kaif

They dont do Adventure packs any more.

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Laodaron

First of all, KoS introduced 2 free raid zones. That would be great. One is probably Thex castle for sure. Now if there were others, I wonder what speculation there would be. Also, making a new starting city and evil race would be awesome, but it should be in an area that already exists in the game. That way they could utilize the current lower level zones, maybe make it in GFay, and share it with Kelethin, that place and starting zone sucks balls anyway.

The expansion, RoK could possibly be game-breaking, and I mean that in a good way. The devs have the chance to fix stats and stats caps and the we diminishing return curves. They havethe chance to fix itemization on the first go-round, and they have a chance to release high end content that isn't broken.

I do honestly hope that the evils get Neriak back. That would be cool, and wouldn't fuck up the chance of RoK being a T8 raid expansion.

Aralas

ok neriak = free update down the road?
kunark = next expac who knows when

Laodaron

That's what we're hoping for.
Neriak = Free content somewhere we already have.
RoK = Expack T8 raiding Expack somewhere probaby about 8-10 months from now.

Ever

I was hoping Oct/Nov ... Dec wouldn't be too good of a time due to holidays. Maybe we'll see an announcement in the next month.

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Eyib - 70 Conj || Faeiry - 70 Monk || Ever - 70 Carp

ZeroRavesOn

It's not going to be that far away.

They basically said they were moving to the 9 month schedule between expansions, which places one around August. I suspect we'll be getting an official RoK announcement about the first week of May, with Beta opening up around mid to late June.

Also, if you have the test server client installed, in the "Neriak" subfolder it has a file called eq2ui_newcharscene2.xml in it. There also is a seperate "Exp04" subfolder, with generic content.

From this, I think that Neriak will be a new evil noob town to be the counterpart of Kelethin, and that it will be independant of RoK.

Laodaron

I've only read the Devs state that they prefer the ~1 year expansions, gives them more time. I'd prefer them not to rush it, I'm more than willing to wait until Nov, Dec.

gungo

if you are expecting perfect itemization, a new combat revamp on diminishing return, and a compeltely T8 expansion i would leave now because yoru bound to be disapointed.

There is no intention in the imediate future to adjust the diminishign return curve. The only thing that cna happen will be a rise in the exsisting level based caps. (sucks for haste caps) Secondly although i hope RoK will be majorily T8 based, i doubt the eq2 dev team will make it completely high-end. The want to actually sell the expansion, which means they have to cater to more then the exsisting raiding community. For some reason i am expecting a DoF type expansion with more content and very little combat changes. and although i like archonix alot i doubt even he can itemize aa complete expansion without some issues arising with item progression. It is very hard to consider the effect of every item on every class and place them in a progrssive manner that does not ever conflict. As long as new abilities and skills enter the game it will be impossible to be infallible.

My hopes is the expansion will be a new tier based expansion w decent amount of raid content at release. New item based skills that foster progressive itemization development. a Save raid feature and multiple day raid zones. a Large progressive EPIC quest and tons of repeatable heroic content.

Btw HOS and lyceum were nto free raid zones, they were actually included in the game just released late (read:unfinished). Don't beleive me look at the KoS prima guide.

Laodaron

The curve will begin to fix itself with a level cap increase. I don't want a combat revamp, and nothing in my post even alluded to that. And I didn't mean only T8 and only raiding, just that at this point the devs are paying more attention to this aspect of the game, so expect some good things. And also, I don't believe itemization to be the insanely difficult mission that you imply it to be, although I do believe it to be involved and probably hard to do overall. Actually, your post while quoting mine, completely missed the point of everythig I said.

gungo

You don't think itemization is hard? There is conflicting opinions on whats best for whom even in this thread. Lets take caster for instance. You have some classes that benefit mroe from procs then others, you have some classes that benefit mroe from + % damage then others, you have some classes that benefit more form + spell damage then others.
while you create one item w one effect it has vastly different "power potential" for one classs to the next. you cna make a belt w + 5% spell damage and it will be the best sorcerer belt but be inferior compared to the BCG for a illusinist.

Btw the curve will not fix itself w level cap increase. Certain non level based skills like haste/dps will get screwed. And mudflation of item stats is not linear like the increase of the diminishing return cap. Which is why i want a pure item based skill progression for raids.

Offtopic but what i mean by item based skills is 4 new skills only raised by itemization. Spell shield, spell block, Guard, and strikethrough. Spell shield is an additional ressit check for T8+ mobs making it harder to land debuffs. Spell block is an additional to hit check on ressited spells, guard is an additional avodi melee/ranged check, and strikethrough is an additional to hit melee/ranged check. these 4 abilities are only raised through itmeizationa dn thus provides and artificial item based progression with NPCs gaining linear difficulty by a rise in these skills. With pc's obtaining these skilsl through items.

I also want a seperate persona number to display spell resist and spell mitigation. Like melee. this would provide additioanl means to develope characters. Also taunts can be mitigated like eveyr other spell in my opinion.