Solstice robes

[splunge]

Imagine:

You finally finished college. You got all your courses completed, and youre on your way to your graduation ceremony.

You get there, and instead of bunches of people in caps and gowns ready to be handed diplomas, are some people with forms for you to fill out, and they say to you 'Sorry, we changed the rules yesterday. You need 2 more years of courses before you can graduate.'

Yeah, if i hadnt have quit already, and i had hundreds of combines waiting to go and this was stuck in my face, id have quit now as well.

This is the straw that wil break many camels backs.

[Sylphan]

When they changed smithing it was done slowly -- it took a *long* time to get around to it. People had whined about smithing vs tailoring difficulty on this board for months before they decided to do something about it. And then it was on test server for something like a whole month.

I, being the sceptic that I am, expected some tradeskill nerfs as soon as I realized how much they'd opened up -- not just 300s but geerlok changes and level caps, plus the new theory that all tradeskills should have the same cap. But I never expected they'd nerf tailoring so fast, before they were ready to nerf everything else at the same time. Or that they'd skip the test server phase, so people had no warning. And I never imagined the velious leathers were in the same 'easy' category as the solstice robes. So even I am caught by surprise this time.

[Darknis Shadowsoul]

Well, as I have mentioned elsewhere, I am a 200 tailor with 150 gem studded chains in the bank, so I was not exactly overjoyed with the change myself.

I don't regard giving feedback and pointing out the effects of the change to the devs as "whining" or being a victim - in fact quite the opposite, it is trying to control the situation and change things.

What I object to is the threats to quit and the sob stories about characters who are going to die after all these years because EVIL Sony changed the trivial level... JUST to annoy tradeskillers, because they HATE us all, especially tailors (today - probably smiths tomorrow).

In fact EQ is just a cunning plot to make us think we are enjoying ourselves and then make us all suffer... muahahahahaha!!!

And you are at 200 in tailoring so the changes affect you at the moment very little. Those of us who are already GM's, and have worked extremely hard to gather the components to make our push to 300, just got the rug pulled out from under us. It's extremely frustrating. This is called the "PRIMAL SCREAM ROOM" so if we want to "whine" as you put it then we will/can/shall. But until you are a GM tailor then your opinion really means nothing to me.

Please do as you said and go post something constructive...someplace else.

[kathwren]

how to lodge complaint?

any suggestions on where to post, or should we do petitions? have stacks ans stacks of hides and was going to do chain/robes to do jc and tailoring together. Would have loved to have had some warning on this. Wouldn't have raided at all, would have just busted butt to do these.

selebi expert artisan (big blinking deal) on morden rasp

[Bobaten]

See, I don't get it. The day after DoN went live Maddoc posted that he was evaluating trivials over 300 and some would be lowered to make skilling up harder. Thats 2 weeks notice. With notice like that, why would you not use up saved materials before a patch?

[Myrron]

All, miakiss has posted an apology in this thread, let's not continue to focus rants on prior things said. Please move on.

--Myrron Lifewarder

[Bolas]

I'm not sure I can comment on the Ceremonial Solstice Robe changes and still keep a civil tongue. That's how passionately I feel about how badly we were screwed over on this change.

Velious Leathers and Ceremonial Solstice Robes trivials should NOT have been changed without 30 days warning. IF they are changed without warning, the ONLY appropriate time to do so would have been with the launch of the new expansion and concurrent with the change in skill caps so that all are affected equally. Certainly not unexpected and overnight changes like this. No legitimate reason to make tailoring any tougher, this is silly.

PLEASE CHANGE IT BACK SONY!!!

-Bolas

[Bolas]

Drukin's post really nailed down the problem. I agree with you 100%.

As for "why was I doing it" it's cause I want to have the title "master artisan" instead of "expert artisan". Pride in character development. Role-playing. In order to role-play a master craftsman, you have to actually have the skills of a master craftsman. This IS a role-playing game, last I checked. Or at least it was trying to pass itself off as one. Not that they'll let us Zek folks move to the role-playing server, Firiona Vie. This got nerfed also.

Time for me to think seriously about quitting EQ and playing Warcraft3. At least nerfs there hit everyone equally.

-Bolas

[Aeght]

Just to play devil's advocate here, if tailoring (and other tradeskills) were really that hard to get to 300, why

1) are there so many 'yay I made 300' posts (some even a day or two after the cap was raised).

2) so many with such large stockpiles of parts complaining? If it is really that difficult to get parts for the combines, how could the stockpiles be that large?

What are people using as a baseline for difficulty?

Again, just playing devil's advocate... I am angry that they would make such a drastic change with no warning too...

Pouncequick

[Maevenniia]

Just to play devil's advocate here, if tailoring (and other tradeskills) were really that hard to get to 300, why

1) are there so many 'yay I made 300' posts (some even a day or two after the cap was raised).

2) so many with such large stockpiles of parts complaining? If it is really that difficult to get parts for the combines, how could the stockpiles be that large?

What are people using as a baseline for difficulty?

Again, just playing devil's advocate... I am angry that they would make such a drastic change with no warning too...

