Pre-Tier 2 content balance

[mdletendre]

The one thing I hate, when trying to complete any quest, is to have to compete for spawns. As for 1.5 I had no trouble tackling the first 3 level of encounters if the spawn was available. Since they were on a 6 hours timer, I knew that eventually they would spawn for me. I did not have the chance to kill a dragon but I took the opportunity given by some uber player to loot one. But this left me with a sour taste since I did not complete the quest by my own.

I had to resolve to take that free loot because Dragons are on 24hr spawn and I did not know if I would ever get the chance to see another one available for me.

I am not sure if it is possible, but I would replace the Dragons with either the same mob in a raid ldon or maybe use the hard ldon system that you would have to complete several times (X number of hard point) or have the final mob have a chance to drop the equivalent of the dragon heart.

[Grey]

Ahh the good ole days of leveling alts from 1-20 or so in CB then straight to CT with a delvld 50ish toon and being able to nearly max tailoring on several characters while leveling that new alt.

[Mahulk]

In an ideal world, people killing dragons for their epic 1.5 would have the HH quest active so that the kill is not lost. In reality, it happens that you return later to get the kill and dont need the blood. Would it be possible to have a PH that would count for the quest but that does not drop the blood?

To me, the strength of the chaotic set(s) and some specific drops from 30-55 level range (ie Imbued Steel Barbrute) is too high. Either that or Kael/Icewell set needs to be bumped up to at least match those items. There is a huge step going from Ornate to Chaotic and from what I hear there is also a good jump from Kael/Icewell to first raid set. There should be no problem making them both on par with their level.

[Allizar]

In an ideal world, people killing dragons for their epic 1.5 would have the HH quest active so that the kill is not lost. In reality, it happens that you return later to get the kill and dont need the blood. Would it be possible to have a PH that would count for the quest but that does not drop the blood?

I don't see this happening. I want to give players the sense of accomplishment of being able to progress both quests with a small group of friends, but not make them full-proof. Things will be a bit hectic while some characters backflag, but then it should calm down and even out

To me, the strength of the chaotic set(s) and some specific drops from 30-55 level range (ie Imbued Steel Barbrute) is too high. Either that or Kael/Icewell set needs to be bumped up to at least match those items. There is a huge step going from Ornate to Chaotic and from what I hear there is also a good jump from Kael/Icewell to first raid set. There should be no problem making them both on par with their level.

This is being looked at, there is a massive amount of custom items spread across multiple zones It's time consuming and will take a while

[Catamander]

We have found something of a lag in gear after Kael / level-70 group gear. Being well enough equipped to farm Kael / Chardok and even some of the easier named in Ssra (Rhag 1 & 2) and PoFire (the front yard ornate droppers) I am finding the gear progression pretty weak. Even the ornate mold results from fire, while good in many respects, are very poor in AC as upgrades to the Kael armor (tank gear, SK specifically in my case).

I started churning LDoN missions and did manage to snag a huge upgrade through that system, but at 30 pts per mission (current gear does not allow me to tank hard missions) it takes something like 34 missions (which would take about 20-25 hours for us) to get enough points for one slot (1k pts, 400 for base piece, 600 for augment).

So, what I am wondering is where the 1-grp content is that drops 300-400 hp and significantly higher ac gear for tanks? Given the relatively weak AC on the Ssra and PoFire ornate gear, it seems there is a real progression gap in tank gear. Or maybe I am missing something?

[Jeido]

Or maybe I am missing something?

You're not missing anything, no. This server is balanced towards raid groups taking out bosses, not groups. The only real group content past Kael trash andPoFire trash/minis are LDoN's. To kill Ssra+ bosses without out-gearing them severely, you need 2-3 groups (closer to 3).

That's not to say that more group content couldn't be added, but it's just hard to make it even worth raiding for items if you can get just as good drops doing group stuff. Your best bet right now would be LDoN grinding, just because that gear can be some of the best once aug'd.

I'm not sure if you've seen this yet or not, but it may be worth taking a look.

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=207

Good luck.

[Catamander]

Thanks, Jeido. I was afraid the LDoN grind would be the answer. It's just painfully, mind-numbingly boring. The 20+ hours of gameplay to get the 1k pts to upgrade one slot wouldn't be so bad except it's just a horribly slow dull grind. I don't even mind the long hard work to get there, but the soul-killing boredom of doing hundreds of LDoNs might break me. I'd much prefer to see something like the headhunter quests or even long epic-like diverse multi-zone quests that drove gear advancement instead of rinse-and-repeat instances. Even it still worked out to 20+ hours for one excellent upgrade, at least it would offer some diversity and exploration ( and some fun ) instead of feeling like a bad job I had to take to gear up.

Anyway, just my 2c as a would-be tank working his way up through the 1-group content.

[Zaria]

Cat, I think this issue you're facing is living up to live eq - if you didn't join a guild and raid, your toon could only go so far. While I understand your frustration, I'm also glad to see another part of live eq on this server. So many of the other servers have become wow with eq models. =(

[lazylob]

Thanks, Jeido. I was afraid the LDoN grind would be the answer. It's just painfully, mind-numbingly boring. The 20+ hours of gameplay to get the 1k pts to upgrade one slot wouldn't be so bad except it's just a horribly slow dull grind. I don't even mind the long hard work to get there, but the soul-killing boredom of doing hundreds of LDoNs might break me. I'd much prefer to see something like the headhunter quests or even long epic-like diverse multi-zone quests that drove gear advancement instead of rinse-and-repeat instances. Even it still worked out to 20+ hours for one excellent upgrade, at least it would offer some diversity and exploration ( and some fun ) instead of feeling like a bad job I had to take to gear up.

Anyway, just my 2c as a would-be tank working his way up through the 1-group content.

I would recommend using tokens of vulak so you can kill trash in Stillmoon Temple or work on the Temple of Veeshan quest armor. Both of those sets are easy to get and all the content is pretty much one groupable. Now you may need to get into a guild or create one to be able to get into the zone.

So far that is what I have been doing. I like to think zones labeled raid content really just are hard group content!

[Deadspirit]

+1 for Lazylob.

When I was progressing as my 1-group team I couldn't kill Emp SSra but I certainly could farm Seb for much needed AC augs and plat.

Once I had a bag full of Sturdiness augs and ~30k I bought Kluin/Vulak tokens to get my team access to Stillmoon (lowest Kluin was 2k, highest was 10k / Lowest Vulak was 10k, highest was 13k).

At first the Stillmoon mobs were rough. I would die on spiders in defensive because they were freakin brutal! As you buff your AC the mobs get easier and you can get a nice set of armor.

LDON is great for the odd-pieces for focuses and pof-level ac/HP - Namely Earrings, shoulder and belt.

When you progress the problem changes drastically. You can start to tank stuff decently because of the AC softcap... but if you dont have the dps to back you up then your 1-group team will become less effective.

THF is a great server for 1-group progression up to a certain point (some have found that to be VP).

To Quote Lazy -

So far that is what I have been doing. I like to think zones labeled raid content really just are hard group content!

...Time to level a Paladin or another Warrior so I can go back and do Emp, which I couldn't do before.