New revamps and zones coming

[Frodlin7th]

People in Kunark Content/Early Vedlious/Epic level guilds are doing themselves a MAJOR disservice by ignoring VP.

If *NOTHING ELSE*, Veeshan's Peak is the #1 source of the easiest to get warrior aggro weapons at that level of the game. If one warrior without a VP key complains about SoD's not being available, I'll smack them so hard they will hear ringing in their ears for months.

Don't believe me? Come challenge me on my server, I'll go to my bank and pull out a 13/23 and a 13/24 weapon and out aggro you, your epics, your Frostrbringer, your fleshgrinder, and any other Bazaar Bitch crap you can come up with that you beg for comparisons on in the serverwide warrior channel. Get you and your lazy guild up to VP, and you'll be WAY better off. You'll also learn how to fucking raid, pay attention, deal with adds, the whole enchilada.

Lazy fucks who can't spend a couple days collecting components for their VP keys don't deserve shit that good anyhow. I still to this day carry around my scimitar of lifestealing and my spear of constriction at ALL times. I never got a SoW sword, so you can bet I'll be going back with my 2 year old key.

[Szlia]

and Ensnare spear have been removed.

I am pretty sure it still drops.

And the big trivializing factor in VP is the new mezzes and charms.

That said, the revamped CT and Chardok are successes, the Hole is often used by the people who want to avoid more crowded areas and continuously raided for epic parts, the planes played and still play an important role in the life of an EQ character and plane of sky remains a pretty unique place (only used for epics at this point though since DT prevents fun attempt with pocket size raids).

The revamp of Runny Eye was not as good since an unused low level dungeon got changed into another unused low level dungeon.

About Veksar, I sure hope watter is kept to a minimum and that it will unfold some new and interesting story lines about the Iksar history. Maybe they could also take the oportunity to fix more of these Iksar quests that are still missing or broken to this day since they fixed that Necro skullcap thingy recently

[CruelTea]

You can get into BoT (easier to do than VP in both time and numbers), get Torden key (easier to do than fuck all with an enchanter) and do Auliffe (a cake-walk with two CoD enc's) until you get the Blade of Storms which is as good/better than SoD (lower damage proc, better ratio).

Getting to and camping Auliffe for a Great Blade is easier and less time-consuming than doing *anything* in VP. PoP sucks.

[Frodlin7th]

Originally posted by CruelTea
You can get into BoT (easier to do than VP in both time and numbers), get Torden key (easier to do than fuck all with an enchanter) and do Auliffe (a cake-walk with two CoD enc's) until you get the Blade of Storms which is as good/better than SoD (lower damage proc, better ratio).

Getting to and camping Auliffe for a Great Blade is easier and less time-consuming than doing *anything* in VP. PoP sucks.

How many level 55ish guilds are able to pass trials (Note the above specifically said "Kunark/Epic levels")? None, so that pretty much wraps up the "It's easier to get Eindride Sword" argument. For me and you killing Eindride is a snap, a couple hour long little event. For a guild who'd be nice and challenged in VP on the other hand, he's probably not possible.

And Hoshkar has NEVER dropped a Fungus Clump

[CruelTea]

For a guild who'd be nice and challenged in VP on the other hand, he's probably not possible.

The amount of time and effort required to get the VP key means that most or all people entering VP in raid-force will be 60. Trakanon alone is a bitchy bottle-neck; I remember three times in a row he dropped 3 fucking teeth.

Level 65 is a snap now. Hell, groups of level 60s that weren't uber pre-PoP and aren't uber now can pass Trials. VP holds very little loot that anyone really wants to spend time going after; I love cool dungeons and shit, SolA/B, Guk, Chardok and even Sebilis are miles beyond every other exp zone that came after. But I doubt you can convince a whole raiding guild to spend the time and effort getting into VP for novelty SoW swords, novelty 600DD daggers and an occasionally nice caster robe or boots.

The time and effort a guild spends getting keyed for VP, they could've completed, like, 30+ BoT keys, 50+ Trials. They also could've leveled 10 times in PoP zones instead of camping the fucking FV skeleton. If they don't feel like stepping up to the relative challenge PoP presents, they can go farm HoT for great armor that makes Tier3 and lower even easier! After all, it was so hard with pulls handed to you on a plate; monk's pulling went from nearly necessary to almost completely useless so fast, I'm surprised they aren't suing for whiplash.

The respawn timers on minis in PoS/BoT and other crap throughout PoP is so short, you don't have time to get bored enough to go back to Kunark. Ring of Torden is a fucking *group* key and you can get a new one every 3 hours!

But enough about how worthless Sony is trying to make old expansions, how was your day?

[Zarseem Nasaar]

Ya know, it's funny how we can play this game for years, and still not accomplish everything.

I started playing when Druzz Ro first split off from Sol Ro or Fennin Ro or whatever the fuck. 2 deployments (to Kosovo, and Egypt), numerous field problems, restarting my necro 8 or 9 times, and just plain old retiring a couple of times...it's slowed me down, but I still have good shit, decent levels, etc.

