Is New Expansion On Beta For Testing Yet?

Raienya · 09-20-2012, 08:03 AM

Title says it all. If it isn't up yet, PLEASE get it there ASAP so we can avoid the usual emergency downtimes to fix things that should have been fixed before the expansion goes live.

There have already been two emergency hotfixes since Tuesday for the Sleeper's Tomb, Part I content.

Raienya · 10-05-2012, 05:03 PM

So CoE will be released in a little over a month, maybe month and a half, and is still not on Beta for testing.

Am I the only person who sees a problem with this? It NEEDS TO BE TESTED so bugs can be found and fixed before release.

Landiin · 10-05-2012, 05:54 PM

They seem to be pretty confident in their new adjustment tool and if it is working like they say then they really don't need a long beta faze. I also can pretty much guarantee they already have select invites testing the expansion as they did this with ST bofor it was put out for so called beta.

feldon30 · 10-05-2012, 05:56 PM

Raienya wrote:

So CoE will be released in a little over a month, maybe month and a half, and is still not on Beta for testing.
Am I the only person who sees a problem with this? It NEEDS TO BE TESTED so bugs can be found and fixed before release.

I am guessing the last Tuesday in November. 8 weeks from now.

Hennyo · 10-05-2012, 06:09 PM

Even tho it hasn't been said, I am sure the new expansion is in a close alpha right now, and that the closed beta for it will most likely start within a week or two after SOE LIVE ends, and that anyone that attends will get first priority for beta testing.

swedago · 10-05-2012, 06:15 PM

I would guess that attendees at SoE Live will get 1st crack at the fan faire this year at the event. It would make sense to me since the dates were changed and it fits nicely.

Either way, I do not expect any information on CoE until during, or after the fan faire.

Closed Beta has always started with friends and family of the SoE Team. After they have had a crack at it, they invite some raiding guilds to help with the new raid zones. Lastly they start inviting random people to continue the beta (Fan Faire attendees 1st) is batches per every few days until the last week (pre-launch). This is how it has always been.

Either way, no matter how long the beta is, exploits and bugs sometimes do not get noticed until down the line on live servers.

Windstalker · 10-05-2012, 09:00 PM

It's coming very soon. And we will do an Alpha first to get big issues out of the way -- if there are any. *cough*

Tigerr · 10-05-2012, 09:11 PM

Trust me , we ALLLLL know there are going to be MAJOR issues, we can act surprised if you like though. Players are terrified that CoE will be EASYYYY skyshrine-like x4 zones that are cleared within the first night of launch. Sleepersx4 + Skyshrine x4 is a joke and players are PRAYING this is nothing like it. Easy x4 mobs that can be run with be 2 groups dropping loot that makes all previous content obsolete = we are stuck playing in EASY content that we will be bored of in 2 weeks. ( just like skyshrine) . Take note devs.. Easy encounters that has gear that makes all previous GU gear obsolete is not fun. Plane of War is probably my FAVORITE zone difficulty wise. None of the players want Sleepers tomb + Skyshrine x4 easy stuff. We just don't want luck factor ( tank getting charmed at 10% on 12 minute fight). Please don't mess this one up like Skyshrine + Sleepers.

Anestacia · 10-05-2012, 11:04 PM

Tigerr wrote:

Trust me , we ALLLLL know there are going to be MAJOR issues, we can act surprised if you like though. Players are terrified that CoE will be EASYYYY skyshrine-like x4 zones that are cleared within the first night of launch. Sleepersx4 + Skyshrine x4 is a joke and players are PRAYING this is nothing like it. Easy x4 mobs that can be run with be 2 groups dropping loot that makes all previous content obsolete = we are stuck playing in EASY content that we will be bored of in 2 weeks. ( just like skyshrine) . Take note devs.. Easy encounters that has gear that makes all previous GU gear obsolete is not fun. Plane of War is probably my FAVORITE zone difficulty wise. None of the players want Sleepers tomb + Skyshrine x4 easy stuff. We just don't want luck factor ( tank getting charmed at 10% on 12 minute fight). Please don't mess this one up like Skyshrine + Sleepers.

None of the players in your guild, perhaps don't find things challenging but you by no means speak for the entire eq2 playerbase. This game does not need to seperate "hardcore" from the "scrubs" any more than they have already with its dwindling population. You have your challenge mode let everyone else have their easy mode.

swedago · 10-06-2012, 04:28 AM

You all have to realize that Sleepers Tomb (Heroic & x4) was released late. It was supposed to come out months ago. Yes it was pretty easy compared to PoW, but it was a nice distraction to kill time with before CoE.

Mohee · 10-06-2012, 11:24 PM

Tigerr wrote:

Trust me , we ALLLLL know there are going to be MAJOR issues, we can act surprised if you like though. Players are terrified that CoE will be EASYYYY skyshrine-like x4 zones that are cleared within the first night of launch. Sleepersx4 + Skyshrine x4 is a joke and players are PRAYING this is nothing like it. Easy x4 mobs that can be run with be 2 groups dropping loot that makes all previous content obsolete = we are stuck playing in EASY content that we will be bored of in 2 weeks. ( just like skyshrine) . Take note devs.. Easy encounters that has gear that makes all previous GU gear obsolete is not fun. Plane of War is probably my FAVORITE zone difficulty wise. None of the players want Sleepers tomb + Skyshrine x4 easy stuff. We just don't want luck factor ( tank getting charmed at 10% on 12 minute fight). Please don't mess this one up like Skyshrine + Sleepers.

I agree with Anestacia in regards to your post.

Besides, if you really look at it, only about 6 guilds throughout the ENTIRE game has cleared PoW, and ALL the names in UDx4 (including challenge mode). Six, gee, six guilds? Sure sounds super easy then if that many guilds are clearing it... Only a handful has killed Vyskudra, and just about the same amount has cleared Sevelak. Just because a couple guilds in the entire game find content easy, doesn't mean its easy for the rest of the players.

There's also a fine line between mobs that are a challenge because of to many luck factors and instant raid wipe fail conditions and mechanics that are just frustrating/annoying... and encounters that are challenging yet FUN! Fun is the keyword. Heck... I'd rather have an EASY encounter that is FUN because of interesting mechanics, interacting with environment, scripting, and strategy behind the mob, than an extremely difficult mob that is only difficult because of fail condition, stacked on fail condition, on top of more fail conditions triggered by detriments/cures that aren't being precisly cured within 0.05 seconds of it landing, forcing your ENTIRE raid to use Raid Hub or ACT for any sort of a chance at hopefully not triggering the fail condition and even with these tools you get wiped randomly all the time by luck factors that you cannot control.

There are probably more guilds that fall apart and people quit, most likely out of sheer frustration of the difficulty/luck mechanic/over-used ridiculous fail conditions, than the number of people who actually complete the content!

SOE needs to rethink their design of raids entirely. They need to go back to the drawing board, erase everything on it and everything they THINK they know about raiding, and focus on creating UNIQUE encounters that are focused on FUN, interesting, player engaging, interactive scripts. Rather than the simple yet ridiculous bombardment of detriments and curses packed full of instant entire raid-wiping fail conditions that they've been using for the past 2-3 years or more. Sorry SOE, but that formula isn't not fun for anyone except for maybe 0.01% of the masochistic personily types that enjoy it.

Oh and by the way, beta for the expansion doesn't truly start until the expansion is released. We have been in beta since Nov. 2004.

