Kimberlite wrote on Apr 12
th, 2020 at 6:33pm:
Hahahahahahahaha. I'm almost crying here. Stop it.
Wait. You were serious? Oh.
Shard. Seal. Scroll. Sands.
Actually, Updates 10-12 severely reduced the grind needed to become viable in the epic endgame. Cannith Crafting allowed boss beaters and to-hit items to be readily available. Outclassing the majority of items, even epic.
Update 11 named items and Update 12 House C challenge "welfare epics" also severely cut down the grind needed to obtain epic viable items. In fact, the level 16 Elemental Khopesh of Water slotted with bleeding/holy was really close to Lit 2 in dps and beat out the alchemical (although you would off-hand the alchemical to give your main hand the 6% doublestrike).
Add in DT armor, mid-game items from heroic raids (tharnes goggles etc.), and a single shard HP Green steel accessory. Wasnt that hard to get geared.
Now, You could argue 100% min/max was massive a grind. I would agree, the majority of it going after the "chaser" epics (SoS, marilith chain, red helm/armor, and +4 tomes). Although I could simply say 100% min/maxing today is worse. Which it is. Good luck maxing out destiny trees, sentient xp, reaper trees, and at least a couple dozen epic and racial pastlives along with the endgame gear.
Also, was farming raids twice a week really that bad? I would take that over farming endless amounts of experience like today.
Kimberlite wrote on Apr 12
th, 2020 at 6:33pm:
Even the 20th reward lists led some people to ragequit the game permanently after not getting a Torc or Tharnes on their 60th or 80th completion lists. And hey, how about that Dragontouched Armor? Lotsa people got those with all of the features they wanted, right?
ToD rings would have been a better example for the 20th lists. Tharnes goggles were handed out like candy. I agree not getting your Encrusted ring on your 80th ToD sucked but I dont see how thats any different from three years ago. I guess the only difference is you couldnt bypass your way to a 20th list.
Dragontouched armor wasnt that bad. Sometime in 2009 they allowed you to crunch Eldritch runes into Tempest. And Tempest into Sovereign. Zerging Prey on the Hunter on casual 3 times to have a shot at what you wanted just took time is all.
Kimberlite wrote on Apr 12
th, 2020 at 6:33pm:
The fact that a casual player will never play R10 solo, or even R1 solo is only a big deal if they let it bother them. People manage to enjoy playing basketball while knowing full well that they will never be as good as Michael Jordan - heck, most people aren't even as good as the top high school players in their town.
I see reaper wings all over the place, and it boggles the mind to imagine how someone managed to grind out that much RXP. Unending grind is there if you want it and enjoy it, but it's not mandatory to have fun.
"You just need to hit 30, get some gear, get a couple destinies capped, some reaper xp, some sentient xp, and a couple racial/epic pastlives".
Either way of looking at it. Whether that be min/max or casual. Theres more grind now. Current ddo just has more ways to bypass said grind with cash monies.
Edrein wrote on Apr 14
th, 2020 at 12:11pm:
This is DDO. We'd be lucky to get one Pre-MotU and one 'closure' server. And I'd imagine if we're talking over all player traffic a 'closure' server will manage to bring and maintain a higher player base. For one the game in its current state appeals to a lot more people, I'm talking the 'new' tabletop players that've only experience 4E+, it also appeals to more traditional MMO players. I know for one if I could suggest my friends to try DDO 100% free with no paywalls, I'd chose the 'closure' server over the Pre-MotU.
You're forgetting content that's come out since then. The actual good shit like Ravenloft, White Plume Mountain, and to a lesser extent Keep on the Borderlands. You're forgetting classes: Druid, Warlock, Dagger-Boi, and Alchemist. You're forgetting new races, artwork, etc. Hell even the enhancement pass with it's highs and lows. Sure the game's balance has gone to shit. But strip away all of that just for the sake of nostalgia and I really think deep down a lot of you would end up hating the experience in the end.
Its hard to speculate which would be more popular. Current players would flock to the closure server. Although theres a considerable amount of people who quit post-MotU after the shit show that was MotU and later updates. Get a fraction of that playerbase and you got a healthy server (also nostalgia can be a hell of a drug).
Current ddo would have more content. But what good is that content if most of it is irrelevant? Are people going to farm Ravenloft/sharn despite the cap being level 40 or higher? Sure,
legendary reincarnation will force people through that content but players choose the path of least resistance. Are people going to play Alchemist when the meta is druids and monk splits? I think despite it having more content, most of it would be hardly utilized. If that makes sense.
At this point we would be incredibly lucky for
any private server (once ddo dies). Sadly I dont think DDO has enough players capable/driven enough to create one.
Strake wrote on Apr 14
th, 2020 at 4:13pm:
Yup. Both changes ticked me off. And, uh, clearly, lag ain't fixed.
I joined with the F2P launch. Sadly, I couldnt experience what it was like without those "
iMprOVemEnTs" to the game.
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