Beta NDA (hah) lifted, just how was your experiences?

[DJk_zero]

I quit midway through after realizing what a shitfest some parts were turning out to be. Only thing I did like was the loot system itself, guess that is the major selling point.

[ChewieTobbacca]

wait what NDA wtf have i been missing

[Furor Planedefiler]

Originally posted by DJk_zero
I quit midway through after realizing what a shitfest some parts were turning out to be. Only thing I did like was the loot system itself, guess that is the major selling point.

The loot system is a great idea, I wonder who thought of it?

Aside from that I'll make no comments on LDoN, its Beta, or anything relating to LDoN. My money will be where my mouth is this time. If and when they learn to balance classes without me having to purchase a fucking expansion to reap the benefits, I'll give them my money. Until then, my warrior stays the fuck out of LDoN and all of it's l33t Augments. My Mangelo weeps

[Kildace]

It's a fun expansion, I enjoyed playing it be it on raids or in xp groups.

Some places were ass yeah, but they got tuned, all the dungeons have their unique flavor and are a very good challenge on hard mode.
Of course the size limitations are dumb, but LDoN is good at what it is, it's not the promised land but it's a very fun 1 group / 6 group expansion that brings dungeon crawling back into the game.

[Aanya]

The loot system is a direct rip off from Darkness Falls loot merchants / Spellcrafting in DAoC.

[Templor]

So, what is the loot system like for those of us who weren't in beta?

[khalysta]

Well, you go on adventures and earn points. Each adventure area has themed loot. As you complete adventures and earn points in each theme more and more items are revealed. It seems really nice overall, the only downside is that for lvl 65 people you will have to complete many adventures to really be able to buy quality items. It might also be lacking in the buyable stuff for time/elemental people but great upgrades for the more casual common person. I stress the might though because from the one beta channel I never really heard of great upgrades that were compatible with time/elemental gear.

Overall I think its a great expansion and is done really well. The new models for npc monsters are pretty good, the dugeons are well designed and the augments seem to work well.

[Ukerric]

Disclaimer: I'm not playing EQ anymore, for quite some time, and so, all of this is second hand.

Still, I've had a problem with the Lost Dungeons of Rubi-Ka. Sorry, of Norrath.

Let's see if I have understood it well.

You come to the mission booth, err, NPC, you select you mission type, difficulty level, you then haul ass to your entirely private dungeon, finish the mission, get the cheese, and move on to the next mission?

Why does this sounds awfully familiar.

At least, they have learned from the most blatant error of Anarchy Online, namely completely generating the dungeon from scratch, making it stupid and meaningless. I just wonder how boring the dungeons become after you've done all the variations of that theme (8 variations? Even if they're randomly picked, it won't take long before you've seen them all).

So, the latest expansion is a cross-breed of Anarchy Online & DAoC's Darkness Falls in the world of EQ, which yields D2 gems. Is that an apt summary?

[Genado]

Unlike AO Missions the LDON Adventures are NOT random content....its All hand crafted stuff. And the Dungeons own anything slapped together in AO hands down, theyre really well designed and Put together.

[Kildace]

(8 variations? Even if they're randomly picked, it won't take long before you've seen them all).

Actually no.
1 theme != 1 mission. You can have the same mission (kill XXX) in two different themes, and you can have different missions in the same theme.
I'd guesstimate that the number of missions for one dungeon is about 80.

[Xaen]

I didn't care for it much and quit partway through. It just wasn't fun. Trying to find 4-6 people was just as suckass as trying to get a group on a normal server. You had to build the perfect group to get through before the time limit ran out. It really really blew, and when it's on live servers, I think it's going to be even harder to get people in this because everyone will have something else to do in the game elsewhere .. Seems like a lost cause as most people who enjoy this type of content are either solo or duo people.. You'll rarely see a perfect group of 6 just forming a pickup group to beat some gay ass timer. Once people realise that, it'll wear off and it'll be another LoY but without the solo and duo players inhabiting it.

A shame, really.

[Aldarion_Shard]

lotsa guildmates in beta, so lotsa second hand ifo here ndzero first hand. as such, i wont re post specific info about what to expect, but a comment:

it seems to me LDoN will be a major stumbling block for modern EQ retards. you know, the kind who dont know how to get into / form pickup groups for anything besides South Pad in BoT (and to them, thats an intense dungeon crawl). The type who have never set foot inside, say, Permafrost or Paw, and wouldnt know where the Arena zone was if their life depended on it. the type who still dont have a Sebilis key at lvl 62. the type who get scared and/or gate when a pull of more than 3 mobs comes into camp, and think youre crazy for bringing so many despite the bored-out-of-his-mind enchanter in the group.

My guess is that this crowd is gonna be royally pissed about a million little details in this expnsion.

From what I hear, those who thought HS was a blast back in the day and the PoJ trials were actually pretty fun, aside from the stupidly long waiting when they first opened up... will enjoy this expansion a lot.

While I realize my class wil remain absurdly brokenly underpowered and unbalanced despit this expansion, it still sounds like a hell of a lot of fun.

[Kildace]

You had to build the perfect group to get through before the time limit ran out

Wrong.
I've seen Mag Mag Mag Mag Bard Cle groups win adventures, all with standard chars on normal. You don't need the perfect group, you need players that know how to play.

I think Aldarion is right on the money. Hard dungeon crawls are awesome and challenging, bring back a lot of HS and deep sebilis memories. And warriors are not that useless, because in this setting, AEtaunt comes handy, and the higher hp / ac really matters.

[khalysta]

After they raised the adventure time there wasnt really any problem in finishing them unless the group just didnt work well together. But like it was said you just need people who can play and play well and then the adventures are pretty easy to finish even with a cr or two.

[Snootay]

The rescue missions fucking suck. Both times I did one we fought for an hour and a half and suddenly lost because we missed one mob in a side door who rushed the rescued NPC from halfway across the zone when he became a "pet", and killed it in one hit.