Calthine · 10-07-2012, 12:49 AM

swedago wrote:

Closed Beta has always started with friends and family of the SoE Team. After they have had a crack at it, they invite some raiding guilds to help with the new raid zones. Lastly they start inviting random people to continue the beta (Fan Faire attendees 1st) is batches per every few days until the last week (pre-launch). This is how it has always been.

Almost. There are traditionally several rounds of beta invites; and if there are raid guild invites it's never at a specific time in the proceedings.

I bet F&F (Alpha) is Soon(tm) and Beta proper kicks in right after SOE Live.

Tylia · 10-07-2012, 10:03 AM

Mohee wrote:

Tigerr wrote:
Trust me , we ALLLLL know there are going to be MAJOR issues, we can act surprised if you like though. Players are terrified that CoE will be EASYYYY skyshrine-like x4 zones that are cleared within the first night of launch. Sleepersx4 + Skyshrine x4 is a joke and players are PRAYING this is nothing like it. Easy x4 mobs that can be run with be 2 groups dropping loot that makes all previous content obsolete = we are stuck playing in EASY content that we will be bored of in 2 weeks. ( just like skyshrine) . Take note devs.. Easy encounters that has gear that makes all previous GU gear obsolete is not fun. Plane of War is probably my FAVORITE zone difficulty wise. None of the players want Sleepers tomb + Skyshrine x4 easy stuff. We just don't want luck factor ( tank getting charmed at 10% on 12 minute fight). Please don't mess this one up like Skyshrine + Sleepers.
I agree with Anestacia in regards to your post.
Besides, if you really look at it, only about 6 guilds throughout the ENTIRE game has cleared PoW, and ALL the names in UDx4 (including challenge mode). Six, gee, six guilds? Sure sounds super easy then if that many guilds are clearing it... Only a handful has killed Vyskudra, and just about the same amount has cleared Sevelak. Just because a couple guilds in the entire game find content easy, doesn't mean its easy for the rest of the players.
There's also a fine line between mobs that are a challenge because of to many luck factors and instant raid wipe fail conditions and mechanics that are just frustrating/annoying... and encounters that are challenging yet FUN! Fun is the keyword. Heck... I'd rather have an EASY encounter that is FUN because of interesting mechanics, interacting with environment, scripting, and strategy behind the mob, than an extremely difficult mob that is only difficult because of fail condition, stacked on fail condition, on top of more fail conditions triggered by detriments/cures that aren't being precisly cured within 0.05 seconds of it landing, forcing your ENTIRE raid to use Raid Hub or ACT for any sort of a chance at hopefully not triggering the fail condition and even with these tools you get wiped randomly all the time by luck factors that you cannot control.
There are probably more guilds that fall apart and people quit, most likely out of sheer frustration of the difficulty/luck mechanic/over-used ridiculous fail conditions, than the number of people who actually complete the content!
SOE needs to rethink their design of raids entirely. They need to go back to the drawing board, erase everything on it and everything they THINK they know about raiding, and focus on creating UNIQUE encounters that are focused on FUN, interesting, player engaging, interactive scripts. Rather than the simple yet ridiculous bombardment of detriments and curses packed full of instant entire raid-wiping fail conditions that they've been using for the past 2-3 years or more. Sorry SOE, but that formula isn't not fun for anyone except for maybe 0.01% of the masochistic personily types that enjoy it.
Oh and by the way, beta for the expansion doesn't truly start until the expansion is released. We have been in beta since Nov. 2004.

I agree with Mohee completely. So many raid encounters are just not "fun" at all. It's never "fun" to spend weeks banging your head against a wall (so to speak) trying to get an encounter down when there are so many fail conditions and just plain luck factors. Sure, it's a great feeling when the sun, moon, stars, planets, and luck are all on your side and you defeat your road-block, but by then the raid force has lost it's enthusiasm and has lost and had to replace several members along the way due to sheer frustration.

Veeshan's Peak was a "fun" raid zone. I always looked forward to raid night and always had a great time in there. Deathtoll was a "fun" raid zone. KoS raids were "fun". Where has that "fun" factor gone? Why is it supposed to be "fun" that I have to run ACT and Guild Connect, as well as use a seperate casting bar just so I can make sure and pre-cure or we have no power and die? Who thought up this pre-curing nonsense anyway? Cure this curse.. don't cure that curse.. keep your heals/wards/reactants going while curing, pre-curing, being stunned/stifled, being knocked back, jousting, AND putting in your fair share of dps so the raid passes the dps check. Thank god dirges can rez! It's gotten to the point that being a healer is no longer any fun at all. SMILEY

Neiloch · 10-08-2012, 05:23 AM

Current raiding does have some what I call 'stupid hard' mechanics. It usually results in having to rely on luck or putting together a ridiculous raid setups that is either tank, priest or utility heavy. More mechanics need to be generic and not class/archetype specific. I still maintain the entire 'curse' mechanic was a terrible idea as well as its more recent cousin the 'x2 debuff.' I'm glad the x2 debuff is at least being phased out a bit.

On the flip side hard raiding (but not stupid hard) is why I have stayed with EQ2 so long. If it took mere weeks or a couple of months to clear all raid content for most raid guilds I would quit. There are already numerous MMO's with easy raiding I could play like SWTOR or WoW. I was baffled for days when raiding started in RIFT and former WoW players were dissappointed we weren't clearing most of the raid content on the first day. To see that as a gamer it was quite sickening to be honest.

Raiding isn't supposed to be a 'everybody wins' type of gameplay like soloing and to a lesser extent heroic content. So not all, not even most, raiding guilds should beat all raiding content unless they are willing to be in the same effort as the higher end guilds. People willing to put in the effort (and no its not just more time) would progress along the same timeline as current top end guilds. If it was made significantly easier it would just become the lame 'who logged on first' on release day progression. Guilds shouldnt be ranked higher just because they are on the east coast.

Any idea that you are entitled to see and defeat all content regardless of skill level is silly.

Tylia · 10-08-2012, 11:20 AM

Neiloch@Butcherblock wrote:

Current raiding does have some what I call 'stupid hard' mechanics. It usually results in having to rely on luck or putting together a ridiculous raid setups that is either tank, priest or utility heavy. More mechanics need to be generic and not class/archetype specific. I still maintain the entire 'curse' mechanic was a terrible idea as well as its more recent cousin the 'x2 debuff.' I'm glad the x2 debuff is at least being phased out a bit.
On the flip side hard raiding (but not stupid hard) is why I have stayed with EQ2 so long. If it took mere weeks or a couple of months to clear all raid content for most raid guilds I would quit. There are already numerous MMO's with easy raiding I could play like SWTOR or WoW. I was baffled for days when raiding started in RIFT and former WoW players were dissappointed we weren't clearing most of the raid content on the first day. To see that as a gamer it was quite sickening to be honest.
Raiding isn't supposed to be a 'everybody wins' type of gameplay like soloing and to a lesser extent heroic content. So not all, not even most, raiding guilds should beat all raiding content unless they are willing to be in the same effort as the higher end guilds. People willing to put in the effort (and no its not just more time) would progress along the same timeline as current top end guilds. If it was made significantly easier it would just become the lame 'who logged on first' on release day progression. Guilds shouldnt be ranked higher just because they are on the east coast.
Any idea that you are entitled to see and defeat all content regardless of skill level is silly.

I agree with you, and what I was referring to was the "stupid hard" (as you call them) mechanics. Challange is fine, having to rely on luck isn't.

