Feldon As we reach August’s midway point, we are potentially in the “home stretch” on Game Update 61. If internal schedules hold true, we could see the next update pushed to live servers in 2 weeks. This is usually the point where player anxiety levels are highest, as what’s on Test seems incomplete and not ready for prime time. Although it’s a well-worn cycle, the question is always “Will it be ready?” Will 2 weeks of dev crunch time result in a solid Game Update 61?
Level 20-80 Reitemization
We’d caught hints, but Fan Faire brought confirmation that level 20-80 gear was being reitemized.
When I first heard this announcement, I hoped that this would be done with a light touch. Despite organic development over 6 years, through several different producers, the itemization in EverQuest II from level 1-80 has been one of its strengths. Only through several revamps has Mastercrafted armor managed to disturb this progression. A revamp of level 20-80 gear should provide an opportunity to the EQ2 team to put this right, all while re-aligning Mastercrafted armor where it belongs, behind Legendary and Fabled dungeon drops. With a few minor tweaks, mostly adding Agility to any item wearable by Scouts, Intelligence to Mage-equippable items, and so forth, itemization would, at least from level 1-80, work with the changed mechanics, without losing its uniqueness.
However a better phrase to describe the itemization changes on Test would be “extreme makeover”. We’ve seen a bewildering array of changes to existing items, with countless items flip-flopping from one archetype to another, mage gear suddenly flagged as plate armor, well-known quest items being rigidly locked to certain archetypes, etc. Further, it looks like we can expect a dramatic increase in stat inflation as level 50-60 quest gear now rivals the strength of Sentinel’s Fate gear.
In addition to this reworking of existing dungeon drops and quest rewards, thousands of new items have also been created and added to loot tables. These new items follow the same itemization formula that has “streamlined” all Velious gear. In place of unique, interesting effects and stats, we get the Crit Bonus/Potency/Main Stat/Stamina/Skills cocktail. Bland Itemization continues to be a black eye on what has otherwise been EQ2’s most popular expansion in years.
Level 90 Item Changes
We’re not really sure what to make of some recent unexplained changes to level 90 gear either. Numerous Symbol, Secondary, Ranged, and Shield slot items are now missing Red and Yellow adornment slots. Players have also reported substantial reductions in blue stats including Critical Chance and Crit Bonus. These changes have disproportionately affected Priests and Mages, as well as some Fighters. We’re uncertain if these changes are merely unintended or are a clumsy attempt to make room for Plane of War and the powerful new Thrael’Gorr solo quest gear.
Class Tweaks
There are changes, big and small, coming to AAs for all 24 (soon to be 25) classes playing EQ2. As with all passes at Class Balance, some classes will see gains, while others will experience setbacks. Of note in the most recent patches to Test are increases in the benefits of certain AA lines and specific skills. It’s nice to see something more than just “Decreases the recast time of this ability by .2 seconds.”
As we’ve previously discussed, Game Update 61 will mark the “Shadows” AA tree as a level 50+ perk. The Subclass tree, briefly restricted to level 30+ characters, was granted a reprieve and is once again available to all characters at level 10 (with 50 points spendable). You’ll recall that the Subclass tree (Ranger, Templar, Guardian, etc.) is undergoing the most work with Game Update 61.
The changes to AAs are too numerous to list here, and may yet see further tweaks before going live, but readers may find a brief review of the Test Update Notes forum to be prudent. There’s already been an indication from the EQ2 Mechanics side that further tweaks are planned after the expansion and the dust settles from launching Beastlords.
House Rating
House Ratings hit Test over the weekend, and Norrathian Homeshowers have been busy working on creating the best possible house designs to populate the learderboards when House Ratings first go live. Although some decorators have pooh-poohed the idea of competition and recognition of decorator skill, I’ve seen many players putting the finishing touches on, or brainstorming new ideas for potential houses they might submit for other players to check out.
Testers have been finding all the potential holes in House Rating, specifically the restriction on moving items in a Published house. Once a house is published, the house is ‘locked’, preventing the movement of items.
The item Reitemization isn`t done yet and im sure it will need alot of time and after last patch all mage secondary + ranged slot weapons from DoV are crap..i hope they fix it soon
The itemisation is also my biggest worry too, personally I think the devs are being complacent in stating that they are not worried if the lower levels become too easy.
Because if players overpower the content too fast with gear upgrades then they have to progress through a lot of levels until they find something challenging, and if theey are not being challenged by the current content then there is no desire to upgrade gear, get better spells or learn more about their class. In essence much of EQ2’s gameplay is removed for that content.
One thing I do wonder on though, if level 50/60 gear is really as powerful as SF gear are they planning to reduce the levelling? E.g. make level 1-50 the levelling portion of the game and the rest all repeats of 50 to 60 (new max level), a bit unlikely but it would be the only reason I could see for gear to be that powerful….
With DOV itemization such a hugely glaring issue, I’m blown away by the fact that SOE appears to be repeating the same mistakes when making changes to the 20-80 content.
These levels did badly need to be re-itemized. DoV’s stat changes (which were poorly thought out in the first place) changed mechanics globally, but the items outside of DoV did not reflect this, leaving a lot of weird stats on items. (Lack of stamina, wrong stats on class-specific items, etc.) As someone with multiple alts, it was utterly ridiculous leveling and getting quest rewards that were beyond useless.
That said, DoV proved that (1) rigid item progression is boring as hell (oo, this one gives me .2 more potency!!!!) and (2) you cannot use a script to handle itemization without screwing things up. Pity that SOE, despite acknowledging player complaints about DoV itemization, opted to do the exact same thing to the rest of the game.
Wish we could get a solid answer from SOE as to why they would choose to go this path. To be honest even an answer along the lines of “we dont care, and we cant waist limited Dev resources doing a proper design of content we have no interest in” at least that would be an answer. But this mysterious i am going to take a wrecking ball to the game but pretend it is a stealth change is infuriating.
I would of course prefer an answer that gives us insight into their long term vision. I think they would be suprised how understanding people can be of growing pains if it is for a greater good.
What a HUGE waste 20 to 80’itemization is, worse if they homogenize it like DOV. I’ve taken several Alta to 90, including hard to solo classes like guard and Templar, and I’ve only used quest gear and at best adept spells and I felt overpowered even against triple ups. I can’t see how they can make it easier and I haven’t really paid attention to my gear before level 80 in a long time, because the content is so ridiculously easy there is no need to pay attention to it other than equipping quest rewards. This is just another massive waste of dev time that is desperately needed elsewhere.
If I had to guess, the real reason for re-itemization of < 80 gear is so when you actually get to the 90 gear your already used to the style of stats. Just like us when it was introduced to me, I felt like it was bland, lazy, and programmatic… but to a new player that has never known different after this reitemization takes place they would think its right on the mark.
I’m not sure why some feel the DoV itemization was so bad…I love the ability to customize gear based on my needs, not what the game developers feel is good. Customization through adornments is really good…and gives me a quick and easy way to mold my character’s development based on his role.