Blessed Coldain Prayer Shawl effect ... and 70

[Baltazor Goldsinger]

I take your point about EQ being progressive... and would have to ask then, what was more progressive than the Shawl quests? I don't really care to debate it though, if I'm the only one thinking its sad that this great item is / has become irrelevant then so be it.

It just seems sad that Velioius is being left out and that the icy Thurgadinian halls have become so quiet and solem now, when a major new quest(s) would pump life and vitality back into it. There are some great Velious era quests that are now no longer done because of a lack of incentive... it just seems like with a small amount of work on SoE's part we could not only keep a few treasured items current but also could keep people exploring and visiting these lands.

[Trellium]

I don't think EQ is at all about progression, the Shawl quests being a fine example. A progression based game, to my mind, would be one of building blocks - that you need to have previous gear that you can upgrade. The shawl quests are progression based to me, since you get one shawl, then continue on to a new quest to obtain upgrades, and keep the gear and your efforts current. That is "progression" to me, what is not progression is someone getting to level 65+ with minimal quality gear and skipping 99.999% of the quests in the game, and then use raiding points to get gear near the current end game of EQ.

EQ is more about tossing out everything that went before, and getting totally different stuff from totally different zones (or completely revamped zones), with absolutely no sense of history whatsoever.

You don't need to spend all the time people spent on tradeskilling and farming and hunting to make a shawl, you just have to grind to 65 and hop into OoW and hunt there. There isn't progress at all, not for the people who spent the time and effort to complete the earlier quests. There is only avoidance.

When people say EQ is easier today than it was, this is how I interpret their sentiments. Why bother ever doing the shawl quests for any reason, if you can get more powerful and longer lasting gear from an expansion? Why spend all that effort on the shawls, when you could spend the time getting augs/gear to do more?

And, what could possibly have hurt EQ if some of the drops in OoW would actually make the 8th Shawl into a current quest, so that there is still a reason for new (as well as older) EQ players to complete the endless amounts of content already in the game? The best advice I could give anyone today is not to ever bother with the Shawl quest - its a dead end quest and you will outgrow it long before you complete it if you are starting from scratch.

More than anything, Everquest is a game about obsolescence.

[Nolrog]

I ran this up the flag pole. I'll let you know if anyone salutes.

[Nolrog]

This is the reply I got when forwarding this question on.

There are no plans to upgrade the effects of either of these items.

While the quest for the prayer shawl is time consuming and even tedious to complete it really isn't all that difficult. The Shawl had already received a bump up in it's focus when POP came out to work on level 65 spells, because before it capped at level 60 like every other foci in the game pre-POP. Dev does not feel it warrants another upgrade in power. In addition, the event ends at the 8th step. You see the Avatar of Brell and he blesses that Shawl and that's it; there isn't anything else that can be done story/lore wise to add in another step.

As for the Signet of the Arcane, this is not warranted for an upgrade either. Yes, you do need to work up multiple skills for the item, and you do need planar access, but the item is better than any items from the elemental planes. Higher tiered items from Plane of Time scale the same way as this earring, and it is not felt that an exception should be made just because it's tradeskilled. The item is superb even without the focus scaling fully to 70.

If players want more tradeskilling options for items, that is a different possibility all together. We'd rather give players another Coldain Shawl or Arcane Signet quest that involves heavy tradeskilling along with other requirements for new and improved items.

[Starlight]

Well bring'em on then, give us more big tradeskill quests!
Though I dread that they might give us one that requires 250 in all skills, still, getting more quests is always a good thing

Sucks that they won't upgrade the old ones, but just move on and see the positive in things - they do know about it, they do think about it, something new will see the light of day soon enough for us to drool over and sit in faraway underused zones for days on end to get that elusive drop we need... well, at least I think it's fun - most of the time

[Trellium]

Thanks for the update from SOE. That is good news, I just deleted all of my shawl 6 and components to make bank space.

[Ozmandias]

Pfft Trell, you should suffer and get 8th shawl! Plus I like doing the walk, it's a lot of fun. Also, that'll make you not as likely to bid against me on the upcoming shoulder drops we get that I want!

[Trellium]

heh heh - well I think Sanadila is still planning on doing hers, so there might be more gnome walking to be done. Seems FT isn't as hard to get any more (sitting at FT21 now without the shawl), and the limitations on the focus effects after level 65 make me feel like time is spent better doing something else.

Its too bad too - I like doing the quests but not if I know I am just going to bank the item. I like doing a long quest and using the item for a long time.

[Baltazor Goldsinger]

Thanks VERY much Nolrog for getting us an answer! That was very cool of you . At least we know not to expect any more and can move on... sort of like getting official "closure".

This might sound kinda wacky...oh wait, I AM a tradeskiller...almos forgot! but I really would enjoy it if they WOULD do more progressive quests! Sort of thought they had figured that out by now... that people enjoyed doing them.

[Balcorii]

I would love to see updates to the Shawl and the ring quests for further items. Alot of us worked hard on these quests at the time. The final ring battle took an entire guild 4 hours back in the day and wasnt always successful. I wont even go into the work for the 7th and 8th shawls by tradeskillers.

I understand that the 8th shawl was blessed by a god but why couldnt the dain find something in the elemental planes that will allow these items to have boosted stats that make them comparable to an EP Item. And why not go beyond that with GOD or OOW and make a further upgrade to get them to OOW quality.

We arent asking for it to be easy. Back when I got my 7th shawl there were like 6 others on my server that I was aware of and that was a couple months after the quest was released. And now the ring quests are rarely completed at least the 10th ring. It is too bad because Velious was my favorite expansion ever as far as the content is concerned.

[Aeght]

I would love to see updates to the Shawl and the ring quests for further items. Alot of us worked hard on these quests at the time. The final ring battle took an entire guild 4 hours back in the day and wasnt always successful. I wont even go into the work for the 7th and 8th shawls by tradeskillers.

I understand that the 8th shawl was blessed by a god but why couldnt the dain find something in the elemental planes that will allow these items to have boosted stats that make them comparable to an EP Item. And why not go beyond that with GOD or OOW and make a further upgrade to get them to OOW quality.

We arent asking for it to be easy. Back when I got my 7th shawl there were like 6 others on my server that I was aware of and that was a couple months after the quest was released. And now the ring quests are rarely completed at least the 10th ring. It is too bad because Velious was my favorite expansion ever as far as the content is concerned.

Moreover, the 'blessed by a god' line is a bit of a cop out... after all, a first level cleric buff is technically a 'blessing from a god' in that it invovles a channeling of divine power... does that mean that there should be no cleric buffs or spells beyond first level?

The 8th Shawl is blessed directly by Brell, but who is to say he placed his strongest possible blessing on it?

In theory, we are currently defending this reality from an invasion of beings who worship entirely different gods... if any at all...

Do not such drastic situations warrant more drastic interventions? (And the line about the gods forsaking us does not cut it, since Brell is still happy to meddle in handing out 8th shawls ).

Aeght

[Quseio]

someone should start a pettition/polll site for quests upgraded/continued
#1 on the list would be Shawl) I would do it if i had any kind of computer skill

hmm also maybe a continuateion of that Bluesteel neriak quest it sounds fun
a upgrade for the sk anti shissar weapon.
A coldain style war and shawl type quest for both iskar and Sarnak factions
Coldain style quests for Kaladim!

A Grudge match war quest between freeport neriak and ther allies.

If they focused on content like this the would only have to add a few new zones.

[Maevenniia]

Nope, no petitions. That's against the rules.