ZUES · 10-10-2012, 04:08 PM

I just hope the beta buffer will be in because I'm not planning on leveling all three levels, getting raid geared and earning plat to buy spell upgrades just to test their content. My time is better spent on my alts on live.

Anastasie · 10-11-2012, 06:59 PM

Beta(testcopy) server option is missing from my server list now =/

ArtemisClyde · 10-12-2012, 01:38 AM

Anastasie wrote:

Beta(testcopy) server option is missing from my server list now =/

thats cuz it has actual coe beta files on it now. they gotta get it all set up and decide who they want to let in, i believe. even if you had that server option, it wouldnt let you in. your account has to be approved and flagged. (as far as i can gather and based on past betas)

Davngr1 · 10-12-2012, 04:09 AM

Tigerr wrote:

Trust me , we ALLLLL know there are going to be MAJOR issues, we can act surprised if you like though. Players are terrified that CoE will be EASYYYY skyshrine-like x4 zones that are cleared within the first night of launch. Sleepersx4 + Skyshrine x4 is a joke and players are PRAYING this is nothing like it. Easy x4 mobs that can be run with be 2 groups dropping loot that makes all previous content obsolete = we are stuck playing in EASY content that we will be bored of in 2 weeks. ( just like skyshrine) . Take note devs.. Easy encounters that has gear that makes all previous GU gear obsolete is not fun. Plane of War is probably my FAVORITE zone difficulty wise. None of the players want Sleepers tomb + Skyshrine x4 easy stuff. We just don't want luck factor ( tank getting charmed at 10% on 12 minute fight). Please don't mess this one up like Skyshrine + Sleepers.

i don't know what sky shrine you played but the one i played was awesome. it was fun, full of quest and offered great rewards and challenge if you felt like doing the harder mobs.

of course people decked out in raid gear aren't going to get much of a challenge, that's the way it's supposed to be. this game should not be tuned for fully raid geard players it should be tuned for the entire spectrum.

again sky shrine was great, would like to see a few fun encounters that require "different" type of skill. every encounter will of course have the heal/tank/dps thing but adding in something like palace(4T) or anything liek that would be cool.

would love to see a raid mob with a VS type mechanic so you have to limit your power consumption for high end raiding.

Raienya · 10-12-2012, 07:39 AM

Caveat here, I am not suggesting EQII turn into World of Warcraft.

I did play WoW for a few years before I began playing EQII. There were some great boss fights in that game, with different mechanics. For example, one raid instance whose name escapes me, was in a castle. It had 7 or 8 different bosses, and each one required a different strategy. There was a horseman who would split from his horse at certain points, and you had to have an offtank snag the horse and tank it. Some mobs had to be killed almost simultaneously. One boss required a mage to tank it due to mages having a special set of armor that gave them an insane resist in a particular magic school.

Another boss event was the Opera House, which had three stories acted out on stage as the fights, different each time you went in, each requiring different strategies. THAT was fun stuff.

That is the type of thing people want here, different scenarios, not the same old "x mob requires x amount of potency, crit chance, hp, or whatever is used now. Make encounters FUN and still challenging. It shouldn't be that hard to do so.

Neiloch · 10-12-2012, 03:14 PM

Raienya wrote:

Caveat here, I am not suggesting EQII turn into World of Warcraft.
I did play WoW for a few years before I began playing EQII. There were some great boss fights in that game, with different mechanics. For example, one raid instance whose name escapes me, was in a castle. It had 7 or 8 different bosses, and each one required a different strategy. There was a horseman who would split from his horse at certain points, and you had to have an offtank snag the horse and tank it. Some mobs had to be killed almost simultaneously. One boss required a mage to tank it due to mages having a special set of armor that gave them an insane resist in a particular magic school.
Another boss event was the Opera House, which had three stories acted out on stage as the fights, different each time you went in, each requiring different strategies. THAT was fun stuff.
That is the type of thing people want here, different scenarios, not the same old "x mob requires x amount of potency, crit chance, hp, or whatever is used now. Make encounters FUN and still challenging. It shouldn't be that hard to do so.

They have plenty of these type of fights in EQ2, at least I see them a lot when raiding. Only overt stat requirement needed for raiding right now is crit chance. Otherwise you just need to have decent equipment and go through a progression, can't just skip to the top raid mobs with entry level gear.

Raienya · 10-12-2012, 05:38 PM

Neiloch@Butcherblock wrote:

Raienya wrote:
Caveat here, I am not suggesting EQII turn into World of Warcraft.
I did play WoW for a few years before I began playing EQII. There were some great boss fights in that game, with different mechanics. For example, one raid instance whose name escapes me, was in a castle. It had 7 or 8 different bosses, and each one required a different strategy. There was a horseman who would split from his horse at certain points, and you had to have an offtank snag the horse and tank it. Some mobs had to be killed almost simultaneously. One boss required a mage to tank it due to mages having a special set of armor that gave them an insane resist in a particular magic school.
Another boss event was the Opera House, which had three stories acted out on stage as the fights, different each time you went in, each requiring different strategies. THAT was fun stuff.
That is the type of thing people want here, different scenarios, not the same old "x mob requires x amount of potency, crit chance, hp, or whatever is used now. Make encounters FUN and still challenging. It shouldn't be that hard to do so.
They have plenty of these type of fights in EQ2, at least I see them a lot when raiding. Only overt stat requirement needed for raiding right now is crit chance. Otherwise you just need to have decent equipment and go through a progression, can't just skip to the top raid mobs with entry level gear.

Well, I don't raid here. I raided in Everquest and WoW, and don't like the stress. But the posts I do see are ones that seem to complain that either the fights are just insanely stupid-hard, or boring beyond belief. Maybe because raiders have done them too many times?

Landiin · 10-14-2012, 03:54 AM

ZUES wrote:

I just hope the beta buffer will be in because I'm not planning on leveling all three levels, getting raid geared and earning plat to buy spell upgrades just to test their content. My time is better spent on my alts on live.

Probably why you will not be invited. You are not invited to play like it is live, you are invited to test. That includes all content and leveling to to max is part of testing.

Daalilama · 10-14-2012, 05:04 PM

Gotta agree with a large chunk of the feedback here....being a healer in a raid guild nowadays is starting to lose its appeal (The Ordered Chaos approach of barrage of dets and curses some good some bad coupled with the need for act and guild connect/raid hub to figure out what needs curing and what doesnt within miliseconds is getting bit out of hand) tough and challenging scripts we like....scripts that look like they used a magic 8-ball to decide what to include we do not....

Also would hope since its been mentioned that we will be getting more prestige/aa I hope they take a page out of the skyshrine playbook and put in dedicated feedback threads on the forums for all to review and provide real and concise feedback.

WanyenII · 10-15-2012, 02:42 AM

Davngr1 wrote:

Tigerr wrote:
Trust me , we ALLLLL know there are going to be MAJOR issues, we can act surprised if you like though. Players are terrified that CoE will be EASYYYY skyshrine-like x4 zones that are cleared within the first night of launch. Sleepersx4 + Skyshrine x4 is a joke and players are PRAYING this is nothing like it. Easy x4 mobs that can be run with be 2 groups dropping loot that makes all previous content obsolete = we are stuck playing in EASY content that we will be bored of in 2 weeks. ( just like skyshrine) . Take note devs.. Easy encounters that has gear that makes all previous GU gear obsolete is not fun. Plane of War is probably my FAVORITE zone difficulty wise. None of the players want Sleepers tomb + Skyshrine x4 easy stuff. We just don't want luck factor ( tank getting charmed at 10% on 12 minute fight). Please don't mess this one up like Skyshrine + Sleepers.
i don't know what sky shrine you played but the one i played was awesome. it was fun, full of quest and offered great rewards and challenge if you felt like doing the harder mobs.
of course people decked out in raid gear aren't going to get much of a challenge, that's the way it's supposed to be. this game should not be tuned for fully raid geard players it should be tuned for the entire spectrum.
again sky shrine was great, would like to see a few fun encounters that require "different" type of skill. every encounter will of course have the heal/tank/dps thing but adding in something like palace(4T) or anything liek that would be cool.
would love to see a raid mob with a VS type mechanic so you have to limit your power consumption for high end raiding.

