Feldon 
Along with other line items in today’s Update Notes, it seems a number shifted on the damage ratings of Ranged Weapons in EQ2. For example, the popular Fai Thiss, The Ravager bow saw its Damage Rating drop from 298.5 to 158 with similar changes to the damage range (minimum – maximum).
According to Caith on the EQ2 Forums, this is an unintentional bug rather than a planned change:
Ranged weapons are using the incorrect formula for calculating DPS currently, they are calculating themselves as dual wield weapons instead. The bug should be fixed in the next hotfix.
Itemization is such a joke anymore anyways. ToT itemization ruined the game for many of us. DB needs to replace their itemization guy while they still have customers that care.
^^^This x infinity
Hello,
I am totally 100% open to feedback on the current itemization. I would love to know why it is you think ToT itemization ruined the game.
Please feel free to email me at KVALLEE@daybreakgames.com
This goes for anyone here who may have feedback, complaints, concerns, etc.
To have constructive commentary, I would like to know, seriously, how ‘players’ and Devs define “itemization.”
Because there’s the dictionary definition:
itemization (noun) the act of itemizing.
itemizing (verb) to state by items; give the particulars of; list the individual units or parts of.
And there’s this:
https://eq2wire.com/2015/11/18/eq2wires-terrors-of-thalumbra-frequently-asked-questions/
“Q: What itemization changes have there been in the ToT expansion?
The “token grind” of gemmed armor from Tears of Veeshan and Altar of Malice has been eliminated in favor of more “dropped upgrades”. From Caith on the EQ2 beta forums:
First and foremost, base itemization is much more focused on treasure drops. Meaning if you want a specific piece of gear, in most cases that item is going to be dropped from a specific encounter, so someone has to go beat that specific encounter to receive that item. This means almost no encounters should drop the same piece of gear that another encounter does, some exceptions exist with this in the contested or overland bosses.
Gear Desirability and Progression – Obviously every piece of gear in the expansion will not be equally desirable, however every single playstyle should have at least a single item that very desirable at all levels of play, what is commonly referred to as a best in slot item. Yes, that means those that raid and quest will have access to gear that is better than is available to those that just raid or quest without partaking in both. Progression of gear outside of these special items should be handcrafted, quest rewards, solo dungeons, early heroic dungeons, mastercrafted, [challenging] heroic dungeons, raids.”
Is “itemization” the specific gear being dropped? Or is “itemization” the scheme of how gear drops? Or is “itemization” “Gear Desirability and Progression”?
Or something else?
For example, I could comment that it’s Finally nice having gear that’s appropriate to the character being played. But that may have nothing to do with “itemization.”
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“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” Inigo Montoya
Except it seems for all the “options” we have, only certain choices don’t result in suboptimal results. It feels like there are a lot of “false options”.
This may be more a result of my ongoing frustration in trying to figure out how to get a character that’s been my ostensible main since 2007 to perform like I know what I’m doing, though. And since it’s not Festivus I’ll refrain from my full rant. 👿
First and foremost, I’m in awe that you’re replying to this subject on a third party website. The EQ2 forums have literally hundreds of postings about this. Most of the complaints come from the raiding community (the heart and soul of EQ2). Class balance and itemization are completely out of sync. We told you in beta and we’ve been telling you since launch.
I can write a book on this topic so expect a long email.
Good for you. I amazes me when the devs act like the player base hasn’t communicated with them and yet as you say there are dozens of threads and they were given beta feedback. Not sure what else they want from players, especially if they have decided they are right and the players are wrong from the start.
Well it has to make it through Radar’s genghis khan gauntlet before a dev would pay attention to it.
LOL I got a good chuckle out of that. You’re spot on tho. That’s why I avoid the EQ2 forums anymore. Over 2000 posts and maybe 1000 deleted posts. I’ve been banned 3 times for… nothing really. Hate those forums. 😆
And if you don’t feel like emailing the lead designer for EQ2 (in case you didn’t know who Kander is), I’m curious to hear your detailed description of what makes it a joke. I’ve read the forum threads and I’ve seen most of the comments, and I am in some ways disappointed in how things ended up. But I think calling it a joke is excessive.
I am honestly curious as well to hear other people’s opinions on this and I am sure that Feldon won’t remove any critical posts here (unless they don’t follow the reasonable guidelines) unlike the moderation that occurs on the DBG forums.
So go for it. Tell us how you really feel.
Can you imagine the level of spaghetti code?
Yes. 🙂
Have they said when the next hotfix will actually BE?
Since it’s apparently not today, I’m guessing next Wednesday. Long weekend coming up, so figure on Tuesday’s patch being a day late.
Don’t the devs understand how incredibly devastating it is to Rangers? Yes this mistake hurt everyone but with the other changes on TLE my zonewide raid dps at level (70 *mentored to 62 to do an old zone) was lower than it had been at level 50. I didn’t even do 1k dps zonewide . The fury kicked my ass on aoe dps with their damn flame circle.
