Question - Always feeling behind in terms of loot - does it ever change? (1 Viewer)

[Kingkiller71]

I'm not sure if it is me always being a couple of expansions behind but I'm finding more and more often that by the time I'm good enough to beat certain group content, the loot that it drops isn't really an upgrade for me anymore.

For example, I spent ages getting Griklor on a high success rate, but since I've managed to do that, the loot that he drops (other than the TS items) seem bleh! It seems that by having to buy upgrades from future expansions just to be able to beat Griklor in the first place is diminishing the quality of the drops to just being upgrades for an alt. It got me thinking that it's always been like this for me (at least since I came back in 2020 to do the Hunter achievements) - always requiring over-geared to beat the target then to find that I've now moved beyond the loot that then drops. I now see dropping the mob itself as being the reward rather than the loot.

So, the question is - for you people that play in the latest expansion pack as soon as it is released, do you ever get ahead of the curve and get real upgrades after beating a named? Or is it always the case of buying / making gear first to beat the named, and then selling / gearing up alts with the drops?

I suspect the answer may lie in the fact that I'm missing a lot of AAs and progression Heroic stats which may flip my situation, but I'm not that keen to spend weeks / months chasing every aug / HA stat I can only to find that you still end up behind the curve anyway.

 

[BlueBug]

This game IS all about the CHASE man. That's how we've gotten hooked.
It's really not all that different than an addict chasing that feeling of their first great high. And it's a game of inches; incremental movement forward.


BB~

 

[Avian]

I suspect the answer may lie in the fact that I'm missing a lot of AAs and progression Heroic stats which may flip my situation

And you are correct. Being behind in AA's is monumental.

The big thing you're missing is that people going immediately into new expansions on release are already well prepared to go into the new expansion on release. If you don't have most of the aa's from all the expansions prior, it's not balanced for you to be in it.

Group gear in and of itself is meant to be small incremental upgrades, but you will be able to beat stuff that is actually an upgrade to you once you're caught up on other stuff.

 

[da Man]

it changes once per year. around November thats the biggest change

 

[Kingkiller71]

Thanks for the responses guys. Looks like I still need to grind those AAs then. I'm running under a self-induced month of not playing due to me procrastinating on other things, but as soon as I'm back, it's onto those AAs.

 

[Darkwynd3]

Thanks for the responses guys. Looks like I still need to grind those AAs then. I'm running under a self-induced month of not playing due to me procrastinating on other things, but as soon as I'm back, it's onto those AAs.

As others have mentioned, new content is often tuned such that it is pretty easy if you are maxxed out on previous content, but hard to darn near impossible if you're lacking gear and aa. My primary group breezed through the new expansion. My alt group which has basically been PL'd to 120, only has auto-grant AA through ToV and is missing a lot of type 5 and 7 augs, can barely handle Laurion Inn, let alone think of doing T2 or the missions.

 

[Redmonkey]

Imho you get those AA and progression stat bumps and new expansions will be much easier.

Just look thru these forums and you can find a ton of posts about fully raid geared players who can't kill yard trash in the latest release. And the answer they are all given is to get those AA and Heroic progression stats.

Lots of players can easily get super geared over on FV cause its all tradeable and yes, it will give them a false sense of power but without those AA and progression they are lacking a major benefit to their character.

Progression is not hard once your a high level, just lonely and boring if your doing it solo.

 

[Kingkiller71]

Imho you get those AA and progression stat bumps and new expansions will be much easier.

Just look thru these forums and you can find a ton of posts about fully raid geared players who can't kill yard trash in the latest release. And the answer they are all given is to get those AA and Heroic progression stats.

Lots of players can easily get super geared over on FV cause its all tradeable and yes, it will give them a false sense of power but without those AA and progression they are lacking a major benefit to their character.

Progression is not hard once your a high level, just lonely and boring if your doing it solo

I don't mind being lonely. I just find it frustrating to do the progression as a group due to characters having to hail, pick things up etc.

 

[durango773]

I don't mind being lonely. I just find it frustrating to do the progression as a group due to characters having to hail, pick things up etc.

I feel the progression drag.. however, thats why i ended up with so many groups! then you can send some to XP, some to work on old content, random 2-3 off on epics.. then you make progress, will your eyes are bleeding from collected 7 sticks and hand them to frank progression..

 

[Oldman66]

I suspect the answer may lie in the fact that I'm missing a lot of AAs and progression Heroic stats which may flip my situation, but I'm not that keen to spend weeks / months chasing every aug / HA stat I can only to find that you still end up behind the curve anyway.

