Sentinel's Fate for beginners

[Phaith]

<p>For those new to or are returning to EQII and haven't yet picked up SF, here is a brief rundown of the expansion at mmorpg.com</p><p><a href="http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/2/feature/4202/EverQuest-II-A-Look-at-Sentinels-Fate.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/...inels-Fate.html</a></p>

[feldon30]

<p>It may hurt me in the end to be a fan site questioning an article written by another fan site. But I feel obligated as a reader to make some comments here.</p><blockquote><cite>MMORPG.org</cite><p>For the first time in Norrath's history, the release came when it was ready instead of arriving by a strict deadline.</p></blockquote><p>This is a pretty astounding statement to make in such a matter-of-fact fashion. The Sentinel's Fate release date had already been locked down before the end of Spring 2009. It was a decision to not have EQ1 and EQ2 expansions in the same month more than a recognition that the in-development expansion wouldn't be ready by November 2009.</p><p>Sentinel's Fate launched with only about 10% of the new armor appearances working. Almost every single piece of heroic and raid gear will have been changed or modified in some way by next month's Game Update 56. We have seen the addition of 2 more types of adornments, and complete revamps of almost all in-game itemization in the first 3 months of this expansion.</p> <blockquote><cite>MMORPG.org</cite><p>SOE has had a notorious history when it comes to marketing its games - something it now recognizes and is promising to change.</p></blockquote><p>I've been unable to get any members of SOE Marketing to speak on the record. Have you got a quote from SOE Marketing indicating that they "recognize" mistakes from the SF or previous launches or that they have "promised to change" anything?</p> <blockquote><cite>MMORPG.org</cite><p>The Sundered Frontier is the first zone players will stomp around in, designed to take characters from the high 70s to level 85. From there players will travel to Stone Brunt Highlands which will take players to level 90. Two zones may not sound like a lot for a new expansion and to cover 10 levels, but as EQII players will already know, zones in Norrath are massive. If you do all the quests in a zone's timeline, you will easily reach beyond its level range.</p></blockquote><p>The quests in the Sundered Frontier plus the quests in Stonebrunt Highlands together will only get you from level 80 to level 87. You must then adventure in The Hole or do old quests to ding level 90. Game Update 56 will be adding enough quests in these two overland zones to reach level 90.</p><blockquote><cite>MMORPG.org</cite><p>The Hole is one of twelve dungeons in 'Sentinel's Fate', three of which scale to the characters' levels across a range of 86 to 90. The others are purely an endgame affair, aimed at level 90 players.</p></blockquote><p>I do not believe this is technically accurate. Sentinel's Fate has 12 instance dungeons, 3 of which are instanced variations on the 3 various "wings" of The Hole, which is a large contested zone. The Sentinel's Fate themed dungeons, to my knowledge, do not "scale".</p> <blockquote><cite>MMORPG.org</cite><p>Along with the new continent comes a new city: The cliff hugging city of Paineel.</p></blockquote><p>Some players may be confused by this statement. Paineel is as large as some of the other cities of Norrath, but it does not offer player housing nor can players bind their Call spell there.</p> <blockquote><cite>MMORPG.org</cite><p>due to the fact that Odus is being pulled into the void while still being anchored in its native dimension by the realm of Underfoot.</p></blockquote> <p>I normally don't delve into Lore-related discussions, so as to avoid showing my ignorance. But my understanding is that Odus, which currently consists of the two floating islands of the Stonebrunt Mountains and the Sundered Frontier, is stuck in-between Norrath and the Void, in what could best be described as the Ulteran rift. Odus is not accessible from anywhere in Norrath except by Ulteran Spire.</p> <p>Other than these issues, it's a perfectly decent overall summary of the expansion.</p>

[NViDiaFReaK]

<p><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote> <blockquote><cite>MMORPG.org</cite><p>due to the fact that Odus is being pulled into the void while still being anchored in its native dimension by the realm of Underfoot.</p></blockquote> <p>I normally don't delve into Lore-related discussions, so as to avoid showing my ignorance. But my understanding is that Odus, which currently consists of the two floating islands of the Stonebrunt Mountains and the Sundered Frontier, is stuck in-between Norrath and the Void, in what could best be described as the Ulteran rift. Odus is not accessible from anywhere in Norrath except by Ulteran Spire.</p> </blockquote><p>And by druid ring</p>

[feldon30]

Ah Yes. Which will soon be linked (GU56) and rumor is, we'll be rebuilding some of them (GU58?). Then there will be what? Like 14 druid rings that work and are all interconnected?

[Obadiah]

<p><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><blockquote><cite>MMORPG.org</cite><p>For the first time in Norrath's history, the release came when it was ready instead of arriving by a strict deadline.</p></blockquote><p>This is a pretty astounding statement to make in such a matter-of-fact fashion. The Sentinel's Fate release date had already been locked down before the end of Spring 2009. It was a decision to not have EQ1 and EQ2 expansions in the same month more than a recognition that the in-development expansion wouldn't be ready by November 2009.</p><p>Sentinel's Fate launched with only about 10% of the new armor appearances working. Almost every single piece of heroic and raid gear will have been changed or modified in some way by next month's Game Update 56. We have seen the addition of 2 more types of adornments, and complete revamps of almost all in-game itemization in the first 3 months of this expansion.</p> <blockquote><cite>MMORPG.org</cite><p>SOE has had a notorious history when it comes to marketing its games - something it now recognizes and is promising to change.</p></blockquote><p>I've been unable to get any members of SOE Marketing to speak on the record. Have you got a quote from SOE Marketing indicating that they "recognize" mistakes from the SF or previous launches or that they have "promised to change" anything?</p></blockquote><p>1. The expansion still isn't ready.</p><p>2. I haven't seen anyone say that they learned from SF launch, they just praised themselves for how wonderful it was. That's not a good thing.</p>

