Sentinel's Fate - General Feedback Thread

[DiotrumFGK]

Now that the expansion is aged I'll drop some input.  I haven't read 14 pages of posts, this is just my input.

I'm a player that boxes zones a lot and also raids top end.  I've done the quest lines solo, completed all the missions and raided every zone outside the last wing in the Hole, which has not been accessed on our server yet.  I'm only taking the time to post in hopes the coming expansion takes any of this into consideration.

The Good:

- I like the fact that old tier zones scaled to 90 allowing more places to go for Masters and such.  Although I'm sick of them, it's nice to have choices.  Often in the past a level ramp expansion meant nobody ever returned to old content except to farm, so well done.

- The Hardmode content is great and allows greater challenge to endgame guilds while allowing more casual guilds to stilll see all of the content.  I like it.

- Please keep with the current overland zone layouts.  Wide open spaces that are easy to get around in with few jumps/ladders/geo blocked areas.  More ramps, less stairs... and no more Gfays thx.

- Returning loot to non-class specific is pretty great imo allowing to betray and adjust to guild needs without the need to fully gear the toon again is good.  At the same time though, everyone is exactly the same due to limited red slot adorn options.  Cookie cutter = not good.

The Opportunities:

- Reusing the same zone for multiple instances drives me crazy and bores everyone, especially those that raid and group... and solo all in the same physical zones.  I personally think it sucks when it's sold as OMG 4 raid zones, 9 instances, etc etc!!1!... but really it's 3 zones reused over and over. 

- Rewards for raiders are too short lived.  End game loot is in the auction channels only a few weeks after breaking a zone and it is completely possible to gear a toon out in the best gear prior to the coming expansion... with zero raid experience.  Make raiding mean something and reward those who put the time in.  It's great to sell items, but there are no items in game that are simply uber and only for those that can earn them.  That's not right.  Like sleepers in EQ1, give us back just a few items that when you see a toon with it, you know they are skilled... not that they have plat.

- SF (as all have been) is boring to raid.  We are six years into the game, why are mob spawn points still static?  Why does a zone have to be exactly the same every single time?  The game is supposed to be immersive and have "real world" rules, but yet mobs never learn or evolve and encounters can be blueprinted and posted for all after the first kill.  That's the opposite of challenging and it's why gamers are able to blow through SOE content in the first few months of every expac.

- Again, graphics for items are horrible.  All the armor looks the same and nearly everything is reusing old graphics.  This isn't what the gamers are paying for.  In addition, it's almost a slap in the face the best looking armor in the game is now sold for station cash.  How about not putting efforts into SC revenue streams until finishing the content we already paid for.  The graphics from the Hole loot make baby jesus cry.

- Tiered armor is a great idea.. that wasn't put to use.  Increasing armor 1% per tier with the exact same effects is ridiculous.  T2 gear is farm-mode for pick up raids, while T3 is from Hardmode yet (outside the helms) the upgrades are worthless.  In some cases (T2 shaman BP) the lower stuff is actually better.  Top tier stuff should have desirable effects on all of them since red slot adorns don't care if it's T1 or T2.  More rewards for putting countless hours in please, thx.  On a related note, it's awsome that a few classed get both DPS/Defensive sets while others are locked into only one set.  Much love from the fighters, but everyone else hates it.

- Contested lag.  Although that's enough said for anyone who has killed Ox and Klaak, it's obviously not a concern now that we are months and months into SF.  CA lag can be measured in seconds on Klaak at times regardless of your system or connection.  Both encounters are total jokes to beat in hardmode, but ridiculous game conditions should not be the only thing making them a challenge.  Make contested an NPC that ports the raid to an instance or something or fix the mechanic causing the problem. 

- Contested Loot.  The great thing about contested before (avatars) is that the loot was unique.  Every high end raid toon is completely cookie cutter with gear because there is nothing unique on anything.  If there are going to be contested, they shouldn't share a loot table.  It sucks spending an hour in the lagfest just to sell T3 gear that's been on farm-mode for 3 months.

- Master drop rates are not in line with class distribution.  If 1% of players play class A (let us use Bruisers as example), 5% of M1 drops should not be that class.  It results in what we have today which is popular classes having 2-4 M1s on the broker, and less popular classes having 8 pages of them.  Since class balancing isn't going to make certain classes desirable, loot drop rates should take into account the player distribution.  I won't even both harping on leather fabled drop rates in raids... thx.