Pouncequick

1.) I counted ....6....Ding 300! posts (in 2 threads) in the Tailoring forum, hardly 'many'. These folks may have already been stockpiling previous to the 02/15 patch and/or had enough cash on hand to buy up supplies in the bazzar and thus skill up immediately.

2.a) Some tradeskillers combine as they go, others wait and accumulate enough components to do skill-up 'runs' (whatever their magic number is...100 combines? 200? 300?) Who are we to judge the way they play? Some folks like to raid 6 hours straight, 5 days+ a week, some folks only log in a couple of hours a week, there are MANY different playstyles.

b) Hi-level fishing was broken around the same time (iirc), thus people were having a hard time getting Cobalt Cod to make Cod Oil. This may have contributed to why people were accumulating large stockpiles of everything else, just waiting to get the Cod Oil to start combining.

[Charfahl]

Yes.

Do you read patch messages? There's a section in there that is dedicated soley to "Community Requested" changes.

Didnt like the new bazaar? They're changing it back. If we don't "whine" about how absolutely seethingly angry we are about our wasted time, plat, effort, then they're not going to change it back.

The response to the new bazaar was lukewarm, and it got turned around quickly. At least some people liked the new bazaar. Find me ONE tailor between 252-300, who had plans to skillup, who is PLEASED about this change in its current form, and I will eat my shorts.

And WHERE did you get this information that they are changing the bazaar back?

-Me

[Ghismonda]

You're right, "back" isn't accurate at all. Combining it with the barter zone and adding a stone to the arena in Lake Rathetear because they removed the bazaar arena are more along the lines of compromise in response to community requests. And the response to the bazaar wasn't nearly this angry!

I don't expect that the trivial levels are going to be put back to 335, but I would expect that in a response as sweeping as this one that they're going to find a solution of compromise that will leave devs with room to breathe and tailors with a rug beneath their feet again. My point was that what some people labeled as "whining" actually does get results. So to the question of "Does this help?" the answer would be a resounding, "Yes."

[Galaddara]

What?

Why the devil would Sony make the Solstice Robe (the final combine item) easier to make than some of the ingredients? The GSC (at least for now) is easy to make and is the bulk of the cost for the robes, but plat's never seemed like a deciding factor for them. I guess this means if you want 300, you better get busy! So much for the nearly 1000 imbued emeralds I've saved up on a mule.

Some of us bought DoN primarily for the tradeskill cap increase. I sure hope some +75 AC items are tailorable now. Either that or give ALL tailors who reach 300 an avenue to make no-drop 20 slot 100% WR bags for themselves. At least that would justify the stress that's been added.

I suggest we all die our toons jet black in protest!

[Wyvernwill]

1) are there so many 'yay I made 300' posts (some even a day or two after the cap was raised).

2) so many with such large stockpiles of parts complaining? If it is really that difficult to get parts for the combines, how could the stockpiles be that large?

Well, here's the deal with all of that.
1) There aren't. Yes, it is entirely theoretically possible to have hit 300 tailoring two days after the patch, who ever would have would have to have had about 900-1200 combines sitting in their bank waiting for the servers to come up. Which brings me to point 2...

2) There are such large stockpiles because most to stockpile about 400 hides out of Velious for whatever leathers, you would end up spending about a week or two JUST farming those items alone to get that many, unless of course you have a means to find the mobs faster.

Solstice Robes are not all that hard to gather up the parts for, but very costly and time consuming. Spider silks are far from uncommon, and you can buy 100s at a time in the bazaar usually. The main time slow up is the Sacred Tunare Silk which requires Imbued Emeralds. Then to take those emeralds and turn them into dust. From there, you go to the plat sink itself in GSC which until the TS raise, failed a lot unless you were an enchanter.

On a personal note, I generally only save up about 200-300 combines tops between burns. But then again, I have always been a paranoid TS'r... I always burn off my supply before patches. /shrug

[Saleani]

Advance warning of a nerf of this magnitude would have cut out more than 90% of the grief. Many tradeskillers knew about the changes that were done in 2002 over a month before hand and were able to minimize their losses.

I personally am pushing my tradeskilling chars to get some of the other skills near to 300 before the next nerf/patch. 300 JC would be nice, but I don't have half a million plat to get there. I won't miss the grief of tailoring at all. Once I get the aid grimel earring on the second char, I'm done with it. I'm tired of farming greens for tailoring. If I try to play a char that will get exp from it, I'm tired of competing with level 70 mages and necros whose pets can wipe whole zones clear. I'm tired of seeing some items drop so infrequently that I think I can get a character to 65 before getting a stack of them. I'm tired of spending 400+ hours (and getting 4 AA off light blue mobs) to get the parts for a quest weapon, and still having to buy an MQ at the end.

As a tradeskiller in a raiding guild, I've had to bite my tongue when the raid looters vendor off important tradeskill items. Did you know that an NPC merchant will pay 19pp for a stack of regrua claws? At least with the new guild bank, much of the tradeskill items end up there. I still have to pay for bricks of ethereal energy off the npc vendors to make rings or sheets for guildies. Actually, I've stopped making sheets and rings this week. I'm tired of paying 1800pp per stack of rings out of my own pockets.