Agree mostly.

I think the game would have greater overall health if the difference between raid gear stats and group gear stats shrunk substantially. Raiders might once again find some value in heroric zones, beyond gear for alts and rare SLR's; and on the same token, would give more fluidty to the playerbase to move into (and out of) raid guilds without the current huge gearing up period in order to be effective. Certainly they need to pay more attention and be a bit more creative about adequately designing raid loot to be risk/reward acceptable besides across the board stat increases, but it can be done...

Besides helping the playerbase, much like the minimum required AA level helped establish consistency and a baseline of expected ability in power levels among 91's and 92s, shrinking the range of stats within current content between heroic and raid gear would improve the ability of designers to craft content that was challenging and rewarding for a much greater cross section of players.

Do I expect this to happen quickly or in time for the next expac? No.. but hopefully its on someone's list... and .. well "soon" (tm)...

Faildozer · 10-16-2012, 06:03 PM

New stuff HAS to be challenging.. ST and avatars were supposed to hold us over until new xpac but we killed HM grp instance 1st pulling everything with a roughshod grp makeup, then later that night we kill challenge mode final named within first 30 mins of working on it. Avatars? I like them, but only 3 of them and its not enough to keep us busy.

I WANT content to be challenging and yeah, some guilds wont kill it, but you are going to lose the top of your raiding playerbase if you release more sleepers tomb and skyshrine stuff. Now what I want to see happen is less ridiculous checks like power drains or luck based fights where the OT gets charmed, MT gets dt'd and mem wiped mob runs to raid, wipe. I would like to see more stuff like wing 2-3 and hm Underfoot Depths and Roehn Theer.. That stuff was fun and challenging but the thing that made a lot of POW fights hard wasnt the strategy or the moving parts of the encounter it was just the stupid dps checks or tanking checks or healing checks or power checks. This is challenging but it isnt fun and cant be met by most guilds that are trying to raid. That is why you dont even have 10 guilds killing Teku in POW.

TLDR; dont make stuff easy, but make it challenging thru more involved scripts or maybe give options on how to kill it to benefit people with diff raid strengths and weaknesses.

CoLD MeTaL · 10-16-2012, 06:44 PM

Tigerr wrote:

Trust me , we ALLLLL know there are going to be MAJOR issues, we can act surprised if you like though. Players are terrified that CoE will be EASYYYY skyshrine-like x4 zones that are cleared within the first night of launch. Sleepersx4 + Skyshrine x4 is a joke and players are PRAYING this is nothing like it. Easy x4 mobs that can be run with be 2 groups dropping loot that makes all previous content obsolete = we are stuck playing in EASY content that we will be bored of in 2 weeks. ( just like skyshrine) . Take note devs.. Easy encounters that has gear that makes all previous GU gear obsolete is not fun. Plane of War is probably my FAVORITE zone difficulty wise. None of the players want Sleepers tomb + Skyshrine x4 easy stuff. We just don't want luck factor ( tank getting charmed at 10% on 12 minute fight). Please don't mess this one up like Skyshrine + Sleepers.

According to guildprogress.com only 7 guilds have completed PoW, and those in the last couple of months. You are full of it. The majority of the population is on the other side of the fence from you.

MagicalMayham · 10-16-2012, 06:47 PM

Faildozer@Permafrost wrote:

New stuff HAS to be challenging.. ST and avatars were supposed to hold us over until new xpac but we killed HM grp instance 1st pulling everything with a roughshod grp makeup, then later that night we kill challenge mode final named within first 30 mins of working on it. Avatars? I like them, but only 3 of them and its not enough to keep us busy.
I WANT content to be challenging and yeah, some guilds wont kill it, but you are going to lose the top of your raiding playerbase if you release more sleepers tomb and skyshrine stuff. Now what I want to see happen is less ridiculous checks like power drains or luck based fights where the OT gets charmed, MT gets dt'd and mem wiped mob runs to raid, wipe. I would like to see more stuff like wing 2-3 and hm Underfoot Depths and Roehn Theer.. That stuff was fun and challenging but the thing that made a lot of POW fights hard wasnt the strategy or the moving parts of the encounter it was just the stupid dps checks or tanking checks or healing checks or power checks. This is challenging but it isnt fun and cant be met by most guilds that are trying to raid. That is why you dont even have 10 guilds killing Teku in POW.
TLDR; dont make stuff easy, but make it challenging thru more involved scripts or maybe give options on how to kill it to benefit people with diff raid strengths and weaknesses.

I agree with you completely faildozer. I raided "hard core" for several years but with the new content its just not worth it anymore. All of it is similar, red text, adds with a dps check 2-3 detriments and a curse, if its a "challenge mob" there will be a dt on the tank. This discribes prtty much 99% of the encounters out there. I miss things like rohen theer, vp, underdpepths, the avatars (not talking about the new pqtars). The fights were fun and they were fun because they were unique every fight wasn't a get out red text, dt on your tank, oh and some adds you had to dps, they were all individual and unique. Take Rohen Theer for example (best fighter ever!) The fight was relatively simple and depending on your guild you could do it on a low level 1 rune or go up to the high level of 4 runes. No matter what your guild you could still do the mob and it was still a fun encounter. When implimenting new encounters it would be nice if they weren't all the same and they took work figuring out. It would be nice having to do multiple pulls and still trying to figure out componets of a fight instead of pull a mob once, maybe twice and going ok we've got this figured out and killed.

airwolf699 · 10-17-2012, 07:13 PM

gosh from the sounds of it the will not be a beta testing stage befor it gos live and if there is i would like a invite for the test sorry on the spelling and ponuchtions and it looks like ther haveing the test no0w i tryed to go on beta a few days a go and well there is not beta server up any more well any way I hope i get a invite if not o well

Solzak · 10-18-2012, 07:05 AM

Faildozer@Permafrost wrote:

TLDR; dont make stuff easy, but make it challenging thru more involved scripts or maybe give options on how to kill it to benefit people with diff raid strengths and weaknesses.

You mean, actually think through what Real People (tm) would do when playing the game?? Have an Epiphany that even the strongest guilds may not have the perfect raid makeup needed to win a particular fight???

Naaahh... you couldn't mean that. Besides, how would the dev's earn their keep if they didn't have to constantly rework raid encounters between expansions?

