Feldon 
The purpose of New Content in any MMORPG is to provide additional length to the “treadmill” so that players who revisit heroic dungeons or raids always have new things to do. New zones provide new rewards that raise the bar and keep that loot chase going. It is totally expected that when a new content update or expansion is released that previous items will be trumped by new ones. However we’ve seen something new and unexpected since the release of the Terrors of Thalumbra expansion.
In an update on January 20th, existing Weapons and Jewelry items were removed from the loot tables of current enemies in raid zones and then newly upgraded Weapons and Jewelry items were added. These new weapons and jewelry had new names.
In an update on February 17th, existing Armor pieces had their Crit Bonus and Potency slightly upgraded, then removed from loot tables while newly upgraded Armor items were added with hugely upgraded Crit Bonus and Potency. This new armor had the same names as previous items.
There is no doubt that the Terrors of Thalumbra raid gear at launch was hardly worth getting out of bed for. Clearly something had to be done to itemization and we’ve been assured that this was the best way to do it with the time available. However there are several concerns with this approach of replacing rather than upgrading items inline.
First up, the new Armor pieces have the same exact name as the old armor. This causes problems for players wanting to examine these items in-game (you cannot open both side-by-side) or on EQ2U (both versions show in search results and in loot tables). [Editor’s Note: The upgraded items were given new names in a subsequent update.]
The biggest concern, however, is what this does to players who have spent thousands of plat and burned up hundreds of dropped infusers to upgrade what were supposed to be “Best-in-Slot” items. Infusing was added as a replacement for Gem-upgraded armor, however the inability to migrate Infusions from one item to another as we can now do with Adornment Reclamation means that any upgrade in items could result in players having to walk away from thousands of plat and hundreds of infusers per item.
What do you think?
- Is this the same as a gear reset which we’ve had in the past?
- Is this just another tier of armor being added to fulfill a need?
- Would you have felt better about this if it had been explained in some kind of designer’s letter/announcement?
- Will this make you gun-shy about Infusing in the future?
There are at least two threads on the EQ2 Forums discussing this topic:
Incredibly confusing and badly thought out. As you say, if you already have the old version it’s difficult to see the new stats as the item examine defaults to what you have.
Wasted 100’s of infusers is what you are saying because DBG screwed up and we players get screwed again and again. I want ALL my infusions back that were wasted on gear I raided to get. And I thought SOE was the best at bait and switch but DBG takes it to a whole other level. Just look at the game’s economy. Totally messed up. Millions of plat out there when just a couple years ago a lot of plat meant you had 20 to 40k. lol Now that is mere pennies. Exploiters, botters and the biggest culprit of all DBG. And I guess we the players take some blame in letting it happen by still playing this game, Anymore though it isn’t the game that keeps me here it is the relationship grown over the years. Come on DBG. Do something right!
The examine issue is already being fixed. The change was not pushed forward at the same time. Should be in the next update.
So, this comment means that the new items will be getting renamed or something so we can examine both at the same time, right? So, where is the fix for those of us who have sunk 200+ hours into farming gear just to have it suddenly become worthless?
That’s what they did with a ring in Maldura x4. Same named with a word at the end, same proc name, but, the proc is a bit better. I dont know why they do that. I have pieces that I can’t use more infusions on it, supposed the better gear I can have in the slot, and now are a s*it compared with the new “best in slot” pieces… hey it’s what I had, upgrade them, not replace them. I don’t want to start again. NEW CONTENT, NOT THAT IS WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO.
Hey–aren’t those pieces of armor from Skyrim? Thief and Imperial sets? Or has the sinus medication that I’m on, like, making me see weird things? 😯
Good eye!
Thieves Guild and Imperial. 😛
Its a shame having gotten pieces now requires getting the same pieces again to have the “upgraded” version wish I wouldn’t had wasted plat on the current pieces I have.
Was just reading the forums.. Radar strikes again. Welcome to Eq-mageddon, where every expansion thus forth will be the same zones with new gear.
We need a new forum. Something in-between the Nazi controlled Daybreak forums and EQ2Flames. Some place where we truly have freedom of speech and the ability to discuss the EverQuest franchise without fear of being banned.
This forum is fine.
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/so-yay-raid-armor-itemization.568125/page-9
We’re going to go ahead and close this up. For those of you who remained within the forum guidelines, thank you. For those of you who didn’t, I’ll be in touch or we’ll see you back in a week.
Tony ‘RadarX’ Jones “aspiring Sith” http://archive.is/4QFYu
“The Sith, collectively known as the Sith Order, were an order of Force users who utilized the DARK SIDE of the Force in an effort to gain power over the galaxy” (Caps for emphasis.)
RadarX, who co-opted that moniker, needs to be an integral part of the upcoming downsizing/restructuring.
/*
“RadarX @RadarX · Feb 5
Excited to be a part of this! https://www.h1z1.com/news/just-survive-king-of-the-kill-game-split-february-2016 …”
https://www.h1z1.com/just-survive/news/just-survive-king-of-the-kill-game-split-february-2016
“we realized that in order to fully support both aspects of H1Z1, and their respective players, we needed to make them their own stand-alone games supported BY THEIR OWN DEDICATED DEVELOPMENT TEAMS” (Caps for emphasis.)
Anyone want to take bets on where these Devs are coming from?
It would of been nice to see something where you can turn gear with a certain level of investment (maybe capped out on at least 1 type of advanced adorn) could be turned into a smaller version of the infuser we get from the Sig line
I was pretty upset to have raid gear that I had spent alot infusing become less than the same gear coming from the same mob. Just made it feel like a waste.
You are literally way better off if you just started playing this expansion this week, and not for the prior three months. Simply astonishing. You have to wonder if the designers actually even play this game.
I kinda had the same thought.
I said something along the same lines of “do you even play this game?” ages ago on the official forums, I believe during the DM nerf and I got a warning from the forum police.
Well, they’ll find a few posts waiting for them on the CRT forums this week. Hopefully we’ll see some traction.
The gear tiers were incredibly skewed on launch. This should have been fixed during beta, but for some reason the dev team during beta insisted on a ‘trust us, we’ll get it right! :D’ policy. Obviously, they didn’t.
So we’re getting a patch months and months later that should have happened on beta. That’s.. unfortunate.
Next up, the old gear we had was boosted, which means it was all easy to locate/adjust.
So, why not boost it to what the new gear is?
It’s not time, it’s not effort, it’s nothing other than artificially extending the life of content.
To me, that’s shady. Shady in a business organization is never a good thing.
Q. What do you think?
A. It’s awful.
Q. Is this the same as a gear reset which we’ve had in the past?
A. No. All previous gear resets came with new content. Not just out of the blue on a whim.
Q. Is this just another tier of armor being added to fulfill a need?
A. No. Most of the top guilds cleared everything wearing what dropped from the start of the expansion. Sans two mobs that are broken. All this does is trivialize already boring content to a degree that belongs in an MMO like Hello Kitty Online.
Q. Would you have felt better about this if it had been explained in some kind of designer’s letter/announcement?
A. Some explanation would have been nice. I don’t think it IS explainable though, hence the lack of feedback.
Q. Will this make you gun-shy about Infusing in the future?
A. How could it not make you shy away from infusing, when at any time they could outdate your gear for no apparent reason, without adding any new content.
We would have been better off without this update and the adjustment of gear, even though we were sorely in need of it. THIS update hurts us worse than no update at all.
I didnt like the infusing system on beta now I hate it even more. I wasted a lot of infusers I am not going to grind for them again. They need to just remove the infusing system out of the game in my opinion.