VoA NDA is lifted!

[Inphared]

I'll just leave this here...

[Blarp]

I'll just leave this here...

EWWW!!!!!

[Nusa]

I'll just leave this here...

He linked the recruiting area of RoI, which currently lists ALL classes as closed. If you're actually recruiting, it's definitely the wrong thread. If you're trolling, I'm really not sure what message you're trying to send. Explain please.

[Inphared]

All classes are listed as closed, because of the high volume of applicants we receive.

I can guarantee, however, that if a skilled beastlord were to come by, we'd seriously consider it.  :-)

The list was also last updated in September ;p

[AbyssalMage]

Wow, they really catered to the grinders of EQ. Hope everyone enjoys the expansion, have a feeling more people are going to leave. Although some of the other perks of the expansion may be nice I'll just hold off on buying this one :( until I can justify the $$$ or Sony comes to their senses  :|

[Sharrien]

I like it so far.  I think the language faction system is new and interesting....far better than factions used in the past that we're mostly blind to viewing progress.  Yes, Argath is crowded, but I went there and played some during off-peak hours and managed to easily get the first three story missions done and killed three named that I found just hanging around.

Personally, I have zero issues with locking things behind language skill.  The way I see it you have to do content to be able to use the higher tier drops or get the tasks.  In most other expansions you had to do content to be able to access the zones where you could find better gear and more missions.  I don't see a huge difference except in VoA you're actually free to explore the entire expansion already.  Maybe I'm biased since I actually like questing in Everquest.  I was really happy to see some new things in the tasks besides hail1/hail2/kill minions/kill boss/hail3/open chest.  I wish there was a long multi-zone quest like shawl 2.0 or the SoF face aug.

The only real legitimate gripe I've seen is that audio triggers won't be useful unless you have 100 skill, that is a high bar to jump over to use a long-established raiding tool.

[AbyssalMage]

I like it so far.  I think the language faction system is new and interesting....far better than factions used in the past that we're mostly blind to viewing progress.  Yes, Argath is crowded, but I went there and played some during off-peak hours and managed to easily get the first three story missions done and killed three named that I found just hanging around.

Personally, I have zero issues with locking things behind language skill.  The way I see it you have to do content to be able to use the higher tier drops or get the tasks.  In most other expansions you had to do content to be able to access the zones where you could find better gear and more missions.  I don't see a huge difference except in VoA you're actually free to explore the entire expansion already.  Maybe I'm biased since I actually like questing in Everquest.  I was really happy to see some new things in the tasks besides hail1/hail2/kill minions/kill boss/hail3/open chest.  I wish there was a long multi-zone quest like shawl 2.0 or the SoF face aug.

The only real legitimate gripe I've seen is that audio triggers won't be useful unless you have 100 skill, that is a high bar to jump over to use a long-established raiding tool.

My gripe is two fold really.

In order to purchase Class AA's, which are usually the "bread and butter" of an expansion, you need to unlock language through quests. Now, they decided after how many expansions(?) that they(Sony) have been to generous with quest xp and scaled it back and finally decided that you SHOULD participate in the quest to actually get credit. Factor in that the quests will become more cumbersome as we reach spring/summer as less people do them and most players now run 2+ Mains/Alts. Factor all of this together and you reach my first grumble, any returning player is going to stop as soon as they started. Continuing on this line of thought, 1-2 years down the road Sony has now forced themselves to revisit this expansion to unlock AA's so future expansions can be unlocked (Assuming they go past level 95, last I read their was a code problem). They already use the excuse that they don't have the time, this just seems very short sighted if they truly don't have the time.

My second grumble is really the grind. This I can "live" with only because I don't level fast anyways. But many returning players want to see "progress" and their needs to be a balance between now and before. And in all honesty, maybe its a "Knee jerk" reaction on my part only because it really has been so easy in the past. So this grumble isn't quite so big.

