Feldon In response to a number of questions by players about Heroic Characters on the EQ2 Forums, Caith and RadarX had some answers…
Q (by Errrorr): When will Channellers become available as heroic characters?
We don’t have a date on when Channelers will become available as a Heroic option.
Q (by Errrorr): Is it possible to have certain long and tedious questlines already completed (For example Speak as a dragon)?
Heroic characters are not going to have any quests completed for them. If a quest is so tedious as to be off putting, and is also something that cannot be avoided, I would rather look at the quest itself. I’m not sure To Speak as a Dragon would qualify in my estimation, but it’s something that we can look at.
Q: Does the Heroic Character purchase apply to the character slot, or to the character?
If you unlock a heroic character, and then delete it, it goes away. Whether that character is purchased, or unlocked as your one free, the result is the same. To unlock another heroic character to replace the one you just deleted would require you to purchase it at that point.
The reason we have a try before you buy option is to give people a chance to experiment with classes before unlocking them. Please use some care with which character you want to unlock as your free choice.
and later…
If you delete the free unlock, then no, you do not get another one to replace it.
Q (by Ahupu): I am curious and did not see a response to an earlier question what level of spells do the heroic toons get (apprentice, journeyman, adept, expert, master)?
Heroic characters start off with Adept spells, and can of course still pick their grandmaster choices for each tier.
Q (by Errrorr): How will the “1 Per Household” application work, for places where you are likely to see multiple log ins from multiple people (Like Universities, Colleges, Military Bases).
Unfortunately, that’s not a question I can answer, the household limitation is being implemented via code, and explaining the limitation in detail could encourage people to try to get around the limitation.
Q (by Errrorr): Can all Gold Subscribers get a free Character Slot with the release of heroic characters. Seeing as the perks to Gold are getting lesser and lesser by the day, and a lot of people will already have filled their maximum.
Gold members already are granted more character slots then silver or bronze accounts. I’m not going to go into gold membership here, but I will say we have some things in the works.
Q: Will Heroic characters have their Epic or Mythical weapon? Will the quest be started?
No, the heroic characters do not start with either their Epic (Fabled or Mythical, or the Reprecussions Buff).
Q: What is the Heroic character armor like? Where does it fall in progression?
The start up heroic gear is very nice gear for level 85, but it is definitely not as powerful as level 90+ gear. Destiny of Velious gear has all been reworked to be more in line with the progression leading up to Skyshrine however, so everything you find in DoV will be an upgrade to the heroic characters gear.
Q: Does a level 95 character who was “buffed up” as a Heroic count for Veteran XP bonus?
A level 95 heroic character is treated normally when it comes to providing a veteran bonus to the account.
Q (by Guard): Will a level 85 heroic toon have all skills upto level i.e harvesting, swimming, crushing, slashing etc.?
Combat and adventure skills will be maxed for level 85, harvesting and crafting skills are not.
Q (by Soren): Does anyone know, if heroic beastlords will come with pre-leveled warders?
Heroic Beastlords come with several basic warders at Journeyman, and the bear warder Grandmastered. They will still have to obtain and level all of the other warders.
Q (by Ladymist responding to another player): Its going to be my guess that Beastlords and Freeblood wont be a heroic choice because beastlord is a AOD feature and you will stil be buying it, and freeblood is a bought race
Heroic characters are still bound by the normal character creation rules, however if you have unlocked Beastlords or Freebloods, you will be able to use them on your Heroic character.
Q (by Awkk): Can an existing char on a F2P account be upgraded to Heroic?
Yes, an existing character on a free account can be made heroic.
Q (by Awkk): Will going through the Betrayal from one alignment to another break a Heroic back to a basic char?
Heroic characters are no different than normal characters when it comes to how they function in the game. If you betray a heroic character it will be no different than if you betrayed any other character.
Q: Will the 20 AAs from Age of Discovery now be sold separately?
The 20 AAs granted with AoD will be added to the base game that’s available to all players.
and a question that basically turned into a screaming match on the increasingly unpalatable EQ2 forums, which I will paraphrase here…
Q: Will we get a free character slot as part of the Heroic Character promotion?
If you are upgrading a current character, that characters slot is the one you are using.
If you are making a new heroic character, you will need to have an available character slot.
