Manratten

See, I think the exp in dungeons is pretty reasonable, personally. Exactly how fast do people think you should go from level 70 to level 80? I realize that question is going to vary from person to person, but my guess is, no matter who you ask....you'll be able to do it in that time frame.

Now....is it faster to do the solo quests? I don't have any empirical evidence, but am willing to stipulate that it is faster for sake of discussion. My thoughts on that matter pretty much universally revolve around....so what? Let's assume it is faster...so what? Does that make grouping and doing heroics completely "unfun" and no worth doing?

If so, this implies to me that actually playing the game from level 70 to level 80 is a completely meaningless venture for you than. If the entirety of your goal is to get to level 80 and raid as fast as humanly possible, than who freaking cares what is necessary to do it? I mean, it is clear you won't have fun no matter what doing it, so exactly what difference does it make?

Ask yourself, how long did it take you, (whomever you are), to go from level 70 to level 80? Is it really that big a problem in the scheme of things in a game you play months, years, whatever, that you spent likely 1 week, ONE WEEK, 6 months ago, doing some quests?

Kizee

The differance is from levels 1-70 there was a CHOICE to either solo or group to get exp and they were pretty compairable depending on what you DECIDED to do.

Along comes RoK where exp for doing the quests is ALOT faster than grinding mobs. People arn't doing dungeon grind groups because the quest exp is fast and you also get AA's.....therefore people like me that HATE to quest get forced to solo for 10 levels.

What makes things 100x worse for me is that I am a templar and killing things solo is like watching grass grow.

So to answer your question..... yes it matters if I have to spend 3x as long grinding mobs in a group than running solo quests. Most people will take the path of least resistance.

Meta

Wouldn't lure me back. They couldn't recreate SoV in EQ2. SoV dungeons were pretty unforgiving and the faction grind was pretty epic. EQ2 just isn't made like that, which is why I finally ran out of patience. If Sony made SoV in EQ2, you'd be able to get Ally faction with the dwarves, skyshrine and the giants. And it'd only take a day, if that.

Anyone saying RoK is a 'good' expansion really must either be new (or fairly new) to EQ2 and will soon change their opinion, or be mentally retarded. OR they're precisely the kind of person Sony are aiming this pile of worthless fucking crap at these days. Maybe we should get have them profiled?!?!

My good EQ2 memories come from KoS and EoF. I only really liked the way the mechanics were working mid RoK, especially the huge step up in achievable dps from EoF, but the encounters and raid zones are fucking horrible. T1 was clear first time we went in, T2 I think we also cleared first time, after some retardation on VS and Overking, but it was the first instances iirc. VP cleared at least up to Silverwing first instance.. Actually I have a feeling we cleared the zone first instance, but were slowed down by SW. I don't remember 100% though, I'm sure someone remembers better.

Anyone who struggles with those zones should probably kill themselves to stop their genes being passed on. It's all easy, boring, repetitive, buggy, laggy, cheap and generally fucking embarassing.

And to the person who said 'people leave but they all seem to come back', not this time methinks. There's an alternative, which is at the very least looking like enjoyable casual gaming. And there's many more on the horizon. Also the reason people hang around on these boards is because a) the EQ2 community is fucking superb, and b) many of us played and loved this game for years. It still hurts that Sony fucked it up so badly. We can still vent about it.

__________________

Pistola

QFE, except imho EoF was actually a very fun expansion... I wasnt a huge fan of KoS.

I pretty much have the same beef with RoK as this post...

EQ2 staff went from basically taking something that was solid gold (Kunark from eq1) and turned it into a pile of dogshit...

1. Incomplete/Missing zones.. 6 months later no Kurn's Tower and where the fuck are the frontier Mountains?? We see'm but we can't go there?!?!? .. Not to mention the GIANT black hole on the map in Kylong.. I can only assume that is where Firona Vie was supposed to be.

2. Raids being a fucking joke. So yes there were what, 8 raids at launch? For the most part (aside from PR) they all sucked... Nothing is more of a let down then spending your entire 70-80 grind hearing about some bad ass named Venirl Sathir (If you never played eq1) And then fighting him only to get gimp items that are less then what Joe Casual just spent 2 hours farming in Jarsath Wastes.

3 And to totally top it all off and what led me to cancel my subscription.. The shitty attitude of the EQ2 team.... Basically it got to the point where SOE doesnt give a fuck what kind of content they put out... They will push it out there and if anyone remotely says anything negitive about it. They get blackballed or accused of harassment... Even if it is done in tact... And to make matters worse there are alot of dipshits and mindless fucks on the offical forums who back these pricks up???!??? I'd be lead to believe half of the dick riders who do that probably haven't experienced any problems because they spend more time on the forums defending them then actaully playing the game...


That is all..

Vlix_Oasis

How can you guys even compare RoK to DoF?? IMO, RoK didn't live up to the hype but it is still decent. DoF was pure shit to anyone who started playing at release and then got a swift crack over the head when that expansion was released. Maybe you were one of the people who was able to hold the vomit down long enough to play though that expansion, I dunno.

