Everquest TLP - Aradune and Rizlona Servers (Now with real customer service)

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Sterling

El Presidente
12,936
7,832
The problem with PoP is it's sandwiched between GoD and Luclin which were both expansions with a lot of shit to do. There's some random stuff you can do in PoP besides farming Time, but it's just pretty shallow compared to those 2 expansions.
 

ronne

Nǐ hǎo, yǒu jīn zi ma?
7,832
6,947
5 months is too long for any single expansion, and them counting LDON as an "expansion" and tacking it on to the end of PoP basically kills every TLP.

It so consistently murders them that I have to assume it's part of their business model at this point.
 
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Sterling

El Presidente
12,936
7,832
5 months is too long for any single expansion, and them counting LDON as an "expansion" and tacking it on to the end of PoP basically kills every TLP.

It so consistently murders them that I have to assume it's part of their business model at this point.
I think that the level 70 stretch is what actually drives the population of most TLPs into the sewer. POP always has a substantial decline in population, but that also coincides with them releasing new servers and you have a lot of people that just like to start on them all.
 
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Kirun

Buzzfeed Editor
<Gold Donor>
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I think that the level 70 stretch is what actually drives the population of most TLPs into the sewer. POP always has a substantial decline in population, but that also coincides with them releasing new servers and you have a lot of people that just like to start on them all.
Well, a lot of "purists" dip out after Velious, then another round once PoP launches, because Karen's think that books somehow ruined the game. The fact that the game went through a real pile of shit expansions after Omens doesn't help either. After Luclin, basically all the "OG" designers were off the game and moved to EQ2 or at Sigil. After Omens, even the apprentice guys from the Velious/Luclin days had been moved/moved on as well. Game picks up significantly in TSS, but Dragons, Depths, and Prophecy are all pretty bad and most people aren't willing to deal with that 6 month stretch of bullshit(even longer on some TLPs) - no levels, limited AAs, etc.
 

Sterling

El Presidente
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7,832
I actually think Depths is a good expansion, but PoR is possibly the single worst expansion in EQ and DoN is basically the level 70 version of LDoN.
 
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DickTrickle

Definitely NOT Furor Planedefiler
12,758
14,598
DoDh is definitely a good expansion, but spending so long at 70 is not great, especially with having multiple no AA/level expansions.

For Mangler, the 70s were far more harmful to the population than the PoP period.
 

yerm

Golden Baronet of the Realm
5,956
15,350
I actually think Depths is a good expansion, but PoR is possibly the single worst expansion in EQ and DoN is basically the level 70 version of LDoN.

PoR wouldn't be SO bad if it wasn't where it was. You've been 70 for 3 expansions now and you're smacked with arguably the worst end zone ever made. If the entire 70 block was released all in one big go, people might actually enjoy some of the content - I personally like a few of its missions and lower tier shit. But when you're anguished to the gills and swimming in dodh addons besides? Who cares! If it's not off aro it probably isn't worth looking at twice. It also really stings that the 70 block is basically the least properly balanced outside classic leveling itself. Most guilds flatline on support classes or at least mains of them and often bleed healers besides. I would joke with some of my ex-roi friends that you would always know when a tlp hit the 70s because people start reaching out to all the clerics they played with to see if they'd come back.

In effect PoR does what GoD did when it originally came out (and was all bug riddled) where people are already kind of fed up and bored and you smack them with something terrible and it kills off interest.

I think TLPs would do a lot better if they totally reversed their unlock philosophy and had very little time at level increases and instead extended the expacs BEFORE a level increase - luclin, god, por (yes por), etc. Let people hunker down when all of a given level's content is out, rather than exhausting themselves in a very tiny space of time farming, anguish farming, etc, and then proceeding through the rest of the level range no longer giving a shit about pre-endgame content and perpetually bored for months.
 

Sterling

El Presidente
12,936
7,832
PoR has some things that are relevant and even interesting, but Deathknell is just so bad. Auras are cool and the Circle clicks are interesting. However, the nature of Deathknell makes it really awful to come back to with low numbers to farm them later which certainly doesn't help.
 

Pharone

Trakanon Raider
1,125
997
I'm thinking of main changing... someone tell me not to do it.

My main on Mischief is a level 60 Epic Mage, and he's absolutely great for farming shit. Mages are a fun class, but I'm bored out of my mind... send pet, nuke, refresh Mala on enchanter's pet, CoTH the next person to join the game. I miss the action of melee, cool weaponry, and shit.

So... I have a 54 Rogue that is decently geared, and I do love playing a rogue. I mained a rogue back in the day up through the original Luclin release.

Someone tell me not to do it, so I can blame you when I burn the fuck out on the mage and stop playing EQ again LOL.
 
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Kirun

Buzzfeed Editor
<Gold Donor>
18,554
34,424
PoR wouldn't be SO bad if it wasn't where it was. You've been 70 for 3 expansions now and you're smacked with arguably the worst end zone ever made. If the entire 70 block was released all in one big go, people might actually enjoy some of the content - I personally like a few of its missions and lower tier shit. But when you're anguished to the gills and swimming in dodh addons besides? Who cares! If it's not off aro it probably isn't worth looking at twice. It also really stings that the 70 block is basically the least properly balanced outside classic leveling itself. Most guilds flatline on support classes or at least mains of them and often bleed healers besides. I would joke with some of my ex-roi friends that you would always know when a tlp hit the 70s because people start reaching out to all the clerics they played with to see if they'd come back.

In effect PoR does what GoD did when it originally came out (and was all bug riddled) where people are already kind of fed up and bored and you smack them with something terrible and it kills off interest.

