Pre-Tier 2 content balance

[Safiya]

In regards to emp ssra use one healer to spam RGC non-stop on the tank, the others for healing.

Yeah I should have tried that after the first wipe or 5. Heals themselves are covered with only 2 healers I think. Guess I got to write a macro to keep casting the cure or can it be done with in an easier way? the less stuff I have to click on the better. I lag a bit in this encounter (crappy computer and network) and I think that's killed me a few times....sending a cure command to another toon but having it process late or not at all.

Edit - I should be able to write a Holyshit for this in mq2melee I imagine right?

Also will try and bring my wizard into the fight but not sure if my ghetto rig will do it. Either that or try Blood plus the adds with no def disc and save it for Emp. Not sure I need to be popping def on blood.

I'll get him eventually....or toss my PC out the window after another wipe.

[jahosphat]

First and foremost; I never really noticed any real issues leveling from 1 to 70-T1. The biggest difficulties I found were this:

At level 70 for someone that is full Chaotic geared in a bot duo/small group scenario, mobs in Chardok are a little tough, maybe a slight (and I mean slight) reduction in HP is advisable.

Kael Drakkel [with exception of named] mobs hit way to hard for a group of new 70's. I have a partial donor, mixed T4-6 geared Paladin with the T6 BP and T6 augged with some event augs and such, 40k HP 9Kac and was trained by an idiot the other day helping friends out and was shocked that I was nearly overwhelmed. I think maintaining high HP on the giants is cool, they are giants, but I think their attack rating is a bit on the high side, nearly equivalent to T2-3 mobs. For a group rocking shoddy gear they don't stand a chance without help from higher tiered characters. Since the Kael gear is a progression necessity to move on to Tier 1 mobs, Kael needs to be toned down slightly.

Ssra -- What a huge leap this is from 70exp and 70+group zones. I took a group of T3 geared alts to help a friend in need here and to my surprise found myself in several sticky situations and even suffered a wipe on the named mini boss in the basement. Unless you can manage to pull off a raid (considering most new 70's [truly new 70's] haven't made a ton of friends and are typically unguilded pre-T3/5; this is very difficult if not rather improbable) with like 2 full groups of "experienced" new 70's (I'm thinking non-donor/non-plvl/non-twink true progression toons with minimal -- say 50 AA's still) you don't stand much of a chance against any bosses and will have a very hard time navigating the corridors with the thick aggro concentration and the tough to separate mobs.

Also I realize this is a step beyond the scope of your request, but I would add Stillmoon into the mix also. Ever notice the giant jump in difficulty from Ssra trash to Stillmoon trash? I have not seen such a difficult jump in any series of tiers, T2 to T3, T3 to T4, continuing up to T6 as this. Now once you get past Stillmoon, moving on to Veeshan's from here is pretty reasonable.

just my 2 cents

/agree with this guy on just about every point.

[Stickybuds]

Ok, i may rub some folks the wrong way here but, I don't agree with any of this. I never had any of these problems when i was a newbie on THF several years ago and this was when there were no T8 spells available to everyone, there were far less donor items and they were far less powerful, and everyone was far less geared (iirc only one guild was in T7 and 90% of the other guilds hadn't killed CT yet). Also, i solo boxed a druid, which was pretty weak at the time but I didn't know any better and it was the class i played on live.

I think yall are forgetting a few things about EQ.

It is a hard game and is supposed to be hard.
Once you hit max lvl, there are 2 ways to progress your character. Through AAs, and gear. The absolute 1st thing you should be doing once you hit 70 is getting some AAs, and i dont mean 50, i dont even think you can get your def AAs done with 50, let alone your other class core AAs.

Use ALL the tools that are available to you!!! Root stuff! Slow Stuff! Pacify stuff so you can single pull!!! If you have dire charm use it!

I could be wrong but it appears that people are hitting 70, and then trying to jump right into the 70 zones. That is just not how EQ works, and while THF is a custom version of EQ it is still EQ. You need to farm and if you don't you cannot expect to progress.

If anyone ever needs helps or tips for specific mobs or zones or this or that or anything really feel free to hit me up in game (on Mary) or PM me on forums and I'm glad to help. But further dumbing down the lower tiers(they have already be toned down since this thread began), especially when items and spells are becoming ever increasingly powerful, is not the answer.

Regards,
Sticky

[mukkel]

Exactly, Sticky - I did the same thing and worked my way through all of the tiers. It was some of the most fun I've had in a while. This was sometime back of course.

