Post inf0z here.

Seeds of Destruction Overview

Hello, and welcome. Seeds of Destruction is the 15th installment and final, in the Massively Online Multiplayer for the Sony Online Entertainment video game, Everquest. Inside this festering expansion you will find all new content for the level 75-85 crowd. Feel Free to enjoy 5 more unneeded levels of content as they raise the level cap from 80 to 85, and also featuring the main selling point of the expansion, the Mercenary. Oh ya, how could I forget, some more alternate abilities, and a couple more zones to play in, with all new boring mundane quests. And some equipment that already features better in the bazaar. Continuing on the trend of including all previous expansions enabled, once more Sony's marketing department has once more decided that this will be a digital download only expansion, not available in stores near you, or until they release their next anniversity issue of Everquest. I highly recommend not purchasing this expansion, and forgetting it even happened, I do the same with Luclin, Ldon, Gates of Discord, and generally every expansion after Omens, unless of course you want the Merc, which is actually useful.

Hurray, for features. Seeds of Destruction, may or not include subject to change, the ability to respawn with your gear upon dying, and the new revival sickness, which I have tried to get changed, so, if you log out for long periods of time with it on, it still stays on, hey, I hate the devs to, I would rather the effect leave after you have been out a week of playing or something. Other features include, the buff window, please plan your ui files accordingly, which allows you to see what buffs your target has. But, the main selling point of the expansion the mighty mercenary. Available in two varieties, the second best healing class in the game, as an Npc, thus, negating any relevance the mighty shaman and druid as the healer starting at level 19, proceeds to grossly outheal the other 2 player classes. I don't know about you folks, but, as a retired druid, I relish the fact that, once more, I have another reason to not use my druid any shape form or fashion other than how he currently stands as my afk bazaar mule, for the last 4 years or so. The healer mercenary, otherwise and henceafter and forthwith shall be known as merc, when refferring to a mercenary class, comes with 4 modes for the higher tiered mercenaries. Yes, they come in tiers. The 4 modes are features of those modes come as following, Balanced, which focuses the mercenary to protect the group. To which a group may be comprised of 6 party members for those not in the know.

A merc, counts as one player in the group, so, for all those you you hoping to each bring your little merc with you as well as your regular 6 person party, sucks to be you. Balanced generally features the merc to primarily focus on healing and buffing the group. It is actually quite fun in this mode which will be used frequently, as I myself enjoyed killing most everything I could kill, that I wanted to kill just because, which pretty much was everything. I most certainly enjoyed killing every mob, that I basically could fight for awhile but, never solo, but, could do it in a duo. It was quite fun soloing North Temple of Veeshan by myself finally, as I am sure many other players will enjoy taking down various named, as well as former raid content.

Other modes and functions include, Passive, in which your merc, just follows you around. It will not even resserect your sorry behind should you happen to die in this mode. Effiency, another mode that can easily be forgotten in usefulness, but, on occasion, you may wish to use this mode as the mercenary, then, focuses its primary focus upon the preservation of resources, aka, it will cast complete heal, alot, thus, and often leaving other players and yourself in the lurch. Often, it will not properly heal damage spikes properly, and thus leading to massive cases of death. And lastly, reactive, which shifts the merc into reacting to the general situtation, like rooting a mob you are fear kiting, or a mob fleeing while snared. Fun Times. But, generally the merc will heal every bit of the the damage spikes, and throw down the occassional root when it has the opportunity, and thus killing your proximity aggro rogue.

What this merc can do, at low levels, buff you and cure status effects, such a poison and disease. That is about it. Also, starting around level 9-10 ish the merc will start healing you as well as buffing you, and completely ignore your status effects. But, certainly does well attacking the symptoms, and not the cause. At higher levels, it will be mainly focused upon healing.And as stated above, will completely out buff and out heal your player characters of lesser healing classes from level 19 on. Heck, it will even cast some rare spells that alot of newer players, will not even have, or even at higher ranks. The best part, it will not even roll for loot! Some of the more annoying aspects such as the healer merc casting symbol on you, then hitting you with the aego line of spells is annoying. Even more annoying, is they will attempt to overwrite your protection of the glades line of spells. Also annoying, and I realize this is at random on this one, your stead fast servent will do nothing until level 19. Not even breeze and/or haste.

Some good benefits to mercs, they do not take falling damage, so, the next time you fall into the hole, or whatever, you got it made. They also, do not drown, nor do they take lava damage, hide your merc appropriately from area of effects. Other things they do, no recast delay! Yay! They also fizzle alot, more than other casters, please plan accorddingly. They also have the tendancy to move around randomly.Fighting rampaging mobs , burns through their mana pool quickly, as they attempt to heal every last bit of damage. They zone and lose hit points accordding to the amount of hitpoints they are buffed at, as to how many they started with, which is rather annoying, especially when when you go into an area hot. Some other fun features, when you attempt to heal yourself they often will check out of their heal, when the effect you may want is both heals landing, trust me cross your fingers, and bring some potions.

You can buff them, so, if you die, make sure to have damaged shielded the merc, they will finish off the mob, as they will not engage in melee or nuking, or at least the healer will. They will not aggro mobs, except certain things that aggro everything, like raptors in Velious, which is funny. Another nice trick is to allow the merc to heal you, then, kite the mob (s) away, the mob will deaggro you and aggro the merc, who runs slower than players, please plan accordingly with your trains! In z Axis areas like velks, enjoy your afk exprience, prefferably working with the tank merc. They also can open locked doors, in various manners. You will have to work on the merc with that one. Once a corpse has been made, they will res it non stop unless in combat, please, plan your death touching mob soloing accordingly, also at low levels, the mercs trying to 0% res you is laughable. At some point, potions are still a good idea, or alternate healing ability. As you level, your merc will level with you. At lower levels they also tend to be able to handle multiple mob tanking, often being able to take quite a few hits as well. However this quickly fades away, when you hit the level 55+ range.

