Game Update #38 Feedback

[Creyzee]

I am looking forward to wearing my halloween mask! Sweet!

[Vatec]

Supple wrote:

There was a time when rangers were freakin broken procwise. It was broken for well over year. With grandmaster poisons, they could solo instances, pulling in hundreds, and yes I mean hundreds of plat, at a cost of about 13g for grandmaster poisons and tin arrows. You could level to 60 in a month, solo. When many of the top folks in my raiding guild were parsing 3-4M total dmg for a raid (L60 cap at the time), our ranger was parsing 10M. I saw him dropping L60^^^'s with one volley on our way to the godking instance. He didnt even stop running as he felled these mobs.

The proc nerf affected rangers the most, but it was not directed at them. By my count, the last 5 updates have seen a ranger nerf of one variety or another. I think that would upset anyone into ranting. BUT, rangers are still coming down off the most horribly broken run that any class had ever been on. Shadowknights have been getting the @$$ end of the stick for as long as I can remember. There was a 2month stretch where they had a broken 100% crit chance, but that is the extent of any benefit theyve ever had. Even with all the jokes and raid uselessness of said class, they recently got a significant nerf to their soloing ability in the EoF tree. Why? Who knows. Wardens and warlocks have been ignored for more time than I care to admit. They have always been better off than SKs, but they've had serious problems since 2 months into the game (unintended group hate for warlocks and last teir healing order for wardens). I'm excluding Furies from that because furies get other benefits. And we wont even talk about the brawlers.

Right now, I'd say the most broken class (DPSwise) is the Assassin, followed by the Conjuror. However the conjuror spent the first 10 months of the game dying and with limited dps while the Assassin was the @$$end of T1 DPS jokes for even longer than that. And even so, both classes are not absurd like the ranger used to be. Neither can pull in hundreds of plat soloing instances.

So what Im trying to say is, before you rant about being "the most hated and nerfed class in the game", take a look around at your fellow classes. Think about what they've suffered for their current high quality (which still doesnt exist for the SK), and think about what benefits you once had. And while youre at it, think about the general nerfs WE, as other classes, had to suffer as the devs tried to stabilize the ranger class in an indirect fashion.

Re the highlighted part:  this may or may not be true, but given that the only real utility Rangers bring to a raid is damage, they need to top the parse to even be considered for a spot in a raid force.  Of course, this has been pointed out over and over, but people still don't "get it...."And no, Rangers aren't the only class that's been nerfed.  Monks, Bruisers, Coercers, and Shadowknights have all felt the sting of the Nerf Bat repeatedly.  Every class that wears leather or had the option to wear leather got nerfed when the combat revamp went live.  In fact, SOE has always prefer to weaken "overpowered" classes rather than bring others up to par.  And I understand their logic.  If you keep buffing classes, you'll have massive inflation in effectiveness, with a resulting massive reduction in challenge factor.But SOE's biggest problem is that they frequently insist on reinventing the wheel rather than learning from other MMOs.  Dark Age of Campalot went through a very similar nerf cycle regarding the ranged classes (Scout, Ranger, and Hunter).  Seems they used to be able to one-shot green cloth-wearers in PvP.  OMG!  Unbalanced!  Let the Nerf Bat swing anew!  Had SOE paid any attention to the historical development of DAoC, they might have avoided many Ranger issues in EQ2 before they became issues.FWIW, EQ2 is probably the best PvE MMO going right now, IMO.  But SOE still has a =lot= to learn about how to make a game that is both fun and challenging.

[Knomi]

Vatec wrote:

Anphimo@Oasis wrote:

//SNIP//

So, since these items had such little effect, why bother nerfing them in the first place?