Likewise - if anyone needs a hand and see's either Fitzor / Grumblethorpe online. Just send me a tell. I'm happy to run with you for a bit. I've helped quite a few folks this week with Kael, Ssra, Stillmoon and WoS.

/fitz

[Stickybuds]

And don't forget about LDON missions. Great exp, great gem loots for pp, and gear that you can augment with T5 lvl focus gems.

[Deadspirit]

+1 Stickyb

[Safiya]

I have to disagree too. I am progressing through Ssra now and did Kael and Chardok very recently.

The only thing difficult about Ssra is Emp and possibly High Priest if you can't control or offtank the adds. The rest of the nameds are not really difficult including the Cursed cycle. If you walk in with 50 AA's and 15000 buffed HP on your tank and try to do the Cursed cycle you will get face raped but.....duh. I don't know how T3 geared group can wipe there without sleeping at the wheel unless you tried to walk up to Glyphed and punch him in the nose without killing the Taskmasters/warden/rhozth mobs. I am not positive the cycle is the same here but I do know Glyphed kicked my ass twice when I skipped killing the others first and died easily every time I killed them first. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not. Exiled I think is the dangerous one. Whichever one has the 15k bitchslap....if it comes at the wrong time you are done for...if you know it's coming and you have the HP to eat it...no sweat. Usually. I am still in T1 since I have not killed Emp but can chain pull Cursed cycle nameds and end up with 40% or more mana on healers. Granted, in my current group I have a T8 mage pet but with a completely on tier wizard in that slot the nameds die just the same they just take a minute or three longer.

As to the agro in Ssra there is not a single pull I can think of that is more than three mobs if done well without any FD though there are some 4 pulls if you don't get it just right. Either way, unless one of the Commander guys who are yellow are in the pull the mobs will be LB/DB. Should be a challenge to a fresh group of 70's but what do you expect? There is basically free gear and augs in the basement ghetto area and from first floor nameds. The Rhags even at 0 AA's are laughable. Arch Lich can be a pretty big challenge if you are under 100/150 aa's though. If I have to do it again I would go here before Kael without a doubt.

Yeah you can call Kael a progression zone if you want due to the armor but you can obtain the armor MUCH easier and faster from Icewell and with tradeskills. You can even be smart about it and grind a boatload of AA's while farming for the waters (frogs in PoStorms work well). Kael is really just AoW/Statue/Idol/King.....the rest is just.....mobs in the way of the nameds. Trying to gear up on Kael armor IN Kael as fresh 70's....is not a smart idea. Trust me...I did it. I smithed out Kael gear on my tank and farmed for the rest of my toons in Kael. After banging out Giantslayer and getting the mask and STILL not being close to having full sets for other characters....I only bothered with the nameds but by then I had the AA's to do it. With few AA's the 2 pulls were scary for me and I wiped more than a few times. With AA's on the tank, Kael, including AoW is not a problem. I was so scared to try the big nameds like Idol/Statue/AoW and then laughed my ass off at how easy they were once I tried them. This is not a great zone to grind AA's in for a fresh group imo.

Chardok can be nasty when it comes to pulls in some areas for fresh 70's but it's a great place to grind AA's and snag upgrades including augs. The nameds are not difficult.

As a player who very very recently has progressed almost (Emp...I hate you) all the way through these zones without donor gear or outside help I think they are fine.

[mobsterer]

the "problem" imho is not that everything after valor, sebilis & co is too hard, but the way it suddenly ramps up the difficulty.

first you solo around abit through CB and the likes for hours.
then people start to play around with bots.
then they see that them bots wont cut it and make boxes and start playing with mq2 etc.
---> easy cruising and great fun ploughing through content.
hit 70.
repeat everything as done before in the next set of zones.
get owned hard.
try again.
get owned even more.
suddenly grinding has to be done. (not much really...but still [i am not complaining])
ragequit never join server again.

i bet that is (sadly) the standard routin of most players starting on THF.


P.S.: i now progressed through ssra and did not find emp too difficult

[Safiya]

P.S.: i now progressed through ssra and did not find emp too difficult

I have about 60 corpses who are all giving you the one fingered salute right now.

......but well done man

[mobsterer]

i just want to add a little bit here:

since we completed ssra and did some farming through stillmoon, everything became a breeze again.

it is now trivial again to progress through ToV. vulak is down already and on easy farm status.