The tank merc, the other mercenary that will not be quite as effective as the healer merc, or as popular either, is generally better to use a real tank. Even the lesser tanking classes such as ranger. But, with some tricks they can be extra dps to the table such as kiting, or helpful in soloing the great summoning mob the more traditional way. However, I do not reccommend setting them as a puller. You will not like it. At lower levels, they can tank multiple mobs fairly well, but, generally they will not focus on one mob when doing so. So, things like mezzing, not so good. They also do not register popular tactics such as kiting, they will taunt. And fear kiting can be somewhat hazardous, as they will often aggro up more things. Remember Z axis areas will drive them berserk, but, they can also do the z axis attacking, aka, they can fight with a mob 200 feet above them. For those not in the know, there is ground level, which is everything on the ground, z axis, is everything above, as well as below you.

Onto the content starting with the Void.

The Void is a non combat zone which features the remnants of Norrath from the incursions of the Discordians, Alone in this Void, is the Mad Zeburox(spelling), a formerly imprisoned mortal turned god turned crazed madman, that wished to share knowledge of godhood to mortals then was imprisoned to prevent such knowledge to be in the hands of mortals, and thus ascending to the ranks of godhood. Also featured in this zone is a tree for which purpose is unknown at this time, except perhaps the lone tree of life to build norrath from. As with the general theme of all players playing the game are somehow destroying it through their actions, I still maintain that the developers have actually destroyed the game by not properly building fun and exciting content, otherwise you basically have a bunch of zones just sitting around with nothing to do except roleplay blowing each other. Which I bet would result in some hot developers alone in the middle of the night poring through every conversational log for more lusty and sordid details. Come on admit it, some of those ****o, I mean romance novels can be quite hot reading. Sorry ladies, I know the difference, you fantasize more about sleeping with complete strangers in the desert than I ever have. But onto, the subject at hand.

Zeb, will spout off some crap when hailed, about how this is all our fault and blah blah, talk about how the dead dragon in the void is actually veeshan, which, that model blows by the way. While the artististic interpretation of dragons in Temple Veeshan is subjective to how the dragons view veeshan scarring the world. Still, the old Kerafrym model looked better. I suspect do to how Zeb spouts off, he is actually telling you how far you have progressed within Seeds of Destruction as he spouts different things according to which lame quest I have finished lorewise.

Around the zone, you will find various portals to several themes, being OceanGreen, Bloody Kithicor, Field of Scale, Kuua, The Rathe invasion, and Discord.

Starting with the entry point to the first intended to be done areas in the game, Ocean Green Village.

Ocean Green theme is based upon the early settlers of Qeynos. In Ocean Green Village, the undead spawn towards nightime, and often stick around during the day. These undead bastards are also the hardest of the base population to fight. While It seems I whined enough to have some accuracy and max hit reduced some, they still will remain the biggest killer in the zones. Minus the claybeast who paths awfully close to the village, sure to kill a few players. In this theme generally the animals are fairly weak. Consider yourself warned that there are huge differences in the mob scale. Most anyone can solo them, and with merc help will easily be able to solo them. The quest NPC's give out some of those most boring quests in the game. But, for those of you unlucky enough to have purchased and attempted to play this expansion, enjoy the most boring mundane quests imaginable.
Some of the quests just do not make sense. While others are just boring and mundane, even lorewise. What does helping a guy with painting equipment have to do with muramites changing time. I have seen no supporting lore about artists that made the difference in the early creation of qeynos, but then, that also could be why, so, by helping this artist, I can infact be hurting the developement of Qeynos. So, by noticing that with the history of present time, shouldn't there be a quest to destroy said artist in question to further the goals of assisting the settlers of qeynos in a more warped way? Assisting the early settlers with seeds makes alot more sense. They got to make food to survive right? While other aspects such as allying with the muramites to destroy the early settlers, or generally skew things with the minions of Bertox seems out of place, as in their are no ways to subvert the early citizens of Qeynos. In order to help them, I may have to hurt them, or maybe just genocide to welcome the invading army is the best answer, or just because.
In this theme you will find some familiar names, Miller's, Tillin, and such that are easily recognizable for anyone who has ever walked around the Karana's or Qeynos.

Also in this theme is the new version of Blackburrow as well as the Temple of Bertox. In the Hills, it vaguely resembles Qeynos Hills, it took a bit, but eventually, I recognized the layout when I found the Lake. Now, I will say this, about the only place to sit down and just make exprience is in the surefall glade portion of the hills. Everything else kinda wanders about, which can get quite deadly at times.

Loot wise, is basically dissapointing. You can find as good if not better in the bazaar. The named such as the claybeast, can be soloed as well as Twisted Root. Here is a sample, Archaic Leather boots, ac 44 290hp/mana/endurance 50 purity, druid, monk, beastlord, magic, lore, attunable, infusible, feet slot, Medium, wgt0.9, 12str,sta15+2, 8 int,15 wis+1,15agi+1,18dex+1,14 cha+1, 10magic, 20 fire, 15 cold, 10 disease, 25 poison, 9 attack, 4hp regen, 2 mana regen, 2 combat eff, 1 shielding, 1 dot shielding,1 avoidance, 1 accuracy, 1 stun resist, 1 heal amount, 2 spell damage, 3 clairvoyance. Slot1 type 7, slot 2 type 13, Focus effect Beneficial haste 15 @ level 85 off the claybeast. He also dropped a lump of resounding clay or something or other, but, I have chosen not to bother typing out the stats and junk.

Off Twisted Root, Bentback Bow, Magic Lore Attunable, War, pal,rng, shd, rog medium, 2.2wgt 80rec,req 75 skill archery, ac30hp290,mana 285,end 285, Basedmg 34, magic damage 1, 25 delay, 200 range, str19, sta21, 12int, 15 wis, 18 agi, 11dx, 8 cha, 15 magic, 14 fire, 13 cold, 21 disease, 17 poi, 12 attack 3 hpregen 2 mana, 1 spell shield, 3 combat eff, 1 dot shield, 1 damage shield miti, 1 avoid, 1 accur, 1 strike, 1 heal amount, 1 spell.

