Ancient Chaos Frost
Slot Description
1: Decrease Hitpoints by 1860

Mana: 468 Skill: Evocation
Casting Time: 6.35 Recast Time: 2.75
Fizzle Time: 2.5 Resist: Cold
Range: 200 Location: Any
Time of Day: Any Deletable: No
Interruptable: Yes Target Type: Single
Spell Type: Detrimental Source: Test 02/05

Classes: DRU/65
Duration: Instant

Cast on you: Chaos frost encases your body.
Cast on other: Someone 's body is encased in chaos frost.

Sylvan Embers
Slot Description
2: Decrease Hitpoints by 154 per tick
3: Decrease Fire Resist by 40
10: Decrease AC by 30

Mana: 352 Skill: Evocation
Casting Time: 3.5 Recast Time: 2.25
Fizzle Time: 2.5 Resist: Fire
Resist Adjust -50 Range: 200
Location: Any Time of Day: Any
Fizzle Adj 25 Deletable: No
Dot Stacking: No Interruptable: Yes
Short Buff Box: No Target Type: Single
Spell Type: Detrimental Source: Test 02/05

Classes: DRU/65
Duration: 1 min
Focus: Fire Beetle Eye

Cast on you: Your body is covered in sylvan embers.
Cast on other: Someone 's body is covered in sylvan embers.
Wears off: The sylvan embers die out.

Sylvan Fire
Slot Description
1: Decrease Hitpoints by 1705

Mana: 430 Skill: Evocation
Casting Time: 6.25 Recast Time: 2.75
Fizzle Time: 2.5 Resist: Fire
Range: 200 Location: Any
Time of Day: Any Deletable: No
Interruptable: Yes Target Type: Single
Spell Type: Detrimental Source: Test 02/05

Classes: DRU/65
Duration: Instant

Cast on you: Your skin ignites in sylvan fire.
Cast on other: Someone 's skin ignites in sylvan fire.

Sylvan Infusion
Slot Description
1: Increase Hitpoints by 1925

Mana: 550 Skill: Alteration
Casting Time: 3.5 Recast Time: 2.25
Fizzle Time: 2.5 Range: 200
Location: Any Time of Day: Any
Deletable: No Interruptable: Yes
Target Type: Single Spell Type: Beneficial
Source: Test 02/05

Classes: DRU/65
Duration: Instant

Cast on you: Your body is infused with sylvan energy.
Cast on other: Someone 's body is infused with sylvan energy.

Circle of Natimbi
Slot Description
1: Teleport to -853,-1557,237 in Natimbi facing North

Mana: 300 Skill: Alteration
Casting Time: 16 Recast Time: 10
Fizzle Time: 2.25 Location: Any
Time of Day: Any AE Range 100
Fizzle Adj 25 Deletable: Yes
Interruptable: Yes Target Type: Group v1
Spell Type: Beneficial Source: Test 02/05

Classes: DRU/54
Duration: Instant

Cast on other: Someone creates a mystic portal.
Wears off: The portal shimmers and fades.

Ring of Natimbi
Slot Description
1: Teleport to -853,-1557,237 in Natimbi facing North

Mana: 150 Skill: Alteration
Casting Time: 7 Recast Time: 10
Fizzle Time: 2.25 Range: 0
Location: Any Time of Day: Any
Fizzle Adj 25 Deletable: Yes
Interruptable: Yes Target Type: Self
Spell Type: Beneficial Source: Test 02/05

Classes: DRU/52
Duration: Instant

Cast on other: Someone fades away.

So finally, a use for the fire beetle eye I've been holding on to since level 5 or whatever it was! :cool:

I think all of our fire spells (debuffs, dots, nukes) require the firebeetle eye.... I tried takeing it out of my bag once, and I couldnt cast some of the spells, cant remember off hand tho...

Just the fire DoTs and debuffs require the fire beetle eye.

And Sylvan Infusion is still far too minor of an upgrade, but oh well.

Will we get a focus effect to replace Summer's Anger/Vengeance? If the answer is no, or if it's very difficult to obtain the focus effect, then Summer's Flame will remain superior to these nukes, which are bigger but not more efficient. (As a casual player, I can count the times I've cast the 65 cold nuke on one hand.)

What I'm guessing, in line with SoE's usual anti-casual, pro-uber stance, is that the 25% preservation focus items will be part of some raid loot, and the casual player will get screwed with nothing. In which case, the casual player need not even go through whatever headache is necessary to get the new nukes, because they will be useless.

http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spell.html?id=4921&source=Test

And yes, considering GoD's focus, likely a casual person with not want to bother with the new nuke if they are using ornate gloves.

