So what's there to do in Velious anyway?

[mtb tripper]

heres you a little bit of nostalgia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnDiB9liJMM

[Kope]

Originally Posted by mtb tripper [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

heres you a little bit of nostalgia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnDiB9liJMM

That's such a horrible trailer [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.].

At 40 seconds in you're clearly in Firiona Vie as well...

I like the video of the guy running around on his own in Velious more myself. I forget what that one's called.

*edit* found it. EQ1 - Velious in 5 mins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJKI1rLXNlw

This makes me more nostalgic than the actual trailer.

[t0lkien]

Gosh, that second one brings back memories. I still have all those zones completely memorized.

[NachtMystium]

Originally Posted by Kope [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

That's such a horrible trailer [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.].

At 40 seconds in you're clearly in Firiona Vie as well...

I like the video of the guy running around on his own in Velious more myself. I forget what that one's called.

*edit* found it. EQ1 - Velious in 5 mins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJKI1rLXNlw

This makes me more nostalgic than the actual trailer.

Was just about to post that link. Just watching this I can just feel how I'm gonna be addicted all over again when Velious comes out. hnnggghhhhh

[webrunner5]

You better like snow, and ice, and wind howling, because half the zones look like you are in the ice age. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] But it is a great expansion.

[falkun]

Originally Posted by t0lkien [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Fading Memories for example on the Bard fundamentally changed and trivialized aspects of the class; dumping aggro was a Monk's main ability and it gave a better version to Bards i.e. it simultaneously messed up two classes

Monks should NOT have been the primary pullers, FD as a mechanic was never intended to provide split pulling, but it worked out that way.

http://www.afterlifeguild.org/Thott/FD.php
http://www.afterlifeguild.org/Thott/Fading_Memories.php

If you think FM did not have its drawbacks, you're wrong. FM costs 900 mana, for a class that cannot make any use of mana regen spells or items (remember when AA shipped with Luclin, FT still did not function for bards), and bard meditate skill is stuck at 1. Also, at 60 I have ~1400 mana, I couldn't even FM twice. The only bards who could would be TMO bards with BIS, and even most of them couldn't FM twice. That may change a bit with Velious and then Luclin loot, but with the slow mana regen, you aren't FMing for group exping much.

While some AAs definitely broke the game (think mana burn), Fading Memories was a tool given to return a class to its rightful place as supreme puller as the need for resists waned. Throughout classic, monks went from being a DPS class to being DPS, puller, and tank. Other classes rightfully got pissed off as monks overshadowed them on every aspect of the game. Monk CC was better than enchanters and bards, monk tanking was better than non-defensive warriors and strictly better than knights, and monk DPS damn near rivaled rogues. See this thread about how OP monks were in Velious.

[fastboy21]

Its not true that everyone who loves luclin will hate velious.

The main difference, imo, is that up until luclin came out EQ expansions (Kunark and Velious) added to the existing world. By that I mean that they did not replace the old content and zones with new content and new zones.

Once Luclin came out there was very little reason to continue to play in the old world. There were some reasons (epic farming was still needed, some exp zones were still packed and AA breathed new life into the max lvl exp'ing game, some raid targets, etc.), but largely you could have replaced the entire game experience by playing only on luclin. The old zones were beginning to fade from common use in the game. This gap between existing content and new expansion only got wider and wider with each expansion.

Personally, I liked Luclin. The raids, the new zones, the AA, etc. What I didn't realize was killing the game until later is that they should have been enriching the existing world---not abandoning old zones and making them obsolete to make room for new content. The paradigm of expansion, progress, loot, progress, loot, etc...killed a beautiful world.

[t0lkien]

Originally Posted by falkun [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Monks should NOT have been the primary pullers, FD as a mechanic was never intended to provide split pulling, but it worked out that way.

http://www.afterlifeguild.org/Thott/FD.php
http://www.afterlifeguild.org/Thott/Fading_Memories.php

If you think FM did not have its drawbacks, you're wrong. FM costs 900 mana, for a class that cannot make any use of mana regen spells or items (remember when AA shipped with Luclin, FT still did not function for bards), and bard meditate skill is stuck at 1. Also, at 60 I have ~1400 mana, I couldn't even FM twice. The only bards who could would be TMO bards with BIS, and even most of them couldn't FM twice. That may change a bit with Velious and then Luclin loot, but with the slow mana regen, you aren't FMing for group exping much.

While some AAs definitely broke the game (think mana burn), Fading Memories was a tool given to return a class to its rightful place as supreme puller as the need for resists waned. Throughout classic, monks went from being a DPS class to being DPS, puller, and tank. Other classes rightfully got pissed off as monks overshadowed them on every aspect of the game. Monk CC was better than enchanters and bards, monk tanking was better than non-defensive warriors and strictly better than knights, and monk DPS damn near rivaled rogues. See this thread about how OP monks were in Velious.

Well, that's actually a matter of debate. Thott championed Bards as main pullers because he was a Bard and loved pulling. Thott was pretty entitled about things a lot of the time, and just because he thought it didn't make it so. He was bit full of himself actually, though a great Bard and a great advocate for our class. But he was a player, not a dev, and his opinion was as subjective as anyone else's.

I'm not aware of pulling being a design mandate of the Bard class from Verant's point of view (though I'd be happy to see links disproving me). Bards played as non-pullers were fine - I did mainly that all through Velious and Luclin. That piece of hyperbole Thott wrote about Monk FD ability is a bit of a wank. He was just put out that his favourite role had been usurped by another class IMO. It was sour grapes on his behalf more than an objective assessment of class power. I could write an equally damning piece of fiction about Bards and FM.

Instead of FM and other AA's like it, Bard AA's should have brought their lack of general power into balance with the other classes (Thott wrote a great post about that elsewhere). That's my opinion though, and what I would have done.

I thought monks were fine in Velious though a bit too DPS heavy. I personally would have improved the animations though [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] There is no way they could replace tanks in raid situations and made great pullers in a way Bards never could (even with FM).

[heartbrand]

Ill always love luclin because it gave us the ability to continue to meaningfully progress our characters 24/7, made it easier for new people to catch up because there were always groups, led to more zones being used etc. If there were AA's server pop would be four digits constantly and red would be around 300 ( equivalent of like 2000 blue ).

[diplo]

PALUDAL CAVERNS FTW!