100% AA's are going to make a difference. I am a lazy player. I too returned in 2020 after nearly 14 years away. While gear certainly helps, a balanced group with the correct classes carries weight. I can do do all current group content with an FTP crew only equipped with T1 gear. I keep lieing to myself saying that I will go back and do the heroic stat progression but I take a nap until those thoughts go away. While the type 5/7 augs are a killer boost, you can definitely get by without them. For most of NoS(only purchased for 1 account) I played RDR2 and EQ was only for Artisan's Prize and a few groups getting Jann's Veil. If you get your AA's up to speed, you're going to see a huge difference.

 

[dewey2461]

As others have said, EQ is a game of inch by inch progress towards greatness.

New characters with just auto granted AA and basic T2 level gear will do about half as much DPS/mitigation as those who have maxed out their AA and type 7/type 5 augs.

If you are struggling on current ( for your level ) content drop back an expansion and work on:

A: You automation:
-- Box hud or other thing so you know what your characters are (not) doing.
-- Parse/record your game play. Look at your spell rotations and compare them to others.

B: Tanks
-- Tanks need the best gear they can get. You are gear checked every swing.
-- Tanks need AA. Every swing you are checked against your CS/CA and other avoidance/mitigation AA.

C: Support
-- Healers should be using multiple fast heals
-- Shaman should be casting "gift" for twin procs
-- Epics. SK, Shaman, Bard are must haves. Cleric/Rogue are nice to haves.


Once you get your team working well you can break into the next expansion. If you skip ahead you're going to get your ass handed to you until you get caught up.

 

[Cybris]

Okay so I've been there couldn't figure out how people were beating content when I was struggling. Here's a few tips.

1. Don't rush to max level and leave your AA's behind. After autograft runs out at 115. I will max AA's every 5 levels this keeps focus AA's in check with the abilities for that level range.

2. If your toons are gold get them Crafted T3 gear for what ever content you are doing. If not gold T1 gear for the content you are doing,

3. Augs Augs Augs. Can't emphasize this enough HDex for melee and HSta for casters. I would actually stress augs over gear.

4. Gear your tank first then DPS Melee over casters. Casters do not require as much gearing to be effective. Melee are only as good as their gear.

This is an inch by inch game your are not going to see a big jump in effectiveness. Each little gear or aug improvement helps. Eventually you will look back and see that you are miles from where you were.

After the ban waves two years ago when my group got hit it took me 6 months to go from nothing to current content following the plan I outlined above.

 

[redhero1000]

I'm not sure if it is me always being a couple of expansions behind but I'm finding more and more often that by the time I'm good enough to beat certain group content, the loot that it drops isn't really an upgrade for me anymore.

I found that from the first month of EQ onward.
By the time I was ~15th level I could buy a weapon that a level 25-30 mob dropped from selling whatever I had accumulated while exping. Then when I hit 27 level or so and I saw it drop it was always a drag.

Not being a reseller or farmer, something like a black pearl loot would double my net worth and it was off to EC.

 

[Gnome-eater]

And you are correct. Being behind in AA's is monumental.

The big thing you're missing is that people going immediately into new expansions on release are already well prepared to go into the new expansion on release. If you don't have most of the aa's from all the expansions prior, it's not balanced for you to be in it.

Group gear in and of itself is meant to be small incremental upgrades, but you will be able to beat stuff that is actually an upgrade to you once you're caught up on other stuff.

LS content is relatively easy. Max that AA and get some drops. It'll get better.

 

[eqsubi15]

Don't get too caught up and burn yourself out by trying to rush to the latest content. If you previously experienced being OP and burning through content, it can easily give you a sense of false power when it comes to newer stuff. Sometimes, just taking a step back into older content to get some well-deserved revenge can give balance to the fun.

As others have mentioned, AA's, augs, and progression can help greatly. Don't forget using your Intensity of Resolute AA and glyphs to give that extra boost when needed.

 

[Darkwynd3]

Haha yeah....nothing like a dragon glyph on an SK with 2.0 click running to make things ez-mode.

 

[RobRenfro]

I'm not sure if it is me always being a couple of expansions behind but I'm finding more and more often that by the time I'm good enough to beat certain group content, the loot that it drops isn't really an upgrade for me anymore.

