Best and Worst EQ2 Expansions - Page 2

stivan · 03-13-2009, 12:04 PM

Best:
KoS - best questlines, real contested dungeons, introduced new things like AAs, etc.

Worst:
RoK - while it had good nostalgic value, it was the most boring to date. Too much copy and paste on the gear. Hit Rate vs Resists.

Wurm · 03-13-2009, 12:10 PM

Worst: DOF

Best: KOS

I loved EOF for all the new areas to explore and the Steamfont Questlines.

Elvanshalee · 03-13-2009, 12:34 PM

Worst: DoF

Changing the way gear worked with DoF really fucked over T5 raiders. They got to see their end game gear, become level 40/42 gear, and become instantly worthless. The crafted armor at release (cobalt) was fucking ridiculous compared to the T5 contested loot. The gear in DoF (minus pris 2) looked like fucking shit. The weapons were blah, the chain looked like fulginate armor. It was absolutely horrendous. The one weapon I wanted the entire time I played that dreadful expansion only dropped off of a named mob in Silent city, in which you had to clear a ring event, to even get a chance at a named, and if you got a named, it was only a small chance to be the named I wanted for that weapon.

On the Oasis server, this mob, (can't remember his name) was only spawned twice during the entire DoF expansion. This meant I had to use Terrorantula's shitty ass weapon.

Also, DoF introduced a major changes to combat across the board, which hurt assassins especially bad until the assassins got a revamp half way through the expansion.

Honorable Mention: Kunark

Best:

Echoes of Faydwer

This expansion introduced zones that didn't look like utter shit. There were actually colors! This was a shocking change from the blandness of all the other prior zones that just looked so dull. Lesser Faydark really just 'popped' compared to the drabness of Bonemire, or Commonlands.

EoF introduced Emerald Halls. A long as hell raid dungeon was a cool idea that many of us had been begging for since we got a tiny taste of it from Spirits of the Lost. but.. Fuck those brownies!

EoF also had fun fights in Wuoshi, and Pumpkin Headed Horseman.

EoF also introduced a contested, hard as fuck, group/raid dungeon in Castle Mistmoore. It was what Silent City was supposed to be. It failed however in the immense amount of lag caused when you engaged in combat with any of the mobs in the dungeon. Their debuffs caused zone wide hiccups that made fighting in Castle Mistmoore nearly impossible. Was quite a shame that the only time you could actually explore the zone, is when you were the only group in the zone, which hardly ever happened as people were trying to do their freethinker's quests, or shiny farming, or heading to MMIS....

Finally.. Favorite zones added as additional content:

Brutal Acts of War in the Splitpaw Adventure Pack
Nektropos Castle 2.0 game update (back before there were revive spots in zone!)
Unrest

Gazruney · 03-13-2009, 12:48 PM

Best: EoF because there was something for everyone to do.It was just a well balanced and well polished expansion.It has my favorite soundtrack of all the expansions too and it Includes my favorite overland zone(Loping plains) and my fave dungeon (Unrest).

Worst: I am gonna say DoF because I didnt really enjoy playing there and I still dont I just go through motions for the AA if needs be.Also I didnt like the score much either apparently the music is a factor for me too. I just realised that while typing this, wierd..lol

Diknak · 03-13-2009, 12:52 PM

Best: KoS

A great balance of heroic and solo content. It made it necessary to do both in order to get good gear and AA. SoS - while we all hated that zone while we were doing it, looking back shows us that we didn't know what we had until we weren't there anymore. A contested heroic zone with tons of quests was an amazing way to level and get AA.

Worst: RoK

The exact opposite of why KoS was the best. The expansion forced you to do a million and a half copy and paste solo quests in order to level and get AA. There wasn't any low tier heroic zone worth doing. We all logged in and ran to KC and were like "wth, this is impossible with all level 70s". We wanted a T8 version of SoS and got a bunch of questlines instead.

Bottom line: The mentality switched with RoK and they compensated with TSO. For the next two T9 expansions, let's get a solid mix of both.

kanolth · 03-13-2009, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Comalv

-Critical Mitigation is the worst joke ever, it's just an excuse to make people wear gear that otherwise wouldn't be an upgrade from RoK, and it's also used to render Avoidance tanking useless (which in EoF and then RoK was used after the nerf of Mitigation Tanking). What's in next expansions, Double Attack Mitigation? Bonus Critical Mitigation?

...

If one of your raidmembers doesn't do Action XYZ in 5seconds after he gets this effects he wipes the raid, and ofc damage shields with -600% crit chance, crit bonus, base CA Dmg hit % etc.

