State of the game thread.

[Rorne]

Don't really see point to caps on bounty system except to stop a high tier player from over farming but your essentially capping a low tier players ability to catch up, honestly speaking if you know the right people you just fly up in gear in 1-2 weeks.

I think the bounty system is cool as hell and the sheer amount of work it took to implement is impressive but I still find myself wondering if it's implement as well as it could be. I've questioned whether such a large artificial lockout is necessary when you can attend a pick-up raid and hypothetically get equivalent gear for a few hours invested (although obviously this is not a totally fair comparison). If I had to improve the bounty system further I would:

A)Reduce the number of bounties needed to get from Rank 2 to Rank 3 or remove that mechanic entirely. I think the difficulty of the bounties on their own is enough to stand as a barrier/check plus you're limited in how many you can earn per day. If a player decides to invest in the bounty system when, say, only rank 3 items would be upgrades for them what is the merit of making them progress through bounty rank 1 and 2?

B)Increase the Rank 3 Focus Effect augs from tier V to VI, the reasoning behind this being that tier V are too widely available at the level of gear you need to be at to even complete Rank 3 bounties. Aside from perhaps Mana Con V you soon will have/already have better focuses meaning these a very poor investment

C)Some of the bounty locations/difficult could use a revisit, such as the Rank 2 in The Rust

D)Include multiple zone locations a bounty can spawn in. These days especially the difficulty can be in just getting a group at lower tiers, forget trying to get a group in a specific zone so you can accomplish a bounty. If some of the bounty mobs had a chance of spawning in multiple locations it would ease the necessity to form a group specifically for that purpose which, while the original intent, doesn't seem to be working anyways so it might be worth revisiting and it's not like expanding from one underused zone to three underused zones for a bounty is that far away from the mission statement

 

[Rorne]

OH and before I forget. In regards to whether anyone uses the buffing NPCs. I made a low level alt a while ago as an experiment to experience what it was like to level unassisted in the current game environment and the buffing NPCs were like a world of difference for a very very reasonable cost at low levels so personally I love that addition to the game. I can't really speak for what it's like using them at 65 though because I, like everyone else that has been playing for a while, have buff bot access.

 

[Rorne]

P.S. Since I don't have post editing permissions yet: Add Levitate as a level 1 buff option to the Shaman Augur in Grobb (Unless this already exists as an option and I somehow missed it)

 

[fxattack]

OH and before I forget. In regards to whether anyone uses the buffing NPCs. I made a low level alt a while ago as an experiment to experience what it was like to level unassisted in the current game environment and the buffing NPCs were like a world of difference for a very very reasonable cost at low levels so personally I love that addition to the game. I can't really speak for what it's like using them at 65 though because I, like everyone else that has been playing for a while, have buff bot access.

My view on buffbots is pretty jaded, as I once had many friends and a guild who played this game, all of which shared their info because having all the good buffs makes playing actually more fun. After a retirement and return I lost a notepad file with info to two full-relic and high duration increment enchanters, mage, two shamans, three clerics accounts. Without that, shit aint fun at all. I'd rather not pay 40 platinum for a non DI8 regular aegolism or KEI. I guess what I'm saying is that its not a good solution for the problems that I personally experience while buff hunting. There is no going back from having access to all the good buffs to the poor offerings and hassle of finding the augurs.

 

[Zaela]

I think the bounty system is cool as hell and the sheer amount of work it took to implement is impressive but I still find myself wondering if it's implement as well as it could be

The only change to bounty I support is the one where it is taken out of the game entirely. Very poorly done and does not fill any real niche.

 

[enasc]

I am a fan of the bounty system and can see its use helping to address a few problems simultaneously.

Example: The seed of energy is an amazing item. I got this thing when I had to have help to do rank 1 bounties and used it to solo rank 2 bounties. In raiding tier equivalents, from missing relics to killing Thek'rak.

That is huge. That kind of gear is a bridge from tier 0, my alt enchanter who has never killed a monster in her life could get it, to tier 11 where Thek'rak is listed.