And lastly, there is nothing epic about SF (of TSO) for that matter.  The Myth's in RoK were the last great quest and even that is now completely trivialized by ER.  I'm glad to read the return of Rallos Zek in the coming expansion and I have high hopes for great events like the Coldain ring/shaw quest lines.

[Alenna]

Rodahn wrote:

I know this subject has been brought up before (and recently), but I want to throw my vote in for a slight tweak (upwards) in Ranger DPS/desirability in end game raid content.

In previous expansions, it seemed we were finally closing the gap with Assassins, but now in SF, we have seen that gap widen once again. 

While I agree that a large, sweeping increase in damage has the potential to be unbalancing, a more modest increase to lessen the (average) gap by <10k would be nice to see.  If Rangers had desirable raid utility, then the damage gap would not be as large an issue, but as it stands, DPS (and not exceptional DPS at that) is all we bring.  The most well-played, well-geared Ranger is the most desirable group set-up will still be out-DPSed by an Assassin meeting the same requirements (and by around 20k at that).  Now, please note:  I am NOT calling for a nerf to Assassins, or any other class.

Please do not fall into the trap of seeing a handful of parses where a Ranger comes out on top (look at overall DPS and compare that to what is needed to take down expansion bosses, as well as take into account the fact that many top raiding guilds do not even have Rangers on their rosters), or taking the opinions of a handful of Rangers who say we are perfectly fine.  Any Ranger fortunate enough to find a spot in an end-game raiding guild is aware that there is a problem. 

Many will accuse Rangers who voice similar concerns as mine as "whining," but the fact is -- our class does need a damage increase to become more competitive in end game scenarios.  A vocal minority they may seem, but there are raiding Rangers who know what they are talking about screaming for changes (or just flat-out betraying), because they are losing their raid spots.  My guild runs two Rangers, and we find ourselves on the bench quite a bit simply because there are more desirable classes needed for success.  It shouldn't have to be that way.

So please, SoE dev team -- take another look at Rangers, and consider even a modest boost in damage output.

Thank you for your time!

Siennah (90 Ranger, Blackburrow server)

forget it Siennah it won't happen because evidence to the contrary from even Raiding guilds. we Rangers are Seen as a "Mighty force" by the balance dev Xelad. http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=481878

[Zorastiz]

I gave up on SF because for me it was TSO part 2, marks instead of shards, I made an alt and have been levelling him slowly, then I made more alts I don't care for either expansion to be honest. It is just the same old tired rehashed unimaginative tripe over and over and over.

Farming rocks to buy armor is not fun its a timesink, I'd rather float in my pool.

[Terron]

BLIGHTBRINGER wrote:

100% agree with stormkiller who is bang on the money for all us soloers.

Wrong. Whilst I fully accept his opinion, it does not apply to all soloers.

Some of use like doing quests for the sake of doing the quest, and don't care about the rewards. For players like me mentoring down to do quests in old zones is fun. Which is a good job since SF has been the worst expansion in terms of quests. There are far too many quests of the form go to speak to X, where X is atanding a few yards away or is otherwise easy to find. Such quests should not appear in the game beyond about level 20. The vast majority of SF solo quests are extrmemely easy to do. The ones in the SF zone are also far too linear. There is too little choice of what to do. That feels bad the first time and is horrible when you try to take an alt through them. SH is somewhat better, but there are too few quests given how easy they are. I do not rush through them, but for the first time I am running out of solo quests whilst an expansion is still current.

Since for me quests are the most important part of the game, these problems mean SF is easily the worst expansion to have been released for EQ2. The only thing that is keeping the game playable are the old zones.

[DiotrumFGK]

Zorastiz@Antonia Bayle wrote:

I gave up on SF because for me it was TSO part 2, marks instead of shards, I made an alt and have been levelling him slowly, then I made more alts I don't care for either expansion to be honest. It is just the same old tired rehashed unimaginative tripe over and over and over.

Farming rocks to buy armor is not fun its a timesink, I'd rather float in my pool.

I agree with this also.  Raid seals are worthless.  The Sublime weapons were a nice late addition, but anything else you might buy can and will be replaced even by Tier 1 stuff.  Much of the regular mark gear out of the Moonfield Hamlet vendor is far superior than the meager choices available for seals.  How is that right?

IMO all Tier 1 armor should be upgradable to tier 2 (although that's a ridiculouisly small upgrade), and more gear should be available.  Hell, there isn't even a mount for seals as there was in TSO.  Most regular raiders have hundreds banked up already unless they have 10 alts. 

Throw us a bone next time and put unique appearance armor/weapons or old LoN type rewards we can blow seals on.  People finished TSO with 500+ shards and SF will be the same.