My theory, and this is just a theory, is that a lot of people are overestimating what contribution twenty tier 2 items bring to a guild.  For a low level guild?  Sure, you'd see some movement, but for an established guild, say a level 46 guild, you aren't going to receive 10% experience.  This in no way [Removed for Content] any guilds from leveling.  It was barely a perk in the first place.  SoE has nipped a problem in the bud.  Even I question the number of status items that must have been holed up in someone's bank to make them consider this.  Clearly there was a large number of people with containers full (enough that would make a significant push toward the expansions levels).  Wisdom would also tell us that these same people could be on the "turn in" step of many HQ's.  They would simply wait for the live date to turn them in.  Think of the justifiable outrage that would come from stripping low level HQs of their status.  SoE hasn't done that, they have, however, turned over a leaf on a decision that they hadn't thought out in the first place.

Someone posted in the original thread on the In Testing board showing that 13,000 status points amounted to 2% of a level for a level 57(?) guild.  At that rate, they calculated that the guild would have needed literally thousands of T7 status items in order to ding 60.  Extrapolate that to 70 and beyond and you'll see that status item hoarding is almost a non-issue.  If every single member of a 100 member guild had a rosewood strong box full of T7 items, sure, it would make a dent.  But this change isn't really affecting T7 items.  It's affecting the lower-level items.  How many hundreds of thousands of those would a guild need to hoard to make a difference?

I'm glad you won't be affected.  But other people will be.  And since the change isn't going to prevent guilds from rapidly capping out levels, it turns into a change that harms a significant portion of the player base with absolutely no measurable compensating benefit.

Ultimately, we do not know the potential impact of what was stockpiled.  As I mentioned in my post, I would be curious to know the sheer numbers that would call for a change like this.  My thought is that what was stockpiled was not simply tier 7 materials.  As we all know the expansion looms, and for SoE to put a developer on a status item change it would seem to be something drastic (as strapped as they imply they are for resources).  I have to imagine nothing less than bank fulls of all tier status items for such a change to be required.  Multiple guilds must have been planning similar strategies for a long period of time.  Although, it does seem outlandish to me, I certainly can not put it past some of those in our gaming community.

My question is, how are these other people really effected?  As you and I have both demonstrated, small quanities of these items will not amount to guild's leveling.  For those guilds which have "honor systems" or promotions that hinge on contributed status, there is a valid argument that their system may need tweaking.  Honestly, we are still talking about chicken mcnuggets.  Let's try an example:

Each member contributes 10% of their personal status gained to the guild.  John Q. Gnome picks up a set of writs for tier 2 (providing between 1,000 and 1,500 per writ).  During the writ run, JQG kills 30 humanoid creatures, of which we will give him a gracious 50% return on status items, which value 100 status per (another 1,500 status).  Essentially, JQG has added an extra writ's worth of status to his run.  It puts him at 7,500 for the time spent, and contributes 750 points to the guild (150 of which are status item related).  If all this took him roughly 30 minutes (which again may be generous), and he spammed them for three hours straight, JQG has contributed 900 guild status from items.

Using your example of 13,000 status to a 2% ratio at a questionable level 57, its going to take JQG more than 43 hours at that rate to gain that 2%.  Of course, this example doesn't account for JQG's leveling and the increase in value, but our particular concern has been over the impact to the low end game.  After talking this out, it is clear that there isn't any.

God bless.

[BChizzle]

Dev fist is not hitting heroic non epic named for 25%.  The small hit works but it stifles you and no 25% damage effect happens.

[kreepr]

Anphimo@Oasis wrote:

Vatec wrote:

Anphimo@Oasis wrote:

//SNIP//

So, since these items had such little effect, why bother nerfing them in the first place?

My theory, and this is just a theory, is that a lot of people are overestimating what contribution twenty tier 2 items bring to a guild.  For a low level guild?  Sure, you'd see some movement, but for an established guild, say a level 46 guild, you aren't going to receive 10% experience.  This in no way [Removed for Content] any guilds from leveling.  It was barely a perk in the first place.  SoE has nipped a problem in the bud.  Even I question the number of status items that must have been holed up in someone's bank to make them consider this.  Clearly there was a large number of people with containers full (enough that would make a significant push toward the expansions levels).  Wisdom would also tell us that these same people could be on the "turn in" step of many HQ's.  They would simply wait for the live date to turn them in.  Think of the justifiable outrage that would come from stripping low level HQs of their status.  SoE hasn't done that, they have, however, turned over a leaf on a decision that they hadn't thought out in the first place.

