Shadowscream and Sickle Trivials to be reduced next patch

[Airl]

I was reading the Fan Faire report on Casters Realm and I noticed this shocking update:

While we were generally encouraged to save tradeskill topics until the Tradeskill panel at Fan Faire, I was fortunate enough to find myself seated at the same table as Maddoc for dinner and I was able to get some information as to some of what he and Absor are planning. In the next patch some of the first modified skill-up rate changes will go in with some high trivial combines offering 10-15% skill-up chances with the possibility for higher skill-up recipes to be added soon. As soon as he has time (I heard he actually left work before midnight once last week!), he plans to go over other potential recipe lines to look into adjusting trivials and increasing skill-up rates. I suggested raising the trivial on magnetic armor for smithing and Murkglider for tailoring to provide paths to 300 for both skills. He also gave a warning that we could expect to see some recipes such as shadowscream, othmir armor, and mistletoe sickles to have their trivials lowered to be more in line with the power of the item created.

So, I guess I'll be doing a lot of farming and smithing combines before June 22. I wonder what a feasible upgrade path will be after they nerf these two smithing recipes?

[dexar]

I knew this was coming...

Waiting to hear the final reports from this "fan faire" , but I assumed that the only viable skill-up routes in smithing would be removed this patch.

How much do you want to bet that the only way to 300 after the patch will be cultural armor?

WTB: 400 Metallic Drake Scales so I can skill up 5 more points in smithing!

Give me a break! Didn't think it possible, but SOE has reached an all time low.

Please tell me SOMEONE at the fan faire stood up and complained about this. I hope it wasn't like the last one I was at where I was the lone voice of discontent while all the others grinned from ear to ear star struck at meeting their heroes.

I guess smithing was too easy after the last 20% increase in combines needed post 250.

Disgusted 264 smith,

Dexar

[Maevenniia]

Othmir armor trivials are being lowered too, I see. As if Tailors needed any more reasons to scream bloody murder. /sigh

I sympathize with you guys, even though Im not 250 yet in either smithing or tailoring so the recipes will likely still be useful for me to skillup on for a few points.

It's ok to vent, just please remember to keep it clean and non-violent, k?

[Eggborn]

/sobs and sobs and sobs and sobs

noooo

omg nooo

noo
no
no
no

That isnt very helpful is it? too bad, either are Sony's bad ideas

[Myrron]

I'll have to admit it's a shame, when there's other MMORPGs out there with three times the population that EQ had in its prime (http://www.mmogchart.com), that Sony would continuously do things to upset the few players they have left. It's almost as if they are trying to drive people away from EQ, and judging from sales and price drops, they sure aren't going to EQII. Admittedly, there were a couple of times where I considered returning to EQ ever since I left about a year ago, but given the changes in some areas and lack of them in others, I haven't seen any reason to. If I came back now, I'd have to catch up on all the new tradeskill stuff (I left when OOW came out), and more likely than not be frustrated instead of having fun. I really sympathize for the people still playing, and I sincerely hope there is a positive reason why Sony would do this.

--Myrron Lifewarder

[Wyvernwill]

well... heh... that makes things a lot more difficult indeed.

Few things I have noticed though. Othmir seemed like it was overlooked from day one. Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't everything else from velious lowered? (I never really looked back at my velious kit before it hit the delete key).

Mistletoe Cutting Sickles were a shoe in to get axed if you ask me. Everyone knew it was coming, just a matter of when. Now we know. Shadowscream actually kind of surprised me though. Doesn't it max at like 270 tops as is?

With Sickles gone, it seems to leave few options that I see. The options for smithing:
Blue Diamond Cultural (unless this gets changed too, all max at 335)
Master Level Cultural (for some races this is a lot harder than others, but trivial at 304)
Grandmaster Level Cultural (Not really the "ideal" for skilling, but in a way, you gotta do what ya gotta do)
PoP Smithing (not sure on plane of nightmare, but all of the others trivial at 335)

Given that Elementals aren't hunted much anymore, it makes for a tougher time skilling, that's for certain. It's far from impossible, but going to be extremely difficult none-the-less. Masters and GM aren't great options either. Although, if I read what was posted right... it sounds like there are going to be some recipes added soon... so who knows what that will yeild.

Tailoring has been pretty much put down to the same as what Smithing will be with Othmir Furs gone. Guess the last of my funds will be going to getting smithing finished fast, only have 24 points to go atm.