I would love to see more items like this. Fairly easy to get. Very time consuming to make great. Don't want to raid or fit into a time schedule where you can? Running out of books to xp? Books are for nerds, xp items to make them better.

 

[darksabbath]

Big difference between being told to stop being a dick/troll to staff and being "told I would be banned if I am critical of staff". But since you have shown for a very long time that you can not do one without the other, I appreciate you knowing your limits and bowing out with a short comment.

Moving this post to balancing discussion. Some good ideas so far. I know Slaariel has been throwing a few around in dev chat, so I will let him post for the dev team as a whole.

If that is anything like getting a response on anything else, we should expect that response in 2015 or so. (Excessively optimistic estimate.)

To the OP: You make a number of valid points, but sadly, they will all fall on deaf ears. It seems some just don't understand that we don't have the population we had five years ago. And there is a growing list of changes that were more bad than good, from the player perspective. That only serves to decrease the population more. When I log in on a Saturday night, and only see 170 or so on, or Sunday night and only see 130, it says a ton on the state of the game. But hey, it is your sandbox, right? right? Yeah, that mindset might have worked when we had 500+ on (it really didn't), but it certainly doesn't fly with the remaining population. It does even less to draw more in.
Before you ask why I don't go elsewhere, I, like many that have posted, am a casual player with limited play time, who doesn't want to start over with nothing somewhere else. My limited play time these days (young kids) means it would be a long time before I could be at this point on another server. I also really enjoy the lore and story-lines here. I just wish the devs would stop politicing, fix some of the minor bugs, and make the game more friendly to new players and old alike.

To those who have said charm farming isn't that bad: Or, the I can make X pp in a day crowd. Sure, maybe you can with your access to all kinds of retired toons and buffbots galore, than can help you farm places duo that more casual people need a group for. And maybe you have time to play 6+ hours a day (or more), every day. Congrats, I am happy for you. But for every one of you, there is probably 10 people who can only play for a few hours a day, and can only look at the wiki and dream about the gear the toons you are abusing are using. The same thing applies to those who say CoP aren't that bad. For you, maybe not, but for the majority, it is a horrible uphill climb, just to be considered useful.

New/old area xp system: Just do away with it. The whole idea was to convince people to go xp in other zones. It doesn't work, people go to the same zones they like, because they are easier to get to, better xp, have better cash drops, or because they want a drop from there. Maybe if the zones that dropped tomes wasn't so limited, people wouldn't have such an issue. If you want tomes to xp/trade, then you need to go there, and thus deal with an xp penalty while trying to get things to improve your toon. It seems counter-productive, doesn't it? I am not sure what is so wrong about gaining xp in the eyes of the devs. The people run out of tomes to xp (already happening) will just create an alt to play, or keep playing with friends, even with little to gain. get over it already. Perhaps creating a few more exp items for the 65+crowd would give them something to do.

 

[Hyoren]

If that is anything like getting a response on anything else, we should expect that response in 2015 or so. (Excessively optimistic estimate.)
To those who have said charm farming isn't that bad: Or, the I can make X pp in a day crowd. Sure, maybe you can with your access to all kinds of retired toons and buffbots galore, than can help you farm places duo that more casual people need a group for. And maybe you have time to play 6+ hours a day (or more), every day. Congrats, I am happy for you. But for every one of you, there is probably 10 people who can only play for a few hours a day, and can only look at the wiki and dream about the gear the toons you are abusing are using. The same thing applies to those who say CoP aren't that bad. For you, maybe not, but for the majority, it is a horrible uphill climb, just to be considered useful.

