The change to the vitality rate has made working alts VERY frustrating

[TwistedFaith]

<p>Why did SOE see fit to alter the vitality rate recently? I have recently over the past few weeks been working on a new alt. I used to goto low level places and power level my AA using my main. This used to be fun, mass killing mobs and gaining AA at a pretty decent rate.</p><p>However recently I noticed that I am burning through vitality at a insane rate. One run through Fallen Gate uses over 50% of my vitality. This never used to be the case, and I don't understand why this was changed.</p><p>I understand SOE wants to keep people playing, however I have done all the main zones multiple times, I simply dont want to go through that kind of gameplay again. I simply want to work my alts my way by mass killing, I actually enjoy doing that as opposed to running the same quests again and again.</p><p>Any thoughts on this, developer response maybe?</p>

[Kizee]

<p>What change? You always burned vitality crazy fast at lower levels.</p>

[feldon30]

Which IMO is broken.

[Kizee]

<p><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Which IMO is broken.</blockquote><p>Not really. He didn't mention how many levels he got before his vit. was gone hehe.</p><p>I never thought anything about it TBH... I figured rule of thumb was 2-3 levels before you are out of vitality. /shrug</p>

[Ragnaphore]

<p>Keep in mind that the more max lvls you have, the faster you'll burn vitality (due to the bonus)</p>

[Tigress]

<p><cite>Hissyfit@Oasis wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Which IMO is broken.</blockquote><p>Not really. He didn't mention how many levels he got before his vit. was gone hehe.</p><p>I never thought anything about it TBH... I figured rule of thumb was 2-3 levels before you are out of vitality. /shrug</p></blockquote><p>its more like 1-2 levels and vitality is gone.</p>

[Nightshade]

<p>They can't build the game based on power leveling expectations of experience.</p>

[Rijacki]

<p><cite>Ragnaphore wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Keep in mind that the more max lvls you have, the faster you'll burn vitality (due to the bonus)</p></blockquote><p>Increased amount of XP gain from any source (potions, # of 90s, RAF, etc) will burn up vitality. This also includes the fact base XP gain in the lower levels has also increased.</p><p>Unless the OP started a new account with that new character, he's likely got several of the bonuses adding up and draining the vitality.</p>

[Tigress]

<p>its not just power leveling, though.  my 49 necro had 100% vitality and joined a group in soulisk's eye.  i was not being power leveled; yet, i was out of vitality within in an hour just bc we were killing a bunch of stuff quickly. </p><p>if i bring my fury (currently 82) into an instance with a group of ppl at or near my level and nobody mentoring me, i'm out of vitality in abt an hour.  if i solo quest, then the vitality doesnt wear down as quickly.   it seems that the vitality drops based on how much XP is gained. when you pop a potion, the vitality disappears quicker.  (i've often wondered if the portions were even worth consuming.)</p><p>if someone is being power leveled, wouldnt running out of vitality so quickly defeat the purpose of power leveling anyway?</p>

[Rijacki]

<p><cite>Tigress wrote:</cite></p><blockquote> if i solo quest, then the vitality doesnt wear down as quickly. </blockquote><p>This depends on where you are solo questing. Vitality (and bonuses) only affect XP obtained by doing combat. Kill XP in the lower level overland areas is considerably higher than in the RoK or later overland areas. If you're 70+ and doing quests, the kill XP you get in overland areas is paultry even with any and all bonuses. Thus the amount being matched by vitality (and siphoned from vitality because of that match) is considerably less.</p><p>ALL dungeons and instances (anything not overland) has a higher kill XP vs overland. Thus, if you're killing stuff in droves in an instance or dungeon, you are getting more XP per kill which is then affected by every bonus you have and matched by vitality (draining off that much vitality as well).</p><p>Vitality drain, if you're doing overland kills and quests, comes to a halt when you hit RoK.</p><p>The only way to have vitality not drain as fast is to reduce the kill XP in an area.</p>

[Mermut]

<p>I'm not a huge fan of the 18hr timer on the faction quests but they do have one major bonus... it makes the quests missions rather then simple repeatable quests.. so you keep getting AA for them every time you do them.You still have to grind faction, but at least you get something worhwhile from them. It would be worse to have to do as many (or more) faction quests because you could do them as often as you liked, but got absolutely nothing besides faction and bleeding eyes out of it.</p><p>ps I forgot about the monetary reward, since it's not a motivator for me.. the money per quest would likely also go down.</p>

[TwistedFaith]

