The Glade 4.0

My wife reactivated so she could get some MMO love. I reactivated mine as well, but I imagine I'll get very little play-time.

So what's changed over the last year? Things better? Bout the same?

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The Dude abides.

With Sentinel's Fate, they have simplified a lot of stats -- each archetype has a god stat instead of having to juggle several different ones for the greatest effect. Basically, your god stat affects your base auto attack damage, mana/health pool, stuff like that.

So, Warriors = focus on STR, period.

Healers = WIS, period.

Mages = INT, period.

Scouts = AGI, period.

They also merged heal crit/double attack, ranged crit/da, melee crit/da into just critical chance and double attack chance.

Added potency, which affects CA/spell damage as well as added crit bonus, which gives you higher crits.

They are doing some more much-needed class balancing soon for a couple of classes.

Bow damage caps are being removed (to a point at least), and ranged auto attack can flurry now, as well as attack targets in a 180 degree arch around the archer. They still need to do some work to Rangers, but maybe that will come later. Right now, they are just tweaking bow mechanics. They are also adding flurry to off-hand weapons. Melee/bow scouts are gonna be sitting pretty, mages might cry some. We'll see how it pans out. Note tho, this is only for T9 (lvl 81+) bows.

Solo/group game is still as accessible as always (even more so in the new expansion). Raiding side of things is still a matter of hot debate, but if you won't be doing any of that then it's of no importance.

Beyond that, pretty much the same. They did add Shader 3.0 into the graphics engine, which makes things look super nice, if your computer is a bad enough dude to handle it.

Oh, and of course there is the new Free To Play server, which has already been discussed previous on here.

How is the solo/group thing more accessible now?

Couple things I noticed:
No more App I/IV, Adept I/III, Master I,II ? What's with that?
Also, why can't I hit "I" to open up all my bags anymore. Is that new expansion a good amount of fun?

I did see something about a guy being able to lower your level so you can steamroll through lower level content at the right level. I see myself taking advantage of that big time.

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The Dude abides.

As much as I hate to say it, just general dumbing down of the soloing/exp grinding mechanic all together (WoW competition FTW). The new expansion is extremely solo-friendly. Hard to put a finger on why really, but it just really needs to be experienced to understand what I am saying. Maybe they lowered mob damage/hit rates, or upped EXP, not sure.



They changed it a while back to be a bit easier in terms of spell progression. So now you have Apprentice ---> Journeyman ---> Adept ---> Expert ---> Master ---> Grandmaster. Furthermore, spells of different tiers no longer have different names. They are now "Spell Name I," then II, then III, then IV . . ." etc as you progress. Again, it was done to minimize complication and confusion.



They did a default UI overhaul recently that re-mapped some buttons. Hitting "B" opens/closes all bags. Hitting "C" opens a combined inventory + all character stats window with different tabs. You can re-map it to "I" if you want via options. Also, hitting F10 to where the windows are blackened auto unlocks all windows so you can move them at will and hitting F10 to get back to the regular overlay auto-locks them again.



Yep, Chronomages, and I use them liberally for AA grinding hehe. Goodie side Chronos are in Qeynos Harbor under some tents right before the docks entrance. Basically you pay them a little gold and status (not much at all) and they de-lvl you to the level of your choice in increments of 5.

BTW, as you probably know, still on Siennah on Blackburrow. Some of my alts if you want to look me up in game are: Xici, Tzul, Moen, Ymeal. Those are the ones I play the most.

They also added three battlegrounds, similar to WoW battlegrounds; they give tokens at the end you can use to buy pvp gear.

The main differences are that A) there are no factions; it's not good v. evil or Qeynos v. Freeport like in WoW it's just a random blue team v. red team fighting for no apparent reason and B) class balance is nonexistant in EQ2 pvp unlike WoW where it's a major element of balance calculations.

In fact it's good for a lot of hilarity because all of a sudden people are ***** that rangers are overpowered in PVP for no reason other than the ability to attack at range, despite complaining that rangers suck everywhere else.

Really, Swashbucklers, Brigands and SKs seem to be the top-of-the-heap in terms of power because of lots of stuns or, for SKs, constant self-healing plus heavy armor.

That's not to say it can't get ridiculous in other ways though. Wardens, for example, aren't much of a direct threat but are practically impossible to kill meaning they are devastatingly effective team healers. I've seen a warden geat beat on for five straight minutes by six players and never get their health below green, Not sure why this is, but its a good example of how off the balance is.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Oh yeah, completely forgot about BG. I don't really delve into them a whole, lot even tho arguably the best scout belt is from BG tokens.

Spec for Hook Shot and you got a huge advantage in BG.

...
Wow, that's preposterously boring.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

A little, yeah, but it does it make it much simpler in terms of planning your character's progression. The ball's on SoE's courts now to make the loot interesting. Have they succeeded? That depends on who you ask.