I don't think the charm is a problem that's there for people who want to invest time into their character. Your always gonna have two types of players and need to bridge a gap between both. There is the hardcore player who views that he worked hard to obtain said charm and that everyone should too. Then there will always be a casual player or lower tier player who thinks that he should be given the exact same benefits for lower play time, but the thing is you deem yourself casual so that in itself means that you should not be looking to be trying to obtain said top tier items but to be able to get to an enjoyable amount of gear selection that your time spent was fun. The inflow of new characters is low but some system points/token for gear that allows them to get to being about T8-9 (whats easily pug-able nowadays). Then you can go for charm farming until then. I honestly enjoyed charm farming and that was really what kept me playing. Now that my guild can finally kill things that have Opus, now I find enjoyment into finishing my tomes. Saying only a person boxing a high tier toon to get their big charm isnt true that's just there for ease. Ruryrury/Sansam this guy farmed his 1.2mil and 500k using these two toons and they were lower mana at the time too, he was Korean tho (asian people like to farm). Babaha 500k 6.4k mana also asian farmed the shit out of Necropolis. Woomi 5.7k hps 500k. The highest toon these guys probably had access too was maybe Nanta but alot of them would play their main toon and their alt healer or a guild healer that was not really high maybe 5-7k. They farmed the shit out of crocs and necropolis easily duoable with crap toons. They may of gotten some help but I'm pretty sure the majority of the plat was from themselves farming. Those are mains not alts.

 

[TheSkos]

/player hat on

I have played since 2005. Never really have felt the need to make any sort of post on the forums concerning gameplay or future of the game. These are just suggestions and I won't point out who did what that "ruined the game". If not for the Dev's and the dedication from the entire staff nobody would be here. They have my highest regards of respect. So these idea's forthcoming are a reflection of my experience and feedback from other player's I have had the luxury to play this game with.

First off I will target the big one. Exp penalty. I hear "just go to another zone." Well we all don't duo and can just go to another zone when we hit negative exp modifiers. In a group 2 people might be negative 25% in Citadel negative 10% in BQ and +10 in FR. Then another 2 might be negative 25% in BQ, Negative 10% in FR and + 25% in Citadel. Now try dealing with the question of "Where do you guys wanna go?" Basically Someone is gonna get fucked. End of story unless everybody exp's in the same place for the same amount of time. This is massively counter-productive to groups. Sure I can go Duo elsewhere, but when it comes down to group situations it might be better for me to Duo than group if I can get +50% in some other zone over -10% somewhere else grouped up.

Problem- Negative exp modifiers.
Solution. Once you hit 0% you are at 0%. Forever. Everybody starts with a new area but when its gone. It's gone. This puts everybody on the same playing field. (Some zones ZEM's may be adjusted.)

Two.
Down time.
Everybody hates this. Nobody wants to buff the group. Sure we can run without but this game has been almost built around buffs. People have access to buff bot's at high end. End of story.
Make all major buffs last 3 hours base amount of time. (Raego, Won, ALL hastes. ect ect. leave the short term ones alone.)
We used to Have Perma-Soulbound buffs before population jumped. Then we had a population that supported taking that away. I do not suggest going back to this but it would be nice.
My suggestion. House summonable NPC that you can BUY for 5k. This NPC will cast top level buffs. Each buff Costs 500pp. Each level of Duration Inc costs 500pp/1000pp/1500pp....so on increasing per level up to only DI7. Due to this being a Platinum sink see following suggestion.

Problem- Down time. Buffing. (Less time to to enjoy the game. Feels more like a chore.)
Solution - Find ways to dramatically reduce down time.

Three.
Charms. This is hands down the BIGGEST buy-able upgrade you can get. But it also promotes duoing. You have to sink a huge amount of time into farming and the best way to make PP is not share what you get. Duo. Duo. Duo. Or solo. This takes away from getting people to group and continues to make people dependent on log dead toons. Make the 556k Charm the last BUY-ABLE. No more Supreme. Instead. Make the 556k Charm Exp-able up to Supreme level. This will keep people from spending stupid amounts of time farming and more time grouping for exp. You want us to exp and group well here is a good way to get us to spend time grouping with others over spending time farming. Since this removes a platinum sink thats why the above suggestion add's a plat sink. Both combined will increase player availability for groups and the more casual player having more time to group. Less waiting on people for buffs. Less logging in Buff bot's.

Problem- Farming.
Solution- Top end exp-able charms.

