EQ TLP - Oakwynd (Evolving Ruleset Progression Server)

Tuco said:

I brushed this warning off when I rolled by enchanter on Aradune, thinking that it couldn't be that bad. Sure enough after a few weeks of it I was tired of the burden and would rather just have a non-OP mage or necro pet. Maintaining the charmed pet while keeping buffs rolling while boxing a enc/cle is no joke.

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Yeah, it really is the meta. If you're on any raid or in any group you're going to be expected to have a charm pet and manage it properly. Proper management requires some help so it can really grind on you if the tanks keep breaking mez, people kill the double shrunk thing with tash/malo/illusion plainly visible on it AGAIN, you're just always waiting on a Malo, etc etc. At least you're fucking baller in exchange for the extra work.

MrHolland420 said:

How about bards? I don't feel like boxing at all, never had any interests into boxing a group or even a duo. Back in 99-01, my main was a Mage but then I switched to the Monk, mainly because I enjoyed pulling, got my monk epic and some Sleepers tomb weapons. Didn't do any SoL raiding tbh.

I did enjoy visiting noowes*, Afterlifes MB, etc to see serverwide first, which could be literally minutes to just a couple hours difference. Assuming that's how poopsock got coined.
I got to the start of NToV raid wise before population started dropping. Never got my Mage epic either, still upset with Quillmane & Atotrops! Kra!

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Bards are great. There's room for one in every single group on every single raid.

Mages get groups easily early on because they have good synergy with enchanters since you can malo the charm pet. New upgraded nukes are really powerful especially before level 30, you'll do 2-3 times the damage of the rogue with his fine steel dagger. After classic, the game kind of becomes melee centric until 75 or so, you won't have nearly as much competition for gear as a caster. Think we had 3 main mages by PoP and probably 8 monks and 6 rogues.

Bards are indeed great although the requirement to split pulls for xp camps isn't as high as it was, really no need to bring singles most of the time, it'll just slow things down. Definitely favored pullers over monks now since monk dps is so good, having the monk run around tends to drop your kill speed rather a lot. Bards can renew songs after a pull and leave camp and still have their songs contribute for a while.

Agree with everything said about enchanters, you are vastly powerful (especially with a cleric box, best duo by far early on) but in a group it feels like you are putting in three times the effort of everyone else and you start to resent it.

I've gained a lot of respect for Magicians after the last few TLPs I was on. I had the good fortune of playing with a couple that were really on the ball when it came to maximizing their dps and utility. If you're proactive/responsive on the malos, summoned junk, tank DS, etc. while punching above your expected weight class on the parses you really stand out. Yeah, they're common boxes but even when cothing to Yelinak or around VT quality Magician mains on the roster speeds all that shit up considerably.

With the addition of the perks boxing in general gets a whole lot better. You can die constantly doing whatever on either or both and not ever delevel. You could even go so far as to have a naked dps follow you around and stab things with absolutely zero regard for their safety. Combo doesn't make sense? Who cares! Bind your naked druid by the zone you're doing shit in just to do something as simple as buffs and Ensnare. Who cares if he eats dirt when you aren't paying attention. Death loop from binding in a dungeon? No big deal.

I've never played an int caster on TLP cause of research...But I might dive in full bore on Magician this time around. Never played that class ever.

Big_w_powah said:

I've never played an int caster on TLP cause of research...But I might dive in full bore on Magician this time around. Never played that class ever.

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Just buy the spells from other people or your guildie lol

pharmakos said:

The fuck are they gonna do for "Pride Month Familiars"...?

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Same thing they do every year. Some pink and rainbow colored bunnies.

I started with an ENC/CLR on Aradune and Mischief. Got pretty good at boxing and love the synergy. I didn't mind carrying a group when the charm pet XP was flying. It is a LOT of work though. Even a quick pee break is tricky. Not recommended if you just like to sit back and chill.

Now I 4-box an SK/ENC/CLR/Mage on Mischief. Mage DPS is shit but I like having DS, coth, pet toys for the SK and chanter, malo for charm pet. And now that auras are live, it's cool that the mage pet aura lands on charm pets. I've thought about trying a melee dps but haven't found the motivation to start a new class from scratch. Think I'll just stick with the mage and see how it goes in TSS.

Also, charm in the 70 era is underrated. Just last night I ran a DoDH mission for xp/clicky farming. My charmed rogue pet did 500k and my water pet (2.0 & Anguish clicky) did 290k. Enchanters can still bring the deeps in the group game.

pharmakos said:

Pandering at its finest. Just texture swap an existing model, and watch the money roll in. Smart.

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I could be wrong but I remember them not costing anything. Maybe that was Easter? I know they gave away colored bunnies.

Has there been any more closed-door discussions this time around about the ruleset?

For those of us who are not in 'the room where it happens, the room where it happens, the room where it happens...', it'd be great to know what kind of ideas are being tossed around this time.

Totally unsubtantiated gossip from the EQ forum:

"I know someone that works at dark paw. It's gonna be 2 servers again and while one server is already decided on the others a mystery.

So apparently the other server is supposed to be a new thing dark paw is excited about
Kinda like last year was new with that one server that had a level cap but spells hit higher level or whatever server that was. It's completely different though and it's still being discussed with only the upper echelon in the loop.

2nd server is gonna apparently be a selos clone with possible mischief loot rules. They still haven't decided the last part."

A TLP with some semblance of class balance introduced would be nice.

TairyGreene said:

Totally unsubtantiated gossip from the EQ forum:

"I know someone that works at dark paw. It's gonna be 2 servers again and while one server is already decided on the others a mystery.

So apparently the other server is supposed to be a new thing dark paw is excited about
Kinda like last year was new with that one server that had a level cap but spells hit higher level or whatever server that was. It's completely different though and it's still being discussed with only the upper echelon in the loop.

2nd server is gonna apparently be a selos clone with possible mischief loot rules. They still haven't decided the last part."

Progression Server. Place your bets! | EverQuest Forums

These are what I believe based off past experiences will be actual successful servers. Since they are only launching one server and want to ensure...

forums.daybreakgames.com

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A one month release server as the main server would be a bad bad idea. Selo launched with Mangler and while selo was fun for 6 months it averaged 350 people a day online after that while mangler averaged 2k.

I still don't see why they waste their time with servers that are going to average less than 500 people.

I also know a few people and daybreaks revenue was way down in 2022. They blamed it on people being allowed out after covid but is was also the shitty servers and they don't want to admit it.

I still think it's possible that Vaniki brought in enough cash from the in-game shop relative to its costs that the low population isn't all that big a deal.

pharmakos said:

They probably judge the number of Whale-level real money spenders. One single whale with a big enough wallet can probably keep the lights on in some cases lol.

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Big whales dont play on servers like that. Whales on vaniki are more like fish. Whales buy 1000+ krono on a tlp and none were on Vaniki.

What would a person do with 1000 plus Krono?