Maybe I am the exception to the rule but I don't enjoy raiding 100% of the time. And I think it is nice to be able to do something worthwile outside of raiding.
The problem became that SOE didn't want to put any gear in that was better than the lower level plains gear. So once you had all your slots filled with the 120-130hp stuff if you were a non-raider you were pretty much done. It had become almost pointless to get the new expansions. "Oh gee.. another 120hp item.. great :p"
The fact is that the good raid stuff is still over 2x better than the non-raid stuff after the update. Someone posted about non-raiders crying... but it sounded more like they were the ones crying that other people could even get something halfway decent.
Just my 2cp...
Darkhollow Loot Upgrades
Some information on upcoming loot upgrades for Depths of Darkhollow items, from EQLive:
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Q&A on Depths of Darkhollow™ loot upgrades
What were the thoughts behind the decision to retune the Depths of Darkhollow™ items?
After Depths of Darkhollow launched, we saw a lot of feedback from players that non-raid loot rewards weren't appropriate for the difficulty of the content. Carefully evaluating the cases players brought up led us to audit the model that has been used for itemization for several expansions now.
The old itemization model was based around the top end single group gear being roughly 50% of the stats of top end raid level gear. This worked fine when it was first implemented, but as stats have increased, so too has the gap between raiders and non-raiders. Since content is tuned with player power in mind, this has caused a growing gap in the difficulty of expansion zones, in turn leading to the problems players have been reporting.
After a lot of evaluation on the potential impact, we decided to change the itemization model to bring single group gear closer to the level of raid attainable gear. Beyond providing more tangible upgrades in the expansion, this change should also have a number of positive effects on the game as a whole and is something we will continue to use when making items in the future.
How many items did you change?
These changes affect roughly 1000 items from the Depths of Darkhollow expansion.
Does this retuning involve anything other than changing the items?
Yes. In addition to looking at many of the expansion items, we also took a look at the difficulty of the zones and missions and made adjustments to provide a smoother progression of difficulty through the expansion. In many cases, lower level missions early in the expansion became a bit easier and higher level missions that are further into the expansion became a bit harder.
If we have previously done a DoD mission and deleted the one-time completion reward, will we be able to get it again after it is upgraded?
Yes. We changed the way the mission reward mechanic works so when you complete a mission it will now give you the completion reward again if you don't already have that item anywhere on your character (including in the bank). This will allow players who have previously done the missions to return to those missions and get the items again.
Could you give a few examples of items that are being upgraded?
Here are a few examples of items from different parts of the expansion. They are fairly representative of the overall changes we are making.
When will these changes show up on live servers?
The changes are currently on test server and we are expecting them to go out to normal servers with the patch on November 16th.
| Old | New |
| Petrified Korlach Stone Shield MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO TRADE Slot: SECONDARY AC: 40 DEX: +8 STA: +10 CHA: +9 WIS: +11 INT: +11 HP: +100 MANA: +110 SV FIRE: +12 SV COLD: +12 SV MAGIC: +11 Regeneration: +1 Mana Regeneration: +3 Recommended level of 70. Required level of 63. WT: 4.0 Size: GIANT Class: CLR DRU SHM NEC WIZ MAG ENC Race: ALL Slot 1, Type 7 | Petrified Korlach Stone Shield MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO TRADE Slot: SECONDARY AC: 40 DEX: +8 STA: +10 CHA: +9 WIS: +11 INT: +11 HP: +140 MANA: +150 SV FIRE: +12 SV COLD: +12 SV MAGIC: +11 Regeneration: +1 Mana Regeneration: +3 Recommended level of 70. Required level of 63. WT: 4.0 Size: GIANT Class: CLR DRU SHM NEC WIZ MAG ENC Race: ALL Slot 1, Type 7 |
| Murky Pearl Ring MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO TRADE Slot: FINGER AC: 16 STR: +13 STA: +14 WIS: +10 INT: +10 AGI: +10 HP: +170 MANA: +160 ENDUR: +160 SV DISEASE: +20 SV COLD: +9 SV MAGIC: +15 Recommended level of 70. Required level of 65. WT: 0.7 Size: SMALL Class: ALL Race: ALL Slot 1, Type 8 | Murky Pearl Ring MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO TRADE Slot: FINGER AC: 16 STR: +13 STA: +14 WIS: +12 INT: +12 AGI: +12 HP: +230 MANA: +230 ENDUR: +230 SV DISEASE: +20 SV COLD: +20 SV MAGIC: +20 Recommended level of 70. Required level of 65. WT: 0.7 Size: SMALL Class: ALL Race: ALL Slot 1, Type 8 |
| Earring of Gray Waters MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO TRADE Slot: EAR AC: 12 DEX: +9 STA: +11 CHA: +12 WIS: +9 INT: +9 HP: +145 MANA: +145 ENDUR: +145 SV FIRE: +14 SV DISEASE: +10 SV POISON: +14 Recommended level of 70. Required level of 65. WT: 0.5 Size: SMALL Class: ALL Race: ALL Slot 1, Type 8 | Earring of Gray Waters MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO TRADE Slot: EAR AC: 12 DEX: +12 STA: +11 CHA: +12 WIS: +12 INT: +12 HP: +195 MANA: +195 ENDUR: +195 SV FIRE: +15 SV DISEASE: +12 SV COLD: +15 SV POISON: +12 Recommended level of 70. Required level of 65. WT: 0.5 Size: SMALL Class: ALL Race: ALL Slot 1, Type 8 |
