Where did all the loot go? December 12, 2007
Posted by Xeavn in Everquest 2, General Game Concepts, SOE.Tags: Equipment, EverquestII, Itemization
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If you have had a chance to play the new Rise of Kunark expansion at all since it was released on the 13th of November, you have likely noticed some changes in the loot received for quests, dungeons and from named mobs. I am going to wait until the end of the article to post what I think of these changes. Instead I would like to see if I can make some comparisons from before and after. These comparisons may or may not be completely accurate, and will mostly be my opinion. I did not think to get statistics on drop rates before the expansion went live, and I am not going to bother getting statistics on the current drop rates.
I want to start with a look at treasured gear. Before the expansion I felt that the treasured level gear was for the most part pretty good. I still had at least 4 or 5 slots that I was wearing treasured gear in on a regular basis. Treasured gear had a somewhat wide range in how good it actually was, but for the most part it went from near legendary down to absolute junk. To be fair though, I felt most of the pieces were on the higher end of the scale. Even if a piece wasn’t great, there were a lot of pieces which were situational. I had some good pieces that were useful for an elemental or a poison fight.
Game Update 41 Now Live! December 12, 2007
Posted by Kendricke in Everquest 2, Patches.add a comment
Game Update 41 is now live. Here’s a few of the new goodies you can expect to find under the tree:
Tis the Season: Frostfell is back. With the exception of some new household items, there’s not too much different from last year’s Frostfell. Run the quests and get your daily gifts (with each of your characters).
Store an extra Achievement Profile. Adventurers can now obtain a component in high end dungeons which can be used to craft a household item which allows you to store an additional achievement reward. This was originally announced as a release feature for Rise of Kunark, so it’s nice to see it going live.
Lava won’t kill you…right away. Another long time difference between old Everquest and Everquest II is now removed. Stepping in lava within the Shattered Lands won’t immediately kill you - but it can and will hurt you. A word of warning before you decide to take a dip - not all lava is created equal. Some lava hurts more.
No more “Not a Friend” messages. Per the notes: “Casting a beneficial spell on a hostile target without a target should now target the caster instead.” Healers rejoice!
Smaller pets! Tired of Paris Hilton having all the fun with tiny pets? Per the notes: ” Conjurors and Necromancers will now receive a new spell to shrink their primary pets’ size.”
New Faction Gear. Likely this is due to the recent controversy over developer Fireflyte’s publically stated reasons for providing certain types of armor (i.e. - why is there so much damned leather armor for priests). Take a peek at the faction merchants you’ve worked hard to impress and see if they aren’t more items for you to buy.
Better, Faster, Stronger Mastercrafted. From the notes: “* Armorers and Tailors have discovered ways to improve the quality of mastercrafted armor across all level ranges.”
Kylong Harvesting Requires More “Skillz”. From the notes: “Harvest nodes in Kylong Plains now require 340+ skill to harvest, like all other level 70+ zones.”
PVP Level Locking NO LONGER POSSIBLE. I’m not getting into this today, but here’s the note: “PvP - Killing another player will always reward experience now even if the player has their adventure experience disabled.”
…And Three Updates Affecting Collections. From the notes: “You can now harvest under attack.”
“Added “Hide Completed” checkbox to collection quest journal window.”
“Clicking a collection item in your quest journal will now submit a search for that item while in a broker transaction. “
Full notes listed after the break.
My Kingdom for a Fighter! December 12, 2007
Posted by Kendricke in Everquest 2, SOE.9 comments
Last night, I was surprised to find that we had three full guild groups running. It’s not that we don’t have enough members online to form groups, because we’re usually running 20-30 members online most nights. It’s not that our members don’t want to group, either, because there are constantly members online looking to set up groups. No, it’s the fact that lately, our fighters haven’t been logging on nearly as consistently as the rest of the guild.
When those fighters do log in, they’re immediately assailed by the rest of the members online who want to form up groups. This puts pressure on the fighter, of course, but also introduces an interesting dynamic to the rest of the guild, creating additional competition within the ranks that simply wasn’t there 2 months ago.
The obvious issue, of course, is that we only have five dedicated fighters within the guild. Of those, only three are currently of a level to make high level dungeon crawling a realistic option. For a guild of more than 60 members, that’s a lot of members left twiddling their thumbs or looking elsewhere for groups.
Is this our fault though? Is this a case of bad guild management or perhaps an interesting side effect of game’s design philosophy?
The answer, of course, is a little of both…
