Guide - Post your MQ2 experience in TBL here (incl. success and obstacles)

[tc215215]

Major hurdles in this expansion are:

1. Knock backs- Oh the bane in Stratos, remove that specific toon from the group if not out-rightly kill it;
2. Directional AoE- All of them have nasty effects, either silence or heavy damage;
3. Rain type AoE- Only seen in Copper Star in Esianti but hurts like hell when you have a caster group bundled together;
4. Mearatas central- Hard to find a single group composition that is able to kill them constantly as they randomly magic reflect, autododge, or mez.

To compensate it I had to specifically exclude certain named mobs in my group and full manual them, not the easiest move but definitely doable.

Personally I think TBL is such an anti-boxing/MQing expansion, let's hope ToV is better.

 

[Sic]

Major hurdles in this expansion are:

1. Knock backs- Oh the bane in Stratos, remove that specific toon from the group if not out-rightly kill it;
2. Directional AoE- All of them have nasty effects, either silence or heavy damage;
3. Rain type AoE- Only seen in Copper Star in Esianti but hurts like hell when you have a caster group bundled together;
4. Mearatas central- Hard to find a single group composition that is able to kill them constantly as they randomly magic reflect, autododge, or mez.

Personally I think TBL is such an anti-boxing/MQing expansion, let's hope ToV is better.

1. The incoming damage increase relative to other expansions is very large - particularly mob abilities and incoming spell damage on top of very high physical damage (which was lowered a few months in).
2. The zones are boring, uninspired, and not fun - Stratos is the only "unlocked" zone - and it is a pile of steaming shit. The other zones are unpleasant to look at and the risk/reward of a lot of places is stupid. Just to get the Esianti, another T1 zone, you have to do a ton of progression. The T2 zones are miserable to look at.
3. Piggybacking on the zones are terrible - the pathing and mob warping this expansion is super crap - especially Aalishai and Empyr
4. Smoke trials are stupid and not fun. The number of people that haven't done progression because of it is sad.
5. No real "dungeon" zone which is a bummer.


your points
1. yeah knockbacks are dumb, especially in stratos /sigh
2. huge damage - risk is good, but needing the gear you get from the mobs to kill the mobs is silly
3. same as 2
4. I didn't have much problem with Mearatas center - having a bst with a pet is handy if the tank gets mezzed, but i definitely understand your point. mezzing/stunning your tank for 1m+ is really stupid imo.

 

[q8reflex]

I have one word for Sic.................."Strange Magic" ROFL.

 

[Sic]

I have one word for Sic.................."Strange Magic" ROFL.

lol that mission
much easier with my new team, but man did i have some problems trying to do that on stream (rip stream)

 

[vsab]

Personally I think TBL is such an anti-boxing/MQing expansion, let's hope ToV is better.

Oddly I think the xpac favours unoptimised group setups. There are mobs that are ridiculously hard to kill for a caster group (silence, spell reflects), and others that are hard for melee (DS's and death touch style procs on melee).

I pretty much hate anything "Planes" based in EQ, it seems to be an excuse for badly thought out zones with little attention to detail or beauty. They always seem to lack atmosphere to me.

I think the overall is that the risk/reward is totally messed up as @Sic suggested. Smoke trials are really T2 difficulty, allowing you temp access to T2 zones, which then eventually allow you access to a T1 zone. I don't want any of what the designers were smoking when they thought that up.

I got back into EQ in the spring this year so I had lost a bit of time to work on TBL, and was mostly grinding from 90 up. To be honest, my biggest win was getting a campfire into mearatas. Once there I was able to gear up my entire team in T2, and from there the farming could begin.

Finally, ToV.. one thing I hate is ice. I don't know how MQ2Nav will handle it (I suspect it won't), so autopulls will be out in some camps (pet pulls I guess). I'm counting on doing lots of COH's to get around. I also suspect my mage pet will be tanking at least half the time... or at least until my tank gets geared up (full t3 TBL/GMM gear atm), so may swap from water to air or even earth. Dual invis will be a necessity I think, and maybe necro's will feel some love if there's lots of undead?

 

[godsfshrmn]

There is a long thread on the beta forums about mob damage being quite high in ToV as well - a lot of raid tanks having trouble handling group content. I think we may be in for the same story as TBL in that aspect.
I am going to try to get to 113 or maybe 115 before I try to do any progression. If it is going to be like TBL, it will be too much of a pain to box initially (at level 111), despite having a nicely geared group with a cleric/slower/mezzer

 

[Zor Prime]

I boxed all of TBL with ENC/SK/SHM/BRD/BER/BER.

Strange Magic sucked the most. 3 hours of repeatedly dying later ... Actually a lot of it sucked until I got my SK in TBL Rk. 3 gear, GMM non-visibles, AC augs everywhere, and a raid shield. That made life easier. Despite Strange Magic I can basically speed run most missions. I had Tyrant of Fire and Brass Palace on farm rotation for the longest time since they're very short missions (sub 30min) for the gains. I finally eased up when all the augs began rotting, and T2 drops.

Lev should resolve ice problems in TOV, I'd think? I'm going to sit my happy ass down and grind out 115 before I step into TOV, most likely.

edit: So does TBL suck? Actually it was very rewarding. It was challenging, I'd bitch and complain and get my ass handed to me over and over. It forced me to get out of my comfort zone and to think. Overall, hindsight 20/20, I can appreciate TBL.

 

[Sum1]

Lev should resolve ice problems in TOV, I'd think? I'm going to sit my happy ass down and grind out 115 before I step into TOV, most likely.