Veil of the Plagues Magic, Lore, Attunable Class nec wiz enc mag Race Hum, eru, hie,def,gnm,iks,frg,drk, Size Med, weight0.7 rec80, req 75 ac 21 275hp,290 mana, 5str+1 19sta+1 13Int+2, 8 wis, 13 agi, 22 dex, 13 cha, 22 mag, 12 fire,15 cold, 16 dis, 16 poi, hp regen3, mana regen 1, spell shield 1, Dot shield1, avoidance 2, heal amount 2, spell dmg1, clairvoyance 1, Slot 1 type 7(gen. group) Focus effect, detrimental range20 L85 increases the range of detrimental spells up to 85 by 20.

As I said this expansion is dissappointing. Unless you are raiding, you are basically getting a merc and that is it. The zones are uninspired, uninteresting, and generally full of boring and mundane quests. I would continue on into Bloody Kith, following that field of scale and into rathe, from there into kuua, spells and alternate abilities, but, why, the same basic outlines with little in the way of actual fun and engaging content with excellent use of the toolsets available to the developers that they failed to implement and use creatively to maximize the fun factor. In short this will be the last of everquest expansions, most likely the developers will be laid off or assigned to other projects such as Vanguard, or the agency, in the march/april/may timeframe, as their 72k playerbase dwindles down to 30-40k and lower, players

Any info on spells and AA's?

General
Battle Ready - 1 Rank - Cost: 5
Combat Agility - 5 Ranks - Cost: 6/7/8/ 9/10
Combat Stability - 5 Ranks- Cost: 6/7/8/9/10
Dealy Death - 5 Ranks - Cost: 5/5/5/5/5
Discordant Defiance - 5 Ranks - Cost: 5/5/5/5/5
Energetic Attunement - 5 Ranks - Cost: 5/5/5/5/5
General Sturdiness - 5 Ranks - Cost: 6/6/6/6/6
Hastened Origin - 3 Ranks - Cost: 3/3/3
Innate Regeneration - 5 Ranks - Cost: 3/3/3/3/3
ental Fortitude - 3 Ranks - Cost: 5/5/5
Natural Durability - 3 Ranks - Cost: 2/4/6
Packrat - 1 Rank - Cost: 3/3/3
Planar Power - 5 Ranks - Cost: 5/5/5/5/5
Quick Draw - 1 Rank - Cost: 5

Archtype
Abundant Healing - 5 Ranks - Cost: 7/8/9/10/12
Armor of Wisdom - 5 Ranks - Cost: 6/6/6/6/6
Cascade of Life - 3 Ranks - Cost: 5/5/5
Destructive Fury - 3 Ranks - Cost: 7/9/12
Expansive Mind - 5 Ranks - Cost 7/8/9/10/12
Gate - 1 Rank - Cost: 3
Gift of Amazing Equiste Radiant Mana - 1 Rank - Cost: 9
Hastened Curing - 3 Ranks - Cost: 3/6/9
Hastened Silent Casting - 3 Ranks - Cost: 6/6/6
Healing Gift - 3 Ranks - Cost: 7/9/12
astery of the Past - 3 Ranks - Cost: 8/8/8
ental Clarity - 5 Ranks - Cost: 5/5/5/5/5
ental Stamina - 5 Ranks - Cost: 5/5/5/5/5
Perfected Levitation - 1 Rank - Cost: 7
Persistant Casting - 3 Ranks - Cost: 6/6/6
Quickened Radiant Cure - 3 Ranks - Cost: 4/4/4
Spell Casting Subtlety - 3 Ranks - Cost: 7/9/12
Written Prayer - 10 Ranks - Cost: 3/3/3/3/3/3/3/3/3/3

Class
Convergance of Spirits - 3 Ranks - Cost: 7/9/12
Destructive Cadscade - 3 Ranks - Cost: 6/6/6
Extend Swarm - 3 Ranks - Cost: 7/7/7
First Spire of Nature - 3 Ranks - Cost: 5/5/5
Focus of Arcanum - 1 Ranks - Cost: 9
Fundament of Wisdom - 9 Ranks - Cost: 1/1/1/1/1/1/1/1/1
Hastened Lycan Soul - 3 Ranks - Cost: 6/6/6
Hastened Nature's Guardian - 3 Ranks - Cost: 6/6/6
astery of Nature - 3 Ranks - Cost: 6/6/6
Nature's Boon - 3 Ranks - Cost: 7/9/12
Nature's Guardian - 3 Ranks - Cost: 7/9/12
Protection of Direwood - 1 Rank - Cost: 12
Quick Buff - 3 Ranks - Cost: 3/6/9
Second Spire of Nature - 3 Ranks - Cost: 5/5/5
Second Wind - 1 Rank - Cost: 7
Spirit of the Black Wolf - 3 Ranks - Cost: 9/12/12
Spirit of the White Wolf - 1 Rank - Cost: 12
Spirit of Wood - 3 Ranks - Cost: 8/9/10
Storm Strike - 3 Ranks - Cost: 7/7/7
Teleport Bind - 1 Rank - Cost: 9
Third Spire of Nature - 3 Ranks - Cost: 5/5/5
Twincast - 3 Ranks - Cost: 7/7/7
Wrath of the Wild- 3 Ranks - Cost: 3/3/3

"Gift of Amazing Equiste Radiant Mana"
I almost think the name of this one is a joke.... cant wait till the next expansion, to see where they go with the naming.

Gate Looks nice, no need to scribe Gate spell anymore.

Teleport Bind - TP someone to their bind point???? (guess they used up their imaginative naming quota on 'Gift of A E R Mana')

Perfected Levitation - ??? maybe it makes us bob up and down again?

I am interested in seeing what 'Written Prayer' and 'Twincast' are.

Thanks for the boring and mundane info. I have pre-ordered the expansion even though I will not use the mercenaries (unless there is a serious advance in AI programming). I am looking forward to the boring and mundane quests.