<p>Just to clarify my original post. My alt is a level 26 wizard with 80 AAs, he is on an account with 2 lvl 90 toons, so thats 40% bonus I believe. I normally have a swashy mentor me and then plow through Fallen Gate with the AA bar set to 100%.</p><p>Maybe its me but it seems like within one clear run the vast majority of my vitality is simply gone. It has been awhile since I have powerleveled (AA Power level) a low level toon like this but I remember it used to be a lot quicker for the first 100+ AAs.</p><p>As it stands now I get around 30% AA from a clean run through Fallen Gate with no vitality, to me it seems pretty small considering I only have 80 AAs. The thought of grinding through quests on yet another alt simply doesn't appeal to me at all.</p>

[Brigh]

<p><cite>Mermut wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I'm not a huge fan of the 18hr timer on the faction quests but they do have one major bonus... it makes the quests missions rather then simple repeatable quests.. so you keep getting AA for them every time you do them.You still have to grind faction, but at least you get something worhwhile from them. It would be worse to have to do as many (or more) faction quests because you could do them as often as you liked, but got absolutely nothing besides faction and bleeding eyes out of it.</p><p>ps I forgot about the monetary reward, since it's not a motivator for me.. the money per quest would likely also go down.</p></blockquote><p>I think you posted in the wrong thread.</p>

[Aldhissla]

<p>Are you really complaining about levelling alts going too slow? I mean REALLY?</p><p>How pathetic and disgusting. People like you are the reason the game is in its current state. Just wow.</p>

[rattlebonz]

<p>I just leveled my 49 ranger to 86 and 27 or so AA (already had 170) in less than a week. I also did 25ish TS levels as well TS epic. Exp gain rate is fine. I wasn't pled, or boxed, I quested.</p>

[Morrias]

<p>If you use an Experience potion your vitality burns up super fast, always has but it's more noticable since they increased the % of the potions..</p>

[Kabahl]

<p><cite>Tigress wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>its not just power leveling, though.  my 49 necro had 100% vitality and joined a group in soulisk's eye.  i was not being power leveled; yet, i was out of vitality within in an hour just bc we were killing a bunch of stuff quickly. </p><p>if i bring my fury (currently 82) into an instance with a group of ppl at or near my level and nobody mentoring me, i'm out of vitality in abt an hour.  <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">if i solo quest, then the vitality doesnt wear down as quickly</span></strong>.   it seems that the vitality drops based on how much XP is gained. when you pop a potion, the vitality disappears quicker.  (i've often wondered if the portions were even worth consuming.)</p><p>if someone is being power leveled, wouldnt running out of vitality so quickly defeat the purpose of power leveling anyway?</p></blockquote><p>The thing is, if you are QUESTING, you are not using vitality.  Vitality ONLY gets used for Adventure Experience, i.e. killing mobs directly (as some call it, "Grinding for experience").  Any experience gained with a quest turn in will not use your vitality.  So, for example, if you have 50% vitality, and you are 20% into a level . . . then you turn in 15 quests, and 10 collections, you may now be 80% into that level, or you may even ding, but your vitality will still be at 50%.  </p><p>The reason you're necro is burning through vitality seemingly much faster is because, as you said,  you "were killing a bunch of stuff quickly" and you are using up your vitality.  When you're questing, you are probably killing less mobs (mainly, only those you need to get a quest update or to clear an area to get a quest update) but your vitality consumption seems less because you're gaining the same amount of experience as grinding by handing in quests.  </p><p>Though it should be noted that experience gain when handing in quests do not receive a bonus no matter what your vitality is; you'll get the same experience for a quest at 100% vitality as you would if you had 0% vitality.  </p><p>Of course, this it how it USED to be . . . maybe they changed it, but I don't think so.</p>

[Grumble69]

<p><cite>Niayl@Blackburrow wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I just leveled my 49 ranger to 86 and 27 or so AA (already had 170) in less than a week. I also did 25ish TS levels as well PTS epic. Exp gain rate is fine. I wasn't pled, or boxed, I quested.</p></blockquote><p>I'm <em>almost</em> tempted to call BS on this.  Maybe if you were playing heavily and had potions + several max'd char bonuses + knew the quests well.  My issue is that quests eat up a lot of time running around.  Most normal folks are not going to progress that fast, particularly in the 80+ range where quest xp is abysmal. </p>

[rattlebonz]

<p><cite>Grumble69 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Niayl@Blackburrow wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I just leveled my 49 ranger to 86 and 27 or so AA (already had 170) in less than a week. I also did 25ish TS levels as well PTS epic. Exp gain rate is fine. I wasn't pled, or boxed, I quested.</p></blockquote><p>I'm <em>almost</em> tempted to call BS on this.  Maybe if you were playing heavily and had potions + several max'd char bonuses + knew the quests well.  My issue is that quests eat up a lot of time running around.  Most normal folks are not going to progress that fast, particularly in the 80+ range where quest xp is abysmal. </p></blockquote><p>I only have one lvl 90 character on that account, same for TS. I used a potion once in chelsith, and a few times for TS. I know the quests fairly well, was decently geared from BG gear and played quite a bit. The amount of time on wasn't really a factor so much though because I spend a lot of time afk not to mention the time  spent crafting. I was lvl 85 before I left RoK and had barely started on the Kunzar quests but had finished all of the JW ones. Did maybe 3 quests in Moors, finished all of them in KoS, pretty much skipped DoF except for SS. Chelsith was the only instance I spent any amount of time in. During this time I also managed to tank ToFS and Pools three or four times with my main for guildies and random other people picked up in level chat to finish off kills for Coldain Rings.</p>