And well I realize that's not limited to the new nuke only, it may end up changed, or they decided to go with pure fire based mana preservation, so that it will work with next expansions nukes or something.

Heaven forbid there is equipment/spell progression for raiding players. The spells up burst DPS for a hit in effeciency until you can upgrade some gear to up effeciency. It's called PROGRESSION where you upgrade one aspect of a spell at a time and provide other methods to upgrade other aspects. The whole game is built around this and how much they boost stuff is really meaningless for new content as monsters get boosted the same to keep things challenging. The only thing it effects is how easy old content becomes and in that regard smaller upgrades are preferable.

Here's another interesting GoD focus that goes with Caisha's previous GoD focus.

http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spell.html?id=4917&source=Test

Rovaedne

It's called PROGRESSION where you upgrade one aspect of a spell at a time and provide other methods to upgrade other aspects.
When I am offered the opportunity to get something that's worse than I already have, I call it retrogression. The 25% raid loot focus is fine and dandy for the 1% uber-elite who can actually get it; but the only option for the remaining 99% is ornate gloves. Thus, for the vast majority of players, the new nuke is looking to be useless, because SoE hasn't provided a lower-level focus equivalent as with PoP. I'm not even talking about the Ancient spell here, because I'm almost positive the casual player will never have the opportunity to see it, and therefore it might as well not exist for most of us.

From the looks of things thus far, the casual player can only look forward to (possibly) some new content (flagged, yipee) and a few overpriced, weak AAs. That content had better be spectacular.

The new nukes are so very underwhelming.. /yawn.. It isnt a real upgrade unless it is also a mana efficiency upgrade or adds a significant negative resist over older nukes. Otherwise, all these new nukes are for are to get more impressive criticals and to get aggro faster... At least the new heal is slightly faster cast time, so its basically the only new spell I care about. Also, the damage on the new Dot is utterly ridiculously low, especially considering the amount of damage you get with vengeance of tunare + extended dot focus.

ooh great, i will surely buy this expansion - i am now 59 (played since 2000, tradeskiller and casual), and i get new ports. and these i can use, while others will be using magus and may be pok new pok stone.

i am realy looking forward this expansion.

come on, if its 55+ there should be at least some usable spells for 55-60 too. what about extended potc with more hp/mana or longer duration, so actually someone wants it to be casted on him?

i dont know, but this seems to be another "POP" expansion for non raiders, where we get another big city where all the people will move into, so other parts of the world we be empty and no upgrades in spellbook.

/sarcasm off

i realy hope at least something for non uber tradeskillers will be done - new recipes to fill the skill up gaps etc, with components that dont require lv100 and raid guild and at least some nice spell for under lv60, that makes us more valuable to groups - especially hard adventures and 2nd+ tier zones.

We've had two expansions in a row now that have been focused much more on the casual gamer then the uper tier gamer. Farming plane of itme for the 23542th time gets boring :(

And PoP did alot more for the casual gamer then any expansion has done in a long time, for as much as it is complained about. It made exp available in portions so that anyone with a moderate play time can make 65 and get a fair number of AA points. Anyone remember when you could do a /w all <class> 60 and have it be less then 20 people?

Uber people pay to play the game too, and they're more then due for something new to do with their time. (And no, LDoN raids don't count)

And because I didn't mean to derail this thread...

The spells are kind of a weak upgrade but they're probably in line with the current power curve. The spells are slight upgrades while not doing much to mess too much with balance. The damage on the DoT needs tweaked, maybe up to 200 a tick, but other then that they look ok, not great, but ok.

What do we want any way?

Either the character levels get raised from 65 to 66-70, or new spells get added that are overpowering for the current PoP mobs based on level 65. That's not much of a choice.

It looks like SOE is trying to give new spells, some abilities, and efficiencies, but at the same time they are aware that a large part of the player base doesn't want any more levels. Besides, going 65+ would only further trivialize kunark, and more of velious and some of luclin begin to become trivial. I honestly don't see the problem with these spells. They are an upgrade, a minor one, for any character who is at that point in their development.

You can complain that GoD won't have content that will do you any good. But part of the reason is that we're only seeing the high end changes in Lucy. I don't know what equipment upgrades will be there, or where the focus effects will fit in.