Could someone provide basic details on the new AAs? The SoF release thread was excellent. This one...not so much. It would be nice to have some info for druids coming from someone who actually plays a druid.

Why is there a Hastened Lycan Soul AA when there is no Lycan Soul? And if there is a Lycan Soul, what the heck does it do?

Why is there a Hastened Lycan Soul AA when there is no Lycan Soul? And if there is a Lycan Soul, what the heck does it do?

I would guess that Lycan Soul is a spell, and the Hastened AA makes it cast faster. I believe there was a similar spell/AA arangement in the last expansion (cant remember which spell at the moment)

I was wondering the same, but allakhazam does not list such a spell...

I imagine that the Twincast that was listed as an AA is Hastened Twincast, because I got the spell sitting in my bank.

spell from SoF was survival of the fittest, and like moogs said, the spell isnt listed on alla/lucy. from what i saw on the chanter class section on soe boards, armor of wisdom is an ac aa (about 20per rank), twincast will give an innate % chance that when you cast a spell, it will be cast a second time, teleport bind is like the wizard aa, it lets us port a group to our bind point, second wind will allow us to refresh spel lrecast timers, black wolf is the det version of white wolf, my guess on mastery of nature is that its like the wiz/enc perfected invis, and lets us have unlimited time on invis.

Sorry for lack of info on list, typed it up a hurry :)

Teleport Bind is Teleport group to your bind point.

Perfected Levitation is what it says - Levitation, just it's permanent

Written Prayer is for research - Raises cap by 10 for each rank.

Twincast is for a chance of getting twincast on a direct damage spell, 1% each rank.

astery of Nature - makes charm less likely to break.

Hastened Lycan Soul - Reduces Reuse timer on Spirit of White/Black wolf.

First Spire - Increase chance of a crit strike with spells
Second Spire - Increase healing power (need to be atleast 75 spell)
Third Spire - Increases HP Pool & adds a DS

Correction on Second Wind it now called Forceful Rejuvenation - Resets spell timers on many spells.

Focus of Arcanum - Grants a grater chance that det spells will strike your target

Thanks, that's a start.

The best info I have seen on general AAs has come from the Magician boards. It has some more info on AAs such as Twincast that are common to all casters.

http://eq1.eqsummoners.com/viewtopic.php?t=36014

Also seems as though the live team is reconfiguring how nukes work for all classes.

The Mastery of Nature AA sounds exciting - anybody got numbers on it? Can't wait to try out the mercs based on the feedback I have been reading in the test forum, they actually sound like they will be useful although I fear the nerf bat at some time.

From what I have been reading Beastlords got the biggest AA of the expansion - +50% all skills damage for a minute every 12 minutes is pretty huge for raiders. Glad I have one as a partner :icon_lol:

My Maths is not the best, so anyone with a calculator wishing to total them all up, please do.

I did it in my head, as I read them.

General AA = 270
Architype AA = 408
Class AA = 400

Thats a whopping 1078. Insane.

Though as I said, it was done in my head, so may be completely wrong

My Maths is not the best, so anyone with a calculator wishing to total them all up, please do.

I did it in my head, as I read them.

General AA = 270
Architype AA = 408
Class AA = 400

Thats a whopping 1078. Insane.

Though as I said, it was done in my head, so may be completely wrong

i have:

General = 302
Archtype = 410
Class = 409

Grand total:1121

And my math can be off

What do the following two AA's do?

Wrath of the Wild
Second Wind
Fundament of Wisdom
Extend Swarm

What do the following two AA's do?

Wrath of the Wild
Second Wind
Fundament of Wisdom
Extend Swarm

wotw - just a minor increase to what we got in... PoP? crap 1 hit ds

2nd wind: refreshes all timers immediately; fairly interesting

fundament is part of the spire crap. each rank gives you like 10 mana. x many ranks unlocks a spire.

extend swarm extends the duration of aa booboo by... ONE SECOND PER RANK! impressive, huh?


mastery of nature might sound exciting but it isn't. bulk of animals throughout all zones are marked as "weak" for melees to solo. neat huh? finally get some charm help and animals are made worthless.

I was rather pleased with the AAs, even though we didn't get what so many again wanted - combined debuff as spell or AA. I saw that other casters got group camo AA as well. Our still stays superior though I think, as its insta cast. No other class can cast such spell while running or example in the middle of the mobs, without getting aggro.

What I had not noticed was the recast time for the nukes! They reduced cast times of our nukes down to 3.25 seconds, but now recast time has gone up to 5.75! That means need to have 2 nukes memmed if want to dps, but hardly have enough spell slots for 1 nuke :(

Very disappointed too about the "weak" animals, after we finally get much needed charm AA. Bleh! Oh well, atleast my hubby who has played rogue the past 8 years, can maybe finally solo something else than Runnyeye mobs without dying :p

Supersmall upgrade to pureblood... and still single target *sighs* Gladly we get more ranks for hastened RC.

Couple of questions about the spells, since I pretty much missed beta (RL sucks):

Carve Whistle - I understood it summons clicky item, which summons.. teddy? Or something else? What is this spell exactly?

Promised Reknit - Seems to be somekind of heal?

Twincast is both AA and spell?

-Kalevalatar An'Lalaith
FV server

Kalevalatar

Don't know.
It's a minor version of the Cleric Promised Renewal (Gives a really strong heal after 18 seconds I think it was). *I am curious as to it conflicting with Promised Renewal though as it would be useful in raids.
Yes, the AA just increases the innate chance of the spells happening by itself by 3% I think it was if maxed.

i believe that carve whistle summons an item that lets us charm an animal, up to around lvl 75.

yes tanom on twincast, 3% innate chance when maxed.

second wind - forceful rejuvenation is limited to spells only.

fundament increases mana by 10 per rank and wisdom by 1. takes 3 ranks to open a spire. spire needs to then be completed (3 ranks) to reopen the fundament. rinse repeat.

i believe that carve whistle summons an item that lets us charm an animal, up to around lvl 75.