... But that's the point. You can't make loot interesting if you have a single-stat class system.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

EDIT:

On retrospect, I think my terminology needs clarifying.

When I say (for example) AGI is the scout god stat, I mean that, of the physical stats (STR, STA, AGI, WIS, INT), AGI is the only stat that will directly benefit the scout.

However, there are many other non-physical stats (Crit Bonus, Crit Chance, Double Attack Chance, Potency, DPS mod, Ability Mod) that also directly affect your character and are very important as well.

I only mentioned it to Screeling, because it used to be a juggle of gear where the physical stats overshadowed the non-physical and caused headaches when trying not only to code new gear into the game, but also for players when deciding what gear to use.

There are still creative combinations in gear, tho. For example I am using a bracelet on my Ranger that has crap for AGI, but it offers a tremendous DD proc that benefits the entire group.

I still liked the other way better. It really has gotten a lot more boring. Even more annoying is that a lot of existing gear wasn't revamped. For example, INT used to affect how much damage poison did for Scouts, now it does.. nothing whatsoever. Yay for useless INT on existing gear! Mostly its replaced now, but the expansion has been out like 7 months.

Some aspects, like combining crit and double attack so it wasn't divided into 3 types, especially ranged and melee, made sense but screwing around with the physical stats was pointless. It also makes no sense from an RP standpoint; SKs have always based casting on INT for example. Now.. not so much.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I've played Everquest II. I actually enjoyed it once upon a time. That said, no one's computer is a "bad enough dude to handle it", because it's the most horrendously coded piece of **** engine I've EVER seen. It's abysmal and inefficient.

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Where it's really bad is at the lower level. A ton of "junk stats" on chain armor that hasn't been revised.

And Khross speaks the truth about the graphics engines- my computer could run dual instances of WoW easily, at top settings... And I can't even run one of EQ2 in "Balanced" or "High Performance" in windowed mode at low res.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Yeah - it does seem coded rather shoddily. The level of detail in WoW never really impressed me though.

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The Dude abides.

This is quite true. But then, graphics aren't why I play a game (hence why I'm still playing EQ1). I'd prefer a fluid gaming experience to mind-blowing graphics any day.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Yeah I was ***** about how shittily-coded the game was last night.

They really REALLY need to revamp their graphics coding.

Don't hold your breath.

Heh, trust me, I'm not.

With EQNext coming out, I have a feeling that resources currently in EQ2 are going to be quietly shuffled elsewhere.

Screeling:

Here is a screenshot of my current hotbar setup. I just set this up tonight and so far it has given me a noticeable bump in overall DPS (specifically we are concerned with the four hotbars in the upper left to upper middle sector or quadrant or whatever).



The general goal here is to start from left to right on the top left hotbar with hotkey number two and just work your way across the hotbars, ending with "Alt 4"(Arrow Barrage). Then move down to the Second Hotbar from the top on the left side and work your way left to right again, ending at Ranger's Blade (the last, darkened out icon in the middle hotbar, second from top). Kind of like a snake winding down. Those four hotbars encompass all but I think one combat art (which is Thorny Trap).

You'll see some repeat abilities on there (like the middle top hotbar). That is because you want a backup instance of these hotkeys for when a lead-in ability (like Predator's Final Trick) is down. It's hard to describe here how best to use them, but you will just get a feel for the best timing. Just know that Coverage will still work when PFT is down, and the stealth CAs are up.

I am going to say "macro in /auto 2" with some of these, which you may already know about. This is to ensure that your Ranged Auto Attack is always on, even when using an ability that turns it off.

That all said . . .

Starting at the top left (from left to right):
Ranged Auto Attack (included on hotbar only as a guide to know when your ranged auto attack is currently on or off -- it should always be on), Intoxication (start here), Honed Reflexes, Killing Instinct, Focus Aim, Bloody Reminder (macro in /auto 2 with this one), Storm of Arrows, Stream of Arrows, Predator's Final Trick, Sniper Shot, Hidden Shot, Natural Selection

Top Middle (L to R):
Emberstrike, Ranger's Blade, Explosive Arrow, Arrow Barrage (end here and move down to next hotbar on far left), Rear Shot (this is a back up starter CA for when PFT is down, although you can work this into your rotation if you like), Coverage, Natural Selection, Sniper Shot, Evasive Maneuvers, Stalk, Evade (these last three are your de-aggros, and Evasive Maneuvers has a nice damage component to it, if you want to work it into your rotation -- macro in /auto 2 for these last three)

Second Hotbar Down on Left:
Snaring Shot, Searing Shot, Trick Shot, Point Blank Shot (macro in Poison Combination on top of Point Blank with this one), Triple Shot, Miracle Shot, Crippling Arrow, Hidden Shot (macro in Sneak Attack on top of Hidden for this one), Makeshift Arrow