10-05-2012, 05:54 PM	#3
Landiin Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 1,749	They seem to be pretty confident in their new adjustment tool and if it is working like they say then they really don't need a long beta faze. I also can pretty much guarantee they already have select invites testing the expansion as they did this with ST bofor it was put out for so called beta. __________________

10-05-2012, 05:56 PM	#4
feldon30 Fansite Staff Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 5,424	Raienya wrote: So CoE will be released in a little over a month, maybe month and a half, and is still not on Beta for testing. Am I the only person who sees a problem with this? It NEEDS TO BE TESTED so bugs can be found and fixed before release. I am guessing the last Tuesday in November. 8 weeks from now. __________________ .. EQ2Wire.com \| EQ2U - Character, Item, Spell, and Guild Data

10-05-2012, 06:15 PM	#6
swedago Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 377	I would guess that attendees at SoE Live will get 1st crack at the fan faire this year at the event. It would make sense to me since the dates were changed and it fits nicely. Either way, I do not expect any information on CoE until during, or after the fan faire. Closed Beta has always started with friends and family of the SoE Team. After they have had a crack at it, they invite some raiding guilds to help with the new raid zones. Lastly they start inviting random people to continue the beta (Fan Faire attendees 1st) is batches per every few days until the last week (pre-launch). This is how it has always been. Either way, no matter how long the beta is, exploits and bugs sometimes do not get noticed until down the line on live servers. __________________

10-05-2012, 09:00 PM	#7
Windstalker Senior Staff Join Date: Feb 2012 Posts: 68	It's coming very soon. And we will do an Alpha first to get big issues out of the way -- if there are any. cough __________________ Holly "Windstalker" Longdale Producer EverQuest II

10-05-2012, 11:04 PM	#9
Anestacia Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 1,171	Tigerr wrote: Trust me , we ALLLLL know there are going to be MAJOR issues, we can act surprised if you like though. Players are terrified that CoE will be EASYYYY skyshrine-like x4 zones that are cleared within the first night of launch. Sleepersx4 + Skyshrine x4 is a joke and players are PRAYING this is nothing like it. Easy x4 mobs that can be run with be 2 groups dropping loot that makes all previous content obsolete = we are stuck playing in EASY content that we will be bored of in 2 weeks. ( just like skyshrine) . Take note devs.. Easy encounters that has gear that makes all previous GU gear obsolete is not fun. Plane of War is probably my FAVORITE zone difficulty wise. None of the players want Sleepers tomb + Skyshrine x4 easy stuff. We just don't want luck factor ( tank getting charmed at 10% on 12 minute fight). Please don't mess this one up like Skyshrine + Sleepers. None of the players in your guild, perhaps don't find things challenging but you by no means speak for the entire eq2 playerbase. This game does not need to seperate "hardcore" from the "scrubs" any more than they have already with its dwindling population. You have your challenge mode let everyone else have their easy mode. __________________

09-20-2012, 08:03 AM	#1
Raienya Loremaster Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 202	Title says it all. If it isn't up yet, PLEASE get it there ASAP so we can avoid the usual emergency downtimes to fix things that should have been fixed before the expansion goes live. There have already been two emergency hotfixes since Tuesday for the Sleeper's Tomb, Part I content.

10-05-2012, 05:03 PM	#2
Raienya Loremaster Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 202	So CoE will be released in a little over a month, maybe month and a half, and is still not on Beta for testing. Am I the only person who sees a problem with this? It NEEDS TO BE TESTED so bugs can be found and fixed before release.

10-05-2012, 06:09 PM	#5
Hennyo Loremaster Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 371	Even tho it hasn't been said, I am sure the new expansion is in a close alpha right now, and that the closed beta for it will most likely start within a week or two after SOE LIVE ends, and that anyone that attends will get first priority for beta testing.

10-05-2012, 09:11 PM	#8
Tigerr Lord Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 125	Trust me , we ALLLLL know there are going to be MAJOR issues, we can act surprised if you like though. Players are terrified that CoE will be EASYYYY skyshrine-like x4 zones that are cleared within the first night of launch. Sleepersx4 + Skyshrine x4 is a joke and players are PRAYING this is nothing like it. Easy x4 mobs that can be run with be 2 groups dropping loot that makes all previous content obsolete = we are stuck playing in EASY content that we will be bored of in 2 weeks. ( just like skyshrine) . Take note devs.. Easy encounters that has gear that makes all previous GU gear obsolete is not fun. Plane of War is probably my FAVORITE zone difficulty wise. None of the players want Sleepers tomb + Skyshrine x4 easy stuff. We just don't want luck factor ( tank getting charmed at 10% on 12 minute fight). Please don't mess this one up like Skyshrine + Sleepers.

10-06-2012, 04:28 AM	#10
swedago Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 377	You all have to realize that Sleepers Tomb (Heroic & x4) was released late. It was supposed to come out months ago. Yes it was pretty easy compared to PoW, but it was a nice distraction to kill time with before CoE. __________________

10-06-2012, 11:24 PM	#11
Mohee Lord Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 502	Tigerr wrote: Trust me , we ALLLLL know there are going to be MAJOR issues, we can act surprised if you like though. Players are terrified that CoE will be EASYYYY skyshrine-like x4 zones that are cleared within the first night of launch. Sleepersx4 + Skyshrine x4 is a joke and players are PRAYING this is nothing like it. Easy x4 mobs that can be run with be 2 groups dropping loot that makes all previous content obsolete = we are stuck playing in EASY content that we will be bored of in 2 weeks. ( just like skyshrine) . Take note devs.. Easy encounters that has gear that makes all previous GU gear obsolete is not fun. Plane of War is probably my FAVORITE zone difficulty wise. None of the players want Sleepers tomb + Skyshrine x4 easy stuff. We just don't want luck factor ( tank getting charmed at 10% on 12 minute fight). Please don't mess this one up like Skyshrine + Sleepers. I agree with Anestacia in regards to your post. Besides, if you really look at it, only about 6 guilds throughout the ENTIRE game has cleared PoW, and ALL the names in UDx4 (including challenge mode). Six, gee, six guilds? Sure sounds super easy then if that many guilds are clearing it... Only a handful has killed Vyskudra, and just about the same amount has cleared Sevelak. Just because a couple guilds in the entire game find content easy, doesn't mean its easy for the rest of the players. There's also a fine line between mobs that are a challenge because of to many luck factors and instant raid wipe fail conditions and mechanics that are just frustrating/annoying... and encounters that are challenging yet FUN! Fun is the keyword. Heck... I'd rather have an EASY encounter that is FUN because of interesting mechanics, interacting with environment, scripting, and strategy behind the mob, than an extremely difficult mob that is only difficult because of fail condition, stacked on fail condition, on top of more fail conditions triggered by detriments/cures that aren't being precisly cured within 0.05 seconds of it landing, forcing your ENTIRE raid to use Raid Hub or ACT for any sort of a chance at hopefully not triggering the fail condition and even with these tools you get wiped randomly all the time by luck factors that you cannot control. There are probably more guilds that fall apart and people quit, most likely out of sheer frustration of the difficulty/luck mechanic/over-used ridiculous fail conditions, than the number of people who actually complete the content! SOE needs to rethink their design of raids entirely. They need to go back to the drawing board, erase everything on it and everything they THINK they know about raiding, and focus on creating UNIQUE encounters that are focused on FUN, interesting, player engaging, interactive scripts. Rather than the simple yet ridiculous bombardment of detriments and curses packed full of instant entire raid-wiping fail conditions that they've been using for the past 2-3 years or more. Sorry SOE, but that formula isn't not fun for anyone except for maybe 0.01% of the masochistic personily types that enjoy it. Oh and by the way, beta for the expansion doesn't truly start until the expansion is released. We have been in beta since Nov. 2004. __________________ EQ'ing since 1999

10-07-2012, 12:49 AM	#12
Calthine ZAM EQII Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 7,439	swedago wrote: Closed Beta has always started with friends and family of the SoE Team. After they have had a crack at it, they invite some raiding guilds to help with the new raid zones. Lastly they start inviting random people to continue the beta (Fan Faire attendees 1st) is batches per every few days until the last week (pre-launch). This is how it has always been. Almost. There are traditionally several rounds of beta invites; and if there are raid guild invites it's never at a specific time in the proceedings. I bet F&F (Alpha) is Soon(tm) and Beta proper kicks in right after SOE Live. __________________ Please visit my non-gaming Blog! or follow me on Twitter!

