Since Sony has said there will be <a href="http://eqlive.station.sony.com/news_section/newsview.jsp?story=57815" target="top">no more AA skills</a> introduced in LDoN, what do people do with xp?

There are some out there with filled Arch, Class, and PoP Class skills; and others that have no interest in AA's beyond what they have (even though they're not maxxed).

There's also a school of thought stating AA's are trivializing old content, although possibly not to the extent of increased levels.

<strong>So are we done with new AA's? </strong>

If so, then are we done with xp'ing?

<strong>Here's a potential solution</strong>

<strong> - Experience Pool </strong> (got it)
<strong> - AA Pool </strong> (got it)
<strong> - Feat Pool </strong> (new!)

The Feat Pool would be an experience pool that is built up with XP, and drains during the activation of feats.

<strong>Some balance ideas</strong>
AA's and Levels are inherently powerful because you don't lose the effectiveness they have.

Well, lets say you had a Feat Pool of 100 units, for example. Some feats may cost 20, 50, or 80 units to use. You could obviously activate multiple feats as long as your accumulated pool was large enough. BUT, you couldn't simply wait for it to "charge" on a raid, like AA timers. These are earned points, every time you need them, they need to be earned.

Having a pool makes sure you don't eventually have access to all the feats at once, as you can with AA's.

This could create specialty characters within a class. Alternatively, it could make up for a shortfall in one class by utilizing feats in another. For example, lack of healing or dps classes could be made up by feats of another class.

<strong> Oh oh... </strong>
Here I've got an idea about a structure, but no ideas on implementation. Lemme go think for a bit and come back...

Wyte

Hmmm.... interesting thought! I'm so far from that point though it's laughable. I got tired of exp'ing at 120 AA points or so.

Lots of people were level 50th before Kunark came out, same for 60 before Velious. Being 'done' with exp has never really been a problem. AA's certainly made it so you could keep exp'ing a lot longer but running out really isn't that big a deal.

Well, after maxxing your AA and XP pools, you could go max all your tradeskills.

What you do after THAT is something I'm pondering right now...:)

Scirocco is a <a href="http://pub149.ezboard.com/fthedruidsgrovegeneral.showMessage?topicID=31627.t opic" target="top">MACHINE</a>

How much longer do you think you'll need to ponder?

Ahah! I have the answer for ya. Now that you're done with skills for 1 character, and when you're done with XP... you have 7 more character slots to fill!

:rolleyes:

And after that, another 30+ servers with 8 characters each to fill!! Muahahahahha....

/frown
ughhh... that'd be torture.

Wyte

Xitix said:
<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>
Being 'done' with exp has never really been a problem.
[/quote]

I'd tend to agree. Although remembering those days, people were looking for things to do besides LGuk and Vox/Naggy pretty quick. There was no incentive to xp any more.

Then Fear came out.

Personally, in restrospect, I think I would have been happier with EQ staying at level 50, and without AA's, rather then the timesinks we have now. Grinding xp, what a bad concept.

<strong>Now that you're done with skills for 1 character, and when you're done with XP... you have 7 more character slots to fill!</strong>

Nah, I'm my own best twink. Besides, my persona in each MMORPG I've played becomes fixed early on. One character in UO. One character in EQ. One character in AO. One character in DAoC. One character in SWG (although I've only played for one day total so far, so perhaps that's not representative).

If I start a new character, it will be in a new game...

great

have to exp forever! !

is that all the game is anymore?

i remember when exploring, and doing stuff in a small community was fun ..

when everyone was below level 30 and the world was new .. back when doing things was your reason for logging in .. things not related to getting experience and loot ...

has the game degraded to such a point where we actually want to have to exp all the time? is that what the game is to everyone?

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>has the game degraded to such a point where we actually want to have to exp all the time? is that what the game is to everyone? [/quote]
Yes, if thats how you want to play this game... There are so many quests and tradeskills and exploring that can also be fun. Personally, this week I just gained access to the Elemental Planes and am having tons of fun just exploring with friends, not worrying about loot OR xp. Plus having fun exploring the new revamped zones.

Elder Baeffwin
<Odysseys> Xev

I love this topic, I know many of the Grovers here are maxxed out on everything.

I certainly am not, and like to hear their tales and opinions.

What motivates you, once you are there?

And remember there is another expansion comming out early next year. And we have no clue yet as to what they have in mind for that.


They are adding so many other neat things with LDON I did not really expect new AA's with this expansion.


Borblefoot Furtoe
64th Season Druid
Ancient Darnkess
Firiona Vie Server

I like the idea.

something like an AA point of XP to one time use...

Manaburn for mages and druids
Res or Divine Aura for Druids/Shamans
Insta Gate for any caster/hybrid
Lay Hands for any healer/hybrid
Feign Death for a bard or rogue

etc. etc. that costs XP to use.

Could lead to some incredibly difficult raid content though =)

What's the frequency, Kaenneth?


WTf are you saying.

I'm starting to wonder if this is a plausible idea after all.

For Raids: People would max out on Feat xp before the raid, especially "required" classes, or classes with "required" Feats.