Second Hotbar Down in Middle:
(Note: For all of these, macro in /auto 2) Hawk Attack, Sinister Strike, Lightning Strike, Sneak Attack (macro in Emberstrike underneath Sneak for this one), Hilt Strike, Immobilizing Lunge (I've considered re-positioning this to a place of more prominence, as this is a great debuff+damage for us -- in short this should always be on your target, especially if it's a longer fight/tougher opponent), Arrow Rip, Noxious Enfeeblement, Bladed Opening (most effective if used when target is 80% or more in health), Ranger's Blade (macro in Stalk above Ranger's on this one)

Third Hotbar Down on Left:
(NOTE: You do not need to work these abilities into your damage rotation, although you may use these form time to time during combat) Snipe (this is a debuff, and macro in /auto 2 with this), Stealth, Snare, Cheap Shot

Third Hotbar in Middle:
(These are all your maintained self buffs -- keep these on all the time) Primal Reflexes, Neurotoxic Coating, Pathfinding, Archer's Fury, Hunter's Instinct, Eagle's Talon (when you do your Enervated quest line, it gives you the Mythical epic bow effect as a self-maintained buff and resets your epic weapon to the Fabled version. This allows you to upgrade bows without having to lose the Mythical effect. BTW, if you need help with this quest, let me know -- you can start it at lvl 85.) Beloved of Bristlebane (This is my deity pet -- when you complete the Bristlebane quest line, which is easy as hell, you get this pet that is always up as long you have him casted that gives you a boost to AGI), Call to Guild Hall (if your guild has one), Escape.

As you can see, the remainder hotbars are just poisons, potions and various raid consumables, as well as some macros for specific encounter events.

Any questions, let me know.

EDIT: Also, a general bit of advice -- one of our AA abilities called Opening Volley increases damage to target as long as it is 80% or above in health. Note that I front-load my damage rotation for this reason

I'll try to get a screenshot of mine so you can compare. I never set up hotbars that way, mainly because I don't want so many hotbars and I never ever use custom UIs in any game, and I generally stay away from addons too. With mine I try to group abilities by what they do. I'm a little behind Rodhan in AA so I don't have arrow barrage yet, but that's the next thing since I just finished opening volley. There's also some things I just don't do that Rodhan does like keep poisons on the hotbar (red and blue are on autoconsume all the time and yellow I do manually if I want it for either slowing or de-aggro) and I never have more than 2 potions on the hotbar and I switch them around based on what fight it is. I still had to open a 5th hotbar which kind of pissed me off.

He's right though, you want to frontload your high damage CAs to get the boost from barrage. On named fights I generally pop Focused Aim and Predator's Final Trick (removes the need to stealth for your stealth-only CAs for 12 seconds), hit Hidden Shot, then hit Coverage (yes, it stealths you, but you can still stealth, you just don't have to for 12 seconds) and then hit Sniper Shot. After that I hit my other high damage ranged CAs; final trick boosts crit bonus for all of them.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

For solo/group play, yeah you don't really need a custom UI with all the bells and whistles, but for raiding it makes life a whole lot easier, and can give you an edge.



I had mine like this for a while, too. Just easier for me to DPS based on cast-order, but each person does it differently and finds what works for them.



Only reason I really do this, is for poison/potion conservation. Technically there's nothing stopping me from auto-consuming poisons, but I spend enough plat per raid as is, and I don't want to use them if I don't have to.



I'll have to experiment with the PFT then Coverage thing, as last I heard they did not stack. They may changed that, tho.

I also thought about unmarrying my Poison Combo + Point Blank Shot macro, as macros can actually hinder DPS due to cast time, and that they lock you into a certain playstyle.

Back to the training dummy I go!

Yeah, my guild doesn't raid so the only way I raid is pick-ups or occasionally I get invited as a filler.



My reactions are so trained to having ti that way now after 6 years that I'd drive myself nuts trying to switch.

I might do that since I don't need poisons for soloing. I just find that I forget to open my backpack and reapply them. You're right about the cost though. Between poison, arrows, and repairs raiding is expensive as a Ranger.



I'll have to experiment with the PFT then Coverage thing, as last I heard they did not stack. They may changed that, tho.[/quote]

I have no idea if they stack or not. I assumed they did since they do different things. The main reason for using PFT is that even if it doesn't stack it takes off your stealth requirement so you can use Sniper Shot if something messes coverage up and get it off before you're outside Opening Volley range. Not so critical on raid bosses but instance bosses it helps.



I never use macros of any kind simply because they take more buttons and they tie you up like you say.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

You were correct BTW -- Coverage and PFT stack, so I have re-arranged my casting order to reflect that.

Glad I could help out. That was just m technique so I'm glad it works. Every so often a shot int he dark is a bullseye I guess. Hope it works for you.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I've went through a ton of training dummies, and so far the hotkey setup I posted above with a couple of changes, nets me the most DPS (around 30k solo).

There are still some masters I am lacking and a couple pieces of gear that could stand upgrading. But otherwise I'm in pretty good shape.