Cats on the Moon

[Hithrohir]

Luclin's features didn't break the game, but they were the first step in the process that eventually did. It was a decent enough expansion, it was just a step in the wrong direction that was inexplicably continued to greater and greater extents in future expansions. It did have its own share of problems, such as the jarring and off-theme setting, insane timesink grinds for keys and bane weapons and shit, and the start of what I like to call "content for the sake of content." A lot of it didn't feel real, immersive or believable (when viewed within the confines of the setting, of course) and just sort of stopped feeling like Everquest. It still had plenty of good gameplay, a fairly neat new class, and one of the best raid zones in the entire history of the game.

[Deathrydar]

It would be great if the devs could implement some of the SoL zones and attach them to the old world zones somehow. Hell, they could even throw in the Beastlord class, minus the Vah Shir and it would be cool!!!

But the whole moon, Nexus, Bazaar thingie was horrible and I would never play on a server that has it implemented.

[ziggyholiday]

Originally Posted by Deathrydar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

It absolutely changed that! It perhaps didn't completely kill it, but it absolutely 100% changed the group centric" element of the game!

In what way(s) did it "absolutely 100% change the gorup centric element"?

If anything, soloing became less viable (for the vast majority of players) during these two expansions, especially PoP.

[Hithrohir]

Maybe the implication was that raiders distanced themselves too much from the rest of the playerbase, thus trivializing groups and turning them into just exp vectors. That's my belief, anyway. Luclin and onwards was when you could no longer get fairly high-end through trading and group content, and when raiding became exclusively an uberguild thing as opposed to anyone being able to do planes and the lesser raid targets of the first three eras. This trend kind of started in Velious, but nowhere near to the degree of Luclin and especially PoP and onwards. Luclin was when raiders completely stopped caring about non-raid content and wouldn't be wearing a single piece of gear that came from the market, quests or groupable dungeons.

[falkun]

Originally Posted by Hithrohir [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

one of the best raid zones in the entire history of the game.

Ya, ssra temple was a badass raid zone. I loved everything about that zone, except maybe the zone it was linked to, which sucked.

[guineapig]

Originally Posted by ziggyholiday [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

If anything, soloing became less viable (for the vast majority of players) during these two expansions, especially PoP.

Soloing was alive and well in PoP. You just had to pick your spots well.
First time I saw a Shadowknight soloing in the planes was during PoP era in the Plane of Disease fear kiting the bugs outside. Saw rangers and bards soloing regularly as well (in the planes). That's just naming some non-typical soloing examples. I know clerics did quite well solo during PoP although I do not believe they were doing so in the Planes themselves, but rather on old world content. It all depended on how much time you were willing to invest in AAs.

[ziggyholiday]

/shrug

Tier 1 planar armor was good as well as elemental craftables. It could get expensive but was still good for the non raiders. BoT was a good place to grind AAs and even get gear if you couldn't get an elemental group with people you knew/trusted.

To me, things like the graphics, nexus/pok books and bazaar are a non issue that did nothing but make the game more convenient. Sorry that is not a bad thing.

Spot on about the barrier to raid though. You had a lot of work to do if you wanted to start raiding when PoP was current. This was less of a factor when Luclin was current IMO because if you had a decent guild that still did ntov runs for the newbies you could get some ok gear for entry level luclin raids.

[ziggyholiday]

Originally Posted by guineapig [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Soloing was alive and well in PoP. You just had to pick your spots well.
First time I saw a Shadowknight soloing in the planes was during PoP era in the Plane of Disease fear kiting the bugs outside. Saw rangers and bards soloing regularly as well (in the planes). That's just naming some non-typical soloing examples. I know clerics did quite well solo during PoP although I do not believe they were doing so in the Planes themselves, but rather on old world content. It all depended on how much time you were willing to invest in AAs.

That's why I said the qualifier "vast majority of players". Also, I was refering to soloing for exp in PoP zones.

[guineapig]

Originally Posted by ziggyholiday [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

That's why I said the qualifier "vast majority of players". Also, I was refering to soloing for exp in PoP zones.

All of my examples (other than cleric) were examples in the Planes.

In my opinion just because the vast majority of players didn't solo in the planes does not mean that they couldn't have. But you are correct, it wasn't exactly a popular past time. Due to the hitpoints of planar mobs it tended to be slower exp'ing solo than in a solid 6-person group and by that time there were no exp penalties and the group exp bonus was pretty nice too.

[Kingofqueens123]

Baz was great, people talking about missing out on interacting with other people? who wants to deal with poeple....[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]