But I've never been to VP. Never been to Sleepers. Never been to NToV. Never even been to Ssra Temple. I've helped plan raids into those places, even gotten people equipped with key chunks or whatever to get ready. Never been though.

A lot of it comes down to oppurtunity. Some people get into guilds that are going farther. Some people just play EQ merely for the social aspect.

I agree that VP is an under-utilized zone. It offers some good oppurtunities for raid practice, pulling, dealing with adds, and all that. And hopefully, I'll be headed there shortly.

I find it ironic that I have fought Terris Thule, yet never been to a zone that's been in game for 2 years or more now. The game is funny that way.

Oh, well. EQ will never end, so I have all the time in the world.

[Ukerric]

Originally posted by CruelTea
The amount of time and effort required to get the VP key means that most or all people entering VP in raid-force will be 60. Trakanon alone is a bitchy bottle-neck; I remember three times in a row he dropped 3 fucking teeth.

Level 65 is a snap now. Hell, groups of level 60s that weren't uber pre-PoP and aren't uber now can pass Trials. VP holds very little loot that anyone really wants to spend time going after;

That's the point I wanted to make, but you beat me to it.

Someone said "level 55 guild". By the time enough people in the level 55ish guild get equipped with VP keys to mount a raid there, they're likely to be 62+ (if they use high-ZEM zones... like PoP), at which point a guild that raids (if you're going to envision VP, you're a raiding guild) will find a lot more loot far more easily.

Currently, the only high-ends that are still "required" for progression are Sleeper's Tomb (for the primal/prismatic) and Vex Thal (for Vengeance/FT/huge hp-mana). And Sleeper's Tomb is only mandatory due to the primal effect being broken... but SOE can't remove them, or they make an incredible gap between the have and have-not, and this closes their option regarding high-end content: either they design it without Primal, and it's trivialised by the old guilds, or they design it with Primal, and the upcoming can't compete.

Sleeper's Tomb could be eliminated from the competition if there was enough +ATK available at the high-end Velious/low-end Luclin level to completely offset the need of Primal proc. Putting some Auras/Vengeance on deep NTOV stuff, maybe on HOT/Kael melee legs would probably achieve the required effect (remember, +ATK is capped). And then Prismatic would be removed and replaced by Crystalline stuff (which would have Vengence instead of a primal proc... good stuff, but not mandatory stuff).

And, of course, Sleeper's Tomb would be immediately completely deserted... except on the euros servers, where the Sleeper is still not awakened (/em starts the stopwatch to see how long he stays).

[Rezz]

Nerf all primal and ancient prismatic weapons to no longer include avatar. Seriously, it's the second stupidest idea VI has had after implimenting DT, in my opinion. Just take it away, make Vengeance shit that much more coveted and the gap in power between those with avatar and those without shrinks to nill. Retronerf the shit, y0. It was just a dumb idea. And yeah, I had a couple primal weapons when I played, just nerf the shit and be done with it.

[Affinity]

Originally posted by Rezz
Nerf all primal and ancient prismatic weapons to no longer include avatar. Seriously, it's the second stupidest idea VI has had after implimenting DT, in my opinion. Just take it away, make Vengeance shit that much more coveted and the gap in power between those with avatar and those without shrinks to nill. Retronerf the shit, y0. It was just a dumb idea. And yeah, I had a couple primal weapons when I played, just nerf the shit and be done with it.

Why? your opinion sucks. Back it up with some reason.

[Cybsled]

Primal weapons were needed in SOL for the most part since the mobs all had insane AC, but in POP it's not as important.

I'd probably rank ntov over st in terms of what is required if you dont have full access to VT (the resists are VERY useful still)

[Ukerric]

The big difference between NTOV and ST is that Sleeper's Tomb is still a locked zone. Of course, if you can kill into NTOV, you can get in Sleeper's Tomb anyway, so the difference is moot.

But the discussion originated from VP. There's 5 keyed zones in EQ:

- Charasis
- Sebilis
- Veeshan Peak
- Sleeper's Tomb
- Vex Thal

Out of these, only the last two are absolutely mandatory (if you want to be uber), and the penultimate is only because of the primal proc. Without Primal, almost no-one would go into post-awakening ST.

A lot of people had hoped that PoP would provide loot of near-VT quality, an alternative to VT. Sadly, it didn't: you need to go to elemental planes to get that level of quality...

[Bowlice]

and for that you need VT gear and some primals would help!

shoulda finished your thought

[Zorg]

A lot of people had hoped that PoP would provide loot of near-VT quality, an alternative to VT. Sadly, it didn't: you need to go to elemental planes to get that level of quality...

I disagree. Mith Marr, Agnarr, and other Tier 3 encounters drop some VT quality loot. Most of it isn't AHR quality, but then again, you've still got the elemental planes for post-VT loot(and eventually, the Plane of Time).

[Squirt Gunn]

I always thought the crazy pathing in Plane of Hate is what made it fun.

Puller: "INC REVS!"

Guild: "How many?"

Puller: "All of them!"