[Nadev]

Since the free trials are being removed, how about opening up the restrictions on Refer a friend accounts?

Like removing the following.

Can't be invited into a guild.

Can't trade items.

Can't use VoiceChat

Those three limitations alone do not make it very friendly for us to try to recruit new members into the paid service if they can't form those valuable social bonds before they have to pay for their account.

[Amphimedon]

Since SF clearly has broken the Illy class, when can we expect a fix ?

[archikauri]

Rollback is needed !

[Tharis]

Congratulations SOE, you have lost another monthly subscription. Though by now Im sure you dont care, because you have heard this more than any positive feed back that could have possibly been given for this game.

Just for kicks Ill tell you why I'm finally canceling my account. It has been a little admited but widley known fact that scouts will always out pace mages in just about every way. From buffs, to DPS, and survivabilty its all scouts. One thing I find particularly appauling as a mage is if you want to survive like a scout, you need to put AAs into the survivabilty bonues do it. Do scouts need to do this? no. But now if you want to be able to do damage like a scout youll need to spend AAs to do that too, oh wait I forgot you already spent those points trying to stay alive, well now youll have to go to some hybrid spec that doesnt do Either one of these things. Welcome to the mage archtype. on Top of that in raids you need a spesific set of Support classes in your group as mage (or at least a wizard/warlock) to do your optimum damage. I have seen assassins, brigands, swashbucklers put in just about any group that was open and they did the same damage as they would in their Ideal groups. 

You have given scouts every advantage and the second scouts (minus the Ranger) whine about the smallest thing, you immedately fix it to put it back in their advantage.  Take Battle grounds for instance, if you had played in BGs as a mage at the begining of SF You could actually do damage to people. It was amazing to actually be able to hit and deal a significant amount of damage to someone of another class. But then the Whining started I didnt disagree entirely with the complaint a lone Warlock shouldnt be able to kill an entire group of people with one spell. So then what did you do? Mages now cant do any damage, at all, to anyone, ever. "Sorry for a second there we got mages and scouts mixed up and gave the advantage to the wrong archtype. Not to worry though the gross overpowerment of one archtype as been given back to the rightful place".  Or maybe I have it wrong and you just nerfed how magical damage is calculated across the board because its not only scouts but also Healers and Tanks that kill mages in seconds in BGs but dont ever take any damage. We arent talking a mage who walks in with 130 AAs and Gear from Sebilis either we are talking about 250AA and Full battle grounds gear. Still it could take a brigand maybe 4 seconds to kill a Warlock or a Wizard.

I also had recently started a Wizard on Nagafen server, thinking "maybe its just those guys and the gear that they have on that server" I just hit 22 yesterday and as I was trying to put on my new mastercrafted gear (in town) I got attacked by a lvl 15 troubador (if you cant do math thats 7 levels lower then me) she almost killed me in the 10 seconds left before I went immune from PVP. Do you know what the difference in gear we had was? 1... just 1 piece of PVP jewelry. Oh did I mention that I barely put a scratch on her? with all expert spells and some masters. I did acording to my log 57 points of damage, which all got soaked up into her ward from the PVP set. Currently I have 10 AAs into the Ward bonus for Magi's sheilding and at lvl 22 its 125 points of all damage, 75 less then the PVP set gives. Also I have 5 points in Battle mage's Armor putting my phys mit (supposedly) at 61% from a player lvl 22. Yep sony this is surely Balanced.

Oh and Rangers forgive my words I dont mean anything against you, since we all know rangers are pretty much in the same boat as mages for a lot of their raiding/grouping problems, PVP on the other hand rangers are just another scout.

[ViT Bloodscalp]

EVERFROST SERVER SUCKS--I just renewed my EQ2 after 2 years+ and i cant even play it. I log in on dirge (bloodscalp) and am disconnected after a few minutes of fighting--ITS NOT MY ISP/PC/CONFIG--

I have 2 IT techs that live in house w/ me--its ur end. I play all otehr mmo's /onlines games fine. wut is the problem SOE????

[Jamiria]

Not sure this is the appropriate place to post this, but I didn't find any better.

Juste an idea that would greatly improve the new research assistant tab : allow us to queue another research after the one that is currently running. Some times you just can't log in when the research ends (holidays, work trip, earthquake, alien invasion...) and can't avoid losing a lot of research time.

[Nuhus]

you all forgot to make a thread for DoV

[Cocytus]

Can you delete all SF content and pre DOV content now please, because none of it matters anymore. Thanks.

(Is he being ironic????? Who knows!)