Someone posted in the original thread on the In Testing board showing that 13,000 status points amounted to 2% of a level for a level 57(?) guild.  At that rate, they calculated that the guild would have needed literally thousands of T7 status items in order to ding 60.  Extrapolate that to 70 and beyond and you'll see that status item hoarding is almost a non-issue.  If every single member of a 100 member guild had a rosewood strong box full of T7 items, sure, it would make a dent.  But this change isn't really affecting T7 items.  It's affecting the lower-level items.  How many hundreds of thousands of those would a guild need to hoard to make a difference?

I'm glad you won't be affected.  But other people will be.  And since the change isn't going to prevent guilds from rapidly capping out levels, it turns into a change that harms a significant portion of the player base with absolutely no measurable compensating benefit.

Ultimately, we do not know the potential impact of what was stockpiled.  As I mentioned in my post, I would be curious to know the sheer numbers that would call for a change like this.  My thought is that what was stockpiled was not simply tier 7 materials.  As we all know the expansion looms, and for SoE to put a developer on a status item change it would seem to be something drastic (as strapped as they imply they are for resources).  I have to imagine nothing less than bank fulls of all tier status items for such a change to be required.  Multiple guilds must have been planning similar strategies for a long period of time.  Although, it does seem outlandish to me, I certainly can not put it past some of those in our gaming community.

My question is, how are these other people really effected?  As you and I have both demonstrated, small quanities of these items will not amount to guild's leveling.  For those guilds which have "honor systems" or promotions that hinge on contributed status, there is a valid argument that their system may need tweaking.  Honestly, we are still talking about chicken mcnuggets.  Let's try an example:

Each member contributes 10% of their personal status gained to the guild.  John Q. Gnome picks up a set of writs for tier 2 (providing between 1,000 and 1,500 per writ).  During the writ run, JQG kills 30 humanoid creatures, of which we will give him a gracious 50% return on status items, which value 100 status per (another 1,500 status).  Essentially, JQG has added an extra writ's worth of status to his run.  It puts him at 7,500 for the time spent, and contributes 750 points to the guild (150 of which are status item related).  If all this took him roughly 30 minutes (which again may be generous), and he spammed them for three hours straight, JQG has contributed 900 guild status from items.

Using your example of 13,000 status to a 2% ratio at a questionable level 57, its going to take JQG more than 43 hours at that rate to gain that 2%.  Of course, this example doesn't account for JQG's leveling and the increase in value, but our particular concern has been over the impact to the low end game.  After talking this out, it is clear that there isn't any.

God bless.

Now add the amount that you would have gotten from the status items you picked up in the time you did those writs or HQ's. I can get upwards of 10 to 15 in a 30 minute period. I don't know if I'm lucky or what but I tend to pick up a few stacks in a night of play, I regularly get mobs that give me 2 status items at a time. They add up and that's the point they are now worthless when there could have been another solution to the problem.

[Vatec]

Anphimo@Oasis wrote:

//SNIP//

Ultimately, we do not know the potential impact of what was stockpiled.  As I mentioned in my post, I would be curious to know the sheer numbers that would call for a change like this.  My thought is that what was stockpiled was not simply tier 7 materials.  As we all know the expansion looms, and for SoE to put a developer on a status item change it would seem to be something drastic (as strapped as they imply they are for resources).  I have to imagine nothing less than bank fulls of all tier status items for such a change to be required.  Multiple guilds must have been planning similar strategies for a long period of time.  Although, it does seem outlandish to me, I certainly can not put it past some of those in our gaming community.