Drakkota, I don't understand where more *real* contested comes from? Ok yeah they released some pussified ones for everyone but isn't there still Tangrin plus 12 Avatars?? Boo, they didn't release any new contested which sux but your lucky to have them in the first place. Why? Because the people who actually kill them make up about 2-3% of the population of people who play mmo's (not just eq2). If you take that into dollars, that isn't even enough to cover the server bill, let alone pay the staff and keep the game running. So any company who will make expansion solely for 2-3% of the people who play mmo's would shoot themselves in the foot by doing so. Even if they invested 50% of the content towards end game raiding and contested. Since 95% of the population would never see it, about 90% would cancel there subscription and there goes the money. I bet there is someone at sony who is listening and went to their boss saying, "people want more contested content and more high end content". Then they run the numbers to find out, it just won't work. If you find a game/company willing to do this. Let me know but I wouldn't hold your breathe on it happening anytime soon.

I give Sony some credit for keeping them going. Just redoing 75% of them was a bad move but I also understand why.

The only issue I see with RoK is some buggy issues with mobs and having to revamp them (which hasn't been as bad as I have seen in the past). Also the disparity between 1 zone for level 71-74 content which is incredibly small vs. several 75+ zones including raiding. Getting a low end master is like winning the fucking lotto.

__________________


80 Assassin/ 80 Alchemist/ 400 Tinkerer
Member of Paradise Lost
RECRUITING DIRGES THAT DON'T DISAPPEAR!!!!

Paperclip

Rok is flawless in every aspect. =)

__________________

Co-Leader of Paradise Lost
Oasis Server

http://eq2paradiselost.guildportal.com

feldon30

Exactly. Putting together a group of 6 players and going after yellow and orange mobs in level 1-70 zones in EQ2 yields about 1% per kill. In Kunark, you get less than .1% per kill.

Doing quests in Echoes of Faydwer or Loping Plains or Kunark all yield about 3-5% per quest turn in.

So it was a clear choice to make grouping pointless and solo the only way to level. WHY? It makes no fucking sense and penalizes people who want to group.

And as I mentioned in another thread, they put in Quest Sharing and there was much rejoicing, and then in Kunark they totally raped it. They made it so fucking broken they might as well take this feature out. Every fucking quest in Kunark is dependent upon you completing the 12 quests before it IN ORDER with NO SKIPPING. It is like being in a long fucking tunnel with no end in sight and no options.

The people who got to level 80 fast are in a guild with a lot of self-discipline and are willing to do ponderous drudgery for hours of these run-around quests.

It's funny to see ppl bitch about AoC being linear cause Christ that's what Kunark is. Everyone has to follow the EXACT SAME PATH with no options. And JFC the zones in Kunark are so big that I spend 80% of my time just flying or running or reading the map figuring out where the fuck the mob is for the next quest.

No wonder at level 72 I am back in Bonemire killing heroic mobs for XP and doing the quests, since it doesn't take a transcontinental flight to find what they want me to kill. And I don't care that at the end of the piddly run-around errand quests the NPCs in Bonemire won't reward me with a crate full of legendary shit. I think it is hilarious (and broken) that after every piddly "can you deliver these mushrooms to the guy 50 ft away" quest you get some fucking awesome piece of armor or weapon or some earring with a buff that makes the mobs piss their pants.

My biggest enjoyment out of EQ2 is grouping. The only grouping is Karnor's Castle, Chardok, and Vault of Eternal Sleep. So I am grinding to 77 so I can do VoES cause that's the only option they are giving me.

The failure of Kunark is most clear by reading the open chats and see how many mid-70's chars are still doing MMC, CMM, Unrest, CoV, etc.

__________________
>> The EQ2 Wire : Up to the Minute News <<

Slippery

He means contested that more than the top guild can kill, but hard enough that you need a real raid and can't 1 group. You know, contested that would actually be contested. Unlike Tangrin where only one guild has killed it for the past 1.5 months.

Edit: Also, unlike you try to make it sound there are only 2 contested. Tangrin and Avatar. No matter how many Avatars there are as long as they are on the same timer it is one contested.

Jonny

haha, I remember fucking that up farming those two names in the rooms outside the Dains throne.. I spent the next 2 weeks killing thousands of mobs in attempt to gain it back.

Those were the days, when shit wasnt handed to you on a platter.

__________________
"Right now, a shipment of Pats 19-0 shirts are on their way to some small village in South America"

Manratten

See, that's interesting.

If I told people, hey, to raid in VP, you need to kill 10000 trivial mobs first, I think people would go....WTF, are you crazy? Then, after doing that, if they wanted to raid SoH, they'd have to kill 10000 different trivial mobs, (and while doing so, stopping them from raiding VP), people wouldn't think that was all that keen of an idea.

But hey, rose colored glasses and all that.