That being said, I really do like the idea that they finally opened up the expansion to everyone. The one thing I really hated about the last few expansion was this feature. And they made less instance zones forcing players to actually group  :-o :evil: :-D to complete tasks.

Now if they would just do a cookie cutter of SoV with awesome quests, multiple faction/alliances that mattered, and a story that ties it all together  8-) It almost feels like EQ has become Final Fantasy in how linear each expansion has become.

[Nusa]

If you're really only level 81, like your sig says, then the VoA content is useless to you anyway. You're not worthy of it yet. The only thing you'd get out of VoA for the near future is whatever UI features you don't get for free (in-bag clickies is the main one that comes to mind).

As for the 1-2 outlook, in your various reading, you apparently missed the part about language-lock requirements going away automagically in 8 months. That's already set up, supposedly. In any case, the lock issues (other than a few bugs) are non-issues in my mind. Everyone of a suitable level who actually gets in a group and gets them done will have all spells and class AA's all unlocked in less than a week. In my opinion, it's EASIER than getting flagged in HoT is, both in terms of time and difficulty*. Now the last 25 points of the language I can't talk about yet....they likely will be somewhat harder.

*Unless, of course, the person just bought taskadds. You can get 24 points of the language via taskadds to the VOA group missions, but the solo quests they'll have to at least show up and afk in a group to get.

[Mazame]

You say AA are the bread and butter but then again you could say that about the gear ( group or raid ) or about the spells for that matter.  but in the past both gear and spell have been lock behind progression. SoD for example you had to do progression to get some / grind faction to get other. in HoT you had to unlock zones to get the best gear / augs. when it comes down to it  progression has always been key in getting gear and progressing. and in VoA it takes less task / missions to unlock the progression then in the past.  and doing the lang task are a LOT faster then grinding faction to be able to buy stuff in SoD.   Ok so ya the add aa this year  that are unlocked but it only the Class AA. most the time people go after CA/CS/PP lines 1st so class aa being lock not that big of deal also keep in mind a Lot of aa are level based and I sorry but only a hand full of ppl are 95 right now so most people would have AA lock by level any ways.

My group fought on day 1 with 200-300 people in zone to get the quest done and it took us 16 hours.  my gues is with the zones being less crowded now you could get the 1st zone done in 8-10 hours or less.  the 1st zone get you most everything unlocked.  not tell me who was flagged for HoT T4 in 16 hours or less? or who unlocked all of SoD in 16 hours or less.  I sorry everyone QQ about the whole lang thing just making me sick.  go spend a day and un lock it and stop QQing.

btw my group was 91 bst / 91 druid / 91 rog  and a bot 91 chanter and we did ever task / mission in the 1st zone  and were still in UF / SoD raid gear with a few Hot drops so it not like you have to be all powerful to do it.

[nedoirah]

They scaled the mob difficulty back then? That was my big issue while in beta. I play a shm/bst team with 2 mercs (cleric and warrior) and have been able to take down most HoT content with only moderate difficulty. I beta-copy my bst and shm over to beta and buff them to 95 and wipe repeatedly to trash in the valley. I know though that they usually beef up mob strength in beta since I had the same issues in HoT, UF, and SoD betas. In UF though they didn't scale back mob strength that much and the expansion diffulty was amped up compared to SoD. Now the same thing is happening again with HoT to VoA.

Either way this wasn't the deciding factor in my decision to leave the game. I have left a number of things undone but my desire to do them is gone. My warrior hasn't completed her T4 gear yet from HoT and neither my bst or shm have their 2.5 nor my warrior any of her epics done. I just don't want to play anymore.

I hope they get some tweaking done and really shape up VoA into one of the best expansions to date. I won't be there to see it but I'll visit here and see what you guys think of it.

Oh and BTW I'm trying to finish the bst AA chart for us.

[AbyssalMage]

Nusa, yeah, the sig is out dated but not by a lot. And yes, didn't see anything about language lock requirements going away while the expansion is still active. Just skimmed over the this post again, and didn't see anything about it. This is the first I read anything about that so that is really nice to hear/read.