I'm not convinced it =was= going to be an issue.  I've found in my life that organizations often engage in remarkably stupid behaviors because one key individual gets a 'hunch" that something =might= be a problem.  But pure logic suggests that very few but the hugest guilds are going to be able to utilize a hoarding strategy effectively.  And these guilds have far more effective means at their disposal for accelerating their guild's levelling.

My question is, how are these other people really effected?  As you and I have both demonstrated, small quanities of these items will not amount to guild's leveling.  For those guilds which have "honor systems" or promotions that hinge on contributed status, there is a valid argument that their system may need tweaking.  Honestly, we are still talking about chicken mcnuggets.  Let's try an example:

Each member contributes 10% of their personal status gained to the guild.  John Q. Gnome picks up a set of writs for tier 2 (providing between 1,000 and 1,500 per writ).  During the writ run, JQG kills 30 humanoid creatures, of which we will give him a gracious 50% return on status items, which value 100 status per (another 1,500 status).  Essentially, JQG has added an extra writ's worth of status to his run.  It puts him at 7,500 for the time spent, and contributes 750 points to the guild (150 of which are status item related).  If all this took him roughly 30 minutes (which again may be generous), and he spammed them for three hours straight, JQG has contributed 900 guild status from items.

I love the "just do writs" argument.  Why should anyone waste their time on a ridiculous time sink in the first place?  This isn't "content," it's not "challenging," it's just pointless "grinding."  Furthermore, I find the idea that doing four writs in 30 minutes to be almost laughable, at least for a soloer.  Some of the required mobs for writs are heroic or come in heroic groups.  Some are ridiculously rare.  Some are in inaccessible areas of agro-rich zones.  But it still comes down to the fact that most rational people despise grinding and any system that effectively forces them to grind is a Bad Idea with capital letters.  The days of Evercamp and Dark Age of Campalot are past and it's time these relics of a bygone era were done away with once and for all.

Using your example of 13,000 status to a 2% ratio at a questionable level 57, its going to take JQG more than 43 hours at that rate to gain that 2%.  Of course, this example doesn't account for JQG's leveling and the increase in value, but our particular concern has been over the impact to the low end game.  After talking this out, it is clear that there isn't any.

It's a matter of viewpoint.  In my opinion, if I believed that this change might slow down the higher-level guilds, I could be convinced to support it.  But after analyzing the numbers, I simply don't believe that it will be an effective solution.  If it isn't solving the desired problem, then it doesn't matter if it only costs me ONE status point, it's still an unnecessary nerf and needs to be opposed on principle.

God bless.

[DangerousDragon]

Great additions! However, when will we see the implementation of Dyes into Everquest 2. This would be one of the best in-game features you would have added thus far, which i think would appeal to raiders the most considering how they must mix many of the different fabled armor pieces which a lot of the time are different colors. Also it makes characters more memorable like a raid tank in a full black suit of armor with a flaming sword. Or just your part time player that wants his set armor to be green instead of brown. It would even give tradeskillers even another aspect to their skill. Alchemists have to make the vials and crush the colored plants, Provisioners need to brew the water and plants to make the appropriate dye. Then for all the crafters that actually make the items seen in our gaming world like furniture, shields, armor pieces, bows, ect... they would be able to apply the dye to the select item through the use of another UI window designed to change the items in someone else's inventory without having to trade them, thus being able to change the color of all the assortments of no-trade items.

[malenta]

 The new status loot system hurts guilds more then helps them.

While I can understand the need to change the current system to prevent buying mass quanities of status loot to level a guild. Please understand that guilds that are still recruiting lower level and newer players are losing out on these low tier items and its also not fair to the new player who wants to do more for their guild in between working on Heritage quests.

 Why not implement a system where the status loot should be level approprate to the player. So if say a level 20 player joins a level 40 guild they can still contribute their status loot and help the guild get to level cap. So even a level 70 player that decides they wanna start a new guild with friends that has done every heritage quest currently out there they are still going to buy that status loot approprate to the guild level so it doesn't really help in the sales of status loot. But since they can't use their t7 status loot it is gonna be horded anyway until the point when the guild reaches that level.