Four.
QUIVERS. Get rid of these things. Figure something out. This is horrible. Ranger's should NOT have to pay to DPS. They should NOT be required to learn a trade-skill to DPS. They should NOT have to carry around a million damn quivers to do optimal DPS. This is insanity. New rangers always ask. "Where do I get Arrows." Always. Constantly. And they seem to not like the idea that they have to spend time crafting instead of playing. It was a great idea with possibilities. Maybe expand out this Idea. Bring back Endless Quiver. Increase the return rate to 95%. Make it to where you can combine quivers to make a "Master Quiver" that works on 5+ body types. I am a master of bow's and arrows as a ranger. I don't think i need special arrows for every little thing. I should be able to pick up a twig off the ground and shoot the damn thing through your head. How about taking 5 quivers to a guild master and getting back a Master Quiver. Something. I don't care.

Problem- Quivers. Cost to Do DPS. Time to Craft. Money to play class.
Solution. Over-haul. Think tank a new solution.

Five.
Lowbie zones. New 65 and down. Find out what ones are un-friendly to new players. Get rid of the SK's in Fearstone so people can once again do TR on level without getting HT'd down. Same with Enchanters in Paw so people can exp without being mezzed and wiping. Increase HP on mobs in Mielc and increase the exp a bit. Thats all it would take to make that zone mega fun again and an option to go to again. I am sure people can come up with several examples. Make some group friendly camps in WBL. Change EPL's. Add a bit of exp. Add some HP. Lot's of things to do to make new player experience starting the game better. Feedback NEEDED.

Problem - Bad experiences for new players.
Solution - More help and revamps to zones / quests / mobs to retain and attract new players.


I know a lot of people are holding out for 2.5 and love seeing the updates and I know this will be a huge asset and can only hope it boosts things as much as I hope it will. Hell just getting rid of the graphics bug will make me happy.

 

[Daffie]

Five.
Lowbie zones. New 65 and down. Find out what ones are un-friendly to new players. Get rid of the SK's in Fearstone so people can once again do TR on level without getting HT'd down. Same with Enchanters in Paw so people can exp without being mezzed and wiping. Increase HP on mobs in Mielc and increase the exp a bit. Thats all it would take to make that zone mega fun again and an option to go to again. I am sure people can come up with several examples. Make some group friendly camps in WBL. Change EPL's. Add a bit of exp. Add some HP. Lot's of things to do to make new player experience starting the game better. Feedback NEEDED.

Problem - Bad experiences for new players.
Solution - More help and revamps to zones / quests / mobs to retain and attract new players.


I know a lot of people are holding out for 2.5 and love seeing the updates and I know this will be a huge asset and can only hope it boosts things as much as I hope it will. Hell just getting rid of the graphics bug will make me happy.

2.5 omg can't wait.

I'd like to add one more new player friendly suggestion. Have spells/songs/talents outside of quested stuff pop into existence in spell books (and add a yellow text indicator) when a player hits that level. I seriously see no reason to make players stop every couple of levels, and in some cases search through multiple vendors to buy spells. What immersion is gained by making people buy spells every 4 levels during the low levels? It certainly isn't much of a plat sink. I think this is a legacy thing left over from before the game was mature.

IMO this is a big QoL thing for new guys and anyone leveling alts. I don't think this change would really be game breaking or easy mode.

 

[fxattack]

There are so many good suggestions in this thread written by people who have been around SoD for a long time and newer players alike. These are people who know which qualities are apparent in good games, and what outdated facets cause this game to stagnate from a population standpoint. I understand why accessibility and quality of life comes at such a perceived high-price to top end players. I can totally see how discouraging the climb must seem for people trying to break into the top tiers...or trying to get their level 65 spell scrolls even.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

 

[darksabbath]