10-07-2012, 10:03 AM	#13
Tylia Server: Butcherblock Guild: Test of Time Rank: Member Loremaster Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 757	Mohee wrote: Tigerr wrote: Trust me , we ALLLLL know there are going to be MAJOR issues, we can act surprised if you like though. Players are terrified that CoE will be EASYYYY skyshrine-like x4 zones that are cleared within the first night of launch. Sleepersx4 + Skyshrine x4 is a joke and players are PRAYING this is nothing like it. Easy x4 mobs that can be run with be 2 groups dropping loot that makes all previous content obsolete = we are stuck playing in EASY content that we will be bored of in 2 weeks. ( just like skyshrine) . Take note devs.. Easy encounters that has gear that makes all previous GU gear obsolete is not fun. Plane of War is probably my FAVORITE zone difficulty wise. None of the players want Sleepers tomb + Skyshrine x4 easy stuff. We just don't want luck factor ( tank getting charmed at 10% on 12 minute fight). Please don't mess this one up like Skyshrine + Sleepers. I agree with Anestacia in regards to your post. Besides, if you really look at it, only about 6 guilds throughout the ENTIRE game has cleared PoW, and ALL the names in UDx4 (including challenge mode). Six, gee, six guilds? Sure sounds super easy then if that many guilds are clearing it... Only a handful has killed Vyskudra, and just about the same amount has cleared Sevelak. Just because a couple guilds in the entire game find content easy, doesn't mean its easy for the rest of the players. There's also a fine line between mobs that are a challenge because of to many luck factors and instant raid wipe fail conditions and mechanics that are just frustrating/annoying... and encounters that are challenging yet FUN! Fun is the keyword. Heck... I'd rather have an EASY encounter that is FUN because of interesting mechanics, interacting with environment, scripting, and strategy behind the mob, than an extremely difficult mob that is only difficult because of fail condition, stacked on fail condition, on top of more fail conditions triggered by detriments/cures that aren't being precisly cured within 0.05 seconds of it landing, forcing your ENTIRE raid to use Raid Hub or ACT for any sort of a chance at hopefully not triggering the fail condition and even with these tools you get wiped randomly all the time by luck factors that you cannot control. There are probably more guilds that fall apart and people quit, most likely out of sheer frustration of the difficulty/luck mechanic/over-used ridiculous fail conditions, than the number of people who actually complete the content! SOE needs to rethink their design of raids entirely. They need to go back to the drawing board, erase everything on it and everything they THINK they know about raiding, and focus on creating UNIQUE encounters that are focused on FUN, interesting, player engaging, interactive scripts. Rather than the simple yet ridiculous bombardment of detriments and curses packed full of instant entire raid-wiping fail conditions that they've been using for the past 2-3 years or more. Sorry SOE, but that formula isn't not fun for anyone except for maybe 0.01% of the masochistic personily types that enjoy it. Oh and by the way, beta for the expansion doesn't truly start until the expansion is released. We have been in beta since Nov. 2004. I agree with Mohee completely. So many raid encounters are just not "fun" at all. It's never "fun" to spend weeks banging your head against a wall (so to speak) trying to get an encounter down when there are so many fail conditions and just plain luck factors. Sure, it's a great feeling when the sun, moon, stars, planets, and luck are all on your side and you defeat your road-block, but by then the raid force has lost it's enthusiasm and has lost and had to replace several members along the way due to sheer frustration. Veeshan's Peak was a "fun" raid zone. I always looked forward to raid night and always had a great time in there. Deathtoll was a "fun" raid zone. KoS raids were "fun". Where has that "fun" factor gone? Why is it supposed to be "fun" that I have to run ACT and Guild Connect, as well as use a seperate casting bar just so I can make sure and pre-cure or we have no power and die? Who thought up this pre-curing nonsense anyway? Cure this curse.. don't cure that curse.. keep your heals/wards/reactants going while curing, pre-curing, being stunned/stifled, being knocked back, jousting, AND putting in your fair share of dps so the raid passes the dps check. Thank god dirges can rez! It's gotten to the point that being a healer is no longer any fun at all.

10-08-2012, 05:23 AM	#14
Neiloch Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Southern California Posts: 1,430	Current raiding does have some what I call 'stupid hard' mechanics. It usually results in having to rely on luck or putting together a ridiculous raid setups that is either tank, priest or utility heavy. More mechanics need to be generic and not class/archetype specific. I still maintain the entire 'curse' mechanic was a terrible idea as well as its more recent cousin the 'x2 debuff.' I'm glad the x2 debuff is at least being phased out a bit. On the flip side hard raiding (but not stupid hard) is why I have stayed with EQ2 so long. If it took mere weeks or a couple of months to clear all raid content for most raid guilds I would quit. There are already numerous MMO's with easy raiding I could play like SWTOR or WoW. I was baffled for days when raiding started in RIFT and former WoW players were dissappointed we weren't clearing most of the raid content on the first day. To see that as a gamer it was quite sickening to be honest. Raiding isn't supposed to be a 'everybody wins' type of gameplay like soloing and to a lesser extent heroic content. So not all, not even most, raiding guilds should beat all raiding content unless they are willing to be in the same effort as the higher end guilds. People willing to put in the effort (and no its not just more time) would progress along the same timeline as current top end guilds. If it was made significantly easier it would just become the lame 'who logged on first' on release day progression. Guilds shouldnt be ranked higher just because they are on the east coast. Any idea that you are entitled to see and defeat all content regardless of skill level is silly. __________________

10-08-2012, 11:20 AM	#15
Tylia Server: Butcherblock Guild: Test of Time Rank: Member Loremaster Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 757	Neiloch@Butcherblock wrote: Current raiding does have some what I call 'stupid hard' mechanics. It usually results in having to rely on luck or putting together a ridiculous raid setups that is either tank, priest or utility heavy. More mechanics need to be generic and not class/archetype specific. I still maintain the entire 'curse' mechanic was a terrible idea as well as its more recent cousin the 'x2 debuff.' I'm glad the x2 debuff is at least being phased out a bit. On the flip side hard raiding (but not stupid hard) is why I have stayed with EQ2 so long. If it took mere weeks or a couple of months to clear all raid content for most raid guilds I would quit. There are already numerous MMO's with easy raiding I could play like SWTOR or WoW. I was baffled for days when raiding started in RIFT and former WoW players were dissappointed we weren't clearing most of the raid content on the first day. To see that as a gamer it was quite sickening to be honest. Raiding isn't supposed to be a 'everybody wins' type of gameplay like soloing and to a lesser extent heroic content. So not all, not even most, raiding guilds should beat all raiding content unless they are willing to be in the same effort as the higher end guilds. People willing to put in the effort (and no its not just more time) would progress along the same timeline as current top end guilds. If it was made significantly easier it would just become the lame 'who logged on first' on release day progression. Guilds shouldnt be ranked higher just because they are on the east coast. Any idea that you are entitled to see and defeat all content regardless of skill level is silly. I agree with you, and what I was referring to was the "stupid hard" (as you call them) mechanics. Challange is fine, having to rely on luck isn't.