[Knomi]

kreepr13 wrote:

Now add the amount that you would have gotten from the status items you picked up in the time you did those writs or HQ's. I can get upwards of 10 to 15 in a 30 minute period. I don't know if I'm lucky or what but I tend to pick up a few stacks in a night of play, I regularly get mobs that give me 2 status items at a time. They add up and that's the point they are now worthless when there could have been another solution to the problem.

Actually, that was including the status items picked up executing the writs.  It was the point of the example.  I added your suggested high number per writ set (15 status items per 30 minutes, 30 per hour, and 90 for a three hour writ grinding session [which I believe to be elaborate, but for the example at hand it will work]).  900 guild status per three hour session seems a little strong, but should be possible if soloing writ mobs involving humanoids.

[Devilsbane]

Creyzee wrote:

I am looking forward to wearing my halloween mask! Sweet!

Hey now thats an idea. I can break out my arrow mask during a raid, then blame our ranger!

[Zinovii]

Why not make the status items no drop? That seems like a much easier solution....

[Knomi]

Vatec wrote:

I'm not convinced it =was= going to be an issue.  I've found in my life that organizations often engage in remarkably stupid behaviors because one key individual gets a 'hunch" that something =might= be a problem.  But pure logic suggests that very few but the hugest guilds are going to be able to utilize a hoarding strategy effectively.  And these guilds have far more effective means at their disposal for accelerating their guild's levelling.

I love the "just do writs" argument.  Why should anyone waste their time on a ridiculous time sink in the first place?  This isn't "content," it's not "challenging," it's just pointless "grinding."  Furthermore, I find the idea that doing four writs in 30 minutes to be almost laughable, at least for a soloer.  Some of the required mobs for writs are heroic or come in heroic groups.  Some are ridiculously rare.  Some are in inaccessible areas of agro-rich zones.  But it still comes down to the fact that most rational people despise grinding and any system that effectively forces them to grind is a Bad Idea with capital letters.  The days of Evercamp and Dark Age of Campalot are past and it's time these relics of a bygone era were done away with once and for all.

It's a matter of viewpoint.  In my opinion, if I believed that this change might slow down the higher-level guilds, I could be convinced to support it.  But after analyzing the numbers, I simply don't believe that it will be an effective solution.  If it isn't solving the desired problem, then it doesn't matter if it only costs me ONE status point, it's still an unnecessary nerf and needs to be opposed on principle.

The idea that the hoarding strategy was more of a fear rather than a reality may have validity to it.  The truth is we can never know.  We do know that SoE felt strongly enough about it to put a developer on the project to change the system.  I agree that it does seem unrealistic that large numbers of capped guilds would be hoarding these items to the extent necessary to require the change.  However, it doesn't not seem impossible -- only SoE would know the quanity of people looking toward this.  The idea hadn't occurred to me for use in my guild, but then again we aren't capped either.

I was not making the "just do writs" argument.  You had suggested that some guilds use status points as a condition for promoting and honoring their guild members.  I used your suggestion with the idea that Joe Q. Gnome would be seeking such promotion (in other words gathering status whatever means possible).  This isn't meant to be a comparison of grind.  Honestly, though, I'm not sure what point you are trying to make, as the game itself is either questing or grinding.  For someone to suggest that they would gain 15-30 status items an hour doing an HQ would be ludicrous.  And if the argument then becomes "I hunt in RE where the goblins drop status like copper" then you really aren't pursuing that promotion and you are back to the idea that grinding isn't fun. 

I agree that the idea that a set of writs could be done in 30 minutes is laughable (hence my wording of "gracious" and "generous",).  The point of this conversation is the idea of status items contributing in some way to a guild's leveling.  No matter how the average player comes about them, whether grinding, questing, HQing, or writting, they do not amount to much.  In my generous example, they contributed 1/5th of total status earned, or another writ.