For example, I spent ages getting Griklor on a high success rate, but since I've managed to do that, the loot that he drops (other than the TS items) seem bleh! It seems that by having to buy upgrades from future expansions just to be able to beat Griklor in the first place is diminishing the quality of the drops to just being upgrades for an alt. It got me thinking that it's always been like this for me (at least since I came back in 2020 to do the Hunter achievements) - always requiring over-geared to beat the target then to find that I've now moved beyond the loot that then drops. I now see dropping the mob itself as being the reward rather than the loot.

So, the question is - for you people that play in the latest expansion pack as soon as it is released, do you ever get ahead of the curve and get real upgrades after beating a named? Or is it always the case of buying / making gear first to beat the named, and then selling / gearing up alts with the drops?

I suspect the answer may lie in the fact that I'm missing a lot of AAs and progression Heroic stats which may flip my situation, but I'm not that keen to spend weeks / months chasing every aug / HA stat I can only to find that you still end up behind the curve anyway.

That's a really good question Brother. There are two answers.1. Join a raiding guild or form your own raid squad.
2. The easy answer is move to FV where you can become part of the non bazaar trade economy through known traders in just a few months on your own or Day one if you wanna spend the coin.
I wish I had moved there years ago.

Otherwise No it's EVERQUEST and loot is what keeps us playing. It all comes back to the loot whether you share it or keep it.

 

[WhyteTech]

Okay so I've been there couldn't figure out how people were beating content when I was struggling. Here's a few tips.

1. Don't rush to max level and leave your AA's behind. After autograft runs out at 115. I will max AA's every 5 levels this keeps focus AA's in check with the abilities for that level range.

2. If your toons are gold get them Crafted T3 gear for what ever content you are doing. If not gold T1 gear for the content you are doing,

3. Augs Augs Augs. Can't emphasize this enough HDex for melee and HSta for casters. I would actually stress augs over gear.

4. Gear your tank first then DPS Melee over casters. Casters do not require as much gearing to be effective. Melee are only as good as their gear.

This is an inch by inch game your are not going to see a big jump in effectiveness. Each little gear or aug improvement helps. Eventually you will look back and see that you are miles from where you were.

After the ban waves two years ago when my group got hit it took me 6 months to go from nothing to current content following the plan I outlined above.

Im in a similar boat, what resources do you use to find what Augs to go get?
Currently my group is low 90s, and still some Thule mobs in t4 group gear my tank gets swamped.
I know im missing augs, but...

Where do I get augs?
how do I research Augs?
What augs are good?

 

[Darkwynd3]

Im in a similar boat, what resources do you use to find what Augs to go get?
Currently my group is low 90s, and still some Thule mobs in t4 group gear my tank gets swamped.
I know im missing augs, but...

Where do I get augs?
how do I research Augs?
What augs are good?

Raidloot.com and the aug search lets you set the parameters you value and choose what expansion(s) to search.

 

[eqsubi15]

Check some of the profiles on Magelo. See what others in the same class are using and look up where to get them.

 

[Cybris]

EQresource is primarily what used can do a custom search to look up augs based on stats

 

[RobRenfro]

If you're already on FV may have some stuff in the bank to help you depending on what you need.

 

[RobRenfro]

Someone earlier made a comment about buying gear and being underpowered. Everyone knows you need AA the progression AA are for raiders and tanks if you're just killing group content as a Necro or Mage you don't need Heroic AA

 

[RobRenfro]

A quick source of XP Red Monkey once set up before she left my guild. My fault. Was Collections you can get some bags as well if you struggle for those as well as trophies which help your tank. There is one rule of thumb regardless
Tanks always eat first and get the best gear that was tough for someone with a 22 year old Shaman to swallow. Rule 1. Tanks eat first. I'm also a fan of the plugins.

 

[RobRenfro]

Imho you get those AA and progression stat bumps and new expansions will be much easier.

Just look thru these forums and you can find a ton of posts about fully raid geared players who can't kill yard trash in the latest release. And the answer they are all given is to get those AA and Heroic progression stats.

Lots of players can easily get super geared over on FV cause its all tradeable and yes, it will give them a false sense of power but without those AA and progression they are lacking a major benefit to their character.

Progression is not hard once your a high level, just lonely and boring if your doing it solo.

Wanna sell me 2 Portals Umbral Planes and Frontier Mountains? I'll pay double strictly business.

 

[Kingkiller71]

Thanks again for all of the help. From what I've been reading over the past few days, I think I'm now overpowered for the named in EW etc. as I can do them easily now and the gear they drop is no longer an upgrade for my characters. I can also do Griklor on rotation and am planning on doing him to get the currency for the augs.