I don't think the charm is a problem that's there for people who want to invest time into their character. Your always gonna have two types of players and need to bridge a gap between both. There is the hardcore player who views that he worked hard to obtain said charm and that everyone should too. Then there will always be a casual player or lower tier player who thinks that he should be given the exact same benefits for lower play time, but the thing is you deem yourself casual so that in itself means that you should not be looking to be trying to obtain said top tier items but to be able to get to an enjoyable amount of gear selection that your time spent was fun. The inflow of new characters is low but some system points/token for gear that allows them to get to being about T8-9 (whats easily pug-able nowadays). Then you can go for charm farming until then. I honestly enjoyed charm farming and that was really what kept me playing. Now that my guild can finally kill things that have Opus, now I find enjoyment into finishing my tomes. Saying only a person boxing a high tier toon to get their big charm isnt true that's just there for ease. Ruryrury/Sansam this guy farmed his 1.2mil and 500k using these two toons and they were lower mana at the time too, he was Korean tho (asian people like to farm). Babaha 500k 6.4k mana also asian farmed the shit out of Necropolis. Woomi 5.7k hps 500k. The highest toon these guys probably had access too was maybe Nanta but alot of them would play their main toon and their alt healer or a guild healer that was not really high maybe 5-7k. They farmed the shit out of crocs and necropolis easily duoable with crap toons. They may of gotten some help but I'm pretty sure the majority of the plat was from themselves farming. Those are mains not alts.

I never said a casual player couldn't do it, just that it would take a really long time, and a ton of farming. Looking at the names of those who posted how easy it was to farm charms, they are ones who have access (or own) top end toons that they can use to help their next toon out. My best charm on my many 65's is a barrier (108k), but it is on my BST, which is usually a pita to find a group for. I just find cash farming a generally boring, mostly lonely, affair. I also didn't say it needed to be made easier even. I was more trying to point out that the nerfs to xp and cash drops have made it harder for newer players to "catch up" to those who have come before.
The real problem of Charms and COP is actually of player perspective. Everyone wants to optimize their groups for best efficiency, so that they can get their xp and cash at the best rate. While logical, it excludes many players (mostly dps), who sit LFG and hoping for a group. Why take that fresh 65 tank that is lfg, if I can box in X t13 tank, for example? Would removing/altering these achievements remove that barrier? Maybe, maybe not. If we don't try, we'll never know. What we do know, is that despite all the population boosting drives, it has gone down hill over the years. So obviously, something is wrong that needs to be changed, in some facet or another.

 

[Hyoren]

Three.
Charms. This is hands down the BIGGEST buy-able upgrade you can get. But it also promotes duoing. You have to sink a huge amount of time into farming and the best way to make PP is not share what you get. Duo. Duo. Duo. Or solo. This takes away from getting people to group and continues to make people dependent on log dead toons. Make the 556k Charm the last BUY-ABLE. No more Supreme. Instead. Make the 556k Charm Exp-able up to Supreme level. This will keep people from spending stupid amounts of time farming and more time grouping for exp. You want us to exp and group well here is a good way to get us to spend time grouping with others over spending time farming. Since this removes a platinum sink thats why the above suggestion add's a plat sink. Both combined will increase player availability for groups and the more casual player having more time to group. Less waiting on people for buffs. Less logging in Buff bot's.

Problem- Farming.
Solution- Top end exp-able charms.

Four.
QUIVERS. Get rid of these things. Figure something out. This is horrible. Ranger's should NOT have to pay to DPS. They should NOT be required to learn a trade-skill to DPS. They should NOT have to carry around a million damn quivers to do optimal DPS. This is insanity. New rangers always ask. "Where do I get Arrows." Always. Constantly. And they seem to not like the idea that they have to spend time crafting instead of playing. It was a great idea with possibilities. Maybe expand out this Idea. Bring back Endless Quiver. Increase the return rate to 95%. Make it to where you can combine quivers to make a "Master Quiver" that works on 5+ body types. I am a master of bow's and arrows as a ranger. I don't think i need special arrows for every little thing. I should be able to pick up a twig off the ground and shoot the damn thing through your head. How about taking 5 quivers to a guild master and getting back a Master Quiver. Something. I don't care.

Problem- Quivers. Cost to Do DPS. Time to Craft. Money to play class.
Solution. Over-haul. Think tank a new solution.