I, again, agree with you that it does seem odd that there is no impact made to T7 or T8 status items.  If anything this change would just focus players on hoarding those specifc status items instead of the broader spectrum.  As someone else brought up, maybe this will change the demand for T6 (SS, and PoF) goblin farming. 

In my humble opinion, the change should have been made to the complete spectrum of tiers.  It would have made a little more sense in their pursuit of balance.

There is a possiblity that we don't know the full scope of why they are implementing the change.  I assumed that it was because people were hoarding, but there could be other reasoning beyond my scope of thought. 

Ultimately, the argument still comes back to the fact that the average adventure will not see much of a guild status contribution change.  There are certainly more profitable ways of contributing to guild status.

God Bless.

*Editted for better wording.

[Knowitall]

I'm really diggin the appearance tab...no longer is my swashbuckler a fashion nightmare from the circus! good job on that....as for the status stuff....clueless as im only been playin game a month. But a big draw is character appearance...and you get my thumbs up on that.

[Garyn]

Devs: I have a question: I'm a Gnome Male Illusionist. Whenever I cast my Personae Shift, I NEVER get a copy of me. I usually get a human (either male or female) wearing the default clothes (the rags before u create the character). Never happened before the patch.Oh, and I could whine about the guild status item change all day long because i'm a leader of a lvl 13 guild, but you've heard it all already and it'd be a waste of time to repeat it once more.But seriously, can I get a confirmation that this is a known bug please.

[stuka1000]

This may have already been mentioned as I have not read through the entire thread, before the next issue do you think it would be possible to get around to fixing the out of memory bug that so many people are suffering at the moment?  just a thought.

[PattyBakes]

I'm actually quite pleased with this update.  My biggest relief was the improvement in communication, which has been my biggest source of dissatisfaction in previous updates.  Thank you.

[Vatec]

Anphimo@Oasis wrote:

//SNIP//

The idea that the hoarding strategy was more of a fear rather than a reality may have validity to it.  The truth is we can never know.  We do know that SoE felt strongly enough about it to put a developer on the project to change the system.  I agree that it does seem unrealistic that large numbers of capped guilds would be hoarding these items to the extent necessary to require the change.  However, it doesn't not seem impossible -- only SoE would know the quanity of people looking toward this.  The idea hadn't occurred to me for use in my guild, but then again we aren't capped either.

I was not making the "just do writs" argument.  You had suggested that some guilds use status points as a condition for promoting and honoring their guild members.  I used your suggestion with the idea that Joe Q. Gnome would be seeking such promotion (in other words gathering status whatever means possible).  This isn't meant to be a comparison of grind.  Honestly, though, I'm not sure what point you are trying to make, as the game itself is either questing or grinding.  For someone to suggest that they would gain 15-30 status items an hour doing an HQ would be ludicrous.  And if the argument then becomes "I hunt in RE where the goblins drop status like copper" then you really aren't pursuing that promotion and you are back to the idea that grinding isn't fun. 

I agree that the idea that a set of writs could be done in 30 minutes is laughable (hence my wording of "gracious" and "generous",).  The point of this conversation is the idea of status items contributing in some way to a guild's leveling.  No matter how the average player comes about them, whether grinding, questing, HQing, or writting, they do not amount to much.  In my generous example, they contributed 1/5th of total status earned, or another writ.

I, again, agree with you that it does seem odd that there is no impact made to T7 or T8 status items.  If anything this change would just focus players on hoarding those specifc status items instead of the broader spectrum.  As someone else brought up, maybe this will change the demand for T6 (SS, and PoF) goblin farming. 

In my humble opinion, the change should have been made to the complete spectrum of tiers.  It would have made a little more sense in their pursuit of balance.

There is a possiblity that we don't know the full scope of why they are implementing the change.  I assumed that it was because people were hoarding, but there could be other reasoning beyond my scope of thought. 

Ultimately, the argument still comes back to the fact that the average adventure will not see much of a guild status contribution change.  There are certainly more profitable ways of contributing to guild status.

God Bless.

*Editted for better wording.

