Kunark comes out in November. The website launched around 2 months ago in May. SOE announces a card game while Blizzard makes it official that Wrath of the Lich King is coming AND they produce a website with a video, multiple geographical tidbits, screenshots, and an in-depth Faq. What are you doing with Everquest 2 Sony? It's one thing to be aggressive, but the buildup to Kunark has been like a movie that is getting released Friday night and you show your first trailer the Sunday before release. Get on the ball.

[Wildmage]

Aimor N`Velahr wrote: <blockquote>Kunark comes out in November. The website launched around 2 months ago in May. SOE announces a card game while Blizzard makes it official that Wrath of the Lich King is coming AND they produce a website with a video, multiple geographical tidbits, screenshots, and an in-depth Faq. What are you doing with Everquest 2 Sony? It's one thing to be aggressive, but the buildup to Kunark has been like a movie that is getting released Friday night and you show your first trailer the Sunday before release. Get on the ball. </blockquote>why bother updating the site when there are so many other third party sites and not to be underestimated links and word out mouth flying around there doing their advertisement for them.

[Cocytus]

<p>I'd personally rather not see spell consolidations from anything other than buffs with no time limit.</p><p>Yes, it's dumbing down. If you want to free space....just consolidate the spells that are up constantly anyway with no time limit.</p>

[Faelgalad]

<p>Putting together Debuffs will hurt Troubadours a lot. </p><p>We generate damage with Aria and Maestro by using our debuffs. </p><p>Aria, 45% Chance for every hostile spell.</p><p>Maestro, temporary damage buff for every hostile spell. </p><p>So this will one smack more to the allmighty worldshattering damage of Troubadour.</p><p>One Nail more to the road of the buff bot. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[ke'la]

<cite>Cocytus wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I'd personally rather not see spell consolidations from anything other than buffs with no time limit.</p><p>Yes, it's dumbing down. If you want to free space....just consolidate the spells that are up constantly anyway with no time limit.</p></blockquote>Its those spells I think that they are most looking at consolidating,

[ke'la]

Aimor N`Velahr wrote: <blockquote>Kunark comes out in November. The website launched around 2 months ago in May. SOE announces a card game while Blizzard makes it official that Wrath of the Lich King is coming AND they produce a website with a video, multiple geographical tidbits, screenshots, and an in-depth Faq. What are you doing with Everquest 2 Sony? It's one thing to be aggressive, but the buildup to Kunark has been like a movie that is getting released Friday night and you show your first trailer the Sunday before release. Get on the ball. </blockquote> Well first off Blizzard has to keep people ready to buy for atleast a year and more like 2 knowing them. While Sony only has to hype the game for a few months as it gets near compeltion. Second, aside from Video and Screen Caps, the FAQ and Geographical info is pritty much available, heck you can even vist the lands(load EQL).

[roces9]

ke'la wrote: <blockquote> as far as Trubi's go I would not be suprized if the "Consolidation" that happens for you will have something to do with the what 10 Consintration buffs you guys have. </blockquote> IIRC its close to 15. And we have a thread about our theories of this on the Troub threads. Stuff like combining our arcane and elemental resist buffs into 1 uber resist buff so people will use it.

[luwegeeeee]

From a PvP viewpoint i feel the <b>inclusion of Contested Raid Mobs</b> is detrimental to the health of PvP servers.  Anyone on Nagafen knows that the only times the ENTIRE server is pretty much together is when guilds and factions are banning together to stop a certain faction or guild from attaining a contested mob.  Remember Hurricanus and 4 x4's in TT?   It really is fun and adds another dynamic to the PvP server, really allowing one a greater sense of the community. As for the hotbars,  I have been using all 10 for a very long time and as a 70 warden/70 jeweler/350 tinkerer on a pvp server its important to have everything accessable to swap items or use items instaneously.   Even if 1 more spell is added to my warden i will be worried where to put it (probably spend 2 hours thinking about it too)

[Yella]

<cite>AbsentmindedMage wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Iad wrote:</cite><blockquote>No heritage quests.... <img src="/smilies/e78feac27fa924c4d0ad6cf5819f3554.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></blockquote>So, there are plenty of hertiage quests in the game.  I would rather they make the epic class quests enjoyable and diverse than spend time on coming up with more heritage quests.  Besides, there is nothing to stop them from putting in a heritage quest for the 70-80 range after the expansion goes live through a live update.   They have said that the updates would be bringing in more content.  This seems to be true given what they have given us (e.g. Neriak) and what they plan to (e.g. new deity to worship) I am a bit confused on the comments about the 3 group raids and 2 group raids.  I do not raid much but I thought raids were almost exclusively 4 group with a few two group.   Is it saying that they are going to try to make the raids 2 group or make them all 4 group. </blockquote><p>Well, heritage quests everyone can do, while only some people can do epic quests. You get 24 times as much content YOU can do with heritage than you do with epic quests.</p><p>Don't think I much care for the no 2/3 group raid thing. There needs to be a range of content that smaller guilds can do as well. </p>

[Radigazt]