Charms: I don't think that would solve the group problem. I mostly group with my guildies only. That is the case for a lot of guilds. The only time that I ever group with other people is when I'm on at the dead hours 21+- players online. Alot of those duo farms offer leech spots to people. I'm not sure on other groups but from what I mainly see its groups of buddies or people from the same guild. The reason I prefer duo farm is because it's on my own time, I can log in and out and stop whenever I want to, I get to go at my own pace. This may be similar for other people or may not.

Quiver: You have it easier than a melee that has to swap gear (sometimes lower tier) for bane damage or attempt to get a raid item with bane damage. Find a way that is not just about rangers and helps melees also.

My idea is that bane should be weapon based only. And instead of gear with bane, you have gear with 1 or more penetrating force (or some cooler sounding name) up to a cap of 9. Then you would finish your elael weapon quest and give this as proof to someone for your remainder 2 making it a total of 11. You receive your weapon back.

For rangers I think something like keeping the current fletching because it is probably too hard to overhaul again. What you add is the ability to make that "Master Quiver". I feel this thing should be no drop and only obtainable my a master fletcher. You are a master of bow and arrow so should not complain about that since you arent a master of arrow without being a master fletcher. Then after you get your elael weapon and are a maxed fletcher you talk to someone and turn in your weapon as proof and receive a T4 Aug that gives the Worn Effect Endless Quiver. You receive your weapon back. Now you only have to carry your sword that procs this 12dmg arrow! I think being a fletcher and being a ranger should go hand in hand.

 

[TheSkos]

Tell me how Something around 19 different quivers is easier to swap gear when sometimes in zones you run into 5 different body types in a matter of 20 mins. So you need one primary slot open to summon one stack switch the quiver back to bag and the arrows into ammo. Then switch out for the next pull. and now you have stacks of arrows sitting in your bags with a dozen other quivers. And lets not talk about all the arrows you destroy that are only half stack because its taking up more inventory space than the other bag and half of quivers.

I think if people felt less like they NEEDED to farm and just casually play, hang out, raid and get exp then more people would probably group. You can't say it will cause less grouping than there already is if it's changed. The only way to figure out something that works is get as many possible fixes to the problem and try the best solution. How many do you see sit for hours LFG. Something has to be tried. I think it would be more encouraging to players to get out and group and exp if they all had an exp-able charm thats bought to be able to work on together rather than having one huge upgrade at a time your character progresses as you put time into it. I rather look at it as I need to go out and exp for 600 hours with cool dudes and have some fun where we want with no negative multipliers than what is the best place for money because thats what i am going to see for 600 hours. It's boring and burns you out.

 

[TheSkos]

And let's not turn this into who has it worse. And who's Idea isn't good. This is just a thread for Suggesting how to improve the game to recruit and retain new players. This isn't about high end. This is about improving the game over-all with as many suggestions as possible. We have something good going here let's keep it going with Suggestions. More suggestions and feedback please. I like hearing new Idea's let's not run off the potential for new idea's by bashing others. It's counter productive to this whole thread.

 

[Hyoren]

What I'm saying is your ability to gain that top dmg comes easier than a melee player who has to raid, roll, be awarderd, spend dkp, or maybe not even see that bane type. Oh shit swapping stuff is so difficult, but but you can swap it any given time of the day whenever you want to do that top dps...if you looked below the post about being easier you should of commented about that there. That was a suggestion attempt at trying to fix said issue. I also have to carry multiple items of varying bane and sometimes other misc items with other modifiers that may be lost during bane swap. What I don't have to deal with is the arrow issues, but I have to swap lower tier less desirable looking gear to get that dps while you don't. What I'm trying to say in the end is don't make it me me me my class, but see it as a whole. The bane problem does not only effect you and we should come together to get some fix that helps melees and rangers.

 

[Rorne]

Get rid of the SK's in Fearstone so people can once again do TR on level without getting HT'd down. Same with Enchanters in Paw so people can exp without being mezzed and wiping. Increase HP on mobs in Mielc and increase the exp a bit. Thats all it would take to make that zone mega fun again and an option to go to again. I am sure people can come up with several examples. Make some group friendly camps in WBL. Change EPL's. Add a bit of exp. Add some HP. Lot's of things to do to make new player experience starting the game better. Feedback NEEDED.

