The Glade 4.0

So I'll write up some more stuff later, but the main selling point of the expansion, in my mind:

Epic Adornments!

If you've competed your 1.0, 1.5 or 2.0, you can complete a new class themed quest that will let you request unlimited adornments matching any of the epics you have.

So now every weapon of the proper type can look like SW/EC or the Heartwood Blade! Yay!

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Sounds nifty. I haven't followed any of the other details of the new expansion, but the one thing I'm mostly interested in is more bag space, and more bag slots.

Also, not related to the expansion, but did I see an ad for buying more character lots via the marketplace for the low, low, low price of $80 each or $200 for three? I'm hoping I missed a decimal point somewhere on this one...

Edit:
HA! It was a mistake.
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts ... _id=169544

It's $8 for one and $20 for all 3. Altaholics REJOICE!

So I can go back in the game and have my 2.0 look like ebw's or I can have any weapon look like any other weapon?

Also are 2.0 epics competitive weapons still?

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

I think he's saying that you can apply an ornament to any weapon that makes it look like your 2.0 (or 1.5 or 1.0), as long as you own those weapons.

If you do the quests, you can make any weapon of the same type as the epic (1HS in our case) look like the epic, so either EC/Swift or Heartwood/Auora.

Since its an ornament, it doesn't take up the aug slot on the weapon, just changing the graphics.

To your other question... not really. Group level drops from mid teir group zones in SoD surpass the Aurora (and 2.5 version).

When I came back mid SoD, I was using Aurora and one of the Anquish maces (tap proc, forget the name) until I hit 85th level, and then switched to the two weapons from Old Bloodfields I had in the bank, which immediately doubled my melee DPS.

However, Falcon is still a very relevant effect.

Another nice bonus of this expansion, bows will start having 2 aug slots... group bows will have type 4 and 7, raid bows will have type 4 and 8, so you can keep your stat augs and insert damage augs.

I'd like to get the expanded target window, but can't seem to find Underfoot on it's own.

Is HoT an all-inclusive expansion?

yes, for $40 to $80

$40 is the base price for all current expansions- HoT won't drop in price other than temporary sales until the next expansion comes out.

A month or two after HoT releases, I'd expect to see the new "Underfoot All in One Pack" available for $20-$30.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

It's kind of bothersome to me that the main selling point to you is purely aesthetic.

Meh.

The content is ok, but I enjoy a ton of the content that's already out.

New bag slots are nice, the extra two inventory slots are nice, and the extra levels/spells are always nice. The gear is an upgrade from UF, but only T4 HoT starts to upgrade T9 UF significantly. T1 gear is a bit better than Seeds of Destruction gear.

But I haven't been hugely motivated to level from 80-85 yet, so I'm not seeing myself being largely motivated to level from 81-90, which makes most of the other content rather moot. I find this "level increase every other expansion" thing to be rather too much mudflation too fast. I thought the 3-4 expansions per level raise was much nicer.

Epic adornments, on the other hand, are something we've been asking the Dev's for for a very, very long time. That they're finally adding them in (and the quest lines for them look very fun) is great. So many of the graphics lately are flat out awful- and the epics had a lot of design time sunk into them, and look great.

IMO, content development peaked 3-4 expansions ago, so more content that I think is "ok" isn't a huge selling point to me, I guess.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Some launch event information:

http://eqplayers.station.sony.com/news_ ... m?id=52039

Rare mob spawn increase? Might be a good time to work on the ole epics :p

So, looking at the features list for HoT, I have questions!




Any insight on AA's? Are they all higher level? or will there be some new stuff for us lowbies?

How is this housing thing going to work? Is it just a plat sync? A mini version of the Guild Hall? Can you bank/vendor inside? Extra storage (PLEASE SAY YES!).

Are all of the new zones 80+ ?

All of the new zones are at least 80+, most are 85+.

I didn't get to play with housing much, but it's not a huge plat sync. It's being done similarly to EQ2 housing... But here, you can design the outside/your yard as well.

There are "neighborhoods" of 72 plots (outside designs, lakes, hills, etc). You buy a plot, and then can set up a house on that plot or not. You can place walls, tiki torches, animals, etc.

There are "action figures" you can place too, with dialogue and lore, crafting stations, etc.

You can also use them for extra storage- even multiple lore items can be placed- weapons, armor, etc.

I think there may be a few low level AA- there are always a couple- but most will be 85+.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

I'm curious...is there a new tier of defiant armor that will get you into the new zones or will you be stuck farming old content to get into the new stuff?

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

From what I've seen of the difficulties, you can jump straight from SoD level gear into the first HoT zone- it is much more forgiving of skipping from old content to new.

The top tier defiant won't be high enough, likely, but you can skip from it to SoD gear as you level through the low 80s, and then hit HoT zones for new stuff at 85.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Well, before I stopped playing, I had SoD t3(or maybe 4, I don't remember, I got it all from FoS) and I might come back for HoT, but if that gear isn't going to be good enough, I don't think I'll bother.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

Like I said, you can jump straight from SoD level gear into HoT tier 1 and progress from there.

Basically, they made it so that you can skip UF, and go straight from the SoD leveling zones up to HoT if you're returning.

From what I'm seeing, this also means you can jump from Solteris/SoF level raid gear to HoT 1st tier as well.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Besides, you could always come hang out with us on Trakanon!

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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'm seeing some chatter in general chat about an overall increase to AA experience after Tuesday? is something changing about AAs with HoT?

I don't know of a specific thing regarding AA with HoT... but there was some talk at the recent Fan Faire, iirc, about raising the bonus exp. for AA from 1000 AA to 2500, or some such. I don't know if that is going live or not with HoT.

Or perhaps they were referencing the changes to OMM tasks. Those used to return 2.25 AA per task (you could knock out all 3 tasks in 45 minutes) and a lot people were banking them for this expansion. The exp on those has been drastically reduced, or will be shortly, to include any unclaimed finishes.

That's what it is. I got some details last night. The are raising the bonus exp cap for AA's to 2500 (from 500/1000/1500?). I believe this is happening as part of the HoT launch.

Wont' affect me much for a while. =)

Bonus XP cap what?

below a certain number of earned AA's you get a bonus to the rate that xp goes into AA. Its like 250% below 150 aa's and scales up from there IIRC (but I've been out of touch for > 1 year now so take my info with a grain of salt)