[rattlebonz]

<p>Eq players doesn't have anything for my leveling history passed 49 but thinking back it might have been 10 days. Its hard to remember. Either way, leveling speed is fine. If I had spent time in The Hole, SoS or PoA, which I didn't, I would have leveled much faster.</p>

[Lethe5683]

<p><cite>Grumble69 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Niayl@Blackburrow wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I just leveled my 49 ranger to 86 and 27 or so AA (already had 170) in less than a week. I also did 25ish TS levels as well PTS epic. Exp gain rate is fine. I wasn't pled, or boxed, I quested.</p></blockquote><p>I'm <em>almost</em> tempted to call BS on this.  Maybe if you were playing heavily and had potions + several max'd char bonuses + knew the quests well.  My issue is that quests eat up a lot of time running around.  Most normal folks are not going to progress that fast, particularly in the 80+ range where quest xp is abysmal. </p></blockquote><p>No, that would be easy.  Even if you didn't use an alt to PL them you could get them higher than that faster than that without much issue.</p>

[rattlebonz]

<p><cite>Lethe5683 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Grumble69 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Niayl@Blackburrow wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I just leveled my 49 ranger to 86 and 27 or so AA (already had 170) in less than a week. I also did 25ish TS levels as well PTS epic. Exp gain rate is fine. I wasn't pled, or boxed, I quested.</p></blockquote><p>I'm <em>almost</em> tempted to call BS on this.  Maybe if you were playing heavily and had potions + several max'd char bonuses + knew the quests well.  My issue is that quests eat up a lot of time running around.  Most normal folks are not going to progress that fast, particularly in the 80+ range where quest xp is abysmal. </p></blockquote><p>No, that would be easy.  Even if you didn't use an alt to PL them you could get them higher than that faster than that without much issue.</p></blockquote><p>Pretty much, I'm a slacker, I might be logged in a lot but a huge percentage of the time I'm browsing the forums, Reddit, eating something unhealthy, outside taking pictures of Casco Bay from the front porch, smoking, etc...</p><p>Leveling is far too easy, granted that comes from a hell level EQ1 veteran but still too easy. Hell, I'm afk right now, my guild notes say "probably AFK".</p>

[feldon30]

<p><cite>Hissyfit@Oasis wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Which IMO is broken.</blockquote><p>Not really. He didn't mention how many levels he got before his vit. was gone hehe.</p><p>I never thought anything about it TBH... I figured rule of thumb was 2-3 levels before you are out of vitality. /shrug</p></blockquote><p>It should be balaced around 4-6 hours of gameplay. That was its original intention, to give infrequent players a boost.</p><p>Burning up a week's vitality in 30 minutes is BROKEN I don't care how many levels or AA you get.</p>

[TwistedFaith]

<p>Once again just to clarify I am not complaining about the leveling rate, to me that seems to be fine. My issue is the AA level, it seems way too slow. I am not some WOW like kid who wants everything handed to him, I raid 4 times a week pretty hardcore and have been playing since launch.</p><p>My problem is that in terms of grinding AAs, questing seems to be the only viable way to work on your AAs. I simply do not want to go through the same rubbish questlines that I have done multiple times on other alts. It's just way too boring. </p><p>I feel sorry for the people who are new to the game, if they follow the questlines they will simply get to lvl 90 far too quickly with far too few AAs. Having a level 90 toon with less than 200 is almost pointless. The AA rate should be similar to the leveling rate which is pretty quick.</p>

[Kizee]

<p><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Hissyfit@Oasis wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Which IMO is broken.</blockquote><p>Not really. He didn't mention how many levels he got before his vit. was gone hehe.</p><p>I never thought anything about it TBH... I figured rule of thumb was 2-3 levels before you are out of vitality. /shrug</p></blockquote><p>It should be balaced around 4-6 hours of gameplay. That was its original intention, to give infrequent players a boost.</p><p>Burning up a week's vitality in 30 minutes is BROKEN I don't care how many levels or AA you get.</p></blockquote><p>It was balanced for casuals as a "bonus" to exp to give infrequent players a boost......not people who PL toons with other accounts.</p><p>I really don't see the problem... leveling in this game is a joke already even without vit.</p>