Mazame, no, I wouldn't say gear has been the bread and butter of expansion for a LONG time. All gear, non-weapon, group and raid has been copy/pasted with inflated HP's/Mana with the exception being the Spell Focus/clickies on BP's and a few older pieces of raid gear that they decided the focus was too powerful so they lowered it on future expansion drops. New spell lines on the other hand I would agree with you on :) But AA's have always been easier to access than faction locked spells/aug's in older expansions so that why I didn't include either.

And yeah, there are a few things that would be useful to me by purchasing this expansion, just not as much as say, HoT was.

[Vidyne]

We went up against Avatar of Steel last night in the 2nd progression mission and proceeded with a wipe while having a raid tank.

He was hitting for upwards of 20k per swing.  The tank was still able to manage until the adds spawned in the river and couldn't be mezzed, killing the dps.  Once a mezz got off in the river, dps was dead and rest of group followed suit as adds kept popping.

It was all the chanters fault for not being able to mez from land to water,  but if you don't have a raid tank, I see it being hard to take 20k hits.  Also our mercs were suspended upon zone in to those missions, so you need a full group of real players, no mercs.

[Mazame]

You say a raid tank was tanking ? I not sure what your raid tank was gear with or if he had all his AA but here is my magelo http://eq.magelo.com/profile/1872352.  Max hit on me was 16k  I did have 2 merc and a druid healing me so ya it not a simple fight but it can be done.   I did use all my tricks and pulled out my sheild to do it but we won.

Mazame - vs - Avatar of Steel
Attempts 148 100%
Missed 22 14.86%
Dodged 19 12.84%
Parried 0 0%
Blocked 30 20.27%
Riposted 14 9.46%
Absorbed 0 0%
985 4 2.7%
1525 1 0.68%
1569 1 0.68%
1836 1 0.68%
1925 1 0.68%
1970 1 0.68%
2014 1 0.68%
2095 1 0.68%
2288 1 0.68%
2354 1 0.68%
2414 2 1.35%
2539 1 0.68%
2745 3 2.03%
2821 3 2.03%
2888 1 0.68%
3041 1 0.68%
3088 2 1.35%
3205 1 0.68%
3422 1 0.68%
3465 1 0.68%
3546 7 4.73%
3555 1 0.68%
3651 1 0.68%
3706 1 0.68%
3786 1 0.68%
3866 1 0.68%
4316 1 0.68%
4349 2 1.35%
5204 1 0.68%
5960 1 0.68%
7498 1 0.68%
7558 1 0.68%
7746 1 0.68%
8353 1 0.68%
9154 1 0.68%
9158 1 0.68%
9162 1 0.68%
9524 1 0.68%
9960 1 0.68%
9964 1 0.68%
11065 1 0.68%
11564 1 0.68%
12371 1 0.68%
13962 1 0.68%
13975 1 0.68%
14770 1 0.68%
16049 1 0.68%

/GU Tanking summary for: Mazame --- Total damage: 317175 --- Avg hit: 5034 --- Swings: 148 --- Defended: 63 (42.6%) --- Hit: 63 (42.6%) --- Missed: 22 (14.9%) --- Accuracy: 74.1% --- Dodged: 19 (18.3%) --- Parried: 0 (0%) --- Blocked: 30 (20.3%) --- Riposted: 14 (11.9%) --- Absorbed: 0 (0%)

[Vidyne]

Started killing him.

Got him down to about 40%,  1st add spawned in water,  killed other beastlord in group, then started hitting vid.  Somehow Avatar hit vid twice for 15k and 20k, splatting him.

Because add was in water, took chanter longer to mezz it(mezz spell can't land on a water mob from land).

After that it was just shaman, enc, cleric, warrior.  The shaman eventually died to adds(seemed like they kept waking up despite being mezzed), then it went south from there with just enchanter, cleric, and warrior.