Bloodravenger@Mistmoore wrote: <blockquote>I'm a bit happy for the condensing.. I for one want new spells but atm.. .Im useing nearly 3 full hotbars atleast on each mob .... have another 5 filled up This is kinda insane on button Mashing .. soon my hand wont work i swear lol. I hope they look into more then just buff and debuff.. Spaming a ton of things on raids is starting to get more repetitive.. I liked EQs in a way that you had to think on what you needed.. going to need and how to use what you had. Hear its everything is right there lets button spam =P </blockquote><p> Agreed.  I'm a PvP'er, and I find that I have to prioritize what I use.  Very often nice spells just aren't good enough to make it into the regular rotation of things I have.  For instance, my Fury has a nice wisdom debuff, but it takes too long to cast so I tend to use it only situationally.  It's a nice spell, but it just doesn't make the top three hotbars.  Frankly, I don't think we should have 4 hotbars of spells, it just clutters the UI tremendously.  I play in extreme graphics with hotbars extremely small ... and it still gets on my nerves.  </p><p>Furthermore, my Druids take forever to re-buff after dying, and that's just a pain.  I'm definitely hoping they consolidate most of the buffs.  It would be nice to see the debuffs combined with spells that do damage as well.  Ideally, I'd like 2 hotbars, so that's 24 spells ... but I know that's not going to happen.  </p>

[Leatherneck]

<cite>Yella wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>AbsentmindedMage wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Iad wrote:</cite><blockquote>No heritage quests.... <img src="/smilies/e78feac27fa924c4d0ad6cf5819f3554.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></blockquote>So, there are plenty of hertiage quests in the game.  I would rather they make the epic class quests enjoyable and diverse than spend time on coming up with more heritage quests.  Besides, there is nothing to stop them from putting in a heritage quest for the 70-80 range after the expansion goes live through a live update.   They have said that the updates would be bringing in more content.  This seems to be true given what they have given us (e.g. Neriak) and what they plan to (e.g. new deity to worship) I am a bit confused on the comments about the 3 group raids and 2 group raids.  I do not raid much but I thought raids were almost exclusively 4 group with a few two group.   Is it saying that they are going to try to make the raids 2 group or make them all 4 group. </blockquote><p>Well, heritage quests everyone can do, while only some people can do epic quests. You get 24 times as much content YOU can do with heritage than you do with epic quests.</p><p>Don't think I much care for the no 2/3 group raid thing. There needs to be a range of content that smaller guilds can do as well. </p></blockquote>Yep Yep and Yep.  Yella's got it right, all the way around.

[Gargamel]

<cite>Vexus@Nagafen wrote:</cite><blockquote>Bloodravenger@Mistmoore wrote:<blockquote>I'm a bit happy for the condensing.. I for one want new spells but atm.. .Im useing nearly 3 full hotbars atleast on each mob .... have another 5 filled up This is kinda insane on button Mashing .. soon my hand wont work i swear lol.I hope they look into more then just buff and debuff.. Spaming a ton of things on raids is starting to get more repetitive.. I liked EQs in a way that you had to think on what you needed.. going to need and how to use what you had. Hear its everything is right there lets button spam =P</blockquote><p>Agreed.  I'm a PvP'er, and I find that I have to prioritize what I use.  Very often nice spells just aren't good enough to make it into the regular rotation of things I have.  For instance, my Fury has a nice wisdom debuff, but it takes too long to cast so I tend to use it only situationally.  It's a nice spell, but it just doesn't make the top three hotbars.  Frankly, I don't think we should have 4 hotbars of spells, it just clutters the UI tremendously.  I play in extreme graphics with hotbars extremely small ... and it still gets on my nerves.  </p><p>Furthermore, my Druids take forever to re-buff after dying, and that's just a pain.  I'm definitely hoping they consolidate most of the buffs.  It would be nice to see the debuffs combined with spells that do damage as well.  Ideally, I'd like 2 hotbars, so that's 24 spells ... but I know that's not going to happen.  </p></blockquote><p>Do you people realize that there is a macro system in the game?  Lets you create one icon that will cast all those buff spells in a sequence.  Is there any reason why if it "gets on your nerves", you fix it yourself, instead of forcing the  change on the rest of us who actually enjoy the variety it adds to the game?</p><p>If you are re-buffing, and can't stand it.  Just create a macro.  </p><p>Even if they do combine those spells, you can bet it will be set to take just as long, but only happen in one click (think 'call of' spells)</p>

[GwenRelentless]

Well I for one am not worried about them combining spells. I play a Wizard and 98% of my spells are dmg spells. I have like three buffs and two debuffs. If they want to combine any of those that would be cool. I really don't think they will be combining spells to the extent that some of you are estimating. If you have five hotbars up right now I would be surprised if you will be able to eliminate a whole hotbar after the changes, but that's just my guess. Also I'm not fussed about no Heritage Quests. Who wants to do a stinky Heritage when you can do your EPIC??? Maybe these people who are upset never played Eq1 and don't realize that when they say Epic, they really mean epic. Epic quests are like doing 6 Heritages quests all together, and the reward is a class defining item that would be virtually indispensable for any self respecting raider. Even still, items like the Fungi Tunic don't have to be Heritage quest rewards. Maybe a raid boss will drop the Fungi Tunic or something.