New ToV Racing Rules

[Phantasm]

pixILLS

[zanderklocke]

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

Always wanted to join A-team, besides the whole Nordenwatch thing... Seemed like you guys played EQ right. That guild would definitely be having fun in Velious.

Yeah...the current guild seems to be a shell of itself. Honestly, the Class R/C system wrecked the guild, and in my opinion, wrecked a lot of the guilds on the server. The game always seemed to be the most fun when TMO was the only guild that really was doing content, before even Forceful Entry was competing against them.

None of the casual guilds participated in trying to get mobs, and everyone just sort of had fun doing their own thing. However, once every casual guild was given a taste of mobs with the class system, the culture seemed to begin to change in all of them. The A-Team recruited all of these individuals who were a terrible fit for what the original guild was created for. Many of these new people were the reason the guild merged with Inglourious Basterds because they thought we "had" to do this to survive in Velious. Yet, I don't ever recall raiding mobs or going for the most contested mobs as part of the original A-Team's goals, so I'm still not sure how we would not have "survived" in Velious...unless surviving meant getting high end gear directly from raid mobs. The original A-Team was more concerned about the solo artist challenge or killing mobs in Sky with one group and occasionally buying VP rots and epics. I mean I would duo fire giants with Raev's warrior and my bard because it was fun and challenging; there was no reward there. Because of the skill versus content, platinum per player was probably higher in the A-Team than any other guild because everyone in the guild was a fucking platinum farming machine and could kill mobs not usually soloed. I mean fuck, Nordenwatch had 12 million platinum on his character, and most of the other people had characters with net worths of 1.5-3 million, if not higher. However, our own greed destroyed our guild when we realized we could potentially earn high end items through entering the R raid scene, and the guild stopped being about cool challenges and instead became about pixels.

[zanderklocke]

Originally Posted by Not Sure [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Really is sad to see how far you and the rest of the old A-team people have fallen. From bitching that 30 people in sky is too many, to this abomination you participate in now. Glad I left when I did.

Sincerely,
Bobbarker

Salute.

[Cecily]

Let's be real. A-team getting epics is what destroyed the guild.

[zanderklocke]

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

Let's be real. A-team getting epics is what destroyed the guild.

Probably.

[nicemace]

phinny server is actually a good example of a healthy raid server.

instanced raids so even casual guilds who raid 12 hours a week in the evenings are clearing VP.

buffed mobs so they aren't a complete walk over (naggy hitting in the 1000's)

still open world mobs for the 'competition'

insanely slow exp for all you p99 nerds who like slow levelling.

majority no boxing (requires addition PC to box)

[Raev]

Here is the thing, though: Kunark was a grouping expansion while Velious is a raiding expansion.

In Kunark most of the content was geared towards single groups: new levels, new spells, and new dungeons that contained some of the best items in the game. The raid content consisted of VP and a few outdoor dragons, some of which dropped Classic items! And with the armor bp/greaves tradeable, if you were in an 'R' guild you could see 95% of the content and get 95% of the gear (everything but PD).

In Velious most of the content is geared towards raids. No new levels. Only a few new spells. Three fun new dungeons that no one goes to (with these words I summon Xoquil) because they are harder than Sebilis and don't have the signature loot items. Meanwhile the raid content is massive: Temple of Veeshan is really three raid zones welded together, Kael is also huge and well designed, Plane of Growth, Sleeper's Tomb, and plenty of random targets. The gear difference is also huge; you can effectively get PD loot in every slot.

So if you are in an 'R' guild you are basically limited to grabbing uncontested Kunark dragons and finishing epics and farming ToV East or West endlessly (or you could just BDA and help Chest's alt get a crown of rile). You get to see maybe 50% of the content of Velious and get 50% of the gear. And I think we are starting to see the rumblings of this on the Raid Discussion forum. CSG, BDA, Divinity, Anonymous, etc are all starting to get tired of that 500th Halls of Testing raid.

I've been there in the trenches on the raid discussion forum trying to get the staff to change the raid scene to something that rewards coordination and player skill rather than zerg poopsocking. After about 2-3 years, I gave up. It's just not going to happen. The staff may not like the current situation, but they don't hate it enough to fix it. Who can blame them? Rogean burned out long ago but he keeps the server up for free anyway. I can't imagine spending 20+ hours a week answering petitions and watching raid guilds lawyer each other without getting paid.

So I decided I'd rather zerg poopsock a bit (my schedule is flexible, so logging in for 10 minutes to kill a dragon periodically isn't particularly onerous) than miss out on 2/3 of the expansion. There are also quite some decent people in Rampage/Awakened, and nothing is stopping me from doing some of the group content too. I had a fun time in Siren's Grotto today doing the lower temple with a few pals.

TLDR: I decided to stop fighting a losing battle.

[Swish]

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

Here is the thing, though: Kunark was a grouping expansion while Velious is a raiding expansion.

That's not true, it took BDA 75-80 people, and Taken a similar number to take down Trakanon.

[arsenalpow]

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

(or you could just BDA and help Chest's alt get a crown of rile)

Cmon now, there's literally 4 crowns in BDA monk, rogue, Me, and a ranger. Phara Dar is a stupid dragon.

[Raev]

Everyone knows all loot in BDA goes to officer alts. Your protestations to the contrary are fooling no one Chest.