10-10-2012, 04:08 PM	#16
ZUES Loremaster Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 814	I just hope the beta buffer will be in because I'm not planning on leveling all three levels, getting raid geared and earning plat to buy spell upgrades just to test their content. My time is better spent on my alts on live.

10-11-2012, 06:59 PM	#17
Anastasie Loremaster Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 850	Beta(testcopy) server option is missing from my server list now =/

10-12-2012, 01:38 AM	#18
ArtemisClyde Loremaster Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 96	Anastasie wrote: Beta(testcopy) server option is missing from my server list now =/ thats cuz it has actual coe beta files on it now. they gotta get it all set up and decide who they want to let in, i believe. even if you had that server option, it wouldnt let you in. your account has to be approved and flagged. (as far as i can gather and based on past betas)

10-12-2012, 04:09 AM	#19
Davngr1 Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 2,179	Tigerr wrote: Trust me , we ALLLLL know there are going to be MAJOR issues, we can act surprised if you like though. Players are terrified that CoE will be EASYYYY skyshrine-like x4 zones that are cleared within the first night of launch. Sleepersx4 + Skyshrine x4 is a joke and players are PRAYING this is nothing like it. Easy x4 mobs that can be run with be 2 groups dropping loot that makes all previous content obsolete = we are stuck playing in EASY content that we will be bored of in 2 weeks. ( just like skyshrine) . Take note devs.. Easy encounters that has gear that makes all previous GU gear obsolete is not fun. Plane of War is probably my FAVORITE zone difficulty wise. None of the players want Sleepers tomb + Skyshrine x4 easy stuff. We just don't want luck factor ( tank getting charmed at 10% on 12 minute fight). Please don't mess this one up like Skyshrine + Sleepers. i don't know what sky shrine you played but the one i played was awesome. it was fun, full of quest and offered great rewards and challenge if you felt like doing the harder mobs. of course people decked out in raid gear aren't going to get much of a challenge, that's the way it's supposed to be. this game should not be tuned for fully raid geard players it should be tuned for the entire spectrum. again sky shrine was great, would like to see a few fun encounters that require "different" type of skill. every encounter will of course have the heal/tank/dps thing but adding in something like palace(4T) or anything liek that would be cool. would love to see a raid mob with a VS type mechanic so you have to limit your power consumption for high end raiding. __________________

10-12-2012, 07:39 AM	#20
Raienya Loremaster Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 202	Caveat here, I am not suggesting EQII turn into World of Warcraft. I did play WoW for a few years before I began playing EQII. There were some great boss fights in that game, with different mechanics. For example, one raid instance whose name escapes me, was in a castle. It had 7 or 8 different bosses, and each one required a different strategy. There was a horseman who would split from his horse at certain points, and you had to have an offtank snag the horse and tank it. Some mobs had to be killed almost simultaneously. One boss required a mage to tank it due to mages having a special set of armor that gave them an insane resist in a particular magic school. Another boss event was the Opera House, which had three stories acted out on stage as the fights, different each time you went in, each requiring different strategies. THAT was fun stuff. That is the type of thing people want here, different scenarios, not the same old "x mob requires x amount of potency, crit chance, hp, or whatever is used now. Make encounters FUN and still challenging. It shouldn't be that hard to do so.

10-12-2012, 03:14 PM	#21
Neiloch Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Southern California Posts: 1,430	Raienya wrote: Caveat here, I am not suggesting EQII turn into World of Warcraft. I did play WoW for a few years before I began playing EQII. There were some great boss fights in that game, with different mechanics. For example, one raid instance whose name escapes me, was in a castle. It had 7 or 8 different bosses, and each one required a different strategy. There was a horseman who would split from his horse at certain points, and you had to have an offtank snag the horse and tank it. Some mobs had to be killed almost simultaneously. One boss required a mage to tank it due to mages having a special set of armor that gave them an insane resist in a particular magic school. Another boss event was the Opera House, which had three stories acted out on stage as the fights, different each time you went in, each requiring different strategies. THAT was fun stuff. That is the type of thing people want here, different scenarios, not the same old "x mob requires x amount of potency, crit chance, hp, or whatever is used now. Make encounters FUN and still challenging. It shouldn't be that hard to do so. They have plenty of these type of fights in EQ2, at least I see them a lot when raiding. Only overt stat requirement needed for raiding right now is crit chance. Otherwise you just need to have decent equipment and go through a progression, can't just skip to the top raid mobs with entry level gear. __________________

10-12-2012, 05:38 PM	#22
Raienya Loremaster Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 202	Neiloch@Butcherblock wrote: Raienya wrote: Caveat here, I am not suggesting EQII turn into World of Warcraft. I did play WoW for a few years before I began playing EQII. There were some great boss fights in that game, with different mechanics. For example, one raid instance whose name escapes me, was in a castle. It had 7 or 8 different bosses, and each one required a different strategy. There was a horseman who would split from his horse at certain points, and you had to have an offtank snag the horse and tank it. Some mobs had to be killed almost simultaneously. One boss required a mage to tank it due to mages having a special set of armor that gave them an insane resist in a particular magic school. Another boss event was the Opera House, which had three stories acted out on stage as the fights, different each time you went in, each requiring different strategies. THAT was fun stuff. That is the type of thing people want here, different scenarios, not the same old "x mob requires x amount of potency, crit chance, hp, or whatever is used now. Make encounters FUN and still challenging. It shouldn't be that hard to do so. They have plenty of these type of fights in EQ2, at least I see them a lot when raiding. Only overt stat requirement needed for raiding right now is crit chance. Otherwise you just need to have decent equipment and go through a progression, can't just skip to the top raid mobs with entry level gear. Well, I don't raid here. I raided in Everquest and WoW, and don't like the stress. But the posts I do see are ones that seem to complain that either the fights are just insanely stupid-hard, or boring beyond belief. Maybe because raiders have done them too many times?

10-14-2012, 03:54 AM	#23
Landiin Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 1,749	ZUES wrote: I just hope the beta buffer will be in because I'm not planning on leveling all three levels, getting raid geared and earning plat to buy spell upgrades just to test their content. My time is better spent on my alts on live. Probably why you will not be invited. You are not invited to play like it is live, you are invited to test. That includes all content and leveling to to max is part of testing. __________________

10-14-2012, 05:04 PM	#24
Daalilama Server: Nagafen Guild: Illuminati Rank: Senior Officer Loremaster Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 437	Gotta agree with a large chunk of the feedback here....being a healer in a raid guild nowadays is starting to lose its appeal (The Ordered Chaos approach of barrage of dets and curses some good some bad coupled with the need for act and guild connect/raid hub to figure out what needs curing and what doesnt within miliseconds is getting bit out of hand) tough and challenging scripts we like....scripts that look like they used a magic 8-ball to decide what to include we do not.... Also would hope since its been mentioned that we will be getting more prestige/aa I hope they take a page out of the skyshrine playbook and put in dedicated feedback threads on the forums for all to review and provide real and concise feedback.