I am looking forward to having new nukes.

Also the heal might be a nice upgrade to NI.

I was kind of disapointed that we got no form of group heal though.

What's so bad about getting more levels? It makes more sense than getting better and better spells for the same level. If you are 65 and some mob is hard to kill, then you get a better spell and the mob becomes easy(ier), then the mob is becoming trivial at the same level.

However, if you had to make level 68 to get that same spell, then the mob still becomes more trivial, but logically so. For example, if your level 15 in Crushbone, things are hard to kill. At 20, your overkill. But that makes sense, since you are a higher level. Getting some uber AOE at level 15 and having the same overkill as the level 20 does not make much sense to me.

It would make perfect sense to me to see a new expansion having higher level mobs combined with an increase on the character level cap. Its a natural progression that is in line with the progression of character development from level 1 - 64. Does not make sense to have harder mobs, better spells but no level advancement. These things should go hand in hand.

Looking at the mana cost and the increased healing on that spell.. I can't imagine ever using it over NI... anybody see a reason to?

It's slightly faster, and upgrade in terms of healing per second.

NI: 1750 hp, 3.75 secs cast, 2.25 secs recast = 291.67 hp/sec
SI: 1925 hp, 3.50 secs cast, 2.25 secs recast = 334.78 hp/sec

When the cleric died in our hard LDoN, an unslowed mob was damaging our tank faster than Nature's Infusion could heal - fortunately the enchanter landed slow before the tank got to empty. ;-)

What's so bad about getting more levels? It makes more sense than getting better and better spells for the same level. If you are 65 and some mob is hard to kill, then you get a better spell and the mob becomes easy(ier), then the mob is becoming trivial at the same level.

...

Does not make sense to have harder mobs, better spells but no level advancement. These things should go hand in hand.

Raising the level cap doesn't trivializes older content simply because you have newer spells. Mobs will have more difficulty damaging you. You will have an easier time landing spells on them (regardless of resist checks). You will have an easier time with crowd control (due to reduced aggro ranges and such). You will have more hitpoints and and a larger mana pool. These factors, in addition to the more powerful spells, trivialize old content.

All of you folks that are upset or disappointed with the new spell line..... I strongly suspect that you'll have nothing to worry about for some time to come, as you probably won't have them at all. The spells are drops and quested. Remember how long it took most folks to get Moonfire? Or how long alot of us put off questing Pureblood?

Putting aside the quality, or lack thereof, of the new spells, I am going to be very interested to see how rare they are. I know one thing for sure.... if the spell drops are tradeable, I will never again pay the ridiculously high bazaar prices that, I am embarassed to say, I have paid from time to time in the past.

The problem with raising the level cap is that one expansion can trivialize several expansions worth of content. It gets harder and harder to find anything up because the old expansions can be killed with fewer and fewer people, essentially you've increased the number of "competitive units" on the server. Raise the level cap to 70 for instance and essentially people will be walking through Kunark (already do), Velious, and a good chunk of Luclin (I'd say up to but not including VT) in god mode. Since a level cap boost tends to trivialize 2 to 3 expansions of content, it's probably best to raise the level cap only every 2 to 3 expansions. We aren't really there yet due to the type of expansions LDoN and LoY were.

GoD offers content for both the casual and the raiding player base. The spells do Not give anyone a significant boost in power, basically just more bang for the time invested. Flags, yes flags, how many flagged zones in PoP were opened up to level restrictions instead of flag restrictions, I think SOE has learned from PoP and wont make the expansion so limited to the casual player right off, and I am sure your server will have plenty of pickup raids for flags and such, yes they do take 2+ hours mostly to get a flag, but if you cannot sit at the computer for 2+ hours on a weekend to get a flag to open up another zone then I dont think you need that other zone opened up as you havent explored the rest of the world with those type of time restrictions.

I for one am a raider and will be damned glad to have something other than Time/Ldon and Elementals to kill in, just cause, after 5 months of farming that anyone would get bored.