OK, so we don't differ on any of the "facts," such as they are.  And we really don't differ very much on our assessment of probable outcomes, either.  The crux of our disagreement is that I think a change that harms anyone without a reasonable likelihood of being effective is a bad idea, while you're willing to take that risk on the chance that it may make a difference.  I don't think either of us is going to convince the other on =that= matter, but at least we've explored the issues a bit.My gut instinct is that this change has as much to do with plat farming as it does guild levelling.  The only problem I have with that is that it will just encourage the plat farms to work the T7 and T8 areas even more than they do now.In any case, I've stated my issues with the change.  I would really like to see some evidence of the hoarding problem, but I doubt SOE will give us that.  So we're going to have to take it on faith that "SOE knows best."  I =really= hate taking things on faith, especially when I'm expected to have faith in an organization that has done some fairly clueless things in the past.  But that's life.  They asked for feedback, I've given them feedback ;^)Good fortune to you and yours!

[Birkenstocky]

If you have a dorky toon die doing the new 'all levels quest' for the boat ride .. it does not reset.  The boat does not pull alongside, talking to all the npc's does not reset the quest .... if your dork toon dies you are borked.

 DONT DIE DOING THIS QUEST

[KukawKukaw]

Anphimo@Oasis wrote:

KukawKukaw wrote:

        Now with that said...I have a question. Has SOE ever changed something back the way it was from response in the Forums? I am not asking that as a smart-[I cannot control my vocabulary] question either. Just wondering if there is a shot it will go back, or do we just move on and take it.

The best example may be the fluff armor slots.  While on test, SoE added restrictions so that the fluff slots could only contain certain seemingly "class appropriate" armors (I believe it was defined as "as heavy or heavier than what you were wearing"" />.  The outcry was livid.  There was a forty page thread over a couple days.  SoE did revert it back to the initial intention for fluff armor, and that is what we see live today.

I believe that the consulting period over the status items is over.  One of the "red names" had hinted that it was not going to be an answer that everyone liked.  I'm still a bit baffled that there were so many people getting use out of the status items that this much complaining has gone on.  As I mentioned in my post earlier, this change won't effect our guild's leveling rate in the slightest.  I think a fair estimate is that out of a level no more than five percent is contributed through status items. 

I would be curious to know the actual percentage, but that is SoE's knowledge, and not mine.  I don't see the impact, when a writ of similar tier can be completed for a similar amount of status (primarily in the lower tiers). 

Thnx Anphimo for the feedback

[EQ2Luv]

Devastation fist is bugged or has an unstated restriction. It currently does not work on heroic named mobs.  It was not this way on test, so it seems unintended.

[irongun324]

Guild Status Items * When selling guild status items, guilds now only advance via sales of level-appropriate items. Members of higher level guilds can still sell lower level items for personal status gain. * There is now a text description at the bottom of status items that tell you what level guild will gain advancement from selling those items. Generally, items found in the nearest 10 level range will continue to advance your guild. (E.g. A level 50 guild will be able to gain advancement from level 51 items and higher, which drop from T6 creatures and above.) * If you go to an NPC who will buy your status item and your guild is too high level, you will see the status points in YELLOW instead of the normal teal. Those are the items that will only grant you personal statusEither you're lying to us or the status items are broken.  A level 60 guild does NOT get status for 61+ items, only 70+.  Please fix it so that 61+ works.  Thanks.

[NoLonger]

Due to the recent change on the status items, I have one suggestion: Remove that and make status items no-trade. Simple, would have guilds stop buying their levels.

[Vegeeta]

Well, it is always good to see EQ2 transforming and adapting...Must agree with the guild status items as posted by BoriKitty...I am in a lower guild, but already see that it would discourage higher lvl guilds from bringing on lower toons...I think of the greater good of the game as it pertains to newer players...who wouldn't want to buy a cool horse and save a plat or two?