I think TLPs would do a lot better if they totally reversed their unlock philosophy and had very little time at level increases and instead extended the expacs BEFORE a level increase - luclin, god, por (yes por), etc. Let people hunker down when all of a given level's content is out, rather than exhausting themselves in a very tiny space of time farming, anguish farming, etc, and then proceeding through the rest of the level range no longer giving a shit about pre-endgame content and perpetually bored for months.
Yeah, the 70 stretch really just needs to be 1 month unlocks each. Plenty of time for people to "see content", while not bogging them down in tedium.
 

Zaide

TLP Idealist
3,714
4,337
That sudden "SERVERS COMING DOWN ANY MINUTE FOR EMERGENCY PATCH" Message sure made the GoD race interesting.

We had just started Uuoqa, in the gas chamber and had to decide if we wanted to risk it after being told there would be no countdown/warning. Basically, if we beat a boss but failed to beat the instance in time we would be screwed with lockouts ect, race would be be over. So we burned through that and made it, killed cyno in OW and had to make the same choice for Inktua. Decided to say fuck it and give it a go. Right as we have literally just began to start the Cursecallers we see a message "12 mins till server down LOG OUT NOW" Just as half our clerics explode. Somehow we beat this. Then immediately go on to attack the final boss right away with our raid mostly unbuffed and OOM. Beat him with 3 minutes to go... whew..

I had always played in a more casual guild prior to this on Aradune. I gotta admit say it was way more fun racing to beat the xpac then I had expected. Thanks to the AM guys for pushing us to keep up our pace ect.
Did you guys log in when they came back up to finish Txevu/Tacvi?
 

Elderan

Blackwing Lair Raider
579
400
Doing patches on Wednesdays AND releasing new tlp expansions has always been a terrible idea.
 

Louis

Trakanon Raider
2,836
1,105
Doing patches on Wednesdays AND releasing new tlp expansions has always been a terrible idea.
It's an even worse idea for these random loot servers that we are essentially beta testing. They unlock the expansion with all kinds of broken shit and then the server is stuck with the fuck ups until next patch day.
 

Kirun

Buzzfeed Editor
<Gold Donor>
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I think it's just them wanting to limit it to "one" down-time. I assume unlocking an expansion requires them to take the servers down.
 

Lambourne

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
2,689
6,488
I'm thinking of main changing... someone tell me not to do it.

My main on Mischief is a level 60 Epic Mage, and he's absolutely great for farming shit. Mages are a fun class, but I'm bored out of my mind... send pet, nuke, refresh Mala on enchanter's pet, CoTH the next person to join the game. I miss the action of melee, cool weaponry, and shit.

So... I have a 54 Rogue that is decently geared, and I do love playing a rogue. I mained a rogue back in the day up through the original Luclin release.

Someone tell me not to do it, so I can blame you when I burn the fuck out on the mage and stop playing EQ again LOL.

Do it. Twice now on TLPs I've started as a mage as main and quit or main changed by Velious. They're great fun to level because they do massive damage while requiring zero gear, but once you're 60 their damage isn't that special anymore and you're left with a class that's just not really engaging to play, and nowhere near as fun to gear up as a melee. It a good class for low engagement gameplay like watching Netflix on the other box with a cat sleeping in your lap.

Enchanter is the other extreme because it feels like you're doing three times the work of everyone else and you start resenting other people for not putting in the same amount of effort.
 
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your_mum

Trakanon Raider
263
144
GoD (when it was released, not in terms of TLPs) gave non-casuals in casual guilds the ability to shine when their guild couldn't. I thought that being able to flag for KT in a non-raid way (sewers vs rondo) was a great idea. Some of my best memories were doing sewers/vxed/tipt with my non-EP/time geared friends and then moving onto KT and doing group ikky trials. Great times and really hard but rewarding for my friend group.

PoP just sucks on TLP now because it can be beat so quickly. But I'm not saying that putting in restrictions to limit flagging would make it better. There's just no reason to do any group content on TLP in PoP outside of exp... it's just flag/flag/flag and then sit around and wait for time raids.
 
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DickTrickle

Definitely NOT Furor Planedefiler
12,758
14,598
Mages also get shit on for aggro because they have no way to lessen it and they get all their pet's aggro on motm bosses. Plenty of times a mage will get aggro or die long before they're LOM. Plus dishing out mod rods isn't exactly invigorating gameplay.

Rogues are solid and the game becomes melee quest for a long period of time, so it'd be hard to go wrong there.
 
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Daidraco

Golden Baronet of the Realm
9,071
9,099
Do it. Twice now on TLPs I've started as a mage as main and quit or main changed by Velious. They're great fun to level because they do massive damage while requiring zero gear, but once you're 60 their damage isn't that special anymore and you're left with a class that's just not really engaging to play, and nowhere near as fun to gear up as a melee. It a good class for low engagement gameplay like watching Netflix on the other box with a cat sleeping in your lap.

Enchanter is the other extreme because it feels like you're doing three times the work of everyone else and you start resenting other people for not putting in the same amount of effort.
I second this, Pharone Pharone . I play a Warrior primarily, and have a Mage box in the wings. Brought him up in a group setting all the way through Classic and some of Kunark. In Kunark - my static split up and the Mage got left at 58. I honestly cannot bring myself to play him more than an hour at a time because dps casters are just so god awful boring. I was pumped one day to wrap him up, got an IC group, popped a potion, and.. after an hour, I was falling asleep. The only thing keeping me awake was the constant need for debuffing on the enchanter charms. After that, I just stuck his ass at Vulak and now hes a coth bitch. Warrior may only have a few buttons, but ffs - at least you get to f'n do something besides sit 90% of the time.

Playing the rogue is fine - if anything Schinx and a couple other Rogues have opened my eyes to the fact that since no one plays rogues - they basically get awesome gear with little effort and top the meters. I just hope the Rogue is on a second account so you can actually use the Mage to help out at times.