10-15-2012, 02:42 AM	#25
WanyenII Loremaster Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 145	Davngr1 wrote: Tigerr wrote: Trust me , we ALLLLL know there are going to be MAJOR issues, we can act surprised if you like though. Players are terrified that CoE will be EASYYYY skyshrine-like x4 zones that are cleared within the first night of launch. Sleepersx4 + Skyshrine x4 is a joke and players are PRAYING this is nothing like it. Easy x4 mobs that can be run with be 2 groups dropping loot that makes all previous content obsolete = we are stuck playing in EASY content that we will be bored of in 2 weeks. ( just like skyshrine) . Take note devs.. Easy encounters that has gear that makes all previous GU gear obsolete is not fun. Plane of War is probably my FAVORITE zone difficulty wise. None of the players want Sleepers tomb + Skyshrine x4 easy stuff. We just don't want luck factor ( tank getting charmed at 10% on 12 minute fight). Please don't mess this one up like Skyshrine + Sleepers. i don't know what sky shrine you played but the one i played was awesome. it was fun, full of quest and offered great rewards and challenge if you felt like doing the harder mobs. of course people decked out in raid gear aren't going to get much of a challenge, that's the way it's supposed to be. this game should not be tuned for fully raid geard players it should be tuned for the entire spectrum. again sky shrine was great, would like to see a few fun encounters that require "different" type of skill. every encounter will of course have the heal/tank/dps thing but adding in something like palace(4T) or anything liek that would be cool. would love to see a raid mob with a VS type mechanic so you have to limit your power consumption for high end raiding. Agree mostly. I think the game would have greater overall health if the difference between raid gear stats and group gear stats shrunk substantially. Raiders might once again find some value in heroric zones, beyond gear for alts and rare SLR's; and on the same token, would give more fluidty to the playerbase to move into (and out of) raid guilds without the current huge gearing up period in order to be effective. Certainly they need to pay more attention and be a bit more creative about adequately designing raid loot to be risk/reward acceptable besides across the board stat increases, but it can be done... Besides helping the playerbase, much like the minimum required AA level helped establish consistency and a baseline of expected ability in power levels among 91's and 92s, shrinking the range of stats within current content between heroic and raid gear would improve the ability of designers to craft content that was challenging and rewarding for a much greater cross section of players. Do I expect this to happen quickly or in time for the next expac? No.. but hopefully its on someone's list... and .. well "soon" (tm)...

10-16-2012, 06:03 PM	#26
Faildozer Server: Permafrost Guild: Mass Extinction Rank: Normal Officer Loremaster Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 150	New stuff HAS to be challenging.. ST and avatars were supposed to hold us over until new xpac but we killed HM grp instance 1st pulling everything with a roughshod grp makeup, then later that night we kill challenge mode final named within first 30 mins of working on it. Avatars? I like them, but only 3 of them and its not enough to keep us busy. I WANT content to be challenging and yeah, some guilds wont kill it, but you are going to lose the top of your raiding playerbase if you release more sleepers tomb and skyshrine stuff. Now what I want to see happen is less ridiculous checks like power drains or luck based fights where the OT gets charmed, MT gets dt'd and mem wiped mob runs to raid, wipe. I would like to see more stuff like wing 2-3 and hm Underfoot Depths and Roehn Theer.. That stuff was fun and challenging but the thing that made a lot of POW fights hard wasnt the strategy or the moving parts of the encounter it was just the stupid dps checks or tanking checks or healing checks or power checks. This is challenging but it isnt fun and cant be met by most guilds that are trying to raid. That is why you dont even have 10 guilds killing Teku in POW. TLDR; dont make stuff easy, but make it challenging thru more involved scripts or maybe give options on how to kill it to benefit people with diff raid strengths and weaknesses. __________________

10-16-2012, 06:44 PM	#27
CoLD MeTaL Loremaster Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 3,217	Tigerr wrote: Trust me , we ALLLLL know there are going to be MAJOR issues, we can act surprised if you like though. Players are terrified that CoE will be EASYYYY skyshrine-like x4 zones that are cleared within the first night of launch. Sleepersx4 + Skyshrine x4 is a joke and players are PRAYING this is nothing like it. Easy x4 mobs that can be run with be 2 groups dropping loot that makes all previous content obsolete = we are stuck playing in EASY content that we will be bored of in 2 weeks. ( just like skyshrine) . Take note devs.. Easy encounters that has gear that makes all previous GU gear obsolete is not fun. Plane of War is probably my FAVORITE zone difficulty wise. None of the players want Sleepers tomb + Skyshrine x4 easy stuff. We just don't want luck factor ( tank getting charmed at 10% on 12 minute fight). Please don't mess this one up like Skyshrine + Sleepers. According to guildprogress.com only 7 guilds have completed PoW, and those in the last couple of months. You are full of it. The majority of the population is on the other side of the fence from you. __________________

10-16-2012, 06:47 PM	#28
MagicalMayham Loremaster Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 18	Faildozer@Permafrost wrote: New stuff HAS to be challenging.. ST and avatars were supposed to hold us over until new xpac but we killed HM grp instance 1st pulling everything with a roughshod grp makeup, then later that night we kill challenge mode final named within first 30 mins of working on it. Avatars? I like them, but only 3 of them and its not enough to keep us busy. I WANT content to be challenging and yeah, some guilds wont kill it, but you are going to lose the top of your raiding playerbase if you release more sleepers tomb and skyshrine stuff. Now what I want to see happen is less ridiculous checks like power drains or luck based fights where the OT gets charmed, MT gets dt'd and mem wiped mob runs to raid, wipe. I would like to see more stuff like wing 2-3 and hm Underfoot Depths and Roehn Theer.. That stuff was fun and challenging but the thing that made a lot of POW fights hard wasnt the strategy or the moving parts of the encounter it was just the stupid dps checks or tanking checks or healing checks or power checks. This is challenging but it isnt fun and cant be met by most guilds that are trying to raid. That is why you dont even have 10 guilds killing Teku in POW. TLDR; dont make stuff easy, but make it challenging thru more involved scripts or maybe give options on how to kill it to benefit people with diff raid strengths and weaknesses. I agree with you completely faildozer. I raided "hard core" for several years but with the new content its just not worth it anymore. All of it is similar, red text, adds with a dps check 2-3 detriments and a curse, if its a "challenge mob" there will be a dt on the tank. This discribes prtty much 99% of the encounters out there. I miss things like rohen theer, vp, underdpepths, the avatars (not talking about the new pqtars). The fights were fun and they were fun because they were unique every fight wasn't a get out red text, dt on your tank, oh and some adds you had to dps, they were all individual and unique. Take Rohen Theer for example (best fighter ever!) The fight was relatively simple and depending on your guild you could do it on a low level 1 rune or go up to the high level of 4 runes. No matter what your guild you could still do the mob and it was still a fun encounter. When implimenting new encounters it would be nice if they weren't all the same and they took work figuring out. It would be nice having to do multiple pulls and still trying to figure out componets of a fight instead of pull a mob once, maybe twice and going ok we've got this figured out and killed.

10-17-2012, 07:13 PM	#29
airwolf699 Loremaster Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 3	gosh from the sounds of it the will not be a beta testing stage befor it gos live and if there is i would like a invite for the test sorry on the spelling and ponuchtions and it looks like ther haveing the test no0w i tryed to go on beta a few days a go and well there is not beta server up any more well any way I hope i get a invite if not o well

10-18-2012, 07:05 AM	#30
Solzak Server: Guk Guild: Legion of the White Rose Rank: Veteran Legionnaire Loremaster Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 74	Faildozer@Permafrost wrote: TLDR; dont make stuff easy, but make it challenging thru more involved scripts or maybe give options on how to kill it to benefit people with diff raid strengths and weaknesses. You mean, actually think through what Real People (tm) would do when playing the game?? Have an Epiphany that even the strongest guilds may not have the perfect raid makeup needed to win a particular fight??? Naaahh... you couldn't mean that. Besides, how would the dev's earn their keep if they didn't have to constantly rework raid encounters between expansions?