Also, something I had hoped to see changed in any of the recent patches/updates was the pvp lvl range. Again, for the greater good of EQ2 and it's survival...especially in regards to Vox which I see less and less people logged on as the months roll by. It sucks to level to 10 to be jumped by an opposing member within minutes if not seconds (I've seen it happen too many times), but regarless...wouldn't it benefit most everyone to change the pvp ranges from 4 and 8 TO 3 and 6?  Even as a fairly twinked toon, there is no chance of beating a toon 8 lvls above you...at least at 6 lvls you've got a fighting chance...and come on, for the noobs a 3 level change could save them some deaths.

I just think as a community we need to be concerned about EQ's survival...especially for us Vox folks

Love the new deity choice...although I dont know if I'll use it, but keep up the evolution!  Good Hunting!

[gnasty]

I just started playing and joined a level 22 guild and I think this is the pits. I want to help my guild but do not have a lot of time to grind out writs, HQ quest and such, I need ever point I get from the status items. A much better way to prevent guilds from buying thier levels and/or the plat farmers from selling the status items  would be to make them no trade items. Come on who are you kidding here? The plat farmers will still sell and the guilds will still buy so the only ones that will feel this is the low levels characters just starting out.

[Wingrider01]

Kofi@The Bazaar wrote:

Due to the recent change on the status items, I have one suggestion: Remove that and make status items no-trade. Simple, would have guilds stop buying their levels.

And just what would you do with the players that have tons of these stockpiled on thier mains, alts, alts of alts, etc in prepration for the increase in guild level? Given the fact that there are other ways for lower level mains/alts to gain personal status and guild status the only ones this hurts is the players that stockpiled by buying from the brokers.

[Daryx]

I think this is an example of the hoarding that has been wondered about (whether it was fear or reality).

 http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=379690

 OP states quite clearly the intention.  Now how much status would actually be gained, who knows?  But if so much plat has been invested, it may be substantial:

 

My guild has been level 60 a LONG time now.  We also have been running a contest to see which guild member can save up the most status items to be handed in after the expansion is released.  The top 3 guildies with sheer quantity of status items are going to win cash prizes - 10 plat, 5 plat and 2 plat respectively.

 As guild leader, I have removed myself from the contest but am on a personal mission to be the top saver of these items.  I currently have just over 2million personal status and 200k guild status in these items saved up.  I have been collecting them on all my characters and buying them off the broker for MONTHS now.  MANY MANY Plat tied up in these things.

We are not exploiting, we are not abusing any system, we have been operating under the parameters that YOU put in place.  Now you are changing this for one simple reason - you must have noticed that guilds like mine were saving them up in preparation for November.

[Ellorien]

I think that the guild status should hinge on what lvl the char is not the guild.I am in a lvl 50 guild but we help a lot of noobies, now they cannot help unless they do writs or HQ's one of the main reasons that we like helping people, is that we can see if they like to help us lvl the guild (ie: care about us as a group)Please fix this!! it is not fair to people that want to help.

[Wingrider01]

Ellorien@Befallen wrote:

I think that the guild status should hinge on what lvl the char is not the guild.I am in a lvl 50 guild but we help a lot of noobies, now they cannot help unless they do writs or HQ's one of the main reasons that we like helping people, is that we can see if they like to help us lvl the guild (ie: care about us as a group)Please fix this!! it is not fair to people that want to help.

So mentor them and do writs/hq's. You are still helping them and your guild. Sorry, that arguement does not hold, if there where no other way for them to assist, then you would be correct. The guild I belong to has already discussed this and setup a writ night that we will mentor or use the lower levels and help earn status for the guild after the expansion shows up. The low levels gain exp, personal status and contribute guild status - everyone wins there

[bigsigh]

The new status changes are horrid

[bigsigh]

The new raw mats gfx are abysmal. Like so much in this great game, the idea is fine, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The graphics are poorly drawn, and look like something you might expect to see in a shareware game from the 90s, not a top notch MMO of the 21st century.

To be sure, it is a small point, but appearences count for much, and as appearences go, these are hardly likely to make anyone go 'wow', then again, they just might