The spell issue, since the spells are mostly just a higher amount vs time spent casted efficiency upgrade and not much if any of an upgrade on bang/mana then it wont really matter much if you use Summer's over Sylvan. Yes Sylvan will give you a bigger bang, but if you are not raiding and dont have a tank that can taunt enough that you wont get agro from sylvan, than summer's flame will be the way to go as it wont get you killed. These spells will get passed out throughout the population of the server just like all other spells have been. If they were all handed out on vendors like some people might like, making it equal chance for everyone to get them (Re: no challenge) then why would you continue to play. Personally I play for the challenge of progression, I dont want vendor bought armor/spells/skills. Give me the chance to look forward to something, whether casual or raiding player and the game will be able to keep me for many more months. I remember being the casual player, I was there for the majority of my EQ-playing life and I loved it. Questing for superior armor, working with a talented group of friends to get my epic done or get this rare drop at the bottom of a dungeon, doing stuff in places where the raiders didnt go due to either no raid targets existing in the zone or they were already dead.

Dont look to the handouts, look to the challenges that you can overcome given time.

BTW; I am from Drinal and we have pickup raids going on almost all the time for PoP flags, so given time almost anyone lvl65 can get flagged for up to and including the elementals.

Putting aside the quality, or lack thereof, of the new spells, I am going to be very interested to see how rare they are. I know one thing for sure.... if the spell drops are tradeable, I will never again pay the ridiculously high bazaar prices that, I am embarassed to say, I have paid from time to time in the past.

I don't think you'll have to worry about that. When was the last time droppable spells were available from a new expansion? PoP? That will be three expansions ago, once GoD launches, so if the new spells aren't no-drop, I would be highly surprised. I had hoped at least for a LDoN-esque point-buy system, but that wasn't to be.

Of course, I'll admit that I'm firmly in the "spells shouldn't be rare and should be easy for casters to obtain because getting equipment upgrades and AA are enough of a timesink as it is without having to camp for spells" camp of thought. /shrug

about those focuses, I'm pretty sure I recall one going in for ea. class... one of those is for rangers (kindle I'm pretty sure, you should be able to check the history of it to make sure). Not sure on if it's supposed to only effect the new ancient spell, I think the resist checks were tossed around a few times and that might have fubered the focus..

Though I understand your comments on 'raiders' and 'casuals' you are pigeon holing from your point of view. You say a challenge... where is the challenge of sitting farming up thousands of plat on the lower tiered planes that drop very hard to sell items to pay 4k for a spells we are not allowed to go and get ourselves due to either the mechnics of the game or guilds farming the hell out of everything. Before you sit there and say I don't deserve anything... I have been in this game since beta 3 and only have a limited time to play online due to having a life, job and family but would like to be allowed to actual try some of the challenges. Sorry if that ran on and/or offended but your and some other view seem to be limited to only their point of view.

/rant off Now I can agree that there should be some areas that task the raiding guilds much more and have rewards that would make it worth thier while. Even if the challenge is just to give them a new 'impossible' target. Though killer flagging isn't the way if you ask me. In MY opinion, the killer flagging only serves to remove the 'less time on their hands' players from those that can spends days/weeks/months with thier guilds online to get flagged. Now simple flagging that could only be done by certain levels or progression that would surfice their goal and not alienate everyone not in the special circles.

The spells, they are ok but not great... but honestly if they are easier/cheaper to get than the Moonfires and the Summers then I will use them. That might be their thinking on they don't want to belittle the accomplishments of the PoP spell system that many of the people have done but know it was too hard for most forcing people to farm even more items... which can easily be seen by the prices in the bazaar.

The effects on the items might be the true change to our spell system if more and more focus effects are pointed closer to our spell lines. It has obviously effected the melee crowd... can see how these might help the casting crowd.

These as well as any posts I make (don't do it often but have been around a long time) are MY OPINIONS.

(will update my levels some dang time if I ever think about it)

If you haven’t already, read the GoD Chat Log on Casters. It would appear VI has plans for more expansions perhaps those will be geared towards lower level players. I’ve pretty much been a casual player for most of my EQ experience, though for about a year I was involved in an “Uber” guild, it was an interesting experience and I learned a lot from it.

I suppose recently VI has wanted to address the content for casual players, I was just thinking how many people who have been around from the start or near start really play with the same time intensity as they use too as in do you still play as much (time wise) as you use too?

Personally I’ve really had a great time with EQ and I’m looking forward to that same feeling of excitement with EQII. It’s been a long time since I’ve had that feeling of wonder, enchantment and involvement.



http://eq.crgaming.com/viewarticle.asp?Article=5313

Drimamar
You mention the need for more casual people to spend hours upon hours of farming just to afford one spell. I remember waiting a while in Velious era to get some spells and luclin again to get some spells (both when I wasnt in a raiding guild) and I was playing on a casual timescale and felt that I was fine without Moonfire, mask of the Stalker (or hunter at the time), Protection of the Glades, or my Bear pet. Those spells I felt I could work for and eventually obtain. Yes the Raiders all got those spells within the first two months of release or so, but they are the ones putting in tons of time to the game so they of course are going to advance faster and get through the shorter time sinks only to confront the larger ones.