The item lets us 'summon' the targeted animal (i.e. we get a standard pet with the model of the targeted animal). At this moment the summon reportedly has about 10K hitpoints and does 139 dps for a rather short period of time. (p.s. many direcharmed animals could actually out dps this if we had the ability to pit them together, and the summoned creature can not be used for reverse charming).


Eri

Yeah, sounds like we kinda got the bone again this expansion. Although I think that the nuke changes are actually good. Everyone is complaining about them, but if you want to do things the old way, you certainly can...they haven't taken anything away from us. Now though, it'll be easier to squeeze in a nuke between heals, and if you do want to use a second slot, will allow us to turn our mana into dps a little faster on fights like Crys names where we want to burn our entire mana pool in 2 or 3 minutes if we can.

Hastened RC is nice, and a little more crit healing.

Oh, and more abundant healing!! /puke.

Oh, are the various spires triggered, or a passive cumulative effect?

Oh, are the various spires triggered, or a passive cumulative effect?


activated, 90sec duration, shared 10 minute recast

first 2 are self only, third one is group, supposedly tgb'able, not mgb'able

Seeds of Destruction Overview

Hello, and welcome. Seeds of Destruction is the 15th installment and final, in the Massively Online Multiplayer for the Sony Online Entertainment video game, Everquest.


Final? From where did you glean that tidbit of information?

i believe that alot of that post is his opinion interjected instead of giving us a non-biased overview.

i believe that alot of that post is his opinion interjected instead of giving us a non-biased overview.

For Druids who want to be main healer this is a very good expansion. For DPS not so (we do not loose much ground either though). And Mahzz reported on the sony boards that Rytan is actually looking to make some changes to the DPS side of things:

Debuffs will not be combined as requested by just about every Druid, but a few of them may get their cast time reduced significantly (guess they found that over the last year the spells were not casted even once outside a few raids).
One of our 5 tick fire dots may get its cast time reduced to 0.5 or so seconds, allowing us to use it much the same way that Shamen use the Sting line as something you toss in between other spells.

Also, he is planning to make our regen line more like that of a Shaman if I understand correctly.


Eri

I'm disappointed to see so much of the info delivered in such a snarky, negative way.

I'm disappointed to see so much of the info delivered in such a snarky, negative way.
It’s contemptuous relationship fueled by 10-years of player frustration. It’s a group of players who feel betrayed by their class loyalty. In mass, they’re bitter. It’s a grand lesson in how not to treat your player base. So, honestly, snarky doesn’t begin to describe it.

The global recast time reduction should help some with using multiple debuffs. That still leaves the issue of limited spell gems, of course.

It’s contemptuous relationship fueled by 10-years of player frustration. It’s a group of players who feel betrayed by their class loyalty. In mass, they’re bitter. It’s a grand lesson in how not to treat your player base. So, honestly, snarky doesn’t begin to describe it.

I've played a druid since 2000, and I still have fun almost every time I log in. I don't feel betrayed by my class loyalty, nor am I bitter or contemptuous.

I guess I'm lucky.

For Druids who want to be main healer this is a very good expansion. For DPS not so (we do not loose much ground either though). And Mahzz reported on the sony boards that Rytan is actually looking to make some changes to the DPS side of things:

Debuffs will not be combined as requested by just about every Druid, but a few of them may get their cast time reduced significantly (guess they found that over the last year the spells were not casted even once outside a few raids).
One of our 5 tick fire dots may get its cast time reduced to 0.5 or so seconds, allowing us to use it much the same way that Shamen use the Sting line as something you toss in between other spells.

Also, he is planning to make our regen line more like that of a Shaman if I understand correctly.


Eri

I'm afraid I just don't see why this expansion is good for Druid MH? If I have a group of 5 players and need a healer, why would I take a Druid over a Merc? The Merc is a much better healer and buffer, has an unrestricted rez, and does not roll on loot. With 5 people, the cost is about 1200 pp/player for a 4 hour grind.

Unless you're playing with friends, or the Merc AI is so bad they are useless - Druid's are all but worthless for MH if a group can just grab a Merc.

I'm afraid I just don't see why this expansion is good for Druid MH? If I have a group of 5 players and need a healer, why would I take a Druid over a Merc? The Merc is a much better healer and buffer, has an unrestricted rez, and does not roll on loot. With 5 people, the cost is about 1200 pp/player for a 4 hour grind.

Unless you're playing with friends, or the Merc AI is so bad they are useless - Druid's are all but worthless for MH if a group can just grab a Merc.

Only time (and playing with Mercs) will tell for sure of course, but I would expect that players will be able to prioritise better than a computer program.
The bigger problem that I see is that, with the cost structured as it is, that there is very little incentive for a group to drop the merc for a living player once they started.

Still, I guess I should be more precise and say that with this expansion and by the time they reach level 85 Druids are not much less desirable in groups than Clerics.


Eri

i believe that alot of that post is his opinion interjected instead of giving us a non-biased overview.

I decided palamin's post-without-end was going to be nothing more than a whinefest once I made it to the third sentence. I certainly had no intention of subjecting myself to the extensive rantings which would surely follow throughout 20 more paragraphs of complaining.

All credibility went out the window with final installment.

Also, he is planning to make our regen line more like that of a Shaman if I understand correctly.


