Limited time items

[Crover_CT99]

Referring to this:

Are there any items I can only get for a limited time?
Yes, and they will for the most part be removed once Temple of Sol Ro comes out.
Manastone
Rubicite Armor
Guise of the Deceiver (will stop dropping, will be replaced by bard/rogue only mask, must equip)
Box of Abu-Kar (drops off any lvl35+ mob rarely, will be replaced by purchasable bag of tinkerers)
Journeymen Boots (will stop dropping, become AC quest reward)
Fanged Skull Stilleto (will stop dropping from Mayong once he is killed once)
Several other pre-nerf items that will stop dropping.

To get a few things out of the way so I don't come off as a whiner:
I appreciate this server
I appreciate the ruleset
I appreciate the devs putting forth their time and effort

To clarify for my understanding:
Rubicite will be replaced with class-specific armor (rogue I think?)

My main issue, if you could call it that, is the removal of jboots from Najena, the removal of manastones, and to some extent the removal of Rubicite.

I always felt like these were mistakes, to some extent, by the original devs of EQ.

The jboots camp was one of the "milestone" camps you underwent as you leveled. It gave Najena a significant purpose, and drew people to the zone. Once jboots were removed and made a quest, Najena generally became a ghost town (on my server oh long ago). It was also, from my experience, harder to get people together for a somewhat rare spawn kill than to get together a lower-Najena camp. If you had your stuff together, you might even have your boots by the early twenties and delight at right-click spamming "pekeeewshhh" as you wandered around Norrath.

I always thought that one of the greatest designs of EQ was the various milestones. Surname, certain spell levels, spell graphics, key items, etc. They defined certain level ranges and really gave incentive to progress and participate in various facets of the game.

Manastones for similar reasons, was a milestone item, and one that added tactics to certain classes for soloing (clerics, for example) and grouping (more general). A fun item that I was disappointed was removed.

I guess my questions are:
Is the removal of these items an inevitable occurrence because of the implementation of Sol Ro or a design choice meant to replicate the historical progression of classic EQ?
Would you consider keeping Jboots as a drop and a quest item?
Would you consider allowing Rubicite to continue dropping as a "common" drop in Cazic?

[Ghesta]

I would love to see these items continue to drop and don't think that they make any real effect on the game, especially once Kunark comes out.


This is largely due to the fact that I don't have a guise however.

[Aaron]

They've already said they're following Classic progression about a million times. The removal of these items follow that progression.

They're not going back and fixing broken things (ie removing xp penalty from hybrids, etc), and having these items not drop anymore isn't even broken. It's just harder for you to get them now. They're not leaving the game (except the Guise). You can still trade for and get all other items.

[Tryfaen]

I would also prefer an extremely reduced drop rate instead of having the items not drop at all.

[Zithax]

Was talking about this with my group the other night, the fact that there is an ever surging amount of lvl50's and to remove these camps would congest other loot camps even further. The consensus was it should be kept in-game slightly longer to accommodate these players until kunark was within 2-3months of launching.

[guineapig]

My thoughts on the importance of these items that will be removed.

The most useful item for all situations in my humble opinion is the Box of Abu-Kar.
Every class can and does use it. If it's not being thought of as important now it's simply because there are so many of them at this point. But trust me, a year from now that item will be sorely missed by many newer players.

Second in importance are the J-boots (unless you are a druid, bard, shaman or ranger). No matter what you do in this game you will be running from place to place. Don't need to say much else about that.

The Rubi-BP is most useful for Shaman in my humble opinion. It complements their regen/cani combo perfectly. For all other classes that can actually use it, the 3hp a tick regen won't do you much good once you're past your teens. I might also include bards here since they too can already regen hitpoints at a pretty good rate and can solo so the boost is more noticeable for them.

Manastone obviously excludes non-mana classes to begin with. In addition, it's usefulness is severely diminished if you don't have the ability to heal yourself. Soloing with a manastone might let you kill a mob faster but at the cost of waiting to regen hitpoints instead of mana. Shaman have Cani, mages have modrods, bards can regen both mana and hp at the same time, Enchanters will soon be able to steal mana, etc…
Also if you are using manastone in a group, it’s true that you will be able to nuke more for faster kills but then the healer just ends up wasting mana on you instead of the tank.
It’s a very neat item for sure and can save you at times, but it’s not quite as practical as some make it out to be.

Guise is practically essential to any large race tank (Ogre, Troll and to a lesser extent barbarian). In old world dungeons, unless you are constantly grouping with a shaman you can forget about being the puller for your group to say the least. If you are a large race and can’t shrink I feel sorry for you….


Just my thoughts.

[Goobles]

P1999 is the same thing as Live EQ. Sure, if you began playing near the end or after the nerfs happened; you would be a little upset that you didn't start playing sooner/know about the game sooner to reap the benefits. Same case.

[Kreigore]

I shed many a tear when, for example, a Half-Elf Bard would obtain a Guise in an assassin/supplier group. They did earn it, though. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Permanent shrink would be awesome - being a fatty tank and all.

But meh, if it happens - it happens.

[Zordana]

well, my ogre has the mask already, but thinkin about never having that would really annoy me.. i cant even fight in dungeons like sola/solb without a shrink/illusion which pretty much doesnt leave any option besides a) having shrinkpots / shamy or b) have the mask..

get out everthing, but keep the mask tbh [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Slugs]

I personally don't care how it ends up, however, I don't think it would be a bad idea having all those items moved to a very very rare drop-rate. I don't see how it would hurt anyone.

Classic EQ was awesome, but like anything, there were some pretty lame things about it. I have faith that the Dev Team will do the right thing, though.