There were problems with the way PoP was implemented, no one will deny that. There will be problems with GoD, there is no way to avoid that, but both are not the same.

You mention the flagging system and how it plays to the people that have tons of time and hurts the people who dont. If you view that not having access to all the same zones as the people putting in tons of time is hurting your EQ experience then I would have to say you are right as per your point of view. The flagging system though effectively puts the people that have all these hours of play time into a different area of the game, it separates them from the more casual people. Would you rather be competing with the people with tons of hours to play or people with timescales around what you have to play?. As a casual player before PoP I remember competing for experience camps and spawns with people with move than 5x the playtime I had on EQ and I really designed my time on EQ to places and activities that the raiders either didnt bother with or were already done with. I am not an advocate of how they implemented the PoP flagging system, but I am in support of some sort of flagging system that allows for a challenge of unlocking new zones, in my opinion it is better than the challenge of "getting" to a new zone such as DN was in the velious era for the casuals.

All areas of the game have timesinks, and if you think that grouping for experience, adv. points, and plat are timesinks that the casual player can do without, well, try the joy of continuously reflagging new members of your guild so they can raid in the same zones as yourself, doing the same event over and over 100+ times for loot or flags due to either a mob you cannot kill or a mob you cannot get a chance at. Everyone has their timesinks, those and the strategies needed to kill mobs are the basis of the game in terms of why we play it. Personally if I didnt have to Build-up my character I wouldnt be playing the game I would go to an FPS.

I agree that many timesinks that SOE has implemented have hurt the casual player, but from what I have heard/seen from friends in raiding guilds is that Many timesinks have also seriously hurt the raiding player. All timesinks given time will be changes and modified to a lesser form of timesink, thats been the pattern since the introduction of EQ, they just need sufficient feedback and in some situations time, but remember that they wont make it all a handout as they have done to many other previous-timesinks in EQ.

Point is, the expansion hasnt been released yet so the difficulty of obtaining the new spells hasnt been established yet, but I can gaurentee that while the raiders are going to get those spells within the first couple months, afterwards and even during the casuals will also be obtaining the spells, each day the difficulty getting less and less.

If you dont like dealing with these timesinks that infest these mmorpg's then I suggest an RTS or FPS game as they both employ differing levels of time investment, but most are much shorter than almost any timesink EQ has to offer.

This of course, is my opinion/viewpoint, and as such is most likely not the viewpoint of anyone else, so take it as such and dont think I will be offended when you point-out such a fact.

I think where they messed up was with the release of Luclin. Their problem?...the bazaar. This feature made things so pathetically easy for the low level chars to get items and advance that they SHOULD NOT have it ruined said levels. There are many merits to luclin, but OMG this was not one of them. Compounding issues, this added the farming problem (yes its a problem, because its adding to the numbskulls that shouldnt have those items, and thus players that dont know what they are doing) and all the geeks buying plat with real cash. Then we have the nexus, gathering point for sale of buffs to stupid newbs that shouldn't have them... Going off to PoP.... PoK was the dumbest thing in the world. Takeing out the flavor of exploring the world and having to use boats or buy a ride or whatever, took the ROLEPLAYING out of the game. Granted, boats sucked ... but hey, definately added to the flavor of the game. Directions weren't as simple as "take the book" ... nono, you actually had to find your way.

Going to one of the other issues, I am not a raider, and will probably never see time, but am still a fan of the flagging. Granted, perhaps it should be a bit easier to get flagged, but by no means should you get access just because you reached a certain level.

Going back to the expansion problems... LoY, the next one up. What the hell were they thinking with the map thing? ... you shouldn't be able to DL maps, they should be drawn as you explore zones automatically. But sony being lazy didnt put the time or resources into developing this. LDoN? Good idea, bad execution.

Anyway, don't have time to fortify my arguments atm, just didn't want to leave it unsaid. Besides, gives you guys some time to brew on it. Basically my gist is even since sony took over, they've jacked the game up and changed its entire flavor.