Eri

this wouldnt be so bad, if we were given regen. That sorta stopped in TSS when they replaced it with our nature's blazing line.

they gave us regen yesterday. dru/shaman is now the same. 127/tick

i'll give my feeling on SoD from beta.

i am a bit worried about merc healers. they are decent if used right. single pull mobs or make sure you have adds CC'd and the merc is quite good.

merc tanks... not so good.

yes i think shaman, once again, got a good deal.

with that said... we did OK. the heal upgrades were needed. i think some people are gonna be a bit surprised at what we can do for DPS now.

i played around late last night on beta in loping plains, just learning how to DPS with the new stuff. i am cautiously optimistic. i'd post a parser screenshot but i'm sorta afraid to. compared to my current dps, it is much, much better. it's not OMG super outstanding, but i think it's relevant. i feel kinda like i did up til DOD or so... I can be taken seriously as middle to upper middle DPS again.

yes, mana regen is an issue. but it was before back in the day if i remember right. i don't remember us ever being efficient DPS, just good DPS when we had to.

so ya, there's still problems. we still have an identity crisis. but, if we get invited to a group, i think we can actually contribute in a relevant fashion now.

if it weren't for merc healers, i'd really, really be looking forward to SoD.

they gave us regen yesterday. dru/shaman is now the same. 127/tick

uhm where? i dont see it on lucy/allah's for spells.

it was done yesterday on beta. lucy doesn't have beta spells other than the latest live patch (10/7?)

there are other changes happening you can't see either.
wild growth lasts longer now (25 ticks vs 5)
fire/magic dots cast in 0.5 secs instead of 3
blanched frost (cold atk debuff) is 1.5 and has a resist adj on it too.

i knew about the dots cast time, and knew about the atk buffs being reduced. that sounds cool about wild growth and cool? about regen i guess

Few things that are upsetting me.

First off, combined debuffs have been on the druid wish list from many many people for a long time now. The answer given is BS. If shammies can be given what they are atm with a straight face from our devs then combined debuffs shouldn't be an issue at all.

Next, the lack of efficiency in spells providing I don't have canni I would like to see more mana regen. We don't exactly have any thing special to offer..... which is fine but we should be able to offer our non special non specific abilities for a good ammount of time.

I actually think we did reasonably well in the expansion. A few things to note that have not been reported on from beta:

Spirit of the White/Black Wolf -- these now last for 3 minutes and can be cast every 8.5 minutes with Hastened Lycan AA. Effects have been changed to add a fully stackable 20% mana preservation (healing for white, detrimental for black). This is as close to stances as we have seen without any restrictions and can be very powerful in both groups and raids.

Also the healing changes are quite great. As a good example, we are more than viable main healers in Crystallos now at level 80 -- promised reknit as a part of our tool kit is very useful.

Wild growth can be an interesting tool if it lasts the 4 minutes we now think it does.

Debuff changes to 1.5 second cast time will mean we can reliably toss these off and switch to MH without missing too much time. Dots can be tossed in as well for extra dps.

A lot of folks have taken to looking at the negatives, but we came out of this with more powerful heals, more versatile heals, a better and more efficient group heal, 3 minute extension on one of our few mana regen capabilities with a combined burst heal/burst nuke feature for tough fights (Spirit of White/Black Wolf), better nuke casting times and ability for significantly upgraded dps etc...

I know I am highlighting positives and ignoring the concerns about the AA debuff and mercs but there are many of us in Beta who fought for these things and were able to achieve decent incremental changes and I am hopeful that you take a look at the good parts of what we got instead of the fairly downbeat assessments that are being circulated here.

Hastened Lycan Soul has 4 ranks so its 8 minutes now for reuse on White/Black wolf. The duration of these has already gone live for White wolf and is a good change. But it does not fully solve the mana regen problem for druids.

Promised Reknit is level 82, so will be another few levels til Cryst becomes "easy" if that is what it will take.

Wild Growth's drawback is that I do not have a spellgem for it. Between my multiple heal spells, wanting to keep some dmg spell, root, and debuffs up I do not have space for 2 NEW spells while already trading out 1 of my old spells for Reknit. Twincast needs a spell gem. Also since Wild Growth and Twincast have long recast timers, they need to be up almost all the time to be available when you need them.

I agree that the spell changes in the last 3 days HAVE helped us. The cast time on dots, the cast time and resist mod on Frost debuff.

I agree we gained a significant boost in healing. The changes to druid group heal is LONG overdo and very much so a welcomed changed. If you just want to look at a comparision of what we had in SoF to what we have in SoD, our rk2 standard 3.8sec heal is 5200 base. Huge gains. The problem with that is you fail to see the bigger picture of priests. By comparison to shaman we lose. They equal our standard heal power and with HOTs, AA slow/debuff, they are, in my opinion, going to be a preferred choice for a group healer spot over a druid. Clerics still have a roughly 10% power edge over us in healing and would still be preferred for groups.

The spell cast time changes. I have room for 1 nuke, but now you are saying I need 2, that is another spell gem I don't have. Yes our dps output from SoF to SoD will go up because of the changes to nuke cast times/recast times. But so will all the other nuking casters that also benefit from this change. Again, we gain, they gain more, so by comparison to others we lose ground.

I am not trying to be negative, I am trying to state the facts as I see them. My opinion is that a group will look for a 1)cleric, 2)a merc cleric, 3)a shaman, and then 4)a druid for the healing spot in a group. This is a change before when it would be 1)cleric, 2)druid, 3)shaman. To me that is losing ground. Even though compared to our previous spell data, we gain signficant power. There are some good things, but this is it for a year it is sad when you consider what others gain.

"Druid's are not supposed to cast multiple debuffs on a group encounter." This was stated by Prathun. Rytan then did some testing, not sure if he worked with any players, and they changed the spell cast time on our most powerful debuff and also added a resist modifier to help it land, a major complaint of the spell, and it would appear that is the 1 we are to use in groups and then on raids, we stack up all 4 debuffs. A combined debuff would help, an AA debuff is critical. Neither of these are being considered for the immediate future, YET shaman have 2 AA slows.

Few things that are upsetting me.

First off, combined debuffs have been on the druid wish list from many many people for a long time now. The answer given is BS. If shammies can be given what they are atm with a straight face from our devs then combined debuffs shouldn't be an issue at all.

Next, the lack of efficiency in spells providing I don't have canni I would like to see more mana regen. We don't exactly have any thing special to offer..... which is fine but we should be able to offer our non special non specific abilities for a good ammount of time.

the lack of mana regen and efficiency is a problem. as well as lack of spell gems. be nice if they made a fire based atk debuff similar to our new cold one. its in spelldat but not assigned to us. i wouldn't even care if it didn't stack with the cold one.

i'd even be ok with JUST those two debuffs being an AA, not even full combined power. spell slots are at an all time premium.

would have really like to see twincast and wild regrowth as an AA instead of spell, too.

