Easy Twinky

[Mahlig]

I was playing my newb Erudite enchanter last night. I created him on Stormhammer to create my own mana vials, imbue metals, etc for when Kiztent is not on (muahahaha). His equipment? Newbie dagger, Newbie robe, +2 Int ring he made, a necklace he made, a bracer he made. Killed in Butcherblock and made over 100pp in order to get JC started. His intelligence is about 168 now...no buffs other than his own spells. Newbs are only "easy" if you are lazy. The fact is that they have put *more* mobs in newbie zones so as an untwinked, non-PLed newbie, the deck is stacked against you. I think I died 3 times at level 1!!! And you only need 6 kills!!! Not gonna say how many times I had to run to the guards. Did I care that the "buff nerf" went in? No. I know what I am doing (though the deaths say otherwise)...just not real good at playing a chanter. ops:

Dark - You mentioned something about the newb mistakes people are doing. One of them struck me as funny (as I am a wizard, you can guess which one). I was in a group the other day and a blue to 63 was pulled. I waited until the mob was at 49% health. I cast my Draught spell that takes about 2.5 secs to cast and does 950 damage. No crit. Just a normal hit. I got aggro. Do you think I was over nuking? Perhaps I am just a newb, by your standards. Or perhaps, the wizard (or any nuker for that matter) is not at fault for getting aggro. For the record, I was missed once and my Epic Shield absorbed the other 3 hits.

[Itek]

People seem to forget....

EQ is a dying game.

EQ2 is expected to have a 75 to 80 percent buy-in from the existing players. (With pre-orders around 35 to 40 percent.) It might even be higher.

"Cross-over zones: There will be zones available in EQ only to those that have EQ2 and zones in EQ2 that are only available to those that have EQ."

Now.... where do you figure the BEST equipment in the game will drop?

... "Cross-over zones??" ... *bing* Exactly. SOE would dearly love for 100 percent of the EQ players to plunk down 50 bucks for EQ2 to gain those cross over zones. .... Oh, and don't forget the extra 9 bucks a month to keep them.

I for one welcome the new "easier" advancement. Because while I will buy EQ2 for the cross-over zones, I won't have the requirement to run EQ2. (Plus I don't want to even THINK about having to sit in a 'rotation' for a_bat_04 in Greater Fay.)

So that means I will be left behind. And I would much rather find that when I do /who all cleric 50 65 there actually ARE a few still around. *grin*

The "hardcore" EQ'ers (the ones that got PoP flags, the one's with 1750 tradeskills, the ones with 200 login days) are going to FLOCK to EQ2 to see "who's the best" once again. Don't believe me? Stromm.

The casual players (the ones who's highest level character is 32) love these things that make the game easier. Plus SOE would like to continue to attract NEW customers (novel concept) who didn't join the game the first 4 years BECAUSE it was so hard.

If you miss the old days... don't worry, they are returning to a PC near you ... EQ2, pre-order it today.

If you don't miss waiting 30 minutes for a boat ride, then a LONG boat ride, then a quick run through a KOS town, then zone twice more, then wait another 30 minutes for a boat ride, then another 30 minute wait, then a DOUBLE length boat ride, then running across 5 MORE zones... Hang around, the water is warming up nicely.

(Think I am exaggerating? Grab a port to ButcherBlock. OOT boat (dark race, KOS to the FV guards, who SEE INVIS at one point), Run thru East Freeport (KOS from helping Pally friends), NRo, Oasis boat, Dark Race docks in Tim Deep, Boat to Overthere (don't hunt in Karnors etc, can't afford the faction loss), Run Overthere to Warsliks, to Field of Bone, to Swamp of No Hope, to Trak's Teeth, to get to Sebilis. Port to Emerald Jungle you say? Noooo. Sorry, Kunark DUNGEON only evac. Need to get Dreadlands port and then DRAG the taxi to Karnors to even try it. Good luck, or pay plat out an inconvienient orifice. Oh, nostalgia for the old days.)

