Miragul’s Planar Shard

This year has seen the introduction of three raid zones to EverQuest II.

• The Ward of Elements x2 — Once some initial bugs were corrected and a few mobs adjusted, this zone is a real success story. It’s very well-balanced for its target audience with sufficient difficulty and very good rewards.  Players with T2 armor, Epic weapon, and the right group makeups are successfully clearing the first 3 named, working their way up to clearing 5 and then finally clearing the zone once they’ve geared up further.
• Kurn’s Tower x2 — This zone got some initial complaints, and gear was adjusted to compensate. Specifically the better patterns from Ward of Elements made an appearance here, and items were moved around to better match progression. All told it’s a reasonably popular zone.

And now we have Miragul’s Planar Shard. Despite the most organized beta testing process I’ve seen yet, the itemization came very late (just a few days before the update went live) and so these items have not gotten the scrutiny they should have.

I’ve already reported about zone issues with the 2nd and 3rd named crashing the zone and resetting all trash mobs on the 1st floor. This is not to mention that the chest from the 3rd named seems to prefer spawning under the floor.

But the bigger issue is the itemization and challenge for this zone.

The gear seems to be designed for casual raiders on the theory that these players will not have any T4 armor or Mythical weapons. However zone difficulty has been consistently reported as requiring players who have successfully killed Kultak and Switchmaster. By progression, this would mean players who have 3 pieces of T4 armor and Mythical weapons.

Patherpanchali has provided the details about how this zone can be scaled up and down in difficulty:

With regard to Miragul’s Planar Shard, the only MOBS in the zone that have a more difficult mode are Haladan and Miragul himself. During the Haladan fight there is a point at which he asks you to make a decision, which allows you to complete the encounter in standard mode or continue on to fight enraged versions of Haladan and Tuskers (hard mode). Hard mode encounters have their own loot table, and do not share items with their standard mode counterparts. When you get to the final floor, near the spiral staircase, you have a conversation with Miragul himself during which you can either insult him and he will fight you himself (hard mode), or let him make his speech without insulting him to get standard mode (his menagerie).

In addition there are items available from some of the Everfrost group instances that can affect aspects of the first floor encounters, giving players an additional advantage on the first floor. These are not needed to complete the zone, and have no effect on the treasure dropped by encounters they affect.

So what loot is actually dropping?

It is unclear at what difficulty this zone is being attempted, but the links I have seen so far for items that drop here are surprisingly average. While I’ve seen a decent Ranger off-hand and ring, some of the items defy belief. Some of the weapons cannot be used if you already have a Mythical weapon equipped. This is true of Fighters who already have their Mythical and a Shield, and Mages who cannot dual wield. So far, armor drops have not had any Critical Mitigation, making them a poor upgrade over even T1 armor.

Here’s a quote from Hecula which I think sums it up:

I think it’s time to seriously re-examine the way loot is heading and change it. Miragul’s took some time to design – the encounter scripts are inventive and unique. Yet the zone and all that work is ruined because people won’t want to play it. The rewards are too bad. It’s the same reason why almost noone is killing Munzok.

I would like to point out two of the most popular zones in EQ2 history. Runnyeye: The Gathering and Shard of Hate. These zones have probably been run more times than any other zones in the game. They were both zones that were considered very difficult when released (SoH slightly less so except for Maestro and Byzola) and both zones featured extremely good gear. The cloaks and set pieces dropped by the x2 in RE gave people a good reason to keep running the zone. Same thing for SoH – much of that gear is still highly desired by players and it is still a regularly-run zone. I would like to see more zones patterned after these zones.

If this game is to keep going until February, players need challenge and reward. Fluff and beauty aren’t enough. Just as a small segment of the population is kept alive by contested camping, only a small segment thrives solely on appearance and house decorations.