REALLY would have like a good knockback root AA, too.

finally, not exactly druid only... but mobs are insane. most are ~200k hp and output serious dps.

another side note for those that charm: our new charm, at least at rank 2, does have a -15 mr.

Funny thing about that post, yes it is quite biased I assure you. This one will be long as well. I attacked the content. I returned as a player during the Living Legacy promotion. Many of the reasons why I left for 2 years are still in the game, or thus magnified. Now druids, or specifically how I played mine, have been rendered ineffectual from that play standpoint. I enjoy pulling, dungeons, outdoors, in groups you name it. Those abilities have stagnated.

I enjoyed my utility as a druid. Thus, when they began the shift towards complete healing(not neccessarily that particular spell) dependancy in the game, that put a rather damper in gameplay exprience. I don't mind being a main healer, nor do I mind doing dps and utility. Those roles as a druid have diminished severely over the course of the game, as well as the other utility classes in the game forcing the one tank, one healer method as the primary group option. The game degenerated into a DPS fest, where I enjoy interaction with more gameplay mechanics and multiple tactics to employ for success.

So, How do I define utility? The ability to do things is the short version. So, we have established I enjoy pulling. That is utility. I enjoy splitting mobs up for easy groupable tactics, that is utility. How did Sony screw up, by making things hit, so, obsessively hard that I die on the most routine pulls, where as before I can take quite a few rounds and survive to do my splitting and general miscellaneous things. How about other utility, snare. When they decided to make most every zone outdoors, as well as farm it out to so many classes, that irratated me. Damage shields, they did not scale up properly to content. They did not quite make it up to the levels they did previously, that worked well for damage mitigation. While it did not actually mitigate damage, it did suffienct damage that allowed noticeable and lessened the need for healing thus promoting good group tactics and managing mana pools. Also, it was stackable.

So, with those out of the way how about regen? That hasn't been a real issue since Planes of Power released. Again, it did not scale to the previous levels. Again, it helped manage mana pools and take the emphasis off healing. Sure abilities like Wood helped offset, but again, those were few and far between. What did regen help do, help offset riposte damage, helped casters that took a round or 2 regen up without spending the time to actually heal them. Helped with some tank transfers, class overaggros, things of that nature. Obsolete.

Ok, how about the actual attack debuffs themselves. I used to use them on occassion, to not only help myself, but, assist casters as well such as wizards and mages. When they started building content around them and druids healing ability. That was a huge mistake. How so, well, you got to stack all 3 of them for starters, try doing that while actively healing. They are huge aggro as everyone has noticed, and better left towards longer fights anyways. So, in order to use them properly, I have to die more. And thus, as a main healer, the group dies more. They are ineffective in group content.

Ok, now at the healing spectrum, I really do not mind being lesser as a healer to the cleric, but, I have long advocated cleric utilities. I wanted better heals obviously, and I of course wanted clerics to regain some utility, to you know allow them more interactivity with things, from nuking, improved stun lines, better soloing ability, better nukes. Shamans are another issue but, I will not get into it much other than some improvements they could have used. That didn't happen quite as well as I hoped. Thus, class stagnations occurred, cleric burnouts, druid issues and other general crap. I certainly do not want to be cleric lite, I want to be a freaking druid.

Now as to the cleric merc, if nothing else, using caps to address a point, AT LEVEL 19, THEY OUTHEAL DRUIDS AND SHAMANS UNTIL EXTREME HIGH END CONTENT. That is right, they gain all the healing spells that a cleric gets, thus when a level 19 druid or shaman is using healing(literally), the cleric merc is using healing and the lower level celestial healing, heal over time. At level 20 that turns to greater healing. Druids and shamans get greater healing at 29, in which case the cleric merc then gets superior healing, that hot, then, at 34 they get the cheal bomb, while druids and shaman are basically stuck until superior healing at level 51, in which case either way the cleric merc keeps gaining all the goodies a cleric gets so, basically outheals until level 80, so gratz us.

Damage per second, certainly another issue. At times in the early game, I enjoyed at times being able to out DPS wizards, mages and so on, even the rogue, and comparable to other dps classes. At certain areas, they were virtually useless. I think that was good. At certain times, I was steadier damage, I think that was good. At certain times, I was useless as a dps functional class, I think that was good as well. While everyone ooohs and ahhs over a 3.5 second nuke with a 5 second recast, Quick damage aa's and spell casting haste take better effects on our longer casting nukes, thus rendering that spell near useless with proper gear and aa, unless I missed something from how the spells worked, to how they work now. As a functional dps class we do not scale up properly. Obviously, we can not be king ding a ling, all the time, nor should we be, but, at least respectable, and at times, king ding a ling. I feel the same way towards other classes as well.

As an example, certain areas of the game, I feel a ranger should be king ding aling at tanking, but, generally number 4 on the list, and having the ability to actually perform that role effectively at appropriate content challenging content. Meaning Tier 4 Crystallos Ranger, Tanking Tier 4 Crystallos content in certain areas better than the mighty warrior, paladin, and shadowknight. Again, I am talking utility for multiple classes and vice versa, and allowing for competitive areas in the game. Thus, non relegation of certain roles as this class only function. So really, I am promoting better gameplay by advocating for better content for all classes, as a player, I feel that is what I pay for, and what every player pays for, a fun gaming exprience, at all levels of gameplay.

Buffing, even out low end the buffs are stagnated, there is almost no reason whatsoever to cast one until level 59. that is how bad they are. I would like to see updated from skin like wood all the way up, extra hit points and abilities being redone to offer competition for the coveted buff slots. With abilities like low level regen on lower skins, to high end abilites such as mana regen to additional increases, to mana preservation for casters, to increased crit chances and similar effects that the shaman got towards meleers, just with casters.

