I've not had anything fresh to say or post really, the past few months I've been heavily into EQ2 and recently reached level 75 on my main (Murfalad, a Froglok guardian) as up until now I was concentrating a lot more on either tradeskilling on various other characters (Murfalad is at 80, so its making things a bit easier) or XP locking to complete areas.

I just have a goal to get to Guk before SF comes out in February, that probably means a full set of T2 shard gear and even then I wonder if I might be a little under geared, I'm having fun trying to get there though. Not sure if I'll raid since getting a full time spot as a tank is hard but there seems to be judging by the 1-9 chat quite a culture on the server for PUG raids especially to get people mythicals.

It really is a quiet spot for news, the EQ2 patch has been delayed a week, the shader 3.0 changes are done but have performance problems on some set-ups so haven't even reached test. And WoW has a new patch coming out and will be the second in a row to reset the gear, so all the easy level 80 content will drop today's currently top level armour tokens, I expect next week we'll hear a lot of loud grinding noises coming from the net :)

I assume you are not under NDA until the beta begins :) What details/hearsay do you have on the changes?

I have been sidetracked by Modern Warfare 2 which has in general had me playing my consoles more. However, with the incoming update and expansion around the corner I am already feeling that EQ2 itch. 3 weeks seems as long as I can tolerate before it draws me back :)

Also, I get a "resource can not be found" error when trying to come to forum through RSS link. I get the same error by hitting recent posts links from front page. I have to actually go to eq2daily and click forums. This is one reason my posting has diminished.

This shall be looked into.

Hey I didn't say anything about the beta, and its public news they are accepting applications.

As some of you may know, a successful ideal raiding force needs a bard AND an enchanter per group for buffs. They are hoping to correct this by making it a little easier to sub other classes in. Also giving love to druids and summoners....


Class Balance (Bards, Enchanters, Summoners)

Typical raid lineups currently include 3-4 illusionists, 1 coercer, 3-4 dirges, and a troubador. Yet they often do not offer ANY slot to summoners or druids.

Some Enchanter and Bard buffs will become raidwide or applicable to one person in each of the 4 groups. The example given was an illusionist giving Time Compression to one member of all 4 groups. Other buffs could go raidwide. This will be done in such way so that having 4 illusionists will not be a significant advantage over having 1 or 2.

Currently, Brigand “Dispatched” and other debuffs are crucial for raiding and some group situations. Meanwhile, Summoners are finding they rarely get a seat at the table. As a result, Rogue debuffs are being refocused to work on melee, while Summoners step into a new role of debuffing spell abilities.

Also, with regards to Rogues, Brigands and Swashbucklers each have irreplaceable abilities such that most raids have 1 of each. Some of these abilities will become common between the two classes so that any Rogue can be effective in raid situations.

Summoner pet survivability is going to be looked into. Dumbfire pets will now act like a spell with appropriate graphics, rather than being affected by AoEs. These pets will also do spell debuffs in line with Summoner’s new role as spell debuffers.

Class Balance (Druids)

It has been recognised that Heal-over-Time spells come way behind wards and reactives when dealing with large spike damage (mainly in a raid and the hardest heroic settings).

A new component is going to be added to Heal-Over-Time spells for Druids which will save up the heal after each tick if the target is at full health, and further, any leftover heal will transfer to the group member with the lowest health on expiration.

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Getting to level 80 is only the half way mark. You have your epic weapon which is a long ass quest in itself. And your mythical if possible, it is a class defining wep and you WILL notice a huge difference, no matter what your class is. Also there is a crap-ton of AA to get before the expansion. Since so many people are at 200AA, I'm assuming they are raising the bar on this (Again nothing is set in stone yet) so I want to be as close to the cap I can be since if they do this there will have to be another AA page.

There is also a crap-ton of Nice gear in the TSO instances. All that quest gear is horrible. Also the there are new quests they are adding monthly like the 5 year quests, and the Will of a Tyrant quests you can do from both Qeynos and FP side to see both sides of the story. Not to mention Frostfell just started.

How the hell can you feel aimless?! :)

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I just rolled a new Fury on AB and the server population is really motivating me. Its been so long since I played on a server where people where actually grouping and still playing old zones.

Yesterday a group was doing SoS. Wow!