EQ Live - Swarm Balancing (Headshot, Decapitate etc)

Either way they do it, it's a positive change. XP rate should be balanced without the consideration of the kind of PLing that goes on. If people aren't enjoying the process of leveling or AAing at certain points these PLing tactics simply serve as a band-aid to fix that void of enjoyment. EQ is riddled with band-aids that reduce the relevance of equipment and content, and it doesn't need more. It needs so much less.

The systemic update to AA auto-granting is a good move to shorten the gap from 1 to 100 (+10k AA). As a game grows in progression range, the time needed to get from MIN to MAX should be relatively similar. That has most definitely not been the case for EverQuest, and it causes a very wide distribution of player power that often can't cooperate for mutual benefit. The envelope needs to slim down so the few players over the massive world can more frequently be of benefit to one another.

Newer content is the only reason to play on Live. The old content sucks, and the changes to AC/HP code for the benefit of newer content have made much of older content trivial even in era appropriate equipment; furthermore, the whole point of massive PLing is to reach the newer content. Without this easy option to progress rapidly more people may be interested in the opportunity cost of older content.

I was playing on FV before, but not active on live right now. I can't imagine playing on a legit server. NO TRADE is absurdly inconvenient.

Agraza_sl said:

The old content sucks, and the changes to AC/HP code for the benefit of newer content have made much of older content trivial even in era appropriate equipment

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I've heard this referenced before, and it must have happened on one of my breaks. What was the change exactly? I just assumed lower level content was trivial because of defiant gear having bonuses (atk, shielding, strikethrough, regen etc), etc. that usually was reserved for raid gear - even then only had 1 or two bonuses back in the day.

Tuco_sl said:

I recently started playing this again. Anyone active on Bristlebane?


Also when is this February update going to kick off? Been farming a ton of AAs this last couple weeks, haha.

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I am actually. I've just gotten to the point that I can 3 box the J5 merc quest. My main is only 90, so I can literally run you through it once you get to 75 (requires no more than a 15 level gap to work) and I can help with other things.

Flight_sl said:

More I think about it the more I think this is EQs NGE moment.

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I am inclined to agree. Only a small percentage of whats left of the EQ playerbase actually does content at max level anyways. While my observations may be different than others , it seems a majority of people that have returned to EQ in the past few months like myself are only really interested in going back and seeing the older nostalgic content, and have no interest in the newer content.

With a very limited playerbase, being able to have classes that can rapidly help me level AAs or levels was very convienent for me, as I have no interest in grinding AA like the old days 1 mob at a time. It would also seem the population is a lot lower than it appears when you log in as well since most people are 2-6 boxing up alts. The last thing they need to do is alienate a good portion of the player base since they dont really have the population that can afford much of a decrease.

I returned to playing EQ about 6 months ago after a 8 year absence and have been having a blast doing old content. I haven't felt the need to bitch about the massive number of AAs I need to earn as I level, but I can understand modifying the curve a bit. ATM with my limited play time, I feel no need to race to the end.

I can see how swarming can annoy other players wanting to crawl through content.

Flight_sl said:

More I think about it the more I think this is EQs NGE moment.

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Well, SOE is swinging the axe right now, maybe they're trying to put their oldest horse to bed.

Personally love the AA change - don't care about the other ones at all as I don't have any character over 75 or 80 I don't think, and also no rogue/beastlord/sk for swarm killing anyways.

I'm the kind of player that logs in once a year or so for a couple months - either start a new character or take my level 65-80s around and kill old content I never got the chance to in the past. This AA change will suddenly grant me significant more power to be able to do some more of that old content in a two or three-box scenario. I'm looking forward to it. My 71 Monk with 200 AA will suddenly get a massive shift in power and be able to molo quite a bit I'd imagine with all the defense and offense aa's and whatnot.

I like it from my perspective - cause I'm simply too bored just sitting there grinding AA when I do log in. I'd rather just hop in, maybe level a new character to 75 (takes a minimum of time with mercs), have the AAs and wander around killing Trakanon or whatever.

The problem was mage using changes to beam AE spells that happened only about 15 months ago to swarm in current level 100 content. SoE for some reason wont admit it made a mistake with mages and has to nerf other classes along with mages to get at the problem of mages. SK swarming lite blues three to four expansion back that nobody cared about gets nerfed to stop mages from killing 100 yellow cons at once in highend zones.

The AA change is pure God mode hit level 51 instant max AA hit level 52 instant max AA all the way up to level 85 where you will have 4-5k AA.

the worst part about it is, after everyone's super saiyan powers are gone, mages will still be fucking gods with their pets, while the others scramble in the LFG system, largely unable to find shit to do.

Saw some random comments that they were also nerfing mage pet tanking capabilities. Anyone know if there is any truth to that?

Brikker_sl said:

Saw some random comments that they were also nerfing mage pet tanking capabilities. Anyone know if there is any truth to that?

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Nerfing pets to the point where they couldn't tank named mobs would cost SoE a huge number of mage and necro accounts.

No reason to nerf if you wont go that far and they wont nerf that much because of the negative reaction it would cause.