Phinigel is live! Surprisingly it came up exactly when they said it would! I rolled a Necromancer named Fragglemancer, and my friend Ursus made a Druid. We’re currently leveling up in Steamfont Mountains where mob density seems to be pretty good.
So far so good on the server. There are 530+ people in Greater Faydark. Instances or “picks” are now holding 100 people vs. the 20 they used to hold, and there are no queues to be seen during prime time despite there being as many people here as I can remember there being (or more) on Ragefire. There are no queues, and the lag is normal. Kudos to Daybreak there.
What they didn’t tell you about Phinigel – my list so far:
- EXP is 60%+ slower
- Pet mitigation was majorly nerfed (level 1 pet dies in 2 hits from a white)
- Pets now instantly get aggro regardless of whether or not their owner is in melee range
So I find myself fighting an uphill battle struggling my way through these lower, slower levels, but my outlook is decent. I’m going to stay the course with a Necro until at least Kunark. We’ll see if I go back to Iksar Monk at that point.
If that change to pet aggro isn’t a bug then it would be one of the biggest changes to a core EQ game mechanic that I can remember. It might be annoying now but at higher levels, when a cloth caster is no longer to take more than a hit or two from a mob at level and buffed, geared pets are able to tank better than most players, having a pet that always takes aggro even in melee range will be incredibly useful.
I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that was a bug and if it isn’t it will probably end up being nerfed as OP.
I’m conflicted with this exp change. While I don’t mind getting less exp from a gameplay point of view, I’m a little frustrated from a moral standpoint in that it looks like a blatant cash grab for selling exp pots.
@Bhagpuss: People can’t figure out if it’s a bug or not. The mitigation nerf was intended… to this degree we don’t know. The aggro issue… it’s a weird one. Pets pull insane aggro. Not great since they also die in a few hits now. No matter what I do, even using the pet calm AA we get at level 1, doesn’t seem to quell my pet’s unquenchable thirst for aggro.
@Norfen: It’s clearly a push for exp pot sales since they know they won’t make as much on krono. It feels like P99 exp rates now. So while I’m okay with it mechanically… their motives are less than pure.
It seemed to get better for me at lvl 2 actually which is good. Mobs do focus on me more and I think it’s because my pet is tougher now. At lvl 1 my enchanter pet can potentially die in one hit from a lvl 1 mob. I think pet agro is based on how easily a mob can kill the pet which should be pretty good for mages and necros later on.
@Gringar: Reached level 3 before having to go to sleep last night and I didn’t see more than a slight improvement — often times none at all. Ursus would be on a yellow con mob for a good 20 seconds. I wouldn’t touch it. I would send pet in and BAM pet is dead in one hit. Seems… just odd.
I had loads of fun last night! Managed to hit level 4 with an old friend and I doing a cleric/warrior combo. Is resting up mana faster then p99? I seem to remember waiting much longer to get mana back.
@Keen Saying DBG motives are less pure should be a mantra at this point. Almost every design change they have made in H1Z1 has been to push as much of the players base to BattleRoyale as possible and to encourage cash shop transactions. Again, this is why I will never support the idea of Exp Potion Buffs or Crafting Buff Potions in a cash shop. By their very nature gaining exp and crafting are things that require real world time and with a little adjustment behind the scenes a developer can drastically change the way a game is played. Devs will claim you can still achieve the same result without the buffs but the reality is the player that does not buy the cash shop items will take more real world time to achieve the very same result as the player that does. That clearly creates an ‘advantage’, even if it is just saving time. Ultimately, I don’t want to have to trust that a developer is not going to use that as a way to push microtransaction items.
@Nateryl: Yes, mana regen will be significantly faster than P99. You’ll also regen health much faster, and your character will seem much heartier.
@Nukethissitefromorbit: All true. That is why games with cash shops are inherently flawed in their design because their design is always, in some way, influenced to push players to spend money rather than pushing players to keep playing the game. It’s something we’ve dissected a thousand times over the past ten years, and finally now the masses are starting to agree with us rather than persecute us.
Pets get significantly better at higher lvls, at least they should. A lvl 1 pet was always a POS in classic.
The fact that you would play an iksar monk instead of a human disappoints me.
#ashen4life
@Steve: It’s more about the starting areas than the race itself. 😛
I’m kinda boggled they couldn’t at least do a minor tweak to face graphics. I mean yeah, it’s taking me back to 1999 or whatever, but that Druid looks a little demented. And that necro isn’t going to win any contests either.
This got me thinking that it’s been a while where I’ve played an MMO where I felt genuinely weak and vulnerable early game and really had to hustle to get to a more comfortable state. Nowadays, it feels like I’m just going through the motions until level cap, maybe learn some raid mechanics, and call it a day. The mantra of “Things don’t start until end game” really has taken over in a lot of places rather than the game being about the journey.
@Sanz: There are both the 1999 models and the updated models they did around… Luclin I think? I prefer the old models, which are what I always have on when I play! 😛
@Jeff: Amen to that. I have a post I was supposed to publish yesterday (working on finishing it up now) that says very similar things.
@Keen: I loved the old bard models, where Plate Helms gave you a helm with horns. Looked cool. New model bards look lame with plate.
@All Re:p99 Rates: Make a L1 on P99 and see how many white cons it takes to level to 2 (spoiler, it’s 10 to 11, depending on race/class combo. White Cons at L1, for most race/class combos, give the maximum XP per kill, which on P99 is 10% of the current level.)
Now try this on Phinigel: It’s between 14 to 16.
Hey, guess what? The XP Pot V2 gives you a 50% XP bonus! Hmm…..
I was all set to get going again on PH, but then realized that there is the whole station cash / whatever daybreak calls that garbage now going on with xp pots, etc, and that this is a revamped experience. I could smell the stench of Smed-greed immediately even with him gone. Running around on live briefly sealed the deal, what was done in the commonlands / freeport changes just doesn’t sit right.
If EQC ever sees the light of day, I’ll probably re-invest some time as it’s the only thing trying to be classic, not some Frankensteined mess like P99 or whatever you want to call era locked live. Good luck with that though, it’s like 6 years and still nothing.
@Lokked: Adventure 2 only gives 25%+ exp. It’s pretty intense.
Hey, about that pet thing, there is a free AA granted at level 1 that reduces pet’s aggro by 40%. Perfect for when you don’t want the pet to tank. I think its under archtype.