Q: During the Heroic character trial, can I make and delete as many characters as I want?
You can make use of the trial before making your choice. So you will be able to tinker about with a few classes to choose which you want to use your one free on.
Finally, as of October 1st, Destiny of Velious is now included with EQ2Free-to-Play, meaning players can reach level 92 and participate in DoV content without buying an expansion…
@BabaGraPL @DaveGeorgeson @everquestii Yes, F2P includes DoV to lvl 92. Also, pre-ordering ToV will give instant access to CoE & level 95.
— Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) October 1, 2013
and in response to those who claim that the EQ2 team have not communicated enough about Heroic characters, RadarX had this great reply:
The team spent a pretty extensive amount of time (including an FAQ) to explain exactly how this system works. I’m fairly confident working on this that we did say what we meant to say.
There was no “spin” put on this. Free means at no cost to you. You are not paying for one Heroic Character even though the feature costs 3500 SC.
If you can’t part with an existing character? Upgrade them. If that doesn’t make sense for you to do then the best I can say is this is a completely optional service we are providing to folks who wish to use it. It’s not required to progress in any way or provide access to content. It will simply bring new folks into the game and provide enjoyment to existing customers which everyone benefits from.
and…
That FAQ was reviewed by a large number of folks and getting information added to it requires quite a bit of time but I will absolutely see if we can get it updated to reflect this. Your feedback on the cost and lack of character slot is certainly valid and I’ll be happy to ensure the team knows about it. It’s certainly not the first time I’ve heard the concern.
On the subject of improving Gold Membership since the removal of item unlocks makes Free-to-Play a viable option for nearly all players, RadarX confirmed that talks are under way for more perks to make it attractive:
There are some ongoing discussions regarding Gold Membership. There has been a ton of feedback and we aren’t ignoring it but the when/if’s of changes will be something we’ll discuss as soon as we can.
I’m sorry but the gold membership details should have been top priority for them. Removing the item unlocking is a good move and should never have existed but as it stands there is next to no reason to subscribe anymore. I mean, if I didn’t think they were out of touch with their player base before I certainly do now. A slight loot increase for COIN and 10% for mounts (when we can go, what, 150% as it is) isn’t worth 1 dollar let alone 15.
This is just example number 245,732 of half assed programs thrown out there with a promise to look at it later. This is WHY SOE is in the state it is now. It’s a joke that no one in the mmo world can take seriously anymore.
Get ALL your ducks in a row before getting ready to fire. I would have hoped this was a lesson learned from the past 15 years but I guess not. For me personally, they have until the 12th to come up with a better solution or my 9 year sub is being dropped…there’s no point to it now.
This lead up to heroic charcters has already been a blunder and it hasn’t even launched yet. I can’t wait to see all the issues they have with glitches and bugs involving the untested material they are just throwing up on the live servers. They may as well just shut the Test servers down. It’s to where now they don’t even bother putting stuff up until a few weeks before it hits if at all then feedback that is given is often overlooked or ignored with, you got it, a promise to look at it later. A promise that is usually unfruitful.
Everyone is saying this, but not realizing the internal contradiction of the statement.
I think for Gold Membership, you should get a Free Character Slot with the Purchase of a Heroic Character. this mixed with the SC Gold get each month it could be a nice incentive.
But i don’t think even this addition would be enuff to make Most People want to stay with Gold over silver.
Apparently you all have plat just falling from the sky into your bank. Don’t you all realize the fact that non-gold memberships will not have unlimited broker access? That’s the main motivation for me keeping gold. Keep in mind there are several other reasons such as 7 standard character slots – all of which I use and then some.
I personally don’t care about the coin or mount speed buff. I need to keep me cash flow intact as well as all my geared toons – and I refuse to pay $50 for the additional slots just to keep them. I will remain on my kronos for the foreseeable future. GL if your not.
LOL, are you buying or selling in the SLR market?
This morning (my time) as I logon and circulate through toons on different accounts I see no difference between my unsubscribed accounts and subscribed account. This may change later in the day but ATM no difference, including no difference with broker access.
Whats with the sense of entitlement people have? Soe is giving us all a free toon, geared, flying mount and nearly capped aa, AND upgraded free content. All I see is complaining about what they didn’t get…. wth?