Multi-classing? EQ Legends - What to try?

[Vexenu]

The devs recently nerfed melee damage by reducing the benefits of item upgrading on weapons, but immediately reverted the change in the face of outrage from their ultra-whiny core player demographic. Instead they announced a way to buff caster damage by upgrading spells. So everyone will soon be even more powerful than they already are. Maybe now someone can solo CT in 20 seconds?

Who the hell wants to play this nonsense? What is the point? How impotent must you feel in everyday life to get a kick from turning gods and dragons into the equivalent of XP mobs, and XP mobs into orc pawns?

The devs are clearly in way over their heads and seem to be making things up as they go along. There is no coherent vision except, "EQ but it's so easy you can solo everything." Even the triple classing concept, which was initially interesting in theory, in practice has become extremely boring. Why? Because even though there are 500+ class combinations, most of them end up playing very similarly! Regardless of what combo you roll, you're likely just going to be standing there tanking, auto-attacking, and occasionally casting a damage spell or heal.

Contrast this with traditional EQ, in which much of the appeal of rolling alts came from the fact that each class has a very distinct playstyle. This created great replay value, because the experience of leveling a Cleric is very different from leveling a Wizard, or a Warrior, or a Necromancer. But in EQL, everything ends up feeling pretty much the same, because despite the class differences, over 95% of builds have the same core gameplay loop, with only minor variations in spells/abilities. Combine this with the fact that the game itself is easier than your average bowel movement, and you have a recipe for boredom as soon as the nostalgia high wears off.

[Zuranthium]

Yeah, EQ Legends is asinine and it's hurting the classic EQ brand itself. A lot of people want to play Legends to experience the classic EQ zones (I've seen tons of comments about "I haven't played EQ in decades, how nice to be able to return"), and now all of those people are going to have an incredibly warped notion of what classic EQ is supposed to be, and be very hard to transfer into a real version of classic.

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

Even the triple classing concept, which was initially interesting in theory, in practice has become extremely boring. Why? Because even though there are 500+ class combinations, most of them end up playing very similarly! Regardless of what combo you roll, you're likely just going to be standing there tanking, auto-attacking, and occasionally casting a damage spell or heal.

Yep. Everyone is just a melee character. Since you have to tank anyway and you don't get more mana regeneration when stacking casting classes, nor more direct physical ability when stacking melee classes, it creates a very predictable setup of picking 1 of each availability commodity:

1.) Melee
2.) Mana
3.) Bard songs (ie, casting without using mana)

[BradZax]

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

What is the point?

I just told you.

You can try to see how many mobs can kill in an hour, then try to break that record.

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[BradZax]

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

A genuine thanks, for sharing this BradZax [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I might literally make this build so ty! (i mean thank billionaires)

[qombi]

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

Yeah, EQ Legends is asinine and it's hurting the classic EQ brand itself. A lot of people want to play Legends to experience the classic EQ zones (I've seen tons of comments about "I haven't played EQ in decades, how nice to be able to return"), and now all of those people are going to have an incredibly warped notion of what classic EQ is supposed to be, and be very hard to transfer into a real version of classic.



Yep. Everyone is just a melee character. Since you have to tank anyway and you don't get more mana regeneration when stacking casting classes, nor more direct physical ability when stacking melee classes, it creates a very predictable setup of picking 1 of each availability commodity:

1.) Melee
2.) Mana
3.) Bard songs (ie, casting without using mana)

Couldn't agree more with these two gentlemen. I received beta access. Tried it out of curiosity. It's too easy which makes for a bland, boring experience. I only hope that this is the beginning of daybreak allow third parties to build approved servers where they get a share of the profit and someone makes a classic server. If they update the UI that would be fine, I never played project 1999 because I wanted the same UI. I only wanted the authentic classic game experience.

We will never be new to the game again so there will never be a 100% classic experience.

[Zuranthium]

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

We will never be new to the game again so there will never be a 100% classic experience.

That's why dynamic spawns and NPC behavior are needed. If people don't know exactly where an item will drop or what's going to happen, that's when the real adventure can happen. When it's not possible to put the whole game on a wiki, and when people are rewarded for actively seeking out less populated areas and for dungeon crawling (not simply hitting key points or doing a "clear", but constantly exploring and seeing what is spawning throughout different areas) then we will have the game EQ was meant to be.

Until that exists, every "progression server" and copycat like Monsters&Memories is just going to be a shallow experience, in part because they also have shallower combat mechanics and meaningful player decision than what should be available. Like the whole "alternate advancement" implementation, it's really just more static levels, not a way to create a unique character. When an AA or attribute system has no cap on the points your character can get, then eventually everyone just becomes the same thing.

[Vexenu]

There is a famous passage from the Tao Te Ching that talks about how a bowl is only useful because of the empty space inherent to its shape that allows it to hold things. The same for a house: it has four walls and a roof, but is actually the empty space within which we inhabit. I'm reminded of the wisdom of this idea when I contrast EQL with EQ. Because in EQ, classes are as much defined by what they cannot do as what they can do. For example, the Warrior is a tank with respectable DPS. But the Warrior is NOT a healer. The Warrior cannot buff or CC, or cast teleports, or do basically anything else by itself (clickies excluded). The class is inherently limited, and it is these limits that give it meaning and a unique feel. Because you cannot do everything, and are inherently limited in this regard, you must commit fully to a more specialized path. And this path becomes the path of the Warrior, and results in a totally different gameplay experience than you would get from playing anything else. And it is remarkable how true this is, and to what extent, because anyone who has played a Warrior, a Paladin, and a Shadow Knight can tell you that despite all three being plate tanks, they all feel pretty different from one another, and offer distinct roles, leveling options, and playstyles.

EQL does away with this entirely. You don't have to choose, you can have it all. They even let you port on any class combination, no Druid or Wizard required. The player never feels as if he is lacking in options or power, and has an effortless answer to every question the game asks. This is the nature of a power fantasy: you have no weaknesses. But as a result, there is no emptiness to the game, and thus nothing for us to truly inhabit. We merely feel as if we are temporarily passing through it; there is no emotional resonance possible, nothing for us to dig our claws into. It provides only the appearance of the thing rather than the thing in itself. It is like being tricked into eating a picture of the most delicious hamburger you've ever seen, rather than the actual hamburger: the experience is shallow, unsatisfying, and in the end supremely undignified. You are left somewhat embarrassed that you ever fell for such a swindle. I believe this is how most people will feel after spending a few days to a few weeks playing EQL. The game looks like EQ, but feels strangely unfulfilling, and it will never scratch the same itch that EQ did back in the day.

[BradZax]

I spent 10 hours playing a cookie clilcker once, I think I'll have a good time.