Crit mitigation is there for progression purposes and that's it. Otherwise it's completely unnecessary. So yes I agree with you. The best progression expac I have ever played was EQ: Planes of Power. It was amazing. Took forever to complete and was completely raid based. You didn't NEED gear to progress, but it helped.

Your second comment however is entirely dumb. First there is nothing like that. Second, your raid force shouldn't have a minority of dumbasses being carried by the rest of the raid. These mechanics help weed that shit out and I for one am happy about that.
This expac is all about the healers. Curing, healing and crit mit is the basis of raiding in TSO. And once the healers have the hang of that stuff, it effects every raid positively in the end, because now you have proactive healers wgho have a heart attack every time one of their groupmates gets a noxious.

Deson · 03-13-2009, 01:54 PM

Best KoS-- I was adamantly opposed to the introduction of AA's because of my EQ1 experience with them being an eternal grind that muddied up expected power per level. Instead, I got a system you could mostly tailor to playstyle, made you feel individual based on your primary playstyle and most importantly, made you think as you chose. And while they increased power, you were only screwed when it came to min/max activities. The balance of content between mass slaughter and quests was impressive and about the only complaints I have are the 6 months it took to get crating straightened out and the loot dropping like candy after Dymus's big speech about risk vs. reward to crafters.

Worst-- all the others except EoF. In order starting from the worst:

1. DoF made me quit. The wacked out risk v.rewards with all the quest rewards sucking and crafting being high powered, the tedium of harvesting, the uninspired instances and meh contested zones and just the overall blandness of the Desert burned me out within a month.

2. RoK-- I lost interest after a week.The imbalances caused by +20 to each tree made me ignore my coercer because I saw no light at the end of the tunnel and didn't want an illusionist.I enjoyed the uptick in difficulty but after 2 years of being able to go into PoA and mass slaughter to advance combined with the mass of uninspired quests( not all were bad but most were), I quit from December until the Living Legacy promotion showed me some of the base changes that made it less tedious to maintain my 9(now 10) active play characters. I enjoyed the instances (once I got to cap and could actually get into them) but Chardok and Seb just didn't feel rewarding like previous contested dungeons.

3. TSO-- My main is a Necro. I'm not a high end player. Almost all the gear is no-trade. There are no open dungeons as this expansion seems designed to balance out RoK. Craftingwise this expansion is very nice and shows off the efforts by the dev team to pay more attention to crafting but the reality of my main hurts this expansion. TSO actually ranked with EoF in neutral until GU 51 being announced then subsequently delayed twice put my SK and Monk on hold indefinitely because loams are expensive.

Fatchops · 03-13-2009, 01:59 PM

Good thread. My thoughts:

Best: KoS - Introduction of AA's. I liked the added layer of complexity and the significant boost it gave your toon to get AA's. Overland zones with plenty of quests, as well as contested dungeons with quests. Gave the choice of questing or group xp grinds to level. Challenging instances, at least until you got KoS gear. Halls of Fate was one of my favorite instances. Drake pit ftw. Lack of raid zones to start is my nitpick.

Second best: EoF - New lower tier zones for alts. Awesome contested dungeon in Castle Mistmoore, aside from the lag. Loping plains and Mistmoore catacombs were also fun zones. Lfay and Gfay were also nice looking zones, although I didn't particularly enjoy the content there. Enjoyable raids. Emerald Halls raid zone with trash that dropped ingredients to make player craftable fabled items. (Why isn't there more of this?)

Worst: RoK - I've never been so bored. Solo questing a guardian to 80 was enough to make me quit for almost a year. Horrible contested dungeon in KC that wasn't doable until 80, and gave virtually no XP. Bland instances. Almost all the encounters were single target. Raids sucked. SoH is an enjoyable raid zone at least, but VP makes me emo.

Second Worst: DoF - Shock of lu13 aside, the itemization, zones, and content left a lot to be desired. Introduction of dueling was fun for a while though.

Medium: TSO - Lack of a contested dungeon anyone? Only one overland zone. Anoying AA grind, but unlike the EoF aa's, the TSO aa's are useful. Fun, challenging raids. Plenty of multimob encounters. Lots of instances that range from easy to challening is also nice, although I'm bored with them now.

More contested dungeons!

*Hardain* · 03-13-2009, 02:12 PM

KoS and EoF.

Ranx · 03-13-2009, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Changing the way gear worked with DoF really fucked over T5 raiders. They got to see their end game gear, become level 40/42 gear, and become instantly worthless.

This happens every time the level cap raises. i saw it happen to my gear when DoF came out. i saw it happen to my gear when KoS came out. i saw it happen to my gear when RoK came out. happens all the time. hell i saw it happen when EoF came out and the level cap wasnt even raised.