[Angelsyn]

well... heh... that makes things a lot more difficult indeed.

Few things I have noticed though. Othmir seemed like it was overlooked from day one. Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't everything else from velious lowered? (I never really looked back at my velious kit before it hit the delete key).

Mistletoe Cutting Sickles were a shoe in to get axed if you ask me. Everyone knew it was coming, just a matter of when. Now we know. Shadowscream actually kind of surprised me though. Doesn't it max at like 270 tops as is?

With Sickles gone, it seems to leave few options that I see. The options for smithing:
Blue Diamond Cultural (unless this gets changed too, all max at 335)
Master Level Cultural (for some races this is a lot harder than others, but trivial at 304)
Grandmaster Level Cultural (Not really the "ideal" for skilling, but in a way, you gotta do what ya gotta do)
PoP Smithing (not sure on plane of nightmare, but all of the others trivial at 335)

Given that Elementals aren't hunted much anymore, it makes for a tougher time skilling, that's for certain. It's far from impossible, but going to be extremely difficult none-the-less. Masters and GM aren't great options either. Although, if I read what was posted right... it sounds like there are going to be some recipes added soon... so who knows what that will yeild.

Tailoring has been pretty much put down to the same as what Smithing will be with Othmir Furs gone. Guess the last of my funds will be going to getting smithing finished fast, only have 24 points to go atm.

Let's not forget that Tae Ew Weapons & Chain Armour all trivial at 295... and for higher level people, farming the Tae Ew Blood isn't too hard.

[Maisie]

Boy am I glad I finished smithing today... fletching is stuck at 282 atm, I dont see it moving soon, and tailoring at 267 and with othmir about to be gone I am kinda at a loss for skillup paths now.. /sigh better get to farming!

[Ngreth Thergn]

Ah... I so love the "If you agree with them you are a fanboy" mentality... it helps soooo much!

but anyway...

Yes, they plan on reducing trivials for "easy" to get stuff, but also giving increased skillup for some of the other more valuable stuff like the new DoN stuff. So overall clarifying the path to skillup.

Yes it is painful. Change sometimes is.

[Eggborn]

Ah... I so love the "If you agree with them you are a fanboy" mentality... it helps soooo much!

but anyway...

Yes, they plan on reducing trivials for "easy" to get stuff, but also giving increased skillup for some of the other more valuable stuff like the new DoN stuff. So overall clarifying the path to skillup.

Yes it is painful. Change sometimes is.

It is painful. It started with Planes of Power with the ideas that you have to have flags to make and farm certain items. I remember when tradeskills had no limit to the level you could be. I smithed with my main and raised my baking to 250 on my level 24 druid. While I do like to be able to make wonderful stuff, I hate the trend that levels and flags for hunting experience is supposed to make you a better tradeskiller. My 24 druid can't get AA's, but why should that stop a halfling from making the best pies on all of Norrath?

[Angelsyn]

It is painful. It started with Planes of Power with the ideas that you have to have flags to make and farm certain items. I remember when tradeskills had no limit to the level you could be. I smithed with my main and raised my baking to 250 on my level 24 druid. While I do like to be able to make wonderful stuff, I hate the trend that levels and flags for hunting experience is supposed to make you a better tradeskiller. My 24 druid can't get AA's, but why should that stop a halfling from making the best pies on all of Norrath?

Baking is easy... I hit 300 Baking without ever making a single MTP.

I mostly did PoP baking to 270-ish, then did primarily Omelete Supremes.

[Flehmen]

Well, I'll say it again.

The message that I've been seeing from SOE is

"If you want to skill-up, you got to level."

That makes sense if you also look at the idea that they want you to explore content and group above all else. Even if you might enjoy tradeskilling.

Personally, I have few play hours, scattered as life sends them too me. That isn't conductive to good groups, good xp, or good farming. <shrug> That isn't a complaint, just a fact. Unfortunately, my complaint is that I am beginning to feel like all it is about is a lvl mill.

I could go get MQ2 if all I wanted was to
1. find blue/white thing
2. whack blue/white thing
3. repeat

My closest groupie... my spouse... has taken to killing rats in the forgotten halls for a ding a night. OMG I can't stand it! Was fun to do it occasionally, if only to get the ding, but now it seems almost a necessity.