It's a new thing for me to discover that a bad pull in EW can wipe my group, yet I can probably camp solos in LS without issue. It's this mindset that has kept me in the EW/GD expansion for so long. I just assumed there'd be there this huge increase in my characters before I move on to CoV, ToL, NoS, etc.

I guess I need to move into the later expansions to grind the AAs as they're not very good in ToV. At the same I need to go back to grind the heroic stats and slowly grow that way as well.

 

[Oldman66]

It's a new thing for me to discover that a bad pull in EW can wipe my group, yet I can probably camp solos in LS without issue. It's this mindset that has kept me in the EW/GD expansion for so long. I just assumed there'd be there this huge increase in my characters before I move on to CoV, ToL, NoS, etc.

I guess I need to move into the later expansions to grind the AAs as they're not very good in ToV. At the same I need to go back to grind the heroic stats and slowly grow that way as well.

If your crew has ToL access, I would skip CoV. If your crew is 115 you can use ToL T1 gear. If your crew is 120 you can use the LS T1 gear which would help you rip through ToL. The only reason that I would skip CoV(for now) is that xpac will give little xp compared to ToL merc/part/missions.

 

[Deezloots]

What do you use to run your characters? What was your group makeup? I find I can be an expac or two behind if my essential AA (tanking, healing and dps) are purchased and I have pretty much all slots with type 5/7 equipped (even if they aren’t the best in slot, at least there is something there that would have otherwise rot).

 

[RobRenfro]

His group makeup is part of the problem. I'm trying to get him to roll some new toons on FV I'll PL and outfit and hook you up with cash when I get back. Help us going to be your best way forward. So let me help my friend.

 

[Dragonslayer]

Aas are far more important than gear. About 2 years ago I decided I want a real thank. So I started to grow up an sk.
At the time he was on par withthe level and gear, i started totake on Zlandicar. He had about 30k aas when I started to try it.
At about 40k aas he was capapble to really tank Zlanicar, still dieing any other time. At max aa, it felt like an easy pushover.
within this time, there has not been much upgrades to gear.

There is no need for max Aa, but having all relevant AA’s made fights alot easier.
Once max level, gear and AA of the content you are playing the content is easy to play and you are ready to start the next expansion without any problems.

Actually, thats my feeling, you are compensating the lack of AAs with next expansions gear. That may work but takes away some of the saddisfaction and fun, as that way the content you are able to beat has not much gear to offer anymore … which again than may urge you, to go to the next expansion.

My suggestion: Take your time at the content, where you are able to beat darkblue mobs as fast as possible to fill up your AAs.
Once your AAs are on par with the content, it makes more fun to progress through it.

 

[dewey2461]

My suggestion: Take your time at the content, where you are able to beat darkblue mobs as fast as possible to fill up your AAs.
Once your AAs are on par with the content, it makes more fun to progress through it.

This is a key observation.

If you are working a group up from zero to hero then you really want to work those AA's as you go. Especially on your tank.

You also might want to check out one of the XP trackers so you can clock your performance as you do different areas. Find one that you enjoy and watch a movie or two.

In generally you will get the best XP/hr by either
- Killing the lowest level dark blue mobs you can find very fast.
- Killing the lowest level white, yellow, or red con you can handle.

Some expansions are stingy with the in era white,yellow, red con trash so you are stuck grinding blues.

At 106-112 I like sithir tomb because the mobs there are a little higher level than most of the other zones, the down side is its a know "PL spot" so at times people will AFK XP there.

At 112-120 I like the NOS: SV mission. Mobs respawn in instance, rogues do fairly well there.

At 120+ (maybe earlier) go to LS.


Cycle the highest level heroic mission you can do: Griklor, Zlandicar, Door

You will get the majority of your loot from those missions, and more importantly, currency to buy type 5 augs.

 

[postleaf]

Another option, level up at alt as your 6th (or tag along 7th) man and let them suck up some of the otherwise useless gear. Can get a little taste of that satisfying feeling of new gear while grinding away AA on the rest.

 

[TinyBubbles]

I suspect the answer may lie in the fact that I'm missing a lot of AAs and progression Heroic stats which may flip my situation, but I'm not that keen to spend weeks / months chasing every aug / HA stat I can only to find that you still end up behind the curve anyway.

Bottom Line up Front (BLUF): AA is important. All the augs in the world wont make up for a lack of AA's.