In closing, with all the issues facing Everquest today, I still standby that statement, that this is the last expansion for everquest. There simply is not enough subscribers, and I was pretty well aware of the other class issues, not just the druid. Everquest has 72 thousand subscribers left, I just do not see very many people continuing on. They are outsourcing alot of the content being built to save cost and time. The zone layouts of Ocean Green, were not done by Sony. Blackburrow was not done by Sony. They just populated it. You have World of Warcraft with a new expansion soon. Everquest 2 has a new expansion soon. Many other games are competing. Not to mention a recession. People are getting tired of Everquest, they are not getting fun and exciting gameplay anymore. When Everquest dips below 35k subscribers, there will simply not be enough players to make it profitable to build expansions, but, enough profit just in the general gameplay as it stand now to continue to maintain the game. There is virtually no influx of new players. Seeds of Destruction is digital download only. No boxes in the store for people to give it a try, until an anniversity release.

Everquest has 72 thousand subscribers left, I just do not see very many people continuing on.
Where is this number from? Or is it just a guess?

It is from the latest reports from Sony on subs, not that MMO tracker, I forget where I got it. Sony releases information with their expenses and products and profits, it derives from that, the cost from developemental costs and salaries paid out, added to the profits and divided up. That is the low ball estimate, with various subscription plans it could be up to 85k or so, at high ball. So, I use the low ball method, that is how many are guaranteed subs.

Oh hell, I can do that too.

EverQuest has 14k subscribers left. That's a low ball estimate.
I have 86,000 mana. That's a high ball estimate.

Hey, this making up figures is pretty fun!

And is the number from before or after the 20% increase due to the Living Legacy promotion?

I will respectfully disagree with your thesis. As a contract developer, I would like to point out that the game development industry is poised to continue its strong growth even through a recession. During the Great Depression, there were long lines outside of movie theaters. I know it sounds odd...Why would people spend their last few cents on entertainment? Because it provides a temporary escape from their miserable everyday lives full of stress. If you want to get away from your crappy life without putting a gun to your head or drowning in even more debt, the best bang for your buck right now is to play an MMO.

Going to see a feature film (family of 4)
4 tickets x 10 = $40
let's say you get a large bag of popcorn and 2 drinks, another $10.
Your entertainment will last approximately 2 hours.

Buying a new Wii game
1 game = $50
possible replacement costs for your plasma TV = $1000
Your entertainment will last approximately 20 hours. Then it will begin to collect dust.

Playing an MMO (take your pick)
$15 per month
Cost of Chinese and/or pizza delivery = $150/mo
Nearly infinite replay capability. If you don't like the game you're playing now, try another. If you're spending 40-100 hours per month online, that's really not a bad deal.

Sony will likely consolidate servers in the next 2 years to cut costs and address shrinking player populations. My guess is that EverQuest will likely see 1 or 2 more full scale expansions after SoD, and then we'll start to see rate hikes (with today's inflation, $20/mo is not that unreasonable) and large patches a few times per year. It remains profitable and has minimal maintenance costs. EQ will be here for another 10 years before they pull the plug.

EQ will be here for another 10 years before they pull the plug.

Can i qoute you on that?:icon_lol: :grin:

That number would be after the legacy promo, haven't been able to find it, but, the new quarterly release should be out soon from july, august, september, timeframe, for even more accuracy. Sony also, counts their station pass of about 54k subscribers last time I knew, usually only counts a sub as someone who has actually made an account on Everquest. So, if a star wars galaxie player makes an everquest 2 account, they are counted only for eq2 and star wars, as a subscriber, not the whole thing.

Can i qoute you on that?:icon_lol: :grin:
You can quote me on it too: EQ will be around (though not necessarily under active development) for another 10 years.

Look at the Al'Kabor (EQMac) server. No significant development for at least 6 years, but still running with a small but loyal community.
Look at EQOA. I'm not sure how many players there are, but there was exactly one EQOA player at the most recent Fan Faire, as opposed to hundreds for each of EQ and EQ2.

Can i qoute you on that?:icon_lol: :grin:

Yes.

Like Palarran mentioned, EQ will be around. It continues to provide a steady return for reasonably low overhead. Maybe they will get down to 1-6 servers total, and a bare bones live team in order to just maintain the equipment, but EQ will still be around. Many MUDs, some dating back to the 70s, are still active and are still enjoyed by a small but enthusiastic community.

This is by no means a strong possibility, but a decent share of the maintenance could one day be passed on to volunteers from the player community. Licensing issues would be a bottleneck, so don't quote me on that one.

I'm looking forward to the expansion. I see a lot of positive changes we have been looking for. I also see the plus and minuses of mercs. Having a pocket merc tank will allow me to go back and complete a number of quests and other items that no one wants to group up for these days.

I also like the improved healing and dots changes. Overall, the expansion is a net gain for me with how I play.

I understand that folks want the old days. I have been around forever and remember how unique we used to me. We were good characters to have in just about any group. With all the changes over the years most characters are now muddied except pure tanks and clerics. I accept this and don't really care anymore as sony has gone towards the universal toon concept.

Each expansion seems to piss more people off. I treat this as a game and the day it stops being fun I'll try something new. Luckily, what keeps me coming back is the community in my guild and the constant challenge of working with my character. Hopefully, others will find the same benefits and keep this game alive.

Well, I got this AA today (had 30 AA banked) and I absolutely love it. Its a huge thing - at the moment I use it to port my alts and friends to DSH to get some faction missions. Refresh 5 minutes is great, noone else needs to bind there and I can use secondary bind to bind somewhere else.

Great AA!

Has anyone found Frondspur? It is not on the 81 vendor.

(Also Talisman of the Lynx for shaman and Vow of Valiance for clerics while we're at it)

I believe Frondspur is the level 81 spell earned through (oh yeah, you know what's coming!) factioning. Factioning of course is Sony's preferred and favored brand of player torture.

Has anyone found Frondspur? It is not on the 81 vendor.

(Also Talisman of the Lynx for shaman and Vow of Valiance for clerics while we're at it)

As I have seen Talisman of the Lynx listed as being sold by Zebuxoruk for 155 Chronobines in Void B I would guess that's where Frondspur is.