Back to the point I suppose. It seems to me that the changes being made are making specific things more difficult while not looking at the overall, dare I say it, holistic view.

Why not have lvl 150 smiths or tailors making kick ass lvl 25 gear? And lets make the drops not too hard to get, perhaps the result of some of the tasks in the task system to keep them from being too over-done and available to lvl 25s? Or how about putting in a max level to obtain a quest as well as the many min levels?

Make the market hard to break into for straight farming but with enough reward to make you feel like you're a valuable asset to your guild or your friends? I'm not talking about game breaking stuff... an uber lvl 25 gear is simply NOT going to break anything.

I don't want to sit here farming shadowscream, fighting with the other farmers, some of whom you know are going to farm swirling shadows and put em up in the baz for 1k a piece until they become worthless. I'd like to explore content too.

Unfortunately, I guess it comes down to the fact that I should have stuck with EQ back when I graduated rather than taking 3 or 4 years off. Or more to the point I should have not come back to EQ. No, I can't say that, I very much was enjoying EQ until the last few months of worry about tradeskill nerfing... with what I see as no plan other than add more high level content gear.

Take care guys, hope to see you in game...

[Ngreth Thergn]

Also.

What "they" are saying make sense.

It does not make alot of sence to have to make 2000 useless things to get to 300. They want you to make 1000 usefull things instead.... so they are ajusting for that.

Now I do disagree with the trend of needing to be level 65 to get to skill 300 :/ But that is totally my opinion, and not a "Stance" of EQTC. Of course there are still ways around that as far as I knwo. but the "easy" path is still by getting 65 first.

[Flehmen]

Also.
What "they" are saying make sense.
It does not make alot of sence to have to make 2000 useless things to get to 300. They want you to make 1000 usefull things instead.... so they are ajusting for that.

Lol, so we are in agreement then. I'd love to be more useful to people. I'd love to be able to skill-up as a by product of making nifty things. I don't particularly need or want to be 300 at anything.

The problem, as I see it, is that they are changing the 2000 useless things into no way to skill up except by either higher level farming, or bazaar purchases. In other words, you got to be higher level to farm/earn the plat...

Actually, I enjoy brewing up a batch of grobb's liquidized meat because I can sell it in the bazaar and it is useful. I make enough to cover my costs and do a little more skilling but the price isn't insane because of baz gouging. Heck, I'd buy from me because it's a good price even though I am a cheap guy! But I skilled up mostly on MHB and I hated most of that time I spent simply clicking combine to sell back to a vendor.

What I don't see from "them" is a replacement of the recipes that "they" intend to nerf. I love the idea of a max level 40 quest that makes a level 25 uber item. Something that anyone who puts a little time and effort into TSing can eventually make *at any level below the max* but that simply cannot break the game! (this also might solve the problem of having to buy hand-me-downs in the bazaar so regularly.) The DoN armour is almost this but I can't sell it for what it costs to make and currently have it in the baz for what it has cost me to make, btw. I guess I just need to level up so I can get my AAs so this smithing thing isn't quite so expensive.

[rant]I'll also admit to being a bit bitter about the whole throw plat at it until you get there attitude that I see. The devs can't fix it now, but shouldn't the cap raise have waited for the whole TS re-vamp in order to eliminate "exploits" before they became such a supposed problem.[/rant]

I guess what I am saying is that I'd like to have Tradeskills more integrated into my xping. I want to go hunt stuff that I will get tradeskill stuff from, which in turn is made into useful gear/whatever rather than thinking... "oh, gotta go farm a bunch of greens" and I agree with you that the changes coming will certainly eliminate some of the farming green stuff.

Oh well, time to go update my sig got myself another 150 skill-ups or so out of necessity for cultural armour.

Take care.

[Wyvernwill]

That is kind of the state of things with PoP Armors, OoW armors and DoN armors. All have drops that tend to fall in exp zones around what level the classes are geared for. Now, all things considered OoW armors weren't so good at this (RSS for Gear that maxes out at 125ish hps?!) RSS is way beyond the point that anything made there would typically be a good upgrade to anyone that can farm and make it themselves.

I'm not sure where the "must get 65" is coming from. If it's from DoN GM symbols, ok. However, the armor itself can be made at lower levels. You don't have to make the symbols as you can quest the pattern book at any level as far as I know.