I came back to EQ a few years ago after a 5 year break. It was just my monk and a healer merc. ToV had just come out. I was level 105 and had 12k AA. The max AA for a monk then was 41k. See this post. After getting group gear from RoS and ToV, I went and leveled from 105 to 112. Just leveling, no AA. Leveling without the AA only made things worse. I no longer got AA worth anything molo's in RoS. So, I deleveled to 110. Then I spent the next year AA'ing (I've only got so much play time) via Molo at the sarnak forts. One mob was challenging, and the behemoths were a full burn to get through it. As I crossed the 22k AA, I started noticing things getting a bit easier, by the time I got to 30k AA, it was even more noticeable. When I got to 40k AA and in ToV snowbound armor and and group non-vis, I was able to take on 3-4 sarnaks (still level 110) without worrying about dieing. A 5th sarnak and I'd have to get creative with my discs. Gear helped the survivability, but AA made the killing faster. From 12k to 40k AA, I went from 35'ish AA per lesson to averaging 150 AA per lesson. And I'm not blind that T1 ToV monk 2hb and gear helped. I used conflagrant Augs and what I picked up along the way. Not until my AA was maxxed and I started moving to other zones did I worry much about the augs.

Gear the tank first. All the augs. If the tank can't survive, then noone gets xp or gear for that matter.

There's more to say, but its all ready longer then most will read.

 

[Kingkiller71]

Bottom Line up Front (BLUF): AA is important. All the augs in the world wont make up for a lack of AA's.

I came back to EQ a few years ago after a 5 year break. It was just my monk and a healer merc. ToV had just come out. I was level 105 and had 12k AA. The max AA for a monk then was 41k. See this post. After getting group gear from RoS and ToV, I went and leveled from 105 to 112. Just leveling, no AA. Leveling without the AA only made things worse. I no longer got AA worth anything molo's in RoS. So, I deleveled to 110. Then I spent the next year AA'ing (I've only got so much play time) via Molo at the sarnak forts. One mob was challenging, and the behemoths were a full burn to get through it. As I crossed the 22k AA, I started noticing things getting a bit easier, by the time I got to 30k AA, it was even more noticeable. When I got to 40k AA and in ToV snowbound armor and and group non-vis, I was able to take on 3-4 sarnaks (still level 110) without worrying about dieing. A 5th sarnak and I'd have to get creative with my discs. Gear helped the survivability, but AA made the killing faster. From 12k to 40k AA, I went from 35'ish AA per lesson to averaging 150 AA per lesson. And I'm not blind that T1 ToV monk 2hb and gear helped. I used conflagrant Augs and what I picked up along the way. Not until my AA was maxxed and I started moving to other zones did I worry much about the augs.

Gear the tank first. All the augs. If the tank can't survive, then noone gets xp or gear for that matter.

There's more to say, but its all ready longer then most will read.

Thanks for this. I do read all of the response as they're all good for me to follow up on.

I made (am still making) the same mistake as you wrote above in that I'm almost at 125 for some of my chars and I've done most of that via Overseer as I've cancelled my subscription for a couple of months (need to get some RL stuff done and EQ was turning my head). When I come back, I suspect I'll have a 125 druid, rogue, mage, mage, war along with a 120+ bst, 115 enc, 112sk and my ftp accounts around 108. None of their AAs will have increased in the past 5 levels or so.

I think I'm probably tougher than I realise and should (could) have moved on from ToV much sooner but I still can't get my head around a bad pull can wipe me in seconds in ToV - what's it going to be like in the newer expansions?!

From what you, and others, have said I think I'll move onto the later expansions just to grind AA and hit the older expansions to gear up on augs etc. There is still progression that will keep me busy but it is frustrating doing it with a few at the same time and having to kill certain mobs / pick up drops that don't always reward the group.

 

[Oldman66]

I made (am still making) the same mistake as you wrote above in that I'm almost at 125 for some of my chars and I've done most of that via Overseer as I've cancelled my subscription for a couple of months (need to get some RL stuff done and EQ was turning my head). When I come back, I suspect I'll have a 125 druid, rogue, mage, mage, war along with a 120+ bst, 115 enc, 112sk and my ftp accounts around 108. None of their AAs will have increased in the past 5 levels or so.

Stash a few bucks away and get MQ2Grind when you return. It will make your AA grind a hell of a lot easier.

 

[RobRenfro]

Stash a few bucks away and get MQ2Grind when you return. It will make your AA grind a hell of a lot easier.

Grind works for level 85 and above correct?

 

[Oldman66]

Grind works for level 85 and above correct?

I am fairly certain it does. I didn't use it until 100ish

 

[RobRenfro]

I am fairly certain it does. I didn't use it until 100ish

Thanks my friend!!!