As a Ranger we have NO utility at all at this level. With the extreme high dps of summoners classes 90 percent of the rangers (my guess based on observation) have already quit. The few of us hanging in there just got hosed royally.
Yes it may have been a mistake but every day they don’t fix it people will unsub. I personally refuse to play until it’s fixed. How is it not a priority?
I have been extremely tolerant about the messed up changes they have made on TLE which swung the pendulum from one extreme to another. I try not to complain but this not being fixed yet is really hurtful.
When you work hard on something and one day you’re completely irrelevant it’s hard not to take it personally.
As a developer myself, I know bugs happen and I was pleased to see DBG admit that it was a bug and that it was unintentional. That said, I was absolutely stunned to not see a fix for it by today, two days after they became aware of the bug, especially one that greatly and negatively impacted several classes including a lot of paying customers right before a long weekend.
When DBG acquired the EverQuest games, I really thought this meant good news for these games. With no EQ Next news coming out, I expected DBG to re-focus as much as possible on their existing games. Unfortunately, this week brought with it a very sad realization. I know now that EQ2 is no longer a priority to DBG, so after all these years, I have finally cancelled my account.
I hope things improve for those who remain in EQ2, but even if they do, I cannot see myself returning knowing this could and will likely happen again, and again, etc.
Feldon, I just want to say thank you very much for what you have provided on EQ2Wire for all of these years. Your site should have been the official EQ2 site the whole time! Your support and contributions to the EQ2 community have been outstanding and better than anything SOE/SBG ever provided. You have long been a great source of news, reminders and helpful information. I hope any future games I end up playing are covered by you or someone with your dedication and commitment!
Take care, fellow Norrathians! I wish all you all the best!
For me the only thing I don’t get with how gear works this expac is simple. Crafted gear and instance gear had the same price as raid gear it was not till a months after they changed that. They just finally put all shinnies in months later. I can parse just as high as raid geared people in crafted gear for me the first time since day one I felt as if raiding was not needed anymore to improve. That is the only issue I have with gear this expac.
Itemization is certainly the main problem with TOT in my opinion and many others as well. From quested gear to raid gear there is barely any real difference in stats. Also, infusing is very confusing to most people. There have been multiple threads about this on the EQ2 official forums and that is why I don’t understand why Kander doesn’t see any problem with this.
First, I hadda laugh when I saw Kander show up here, given how many people will kvetch about lack of attention paid by dev to user comments. Yay, Kander.
Minor point but, still: DBG did not acquire anything. That was merely a rebranding. Sony sold off the SOE properties to Columbus Nova. Mind you, this was after a lot of layoffs, which has affected productivity ever since. As far as we know (Feldon’s brought this up numerous times), the EQ and EQ2 pay the bills for this line of products, although there’s scuttlebutt about how much of that revenue has been sucked into unreleased product.
Back on the posting’s topic, I’ve always found the bug stomping and game tweaking priorities to be mysterious. Reminds me of that adjustment to Tarby that was made after several years…. Oh, and…that reminds me that it seems like we used to see more detailed lists in the updates. No idea what, if anything, that’s about.
I too am shocked by how long this bug is taking to be fixed. I’m not a Ranger, but I care very much about the drop in my Summoner dps. Is it class devastating the way it is for Rangers? No. However, it is upsetting enough that I have dropped my subscription until it is fixed.
Y’all know there’s a possibility that the subs that seem to be dropping like flies could extend beyond the time the fix for for rangers has been applied. Sounds like some hollow, worthless, threats of nothing
Just a thought.
Umm…Question for the Devs here, since deahtoll TLE pvp server is basically dead can we PLEASE get a free transfer to move to stormhold. you might as well get rid of the deahtoll server and let us transfer to stormhold not only will you have some happy customers but prob save the company money in the long run…. thanks for considering this I hope…
can we get rid of INfusion system already
Whats wrong with the infusion system? I think it works great, I like being able to get a piece of gear and improve it over time with infusers/plat instead of grinding out gems to buy and upgrade new pieces of gear.
I wonder is the problem with itemization in ToT the same as it is in TLE when we hit the KoS expansion?
They re-itemized but they made the treasured quested so “good” we are in raids and getting stuff that is marginally better or in a LOT of cases worse than the treasured.
So I raid for the fun of it like a lot of people but their is little to no incentive for gear, I tried linking the relic gear in game to see the actual stats and it’s worse than my quested.
Sorry addendum. The mitigation on the raid gear is almost always better but all the blue stats are almost always lower.
To be honest it’s not the fact that a player can come back from a 1 year break and within 30 minutes be wiping any heroic zone with gear from keys thats killed the game. It’s the fact that DBG either refuses to hire an economist OR the one they currently have is completely blind.