Thank you for mentioning this, I completely agree about Fearstone. When I came back I thought they HAD removed all the harm touching for some reason, maybe because it always seemed out of line. Anyways I took a level 15ish ranger there because the zone was blessed and it was just unrealistic for me to kill things there when I would take 100 damage right off the bat from the SK lizards.

As far as making avenues for making exp zones appeal to people the idea of no drop gear that people actually exping in a zone would use is very neglected. The few instances I can think of (skulker armor) are from a bygone time and the stats of the items show it. Even if you had multiple pieces dropping in different zones you could combine somehow. Speaking of which the first step of dragon/giant armor could use just the tiniest bit of love with some more modernized stats.

Other areas that could use some love/reasons for people to visit are:
The Cecuvian side of Warpstone - these guys are way way too hard for their level, especially vs casting classes.
Heartland Undercaverns - Just a large monotonous zone nobody would probably visit if not required to by the main quest


I don't think these changes would bring more people in but it might help retain them (assuming they can also find groups in these places)

 

[Gargate]

The bounty system indirectly caused the revamp of the bane/body type system.

 

[fxattack]

The bounty system indirectly caused the revamp of the bane/body type system.

That seems kind of vague and misleading. Players' exploitation of the bounty bane augs caused the need to revise bane and bodytype damage. I think its actually kind of funny that there are still no tier13 bane dmg items, seeing as how those are probably the same people (if they still even play) who used a small developer oversight to stack dragon dmg to basically cheese sanctum bosses. Maybe this is part of the reason why Zaela is so disenchanted with his work on Bounty Hunting, which is really a great and fun way for players to progress a character outside of raids, visit underused zones they would otherwise never visit or revisit for any reason, and who have no desire or real life time to poopsock to the top. I've been semi-retired for like 2 years but I still enjoy doing a bounty now and again just because I haven't seen them all yet.

 

[Daffie]

Why take that fresh 65 tank that is lfg, if I can box in X t13 tank, for example?

This is a serious problem for anyone new to the game that wants to play a tank class and keep playing after hitting level 65. This has come up before and I have no suggestion on how to fix this issue, but it still sucks... I'm not sure this issue can be fixed reasonably due to how SoD/EQ game play is formated.

Tell me how Something around 19 different quivers is easier to swap gear when sometimes in zones you run into 5 different body types in a matter of 20 mins. So you need one primary slot open to summon one stack switch the quiver back to bag and the arrows into ammo. Then switch out for the next pull. and now you have stacks of arrows sitting in your bags with a dozen other quivers. And lets not talk about all the arrows you destroy that are only half stack because its taking up more inventory space than the other bag and half of quivers.

I don't play a ranger and haven't leveled/raided a character to the point where it matters: I think it is cool that they actually have the ability to make their own high end quivers/arrows, and max bane damage with their best bow on any mob type. My guess is that other melee classes can't come close to maxing bane damage on every mob type (and still use their best DPS setup.) I would agree that costing money to DPS kind of sucks. I remember when endless quiver went in on live, and it was a game changing positive enhancement. If bag space is the issue, I also understand that since my guys have bag space issues without needing a bow...

Another suggestion to enhance life post 60ish is to increase carrying capacity of bags and bank bags/slots. Bump all bag sizes by a factor of 3. (Maybe rangers would find this a positive change too?) With the amount of clicky items, including gate necks, and the vast number of quests in SoD, I think this would be a positive QoL increase. Until my break, I was working on my Vah, farming cash for my charm, and a couple of other misc. quests. I'm not at the point where I need to bag a ton of gear for bane type stuff either. I am ALWAYS at max capacity in my bank and inventory (and against protocol I don't run with an open main inventory slot.) Basically, every single character I have ever logged into the game is in this situation. Some of the long time vets I have logged in have like 4 bag slots open...