[Darknyss]

still too easy

I am in no way saying that they have never made any nice convenient upgrades to the game in general.

Nor am I trying to say that they're making it WAY too easy for the lower levels.

I'm simply saying that the games higher levels were usually filled with those who knew how to play the game well, and that the lessons (learned from the tougher challenges as lowbies) taught a player how to cope with tougher mobs (i.e. not needing 3 lvl 65 buffs and twinked gear to hunt in Crushbone)

Nor am I saying that mistakes can't be made at higher level. For example, a wizard (or druid) gaining aggro is not exactly "uncommon"... but when a Wizard chain nukes before the warrior finishes pulling and blames us for not keeping aggro, i begin to wonder a bit... the same can be said for any class.

I'm just a bit peeved as to how easy it is to get to the higher level stuff wihout having learning or experiencing 90percent of the lower level challenges, making "status" on the server to become less and less identifiable.

alas, i miss the old days... when gaining levels were a part of your ability to play the game and the way to learn your character.... now it's the thing you want to skip through so you can have access to cool zones and ph4t l3wtz...

[Reflan]

It's definitely true that level used to be far more of an accomplishment. So much so that while there were always more than enough jerks in EQ, like any other internet game, there sometimes seemed to be notably less at the high end, besides some of the uber guild people.

Leveling was so slow and hard that bratty punks with no attention span or ability to work with others either weeded themselves out or were weeded out by others in the long slow grind.

And it used to be a matter of course that people got to dungeons as soon as they could to learn how to play properly and get ready for the stresses of the end game. To be lousy at top level would be unacceptable and give you a terrible reputation that could be very, very hard to overcome. You really tried to learn. Cazic Thule, for one, was a place where people tried to get some solid experience both in grouping with all kinds of different classes and playing styles and in dealing with confined quarters. Even though SOW worked there, it was like Guk and Sol A a great place to ease into the high end game.

Now you can pretty much just blast right through. The gear is so far above the level of the mobs you need to kill to level that leveling is extremely trivial compared to what it used to be. Besides the outrageous twink gear and the long period we had during which you could buff level 1's with level 60 spells, by now so many people have multiple accounts to use to powerlevel that there's just as much of a chance as seeing a newbie level 65 as a newbie 25.

Level is just no real signal of accomplishment or experience anymore. Oh well. I have to admit I benefitted by that a bit. I got my warrior to level 51 in 29 played hours. There are some people who claim to be able to do much better than that. At least that will be fixed now. Somewhat. We'll see.

[Cubwynn]

Lilosh, buy a Garish Sash. Should cost about 1k at wal-mar..err, the bazaar. Has a right click of Brilliance, a 12 INT buff. Its not KEI, but its yours forever......

Its the belt I wear all the time BTW....

I love my Garish Sash. Problem is the level 45 recommended level for the clicky. I don't think his enchanter is close to that level.

[Lilosh]

KEI wouldnt be a problem is Smalltim were that big.


-Lilosh

[Darknyss]

thank you Reflan, you summed up my biggest peeves about EQ... I'm glad to see there are others out there that share my view... perhaps whn all the childish no-attention span l3wt wh0res leave for EQ2, WoW, and others, we'll be left with a stronger tighter gaming community... at least I hope.

[Morani]

perhaps when all the childish no-attention span l3wt wh0res leave for EQ2, WoW, and others, we'll be left with a stronger tighter gaming community... at least I hope.

Now THERE is the best arguement for staying with EQ I've ever heard.

[Unmei]

People seem to forget....

EQ is a dying game.

Lots of people make this claim, and I've yet to hear anything resembling supporting evidence.

If EQ is on its deathbed like everyone claims... why have they opened so many new servers in the past few months? Servers cost a lot of non-recoverable dollars. If they're losing people, they don't need to add new hardware. There's no reason for them to do so. But they have.

Maybe, just maybe, even though a bunch of older players are burning out, enough new players are joining the game that it is, in fact, growing?