I was crushed by sickness for 9999 points of damage over the past few days and completely unable to even think straight. I somehow managed to reach level 14 in EverQuest with a foggy head. My regular group consists of a Paladin, Rogue, Druid, and Necro (me) which can easily take out most of the group locations around our level. Unrest is, of course, the place to be at level 14 clearing yard trash and the main floor of the mansion.
I’m still working my way through understanding a lot of the changes to pets, exp, etc. on Phinigel. Daybreak hasn’t been very clear about why the changes were made, and players like me have had to really dig to not only identify the changes but try and formulate an understanding. EXP was nerfed hardest at a 60% hit. That means we’re leveling 1/3 the speed of Ragefire. My pet’s mitigation was nerfed quite hard at what feels like a 50-75% hit. Lastly, I think the damage is nerfed as well. I feel like the pets are back to true vanilla necro pets now and little more than a decent DoT.
Economics on Phinny are interesting. Krono will be in far less demand, and that shows. Right now a Krono is going for ~300-400 plat. People are trying to trade them for items that should only sell for 100 plat or so. That’s $18 (if you buy from Daybreak and not a RMT site) value for quite a pittance in-game.
Potions are the real draw. EXP pots cost 270 Daybreak Cash for a 25% increase which lasts 4 hours. Other potions like mana regen, attack speed increase, and stat gains are available. I haven’t dabbled in those at all, but I have purchased 2 exp potions to get me past tough spots. Can’t say I’ll be buying too many more.
Population wise the server is healthy. I feel like there are slightly fewer people than Ragefire, which was to be expected. Unrest has 6 zones going with 30+ people each.
All-in-all I’m captivated with my Necro and the server. I’ll hold off on participating in Krono or the economy until Kunark. Things are simply fun and EverQuesty! If you’re playing and want to join us, we’re in the level 14 range. We’d love to have you.
Wow, mana regen, haste and stats pots!?! Cannot say I’m surprised but that is disappointing. The money grab from Daybreak seems really strong at this point.
Under a specific context, I don’t mind, and actually like it:
As long as the content hasn’t been changed to accommodate the Cash Shop.
I’m already paying $15/month to play. Don’t fuck me over so I feel obligated to pay even more to have the experience I’d expect for my monthly fee.
How do I feel now? The first 5 levels are curved differently. Compare P1999, P2002, EQLive. Level 1 is basically the same among these. Probably changed the Y-intercept of the equation they use for required XP.
At 14, I don’t feel like I need any of these things, but they are there if I feel like paying money to advance faster or become stronger. I get 500 cash shop currency each month for “free”, so I can use that towards these pots if I choose.
@Lokked: The level curve is definitely strange in the 1-5 range. Leveling in general is 60% slower, but in the end it’s hard to get upset with how nice it is that players are a bit more spread out. I also don’t mind the fact that I can still get at least one level in a leveling session that lasts at least 1.5-2 hours in a group. Heck, I got half a level in an hour just duoing blue yard trash in Unrest with no exp pot on. That isn’t bad.
My biggest issue right now is with pets. Necro chat has concluded we shouldn’t even bother researching our pets or buying them because their value is nil.
Exp doesn’t feel quite as bad at the higher levels. It is still slower overall of course but I do see people with lots of play time absolutely rocketing up in levels. It was the first 5 to 10 levels that were brutal. I think a large part of what they did was nerf max exp you can get in one kill down to like 1% or so. In the low levels where you were gaining 5 – 10% or more per kill it was an outrageous difference.
I do hope they bring pets back up to a usable level. I do actually remember nerfs like this being normal in EQ though. The devs would nerf something into oblivion and then later bring it up to a reasonable level. I hope that pets are still being looked at and a reasonable fix is coming. Something did have to happen though. It’s crazy that the ideal group layout for a full group was 6 mages.
I have been really enjoying myself. Never made it far on p99 red or blue and I didnt do much the last round of TLP servers. My nostalgia comes from 1 summer in 1999 before college too and the game is still a blast. Moved to unrest healing groups with my cleric on the yard trash there and just hit level 13.
The cash shop just doesn’t bother me. I suppose I should be worked up about it but in a game with no pvp I have a hard caring about cash shops and what they offer. I used a few pots to get out of the early boring levels and haven’t felt the need for them since.