[Calthine]

<p><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>The quests in the Sundered Frontier plus the quests in Stonebrunt Highlands together will only get you from level 80 to level 87. You must then adventure in The Hole or do old quests to ding level 90. Game Update 56 will be adding enough quests in these two overland zones to reach level 90.</p></blockquote><p>This seems t have been alleviated somewhat (and more so with GU56).  I hit 87 last night and I'm not yet done with Quel'ule.</p>

[Alvane]

<p>Somehow I got to level 87.6 just doing quests only - no instances, not even the hole. After that, I worked writs to earned faction. Right now I have 50K faction in everything including the crafting factions except the 3 factions of Paineel.</p>

[Hellswrath]

<p><cite>Calthine wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>The quests in the Sundered Frontier plus the quests in Stonebrunt Highlands together will only get you from level 80 to level 87. You must then adventure in The Hole or do old quests to ding level 90. Game Update 56 will be adding enough quests in these two overland zones to reach level 90.</p></blockquote><p>This seems t have been alleviated somewhat (and more so with GU56).  I hit 87 last night and I'm not yet done with Quel'ule.</p></blockquote><p>I would have to ask if you have been in any instances or content other than Sundered frontier or Stonebrunt Highlands during this process (including battlegrounds), or did you spend a lot of time killing monsters while harvesting or gathering collectables.  We've seen no notes to imply that experience for the expansion quests has been raised.  The only questline that has been added so far is the necromantic icebox quests, which definitely reward good exp, but I'm not sure that would put you in quel'ule at 87.</p><blockquote><cite>MMORPG.org</cite><p>To increase the visibility of the game, the retail version came out a week earlier than the digital download.  *snip*</p><p>Great news if shops in your area stock it but if you weren't stateside, you had to wait out a week, knowing that your some of your guildies were gathering up loot without you. Failing that, you could have had it shipped over.</p></blockquote><p>I almost hate to defend SOE marketing after the debacle they made out of expansion launch, but they did make it possible to get in for the headstart via digital download for areas outside the US which they couldn't get retail deals for.</p><p>Don't get me wrong, it was a late concession and was too late for many overseas who had been trying to jump through hoops to get in for the headstart, but there was a resolution.</p><p>I'd also like to throw in my agreement with most of Feldon's points.</p>

[feldon30]

<p><cite>Hellswrath@Blackburrow wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><blockquote><cite>MMORPG.org</cite><p>To increase the visibility of the game, the retail version came out a week earlier than the digital download.  *snip*</p><p>Great news if shops in your area stock it but if you weren't stateside, you had to wait out a week, knowing that your some of your guildies were gathering up loot without you. Failing that, you could have had it shipped over.</p></blockquote><p>I almost hate to defend SOE marketing after the debacle they made out of expansion launch, but they did make it possible to get in for the headstart via digital download for areas outside the US which they couldn't get retail deals for.</p><p>Don't get me wrong, it was a late concession and was too late for many overseas who had been trying to jump through hoops to get in for the headstart, but there was a resolution.</p></blockquote><p>It was known that there would be no retail presence for Sentinel's Fate in Europe by September 2009. Yet Marketing didn't really start making significant movements towards implementing an alternative until December. By late January, it took an almost Herculean effort behind-the-scenes to make up for lost time to try to make the game available. How does 6 months of lead time turn into a 'last minute nightmare'?</p><p>Marketing dragged their feet on getting the certifications to sell the game in Europe. They didn't get deals signed with the digital download companies until just days before the launch. And the marketing response when they were asked why the Digital Downloads hadn't been authorized for Australia and New Zealand was 'They're not part of Europe.' Really?</p><p>Ultimately, most international customers were forced to deal with a less-than-reputable company that didn't buy enough product keys.</p> <p><cite>Hellswrath@Blackburrow wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I'd also like to throw in my agreement with most of Feldon's points.</p></blockquote><p>Thanks. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Calthine]

<p><cite>Hellswrath@Blackburrow wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I would have to ask if you have been in any instances or content other than Sundered frontier or Stonebrunt Highlands during this process (including battlegrounds), or did you spend a lot of time killing monsters while harvesting or gathering collectables.  We've seen no notes to imply that experience for the expansion quests has been raised.  The only questline that has been added so far is the necromantic icebox quests, which definitely reward good exp, but I'm not sure that would put you in quel'ule at 87.</p></blockquote><p>Killed perhaps two quest nameds in Stonebrunt with my husband before I was at them, so a little advance disco and XP.  No extraneous killing when out running about, no instances, no running back to finish stuff up in Ykesha.  No XP pots, although my slider is at 0.  But the Icebox quests, well, there's 42 of them counting the initial examine and final turn in.  I think that accounted for a bit over a level, as I did them when they were level-appropriate.</p><p>I don't think I'd hit 90 solo as it stands right now (I'd put money on getting deep into 88 ).  My minions (/waves to minions!) tell me that the new quests added to Stonebrunt for GU56 ought to really help too.</p>