However, there is inherently some balance with the idea, in that once the raid is on its way, usage of Feats means everyone is draining their Feat pool. There isn't as much forgiveness on a wipe, because people would have to build up their Feat pool again.

It would allow guilds to take on slightly harder targets then usual, or with slightly fewer numbers, but at a cost of Feat xp.

It would allow better recovery when the sh*t hits the fan through the use of Feats. This is a good thing IMO, because it would require skill in choosing from diverse Feats.

It would tie heavily into strategy this way, each person thinking "Do I use Feats to save from a wipe (possibly ending this late raid), or do I <em>hope</em> we survive and use Feats on the boss mob?"

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>
Manaburn for mages and druids
Res or Divine Aura for Druids/Shamans
Insta Gate for any caster/hybrid
Lay Hands for any healer/hybrid
Feign Death for a bard or rogue
[/quote]

Interesting, to tie Feats to mana usage. Some of those are pretty powerful abilities though; I'm not sure if they want more use of Manaburn for instance.

Okay, I finally came up with some implementation ideas, mostly Druid, (some of which are pretty old actually, but fit). Keep in mind these have finite usage amounts, because they drain the Feat xp pool.

Feats:

<strong>Druid</strong>
- Critical Heal: Next heal is guaranteed to max crit.
- Critical Nuke: Next nuke is guaranteed to max crit.
- Passive Heal: Next heal generates minimum aggro.
- Fast Heal: Next heal is 1/4 the cast time.
- Group Heal: Next heal hits the group, doubles mana cost, doubles cast time, high Feat cost.
- Nature's Concentration: Next outdoor spell can be cast indoors.
- Lure Root: Next root spell is almost impossible to resist.
- Wood Realm: Instantly refreshes spirit of the wood
- Ethereal Spirit: Blazingly fast upgrade to Spirit of Cheetah, 'cuz personally I'm still mad they allowed everyone to buy bard speed.
- Invitation: Next gate brings the group.

<strong>Necro</strong>
- Denial: If the target is "killed" within 6 seconds of using this Feat, the target gains 10 - 25% hitpoints.

<strong>Ranger</strong>
- Snipe: Next bow shot is guaranteed to max crit.

<strong>Warrior</strong>
- Incite Anger: A super taunt

<strong>Melee classes</strong>
- Reach: Melee range is increased x amount for y amount of time.

That's it for now.

- Wyte

Feat pool is novel but in practice an awful idea.

Setting up a situation that requires exp to be directly wasted is a possibly huge blow to eq. It would to a large amount to even further the enormous devide between exp rich and exp poor.

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr> exp rich and exp poor. [/quote]

Unlike gear, there's nothing to prevent someone from getting experience.

"Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
exp rich and exp poor.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Unlike gear, there's nothing to prevent someone from getting experience. "

Actually I agree with Role here. It's not the total amount of XP that counts with feats, but the rate at which you gain XP.

If I level (or AA) slow, I still get to 60 (or 65) eventually, but once I do, I'm done. With feats, it's the rate of XP gain that totally counts. A feat which requires one AA's worth of XP will be trivial to a hard core player who gets that XP in 30-40 minutes, compared with the player who takes 2-3 hours to get that XP, and which might also be spread over the space of 2 or 3 nights work.

Note, mind you, that I'm not saying it's a bad idea. Actually, I think it's a pretty cool idea! Just not one I'd take advantage of anytime soon (i.e, the next year, at least!). I have WAY too many useful AAs to get yet, and those stick around for good. But I also don't raid any more. For the hard core raider (raids are where these abilities would shine) who has all the useful AAs already, these would be great!

Tat

Maybe the exp could be copied into the feat pool? That way people done with AA's still have a reason to get exp on occasion, without making everyone else choose between permanent abilities and feats.

I've lost alot of interest in EQ since I pretty much finished everything except raiding. I guess thats a good thing since I wont have much time to play soon, heh. I have every AA I want except for some resists, and I use raid XP to fill up those cause I am in no rush (the other left over stat AAs are just a waste of time). I've finished tradeskills, too, except I never bothered to get them past 240 skill cause its a waste of effort (they max out at 240 + geerlok/trophy). So anyway, I dont find myself ever logging in anymore unless its to raid and if a free night is called I immediately log off. I'm just very bored of xp'ing and especially when it nets my character very little. I have almost no interest in LDON cause its just about xp'ing and getting OMG +5 wisdom to your gear and great spells like feral pack!

I guess I'm waiting for a new MMORPG like WoW to get some interest back in exploring and xp grinding. Even when EQ adds more content, it feels like its just more of the same with very little innovation.

I kind of like having the exp able to be maxed. Then I dont feel like I have to spend time grinding, but rather going back and doing all the encounters I skipped.

I am at the same place you are Fayne. I've gotten all the important AA's and/or ones I personally wanted for the most part. I'm pretty much burned out permanently on exp'ing now I think. I have been staying away from soloing like the plague and grouping infrequently with my guildmates for the social aspects more than anything else. I mostly play for the raids now, which I still find fun even though they too can be a grind. I think I need something new so for the love of god, would someone please finally make the sequel to Master of Magic already? Ahhhhhh! :mad:

XP = the suck.

I'll be very happy when I never have to spend another day in an XP group.