Skarabrae is right. The flavor and feel of the game has changed from being an immersive world (with long travel times) to being disconnected zones with no significant relationships between them. Because of the number of port rings, spires, books, and wayfarer camps, the interconnection of the zones is lost. Kunark is almost barren now, much of the old world is that way except where LDoN camps are located. Velious lost the linearity when the dragon ring keys were removed. And for Luclin, with its small zones, the answer was to add even more teleports. Maybe the thought process is that we have to make it simple to get to these zones, otherwise no one will go there?

Here is what I wrote in my guild's board :

"Sylvan Infusion : Nature Infusion that cast slightly faster, costs 10% more, heals 10% more. Must have of course, but not a major improvement.

Sylvan Fire : Summer Flame that costs 21% more, and deals 21.7% more dmg. I guess must have, especially in burst situations. Not a major improvement because the damage per mana ratio is the same. It becomes an improvement when you have mana to burn.

Sylvan Embers : Immolation of Ro that costs 10% more, deals 10% more damage, decrease fire resist by 12% more, decrease AC by 10% more. /big shrug, its already not much used, I dont see how this will be different.

Ancient Chaos Frost : Winter Frost that deals 20% more damage and costs 20% more. Same comments as Summer Flame.


Overall it's a very steady expansion, that only supports increases if your mana regen can accomodate it. It also will increase our ability to end some fights quicker.

The Ancient spell is nothing special. I certainly hope that its something not limited to high-end raiding, that everyone that wants to can shoot for it, even if it's long/elaborate."

On that, I can add, looking at others' spells, that it looks pretty similar across the board. The only exception that I really see is Bards. Have you looked at their Echo of Trusik spell? Increase spell damage by 25%. That's a whopping 66.6% increase compared to their +15% Call of the Muse. The haste portion of the spell stays the same, thank god. They also get a new Ancient spell thats a DoT, 200 range, 44/tick, decrease all resists by 9. It looks to me like its stackable with the other bard DoTs... Looks to me like a pretty hefty increase, but not knowing nearly enough about bards, I might be wrong. My current analysis is bards get a hefty raise in their abilities.

Callahad

On that, I can add, looking at others' spells, that it looks pretty similar across the board. The only exception that I really see is Bards. Have you looked at their Echo of Trusik spell? Increase spell damage by 25%. That's a whopping 66.6% increase compared to their +15% Call of the Muse. The haste portion of the spell stays the same, thank god. They also get a new Ancient spell thats a DoT, 200 range, 44/tick, decrease all resists by 9. It looks to me like its stackable with the other bard DoTs... Looks to me like a pretty hefty increase, but not knowing nearly enough about bards, I might be wrong. My current analysis is bards get a hefty raise in their abilities.


Not really. Call of the muse multiplies spell damage by 1.15. Echo of Trusik multiplies spell damage by 1.25. The increase in damage caused is therefore only 8.7%.

I'm glad there aren't more levels, I'm sure 5 years ago nobody planned on having Kunark dragons trivialized.
The heal upgrade is very minor, but at least we get a better nuke. It'll be nice to see a critical with focus items other than 3456 or 3100 unfocus'd.

IMO, sylvan embers is a waste of spell room in my book, I would have to be flung in drogmor poo and dragged through ntov before I'd mem that spell.

I'm glad there aren't more levels, I'm sure 5 years ago nobody planned on having Kunark dragons trivialized.


You are aware of the irony in this statement, I hope. Five years ago there weren't any Kunark dragons, period.

Rest assured, there will be at least another 5 level increase in the character level cap in the next expansion (or two). Everything gets trivial at some point.

I myself don't mind if these spells are somewhat trivial to use. I go with the flow. I've always said, no spell is useless , you just have to find the right use for it :)

Minus a couple of those imbue pebble spells I couldn't live too long without having a complete spellbook. :)

Rest assured, there will be at least another 5 level increase in the character level cap in the next expansion (or two). Everything gets trivial at some point.

Have you talked to anyone from SoE - everything I've heard from people official and unofficial suggests that there will be an increase in the level cap in the next expansion so in that way I think you're right.

But kind of in line with SOE starting to look at EQLive as a long-term product and EQII more as an alternate than a replacement I've heard (sketchy source - friend of a friend works on EQ) that they first were going to do lvl 70 and now they've scaled it back to 68. Also you won't just be able to level with XP - each level will involve completing a tough quest or trial. Also he said they were looking at cap raises no more than every 2 or 3 expansions maybe a new race at some point.

They've been saying for a long time that EQ2 is an alternative to EQ, never a replacement.