Lev is disabled in the zones where ice is an issue. ;-)

 

[godsfshrmn]

I agree with Zor --- if TBL was a breeze, I think that really would take out a lot of the fun - part of why I enjoy EQ/boxing is the creativity that is needed with boxing multiple accounts. I think playing one character would quickly become boring for me.

The only way I could make it through strange magic was to cycle instances until the first boss was the one that breaks invis - That allows you to zone back in w/o invis breaking. I stood everyone by the mirror and once you kill each name, /clickdoor to zone out. Invis up, then start out by CCing the little minion adds. It takes longer but I kept having target issues with my MT - he would go after the little adds instead of the next named.

It's not the worst though -- my hatred for the last VP instance/quest runs deep - I've yet to conquer that one on my box team. Also the one right out side VP... how I did that was pure luck

 

[Tovin]

I went into TBL with a RoS raid geared tank and a super well geared box team that also offered diversification (SK / SHM / BRD / RNG / WIZ / MAG). Didn’t struggle with anything and managed to finish all progression x6 in the first 24 hours prior to the NPC dmg nerf. That said, a few observations:

1) The expansion is definitely anti boxer. Navigating Stratos is a nightmare. Wending ways is a nightmare. Trial of Amphitheater is a nightmare. Zoning back and forth for progression is a pain. Without the Wishing Lamp from Strange Magic, I would probably hate TBL.
2) I hate getting mezzed. Way too many mobs have this ability. It needs to be stopped! The AE Rain nuke named were also annoying (Esianti + Smoke + Empyr + Aalishai). The first time I encountered this ability I didn’t even know what hit me.
3) The Challenger achievements from missions were the real test for me. I had to call in an enchanter friend to get Firelings done.

My group, with pretty much all Best in Slot TBL Group gear or RoS raid gear, is able to handle ToV without new spells or AAs. The only content I’ve found to be challenging is the T2 missions which required glyphs. With the addition of new levels, spells, and AA, I feel pretty comfortable that ToV is going to be doable by most everyone.

 

[Many_Whelps]

I completed all group TBL content save for the conquest achievements. So all Mercs/Parts, Hunters and Hero missions. My group is War/Brd/Clr/Shm/Mag/Ber. I honestly did not have that much trouble doing so, but I did not start TBL until after gearing up in GMM.

Strange Magic is easy if you zone out after each golem dies and kill the Spellbinding golem first. I have only attempted that mission two times, both were technically "wins" but the 1st attempt bugged on me and the script broke. So I successfully cleared all the golems and looted the chest but the mission script did not advance past "Kill Golems 3/4".

When doing hunters I simply plowed through them. I did not alter my fight setup for any static zone named.

The harder smoke trials are definitely T2 content with T1 rewards. The macros for trial of three and wending ways make those pretty trivial, the others need some strat adjustments but are doable with a T2/T3 geared group.

The only part of that expansion that gives me any trouble still is the Doomfire Guardian in the 2 pofire missions. If he casts Doom on my cleric, I'm surely wiped. Any other character I can battle rez in time to save the run, even the tank if I let the mage pet step in. It's a very odd fight. Some runs I will plow him down like it's nothing and other times he wipes me before he's down to 50%. I have considered trying to utilize more spell shield/absorb things that I probably have access to but aren't part of my setup, but I haven't been back to give it a go.

 

[sl968]

Dealing with bad zone geometry such as in Stratos Island, and the northern part of Mearatas that affected pathing and navigation was the biggest problem. That was Daybreak and not MQ2.

 

[tc215215]

I went into TBL with a RoS raid geared tank and a super well geared box team that also offered diversification (SK / SHM / BRD / RNG / WIZ / MAG). Didn’t struggle with anything and managed to finish all progression x6 in the first 24 hours prior to the NPC dmg nerf. That said, a few observations:

1) The expansion is definitely anti boxer. Navigating Stratos is a nightmare. Wending ways is a nightmare. Trial of Amphitheater is a nightmare. Zoning back and forth for progression is a pain. Without the Wishing Lamp from Strange Magic, I would probably hate TBL.
2) I hate getting mezzed. Way too many mobs have this ability. It needs to be stopped! The AE Rain nuke named were also annoying (Esianti + Smoke + Empyr + Aalishai). The first time I encountered this ability I didn’t even know what hit me.
3) The Challenger achievements from missions were the real test for me. I had to call in an enchanter friend to get Firelings done.

My group, with pretty much all Best in Slot TBL Group gear or RoS raid gear, is able to handle ToV without new spells or AAs. The only content I’ve found to be challenging is the T2 missions which required glyphs. With the addition of new levels, spells, and AA, I feel pretty comfortable that ToV is going to be doable by most everyone.

Over the last few months, I managed to buy off most TBL tanking ultra-rares cheaply since there isn't any luck, as well as a Skyiron kite (EoK shield yet 45AC more than GMM version). Let's see how effective will it make the tank as a point beak in ToV.

 

[Tovin]

tc215215, gear is going to help, but there is a LOT more to it than that. Having a full set of current type 5 augs is super important. Having your type 7/8 augs is important. Having your clicky AA from raid Shoulders/Range/Ring is important. Plane of War +10% dodge aug helps. Max out your gnoll reaver fortitude AA from the anniversary event. You can activate your trophies and tribute for an extra boost. Artisan’s Prize is a huge endeavor but a huge reward as well. I encourage you to do these things for your tank (if not your full group) to maximize your survivability.

They don’t seem like much but in the end they really add up.